Avaktavyam

Comments have been temporarily turned off. I’ve been hit by blog spammers. Once I find an efficient solution, I’ll turn them back on.
UPDATE: I’ve turned comments and trackbacks back on. Let’s see how well that works…
The site has also been upgraded to dotclear 1.2.4.
2ND UPDATE: I’m still fine tuning this thing. [...]

Most of what I’ve read and heard about the recent Kaavya Viswanathan case addressed the issue of authorial responsibility regarding plagiarism. However, I think a more interesting inquiry would center on the role of publishers in assuring the quality of books they publish. Those who’ve been reading my posts here already know that I think [...]

I’ve discovered naps a few years ago. Or perhaps I’ve rediscovered them, since it is likely I napped as a child. If I find myself dozing off in front of the computer, I find that it is better to just take a quick nap than force myself to work through the sleepiness. [...]

I waited two hours for a Greyhound bus today before giving up and going back home. (Thanks Greyhound!) After the scheduled departure time had passed, I started looking expectantly towards the direction the bus would be coming. But I noticed that I was also increasingly shooting quick glances in other directions. Like [...]

So it’s the end of the semester and papers are soon going to be due. In other words, writing season is upon us again. You’d think that after a while this whole ordeal would get easier. In certain obscure ways, it has. I know I’m definitely not writing like I wrote some [...]

Walter V. Koenning has an article (Linux Snobs: Real Barriers to Entry) on the condescending reaction prospective and new Linux users sometimes get when they seek help in online forums. I think Walter’s observations are right on.
This kind of snobbery, however, not only erects barriers to the use of Linux but also has the [...]

A quote from this article:
Whoever came up with the waiter observation “is bang spot on,” says BMW North America President Tom Purves, a native of Scotland, a citizen of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, who lives in New York City with his Norwegian wife, Hilde, and works for a German company. That makes him [...]