Okay, here’s what I need to do.

• Tonight, I need to e-mail friends about my travel plans and any party plans.
• Saturday morning, I’ll cram the last requirement for KMD2004. No word yet from groupmates; v. odd.
• Saturday afternoon: I will set aside time to write thoughtful postcards and letters
• Saturday evening: touch base with Simon, who’ll be back from Florida
• Sunday morning: have a relaxed morning
• Sunday afternoon: clean out fridge, then head over to the Gorey to donate extra food like eggs. Cookies and chocolate – spend time with great friends? Borrow boxes from the Gorey folks just in case I have stuff in suitcases that doesn’t neatly shelve somewhere.
• Sunday evening: Christmas dinner? Final chance for pictures with people.
• Monday: print e-ticket, pack, pack, pack, KMD2004 revision
• Tuesday: last-minute cramming, pack, fly

I really want to spend some quality time with my closest friends here,
but it might be difficult to do that and still keep the sense of
abundance of time. I would *love* to meet all of them, give them an
extra extra extra big hug, tell them my favorite story of them from
the past year, and find out what they want to do with the next year. I
don’t think I’ll have the time to visit everyone personally (I’d like
to!), but I could call on Sunday (after dinner) or Monday (after packing).

Priority packing list:

1. Carry-on laptop bag: travel documents
2. Carry-on backpack: correspondence, journal
3. Salmon flakes for Papa
4. Electronics
5. Clothes I don’t need any more
6. Clothes I plan to wear while there
7. Shoes
8. Books: may as well bring all of my books home. I can always keep my notes or reaccumulate my library

Sounds like a Plan…

Random Emacs symbol: gnus-article-strip-all-blank-lines – Command: Strip all blank lines.

That shouldn’t be the case. <laugh> I’m starting to think that
it wouldn’t be a bad idea to leave a party early (well, at least not
very very late) in order to go home and blog about it and other stuff…

Random Emacs symbol: gnus-button-handle-library – Function: Call `locate-library’ when pushing the corresponding URL button.

At some point in time, I think I should go for figuring out how to do
my mail properly so that I can have sacha@sachachua.com on my outgoing
mail. Jijo currently generously hosts my mail, but I should look into
properly paying for it like the rest of the civilized world.
<laugh>

Quinn Fung needed some help with Muse and RDF so that she could easily generate RSS feeds from Emacs, so we declared today to be Emacs Clinic day at the Linux Caffe.

We started by getting publishing to work. We then figured out how to get RDF to publish, and that was pretty okay too.

Quinn needed multiple authors, and muse-journal didn’t support it yet,
so we hacked it in. I told her to pick a syntax, and I added code to
make it happen. It took us a while to track things down, but it turned
out to be a reasonably easy addition. (I need to refactor that code
sometime… that’s a really long function!)

Along the way, we found a bug in muse-journal. Muse-journal summarizes entries by taking the first two sentences, but dies when the post doesn’t contain at least two periods. I spent a fair bit of time tracing through the different changes we made before realizing that it wasn’t my bug. I probably would’ve found it earlier, but debug-on-error wasn’t getting honored. Odd. Anyway, here’s the patch, which I’ll submit to GNA when I get back into the swing of things:

--- orig/lisp/muse-journal.el
+++ mod/lisp/muse-journal.el
@@ -570,7 +570,9 @@
           (let ((beg (point)))
             (if (muse-style-element :summarize)
                 (progn
-                  (forward-sentence 2)
+                  (condition-case err
+                      (forward-sentence 2)
+                    (error (goto-char (point-min))))
                   (setq desc (concat (buffer-substring beg (point)) "...")))
               (save-restriction
                 (muse-publish-markup-buffer "rss-entry" "html")

Now Quinn’s jumping feet-first into Lisp development by doing the Atom
implementation. muse-atom does single-entry Atom files, but she can
model it on muse-journal’s RSS implementation.

I also helped Ian set up a very very basic Planner. It reminded me
that I *really* need to package planner-bundle again, and either
retire or update plannerlove. In fact, I need to set up scripts so
that it’s ridiculously easy to keep up to date…

I miss hacking on Emacs! This is fun. I’ll reconfigure my kernel and
get VPN working. Then I’ll set up my Emacs development environment
again…

On Technorati: emacs, pimpmyemacs

I have a tiny laptop: 8.9″ diagonally. With a 1024×768 pixels screen
resolution, things can get *pretty* small. The following functions use
the gnome-terminal-style shortcuts (Ctrl-plus, Ctrl-minus) to change
the font size without the mouse:

(defun sacha/increase-font-size ()
  (interactive)
  (set-face-attribute 'default
                      nil
                      :height
                      (ceiling (* 1.10
                                  (face-attribute 'default :height)))))
(defun sacha/decrease-font-size ()
  (interactive)
  (set-face-attribute 'default
                      nil
                      :height
                      (floor (* 0.9
                                  (face-attribute 'default :height)))))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-+") 'sacha/increase-font-size)
(global-set-key (kbd "C--") 'sacha/decrease-font-size)

On Technorati: emacs, pimpmyemacs

Things to remember when setting up sound in Ubuntu Linux on a Sony Vaio U1:

• modprobe trident
• modprobe snd_trident
• Be very very thorough with alsamixer settings. For some brain-dead reason, all the important stuff is muted.

On Technorati: linux, ubuntu, laptop

Simon Rowland and Roger Yang invited me to go rock-climbing at Rock Oasis (Front and Bathurst) last Friday (2006.08.11). Richi Plana and I headed there after he dropped his backpack off at the hostel, and I texted Jedediah Smith and Quinn Fung to see if they’d be interested in joining us. It turned out to be such a terrific experience!

Although I went rock-climbing with Cyril Tubianosa and other college friends a long time ago, I couldn’t remember enough to climb on my own, so I registered for the introductory class. Richi did too. Quinn and Jed were waitlisted for the class, but made it in when the other people didn’t show up. It was fun learning a new skill with close friends.

While we learned the ropes, Simon and Roger took turns climbing
challenging walls. By the time we finished, they were also done!

Fortunately they were not too tired to help us. I asked Simon to belay
for me as I tried climbing. The 5.7-level wall turned out to be a bit
too challenging, so I went for the 50′ 5.6 wall instead. I had
completed a 5.6 wall during the beginner class, so I figured I could
handle it.

50 feet, apparently, is quite a distance, particularly for someone new
to climbing, with a weak grip and little endurance. When my fingers
gave up, I used anything else I could: the side of my palm, my
forearm, even my elbow. I frequently shook my hands to get rid of the
fatigue and often sat back to figure out a strategy for making my way
up. Whenever an approach failed, I’d try another, and another, and
another. Hold by painful hold, I made my slow way up.

Every time I lost my grip, my friends learned more about the limits of
my vocabulary. They knew I was getting serious when I graduated from
“Ay, CRAP!” to “DARN!” They were rather amused when I tried out
“Fish!” and “Fudge!” for size. (I like “Fudge!” It makes me think of
chocolate.)

It took me more than thirty minutes to reach the top. Aside from a
brief break to get a drink and maybe a quick climb, Simon talked me
through the entire thing. Every time I’d get stuck on a set of holds
that seemed impossible, he mimed different strategies for getting past
it. When I was about to give up, he told me that I was over the hard
part already. (Why I believed him, I don’t know. ;) ) He kept
encouraging me further and further, making sure that I kept the ground
I gained.

I reached the top and slid back down to the ground in blissful relief
and accomplishment. “You’re such a trooper,” said Simon.

And hey, yeah, that’s true. If I think something’s worth it, I’ll keep
going for it—and that’s just so much more fun with encouragement. =)

On Technorati: rockclimbing, friends

One of my warning signals that alerts me to the fact that I’m not
getting enough sleep or quiet time is when I have a backlog of things
I want to blog about but I can’t figure out when to take the time to
blog them. =)

There’s hanging out with Simon, chatting with Stephen, talking about
cooking and open source with Wayne, skating with Cathryn, and
following my inner social butterfly at the party Dan took us to.

It’s all good. =) I just have to remember to schedule in me-time, too!
Hmm. Time to be proactive about my calendar again…

Random Japanese sentence: 猫は捕らえたネズミを引き裂き始めた。 The cat began to tear at the mouse it caught.

Phillip Smith, Mark Greenspan.

Introductions:

• Sacha Chua. Social computing in the enterprise, U of Toronto and IBM. Also interested in grassroots because of the Philippines
• Julian Scarfe. Free Agent Communications. News oriented for parents and children. Because that sort of demographic has high ideal aspirations in that mental space, something here might apply. Technical director, communications strategist.
• Robb Creary, Bell Canada. CRM. Pull everything together and kinda see how everything fits in. Better to be prepared.
• Patrick Gilbert. Word of mouth marketing company called Matchstick. Heading up online marketing and fundraising for Mayor David Miller campaign.
• Andrew Berthoff. Environics Communications, a PR agency in Toronto and three other cities. Primarily interested in not-for-profit organizations.
• Madelaine Hamilton. Taking IT Global. Connects people internationally so that they can get involved in the community. 110k members, most based in developing countries.
• Lars Hansen. C2E Consulting. Learning and thinking about the application of these things, work on a community basis.
• Rhonda Burke. Organizer. Fundraising. 150+ events that are volunteer-driven.
• Alexei White. Vancouver company, eBusiness Applications. AJAX components for developers. Very much on the technical side, also very interested in dotversity and the kind of conversation that’s happening.
• Andrew Heaton. Creative strategist for Trilogy. I’m inthe preliminary stages of starting a non-profit company to raise money for charities.
• Ryan Ginsberg. Fuel Industries?, marketing, advergaming. Lately, grassroots adverts has been a huge, huge component of it. Fox. There are so many cool things you can do to tap into blogs and message boards etc. At the end of the day, it’s all about the ROI.
• Patrick Dinnen. Hogtown Consulting, Web2.0. Wireless Toronto.
• Jen Nolan. IBM. The big newspapers have such a power over our society, our culture. I really love the power of the people.
• Mark Greenspan. Canadian Film Center’s Habitat New Media Lab. Training new media content producers.
• Phillip Smith. Not-for-much profit company, Community Bandwidth. Help non-profits to push their missions forward, advocate on the behalf of others, etc. Social Tech Brewing.

What are the principles and tools of Web 2.0?

• Two-way communication. Read/write Web.
• User-generated content
• Wisdom of crowds
• Participation. Everyone has a voice
• Collaborative content, harnessing collective intelligence
• Mashup
• Web as Platform
• Long tail, etc.
• Data is the next Intel Inside
• Users add value
• Network effect by default
• Some rights reserved
• The perpetual beta
• Cooperate, don’t control
• Above the level of a single device

What are the tools?

• Blogs
• Social networks
• Open source
• Browser
• Wiki
• Folksonomy, tagging
• Blogging, participation
• Google Maps, AJAX
• Identity, trust, personal brands
• Standards/services: APIs, RSs, etc.
• Group-editable pages, wikis, comments
• Exposing user data, emergence
• Creative Commons, GPL, F/LOSS

If we were to think about how to take some of this and put it into action… I thought I’d do a really quick tour of some of the applications I’ve seen over the years. How we can leverage the 2.0 to change the world.

WWF example: “Donate now and put your name in our sky.” The general idea is that if someone donates, they can put their name in the sky. How is it the long tail? There are hundreds and thousands of people who care about issues like arctic wildlife refuge, but it’s difficult to aggregate all of these people into one solid voice. Just to bring these voices together.

This is something that Chris Nolan made for the 2006 elections.

TheyWorkForYou.com. Data is the next Intel Inside. The traditional explanation of this is ISBN and Amazon’s extension, the Amazon book number, which has more information about it. This group in the UK has done the same thing for public data, what’s being said in the House of Commons. They’ve really extended it and included voting history, etc. They’ve even made it free.

Peter Tabuns. Provincial election. People in this person’s riding expressing support and plotting that on the map.

Mark: One thing about the last example (theyworkforyou) is that it’s open source, so if you want, you can set it up.

They also do hearfromyourmp and pledgebank. All of these tools are
open source and can be adapted for Canada’s system easily.

sinceslicedbread.com. The best ideas bubble up to the top. One of the ideas that got bubbled up has been taken by Hillary Clinton and she’s going to introduce a bill that ties Congressional pay increases to federal minimum wage.

Network effects by default. Tom Mauser is one of those people who lost a child in Columbine. Forward Track. 6 degrees of separation. Tracking six degrees of separation on a map. When Mark signs up to send the petition, the map centers around him. The network effect by default.!

pledgebank. “I’ll do it, but only if you’ll help me do it.” Some of these pledges are tiny, but others are pretty big. Powerful tools. There’s RSS. You can get pledges in your town. Inexpensive way for NGOs to provide their communities with a way to organize.

Some rights reserved.

Crown copyright. Most documents are released under that, so the Queen owns the data. This makes it very difficult to get what you think should be public data. For example, geocoding data. So some people built their own. Free service, free data. geocoder.ca.

civicaccess.ca. Just launched last month. To hel make sure public data stays public. Taxpayer-funded data, we should have access to it.

So the perpetual beta is one of the neatest ideas applied to grassroots advocacy. There can be an iterative, experimental, evolutionary process around campaigns. The three things I’m going to show here are not Web campaigns, but I believe they embody the spirit.

publicspace committee. Lightning rod for many communities. In Toronto, we have a really strong group. Fantastic experimental projects trying to win back public space. Billboard battalion. Once a week I get e-mail from the “general”. Billboards are illegal in Toronto, and companies have to apply for variances. So what the battalion does is keep track of people who are applying, etc. Guerilla gardening, etc. This is not a large NGO, but just a bunch of people having lots of interesting ideas.

Dave Meslin. How can you bring this idea to city council. whorunsthistown.ca. What can you do if you’re interested in making Toronto a better place to live?

City Idol. We all know and love Canadian Idol. There are a lot of people in Toronto, and important decisions are made by the 45 people on the slide before. We had a contest where people signed up to participate in City Idol. Over 200 people signed up for the first event. Second round of finals. For every ward in the city, they have people competing to help out.

Mark: American Idol. 60 million text messages.

Jen: Wikipedia has history for all the municipalities in Toronto. Phillip: And it’s really good information too.

bbc.co.uk – Action Network. !! This is cool! Change the world around you. What are the issues that are important to you, and how can you connect with your neighbors?

backfence.com? Mark: Again, local organization.

Moport.org. Software above the level of the single device. As much as Canada is behind in the mobile space, we’re certainly seeing more interesting work to be done. Mobile phone reporting. Large mobilizations from their phones. Used around the Republican National Convention.

Murmur. Out of the Canadian Film Center. Using Asterix and a lot of ingenuity, two students (Shaun and Gabe) created this audio tourist experience for Toronto. You can find these little signposts where all these red dots are that have a phone number that you can call to get a spoken history for that location. Local participants. Fantastic. They’ve expanded this idea around Canada, and now they have an Airstream bus. Mark: One of the things that really worked for Murmur was keeping it very very simple. Accessible. All you need is a cellphone and the ability to make a local call on your cellphone. Appeal to the lowest common denominator. One thing very important about that project.

Phillip: It’s stunning how many people are not from Toronto and they get a murmur postcard and they walk around. “I want to hear from the woman who’s an expert on this on her blog.” … People are really starting to understand that that kind of integral, honest communication is important. Right now, they pick people. Mark: Interview techniques, narrative-based project. Airstream bus.

Another local specific above the level of the single device is Wireless Toronto. It sounds like another municipal wireless network thing until you get into the idea of location-specific content. If you log on to the network like at St. Lawrence Market, you’ll come to a local portal that aggregates a number of feeds to give you the context for that place. You can see who else is online and you can communicate with them or meet their blogs. Flickr images are being pulled from the tags. The classified ads section is taken from craigslist. Craigslist – continuous live search. If you’re an NGO working on employment, aggregating jobs that are specific to youth, for example… RSS to voice through RSS. (!! Hey, that’s a cool idea and we can do that at home, because phone is free!) (Kagigi – volunteers wanted!! oooh.)

Apartment rental mashup, etc.

One Free Minute. Mobile sculpture for anonymous public speech. Sao
Pauo, Brazil. Warsaw, Poland. London, UK. Canada and USA.

We have a municipal election coming up within the next six months, and we’re not seeing a lot happening in terms of civic participation. What does civic participation look like with Web 2.0?

Two-way street. If you don’t get the eyeballs there and the interest there in the first place… It’s easy to capture the converted. What about the people who couldn’t care less? How do you start the engagemet process? If you can find out how they’re connected online…

In this case, there’s a particular issue: municipal election. How do you connect people to the municipal election?

It’s the candidates and the municipal election itself. People wring their hands and ask why people aren’t interested, but you have a bunch of stuffed shirts and… So how do you get new people?

What kind of offline event drives people to something, and how do you leverage that with Web 2.0?

For example, smart mobs. Street car tours and the pillow fight in Dundas Square. Database of people. Pillow fight announcement, publicity, etc.

How do you market to or engage this population and how do you bring them into the online world and what do you do? Once you’ve got them in the online world, then you’ve got all sorts of tools.

Odd-ball activist. How do we get normal folks in?

When I think of real events around a political campaign… listen to a politician give pre-packaged, overly-analyzed speech… or town meeting kind of thing, where you end up with the same issue, where you get verbose people who end up hijacking the thing… Speed at which you can scan and filter on Web 2.0. Somewhere I can go and find discussions about my local councilor. These issues I don’t care about, these issues I do, etc. A customizable search tool which allows you to scan through the issues… The other thing that would be interesting would be at the municipal election, we don’t have strong political affiliations. Niche interest (Sam Bulte), but other people can affect a really local thing. If there was a site that made it easy for us to keep track of whatever they were saying about different issues… that would help me. And I want to specify my interests. Customizable search thing. All decisions and all issues that stand, etc. Report card. How they voted, absolute transparency and accessibility. Hard data plus softer stuff. Might get filtered too much, though, too compartmentalized. Digg-style popularity.

SUMMARY:

• Not a topical wiki, but a scenario wiki, where we can extrapolate from a bill or if this candidate is elected, this is probably what’s going to happen, etc. Putting things in a language that people can understand. Approach in engangig people.
• Issues that are important to you, access to all the data around it. Absolute transparency. Asterisk to get into people’s homes.
• Comments on a public blog. An online petition that you could translate into… make candidates for public office understand that to stand in favor of this would mean death, etc.

On Technorati: mesh, mesh06, meshconference, web2.0

Update: Phillip’s posted slides at http://communitybandwidth.ca/phillipadsmith/mashing-the-vote-at-mesh

I survived the morning rush of registrants at mesh conference in Toronto, and
I’m now listening to the keynote conversation between Mark Evans and Om Malik. I missed the main part, but fortunately Scott Karp liveblogged it.

Here are fragments of what I’ve heard:

85% market share. That demographic hasn’t figured out how to block
ads. This is a highly skewed argument. Mainstream users don’t bother
with these things. They can download software to block ads, but nobody
does that. People actually click on ads. I’m surprised by the number
of people who click on my Google ads.

What do you write for the National Post audience? What do you write about for the Net?
Newspapers – facts. Blogs does spin, opinion. That’s where the value is added.
We can’t just look at blogs or podcasts as just a digital version of news. We need to build loyalty.
build a different voice online.

When you write a story for a magazine, in reality, once it’s inside a
magazine, the story is over. But the story never ends. The story never
dies. You have to follow it. … Whenever we write a story inside a
magazine, we can’t use follow-up information in a month’s time. If they don’t care from me, then maybe I haven’t engaged their mind. That’s very critical. This community aspect.

Three years from now, I see something like the Wall Street Journal
saying, “These bloggers are pretty good.” … give them the
credibility. ZDnet is already doing that. They’re bringing in a lot of
bloggers, figuring out a game plan. You will see all the big media, or
at least the bigger media, actually experimenting and creating their
own blog.

Every user comes with their finger poised on the Back button. As long as you’re worried about that, you have to do great stuff. Bloggers – contextual reading. You will never capture the big story in 800 words. Don’t think of it as traditional reading. It’s almost like a

Mark: What do you see yourself doing three years from now? Om: As long
as they keep paying me well… It’s fairly simple. (more discussion)

Boris Mann: I probably wouldn’t know about either of you if you didn’t
have blogs. I don’t ever go to these websites. I don’t click through.
Everyone who has fulltext RSS feeds, I read directly in my reader.
Blogs are conversations. I can’t have a discussion with the National
Post. Om: Good to finally meet you in person, and thank you for
sending all those comments. You are as important to me as any other
person. … It creats patrons, and patrons are good for advertising,
but we don’t have a good advertising model. All these questions are in
front of us. That’s a challenge, and that’s an opportunity for anyone
who can figure this out. Anyone who can think of a good advertising
model right now can make a lot of money.

Putting my e-mail address at the bottom of the story isn’t having a
conversation. Whether you’re a newspaper online or .., you need to
create a conversation. You need to use the Web and different tools to
draw people in. It’s a nice little phrase: “Let’s have a
conversation”, but the truth is that’s going to drive your business.

Web 2.0. It’s not a technology. It’s not some cool Javascript. It’s a new way of thinking.
Robert Scoble – he helped humanize Microsoft, for goodness’ sake. Just one guy, and he did such an effective job.

Argh. Where’s the mesh conference backchannel? IRC?

On Technorati: mesh, mesh06, meshconference, web2.0

I know, I know, it’s silly, but it’s also so much fun programming little toys like this!

I’m also sketching out a life tracker that does something like Erik Benson’s Morale-o-Meter.

On Technorati: ruby, rails

I love studying in the common room. I like the floor-to-ceiling
windows facing the courtyard. I like the sun-drenched white walls and
the gently rippling water. I love the opportunity to encounter all
these interesting people in Graduate House.

Alejandro is one of the maintenance staff here. I first encountered
him and his co-worker when I was practicing billiards. They joked
about not wanting to play against me because I looked so serious, and
thereafter I smiled at them whenever I ran into them.

Today we chatted a bit more. He asked me what I was taking and where I
was from. Upon learning that I’m from the Philippines, he said a few
words in Tagalog. (Aww!) He also asked if I was planning to return or
stay in Canada, and I told him that I wasn’t sure yet. A PhD is
tempting, and so is work, but I miss my country.

He asked me what I was doing, and I told him about the reading paper
that I’m working on. “You should be outside,” he said. “It’s a
beautiful day. You can study until fwop,” and he mimed a clock’s
hands, “and then you can go dancing.” He proceeded to demo salsa,
merengue, and other Latin dances. And he knew how to dance really
well!

A Spanish teacher in his native Chile, he found upon arriving in
Canada that few of his university credits would be honored and that
he’d have to start all over again. He said, “Forget it,” and started a
pizzeria. He worked hard for six years, but it folded and he was left
with a huge debt. Now he works at Graduate House to pay the bills.

I told him how even PhDs from developing coutries are often forced to
give up what they had trained to do, and how many people from the
Philippines go to other countries to find better opportunities but
don’t get further than being a domestic helper or a construction
worker, much less open a pizzeria. I said, “Well, at least you have
salsa…” He laughed.

Canada has its own little sorrows.

Random Japanese sentence: このようにして、おじいさんは、あたりをみまわすたびに、きれいなねこがみつかっておいていくことができなくなりました。そして知らない間に、そこにいるねこをみんな拾い上げてつれていくことになってしまいました。 So it happened that every time the very old man looked up, he saw another cat which was so pretty he could not bear to leave it, and before he knew it, he had chosen them all.

On Technorati: purpose

I’m so, so, so sorry. I’ve just realized that my comments form was
silently dropping comments. To anyone who’s used it to post a comment
for… well… a good while – ever since the antispam answer changed
to “one” – please repost, if it’s still relevant…

… and if it was about my recent crisis, don’t worry, I know you care… =)

Random Japanese sentence: 猫は背中を丸める。 A cat arches its back.

If you’re on the GNOME windowing environment, check out nafai77′s blog entry about Deskbar. Totally cool. It’s almost like Quicksilver for non-Macs.

On Technorati: linux, gnome

Random Japanese sentence: 猫はテーブルの上で眠った。 The cat slept on the table.

My “What’s in My Fridge” app is now a little bit smarter. It can keep track of what’s still in my fridge, what I’ve used, and what I’ve thrown away. I wonder if this will let me come up with statistics on how quickly I go through certain ingredients…

Random Japanese sentence: ねこはひなたで遊ぶのが好きだ。 Cats like playing in the sun.

My power supply isn’t happy. The cord near the end is now a bit
sensitive to changes in angles, so there might be a slight break near
there. And it’s the part near the computer, not the easily-replaced
mains cord! Aiyah…

Must figure out where to find Fujitsu AC adapters here… Output: 16V 2.5A.

Random Japanese sentence: 彼はとても満足そうに見える。 He looks like a cat that ate the canary.

Aha! Someone’s finally gotten around to making an RSS feed filter.
It’s about time! http://www.feedrinse.com/

Now, someone just needs to think about how to make this work for
free…

Random Japanese sentence: うちの猫は大変海苔が好きである。 Our cat is very fond of sea weeds.

I remembered just in time to run down to the monthly GTA Linux Users
Group socials at the Graduate Student Union Pub. Tons of fun chatting
with Bill, Seneca and the others. Happy to also report that Drew
(previously-mentioned booth-babe-comment person) was well-behaved. =)

I had recovered my good mood and was chatting with the others about
strange things about Barbie dolls, laughing and smiling in my usual
animated manner. (Animated as in anime, indeed!) Someone from another
table approached me and said that his friend had been wanting to meet
me. On cue, the poor guy at the other table was roundly teased by his
friends. I smiled and told the friend thank you. I blushed a bit – it
was quite flattering, after all. I then flashed a friendly/polite
smile and returned to conversing with the other people at my table.

I think that worked out quite well, as I didn’t lead him on but at the
same time didn’t make him feel terrible. In retrospect, my response
could have been a bit more helpful – telling his friend I’m taken
would make sure his friends don’t tease him too much about it – but so
far, so good. =)

What are the best practices for situations like these?

Random Japanese sentence: メグはペットに猫を飼っている。 Meg has a cat as a pet.

I went up to IBM today. I can’t tell you the details as I’ve signed my
life away, BUT suffice to say that I felt very happy after the
conference call, as the person we were talking to listed all the stuff
I’m interested in. As a fledgling researcher, I find it totally
awesome when I have the same ideas that other people do. =) That tells
me I’m on the right track. This kind of synchronicity is just perfect
for a master’s student. I can save the ground-breaking, mind-boggling
stuff for my PhD.

Happy girl!

By official Scrabble tournament rules, this would’ve been

but Rob, Steve and James decided to play on (ah, well, house rules -
but that messes up end-game strategy! mrph).

David was appropriately impressed by the 92-point move. So was I.
Steve was annoyed with James for leaving me with that opportunity. I wasn’t. =)

On Technorati: scrabble

I’m very annoyed with SELinux today. I’ve just figured out that the reason I was getting very mysterious access denied errors was that I hadn’t done the magical incantation:

chcon -R -t httpd_user_content_t the_dir_to_show_in_apache

which allows the use of those directories in the HTTP context.

Hey, it’s my first brush with SELinux… Anyway, I’m glad I got that
sorted out, although it took me slightly over half an hour to figure
that out and get Twiki up and running. Mrph.

Next step: Kerberos authentication.

Yesterday was fantastic! I woke up extra early and chatted with
Dominique, who Googled up a few wonderful poems and read me a few.
Then my mom called me up with news that some of my friends were over
there for a small party! =) Whee!

I did well in my two speeches today, despite mishaps. I survived my
metadata presentation despite having to go with Plan B (blackboard)
when the USB disk wasn’t recognized by the faculty computer, and I had
fun doing the Evaluate to Motivate talk despite leaving the prepared
overheads in the department.

In the evening, I declared a Chocolate Night. Steve, Rob, David, Mike
(Math), James, and Calum were there to play Scrabble and munch on nice
chocolate.

Happy. =)