Bucket list: Chopin

Bucket list: finally got around to picking up Chopin’s complete works. Something here for any coding/sysadmin occasion!

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Conca d’Or Lily

A little something Tracy grew in one of our sprawling gardens.

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Human morality

A man does what he must – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.

~ Winston Churchill

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Finding meaning in the mundane

Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.

But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in.

~ David Foster Wallace

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It occurs to me that I’ve no idea who gave the commencement address at my graduation. After a bit of digging…

Robert W. Galvin, chairman of Motorola, delivered the main address yesterday to the 1,150 graduates at the 125th commencement of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.

Mr. Galvin received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree.

~ from the May 31st NYT archives listing several school’s commencement addresses.

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The mundane

Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.

But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in.

~ David Foster Wallace

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Memorial Day 2014

Memorial Day – May 26, 2014

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Flip iPhone is so 2011

Today’s XKCD with the “flip iPhone” reminds me of something from 2011.

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Persistence

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.

Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.

Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

~ Calvin Coolidge

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Take back the Internet

This is not the Internet the world needs, or the Internet its creators envisioned. We need to take it back.

And by we, I mean the engineering community.

Yes, this is primarily a political problem, a policy matter that requires political intervention.

But this is also an engineering problem, and there are several things engineers can — and should — do.

~ Bruce Schneir from, Take Back the Internet

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I’d venture that the vast majority of regular, everyday people working in technology related jobs are not actively trying to do evil. People go to work, make the best decisions they can and then go home. If that’s true, then it’s going to be nigh impossible to change the momentum of how things (e.g., NSA surveillance) are going. Because in order for it to change, we need to start thinking bigger.

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Niagara falls 1968

Here’s a shot my dad took in 1968 when they were at Niagara Falls for their honeymoon. I have two galleries coming soon; the rest of their honeymoon photos, and the photos from our (Tracy and I) trip to Niagara Falls in 2011.

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