The local Triangle Linux Users Group, of which I am a member, had a keysigning party last night after our meeting. I traded paper with dozens of members in an effort to build a GPG web of trust.

Even with my cryptography background, I feel utterly clueless as to all the ways GPG and PGP can be used. Keyservers, keysigning, and webs-of-trust are all foreign to me. Perhaps that’s why I had difficulty explaining it to Kelly last night.

I think we’re doing something right, though, since our efforts have placed us at the top of the list at Biglumber.com, one website that keeps up with this sort of thing. How to take advantage of this fact is anyone’s guess. I’m still clueless. 🙂

By the way, an effort to find Doc Searl’s GPG key in Google produced interesting results. Our of 318 pages returned, my humble website is result number two. Google works in mysterious ways.

I haven’t had much time to post lately – and that’s a good thing. I am quite happy with where I am in my life right now.

Work couldn’t be better. I work with a great team of people who appreciate what I do and vice-versa. I am really doing well with my customer calls, each one getting more comfortable for me. And I am learning a lot!

Life outside of work is going wonderfully, too. Every day, Hallie finds some new way to capture my adoration. Swimming lessons have been a real treat: Hallie absolutely loves being in the pool. She is also growing more attentive to the things we show her – usually giving me a laugh when she realizes I’m trying to teach her something. What a joy to be a father!

While we could be making more money (and who couldn’t), we certainly are happy, and that goes a long way.

Just returned from a wonderfully relaxing trip to visit our friends the Naylors at their Lake Gaston lakehouse. It marked the first time in a week I had seen my girls, I spent time with in-laws I don’t see too often, and like always, Ralph and Suzzanne were truly incredible hosts.

The weather was nice, too, which meant hours of sailing, both alone in the Sunfish as well as with two crewmembers in the Oday. During the times the roar of Jet-Skis wasn’t present, you could’ve heard me making that sailboat freakin’ purr, baby! (I can’t knock the Jet-Skis too much though. They looked like the best way to beat the oppressive, 95-degree heat.)

During a late-afternoon sail with me at the helm, I was really feeling it. “This sucks!” I gloated to Ralph and Neil. “I’d much rather be sitting in front of a computer screen right now!” I swear if I had the opportunity to sail every day, I could live to be 150.

Saturday night brought fireworks right to our doorstep, with a professional show from the island a few hundred yards off the dock. When things got popping, Hallie woke from her sleep, bringing me back inside console her. With a wide-eyed girl staring at the booming coming from the window, I conceded defeat and took her to the kitchen window to watch her first fireworks show.

The Fourth is, obviously, the celebration of our nation’s birth, and I took time to reflect on our country. Though I’m often at odds as to how it’s currently being run, I keep in mind that its the people like those around me who make this country great. Lurking at a place the present terrorist paranoia can’t reach, a current of freedom still runs strong. Friendship and kindness are still extended to strangers. I am hopeful that this country which owes so much to the huddled masses landing on its shores will once again remember its role as leader in this world.

At my new job there is a tradition of putting up movie quotes on the whiteboard for people to identify. For the past week, the following quote has attracted my attention:

‘You should see the toast! I couldn’t get it through the kitchen door!’

It is, of course, John Candy’s line from Uncle Buck, a John Hughes film from the late ’80’s. Seeing it every day has reminded me how talented John Candy really was.

I loved the scene where his character and Macaulay Culkin bantered back in forth in rapid-fire, one-word responses. You could tell he got along well with kids.

Then there’s his movie Cool Runnings, where he played a down-on-his-luck coach trying to get his team to the Olympics. His skills as an actor were at their peak then. He brought so much humanity to the role that you couldn’t help but want to cheer him on.

John is gone now. He has been for almost ten years now. But his work lives on; he continues to make people laugh. I’m sure that puts a smile on his face, whereever he may be.

Thanks for the laughs, John. We truly did hardly knew ye.

—
A Tribute To John Candy
Internet Movie Database: John Candy
The Best of John Candy on SCTV
John Candy quotes

I just downloaded the latest 1.4 build of Mozilla and it kicks ass! I’m using the Linux version (naturally) and I still think it’s the fastest web browser I’ve ever seen. I think it even beats IE on Windows.

If you haven’t upgraded to Mozilla 1.4, you’re missing out. Wooooooooo!

Looks like someone wants to see how many bad pictures of him I can post on my website. 🙂

I love my Sharp Zaurus. I do. Love it so much that I broke the stylus a few weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been getting by with a broken stylus, which works okay but gets annoying fast.

In search of a stylus, I checked the Z’s website. It lists Office Depot as a retailer of replacement styluses. Someone didn’t tell Office Depot, apparently, since they no longer carry them.

Finally ready to deal with this problem, I called Sharp today to buy a new stylus. A helpful Sharp employee by the name of Joe looked one up in the Sharp catalog.

“Seven dollars,” he said.

“Uh, seven for one, or two?”

“Seven for one. And that doesn’t include taxes or shipping.”

“Okay, ” I said. “How much is shipping on one stylus?” They weigh a few ounces at most. Surely a first-class stamp could get it mailed to me.

“Damn,” Joe blurted out. “Shipping is four dollars, twenty-five cents.” The ridiculous cost actually made him laugh. “And that still doesn’t include the taxes.”

I decided I could live with a broken stylus a bit longer!

After I passed on a $7 stylus, Joe suggested I try the the ones at the office supply stores. That may be my only choice.

Sharp has a great product in the Z, but its obvious they are wishy-washy on supporting it: finding major retailers is a bitch, it’s a Linux PDA with no working Linux desktop software, and they charge you seven bucks for a damn stylus.

Way to win the hearts and minds of the geek elite, Sharp. Maybe its time for you to change the company name, eh?

I’ve spent a wonderful weekend with my wife and daughter, just puttering around the house. I was determined to spend as much time as possible with them as they will be spending this week visiting Kelly’s parents in Virginia. Thus, I’ve got the house to myself until the weekend.

Work has been going well, too. I’ve been doing demos left and right, sometimes with barely a chance to catch my breath. Though I stay busy (except for times I can blog from my desktop), I really enjoy being here at a place where my work is appreciated. It’s an incredible contrast to my last job.

With no one to chase around the house (adult or infant), I should have some time to get those much-needed blog updates put into place.

I’m working on new documentation for my company. Sprinkled throughout them are constant references to something known as an “end-user.”

Exactly what is an “end-user?” How does one differ from a “user?”

Phrases like “end-user” come from the same ilk as “pre-existing.” They are an attempt by the speaker or writer to sound important. One of my first changes to the documentation will be to banish “end-user” from the company vernacular. If only it were that easy to banish it from the software industry.