Muli Ben-Yehuda's journal

Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion, Volume Two of The Baroque Cycle is going on sale in two weeks. Now I have a dilemma – buy it, wait for the paperback, or just ignore? Considering what I wrote about Quicksiler, “it’s a 900 page tome about a 300 page story”, the rational thing to do would be to wait for the paperback. But since when have I ever been rational about books?

I’m listening to Guns and Roses “You Could Be Mine” now, trying to stay awake and finish the Last Design Document. Ever. Until this afternoon, at least.

Some stuff for work is due tonight, and I’ve barely started on it. Not for lack of trying, you understand, simply because I’ve been so damn busy. It’s going to be a loooong night.

PyCon presentations are now online, and should provide hours of fun reading!
(via Lambda the Ultimate).

In kernel news, there’s some discussion on lkml
with regards to removing OSS completely. It sems the consensus
is definitely against removing it now, and possibly in favor of
removing it in 2.7, but ultimately only Linus will decide, and
he hasn’t commented yet. Ooh, looks like we’ve been kerneltrapped,
too!

My call for
alcoholic help has generated quite a stir among my online
and offline friends. Except for the excellent comments to the
entry itself, yrk had this
to write:

The subject of scotch whiskey has recently been discussed on
Muli Ben-Yehuda’s journal. I cannot resist writing about
whiskey, given the chance. Even though it would be in
divergence from this journal’s technological nature, talking
about whiskey keeps with this journal’s “geek” nature.

And Oleg Goldshmidt turned out to be a closet whiskey conneiseur!
Here’s what he wrote to me in private email:

However, what are you doing asking for beverages
recommendations on the web if you can go to a colleague at
work? 😉

Looks like you are into Scotch (the Kentucky stuff is good,
esp. from the Bourbon county, but very different). I guess I
don’t have to explain to you how single malts are different
from blended stuff. Forget the blended, go for the real
thing. There are two taste groups, actually: a smooth,
sweetish variety, and a more rugged, strong flavor.

If you want to explore the chances of Orna ever trying
anything with you go for the smoother kind. Most Highland
brands belong there. I am not sure if Glenmorangie is
Highland or if it is a brand name of a big chain of
distilleries that produce all kinds. Highland Park is good. I
have a 15 year old Longmorn that you are welcome to taste when
you are in the area. I think it’s very good.

Note that “sweet” and “smooth” is relative. It may start as
“sweet”, but may dry out and leave a rather strong tingy
aftertaste.

The other kind has a sharper, often nutty or oaky taste, with
sweetness disappearing much more quickly, or absent
altogether. Many islay malts are like this. Ardbeg is an
excellent example.

My absolute favourite is Laphroaig. It is definitely not
sweet, quite tingy, especially if you get a bottle of “Cask
Strength” (57.5%) one, at least 10 years old. I think I still
have a few drops in the cupboard, but I need to freshen my
stock.

Go for the real thing. Forget Chivas Regal – it’s blended. 😦

The good news from work is that I am moving to a new office! my current office, for those not in the know, can best be termed a sardine can. It’s an inner room that used to seat one person fairly comfortably, but now seats two, almost side by side. Not only that, although I share it with a very nice guy, his team members tend to flock around his desk constantly and crow at the core dumps he has displayed on the screen. Sometimes I can ignore them; other times, the noise leads to the eradication of all rational thought. That, obvoiusly, is not productive.

The new office is a corner office, with ample space for two people, and I’ll be sharing it with one of my favorite coworkers. It even has three windows! Quite an upgrade to the working conditions, if I may say so myself. I should get off my butt and buy that digital camera already, so that y’all will be able to agonize over the claustrophobia that is my soon-to-be-former office, and rejoice in the spaciousness that is the new one.

another talk bites the dust

The kernel talk to Eddie A.’s
workshop went farely well. Apparently it’s a small workshop this term,
because only 5 people showed up for the talk. At least they
were an interested audience, with some good questions. One of
them might be interested in doing a kernel project, which is a
very pleasant surprise I didn’t expect. I gave him my contact details
and asked him to contact me so we can find a suitable
project. Suggestions?

Giving the intro to Linux talk and the klife talk tomorrow yet again, this time to Eddie A.‘s “Linux Development Workshop” students, at Tel Aviv University.

Collosally busy tonight; far too many things to do. Will post more later, including some neat stuff about Whiskey, and some good news from the work front.

I guess the economy is really picking up after all… I got another call from a head hunter yesterday. Not that I’m interested, but it was interesting to hear what she was looking for (Linux kernel, what else?). First of all I told her that I’m not interested, and then I told her that if it was my dream position or order of magnitude better compenstation than what I have right now, I’m willing to listen. She asked what is my dream job, and I told her that developing Linux itself full time, as opposed to developing for Linux most of the time, like I do now. Then she asked what “order of magnitude more compensation” means, and we had an interesting back-and-forth, the details of which should not concern the readership of this journal ;-). Bottom line, I’m not interested, but it’s nice to be wanted.