Roe is gone, one more round

June 28th, 2022

“There never was another man who could
                       inspire more love or hate
  if you were in the park and it was 1968.”

“Daley’s Gone” – Steve Goodman (1977)

tl;dr “A movement animated by rage and fear isn’t ready to embrace life and love.

I try to keep abreast of readings and videos across the political spectrum, only consciously avoiding those that go beyond protected speech, skimming maybe a thousand headlines/thumbnails daily and reading/watching quite a few. I try to pay particular attention to those who are likely to help me understand perspectives different from my own, particularly those that deviate from the stereotypes associated with their groupings.
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“just as good as Caruso” – props for Kim Wilson & Charlie McCoy

May 5th, 2022

I didn’t use to pay much attention to Lee Oskar as a harmonica player, thinking of him as auxiliary to WAR and tunes such as Low Rider:

That was before early this year when a Facebook post from Led Kaapana extolled:

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Mel West, engaging people to help people in Nicaragua

April 25th, 2022

For decades while they were alive, my parents recounted story after story of their friend, mentor and “mission broker” Rev. Mel West, his wife Barbara, and their collaborative efforts to help “the least of these”. See Walking in John Wesley’s Footprints.

Mel is well known, and honored, for so much of his work engaging people to work together to help others. See Mel West’s honorary doctorate recognizes a lifetime of humanitarian service.
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Glimpses from the Vulcan, 1969-70

February 14th, 2022

Fugs

Not counting traveling through on a Greyhound Bus in 1966 on my way to/from San Antonio, my first memories of Austin are a visit in February 1969, seeing the Fugs and Shiva’s Head Band at the Vulcan Gas Company (VGC), being asked to sit in with the house band at the I.L. Club, and swimming in Hamilton Pool. Attracted to Austin and dis-satisfied with my situation in San Francisco, I came back that April for what I expected to be an extended visit. Except for a couple of stints in Ossining, NY 1975-77 and 1979-82, I’ve lived here ever since.

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[koko] MISP 2022

January 10th, 2022

“Things Have Changed” – Bob Dylan (1999)

“Everything, still remains the same”
“(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” – Otis Redding (1967)

tl;dr embarking on quantifying meaningful indicators of small computer system performance over the last three decades

In graduate school and subsequent professional work, analyzing performance of computer systems was often my primary effort, including much of the software I wrote, and my first three books. Years ago I pontificated about Meaningful Indicators of System Performance, surveying the (mostly) synthetic benchmarks in vogue in 1990. I was also active in the formation of the Business Applications Performance Corporation. Read the rest of this entry »