Wrote a letter to The Wichita Eagle, following up on a news story about how much Microsoft's licensing would cost the state of Kansas (a perpetual budget crunch there):

Your editorial on how Microsoft is using its monopoly to mug the state government of Kansas urges Kansas to seek out competitors, but it doesn't go far enough in identifying the one real alternative: Open Source software. The fact is that millions of people around the world have turned to Open Source software like Linux for relief from Microsoft.

The difference between Microsoft and Open Source software is much like the difference between renting and owning your own house. With Microsoft, you pay and pay and never build up any equity. And when the furnace breaks, or termites attack the foundation, your only recourse is to beg the landlord for help. On the other hand, when you own your own house, you're free to fix it to meet your own needs. But the deal with Open Source software is even better: your fixes help everyone else, and everyone else's fixes help you. Open Source costs less and works better. Isn't that also what we want from government?

Saturday, October 27, 2001

Returning to the notebook after almost two months hiatus: a lengthy trip to New York and back, prolonged by the World Trade Center tragedy. Sooner or later I'll write more about that (some back-filled notebook entries, some ongoing commentary), but now for more pressing matters.

Cooked one of my most ambitious birthday dinners. Lot of work, I found myself promising more than once to never do it again. But it came off pretty smooth: two meals, 17 dishes, 13 people. We had mostly family over on Friday, and most plus a few friends back for cleanup on Saturday. The menu was North African, mostly from Morocco.

• Tagine of Lamb, Pumpkin, Chick-peas, and Raisins
• Chicken with Lemon and Olives
• Couscous with Spiced Vegetables
• Sweet Potatoes with Saffron and Cinnamon
• Fava Bean Salad
• Berber Bean Puree
• Twice-Cooked Eggplant Salad
• Herbed Carrot Salad
• Orange and Black Olive Salad
• Beet Salad
• Leek Salad with Tomato
• Fennel Salad
• Yogurt with Cucumber and Sultanas
• Brain Salad
• Cubed Liver Salad
• Moroccan Anise Bread
• Moroccan Grilled Chicken Legs
• Harissa
• Ras el Hanout

At present, the recipes are only partly typed up. It occurs to me that I should reconstruct the recipe files as a web-accessible database. That might be one of those simple "scratch your itch" projects that gets me programming again.

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

Got mail today telling me that the ocston.org web site will be closed down. Moving my stuff to tomhull.com will be easy enough, but that dredges up a problem that I've been avoiding: my current web hosting service has been unsatisfactory, and I've felt a need to replace them, but haven't gotten around to it. Need to bite the bullet on that, but this is bad timing.

Saturday, October 20, 2001

Movie: Ghost World. Under the circumstances, I found this tedious and meandering. I missed, for instance, most of the R. Crumb references, not least of which was Steve Buscemi's slump. B+

Sep 2001