I’m getting a first Classical Revolution chamber jam going next Tuesday in Ann Arbor! The first event will be at the Kerrytown Concert House, with other, non-concert house venues to come. If you’re interested in coming, come. If you’re interested in playing, let me know via Facebook or email.
Classical Revolution Ann Arbor
Tuesday, May 5
8 PM
Kerrytown Concert House, 415 N Fourth Ave
The other day I released XgridLite for Leopard, something which should have happened about a year and a half ago. There are no substantial changes whatsoever, except that version 1.1 works on Leopard. However, it breaks Tiger support, so if you haven’t upgraded yet—I suspect a small minority of the kind of people that use XgridLite—you should still use version 1.0.2.
In Dupont Circle, people were throwing shoes at a giant Pinocchio Bush. On the Metro, things were getting crowded.
I’m getting more and more excited by the minute. The crowds are beginning to gather–so far, it’s feeling like a busier-than-average tourist season day, but word on the street is than 1 million people will descend on the Lincoln memorial tomorrow for a concert.
The scientologists are here: the cardboard boxes say “L Ron Hubbard Books.” And after seeing the final photo in the set I’m going to go to a cafe to work for a few hours before birthday dinner.
In the Chem building, about to leave. I discovered it’s easy to blog photos from my phone. Fun!
This seems as good a time as any to revive a never really functional blog: the historic inauguration of Barack Obama.
I’m heading out to DC later today along with three other grad students willing to sacrifice a few days for this historic occasion. Somehow, I tell myself, I’ll get some work done on the road.
The last time I was a new student at the University of Michigan, we were about to elect Al GoreGeorge W. Bush. I remember my dad telling me at the time, “The republic will survive!” Technically, I guess he was right, but there have definitely been moments over the last few years when I feared the coming of the new American Empire (I mean, officially), the dissolution of the Senate, George Bush’s appointment of his dog to consul, and the inevitable decline and fall.
Things aren’t really so bad as we head into Barack Obama’s first term. After all, many people do have jobs. Some are safely ensconced in graduate school. Especially lucky are the people who didn’t have jobs before the recession, so they didn’t have any to lose! (Those people usually have the additional advantage of not owning any stocks.) Furthermore, we’re only involved in two major conflicts abroad, and everyone knows that two is a very small number.
The best news, of course, is that Barack Obama owns a magic wand.
Seriously, though: I think it’s a time to be hopeful, but also an opportunity to hold leaders accountable to the change they promised. Barack Obama ran on a platform of change—and, contrary to the beliefs of many, he in fact did enumerate a number of important specific changes to make.
One promised change is the elimination of lobbyist money from the political process. Lawrence Lessig’s Change Congress project aims to do just that, and aims to do it via the very effective tool of public shame. The organization did not make much of a splash when it first appeared, but momentum seems to be growing, and I encourage all three of my readers to sign up with their ongoing donor strike (see the website for more info), especially if you donated to any congresspeople last year. (I signed up for the strike, effectively witholding $0 in donations this year!)
Due to the threatened demise of the auto industry, I also think this is the perfect time to implement really ambitious fuel economy standards. More on that next time.
I was interviewed at Google for a Summer of Code Podcast last week.
I just released XgridLite 1.0.2. The only change from the last version is the removal of all code related to license verification, and an open source license: the Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public License. There’s no reason for me to extort $15 from fellow grid geeks any longer; for such a small community it just makes sense to give the code away for free and ask for donations. (Plus, I never got around to writing an automatic way to send people licenses after they pay, and i don’t have much time these days as a grad student for such things.)
Check out code.edbaskerville.com for the source.