Open Papa Predictions for 2008

Linux Mini-laptops

Beginning just after "Tax Time" there will be a run on OLPCs and ASUS Eee PCs. Once computer users are let out of the MS-Box they will quickly realize that the power and features of these and other small form laptops is perfectly suited to their everyday computing needs.

Real prediction: Enthusiastic reception of the Linux based mini-laptop will cause a landslide acceptance of Linux on the Desktop.

Bonus link: Noahpad

Google Tribulations

Coming under the privacy watchers fearful gaze Google will begin to reveal what will come to be known as the gShiner, the GoOgle - the Google blackeye. I view this as an unfortunate side effect of Google's main mission - to acquire and provide information upon request. Privacy watchers will insist that it is too much personal information. Google will suffer a blackeye for doing well exactly what it is used for...by everyone - vanity searches.

Real Prediction: Google, to stay competitive in the 'Information Display' market will release a new AI based criteria parser that significantly improves the average user's search experience. By implementing a more 'common-language' parser Google will be able to reduce the returned 'hits' to a much more succinct and manageable number.

Microsoft will rush MinWin to market...

Realizing that Papa's Prediction #1 is bearing down on them like a run-away freight train Microsoft will begin to do what they do best... FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). Claiming that their 'small foot print, fully Windows compatible' version of MiniWini (MeanieWeenie) is just around the corner Microsoft will attempt to undermine common sense and the public's realization that surfing and internet are the only things they really do with any PC.

Real Prediction: Microsoft will implode! With revenue falling at a rate of 32 feet per second squared the Redmond Giant will come tumbling down the economic bean stalk at breakneck speed.

The real Real Prediction: Microsoft will slowly begin to release the Linux based versions of its "popular" applications. And foolishly try to sell them at bloated MS-Prices.

Open Hunger

There is a sensation that affluent Americans experience when they skip one or possibly two consecutive meals. I felt it today.

I left the house this morning in a bit of a rush having consumed only a couple of cups of coffee. When I got to the office things started up right away so I didn't have time to lounge around. Later, when I passed through the main office, I looked over the selection of Vendor donuts and just kept walking. Errands to run on my "lunch" hour pushed my schedule back even further.

On the way back to the office I did manage to grab a Veggie Sub. That is when I felt that sensation. It wasn't a pain or a pang. It wasn't really uncomfortable. It was just a mild sense of ... hunger.

But more important was the sense of relief. A sense of being unburdened. I was not engaged in a food process just because it was a particular time of day. I was not mindlessly pushing just another meal into my face. I was involved in a marked celebration of culinary and sensual delights. A completion of a circle.

eat when you are hungry
sleep when you are tired
...
chop wood
carry water

Open 15 Minutes

... of fame?

Open Support

A is for Allah by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)



Support peace...

Open Reminders

I know better than to make resolutions. For me they have been little more than momentary declarations of good intentions. Followed quickly on by first slivers then planks of guilt as each well intentioned point of resolve fades away...

So instead I thought I would make a list of reminders.

1. I am busted and broken, not perfect. To believe any part to the contrary is to set myself up for disappointment.
2. I don't dance... I am simple and blunt. In matters of the heart I am to the point.
3. ...and I don't do magic. The wondrous and curious events that might occur around me are not of my doing.
4. I have what I need. "Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observes its secrets;"
5. I do not have what I want. "But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations."

The quotes for 4 and 5 are from the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (Author), D. C. Lau (Translator)

Chapter 1

The way that can be spoken of
Is not the constant way;
The name that can be named
Is not the constant name.

The nameless was the beginning of heaven and earth;
The named was the mother of the myriad creatures.

Hence always rid yourself of desires in order to observes its secrets;
But always allow yourself to have desires in order to observe its manifestations.

These two are the same
But diverge in name as they issue forth.
Being the same they are called mysteries,
Mystery upon mystery -
The gateway of the manifold secrets.

Open morning

Golden sunshine, heavy with promise, cuts across the mist rising from the cold flowing Ohio river of December's last day.

The last day brings a host of last things...

Sitting at the breakfast table across from The Saint (my wife, who must be a saint to have put up with me these past 25 years). Fresh coffee, a two egg omelette, three sausage links and two slices of buttered toast. It won't be the last time sitting across the table...but it will likely be the last of the cardio-challenging breakfasts.

Inexorably the river flows...

Off to the office - yes, working on New Years Eve... I could have taken a vacation day - but there are those last sniggling year-end-roll-over issues that Information Systems Administrators need to watch over. So working today isn't really a bad thing - I would have been called in anyway. Besides, it is very quiet today... everyone else, well, almost everyone else opted to take the vacation day...

...and the river flows...

Open afternoon

I broke the mirror of my life
and cut myself
trying to pick up the pieces

...and the river flows...