November 3, 2008 by kastorff.

I hate politics. The twisted rhetoric that mixes truth and lies without any sense of rightness as long as it gets one elected or keeps one elected, makes me want to puke. One candidate speaks of another as having “voted for the largest tax hike in Georgia history”, and his opponent speaks of himself as being a proponent of lower taxes. There’s a lie there for sure…but which line bears it? Having observed this in play for some time now, I’d say both parties are lying as much as they can get away with.

We elect a new president tomorrow. As has been the case the last few presidential elections, we don’t have any great candidates, just flawed ones. At least this time they don’t have identical flaws. In my mind, both Obama and McCain are risky. I have to try and choose which one will suck less. That’s the same situation we were in when we first elected George Bush, and we all know how that worked out. We’re either gonna get lucky, or end up with something as bad as Bush, or worse. You’d think a country like ours could come up with at least one really good candidate. When was the last time you really trusted the words of a US Senator, US Representative, Cabinet Member, or President?

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June 14, 2008 by kastorff.

I’m involved in the Open Source community. This week the official openSUSE Forums went live. I’ve been working on making this vision become a reality since January 2007, over 16 months. It’s not been easy.

I’ve learned a few things, not all of them for the first time, but during the project they all felt brand new. ☺

• I’ve learned that working with volunteers to accomplish anything with due dates will make you crazy.

• I’ve learned that working with people you’ve never met to accomplish a shared goal gives one an amazing sense of accomplishment.

• I’ve learned that vision and perseverance trump resistance to change and skepticism.

• I’ve learned that if you lead, and people don’t understand your vision, folks will hate you.

• I’ve learned that commitment means different things to different people.

• I’ve learned that doing something, and not caring about who gets credit enables success.

• I’ve learned that if you don’t do something, folks will criticize you.

• I’ve learned that if you do something folks will criticize you.

• I’ve learned that criticism fades away when you succeed.

• I’ve learned you can bridge language, distance, and time to make new friends.

• I’ve learned who my friends are.

• I’ve learned that when you reach the goal, none of the shit matters.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen.

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April 1, 2008 by kastorff.

I’m amazed at what some companies call customer service. It’s like they think it’s the customer’s responsibility to figure things out, and that even the lamest excuse for an attempt at communication satisfies their obligation.

I recently heard about a company, Fast Icon, that was doing custom caricatures (www.fasticon.com). You send in a photograph, and they work with you to create a custom avatar. The price seemed reasonable, and the samples looked very nice, so on March 11, 2008 I paid $29 USD via 2Checkout.com, and received a reciept via email from 2Checkout.

I rather expected something from Fast Icon indicating what our next steps should be, but after waiting a day, on March 13th I sent this email (with attached picture) to the email address listed on their web site for picture submission.

I’ve attached the photo as indicated on the web site.
2Checkout.com Order Number xxxxxxxxx

On March 17th, I sent this follow up email.

I purchased a custom caricature icon last week (March 11th) and submitted a picture (March 13th). I’ve received no confirmation of receipt or status. What’s up with my order?

Keith

After my picture submission and query about my order I received…nothing. No response whatsoever. Checking their web site indicated everything was up and running. I then submitted a query via their web form on their site again asking about the status of my order (because of the medium used, I have no copy of that communication). At the very least I was looking for an acknowledgement of receipt.

On March 28th, I sent this email. I had received no communication ever from Fast Icon. The only communication I’d received was the order confirmation from 2Checkout.

I’ve sent two previous emails (not including the one where I submitted a picture) requesting status of my order placed March 11th. I’ve gotten zero response. I intend to relate my negative customer experience, and the theft of my purchase price on my public discussion board. Just Google for it.

Well, well, well…after threatening to go public, on March 29th I received this email from Fast Icon (the very first response, and only communication, period, to date)

Dear Mr. Kastorff,

I looked on their site for any announcement regarding a delay; I found nothing. I never received any communication from 2Checkout explaining the delay and allowing me to choose between a refund or a delay in processing. Since I’ve received two emails from 2Checkout, based on the observed behavior of Fast Icon, I don’t believe they ever sent anything regarding my order. Even if one believes they tried, it’s quite odd I would get 2 emails (the original purchase receipt, and the refund notice — see below) from 2Checkout just fine, and not receive a supposed third.

When I checked their site for the supposed “public note” I saw that they had doubled the price for the custom caricature from the original $29 to $59.

On the same day, I sent this email in response.

Sir,

Keith

Later that day, I received an email from 2Checkout indicating they were refunding my purchase price.

I’ll let you decide if this is the kind of company you want to give your business.

Posted in Personal | 2 Comments »

February 1, 2008 by kastorff.

I’ve always listened to music. Mom and Dad sang in the church choir, and we had record players in our home from as far back as I can remember. I’ve characterized my place in the musical timeline as “old enough to want to go to Woodstock, but not old enough to go.” So, I grew up listening to the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Cream, among others, in the last days of AM radio as a viable music medium.

I guess I’m not really into mainstream country. It’s not that I don’t appreciate Martina McBride, or Toby Keith…they just don’t make it into my rotation much. I do like outlaw country (Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Lucinda Williams, etc.) and bluegrass/traditional country (Doc Watson, George Jones, The Carter Family, Johnny Cash, etc.) I also like a lot of country rock type stuff (Pure Prairie League, Amazing Rhythm Aces, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle), and I love John Prine. Prine’s lyrics are amazing.

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November 8, 2007 by kastorff.

I’ve always had this idea that I could write. For years I’ve thought that someday I would write a novel, and I’ve collected ideas and “thought snippets” I figured could be useful. The big issue with writing isn’t grammar, sentence structure, and phrasing…it’s having something to say. I can take a near nothing of a thought, and run with it, making up a story as I go, like spinning a yarn around a campfire, but I have difficulty sustaining it long enough to be something substantive.I had a talk with my friend Ken Boa this week about the novel I’m working on. I related my overall concept, and shared some of my plot ideas. He’s the most well read person I know, and when he indicated my plot and story ideas weren’t already published somewhere, it was great news. I had this fear I would create something someone else had already created. He gave me great feedback and some wonderful suggestions on plot twists, and he challenged me to write 3 blocks of text a week. If I can do that, I’ll be able to sustain some creative inertia, and maybe, actually, get this done.

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July 16, 2007 by kastorff.

First, Linux will do about everything, if one doesn’t need specific applications, like the latest version of Photoshop. For the basics, it’s perfectly capable of holding it’s own with any OS.

Second, when someone begins using Linux, I recommend a few things:

[1] Dual boot. Keep the old stuff about while you learn Linux. Never run the system as root. Get used to Linux slowly, on your own time, and don’t try to impress your friends…you will break things, and be embarrassed and frustrated.

[2] Just use what comes with. Install the security patches the OS offers in the auto update application. Don’t start upgrading, tweaking, and installing stuff right away. Don’t even attempt to compile software from source. You’ll probably get yourself into trouble. Don’t try to impress your friends; you’ll get frustrated.

[3] Don’t try to get 3D acceleration and fancy desktop transition effects working. They don’t make Linux one bit more productive, and they will get a noob into trouble a fair amount of the time. Don’t try to impress your friends.

[4] Read, read, read. Browse Linux forums, wikis, books, help files, man pages, etc. and read all you can. *nix systems are significantly different from Windows. Leave your Windows expectations for when you’re running Windows.

[5] Learn about the *nix file system and security. Knowing where things go, what resides where, and what root/normal users can do is a huge step towards mastering Linux.

[6] Ask questions after you’ve researched and done some work on your own. First, you’ll likely get more and better answers when people see you’re willing to put in the time necessary to learn. Second, you’ll have a much higher probability of understanding their answers and being able to use them.

[7] Always back up your data/configuration before you try anything new. If you’ve done (5) you’ll know what to back up.

[8] Learn how to use a shell and console-based configuration utilities, including changing config files with a text editor. If you know how to use console-based utilities when things go wrong, you’ll very often be able to fix whatever broke.

[9] Understand you’ll never know everything, but you will get to where you know enough, if you persist. Enjoy the freedom and flexibility of Linux. Recognize that it moves very fast, often too fast for stability, and often holding back will help keep your system running. Don’t get religious about any OS, it will just get in your way.

[10] Tweak, break, and learn more. The last step. Do all the stuff I cautioned you not to do above, except running the system as root, if you want. You’ll get to where you’ve got the right mix of tools and experience, and you’ll be able to fix what you break. This is the good part. ☺

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January 28, 2007 by kastorff.

It’s not hard to find an opinion these days about the zen of open source. The Free Software Foundation (FSF), led by Richard Stallman, pretty much has the stance that if it isn’t released with one of their licenses, it’s evil. Other entities, mostly companies like Microsoft, feel like they have the right to create, market, sell, and protect software as intellectual property. IMO, both perspectives have merit, if you strip away the self-serving interest of both camps, and look at things solely from the computer user’s perspective.

Computing isn’t a religion, a movement, or a cult of personality, like Richard Stallman would have it. He’s lost perspective, and it’s hard to separate the merit of his message from his overwhelming ego, but let’s give it a go.

Software should be free, open, and accessible to all. Anyone should be able to take software source code, modify it, enhance it, and return the benefits to its community of users.

That’s the meat and potatoes of the FSF message, stripped of the ego-baggage and legalese. It is, frankly, a beautiful concept, or ideology. The problem is, it’s not particularly practical as the only license model for software. Why? Because not everyone wants to use free software. Free doesn’t cost anything, so no one is responsible for making sure it works for you. That’s a risky proposition for a business. Sure there are companies like Red Hat and Novell, who would love to sell you Linux with support, but there’s a mix of software out there in the real world, and no business is an island. Microsoft Office is the defacto standard office suite. There are hundreds of thousands of man hours invested in training and use of Office. What platform runs Office best? It’s not Linux, whether one likes it or not.

In the end, ideology doesn’t mean much if it gets in the way of using your computer. I say find the software that does what you need it to do, and use it. Buy it if you have to, use free if you can, but just do what works best.

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December 6, 2006 by Keith Kastorff.

So what is knowledge? We all think of it as something to be desired, something to attain…something that makes us better than we are without it. Too often we confuse it with wisdom, which is the correct and proper merger of knowledge and life experience. I propose that knowledge without sharing is worthless, and that the value in knowing lies in the giving of that information to someone else. It’s not in keeping the information secret, or hidden. It’s like currency that has no value until it’s spent.

One of my first managers told me to always prepare those working for you to take your job…train and educate them, sharing everything you know to improve their skills. His point was if you are invaluable where you are, you aren’t going anywhere.

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November 3, 2006 by Keith Kastorff.

Microsoft’s traditional “embrace and absorb” strategy was always coming to Linux. It was just a matter of time. They wait until a competitive product/company achieves a certain viability (not sure what they use to determine that, but it doesn’t really matter), and then they embrace it in terms of compatibility, followed by acquistions and Microsoft products that leverage that compatibility in their favor. People like to hate Microsoft for a million reasons, some factually sound, and some completely bullshit, but Microsoft’s strategy for dealing with competition has always been the same, and it works exceptionally well for them. They didn’t achieve “monopoly” status by sucking at the game.

Novell has joined the dance. They think they can beat Redmond at their own game. I’m gonna see if they can. History says they have a tough task, as MS is really good at this. But if we always made our future decisions based on the past, nothing would ever change. I applaud Novell for stepping up. Most everyone else has had their head in the sand, pretending there were only two choices, closed source or open source. The real world was always going to insist they coexist, on the same OS, network, or environment. Open Source only is a great ideology, but it won’t fly. Closed Source only is commercially attractive to businesses, but it won’t fly either…Linux has changed that forever. Reality forces upon us the only choice that does fly…coexistence. This is the real test of Open Source; not could it stand independent and aloof and succeed in the way it wanted to?…it never could. But can it coexist ideologically and legally with Closed Source?

The way the test is evolving came as a complete surprise to most of us, me included. But that the true test of Open Source is upon us…didn’t surprise me one bit.

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October 17, 2006 by Keith Kastorff.

This showed up in my RSS reader this morning via Digg:
Why are Macs Becoming More Popular?

It got me to thinking…why do I use a Mac?

Well, for starters, I don’t use only Macs, and I’m not hung up on the “open source” religion. I use what I like, and if it’s Open Source, that’s good, but not essential. The operating systems I use are Linux (Gentoo, SUSE 10.1, SLED), Windows XP SP-2, and OS X 10.4.8. There was a time those items would fall neatly into hardware categories: OS X on a Macintosh computer, the rest on a PC. These days, with virtualization, it’s not so clear.

I used VMware Workstation in Linux to create and run a virtual machine for Windows XP for my basic “work” environment for the last couple of years. Today I use Parallels for the same thing. Not much difference…the host OS for my work environment isn’t Windows. Windows is Windows…VMware was running on a PC/Linux machine, and Parallels runs on a Macintosh/OS X machine. The Windows software I use is the same, Microsoft Office (Access & Excel mostly), OneNote, Notetab Pro, gVim, SnagIt, TimeSlice, and Microsoft SQL Server. There’s some difference there, but not what it used to be…Intel and Intel, UNIX and Linux.

The biggest difference is outside the VM of course. In Linux, I use Microsoft Office (CrossOver Office) or OpenOffice, Evolution, Gaim, X-Chat (or IRSSI), Firefox, Skype, VLC, Amarok (or Audacious), Liferea, gVim (or VIM in a console). On OS X, I use Microsoft Office or Open Office, Apple Mail, Address Book, iCal, Adium (based on the Gaim engine), Snak, Safari (and Camino…like a tweaked Mac-centric Firefox), Skype, VLC, iTunes, NetNewsWire, BBEdit (or VIM in a Terminal).

But why do I use a Mac? I think the real answer is two fold:
1) Macs now use Intel CPUs (I can run Windows…natively or virtualized, faster than I can on my Intel hardware since the Mac is faster than my old PCs)
2) OS X (UNIX with the slickest GUI ever, access to X11, and via Fink, damn near anything else that will run on UNIX…and hardware that just works, with a minimum of fuss)
So having Macintosh hardware is almost like having one’s cake and eating it too… And who’s gonna have Macintosh hardware and not run OS X too? Not me.

Does that mean I don’t use/love Linux anymore? Of course not…I spend time on my Linux machines every day. I love to tinker, and Linux lets/makes me do that…OS X doesn’t let me play like Linux does. Like everyone else, I boot to Windows to play most games. Does that make me OS agnostic? Perhaps…it feels like having three girlfriends sometimes…each wants/needs my attention/time, and I want to spend time with each, but end the end, one is gonna be “my everyday, where my email lives” environment. Today it’s OS X…tomorrow…who knows?

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