Monthly Archives: April 2006

Two Jokes about Context and Classification from European Movies

From Kontroll (2004)

“A guy goes into a bar and orders ten shots of brandy.
The barman asks him ‘Ten, sir?’
‘Give them to me,’ the guy says.
The barman pours the ten shots and lines them up on the counter.
The guy takes the first and the tenth one, picks them up and pours them out
on the floor. He drinks the remaining eight, one after the other.
The barman asks with surprise, ‘Why did you pour those two shots out on the floor?’
The guy says ‘Look, sonny, the first one always tastes horrible and the last
one always makes me sick.’

From 101 Reykjavík (2000) (also a novel):

Why do Marlboro cigarettes have white filters in America, and yellow filters in Europe?
So Keith Richards can tell which continent he’s on.

Open Source Workshop at UT Austin, May 2, 2006

On May 2, in conjunction with the World Congress on IT 2006, The University of Texas at Austin will host panel discussions on “open source”, peer-based information sharing that was once only found in the software world. The free (yes free) workshop will cover the challenges and growing impact of open source.

I am both a (partial) organizer and speaker at this workshop. If you’re there, do stop by and say hello or introduce yourself.
For more information including directions and registration, please see the Open Source Workshop Web site

I have the two best jobs in America

According to this week’s MONEY Magazine’s Best Jobs listing, I have the two best jobs in America. I work as a (1) Software Engineer and (2) College Professor . Granted, I don’t do these two in that order of frequency, but as a professor (graduate students only) and software consultant (technical architecture, data mining and analysis, intellectual property development, information architecture and interface design) I’ve got it pretty good, certainly much better than those who have the dirtiest jobs.

Thanks to Tolva for pointing this out and making me feel so lucky because I don’t punch a clock, get to work (mostly) on only what is interesting to me and can wear shorts + Hawaiian shirts on days when the weather permits. Plus I’m in Austin!

You can start hating me now.