27 Mar 2002

Wed, 27 Mar 2002

Wall Street Embraces Linux

Merrill Lynch on Linux [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

Posted at: 20:45 | permalink

It's my birthday, I can cry if I want to!

Last weekend I took a trip to Dayton, OH. On the way home, I was driving through Martins Ferry, OH when I was suddenly in the specter of a small town police officer wielding a radar gun. I was running about 70 MPH through the small town before I lifted my foot off the gas. His partner down the road pulled out behind me and turned on his lights, I complied. He walked up to the window, explained that I was going 65 MPH in a 50 MPH zone and proceeded to write the $110 ticket.

This was not a revelation to me as I've been stopped many times over the years for eliciting similar behavior. I used to be a card-carrying member of the national motorists association whose goals were to change public policy regarding speed limits and to change public opinion regarding the cause of accidents being related to speed differential between cars and not speed per se.

What blew me away as I drove away from Martins Ferry was the mass quantity of police that I passed in the next hour of driving across south eastern ohio and southwestern PA. I began to feel like I was in a police state. In every case, there were radar guns, vascar lines, and the usual stupefied looks from passers by. I began to think, how many things could small-town police do to stop crime, without resorting to speed traps. I believe the answer is that there are quite a few things. For instance, they could shoot kids who have their fenders rattling in the wind due to the gigantic subwoofer mounted in the trunk.

The modern day small town police department as revenue generator is alive and well in the US. Isn't it sad that small towns have to resort to this to make money? I'm glad my town doesn't make a habit of it.

Posted at: 20:35 | permalink

Marc Fleury and Nathalie Mason from JBoss Group on Greg Wilkins and MortBay consulting (author of Jetty)

"The second reason for our dissatisfaction with Apache has to do with problems in the 3.2 version of Tomcat (the new one is better). When those problems arose, we grew close to Jetty, a competing open source project backed by MortBay Consulting in Australia. We met these guys, spent time with them, and we found there were a lot of similarities—they are a husband-and-wife-led company dedicated to their product because it is their business. It just happens that we relate better to people with goals and expectations similar to ourselves --dedicated independent professionals. JBoss Group is about supporting and promoting that way of life and work, which, in our opinion, is conducive to the development of great software."

Here's the remainder of the article. [ONJAVA]

Posted at: 20:13 | permalink