monkinetic weblog | redmonk.net

Sun Microsystem’s CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, has a blog. Now, I don’t care a heck of a lot about what’s going on at Sun, but I am enjoying hearing about life from Jonathan’s POV. Largely he’s using the blog to address issues that are facing Sun these days, like how they are going to monetize Java, or how to compete with “Free” software.

I’m once again working for a company that 1) is not in the I.T. market itself, 2) has real ideas that are changing the way our clients do business (for the better, I might add) and 3) must compete in the marketplace; a company where what I do has a tangible, immediate effect on the success or failure of our clients. Sounds normal enough, I suppose, but it makes me enjoy opportunities to spend time chatting with our CEO (in a company of 30 people I can still do that fairly often), making sure that I know where we’re headed and how we’re going to meet the challenges we face on the way there.

Reading Jonathan’s and Mark’s blogs are kinda like that.

HTTP error 448: Gone until you stop paying attention to people I dislike.

Man I love geek humor.

John Perry Barlow posts about iChat AV and the resulting telepresence with Joi Ito.

Re-Mac uses something similar, setting up a video iChat between their two stores during the day. We used it to communicate quickly, and to demo the technology to customers.

During the day, we could hear the phones ringing in the other store, hear the sales people discussing products, and ask questions about stock or machines in for service without using the phone. It made for an interesting experience, and I think we’ll see more of this kind of thing as the technology spreads.

Anyone out there interested in (or know of) a python users group in the Phoenix metro area? I’d like to find like-minded individuals to hang with and learn from.

I got a call about another small (very small but nice) web site job today. As much as I want a permanent position, there’s something special about sitting down to lunch with someone who needs a website and has little budget. I feel like a neighbor - a craftsman. That’s nice.

Seeing as I’m hanging out in #openacs a lot these days, I wanted a better IRC client than Snak. Snak’s ok and all, but it’s Carbon and it shows. I found a new client that seems to be very much a Cocoa app, with most of the features you expect from an IRC client: Akwa.

While looking for the previous link to the lyrics for Welcome To The Occupation, I found out that Murmurs.com started a peer-to-peer network called “give it away” for trading live and unreleased R.E.M. tracks. Evidently they’ve run this by the band, since the band also gave them permission to include B-Sides from the various singles as well as fan-club-only releases.

This is SO cool! I’ve already gotten an incredible version of Cuyahoga from the 2001 MTV Unplugged 2 concert. How beautiful.

By the way, the service name comes from this song.