This comes from Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman
Every open source project runs into people who are selfish, uncooperative, and disrespectful. These people can silently poison the atmosphere of a happy developer community. Come learn how to identify these people and peacefully de-fuse them before they derail your project. Told through a series of (often amusing) real-life anecdotes and experiences.
http://www.red-bean.com/fitz/presentations/2007-07-26-OSCON-poisonous-people.pdf
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4216011961522818645
I thought it was pretty cool.

The deadline for student applications for Google Summer of code is Monday March 31, 2007 at 5PM Pacific time (USA)
I have been corresponding with about 15 students over the past week helping them clarify their proposals. We have 4 filed proposals so far and several are pretty solid. I am sure at the deadline we will have at least 10 more.
If you have interested students that you want to apply for the program – make sure they put in at least a basic application before the deadline so we can talk to them.
Since time is short – if students want help from me – have them send me a 2-3 paragraph proposal as best they can write it and I will send it back with comments to help add some detail.
If you have any questions send me a note.
/Chuck
Here is the student application page:
http://groups.google.com/group/google-summer-of-code-announce/web/guide-to-the-gsoc-web-app-for-student-applicants
Here is a description of the Sakai entry in SOC:
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/sakai/about.html
Here is the project ideas (just a starting point) page:
http://www.sakaiproject.org/soc2008/

I just found out that Ann Arbor has an excellent Karaoke Box / Karaoke Room called Blue Karaoke:
http://www.bluekaraoke.com/Main.aspx
Damn!
They don’t serve beer – but you can bring your own.
There is also a small box karaoke just south of West Hall On East University – 1/2 block north of Red Hot Lovers on the east side of the street on the second floor of a house – I have never been there -but I just want to remember it.
Also this:
Friends Karaoke
621 Church St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 994-7979‎
I also have not experienced this one either. Just notes for the future.
Of course we have the Sakai Authoring Workshop with Jim and the IMS Quarterly meeting in June – so I am getting prepared for a good time in the evenings – we start at the Ann Arbor Brewing Company and then move to Karaoke – like sweet.

Over the weekend my brother-in-law Ted came up for Easter. He wanted to catch up on a few Jericho episodes he had missed this month because he lives in the country and I have Comcast HD On Demand which replays Jericho (sweet). Ted is the guy who put in my wood floor – he stars in the my hardwood floor video.

So I watched five straight episodes with him – and now I am hooked. Tonight is the finale – which I will miss because I am teaching – Drat!

The plot is really cool. It is a post-apocalyptic USA where things got lawless for a while and then a series of new governments tries to take over and restore order.

It is so cool – there is a kind of bumbling new government/army which is secretly under the control of a company and the army is always running around trying to fix things but never really gaining control. Then company that controls the government is called Jennings and Rall (J and R) Because J & R controlls the government, they are always above the law and doing bad things all the time. The civilians are just mostly confused – they dislike J & R all the time – the army/government claims to be on the side of the people and only interested in order – but the government always lets J & R do whatever they want with no consequences.

So the people go between almost revolting, hiding, and timidly working with the government and J&R. All of the characters from all the groups are always conflicted – they do the right thing some times and the wrong thing at other times – even some J & R employees seem nice and do the right thing at times – but J & R seems evil most of the time.

Lots of cool symbolism around current events. Plenty of action – a neat ensemble cast – and a large enough cast that lots of drama happens – like folks getting killed etc etc.

It all comes to a head tonight in the finale. So don’t tell me how it turns out. And now that I like the show – of course it is cancelled – drat.

And the funny thing is that I think that one of the characters (Major Beck) looks a lot like Michael Korcuska in a flak jacket.

These are just notes so far
What is the Problem and how to use Log and Transfer:
http://www.macworld.com/article/131409/2008/01/finalcutexpress4.html?t=103
Pulls in MTS files in AVCHD – has a demo mode:
http://shedworx.com/?q=volmac-home

Thanks to some timely prompts from Jason Shao and Jon Gorrono on the dev list and some quick action from Michael Korkuska, Rob Able (IMS), and Lisa Mattson (IMS), we were able to submit an application to Google Summer of Code.
We were selected by Google as a mentoring organization! Which now means we need to met and recruit some students for the program – yayay!
I will be the main mentor – if others are willing to help – that is great – take a look at the ideas page and see if anything interests you and if you are willing to help. The effort is not just Sakai – it is about interoperability across learning management systems in general. We can use help with Java, PHP, and Ruby.
SInce this is our first year – we will probably be allocated a few students. Google SOC likes to see how well you do in your first year. Success this year leads to greatly increased likelihood of selection and greater numbers of students in following years. So I will work hard to make this a success for the students and for Sakai. Conveniently I am done with my teaching responsibilities just as the program starts in April so I should have plenty of time over the summer.
I will keep the community apprised as the student selection process progresses. If you have particular students that you think would be a good fit encourage them to apply.
Here are some URLs:
Google’s Sakai Announcement
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/sakai/about.html
Google SOC Page:
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/
Sakai Ideas Page:
http://www.sakaiproject.org/soc2008/

I ended up with some time on Saturday night after the Pycon 2008 conference so I went to a movie. I figured I would go to a movie that only I would like – something intellectual and arty. So I went to “No Country for Old Men” as the time was right and I had no idea what it was about.
First the good news
The acting was excellent – there were many richly developed characters and there was plenty of on-screen time for the characters to develop. The filmography was superb – it transported you to wherever they wanted you to be – the feeling of Texas – the vastness – the solitude. The feeling of isolation when you are running away – the lighting to enhance the scene – all superb. The editing was excellent – they moved from scene to scene nicely – not so quick as to get you all excited – but at the same time not obsessing on any one moment – just enough for you to fully comprehend and reflect – and then on to the next scene.
Now the bad news
The plot left me a little wanting. Usually when you get to know a bunch of characters very deeply – you want the characters to interact. This pretty much was one of those buddy/travel films – kind of like “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” but with a lot of shooting. But the violence was filmed very effectively – again taking you to the place where the film maker wanted you to go.
Overall
I am glad I went to this move and paid a bunch of money at the theater to see it. I am also glad that no one came with me to see the film. Under my geek/Star Wars fan exterior – I very much appreciate the film as art form. My first class in college was a literature and film class (ENG347) which explored a bunch of black and white films by Francois Truffaut. This film reminded me of film as art.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran

Sometimes when you unplug a headset from the iPhone it gets lost and confused and you can neither hear nor talk using the internal speaker or microphone. Interestingly – it works as a speakerphone but not as a regular phone.
Quick tip: If you answer a call and put it to your ear and cannot hear – don’t panic – switch to speakerphone this will work.
Solving the problem: Solving the problem is simple – just insert and remove your headphones three times and voila – it works!
References:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6830349

This is my abstract for my JA-Sig talk
The current crop of Learning Management Systems are focused very much on meeting the needs of the institution in providing a basic, uniform technology platform for teaching and learning. However, faculty and students are often familiar with setting up accounts, joining various types of sites and adding themselves and friends to those sites, and figuring out new systems by trial and error. The next generation of Virtual Learning Environments needs to allow this type of organic “mash-up” and make it simple enough to place in the hands of the end users of these systems. In a sense Virtual Learning Environments need to adopt approaches like Facebook, iGoogle and YouTube for learning application integration. IMS Learning Tools Interoperability 2.0 is a standard under development which addresses this functionality mash-up use case. This presentation will talk about issues and approaches for building the next generation of Virtual Learning Environments.

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On Mar 13, 2008, at 5:20 AM, Juan Velasquez wrote:

Aloha,

I’m a new developer writing a new tool,
this tool will be usable only by Teachers and Administrators,