jonvon.net Mostly a personal blog, with some content regarding Lotus Domino http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/ en-us Thu, 8 May 2008 13:09:39 -0400 tormenta eléctrica Thu, 8 May 2008 13:09:39 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/tormenta-eléctrica.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/tormenta-eléctrica.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/tormenta-eléctrica.htm Tormenta eléctrica en erupción del volcán Chaitén

i wonder if our world looked something like this as it was being formed.

via wired science.]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/tormenta-eléctrica.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/tormenta-eléctrica.htm?opendocument&comments duffberts worst practices karma? Thu, 8 May 2008 09:40:57 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/duffberts-worst-practices-karma.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/duffberts-worst-practices-karma.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/duffberts-worst-practices-karma.htm issues with his application. for some reason he's man enough (or crazy enough) to admit them publicly!

i was going to log a comment over there, and when i went to the page, i got this:

duffbert-karma.gif

i dunno, but i think i'm smelling some Worst Practices karma here. ;-)

i did finally get to the page, but i'm afraid to post a comment there. i don't want to add any more problems to duffy's list today. heh. so... instead i'll just say it here:

the truth is we ALL have crappy code floating around here and there. it could happen to anyone. i've brought down servers before too. i mean crashed them. game over. crashed a few notes clients too, man i could probably write an anarchists cookbook for lotus notes if i wanted to, with the mistakes i've made over the years. my apps are pretty solid most of the time these days, but only because of my past mistakes.

hang in there brother. you'll figure it out eventually. it's probably one particular bit of nastiness, and not all the redundant (or whatever) snippets of not-exactly-ready-for-the-red-carpet code.]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/duffberts-worst-practices-karma.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/duffberts-worst-practices-karma.htm?opendocument&comments bedhead 02 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:30:23 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/bedhead-02.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/bedhead-02.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/bedhead-02.htm
bedhead02.jpg]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/bedhead-02.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/bedhead-02.htm?opendocument&comments a few weeks into Twitter Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:03:04 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/a-few-weeks-into-twitter.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/a-few-weeks-into-twitter.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/a-few-weeks-into-twitter.htm twitter:

1. twhirl

2. meeting new people

3. ppl who might be too timid to blog, might not be afraid to twitter, so i think there are some new voices popping up. maybe?

4. a big reason why blogging is cool: it's easy to blog. it's easier to twitter.

5. conversations feel very natural on twitter

6. there is an excitement about twitter right now that you can feel that is similar to what it was like when i started blogging. it's got "new car smell". at least to me, since i've only been really engaged with it in the past few weeks.

7. going back to #5, it isn't just "what am i doing right now". it really is a conversation. you don't see that until you start to follow lots of other folks. if all you are doing is broadcasting and not following, you are missing out. that said, it IS a distraction. one i definitely have to turn off for long periods of the day if i want to get anything done.

did i mention twhirl? yes, i did! you can't beat it if you are twittering from a computer.

some things about twitter seem to fly in the face of intuition. for instance, "any one 140 character string can certainly be taken out of context". this is certainly true (and i'm glad i don't have to give a flying monkey about that), because of the fact that twitter IS an ongoing conversation. whenever you follow a new voice, you are potentially wading into several conversations you didn't know anything about. and if you wanted to pull something out of context, say for the generation of FUD or whatever. twitter could be a good source for that.

twitter is one of those things where you just have to do it to get it. the model is fascinating. one of those things where you think, why didn't someone think of this years ago? even though certain things about the model seem counter intuitive, it still just makes hella sense.

"There are no surprising facts, only models that are surprised by facts..."

my communication "model" is surprised. i haven't been surprised by anything since i got my head around the blogosphere.]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/a-few-weeks-into-twitter.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/a-few-weeks-into-twitter.htm?opendocument&comments you are extraordinary Tue, 8 Apr 2008 13:13:41 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/you-are-extraordinary.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/you-are-extraordinary.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/you-are-extraordinary.htm
maybe you are the person with the secret super power you've never owned up to. you never admitted it to yourself, because being "extraordinary" would seem somehow, haughty or presumptive. "who do i think i am?" you might have asked yourself. or "what would they think?"

maybe you've been buried under the hum drum, lost in the avalanche of rush hour traffic and mortgage payments. crushed under piles of laundry and stacks of bowls and dishes. adrift in a sea of term papers.

there are a lot of ways to become an amnesiac.

no more of that. now is the moment when you realize you can no longer hide from what you are.

your super power might be what you are the most ashamed of. it may have caused you endless grief. it might be the thing you'd never dare let out of that closet. the one with the five locks on it, and ten layers of paint, and the silent alarm. you may have to go at it with a pick axe, for days or months or years, to get it open, depending on how deeply it is buried underneath your defenses.

you've only been hiding from yourself.

so... get that closet door open. peer into the depths of your gift. put your face to its face. gaze into its eyes, learn the contours of its cheeks, watch the way it breathes.

start asking the dumb questions, the "how do i get started?" kinds of questions. the world is open and wide and longs for you to take your place in it.

everyone together now, out loud: today is the day i admit i am extraordinary.]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/you-are-extraordinary.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/you-are-extraordinary.htm?opendocument&comments to twitter or not to twitter Thu, 3 Apr 2008 10:01:50 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/to-twitter-or-not-to-twitter.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/to-twitter-or-not-to-twitter.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/to-twitter-or-not-to-twitter.htm
twits.gif

and then Ed goes and posts Not Twittering in Manchester.

uhuh. riiiight.

geeks! LOL!!

and yes, of COURSE i'm jealous... ;-)

update: ok i see the dates now. still, pretty funny. ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/to-twitter-or-not-to-twitter.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/to-twitter-or-not-to-twitter.htm?opendocument&comments Web of Deception, Chapter Six - The Goddess, the Corpse, and the Cats Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:07:31 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/the-goddess-the-corpse-and-the-cats.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/the-goddess-the-corpse-and-the-cats.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/the-goddess-the-corpse-and-the-cats.htm NOTE: This is a continuation of the "Web Of Deception" round-robin story. If you're late to the party, please start with Chapter 1 on Ben's site and go from there. You can also follow the RSS feed hosted at http://www.andthentheboilerburst.com/WebOfDeception.rss.



A huge boar came running out of the forest, his hooves thundering over the ground. He snorted, flattening the grass around him with his steaming breath, and then tossed his long, razor sharp tusks high into the air.

He glowered wild-eyed at Callie and JC and charged across the field, his fur jutting up from his back in thick tufts like unkempt, gigantic thorns.

"Hold still," said JC. "If you run, we're both done for."

But the boar was not what astonished Callie. It was the woman who rode him.

The woman sat lightly on the boar, completely unperturbed by his violence. Her long, epigamic blonde hair was wrapped in braids, hanging down past her waist, touching the boar's sides. She wore an ornate jeweled necklace, a cape made of feathers, and that was all.

The woman's skin radiated a subtle golden light. She was vibrantly alive, smiling knowingly and joyfully at the trees, the grass, the flowers, the birds, the sky, and, well, everything.

Callie was as comfortable in her body as any woman she'd ever known. But the way this woman carried herself made Callie blush.

The boar crossed the field, running at full speed, and stopped just short of Callie. The woman riding him smiled brightly as they all stood face to face.

Callie held her ground and remained silent as the boar blew hot steam in her general direction. She thought, "I... I think... I'll let the cat do the talking."

"Queen Freya, how may I be of service?" asked JC. Callie noted the sarcasm in his voice, but she wasn't sure if it was because he was still stuck to her shoulder, or because he'd been tricked into pulling Freya's carriage, and wasn't pleased about it. "Probably both," she thought.

"JC, where have you been?" asked Freya. "We've missed you at Sessrumnir."

"Surely my queen, you are aware, I have been here, in this little town, on urgent business of the Vanir."

Freya surveyed him coolly from her perch on the boar.

"You know, Freya. Project Amulet."

"Ah. And, JC, how exactly did you become involved in that?"

"I've the sharpest claws known to catdom, or so they tell me, my Queen."

Callie couldn't help staring at Freya. In fact, her whole body reacted to her in some strange way. She couldn't tell if she was aroused, or coming down with a cold, or beginning a psychotic break. "Possibly all three," she thought. What was this? Then it hit her.

"Oh!" she said out loud, before she could stop herself. Callie realized she had an odd and extremely powerful desire to get pregnant, as soon as possible. She started thinking about Mike.

"Yes," said the golden woman on the boar. "I get that a lot." She smiled her knowing smile. "Here. Take this."

Freya handed Callie a small bottle. It was transparent and filled with a golden liquid.

"As long as you use this on someone you love, it will never run out."

Callie took the bottle, instinctively putting it in her pocket. She was speechless. She tried to say thank you, but somehow her mouth wasn't quite working.

"You will want to get home right away," said Freya.

Callie flushed. She thought about Mike, at home, waiting for her. She thought about how he was always teasing her, putting his hands on her, lifting her into the air. She could feel him all around her.

"Mike is going to need your help."

Callie seemed to find her feet. "What do you mean?" She felt embarrassed, confused. What was it she had just been thinking?

"Why does Mike need help?"

"You need to hurry," said Freya. "Take this."

Freya stripped the cape of feathers off of her back. She slid from the back of the boar.

"Take off your sweater," said Freya.

JC leapt off and disappeared into the bushes. Callie took off the sweater. Freya walked around behind her. The blades of grass turned toward Freya as she circled Callie, soaking up Freya's radiance, visibly growing taller around Callie's ankles. Goosebumps ran up Callie's spine and down her arms and legs. She was paralyzed with excitement, unable to move. Freya gently put the feathered cape on Callie's back, spreading it over her shoulders. Callie's arms lengthened. She was growing... lighter, softer. Her feet shifted into talons. She was a bird! She lifted herself into the air, beating her wings.

Freya called out, "Home! Fly home, Callie!"

As Callie flew off, she noticed a large number of cats streaming into the field. Her hawk eyes picked them out as they moved in the grass. They were forming a circle around Freya, and they seemed to be conferring with JC, who stood next to the goddess. Callie didn't have time to think about it, she had to fly!



~




Tom Dufay was putting some boxes of baking soda on a shelf when he heard a sound in the back of the store. He walked to the rear and entered the store room. A single light bulb dimly illuminated boxes piled on wooden pallets. Shelves held crates full of medicines, gallon jugs full of chemicals, glass bottles filled with liquids of various colors and all sorts of odds and ends, much of it covered in cobwebs and dust. Tom heard a door creak shut, and shuffling footsteps dragging over the floor. He had a visitor.

"Who's there?" he called into the dim light.

There was no answer. The sound of someone sitting on a crate came from the back of the room. Tom walked toward the back door and saw an old man hunched there, sitting still. He wasn't breathing. His skin was taut and dry, pulled tightly over his bones. A thick layer of dust lay in the cracks of his skin, on his clothes, his boots, and his hair. His eyes were open, and like the rest of him, completely covered over in a thick film of dust.

A gleam came from his left hand – the glint of a wedding ring. His right hand held a tuft of braided, silky black wool, finely combed and shiny, as though oiled. It was tied together with red twine woven around tiny pieces of white bone.

"Ah. Mr. Hodges."

The corpse of Rudolph Hodges opened its mouth, lips stretching dryly over a set of broken teeth. He made a sound like the creak of an old floorboard squeaking in the middle of the night. Finally he whispered, "Betsy."

"Rudy? Is that you?"

The corpse nodded its head.

Tom sighed. "Yes, Rudy. Betsy. What about Betsy?"

"In the cave. With the rrrest," Rudolph whispered like a snake's rattle.

"That's right, Rudy. Betsy is in the cave, with the rest. I asked them to go, just as I asked you to come up out of that shallow grave," said Tom. "What else would you like to know?"

Rudolph's face turned up toward Tom, his dusty, sunken, blank eyes staring blindly at Tom's face.

"Cat got your tongue, Rudy?"

The body of Rudolph Hodges stood up and slowly turned toward the back door. Tom could hear his bones creaking and his skin crackling as he moved.

"Now Rudy, we can't have you walking around in broad daylight," said Tom. "You're going to scare someone. They don't understand that kind of thing around here."

Tom walked up to Rudy and pulled the black tuft out of his hand. His body stopped moving, and then fell backwards. Tom caught him and lowered him gently to the floor.

"Got to take care of your body, Tom. Got to be more careful. I've still got a few things for you to do. But we can't have you walking around inside it."

Tom held the black thing up to his mouth and spoke to it in a low whisper:

"Web of darkness
Void bound in blood
With bones digested
In spidery cud
Braided black web
Spun slow underground
Imbue this shade,
Death's hallowed ground
With my will unafraid
My desire unbound!"

Tom put the black thing back in Rudolph's right hand. The corpse sat up.

Slowly and carefully Tom said, "Wait until it is dark outside.  Go to the Hodges house. When you see the man inside, kill him without the woman seeing you.  Then, bring his body to the cave.  Leave the woman alone unless she sees you.  If she does see you, kill the woman and bring her body to the cave as well."

The corpse nodded once and leaned back against the storeroom wall. Tom stood up and smiled proudly and kindly, as though he'd just rescued a lost puppy or pulled a scared cat out of a tree. Tom walked out into the store and continued stocking the shelves.



~




Mike woke up and looked at his leg. The deep scratches were still there. He noticed for the first time that they were carved into his skin in a pattern, circles connecting to circles. It was actually beautiful, and more than a little creepy. The skin looked a little dry, but it was better than before. At least it didn't hurt. He felt sorry for his leg, all carved up like that, and sorrier for himself, because he owned a leg like that. Mike wondered if it would heal. Those scars looked permanent. He decided he'd try and stand up. That was when he noticed the cats. There were two or three at each window, and all of them were staring in at him.

"Oh. Shit."

The hairs stood up on the back of his neck. "Just like a cat," he thought. Something wasn't right. He went around to the kitchen. The back door was open. One of the cats was on the kitchen table.

"Little varmint," he said. He reached toward the cat to push it off the table, and then thought better of it.

"Where's that shotgun?"

He walked slowly backward, turned, and saw another cat sitting in on the floor. The cat leapt toward his chest. He saw its claws extend toward him in slow motion. He realized, he had no shirt on.

"Damn," was all he could get out. He hit the floor, landing in a cloud of yowling, clawing cats, and promptly passed out. He woke up a few minutes later. His clothes were gone, laying in thin shreds all around his naked body. He was carved from head to toe in beautifully woven, bloody circles. He was afraid to touch his face. He never knew this kind of pain could ever be. He held up his hands. He was marked everywhere he looked, his fingers, his palms, his forearms. He sat up, looked down at his manhood. Everything was intact, but the scars ran pretty close. He cried a little then, and looked at the cat sitting in between his feet. "Thanks for leaving that alone," he said.

The cat regarded him indifferently. It licked its paw, and looked for all the world like it might lay down and take a nap. "You've been given an amulet. You're going to need it. Trust me on that one."

"An amulet? You, you can talk? Yeah, of course you can talk. You and your... evil little friends... carve me up like a Halloween pumpkin, and THEN," he began to giggle, a little unsteadily, "you wanna talk about jewelry?"

He laughed a little harder, and the tears started coming again. "Oh I'm losing it all right. No way, no way this is happening. No no no no nooooo waaay." He held up his hand again, looking at it curiously. For some reason it reminded him of a red yoyo he'd had when he was a kid. He waved it down, then up, then down again. Finally he let it rest on the floor.

The cat looked at him patiently, as though he were the stupidest, sorriest human child ever conceived. "Your skin is an amulet now. It will protect you. It will protect your family. It will protect anyone you love, as long as you are touching them."

Mike stared at the cat. Clearly he'd lost his mind. No, it wasn't that, he was dreaming! That's all! Callie had gone out, and he'd fallen asleep, and soon she'd be back, and he'd wake up, and all of this will have been a bad dream. His head fell back and smacked the floor with a bloody thunk. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he was gone.



The story has been continued by Steve McDonagh, who kindly included the word triskaidekaphobia in the story (lol!). nice job steve! ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/the-goddess-the-corpse-and-the-cats.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/the-goddess-the-corpse-and-the-cats.htm?opendocument&comments web of deception Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:11:17 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/web-of-deception.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/web-of-deception.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/web-of-deception.htm
the story is called Web of Deception. Ben has already written the first installment, and Julian is up next. jules will pick someone from the list of authors who volunteered. as it happens i'm one of the people on the list (thanks, Ben, for the invite), and at some point i'll add a chapter right here on this blog.

fourteen people have signed up to do this! which means the story will take a little while to reach its conclusion. i can't wait to see where this goes.

for the extra curious, and for a more well rounded take on this, check out the blog posts from Rob and Jess. i love how jess is all helpful and cheerful, explaining the rules and extolling Ben's generosity, while the good cap'n O is, as usual, erroring (yeah that's the geek version) on the side of snarky. which tells you something, i think, about how the story will go. should be some interesting twists and turns ahead in the web of deception... ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/web-of-deception.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/web-of-deception.htm?opendocument&comments comment weirdness Fri, 7 Mar 2008 09:40:55 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/comment-weirdness.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/comment-weirdness.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/comment-weirdness.htm
all that to say, if you post a comment and it gets lost, you are in good company. i think i'm going to do a complete refresh of the entire database here pretty soon, possibly with a blog of my own design. not at all sure about that yet. we'll see. at the very least i need to at least move up to the latest ibm sanctioned version. i'm still running an old version of steve's pre-ibm software. ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/comment-weirdness.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/comment-weirdness.htm?opendocument&comments i twitter, therefore i am Thu, 6 Mar 2008 15:54:50 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/i-twitter-therefore-i-am.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/i-twitter-therefore-i-am.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/i-twitter-therefore-i-am.htm http://twitter.com/jonvon

1. i was surprised at how many of my email contacts are not twittering.

2. i was also surprised that "jonvon" was available. claim your name before this really takes off...

3. i don't know if i'll update twitter more or less than the blog. i know, it should be more. time will tell.

something about this seems, somehow, kinda cool. i think i might enjoy this. i dunno! file under experimental. ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/i-twitter-therefore-i-am.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/i-twitter-therefore-i-am.htm?opendocument&comments the path of the artisan Tue, 4 Mar 2008 10:19:59 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/the-path-of-the-artisan.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/the-path-of-the-artisan.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/the-path-of-the-artisan.htm        -- Rene Descartes, Discours de la Methode (from Rationality Quotes 10)

this is similar to what i do as i write code. when i started out writing lotusscript, i popped everything into the Initialize event. hey, it worked, right? it wasn't exactly maintainable, but i got through somehow.

then later i started breaking things out into functions and subs. hey, pretty cool for a guy who didn't study this in college. eventually i started writing OO constructs, and that was when things started changing. the idea of reusability became more palpable somehow.

i realized i'd been solving the same problems over and over again - badly: i got the same run time errors, pretty consistently from certain operations. for example, i must have gotten "object variable not set" about a zillion times, from not properly checking the objects when i was getting a text value. this one little function, which isn't part of an OO construct but exists in my Utils script lib, has saved me many hours of idiotic debugging:

Sub getItemText ( doc As notesdocument, itemname As String, strval As String )
       Dim item As NotesItem
       If doc Is Nothing Then
               strval = ""
               Exit Sub
       End If
       If Not doc.HasItem( itemname ) Then
               strval = ""
               Exit Sub
       End If
       Set item = doc.GetFirstItem( itemname )
       strval = item.Text
End Sub

sometimes it's the simple things, ya know?

in terms of the Descartes quote you could look at this code one of two ways - you could say, i don't have to ever write that code again, because i've solved that problem, and therefore i don't have to think about it. and so, in one sense there is no "rule" i'm actively thinking about. the point is that i don't have to solve that problem again!

but whenever i consume this code, i am in fact implicity following the rules laid out in the code itself (check to make sure that the objects exist before trying to use them), and i'm following another rule: don't keep on rewriting the same broken shite over and over again. put robust code (that doesn't break when the item, or even the document, happens to not exist) in one place. you are done. because you have bigger fish to fry.

so what happens is, i am building little stepping stones, little foundational bricks, that i can build truly complex applications on top of, without getting bogged down in structurally obfuscated complexity, and with less run time errors too.

has it ever struck you that the tools and materials in hardware stores are like little programs that people have built, that have "real world" properties and methods? screwdrivers, hammers, nuts and bolts, drywall, plywood and so on are all designed to standard specifications. everyone knows how to use those things, creatively, in a standard way. and you can take those materials and tools and build things like houses and office buildings with them! without those tools, you've got nothing to start with. you've got to invent it all from scratch.

even in an environment like Notes Designer, where so many things are already provided for you, you still have to create your own toolbox. or you have to become intimately familiar with someone else's (ext, prototype, dojo, etc). you have to discover the solutions that become the rules that you follow. because the rules allow you to create applications that are less prone to errors, are easier to maintain, and achieve understandable complexity early (i.e. achieve business goals) in the design cycle. this, it seems to me, is the path of the artisan. ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/the-path-of-the-artisan.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/the-path-of-the-artisan.htm?opendocument&comments image vs story Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:16:56 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/image-vs-story.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/image-vs-story.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/image-vs-story.htm duffbert reviewed count zero, a william gibson book, and, well, i just had to read it, being a gibson fan myself.

i love gibson's stuff. unlike duffy, i've never had trouble following his story lines. but his comment: "the story-lines don't match up with the quality of the imagery", that is interesting. it is something i've worried about as i've been writing my own novel. i'm a poet at heart, but what i want to do is weave stories together.

truly great poetry is often steeped in image. i'm thinking of pablo neruda as i type this. there is a way in which a poet can write that surfaces images up from a part of the mind (which is probably located in the right hemisphere of the brain), and those images can communicate subtle truths that flower in infinite variety.

this is way to talk about metaphor, but for me there is a very real substance underneath that term.

if a poet can learn to see images and then write them out with strong fidelity, without interfering with them too much, the result can be astounding. a possibility exists in which the images can project truth straight out of the form of the image, dependent on the context the image surfaces within.

so what you end up with is an image that is quite literally a truth projector. or you could say that truth is projected through the image. that same truth could be projected through other images as well, and the contradictory poles of every truth could be projected through images that seem to be in opposition to one another.

people who think strongly in this way are not necessarily people who are thinking sequentially. an image is a pool you sort of float around in. it is not something that moves through time. time stops inside the image. there is no time inside these kinds of images, the kind that project truth. i want to say, time and space unfolds through image, even though it seems that images are a function of space and time. it's a particular way of thinking and conceiving.

story telling is more about time. people doing things to and with each other in a linear progression. the king's brother kills the king's children and serves them to the king at dinner. or whatever. those are events that happen in time, one after another. those events can, of themselves, be very powerful. i mean, that sentence i just wrote, that comes i think out of some old Greek play, that is a powerful sentence isn't it? your mind probably filled the images in for you, right? but that sentence is not image centric per se. people who think in images, who write in image heavy chunks, are not always great at making the bare bones of the plot shine through.

in gibson's case, according to duffy, the images are so dense that it is hard to see what is going on. man, i find that fascinating.

i think this style is appropriate to what gibson does, because he is talking about a near future (let's face it, it is already upon us), in which information is very dense. it is hard to see what is going on in the world around us because so much is going on, and we have access to all sorts of event driven data. gibson seems to be about the task of presenting characters who are learning to surf that stream of data and survive, and if they can, even find meaning. it is very much like he is writing about atavistic hunters who are faced with a bewildering jungle. there are so many sounds, so many things to see. how do you find your prey, how do you get home safely? how do you survive the encounter with that thing you are hunting? how do you survive brushes with other predators? now take that old struggle, which is almost unknown to us in the modern world, and immerse a normal, modern person into a jungle of data, where everything is morphing all the time, even things that are not supposed to morph, and watch what happens. that is gibson, at least to me. though it's been a while since i read him.

[as an aside: it strikes me that duffbert is himself a william gibson character. my god, how many books has this man read? how much information has his single mind parsed? i understand that he lives next to a library. i think he's become a library by now.]

this constant morphing of images can be seen in Ovid's Metamorphoses. i sent a chapter of the novel i'm working on to a man i'm proud to call a friend of mine, a guy named Eric Larsen. i'd never read Ovid, but after he read the chapter i sent him, he recommended i read Metamorphoses. so i did. or i should say, i am, i'm about in the middle of it now. every story ends with someone turning into a bird, or into a snake. every encounter a mortal has with a god ends with the mortal transforming into something, usually an animal. there are some things like that going on in my own writing, not exactly like that, but the basic thought process is there. it is a process that is image centric for sure.

so i've been struggling with how to put the story together in a way that is compelling from the standpoint of a story teller. i've got to keep my eye on the ball of that linear progression, at least within any particular chapter i'm writing. it is too easy for me to bask in that pool of images and forget to tell a story.

i'll be curious to see if people end up reacting to my stuff the way they react to gibson's. will they get lost in the images? i don't know. i feel a little like that character in Lady in the Water who only works out one side of his body all the time. as it happens, i've been doing this programming thing the past ten years or so, and i've given the left side of my brain quite a workout. it's as though i had no structure to start with, and forcing myself to think logically all these years has had an impact on me. so i'm hopeful that i will be able to include enough logical, linear structure in what i am doing that what i write will make sense, and be compelling for readers. but the place i'm most at home at is the world of image. ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/image-vs-story.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/image-vs-story.htm?opendocument&comments martin shaw steals the keys Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:24:26 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/martin-shaw-steals-the-keys.htm dreams jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/martin-shaw-steals-the-keys.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/martin-shaw-steals-the-keys.htm
I was attending a conference. The conference was like the Minnesota Men's Conference, something regarding consciousness, etc., but it was sort of generic. I never knew the title of the conference. I often go to technical conferences and stay in hotels, and my company was putting me up in this place, and like usual, all expenses were paid. In the dream I never went to the "consciousness" conference, as far as I can remember the dream only took place in the hotel room.

Martin Shaw was there in my hotel room. He was staying in some rooms in the back. He was teaching at the conference and was going in and out of the hotel room as he needed to. He was there with my knowledge, but I had not seen him at all. Martin had access to all the rooms in the hotel room but he stayed in the rooms at the back. I had never been to those back rooms. I think it is interesting to note, these were rooms I hadn't paid for myself, but were "mine" while I was there.

I had a set of keys. Some of the keys opened various doors in the hotel room/apartment including the front door. They were attached to a plain, metal, round key ring. There were lots of regular sized keys, and there was also a tiny key on the ring that was very important. I don't know what the key went to. It was very small, shorter than a fingernail.

When I wasn't looking Martin Shaw came out of those back rooms and made off with the keys. The whole key ring, everything was gone. I really lamented the loss of the tiny key, and was irritated that the key to the front door of the apartment was also missing. I was responsible for all of the things those keys opened, and now I could no longer manage those resources, whatever they were.

Martin had gone to hide in the back of the apartment. Now for the first time I had to go and brave those rooms he was staying in.

So, I went to go and find him. This was the moment when I had to go down a hallway. The hallway and the back rooms were darker than the front rooms. I expected to find a bedroom at the end of that area, but instead there was a huge bathroom. Martin had gone in there. I went in, and there was a huge bathtub. It was probably four feet wide and eight to ten feet long, and maybe five and a half feet deep. There was no chance of finding Martin or the keys unless I jumped into that tub. It was the only place he could have gone. Hardly thinking about it, I jumped right in.

There was no water in the tub. There was no Martin Shaw in it either, and no keys. There was something in the tub though, like a shadow. The tub was filled with shadow, like smoke, but with no substance. It looked vaguely like water, the way it moved. It was very subtle and hard to see. I could see the surface of it moving right around the level of the top drain. What I saw were the shadows of moving, oceanic waves. I could not see the substance of them, and underneath the surface of the waves there was nothing at all, just empty air.

I stood in the tub, at the back, and stared across at the faucet. My head was just above the water line. If the tub had been full of water, it would have come up to my neck. The walls had white tile on them and extended upward for another eight or ten feet from the top of the tub. Another way of looking at the perspective would be to say that I was very tiny and was in a regular sized bathtub. But in the dream, I was my normal size, and the bathtub and the bathroom were much larger than normal. Especially that tub, it was huge.

The light was bright enough to see everything, but low enough that everything looked a little gloomy. It was surprising not to find Martin back there. It was surprising to find that huge tub. Somewhere in that tub full of mostly transparent, slowly moving, oceanic shadow, Martin had disappeared, along with my keys. There was no explanation, they were just gone, and I was at a dead end. ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/martin-shaw-steals-the-keys.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/martin-shaw-steals-the-keys.htm?opendocument&comments designer 8.5 Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:46:22 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/designer-8.5.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/designer-8.5.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/designer-8.5.htm
ability to edit HTML, Javascript and CSS natively via Eclipse editors. very nice. i'm guessing that was low hanging fruit, using editors floating around in the Eclipse ecosystem. but still, that's a big one.

dojo actually inside the product. hm! tasty! i didn't expect that getting past ibm legal. great idea though. guess i'll have to learn dojo now. i've stayed away from it as i kept hearing various horror stories about implementation, but it seems the dojo folks have cleaned a lot of that up now. looks like neat stuff.

lots of kewl things in xpages. i love all the ajaxy goodness they are embedding there.

i'd like to point out a few things about ajax development in general, because i noticed some issues in a few of the demos that look very familiar to me. we've been putting together a new version of our intranet, and in doing that the biggest challenges have been:

1. making sure the back button works - this is critical for usability. it would be great to see a checkbox or something where, any time we ajax-enable an xpage element, we can either turn on or turn off "back button" javascript code. in our case we've been using some google code one of the guys found on the web. essentially what happens is, you click an ajax link or button, and something gets written to the history in the browser. now when the user clicks the big old back button in the regular old browser chrome, it does actually look as though she is going "back". the google code has some tricky stuff in it to get it to work in IE. apparently there is an iframe involved. anyway... i watched the back button thing catch mr balaban during his demo. this will be critical to getting ajax to "just work" in xpages. maybe its already there? i don't know.

2. attachments. uploading attachments needs to work via ajax. there have been a few valiant attempts, and i've been kinda working on my own version, but let's just say, that it ain't ezackly easy to do. does it work in xpages like that? i dunno, i didn't see it demonstrated, but maybe it does. but more than that, file uploads need to be handled by some kind of plugin like the one they have in iNotes. cuz regular old http does not work for large files. we need decent controls around that. file size limitations for instance that we can input. better management of files (do you want to replace that file with this one?) but mostly, some kind of native ajax implementation coupled with at least the possibility of the use of a plugin ala iNotes to speed things up.

maybe that's there too? dunno.

those are the two big ones that we've struggled with in getting ajax to work, and work well, in the domino scheme of things. there is one more that might not bite as many people. we've got a google appliance for search. i'm looking at getting the google crawl to work in an ajax enabled design. i have a few ideas around that but nothing baked or even properly researched yet. but maybe that's another blog entry some other time.

ok, last but certainly not least. type ahead for user defined classes in lotusscript is, according to mr tripcony (i'm so calling you "Trip" from now on), is not going to make it into 8.5.

oh. my. fucking. god. i must rant now. i don't rant very much, i'm usually pretty darn optimistic about every damn thing all the time. so i'm going off the rail here, so's i don't end up having to talk to my therapist about this.

< RANT >

c'mon you guys.... how long have we been asking for type ahead for user defined classes? whenever ibm lotus asked us what we wanted in designer, what was it? was it native HTML editing? no. was it kewl ajax stuff? no. is ajax more important than user defined classes? ok, maybe it is in today's environment. maybe. but, my god. this just breaks my heart a little bit. i don't remember being a part of any discussion about the future of designer in the last 3 to 4 years where there weren't multiple requests for type ahead for user defined classes. MULTIPLE @$%&#@ REQUESTS!! EVERY TIME!!!!!! from people who include me, but do not in any way consist entirely of me.

lots and lots of people want this. you know it's true.

yeah, i know, you are running out of time. running out of resources. i just want you to know. this affects me, personally, EVERY DAY I COME TO WORK. i took all those things lotus said about the importance of OO design seriously. i studied some of the design pattern stuff (not saying i'm a guru but i did study), i even learned java during that whole two lane highway debacle and incorporated the lessons i learned while writing java into my lotusscript coding.

and you know what? i have results to show for it. my code IS more robust, more reusable, more flexible. it's just plain smarter. i've automated 30% of my job. i'm not kidding when i say that. but EVERY TIME i have to go into the declarations sections to edit my big pile of OO code, there is a little voice that cries out, like a madman wandering around in the desert wearing a belt made of camel's hair. in between bites of honey dipped locust, smeared fashionably all over my beard, i can be heard to mumble into the wind...

prepare ye the way of the type ahead for the user defined classes...

if i have to wait until 8.5.1, i'm going to be surly.

oh yes. i said it. SURLY I SAY!

< / RANT >]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/designer-8.5.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/designer-8.5.htm?opendocument&comments facebook is lame Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:16:25 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/facebook-is-lame.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/facebook-is-lame.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/facebook-is-lame.htm
facebook is freakin lame. so sez me. it's got one hand reaching up toward the razor's edge of greatness, but keeps coming down with no fingers. no one is really doing anything with it, because all the stuff everyone is doing isn't really "anything".

yeah its fun, even addictive, for about, oh, ten minutes. and then...
...
...
...
...nothing.

but maybe i'm just old and grumpy.

when i first saw facebook, after having been exposed to the amateur horror show that is myspace (said the elitist web developer), i thought, at last, a social network site that has a nice, clean, smooth, professional interface with a lot of built-in fun! this is going to rock!

but it doesn't. i want it to. but frankly it just bores the pants off me. ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/facebook-is-lame.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/facebook-is-lame.htm?opendocument&comments gone daddy gone Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:29:37 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/gone-daddy-gone.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/gone-daddy-gone.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/gone-daddy-gone.htm Dim Spliff As New Hash post, i submit this little gem i ran across the other day. yes, i wrote this code, but had forgotten about it. all it does is allow you to create a list of NotesDocument objects, which you can then delete later on after whatever the rest of the business logic was.

Class Removals
       
        Public DocsToRemove List As NotesDocument
       
        Sub addDocToRemovals ( d As NotesDocument )
               
                On Error Goto handler
               
                If d Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
                Dim isInList As Boolean
                isInList = Iselement( DocsToRemove(d.UniversalID) )
                If Not isInList Then
                        Set DocsToRemove ( d.UniversalID ) = d
                End If
               
bye:
                Exit Sub
handler:
                Call LogError()
                Resume bye
               
        End Sub
       
        Public Sub TheLoveIsGone
               
                Dim GoneAway As NotesDocument
               
                Forall d In DocsToRemove
                        Set GoneAway = d
                        GoneAway.Remove True
                End Forall
               
        End Sub
       
End Class

which of course enabled me to write somewhere else:

Dim GoneDaddyGone As Removals

...iterate through some docs, add some to the Removals object, and THEN, at last, the payoff:

GoneDaddyGone.TheLoveIsGone

...man i can hear that bassline thumping along. ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/gone-daddy-gone.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/gone-daddy-gone.htm?opendocument&comments late night coding Thu, 6 Dec 2007 21:06:28 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/late-night-coding.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/late-night-coding.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/late-night-coding.htm why doesn't the compiler know that when i type QuertyStringParameter, what i really meant was, QueryStringParameter. i mean, c'mon, how much of a stretch could that be?]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/late-night-coding.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/late-night-coding.htm?opendocument&comments thanks Thu, 6 Dec 2007 15:29:21 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/thanks.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/thanks.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/thanks.htm
THNKU GD

or

THANK GD

or something along those lines, it was a little hard to see it but i got the message.

anyway then i get back and bloglines pops up with this post by bill where he talks about things he's thankful for.

bill, john and i started a google message board group thingie a while back. john is a musician, bill is a visual artist, and i am a poet (he said confidently), but more than that john and bill are old friends going back about twenty years. we've reconnected in a powerful way through that group. i'm thankful for bill and john for sure.

i'm also thankful for nine years yesterday with my wife, and for my daughter who will be seven this month, and for a steady job through all seven of those years, and for my friends and for many other things.

life is good. and btw, thanks for reading. ;-) ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/thanks.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/thanks.htm?opendocument&comments see you in orlando Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:40:04 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/see-you-in-orlando.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/see-you-in-orlando.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/see-you-in-orlando.htm
all that to say, if you are going to Lotusphere this year, then i hope to see you in January. :-)]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/see-you-in-orlando.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/see-you-in-orlando.htm?opendocument&comments overcoming bias at idea jam Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:39:15 -0400 http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/overcoming-bias-at-idea-jam.htm jonvon http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/overcoming-bias-at-idea-jam.htm?opendocument&comments http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/overcoming-bias-at-idea-jam.htm dismal science lurking in the corners of nathan's workspace. idea jam is a relatively simple idea, even if the application is pretty sophisticated. come up with an idea, everyone votes on it. the guys working on idea jam have a lot of neat ways to see the data, like these statistics and what's hot and so forth. and the idea that stuff bubbles to the top is pretty good. but idea battle takes it one rather large step further.

i just think this is super brilliant, and i hope it becomes part of the native application. it's cool as a web 2.0 project, but imo this is really just so core to the fundamental intelligence idea jam is trying to cull from the community, i don't see how it can be effective long term without it.

each idea "battles" the other ideas. it's basic economic theory. desire for one idea is weighed against desire for another idea, ad infinitum. pretty soon, something that looks like a true representation of the community's actual, weighted, prioritized desires appear quite publicly among the ideas encapsulated in the respective idea spaces. the basic voting mechanism in idea jam is fine as far as it goes, but man, nathan's idea suddenly infuses the entire thing with something that looks an awful lot like real life.

great work all around, everyone involved ought to be super proud. ]]> http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dxcomments/overcoming-bias-at-idea-jam.htm http://jonvon.net/jonvon/blog/blog.nsf/dx/overcoming-bias-at-idea-jam.htm?opendocument&comments