Let 'Em Fight

I think it was Thomas Sowell who wrote a very interesting article a couple years ago on Middle Eastern tensions. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find it so I can't link to it for you. The basic premise and it is a premise that I think holds a good bit of weight is that, regardless of who you side with in the current iteration of the Israeli/Palestinian/Lebanese war, we need to let them fight. Stop with the calls for cease-fire and diplomacy.

Historically, conflicts with roots this deep and longstanding have rarely been talked out, they come to their endpoint when both parties in the conflict are so tired and/or defeated that a clarity washes over them and illuminates the fact that fighting any longer is a losing proposition.

Take the French as a key example of tiring a whole people to war so that they would never want to fight again. We can hold Napoleon solely responsible for creating a whole country of individuals who will not engage. The French, in the 18th century, were ferocious fighters and at one point under Napoleon, held the control of all of Europe in their grasp. Fortunately, for Europe, the Russians put the kybosh on the whole plan and, in the end, a large part of a whole generation of French young men were lost to the conflict. If this wasn't enough, after being forced out of France, Napoleon returned and spent 100 days commissioning and once again losing a massive army of French men.

Needless to say, the French populace had tired of war to such an extent that even into the 20th century they would not engage. Even when the Nazi’s stormed their country, their apprehension to fight made them a world laughing stock. I see this as a prime example of the societal reaction that can actually come from letting conflicts play out violently so that complete closure and completion can be reached.

The model even plays out nicely in our homes. We all know what happens when we let our emotions with our spouses get bottled up. The whole relationship can reach a kind of pissed off ongoing tension, until the cork is pulled and all the bottled up emotions are aired and consequently, everyone feels better.

So let's bring Condi home, forget about brokering "peace deals" and let them fight. Let Israel, Hammas and Hezbollah have it out just like boys on a playground, until they are so bloody and tired that they raised their hands to each other in a final "it's cool man, I’m done."

I Hate Water

When it rains it pours. I took out all the insulation under the room that got flooded. While in the crawlspace I noticed that the air ductwork under the room looked a bit weighted down. It was full of water. I had to rip all the air ducts out from under that room. It would also seem that there are essentially 2 sub floors to that room. There is the bottommost sub floor which is the planking from when the room was a deck. Over that is another sub floor that was laid on top of those planks when the room was finished. Through a small opening between the 2 sub floors over by the shower I could see that they had laid plastic between the 2 sub floors under the shower and that plastic has trapped water between the 2 subfloors. On top of that, I can feel a very soft spot while standing in the shower. It could be my imagination, but I am guessing that this is the feeling of waterlogged sub floor. So, I guess I add ripping out and re-installing the shower and perhaps part of the sub floor underneath it to my list of what needs to be done to salvage this room. This is just one room, I can’t imagine what victims of Katrina must feel like. It really makes a person grow to curse water and everything that it stands for.

On a more positive note, I put up some photos from the last couple weeks. They are here: http://www.keeseys.com/pics/july07/index.html.

2D or 3D?

The more I work and spend time in Second Life, the more I seriously wonder why 5 years from now anyone would want to remain in the flat 2 dimensional space of the web as we know it as opposed to a living breathing 3 dimensional space. If the Second Life world offered the same ease of access to information why would I want to stay 2D? Better yet, if I could, via web services, launch and share applications within the Second Life environment and not have to toggle back to my flat OS platform and locally installed applications why wouldn’t I? If I am thinking this way, and I am not a digital native, just imagine what a kid born after 1982(a millennial) is thinking. These kids are natives to massively multiplayer gaming environments. I am already noticing in user testing how difficult it is to engage a millennial learner by anything outside of a game-based environment.

The Second Life collaborative environment already blows the doors off of any of the endless number of flat “web 2.0” social applications. If Second Life offered its existing collaborative environment along with the number of indexed pages and the search relevance of say Google in their search function, the same adoption as a commerce tool by the same endless array of industries offering the same endless array of products for quick purchase along with access to applications and application sharing that boosted workplace productivity, why would it not and could it not it not be adopted as a next gen OS?

Current user experience is still based off of the same tired flat piece of paper metaphor that Alan Kay came up with in the 1970s with Xerox. Alan Kay himself is currently working tirelessly on developing a stateless, 3D environment called Croquet that will allow for deep 3D collaborative environment, application sharing and easy asset location and creation. This should tell us something. 3D is on its way for far wider adoption.

A lot of this is certainly my own speculation and rhetorical thought given how jazzed I am to be working more in a 3D environment. I’ve heard from a couple of my Flash developer friends how much 3D environments are over-rated, not a reality given system requirements of the majority of users today, not friendly to low-bandwidth users, and “unnecessary” given all the “exciting” things that can be done with actionScript and animation in Flash…Phooey! Remember when Flash was released? It wasn’t the ubiquitous monster that we all know today. On top of that, you can use Flash to create animated graphics that can be rezzed in the Second Life world if you are so married to Flash. These arguments for 2D over 3D sound just about the same to me as the people who bash flash sites because they are not usable, don’t get indexed in google etc…A good designer/developer can make a usable flash site and get it indexed just as good designers will make the 3D Second Life, Croquet or whatever the eventual 3D platform becomes a usable and far more engaging user experience than is available on the web as we know it today.

Real Bummer

I woke up Monday morning to find our laundry room/back bathroom flooded. This back room is a newer addition to the house and is over a crawlspace. The rest of the house is over the original basement. In checking out the crawlspace under the flooded room, I found the insulation completely sopped and the vapor barrier/plastic covering over the insulation ballooned and full of stinking water. I had to cut slices into all the plastic to release the water. The hardwood floor in the flooded back room is completely warped and ruined and all the insulation under the room in the crawl space will need to be completely removed and replaced.

This ruination of the back room of the house is due to design flaws on two levels and it really pisses me off.

Design flaw # 1:

The Kenmore washer was the cause of the flood. The pump gave out in the washer on a load we put in before going to bed Sunday night. The washer could not pump out the washbasin’s water after the initial wash cycle. Unfortunately this did not disable the cycle timer system and once it reached the rinse cycle, the washer preceded adding water into a full washbasin that intern, spilled out all over the hardwood floor. Had the washer been designed properly, the wash cycle timer would disable anytime that the washer’s pump system was disabled for whatever reason.

Design flaw #2:

The previous owners of our house put hardwood flooring in a room that houses the washing machine and a shower and a toilet. Odds are, this floor will see some water some day – DON’T PUT IN HARDWOOD FLOORS! Tile or linoleum would have been the way to go.

Saturday I will get into the crawl space and tear out all the fiberglass insulation. What a wonderful way to spend a 90-degree summer day, with long pants, long sleeves and my eyes and mouth covered ripping out fiberglass insulation in a dirty crawlspace. I can’t wait. From there, I’ll give it a few hot summer weeks to make sure the area is completely dry before adding new insulation. At some point, when the budget allows, I will then have to rip out the warped hardwood floor and put in a new tile floor. It's amzaing how stupid shit so completely out of our control can cause such a disruptive, expensive, time-consuming pain in the ass. Was it the Dominican comments? sigh...

Building Contractor?

This is the beginnings of my first build in Second Life. I am designing a prototype learning module in Second Life on Wellness in the Workplace. This is the exterior of a fast food restaurant that I have built from the ground up to become part of the module. So far this has been a great project for cutting my teeth in 3D modeling. I'm loving it and wish I had cut my teeth earlier.

Interesting Film/Dominican Rant

I spent about an hour and a half yesterday morning watching part of this film titled "My American Girls: A Dominican Story." Once I was able to put my own personal issues with Dominicans aside and really look at the issues addressed in the film I found it to be a very interesting portrayal of the immigrant experience in the US, particularly of immigrants in the cities in the NE corridor and the challenges for immigrants when raising their kids in America.

Now, on my own issues with Dominicans: Dominicans share the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Dominicans are notorious for the mistreatment of Haitians. Dominicans often base their disdain for Haitians on the superficiality of race and often are shocked to get to America and find out that in America, they are considered "black." In the DR, black to them means a Haitian and is an easy and superficial means for them to single out and subjugate Haitian people. My wife being Haitian and all, I have witnessed their strange and confused racist attitudes firsthand and personally feel that Dominican culture is about as confused racially as any culture on the planet except perhaps Americans;-)

Nonetheless, the film really hit on the issues and challenges faced by most immigrant groups when raising kids in this country.

Random House Cleaning

Lots to get to today. I’m all business. No rants, I promise.

First: Fabiola and the rest of the family are well albeit a bit tired.

Second: In response to several who have asked, I have finished painting the body of the house. :) :) :) I have some of the trim left to do when I can find the time to play with some colors. For right now it’s white like the rest of the house. Ian was as close as I had to a winner of the “what the hell am I going to do here” contest. I ended up calling AEP and they shut the power down for a few hours so I could prep and paint the problem spot.

Third: Could the individual(s) who sent the beautiful yellow flowers please make yourself known. There was no name on the card.

Fourth: (and how is this for random) It might surprise some folks that I am a closet country music fan, mostly the older outlaw stuff but some new. I have promised several “non-country music listening” friends on several occasions that I would put together a mix of “approved country music.” Here it is for download if you wish. Great for long road trips down country roads. I will only leave this up for a limited time so get it while you can.

Approved Country Music: Outlaws and Drinkin’ Men Mix