Will Bridges

Americans really need to open their eyes. Benjamin Franklin once said:
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
The best thing we could have done to show the terrorists that we stand united and America will not be budged by their actions is absolutely nothing. By taking away the liberties and freedoms we enjoy to increase our safety, we take away the protections that the founders of this country gave us when they founded this country. Those protections keep us from being ruled by tyrants and aristocrats. We should not erode those freedoms one bit. If we give an inch then we will give a foot and then we will give a yard. It’s only a matter of time. There are tyrants in this country that want to take away our rights to further exploit us for their will. We should be on the watch for things like allowing illegal wire tapping on citizens, being able to detain people without evidence of a crime, allowing toucher. These things are a prelude to the destruction of our essential liberties and not only that but they represent the fact that Americans no longer care about the world around them. Further Americans may have lost the fight that founded this country. Let’s hope the rest of us wake up before it’s too late.

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Planning is the most difficult part of a project. Sometimes you don’t even know where to start even if you do have an idea of what you want the project to be. This seems to take me the longest period of time. Maybe because I just want to get to programming and there is a severe temptation to just start coding. But, you just can’t do it. My last position as an engineer taught me to always be thorough in the planning stage and it will cost you less later. Those words from my last Engineering Lead still ring in my ears everytime I pick up the keyboard and think about just hitting the ground running.

It’s just plain trouble to do that. I’ve been using a wiki in a piece of software called Trac to build the plan for my projects. A wiki is good because it easily allows to collaborate with others on a plan. My plan at that point is a collection of business rules split off in to sections. Once the client approves that plan or there is a consensus from the people I’m collaborating with then it is time to break those rules in to tasks and assign them to those working on the project. Even if it it’s only me by myself. This makes the project a lot more structured and you have a record of everything you’ve done with the use of a ticket system and the plan. I usually combine this with source code control through Subversion. This makes the project go much more smoothly. But, damn, it’s a pain in the ass in the beginning.

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Building a business is about creating a legacy and an entity which you can be proud of. A business is an entity all it’s own that will resemble the personal attributes of the people who have influence within the business. As that influence shifts and is added to by new employees or removed from by employees who leave the policies and abilities of that business entity will change.

Much in the way a child grows so does a business. The creation of a corporation is a way to create an entity that has no personal responsibility. At that point it can be argued the corporate veil creates a non-human feel to a business. It’s much like an email address at that point. The corporate veil seems to help people make decisions, say things, and represnt themselves in a way that they would not normally do as a single person.

I think that there is a lack of personal responsibility in this country and it starts with the way we raise our children (another subject for another time) but continues in to the way we do business as adults. All business should be conducted with care about your fellow human beings and under the realization that you have to share the world with other people and knowing that decisions you make will effect others. The most powerfull businesses in this country do not seem to conduct themselves in this way. They conduct themselves as if they are money machines riding the backs of the lowest waged workers to provide extreme wealth for the highest ranks of the company. Further goes the gap between the rich and the middle class. Worse becomes the enviromental conditions. Worse becomes the health of our young and our poor. More inhumane becomes our irresponsible corporate entities because they have the rights of a human under law but none of the responsibilities of a human.

Creating a legacy isn’t always positive. I will make my business legacy a positive one as my business grows and becomes a corporation. But, that’s just me. Most of the companies of today will leave a legacy of exploitation of the people and of our natural resources. That’s a sad legacy and I hope it changes one day. I’m willing to be a part of that change, are you?

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Yeah, it doesn’t stop with the Solaris operating system. Sun decided to open source Java! Wow. Sun is progressive. First they open source Solaris, then they hire the entire JRuby team, and now they open source Java completely. This is a smart move for them. Java has a lot of problems in my opinion. It’s extremely verbose and not nearly as flexible as Ruby or any of the Dynamic languages. It was a great idea when it was began. One programming language to run on everything. It runs on everything from cell phones and refrigerators to desktop computers. There are 5 million Java developers right now and 4 billion devices that run on Java! This is a major success for Sun and for the open source community. Not only did they release it as open source but under GPL.

It also seems that Novell and Microsoft are becoming partners to get Windows and Suse to work together well. How long before Microsoft starts open sourcing their software? It seems the open source community is getting it’s well deserved time in the spotlight. Let’s hope the tide continues because it’s not only the companies that will benefit from this movement but the consumers who will win as well.

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Below are some pics of the party we had. It was more of a get together. A lot of people who said they were going to come couldn’t make it. But, we still had a blast, played some drinking games, talked about work, politics and just general discussion. I had a great time and would like to thank the people who did make it. Jackson from Jaxn.org made it but he had to leave early because his wife is pregnant and she was requesting some food. But, I know how that goes since I just had a son. A couple friends and neighbors made it as well. Craig and his date made. They met on e-Harmony but they seem to go good together so maybe that service works pretty well. Mike and Hannah made it. Then a couple of my neighbors came over. My girl was here. It turned out well. I think I should start making this a monthly thing just to let off some steam and celbrate all the success I have. So, that’s probably what I’m going to do. The turn out will get better as it goes on.

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We are having a small party here in Nashville tonight. It’s a good time for it. There is change in the air with the dems in controll of the congress. I just started working for myself again last month and the work is POURING in. I was worried about not having enough work and I’m about to have to start using my friends to overflow work because I have so much work. Also, I just had a son who turned two months. It’s truly a blessed day in my career, my new family, and in the country in general. So, what does that make it time to do? Yes, party, celebrate. Time for some cold ones and being surrounded by good friends. So, tonight is the night for celebration. I’ll post pictures. Everyone be good and praise the beauty of the complicated times we are in.

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Since I was sick and didn’t post yesterday. I would just like to say ‘VICTORY!’. The dems control the house and the senate. Now, I hope we can get some real things accomplished and the democrats use this time to prove themselves as the party that cares about the people. If they don’t, they will be in trouble come two years from now.

Sometimes I think deep in the back of my mind there are some republicans that wanted the democrats to win and hope that they fall flat on their face so the republicans can take the presidency in 2008. If that’s the case then the democrats better do what they promise and make a difference. Come 2008, if they haven’t the republicans will be there, waiting to take everything back and blame the democrats.

The democrats sure did inherit a mess and it’ll be interesting to see what they can do in 2 years time. I hope that they can do it. If they can, it will lead this country back in to being sensible and making responsible choices based on the plight of the average americans and not the corporate interest or the rich as decisions have been made in the past.

Good luck to you democrats & congratulations. Please take advantage of this time to do the right thing and show Americans you are the party of progress and change.

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I just read an article today that Vista is ready and will be widely available for purchase on January 30th of 2007. I used to use Windows XP for my desktop up until a little over a year ago. I then switched to Linux because it was native to my development, far more stable, more productive, and vulnerable to less problems. I do have dual boot on my system where I can boot in to Windows but I rarely do that. I only do that to play games that won’t run on Linux.

So, Vista is not very big news for me. Will I upgrade? Eventually. Why? Out of curiously more or less. I have to say that I think Vista will be the last of the Windows line. I can’t see how they can continue to create this behemoth of code and add on to it every few years. The more code, the more complexity, the more room for errors, security holes, and general vulnerabilities. They want to support as much hardware as possible as far back as they can and allow as much compatibility as they can. I understand why they do this but they aren’t being vigilant about it. They need to start off with a fresh code base and a new line knowing what they know now. Maybe they should take some lessons from Linux & OS X. I’m willing to bet Vista is full of holes, errors, and vulnerabilities that won’t be fixed for years. But, then again maybe this is another ‘Windows Millennium’ and they just put a bow tie on XP, changed some logos, some colors, and added a couple small features. We will see but I’m pretty sure consumers will not be 100% satisfied. I could be wrong but what I’ve seen and heard makes me think I’m right.

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I have been sick with the cold since day before yesterday. But, I feel much better now. My sinuses were clogged up and it was just terrible. I hate colds and I really don’t like taking medicines. So, at least it was short and it will be over in time for my party tomorrow.

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I’m almost certain I registered to vote when I got my TN license. However, I went and stood an hour in line and found out I was not registered to vote. So, my opinion won’t count this election. I bet I won’t have the same problem next election. But, it does serve me right standing in line that long because I had plenty of time to get my status worked out and make for certain my vote counted. Hopfully, my discussions with everyone swayed a few people to vote for what’s right. But, the unfortunate truth is most people my age don’t vote.

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