Ooooohhhh USAAAAAAA - USA in Olympic Qualifying Finals

After drubbing Canada 3:0, the USMNT u-23 team goes on to face Honduras (again) in the final. Both teams have already qualified for the Beijing Olympics, so this game is almost, but not quite, meaningless. However, it will have an impact on seeding, so winning is still important.

You can see the match live on Fox Soccer Channel (613 on DirecTV) at 2pm PDT / 5pm EDT on Sunday.

Live Twittering a Birth?

My wife is almost ready to give birth to our son. I'm debating whether to live twitter developments from the delivery room. Is this just TMI? Not a good thing to do? I still have a couple of weeks yet to decide...

The streaker, part deux

For those of you who missed it, the above video clip saves for all eternity the "streak" that took place in last weekends Olympic qualifying match between the USA and Honduras.

Someone managed to track down her MySpace page and interviewed her. And of course, the obligatory snapshot:

(above photo Borrowed from SF at The Offside Rules)

USA vs. Canada Tonight on Fox Soccer Channel

For those of you who have had your fill of March Madness for the day, you will want to check out the Olympic qualifying semifinals tonight between the United States and Canada.

If the US wins, they're guaranteed a place in Beijing. If you're interested, the match is on Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN Deportes at 9pm EDT / 6pm PDT.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

I love ankle bracelets

(photo courtesy of Soccer by Ives)

It's official - soccer matches are where streakers come to party. Ok, so she's not a *real* streaker, but close enough for our Puritan value :)

Republicans Voting for Clinton?

So I wonder if this is finally going to get some mainstream press: story on Republicans "spiking" the Democratic primaries in the hopes of pushing Clinton over the top.

Adios, Mexico! El Tri Crashes Out of Olympic Qualifying

Poor Mexico - they sustain yet another soccer disappointment after crashing out of the olympic qualifiers in a wild game against Haiti (they actually won this match 5-1, but didn't make it out of their group due to goal differential).

Mexican arrogance about soccer is almost entirely undeserved - and inexplicable. The fact is, they've always been on the wrong side of Brazil and Argentina and really have not fared better than your run of the mill South American contenders. Yet, from hearing them describe their love affair with futbol, you would think they deserved to be in the upper soccer echelon. They don't.

In many ways, and this will bring a tear to many a Mexican eye, their soccer history really isn't so much further along than the USA. Until very recently, many of their players were just as tactically naive as Americans - everyone knows the craftiest footballers come from the big 2 in South America. Everyone else is just fighting over the scraps. Other than better foot skills, which does count for something, Mexico really doesn't have any better coaching, better soccer IQ, or for the last 10 or so years, a better team.

The Wonders of CHDK and My Canon Powershot A630

I've had my Canon Powershot A630 for almost a year now, and while mostly satisfied, there were a couple of minor annoyances: 1. the interface was sub-par in comparison to my previous camera, a Fuji Finepix 2. I could grab the raw graphics and had to trust the camera's conversion to 8-bit JPEG. The resulting JPEG's were mostly good, but there were definitely times where I wished I could do better constructing shots in less than optimal lighting. The ability to take raw graphics and tweak it was pretty enticing, but as a Linux user, I figured I'd just have to deal... until yesterday when I discovered CHDK in this article at linux.com!

Naturally, I had to try it out as soon as I got home, and it was pretty darn simple. The best news is that it won't wreak havoc with your camera if you get something wrong, because it leaves the manufacturer's firmware intact. The downside from that is that you have to load the CHDK firmware every time you turn on the camera - but it's not that hard. Basically, you follow the steps in the linux.com article and the CHDK wiki to load the firmware build onto your camera's SD card. Load the card in your camera, hit "menu" and select "update firmware" at the bottom of the menu list.

My biggest challenge was not having a card reader, but I improvised with my Epson printer. I just loaded the card in the printer, attached it via USB to my Ubuntu-enabled Thinkpad, and voila, I had a card reader. After loading the firmware, it didn't take long to figure out its usefulness. Not only can I capture images in Canon's raw format, but there are all sorts of things that can be scripted via CHDK's BASIC-like script interpreter. For example, there are scripts so that you can change the depth-of-field to put background objects in focus (requires some scripting and mashing up graphics). Another nice feature is the live histogram and the battery statistics. Also, push the shutter button down halfway and get a live reading of current depth-of-field/hyperfocal distance calculations.

After taking the raw photos, I had one slight problem: my version of dcraw, a "raw" image format processing application, was not compatible with my camera's format. But, a few minutes searching led me to the culprit: an older version of dcraw. I had 2 options: either get a newer version or use another piece of software. I chose rawstudio and it worked like a peach.

A note: I couldn't grab the raw files via my camera's standard USB interface. I had to load the card into my "reader" again and transfer files that way. A minor hassle.

Edit: this one's making it ALL OVER the interweb: engadget and wired's gadget lab, among many others.

Hair be Gone!

I did it -

InfoWorld Features Hyperic - part of Month of Enterprise Startups

InfoWorld Senior Editor Paul Roberts gets the skinny on Hyperic, from purchasing the technology for a buck, to landing 250 paying customers and securing OEM deals with MySQL and JBoss. A great read.



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Web Site Dedicated to California AB 1668 - Open XML-based Formats

Here's a new web site that just started up to promote AB 1668 - This bill will mandate that the State of California use open, royalty-free, XML-based document formats. Support open government!



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Nagios network monitoring felled by SNMP false alarms

With more companies finding that they don't have to pay astronomical fees for systems management software, they're turning to Open Source alternatives. In this case, mynewplace.com chose Hyperic HQ over Openview when Nagios failed them.



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live from sf beta

Blogging from sf beta! It's like a frat party for web 2.0 types. Complete with groupies! @ 111 minna

Hyperic Giving Away $5,000 Scholarship

Hyperic is giving away $5,000 in scholarship money to the winner of an essay contest on the subject of "Managing the Next Generation Data Center". Open to all university students and employees (including faculty). If you're an employee, the money goes to your departmental budget. Details at hyperic.com/essaycontest/



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Hey Donatella: Please Shut Up

I realize I'm late to this party, but I couldn't help myself. Hey Donatella, when you get to be a senator or hell can hold any kind of office, perhaps then you can tell Hillary Clinton what to wear. Until then, just STFU. Having just watched "The Devil Wears Prada" it brought this recent episode to mind. Remind me, why do we need people to tell us what's acceptable to wear? Can someone explain that one to me?

gpl3 panel

One panel i'm attending right now is on gpl3. One guy from dla piper, one from sun, and another from softwarefreedom.org - Eben's group. main idea - will have a limited impact... nothing earth-shattering but many attendees aren't very knowledgeable. sun guy mentions solaris - nervous about gpl2 but more comfortable with v3. doesn't say it, but looks like cddl is history in the future.

live from new york...

Blogging with my nokia 800... Ok, it's not really mine, but i'm using it while at linuxworld new york. but now i'm hooked, so i'll probably end up buying one. more on lw ny in a bit. the show has been toned down into a conference. frankly it's better now thaqn when it was an expo. lots of interesting people. more later.

Open Source is Now Boring

As seen on TINOSC: Regardless of what transpires, we don't get any more silly stories about whether Open Source will survive. Well, sometimes we do, but I don't think anyone actually takes them seriously. The market has matured to the point where many finally understand that any one company's failing is not representative of the entire Open Source community



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Kung Fu Monkey

So I'm a little slow, but Kung Fu Monkey is freaking brilliant. In particular, I greatly enjoyed this gem.

Republicans are Pansies... Pass it on

Republicans are living in fear, and they're making policy inspired by this fear. They're dreadfully afraid of terrorists and extremists - so much so that they're willing to drop their freedoms in the hopes of saving their own skin. The Iraq war is a manifestation of this fear. The PATRIOT ACT is an expression of this fear. The willingness to subvert habeas corpus, detain *possible* terrorist group members indefinitely without criminal charges, enact broader search and seizure guidelines, and engage in torture all reflect a basic, inate fear of the enemy. The fear stems from the belief that keeping our freedom intact results in a higher risk of a terrorist strike.

Does this not strike anyone as hypocritical? Aren't republicans in this country fond of saying "freedom isn't free," "our troops are dying for our freedoms," and other similar phrases? If it is true that "freedom isn't free" and that it's worth dying for, then what gives with the cheap sellout of freedom in exchange for our collective safety? In short, shouldn't Republicans be willing to grow a pair and accept the risk that comes with freedom?

I'm tired of what is obvious (republicans' white-knuckle fear of terrorism) being passed over in favor of what is simply untrue - that they hold the roadmap for the most effective anti-terrorism policy. Maybe all Americans need to grow a pair and realize that taking the high road of morality and human rights means facing up to the inherent risk.

Given the choice between dying for our founding principles and living on in a pale imitation of said principles, I know what I'll choose.

If there are evil people in this world who will exploit our laws and governance to strike us, then may God have mercy on their souls. I'm not going to use that as an excuse to drop the very things that made us what we are today, and neither should you. When you vote on Tuesday, bear in mind that exactly one party has overwhelmingly ruled from a position of fear. You know which party that is, and now is the time to send them the message that you won't tolerate this shortchange of principles.

Republicans are pansies. Pass it on.