The Alchemist

Robert X. Cringley makes exactly that argument, which is fun to think about however unlikely the scenario is in reality:

Here’s where I go out on a limb, but I think Microsoft’s clearest threat still comes from Apple, though not the way most people expect. Yes, Apple is about to take Microsoft to the woodshed when it comes to Internet movie distribution. Yes, Apple already super-dominates the music player market where Microsoft doesn’t even really exist. But the real jewel is one Microsoft has to lose, not gain — the PC platform, itself.

So my post “See 3 Guys Naked From The Waist Down!” was picked up by a Scott Bakula fan club! How cool is that? Really nice people on that message board! They’ve offered me tons of support… so here’s a big THANK YOU back at them!

And… hey, it’s probably the closest I’ll get to Scott himself. Although, I said it in my post to them and will say it again here: Scott, if you’re listening: You are welcome to come to the show! I’d be thrilled and honored to have you there!

Sigh. Ok, back to reality… I have lines to finish memorizing… after all, I gotta try to live up to the legend himself!

Add a call for the assassination of Hugo Chavez to the list of nonsense having spewed from Pat Robertson’s mouth including:

• The State Department should be blown up with a nuclear device.
• “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.”
• “[Planned Parenthood] is teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism-everything that the Bible condemns.”
• “I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good…”
• Praying that God “create a vacancy” in The Supreme Court (clearly assassination, since members of the supreme court are lifetime appointees).

Yup. Pat Robertson proves once again that being “religious” and being a decent, moral human being are two very different things indeed.

Update: Pat has now apologized (but only after first denying the statement).

Ok, so here’s a little bit about the show to wet your appetite without giving away any plot points (and, yes Virginia, there is a plot!):

• It’s stand-up comedy!
• It’s a musical!
• It’s a movie within a musical!
• It’s social commentary!
• It’s set in the 80s!
• It’s for adults!
• It’s a touching story about 3 guys going for broke in the entertainment biz!

You’ll laugh… you’ll cry… you’ll wish my last name was Bakula!

Come see it Sept. 9 - 24 at The Alley Theatre!

I just read this argument against the term and even concept of “best practices.” James has good points and I generally agree. On the other hand, I believe a purpose still exists for the concept of practices that have generally been found to be effective. Maybe they shouldn’t be called “best practices,” but still, we need to be able to convey and expose to ideas that are generally effective… even outside of a specific context.

Frankly, I disagree with James’ assertion that for a doctor to say “eat right and exercise” to a person sight unseen is irresponsible. Surely, “it’s vague,” as James says, but no one would argue that it is not generally good advice. Therefore, I would argue that “eat right and exercise” is, indeed, a “best practice” (or whatever we want to call it) for human health. No, it is not a prescription for a particular diagnosis, but we should realize that and treat the advice appropriately.

We need to take any general (or specific) advice and apply some level of critical thinking to the equation before implementing the advised solution – regardless of whether it is termed “best practice” or not.

Believe it or not, SILENCE! the musical is a real stage musical parody of the 1991 Oscar winning film The Silence of the Lambs that opens next week in New York. How incredibly surreal! Wow. I wish I could see it…

By popular demand, here’s a link to my photos from the photo shoot. (What can I say, I’m a child of the 60’s!) Enjoy!

My favorites

The whole set (Well, the good ones)

I’ve been cast as Ted Klausterman in “3 Guys Naked From The Waist Down.” As the lead, I’ve got tons of work and memorization to do in very limited time. We have until Tuesday (5 days from now) to be off-book and we open in about 3 weeks (Sept. 9). Good grief… what have I done?

(But seriously: I’m thrilled!)

Is ROI on a Service-Oriented Architecture project calculable? Or perhaps it offers a synergy greater than it’s parts? This posting doesn’t answer the question of how to calculate ROI within SOA, but does offer some thoughts.

My own take on this is that an enterprise, like an organism, is a system. Nothing stands alone. Truly adopting SOA means adopting a enterprise-level philosophy of joining business process to IT assets in a organic system. Each incremental improvement in support of the vision, then, can offer more benefit than can be calculated for each project.

As a critical mass of support services and infrastructure is reached for the SOA-enabled enterprise, there will be a tipping point where large-scale gains are suddenly realized that have little to do with the completion of a given project, but instead is the realization of the incremental projects that lead to that moment. It is at this point that the SOA becomes a lever for the enterprise and by utilizing this leverage, the ultimate ROI will be impressive indeed.

So Bush has now publicly said that he believes schools should discuss “intelligent design alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life.” That would be in the science classroom.

Now, I don’t have a problem with Christians (some of my closest family members are Christians!) or those that choose to believe in ID, but this is wildly out of control. It should be obvious that the problem with this is that you would be teaching something in a science classroom that can clearly not be attributed to science or the scientific method.

Science is knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method. - wikipedia

So ID may be true or not (obviously, I can’t prove it isn’t), but the point is that it is mysticism, not science. And, as pointed out here, for example, if you’d like to teach mysticism you must give up the idea that your version of creation is any better than anyone else’s (unless you can somehow prove yours is more valid?). So, you’re left with a religion class that teaches all the various theories of creation that exist… which in all likelihood (though I’m no expert) includes hundreds of theories. Not that there’s anything wrong with teaching this - I think it would be very interesting, actually - but it’s not science.

And, while you’re at it, you might as well have the children dream up and document their own theories of creation. Again, this is an extremely educational exercise - in traditional educational systems we’d call this “creative writing” - but again, it’s not science!

Come on, Mr. Bush, let’s appreciate the difference and difference in purpose between science and religion. They each have their purpose, but they are not the same.