Ace Roqs’ Blog

I never thought I’d see the day, but Arc, Paul Graham’s vaporware Lisp for smart people is now available.  For real.  Somehow it managed to beat DNF out the door.  I think all that needs to be said is said here.

Jess and I did the Resolution Run today, which included a quick Polar Bear dip into Lake Washington just before the finish line.  I was apprehensive about doing it, but after 10 seconds of rushing into the water, submerging, and rushing out, it felt great outside (45 degrees F).  If the weather is this good next year, I would love to do it again.  The post-run chili was good too.

I think I’ve finally closed the last of the holes that hackers have been using to deface this site.  It is truly a pain in the arse to have to patch all of the software, change passwords, scrub all of the html pages for rogue script, etc., but I think things are back to normal now.

For the last few years, I’ve tried to do recaps of the year on a personal note.  It seems like everyone blogging is doing that tonight.  Before I begin, I wanted to look back at the last 10 years of the world (at least from my perspective) and see what new things have changed our lives.

1. High-speed Internet into the home.  I had this at Uni in 1995, but I first got it at home in 2000.  It’s hard to imagine life without it.  Not to mention WiFi.
2. iPod.  You cannot go to a gym and not find a hoard of these strapped to people’s arms.
3. Google.  We had search ten years ago, but we didn’t know how good it could be until Google came around.
4. Tivo.  Watching TV without it is painful.
5. DVD.  Wow, ten years ago we used VHS tape?  Ewe.
6. Cell phones.  We had cell phones ten years ago, but they really came into vogue in recent years.  Everyone and their teen has one.  They are in color, keep our numbers, and even do email and Internet.  Get on a bus and count the number of folks whose head is buried in one (same goes for iPod, PSP, or Nintendo DS).
7. Robots.  We got Aibo, BattleBots, and even Roomba.  Maybe not world changing, unless you ask those who have one.
8. Find a hybrid car on the road ten years ago…
9. X-Prize.  Some guy in the desert shot himself into space.  Oye.
10. Anime.  It’s been building momentum since the early 80’s, but by around 2000, you could start finding these in U.S. stores.  Also fueled by Kazaa, BitTorrent, and other inventions…

There are other things, like the social norms that are different.  We have the Fab Four and the rise (and fall) of the metro-sexual.  We have civil unions now, except where prohibited by law.  Reality game shows, Lord of the Rings, and people camping for weeks to be the first in line for Star Wars.  Oh yeah, and ten years ago Duke Nukem Forever was supposed to come out.  Dance Dance Revolution was it’s own revolution, as long as you were a part of this subculture.  Britney took over the world, got rid of Justin, got married, got annulled, got pregnant, got married, got pregnant, got divorced, got shaved, and ran someone over in her car, in roughly that order.

Then there is the group of things fueled by the Internet that we simply can’t live without anymore.  I mean stuff like MapQuest, Amazon, Travelocity, YouTube, Flickr, FaceBook, Myspace, Twitter, Linkedin, other social networking sites and RSS, blogs, etc.  Many have gone in and out of vogue quickly like the Atkins diet.  Great software like Trillian, and Firefox came and sometimes stayed.  Phenoms like Xbox Live and Halo were non-existant ten years ago.  ilikebees anyone?  And All Your Base Are Belong To Us.

What have I done this year?

1. Acted as a witness in a trial over billions of dollars.  Wow.  That was an amazing experience, but I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint of heart.
2. San Diego rocks.  Especially the Keating Hotel.  That has completely changed the way I think hotels should look.
3. Wrote a Firefox plug-in, which got Slashdotted, and millions of downloads.
4. Had the best year of work I think I’ve ever had.  We also bought companies worked at by my wife, my sister-in-law, and a friend.
5. Gave Steve Ballmer a high-five.
6. Turned 30.  It’s the new 20.  Seriously, it feels like it.
7. Won the lottery.  Bought me an HDTV with it.

Last year, my goal was to produce more than I consume.  I think I succeeded, but I don’t think I spent as much time on the things I wanted to do as opposed to the things I thought I had to do.

This next year, my goals are pretty modest.  I want to eat better.  I eat well now, but not nearly often enough.  I want to exercise “better.”  I’m at the gym three times a week now, but I’ll be changing up my program to try to get better results.  And I want to spend more time doing stuff I enjoy.  You know, less time getting caught up in the daily grind.  That’s hard, and it takes a lot of conscious diligence.  Sometimes even forcing yourself to do stuff you want to do.  Like blog.

Happy New Year’s Everyone!

I baked my own cake.  Surely Sanrio cares.

Ace Roqs: 1 The Man: 0

I want to make the following t-shirt.  Everyone I’ve found locally in Seattle, and online (like Zazzle and CafePress) won’t do it, despite my only wanting a private order of twelve or so.  A silk screen would be best, though there are a few colors here.  Anyone have any suggestions on who might be able to do this for me?

Jessica’s birthday is soon and I was out ordering her Hello Kitty cake.  Most grocery stores have specialty cakes, like Hello Kitty cakes, complete with purses and mirror compacts.  We like frosting (who doesn’t), so I tried getting the Hello Kitty face made of frosting instead of having a compact pressed into the cake.  They wouldn’t do this, because it was a copyright violation.  That’s right, you heard this correctly.  You cannot put Hello Kitty on the Hello Kitty cake.  You can put a HK compact on it.  You can put a HK rice paper stamp on it.  But you can’t make it out of frosting.

Four stores refused, so I’m going to do it myself.  The world is a better place.  Oh, and screw you, you copyright nazis.

My copy of GAME by Piano Squall came in today!  I had the chance to meet Piano Squall at Sakura-con, and he is the nicest guy you’d ever want to meet.

There have been some pretty amusing legal results in just the last day or so.  Check this out.

Courts have allows special interest groups to advertise in the weeks leading up to an election.  They site free speech as the primary factor: “…we give the benefit of the doubt to speech, not censorship.” (cnn).

These rights only apply to money backed lobbiests, not to 18 year old students with fully tenured rights when off of student property: “…permitting the censorship of any student speech that mentions drugs, so long as someone could perceive that speech to contain a latent pro-drug message.” (cnn).

We need to control these kids.  We cannot control the teachers who marry these kids however: “School officials can’t be responsible for what happens the other hours of the day…” (abc).

Let’s hope a student film maker doesn’t post an election ad on public access that promotes candidates who favor relaxing of the drug laws.  It would be pandemonium.

Wow.

LinkedIn tricks you into thinking that it’s system is a game. It plays with you, telling you that you are X% done with your profile, or with your contact list, and even gives you the next step and the score you get for completing that step… So now, I’ve spent tons of time on my stupid profile, just in the effort of getting that score higher.

Don’t look at me that way. You know you fell into the same trap.