Jim Roepcke's weblog have browser, will travel (est. 1999)

Ernie Ball rocks on without Microsoft

Ernie Ball was gutted by the BSA a few years ago, and now they're running Linux, OpenOffice, Mozilla and Evolution. Sterling Ball's story, from CNET's interview, is absolutely awesome. Every chicken-shit CIO and IT manager should read this. Perhaps this story should come with a free can of spinach.

Tech News - CNET.com

It sure is! But it's sad that it's hysterical.

Plone Conference, Python Tutorial

The first Plone Conference is going to take place at Tulane University in New Orleans from October 15 - 17, 2003. I'm really excited about this, not only because it's great there will be a Plone conference, but because I'm going to be there!

To make things even more exciting for me, I've agreed to do the "Introduction to Python for Plone developers" tutorial on the morning of the opening day, right after Plone co-founder Alexander Limi does the opening "Customising Plone's Look and Feel" tutorial. I'm really excited about this, and obviously I want to do the best job I can of getting Python newbies up to speed. I'm qualified to give this tutorial because I'm a Python newbie too.

I'll take a cue from Brent to prepare. The best way to find out what attendees want is to listen to them. Like Brent says, the users know best. Of course, I have to be prepared ahead of time, I can't just adlib it, so I need to know beforehand -- as soon as possible, actually. So I'm going to try to pull this information from the community, passively and actively.

I also want to invite you (yes, you) to the Plone conference. If you have any interest in Plone, Zope, Python or Content Management in general, the value for the money here is unbeatable in my opinion. Only $50 for two days of talks, and optionally $150 for a full day of tutorials. With the lineup that is prepared, this is sure to be a success. And remember, Plone runs great on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, BSD and more, so this applies to just about everyone.

Oh, I also want to give props to Mark, my boss, for ponying up to be a Gold Sponsor for this event. That rocks, it really shows our dedication to this platform, and it's cool to be able to say I work for a Gold Sponsor.

Can’t sleep

I'm having trouble sleeping. My aunt and uncle live in Naramata, which is currently under evacuation order because of raging forest fires.

I'm very worried about them. To make matters worse, my aunt's (and father'ss) two sisters from Germany are visiting my aunt and uncle right now. And my uncle's health isn't very good.

I want to go there, but I'm not sure I'm even allowed to get near the place, I'll have to find out in the morning.

I guess I better try to sleep even if it's difficult to.

Aliens used our blog roll

In honour of the blogroll on my web site, a bit of Red Dwarf about bog rolls...

Holly: Oh, I forgot, I haven't told you the news.

Rimmer: What news?

Holly: A signal. We're getting a signal. It's probably nothing but I just thought I'd mention it.

Rimmer: (Snaps his fingers) Aliens!

Lister: Oh god, aliens? Your explanation for anything slightly peculiar is aliens, isn't it? You lose your keys, it's aliens. A picture falls off the wall, it's aliens. That time we used up a whole bog roll in a day, you thought that was aliens as well.

Rimmer: Well we didn't use it all, Lister. Who did?

Lister: Rimmer, aliens used our bog roll?

Rimmer: Just 'cause they're aliens doesn't mean to say they don't have to visit the little boys' room. Only they probably do something weird and alienesque, like it comes out of the top of their heads or something.

Lister: Well I wouldn't like to be stuck behind one in a cinema.