I speak of personal medallions often. I first heard this line in Francois Truffaut's 1966 movie Fahrenheit 451, starring Julie Christie, Oscar Werner, and Cyril Cusack. I have never forgotten the personal medallion reference. Unable to find a film clip of the conversations involving personal medallions, here is the dialog is from the script. The Captain, played by Cyril Cusack, is speaking to a junior fireman, Montag, played by Oscar Werner, who is about to get a promotion. I found this an important point in the film, because towards the end, a nearly identical dialog takes place, in which Montag answers honestly but not in his best interests. The Captain: Have you seen my personal medallion? It's a remarkable likeness. You must remind me to let you have one sometime. Towards the end of the film, the dialog changes slightly. The Captain: Yes, you're a good man. Remind me to give you one of my personal medallions. The likeness is remarkable. You'll see. Montag: I, uh... The Captain: You, uh... Montag: I already have one, sir. I'm fascinated by the notion of what we have in the past and currently use as our "coat of arms", emblem or otherwise that which identifies us.
Explaining Personal Medallions
Python Book Review: Dive Into Python 3
There are lots of interesting computer programming languages in use today. While I am interested in many of them, there is only so much time to learn a new language. A great motivator to learn a new programming language is being able to integrate its use into my work environment. Python fits this bill quite well, because it can be used across different platforms or for many applications.
Python is not only a language being taught in high school, it has a high profile on Linux, MAC, and Windows platforms; and it is used for system administration and web and application development.
One of the best Python books I’ve come across lately is Mark Pilgrim’s Dive Into Python 3
Although this book is listed by Apress as a beginner’s book, it assumes the reader has a programming background. For programmers who are only well versed in C, C++, Java, Visual Basic, and other procedural languages, there are functional concepts that must be learned in order to write programs that perform well.
The author takes an enjoyable, exploratory approach to Python; the tone is excellent; and the examples can be adapted to real work problems.
Each chapter focuses on one primary topic, but there is overlap between topics, which brings makes use of concepts presented in earlier chapters. The title is quite appropriate, because the examples are not simple training exercises. The reader starts with a large problem and learns its solution with well annotated pieces.
While there are other good books on the market, Dive Into Python 3 is an excellent companion reader that should help procedural programmers integrate more easily into programming well in Python.
Let The Water [Project] Flow
Our town’s massive water meter replacement project is almost a reality. That might seem like the most boring thing in the world to you, but to me it means work, lots of it, complicated, tearing out my hair-worthy, and quite satisfying.
A massive radio network will take up the data from each meter which will be fitted with a transponder. Then, we will know water flow on a more regular basis, at least once a day. Throw in the green concept of leak detection, and eventually providing home owners with the ability to alert them when a high water flow occurs — a pipe froze; broke; and is filling your basement — and you have a project that is more like a feast.
Integrating this new meter system represents a wide array of interesting work, a chance to use different modalities, like web interfaces, new languages, like Python, and to design software for users that they can actually use.
Of course, there will be difficult times; I will feel like and probably will add to the late Gene Sheppard’s Tapestry of Obscenity hanging in space over our Information Technology headquarters, but those times will be few and temporary.
I’ve been working on a lot of interesting smaller projects up until now, but it finally feels like I’m being called into The Game. And, as Martha Stewart would say “That is a good thing.”
A Short Dirt Story
Sometimes, spreading dirt around town can be a good thing. For example, last spring we prepared our side street for the annual ritual of the sweeping of the streets. With tight municipal budgits, this does not happen often. We swept all the dirt at the side of street towards the middle, and the dirt on the corner of our main street to the side street. The town does not yet own the main street, and hence has no jurisdiction to sweep the main street.
At the conclusion of the ritual, some dirt was left over, which we collected into a large paper bag, and then forgot about it … until this week, when I was tasked with making the dirt disappear.
Dirt cannot, should not, go out in the trash. It is heavy and each trash barrel cannot weigh over 50 lbs. So, what to do?
Now, a well deserving street has one of its several potholes almost filled, and while not a professional road repair, it is better than it was.
And that concludes the story about using municiple dirt for the public good.
Whoops! You’re A Celebrity
My view of fame — my definition of celebrity — is changing. I think it is due to the advent of micro-blogging sites like Twitter and social sites like My Space and Facebook. Some people on these sites just seem bigger than life, at least to me. So, it looks like I need to define some rules for me to follow. I do not want to annoy regular folks, who my mind now might view as a person of note, a celebrity.
Now, please remember. These are my definitions. Yours will hopefully vary. Otherwise, you might be thinking like me, which might not be good.
If you starred in Out of Africa, you are a celebrity. If you starred in a popular science fantasy television show that stopped airing over a decade ago and are still acting and also writing science fantasy novels, then you’re a celebrity, too. If you played a villain on that same show and are involved with short indy films and comic books, ditto. And, I feel the same about the creator and writers of that same television series. Add to that list voice-over actors.
It is without question if you are a member of the Loren and Wally morning show in Boston on WROR 105.7 — http://www.wror.com/ — you are a celebrity. I’ve felt this way before, during, and after interning for you and helping set up your roadshows.
To all those celebrities, should I recognize you by sight or by voice and depending on the circumstances, I might tip my hat and express thanks, but I will not hang around. You deserve your private life, unencumbered.
Now what about everyone else?
If you are connected to a well-known Linux technical journal, are a virtual assistant (VA), work for a school’s IT department, are a professional blogger, or are otherwise funny or interesting, well, to me, you are a celebrity.
Why is this so? It’s because you’re cool.
Neither moguls nor agents may ever call you, but your wacky exploits make you the stuff of legend, and I thank you.
Come Back, Gary Larson, Come Back
I was moved to write this entry, because of the story of how Gary Larson wound up illustrating a CD cover for Herb Ellis’ “Doggin’ Around” album.
http://articles.latimes.com/1989-08-06/entertainment/ca-462_1_gary-larson
In my opinion, Gary Larson is one of the finest Science Fantasy contributors of all time. Why science fantasy? Just look at some of his cartoons. We can only imagine a monster turning away, because it was not tall enough to attach a city, your refrigerator’s condiments trying to hold an evening dance, or television-watching moose answering the call of the wild.
Gary Larson’s cartoons have had an impact on a lot of people, and they are still funny today. That work has also worked its way into popular culture. I’ve heard his cartoon titles quoted, when something in real life starts to approach his art, like checking to see if the potato salad brought to a party is okay for consumption.
On our refrigerator is a copy of a one cartoon, The real reason dinosaurs became extinct that shows dinosaurs sneaking a smoke behind some rocks. One of my favorites is When potato salad goes bad, which shows a bowl of spoiled potato salad holding up a bottle of ketchup and pickles with a gun. Often times real life seems that crazy.
That’ is why I believe, we need Gary Larson to come back, and if Gary doesn’t want to come back, maybe he would be willing to anoint an apprentice to follow in his footsteps. Come back Gary Larson, Come Back!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxFYEmhkfIc
At Gary Larson’s request, I am not publishing his cartoons along with my text.
Welcome To The Automat
When I was a kid, I got to eat at a Horn & Hardart Automat restaurant in New York City. It was a pretty cool experience, shoving coins into slots and getting food in return. I was not old enough to appreciate good hot coffee, one of The Automat’s specialities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat
At the time I experienced The Automat, the bloom was well off the rose. I did not know that, but. Horn and Hardart’s business was in decline, and the company was sold in 1991. However, the concept was still pretty cool, at least to a kid, at least to me.
Here we are in the present, and after a couple of weeks of dealing with vendors and support organizations, I realize life has become self-serve, kind of like the Automat. But we are not in the original Automat with its grandeur, but the pale version I experienced as a kid.
You might think my analogy is going to go something like you put in coins and get bad pie and cold coffee. I wish.
It is more like you put in coins; push good pie and hot coffee in the opposite direction, so the knuckleheads on the other side of the wall can be convinced to do their job and slide bad pie and cold coffee back to you. You feel like you were better off not putting any coins in at all.
A Great Line From A Great Movie
I like David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia. I believe it is one of the greatest movies ever made. David Lean was one of the last great spectacle directors, and I enjoyed all of Lean’s work.
In Lawrence of Arabia, Anthony Quinn played a character named Auda Abu Tayeh, a tribal leader of The Howeitat clan. There is more about Auda here.
http://www.pbs.org/lawrenceofarabia/players/auda.html
In a scene where Auda is offering hospitality to Lawrence, Prince Fisal, and their followers is one of my favorite quotes in any movie.
It’s approximately at 3:20 into the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DRQA_ldX0VI0
Enjoy!
Learning When To Surrender At Least With Recalitrant Vendors
Are you familiar with those old war movies when soldiers had to split up and make their own way, like after a commando raid, one would say to the other we’ll live to fight another day? That’s what I did yesterday. I made a strategic retreat, and will live to fight another day, so to speak.
Yesterday, I had been battling the support organization of a large vendor. This vendor sells a server product that migrated to the Microsoft Windows server platform from elsewhere. The vendor does not support Windows’ native way of logging into the server remotely, Windows Terminal Services/Remote Desktop.
This vendor also does not support the notion of a server product acting like any other server product, a database, print server, or even the network. Instead, a privileged user has to log into the server, which causes the vendor’s main program to start up in user mode.
I did not mind native remote login was not supported as much as reasons given; technically the reason was incomplete and misleading. The answer I got was we do not support native Windows remote login. In fact, the answer should have been, we do not support native Windows remote login, because we are dunderheads who implemented our product in a really strange way.
And that is when it dawned on me. Sometimes, it is okay to give up, drop back, and punt. There are lots of other jobs to do, and fighting with a large recalcitrant support organization won’t help in completing that other work.
I believe even if David had faced these guys, he might have taken a long walk home … at least to fetch a bigger sling. 
This Week’s Meeting I Went To Last Week
I belong to a wonderful organization called the MGISA.
http://www.mgisa.org/Pages/index
It’s a group that represents municipal IT departments of cities and towns in The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We all meet in Marlborough, MA, a kind of half-way point somewhere in the center of the state.
It’s one of the few places IT professionals can go and exchange ideas, swap disaster stories, and otherwise just plain talk. Oh, and we learn new things we might not try on our own, like podcasts, blogs, and wikis.
Last week I wound up going to the meeting, got there, and then realized I went a week early. I credit this to losing one week in September (last week), before I ever got there.
Hopefully, quantum theory won’t be at work today, and I’ll go and not miss the meeting, having taken place last week.
