June 2007

I deployed a new version of djedna today. Most of the new creamy goodness baked into the heart of this release was done by Mike (who someday will have a link so that you will know him as more than a name). Changes include a cleaned up interface and significant under-the-covers changes to the catalog model to prepare us for our three-pronged customer strategy.

However, this upgrade comes with a caveat. If you had a djedna account before, well, it’s gone. Sorry, progress requires sacrifice. The good news is that if you’d still like to enjoy the new-car-smell-alpha that is DJedna, just e-mail me (thomas, you know, at, like, gumption.com) and ask for an account.

All things djedna are coming along nicely. As you can see, Mike’s been cruising along while I’ve been dealing with code-block in trying to complete the pool/playlist/program (a.k.a. Flytrap) functionality, probably because I’ve been thinking about it for far too long (maybe 9 years or so). Now I’m presented with cool new ways to implement it, like using python’s simple generators. But I’ve at least got the blank-screen-blues out of the way now so hopefully it won’t be as hard as I’m making out to be in my head.

I just won Round 8 of Nomicron. W00t!

Nomicron is a long running internet-based game of Nomic run by my friend Jef. For those of you too lazy to click on the link, here’s how the inventor, Peter Suber, describes Nomic:

Nomic is a game I invented in 1982. It’s a game in which changing the rules is a move. The Initial Set of rules does little more than regulate the rule-changing process. While most of its initial rules are procedural in this sense, it does have one substantive rule (on how to earn points toward winning); but this rule is deliberately boring so that players will quickly amend it to please themselves.

Despite the fact that I’ve played all 8 rounds of Nomicron (Jef is the only other player to do so out of the dozens of people from around the world that have played with us), this is my first win. However, it’s a bit of a hollow victory as it came only because the rules for this round had gotten so convoluted and complicated that further play was essentially impossible. But hey, that’s part of the fun of Nomic.

If you’re interested in playing Nomciron, now’s a great time to check it out. We’ll be entering a “convention” phase during which we strip the rule set down to a minimum and begin Round 9. If for no other reason, getting to play around with Jef’s increasingly elaborate Nomic-management web-application is a real joy. And to think he’s doing it all in Java makes it all the more impressive.

So, I read out about FireGPG (and, thus, gnupg as well) on slashdot today. FireGPG is a firefox plugin that adds gnupg signing/encryption right into gmail. It’s pretty slick and I highly recommend it.

Remember, without encryption, your e-mails are like postcards in the real mail. That is, anyone along the way to its destination can easily read it. Encrypting your e-mail text with gnupg is like putting your postcard in an envelope. It’s not totally secure (especially from the NSA), but it makes it much harder for strangers to read your dirty little secrets.

So, in the interest of carrying on future e-mail conversations in private (when appropriate), here is the public key for my main e-mail address (thomas, you know, at gumption.com):


-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (Darwin)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=XXAk
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----


Of course, you shouldn’t actually sign (i.e. blindly trust) this public key as being mine. Someone could have hacked this post and changed the above key to their public key. That’s why you should always verify a public key through more secure means. Like calling the owner and having them read their public key fingerprint (a much shorter representation of the public key intended for humans) to you so you can verify that it matches the key you have. Then you can sign the public key which means that you have verified that the key is correct and actually belongs to who you think it belongs to.

So, now I’ll just wait patiently for someone to send me some ciphertext.

Those that know me really well are aware that for about a year I’ve been harboring a secret love of trance electronica. After all, how many indie-rockers would admit to enjoying music made with drum machines? Today’s trackoday is the song that started this guilty pleasure.

Consider this my trance coming-out post.

Amazon | iTunes | eMusic

Cowgirl by Underworld from Dubnobasswithmyheadman

I’m not sure why, but my penchant for electronic music doesn’t extend beyond the sub-genre of trance. I’ve tried listening to Dance, Drum ‘n’ Bass/Jungle, House, Trip-hop, and even Broken Beat, but for various reasons, I always end up back with the pulsing groove of trance.

Even stranger, I’ve never been to a rave.

Sorry for all the ranting lately. I chose this trackoday in order to lighten the mood.

Slightly.

Yes, I know that Modest Mouse is now everyone’s favorite indie-rock band, but where were you all when they were grinding out their earlier, shall we say, more experimental material? ‘Cos you know, their old stuff is so much better.

Just kidding. I didn’t really discover MM until some time after Everywhere And His Nasty Parlour Tricks in 2001 and have slowly filled out their earlier catalog. I wouldn’t say their older stuff is better, but I would say that it was, expectedly, less polished. Yet it still retains at least the germ of the sound they’ve solidified over their last two band-defining releases.

Amazon | iTunes

Missed The Boat by Modest Mouse from We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Another reason I chose this particular track is that there are a ton of free videos online for this song. All part of a contest where fans made their own videos and the best won some cool crap. But you know who really won? The band. All of the videos are obviously crafted by people who love the song and the band and probably do so even more after spending time being creative at a distance with them (the band provided video of themselves playing in front of blue screen). The result, a few really good MTV-quality videos and a lot more videos that prove something I’ve always suspected, that it’s easy to direct music videos. With a good soundtrack, almost any imagery is watchable for 5 minutes (as long as the edit cuts happen on the beat).