While I was writing this I was thinking that it's terribly META to be
responding to a FoRKpost that was writing about aspects of FoRK, to
FoRK. So if FoRK is Rohit's personal LifeStream, then what does it mean
when we loop the stream back on itself like we do when we do things like
this?
> Well, it should have been "Odd FoRK bits", of course, but I had an
> even number of them....
What are the odds of that?
Oh, no, wait, I got one:
A proctologist with a psychology degree specializes in odds and ends.
> > Can tenured grad students get sabbaticals?
> And, tenured grad students can get sabbaticals after they've spent
> at least one semester on a thesis topic without switching.
Hey, I spent three years on a master's thesis topic without switching.
In fact, writing that little bloke to completion is near the top of my
paper queue now (Rohit, shut up!).
> Do you qualify yet Adam?
Heck yeah. Time for a sabbatical. I'm only in it for the volume.
Meanwhile, Ron, why don'tcha read our Web of Trust paper and let us know
whatcha think, eh? I even moved all the dinky @@'s into comments...
http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/LOCAL/trust.html
> Integrating Beans with IIOP would NOT be nice. Putting IIOP out
> of our misery might be nice.
Okay, agreed, 'nuff said.
> It takes senior technologists from 4 companies an extra year to come
> up with stuff one guy in his basement did last May?
You'd be amazed at how much bull feathers we senior technologists have
to put up with. Oy, will it never end?
> Oh duckie boy, you *are* a 3%er doncha know!
Actually, according to the FAQ at
http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/LOCAL/faq-adam.html#ninetyseven
we find
> At any given moment in time in our universe, 97% of the population
> are purveyors of anti-cluons. Worse, who's in the 97% for any given
> field at any given time changes, and furthermore, the 97% rule is
> recursive (see example #1, below)! No wonder it's so difficult to
> maintain a clue, especially since people who have a clue are loath to
> help you get it because they loathe anti-cluons.
Which means that who's in the 97% may be different at any given point in
time. You can never be in the 3% all the time, by definition.
> The rule has nothing to do with computers - I should know, of course,
> being an authority on the 97% rule.
This is true. Like Seinfeld said, 95% of the population is undateable!
Give or take 2%...
> Adam has all the details written up, and I only discovered it after
> joining FoRK myself, but hey, in the grand FoRK tradition of
> outright thievery I'll *make* myself the expert.
Uh oh Rohit, he's learning.
> And, then there's what FoRK likes to call "the interconnectedness of
> things",
Actually, we stole this from a Douglas Adams book, _Dirk Gently's
Holistic Detective Agency_.
> Of course, we do need the odd pure 97%er just to remind us of what
> we're supposed to be avoiding - that's why we keep Adam around :).
97% and proud, baybee!
> Ultimately, a tightly interconnected web of dynamically binding
> smart-things has... potential
And this is what the Web of Trust paper is all about (plug, plug).
http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/LOCAL/trust.html
How many printed out pages is this, Rohit?
> The FoRK FAQ http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~adam/LOCAL/faq-fork.html
> which, as Adam notes, seems to be updated daily.
Yeah, I wonder how that keeps happening.
> What's neat is the way in which fresh-off-the presses bits make their
> way into the FAQ.
What's neat is the way in which fresh-off-the-presses bits make their
way into FoRK.
> It's becoming a challenge-puzzle to see what little
> catchphrases one can write that mysteriously are grabbed by Adam
> and suddenly appear on the FAQ. _Gee,_ I _wonder_ if _these _very_
> words_ here_won't_ ricochet_ around_?
You never know...
> First, we note the incredible explosion of FoRK membership in
> recent days....
Okay, this is my fault. I had to fill Rohit's mail queue so I could
enjoy my two week break from computers June 27 - July 11. I will not
bring the Thinkpad...
I will not bring the Thinkpad.
I WILL not bring the Thinkpad.
I WILL NOT bring the Thinkpad.
I WILL NOT BRING the Thinkpad.
I WILL NOT BRING THE Thinkpad.
I WILL NOT BRING THE THINKPAD.
I WILL NOT BRING THE THINKPAD!
I WILL NOT BRING THE THINKPAD!!
I WILL NOT BRING THE THINKPAD!!!
Sigh. JoeK, will you help me get Win95 off the Thinkpad so I can use it
while I'm gone?
> Second, the re-org of who's a "FoRK middle class" and who's
> a "FoRK over-poster".
These are always a tough call, y'know?
> Apparently Adam has decided that the way to resolve the JoeB/JoeK
> issue, which symmetry demands are kept together,
Yeah, I kind of shot myself in the foot with that one.
> yet pure posting volume and celebrity status undoubtedly demands JoeB
> in the overposter category,
Exactly. Not to be Biblical or anything, but JoeB is like FoRK's own
Job, undergoing the trials and tribulations of an often hostile
existential world...
> is to put them *both* into the over category. Fair to JoeB, but
> I think JoeK better start mindlessly spewing bits if he wants
> to really earn his new status ;-).
Oh dear goodness, please don't tempt him.
> But the one that really caught me off guard was - can it be? ME?!
> An over-poster?
Not by NUMBER of posts, but certainly by SIZE of posts.
When was the last time I heard that phrase,
It's not the frequency, it's the size.
> You mean I'm out of little league, and into the majors?
Yup. You're now a major pain like the rest of us.
> You gotta be kidding. Aw, shucks, really, I owe it all to Mom and Dad,
> Coach Brewster, and faith in the almighty.
Not to mention those tasty McDonald's breakfast biscuits.
> Look at this - I'm even sandwiched between Rohit & Tim - this can't be.
I'm wincing at the thought of this.
> Suggestion #1. *Nobody* gets in front of RK on the over-poster list, with
> the obvious exception of , well you know you. Tim #1, RK #2 - always
> was, always will be.
Not always was. On that FWF list I talked about yesterday
http://xent.w3.org/FoRK-archive/may97/0606.html
you'll note that Tim Byars had only a *single* post to the preFoRK FoRK.
> Suggestion #2. We need a special category for, well you know who,
> that goes beyond mere 'over-poster'. We're talking serious
> overexposure territory here. Tim is to overposting as Niagara Falls
> is to everyday firehoses. A Timbit a day and the anti-cluons stay away. Or
> something like that. Incidentally, there's a very popular donut chain
> in Canada called Tim Hortons, and they call their little round donut
> holes 'Timbits'. Hmm. 20 for $1 (that's about 72 cents US) last I
> was there.
Tim has special privileges on FoRK. This is not because of his deity
status, and it's not because of the Tim Byars Foundation to raise him
funds for early retirement (send money now!).
Tim is FoRK's bouncer. He's here to intimidate. Plain and simple.
If you get past Tim at the door, there's a really cool club inside.
> Now let's look at some of Adam's friends:
> 5.Fawn404@aol.com - met Adam while riding in Cobraboy's Cobra
Once. I was in my pajamas and had been drinking and playing Quake.
> Now *this* is a story that simply must be told on FoRK. Anyone
> with a name like Fawn already is gonna have the inevitable Beavis
> & Butthead types around here panting.
Wait, I thought her name was Clover...
> Toss in ref's to the Cobra, and we all want the voyeur story told here.
Part of being exotic is not revealing the mystique.
> 17.joebar@evil-empire.com - got Adam invited to a Microsoft research
> briefing in Redmond
> Now this is cool! The first tangible evidence I've yet seen that
> a purely FoRK relationship pays off with outside-world dividends. Who
> payed the LA/Seattle airfare? MS or Caltech (or personal pocket?)
Microsoft did. They fed me well, too. And I visited Megan while I was
in town. And Microsoft showed me after several NDAs how wonderful all
of their products are going to be.
> 20.resnick@interlog.com - shares a religion with Adam
> Well, thank goodness it's just that, and not our bits we've shacked up :-)
Bits spread like a Virus.
> 48.Who are the boyz in the FoRK 'hood?
> Johnboy - JohnB
> Cobraboy - Tim
> Corbaboy - could be Ron, MarkB, or JoeK
> Bitboy - Adam, Rohit's intrepid sidekick
> Travelman - Rohit, of course
> Corbaboy? ME? Gawd no. See above rant. Beanboy maybe, Corbaboy
> uh-uh. That was *last* year's flavour of the week.
So no one here likes CORBA? Cool....
> I doubt Mark or JoeK would subscribe to Corbaboy labels either.
> Sideline: way back centuries ago as a FoRK newbie, the first time
> I started getting mail from Cobraboy, I didn't read closely enough
> and thought it *was* Corbaboy. I was sure I was in the presence of a
> true distributed object god, who was going to teach me all about the
> ins and outs of the COS services, and how we could build multicast
> into IIOP. Boy, was I wrong :-)!
Yes, more wrong you could not have bean.
> That overposter status just made my night! How can I possibly
> waste any time writing geek rants to Dave Curtis, or working
> on my paper with Mark, when I need
> my valuable typing-time to send crap to FoRK?
Nothing like a FoRKlift driver, eh?
----
adam@cs.caltech.edu
There's a hot place with pitchFoRKs waiting.