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diff --git a/_posts/ET-trap.rst b/_posts/ET-trap.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c0bff3 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/ET-trap.rst @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +category: + - research +title: Don’t fall into “the ET trap” +date: 2005-12-20T00:00:00 +--- + +There is a trap in thinking about the Boston miracle, and I think that +so far (to the best of my knowledge) all researchers trying to +understand what is (what was?) going on did fall in it. I would call it +“the ET trap” (ET as “The Entertainment Tonight” one of the most stupid +celebrity obsessed shows on the US TV) and it goes like this: “… there +are some interesting people trying to do something interesting (or +merely claiming to do something interesting) and here are the +results—see the heroes who made the change!” Yes, I return still back to +the question, how much actually mattered to the average kid on the +street of Roxbury that Revs. Hammond, Rivers, and Brown had been talking +with officials of the Boston Police Department? And I still cannot find +an explanation, why it would matter that much, especially in the +short-run. + +But maybe there is a good very long-term process going on here of the +redefinition of the identity, but that couldn’t make a change so +prominent in so short time. diff --git a/_posts/LSA2006-abstract.rst b/_posts/LSA2006-abstract.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48772c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/LSA2006-abstract.rst @@ -0,0 +1,66 @@ +category: + - research +title: The Discovery of Discourse; The Heroic Struggle of the Boston Minorities to belong among “Us” and not “Them” +date: 2006-02-19T23:00:00 +--- + +{abstract prepared for the Annual Meeting of the Law & Society +Association} + +The dramatic decrease in murder rate in the City of Boston in the late +1990s (so called “The Boston Miracle”) was explained by many researchers +in many different ways and therefore seen as a result of many different +actions of different actors. So, for example, `Winship (2002)`_ +explained The Boston Miracle as result of the cooperation between The +Ten Point Coalition (a coalition of local mostly Black churches) and the +authorities of the City of Boston (esp. police, social and youth +services), where Black ministers functioned as the mediating factor +which provided an “umbrella of legitimacy” for BPD strategies, which +could otherwise be understood as the use of excessive force against the +minority community. At the same time the ministers provided valuable +information for the police about the most troublemaking elements in the +minority community. This story has now returned to the predominant +position in the press and media, because of the 2004-05 rise of the +murder rate again to the highest level in the ten years. + +On the other hand, the project of police operation created by the team +around the Harvard professors David Kennedy and Anthony Braga `(Braga, +Kennedy, 2001)`_ was labelled by many others as the main cause of the +successful crime prevention. And there are many other contenders (less +influential and less visible ones) to claim the credit (for example, The +Nation of Islam was credited by the local African-American community +newspaper as the most influential factor in the decrease of crime). And +of course, local politicians (whether African-American, Latino, or +white) claimed their credit as well. + +In view of the number and persuasiveness of different theories +explaining The Boston Miracle, I do not want to add yet another +all-explaining theory, because I think that the whole success of the +Bostonian anti-crime policy of the late 1990s has multiple causes which +mutually enforced each other and lead to the final success. On the other +hand, I would like to suggest one more point of view on the whole +history which could conveniently bind together many of these +explanations. Symbolic interactionism `(Blumer, 1969)`_ explains the +development of self-understanding as a by-product of the interaction +between different actors and in the same moment predicts that the +expected behavior can be linked to the actor’s self-perception generated +in the past interactions `(Mead, 1934)`_. + +The purpose of this research is to understand one particular aspect of +this self-perception at the level of the community, and that is division +into “Us” and “Them” between minority and majority actors. Analysis of +the newspaper articles will be used to find out how much narrowing (or +widening) of the gap between majority and the official establishment on +the one side and minority communities on the other side made their +mutual collaboration possible. Emphasis will be put on the relationship +between long-term processes (as the redefinition of the community self +is) and short-term consequences of changes during these processes. + +.. _`Winship (2002)`: + http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/winship/End_of_a_Miracle.pdf +.. _`(Braga, Kennedy, 2001)`: + http://jrc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/38/3/195 +.. _`(Blumer, 1969)`: + http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0520056760 +.. _`(Mead, 1934)`: + http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/357fd970b6b590f8.html diff --git a/_posts/andrew_sneckvik_bible.rst b/_posts/andrew_sneckvik_bible.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f913df --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/andrew_sneckvik_bible.rst @@ -0,0 +1,75 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Andrew Sneckvik on Bible +date: 2005-07-07T21:07:00 +--- + +Andrew began to talk about misconceptions that discourages us to join in +God’s story: + +Bible is a set of timeless truths. + Unfortunately, takeway from this is that believing Bible won’t + change anything fundamental about the nature of our life. We live in + a timeless vacuum and in the end the only way I’ll know if I + succeeded is to compare myself to these abstract principles of good + living or succes of others. Bible is therefore just a set of + principles, which leads us into our rat race to run slightly faster + than other rats. + + This stress on abstract concepts and theoretical truths is according + to Andrew coming from the Greek philosophy (which was all about + searching for the timeless truths and their application for the + practical life) and it was totally alien to the original Biblical + Hebrew thinking. Unfortuantely, this stress was renewed in the + Reformation (Calvin). Opposition to this trend is postmodern + theology (and some of its precursors, e. g., Jonathan Edwards). + +Old Testament was the first way God tried to relate but it didn’t work. + Takeaway is that we have little to offer that will make a difference + since we are so below standard. + +New Testament is about this free gift that costs us nothing. + OK, this what made Bonhoeffer to write *“The Cost of Discipleship”* + and of course the main takeway from this statement would be that + nothing we do in our lives will significantly impact cosmic history, + so that the only question in our life is that whether we’ve got the + ticket to heaven and the rest of the life doesn’t really matter + (maybe we can give the same ticket to others, but that’s it). + +Early church was perfect embodiment of church + We are part of the ship that is going down. You can try hard to do + things better but good luck. The glory days are over. + +The alternative Andrew has to these statements (and who of us did not +find herself believing at least some of them?) is understanding Bible as +a story, or as a report about part of the story God creates in the +history (from the begining till today and still further until the end). + +Beginning of the story is before the begining of Bible itself—God lives +in perfect unity and harmony within itself (Trinity), but wants to +extend this unity, love, and fellowship with other creatures. So he +creates first angels and then humans. Unfortuantely, angels first misuse +freedom he gave and under the leadership of Lucipher they make revolt +against God so that Lucipher may take some of God’s glory. Then the +Lucipher’s revolt is broken and he is rejected from the heaven to the +earth. Why is then the world as it is and what should we do +here—obviously we should fight and these little us can help the world to +make at least small difference in the war (story of Abram). + +Therefore, what was around the Garden of Eden? Huge wasteland [Ge 2.5] +and the land under the rule of Satan (which is how it happened that a +serpent was around the Garden of Eden). Adam and Eve were not sent to +the Earth to be happy, enjoy each other, and name animals, but as a +paratroopers to the area occupied by the enemy. (Which reminds me of +John Wimber's comment on church: if the church is a ship, then it is not +a cruise ship ready for departure to Carribean, but battleship leaving +for war.) + +*Andrew’s conclusion:* Rather than wanting a people who never make +mistakes we learn that God is looking for weak, fallible people who are +willing to take risks on God to provide for them exclusively. People +experiencing God’s incredible goodness directly through their radical +dependence on Him become unbelievably motivated (using all their +resources) to bring as many others into this same place of radical +dependence on God. Radical dependence leads to experiencing God’s +radical goodness, which leads to involvment in God’s radical purposes. diff --git a/_posts/another-git-based-issue-tracker.rst b/_posts/another-git-based-issue-tracker.rst index 065e8c2..3b17061 100644 --- a/_posts/another-git-based-issue-tracker.rst +++ b/_posts/another-git-based-issue-tracker.rst @@ -16,6 +16,6 @@ tracking, I have just found out there is another one (this time not only dead, but also not even claimed to be finished) system, gaskit_. .. _blogpost: - /blog/2014/04/30/current-state-of-the-distributed-issue-tracking/ + /blog/2010/06/29/distributed-issue-tracking-2013-07/ .. _gaskit: https://github.com/bkeepers/gaskit diff --git a/_posts/beethoven.rst b/_posts/beethoven.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..098de71 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/beethoven.rst @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Thanks BBC! +date: 2005-06-10T01:23:00 +--- + +`Matt Kraai`_ pointed out that some (and in future probably all) of +symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven are available **for limited time +only** online courtesy of BBC_. Thanks a lot both to Matt and BBC. + +.. _`Matt Kraai`: + http://ftbfs.org/2005/06/08/Beethoven-and-the-BBC +.. _BBC: + http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/beethoven/downloads.shtml diff --git a/_posts/biblio-equation-structured.rst b/_posts/biblio-equation-structured.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62de368 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/biblio-equation-structured.rst @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Bibliography, equations, structured authoring, and me +date: 2005-05-02T06:08:00 +--- + +I wrote about my experience with LyX and the reasons why I am looking +for an ideal solution to my authoring needs. One strange thing which +surprises me for all that time (at least since 1998) is that there is +still so little done in resolving my problems, because it seems to me +that it should be an itch needed to be scratched by approximately the +same number of people as users of LaTeX_, so I was surprised why so +few programmers seems to be interested in this (if I am not mistaken, +really all exceptions from this rule I listed in the previous message on +this). + +Couple of days ago it came to me what’s going on—I am actually in +between couple of communities with requirements slightly different from +mine. I am not a typograph (even though I appreciate beautiful +typography), so although I certainly appreciate beauty of typesetting +provided by TeX_ it is not a crucial quality for me. I also appreciate +its beautiful typsetting of formulas, but I really need to typeset only +all three equations (and even these are really simple ones) from +statistical models (as complicated as I am able to comprehend, which +means they are quite simple :-)). Similarly, I miss what I see as the +main target of DocBook_. It is really created for computer related +documents (and documentation) and it is not exactly the best DTD for my +law & society dissertation. What I really need is powerful citations +management, but it is done either in rather limited fashion (BibTeX, +nevertheless it is still the best what is available), is in the +alpha-stage and support for the actual authoring is missing (Docbook), +or just a joke (`OpenOffice.org`_). + +Actually, what I would really like is some combination of Lyx_ (or +Amaya_) for simple structure-oriented authoring of slightly extended +XHTML (with footnotes, generated references, table of contents, and +bibliographical stuff) with powerful bibliographical management (here I +am not sure whether there is any model which I could use -- simplicity +of `Emacs BibTeX-mode`_ but power of MODS_). There is `an interesting +discussion of this problem`_ available. + +Oh well. It seems that I am here alone with these too simple requests. + +.. _LaTeX: + http://www.latex-project.org +.. _TeX: + http://www.tug.org +.. _DocBook: + http://www.docbook.org +.. _`OpenOffice.org`: + http://bibliographic.openoffice.org +.. _Lyx: + http://www.lyx.org +.. _Amaya: + http://www.w3.org/Amaya +.. _`Emacs BibTeX-mode`: + http://www.ida.ing.tu-bs.de/people/dirk/bibtex/ +.. _MODS: + http://www.loc.gov/mods +.. _`an interesting discussion of this problem`: + https://web.archive.org/web/20060328034957/http://www.xmlshoestring.com/xml499/authoringrequirements diff --git a/_posts/black-romeo.rst b/_posts/black-romeo.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8544388 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/black-romeo.rst @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +category: + - research +title: Black Romeo +date: 2006-01-05T05:40:00 +--- + +I was watching yesterday on WGBH_ on a `documentary about black poor +kids from London playing “Romeo and Juliet”`_. It was really deep +experience for me. I was quite surprised by the fact that black kids +(mostly guys, but of course Juliet and her friend were ladies) could +play Shakespeare and that issues which are hard to understand for me, +are very same (and much more understandable) for them. Suddenly I saw +how much I am still in the grips of seeing folks from Roxbury, +Dorchester, and Mattapan as *different from us normal people* and how +much I see them primarily as potential criminals. + +It seems to me that actually this could be one of the most important +issues of whole Boston Miracle—how “them, making trouble” became “us, +needing help”. And then how all the petty issues of money etc. were just +less important tools empowering a long-term process of this change, not +direct tools to decrease crime. + +And of course, I see no way how to prove this. On the other hand it +shows how much more than just bloody news (literally, news about blood) +I need stories describing normal life in the Black community of Boston. +Which unfortunately makes my news articles reports totally unmanageable, +because I would need much more than what I already have. :-( + +.. _WGBH: + http://www.wgbh.org +.. _`documentary about black poor kids from London playing “Romeo and Juliet”`: + http://www.wgbh.org/schedules/program-info?program_id=2543908 diff --git a/_posts/breach.rst b/_posts/breach.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..533791a --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/breach.rst @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Stand in the breach +date: 2005-04-02T07:00:00 +--- + + Therefore He said that He would destroy them, Had not Moses His + chosen one stood in the breach before Him, To turn away His wrath + from destroying them. `Ps 106:23 NASB`_ + +I wonder, whether Moses was not chosen just because he was willing to +stand in the breach for his nation, for others. + +Of course, the breach (Strong’s no. 06556 perets peh’-rets; dictionary +shows how incredibly dynamic word it is—something about “breaking out”) +is a great word for me (see `Ez 22:30`_) and something which really +makes me closer to what I feel to be my personal vocation. However, what +is interesting on this verse is that Moses actually exemplifies what +does it mean to stand in the breach. It is not about hopeless crying to +the God—“Please, do not kill!”, but much more hopeful position, where we +can trust in the God’s promises for the life of others or for our own +life. And just for future reference—a list of all verses in the Bible +with 06556: Genesis 38:29, Judges 21:15, II Samuel 5:20, 6:8, I Kings +11:27, I Chronicles 13:11, 14:11, Nehemiah 6:1, Job 16:14, 30:14, Psalms +106:23, 144:14, Isaiah 30:13, 58:12, Ezekiel 13:5, 22:30, Amos 4:3, +9:11. + +The pope John Paul II. died today. What his dying shown for me again was +a tremendous power of `Strength in Weakness`_. His willingness to be +powerless (while trying in vain to bless crowds with his “Urbi et orbi” +blessing). And all the rest of his death and post-humous pompous +celebrations were for me just sweet cherry on pie, but not the pie in +itself. + +.. _`Ps 106:23 NASB`: + http://www.studybibleforum.com/htm_php.php3?do=show_marg_and_gh&b=19&c=106&v=23 +.. _`Ez 22:30`: + http://www.studybibleforum.com/htm_php.php3?do=show_marg_and_gh&b=26&c=22&v=30 +.. _`Strength in Weakness`: + http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0830823689/ diff --git a/_posts/brnenske-premitani.rst b/_posts/brnenske-premitani.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6eabbba --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/brnenske-premitani.rst @@ -0,0 +1,77 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Thoughts in the night in Brno +date: 2006-10-15T00:00:00 +--- + +The title is (as usual) totally meaningless, just that I am sitting in +the hotel room in Brno, while being on the orientation training for Red +Hat and I am thinking about what to write here. + +Long time went away since I wrote the previous paragraph, but now its +existence comes handy, so I will totally shamelessly misuse it for my +purposes. + +These are the thoughts which went to me when I was in Brno for my +official interview with Red Hat and which then continued in the +following weeks when I begun to work for them. Of course my expectations +from Brno were largely influenced by the experience of my father’s ten +years in Brno. However, after ten years spent in the Boston area (and +a year in San Francisco, many years before that), outside of Prague, +I could see that there is a lot of life even in the areas which are not +that beautiful as Prague and even that there are more important things +in life then living in the most beautiful city in the world (which among +other cities certainly includes Prague, but I just couldn’t include +Boston there). I found out that working the job I like, having friends, +etc. is actually much more important than living in Prague. I know that +for the most of you this conclusion seems to be pretty banal, but +flip-side of living in Prague, is that one gets really hooked on its +beauty and is not able to imagine life behind its borders. So I believe +I was coming into Brno with at least slightly more open eyes than could +be expected given my genealogy. + +I was thinking then also about my accountability interviews with Chi-Ray +Chien. One of the most important discoveries in my first years of the +Living Waters was to really accept in the depths of my heart, that I am +one of the 250,000 of students in the Boston area and not much more +else. And that it is totally OK to be like that. That I don’t have to be +(and I don’t have to pretend to be) the most exceptional of all scholars +who were walking the face of the Earth. If I will be the best Matěj Cepl +I manage to be and if I stay focused on this goal, then everything is +all right. + +After some thinking about what is interesting in Brno and what not, +I saw very clearly that it is actually absolutely and totally the same +as me with being just one of many many students in the Boston. If the +citizens of Brno (and I think, it relates more to the affluent and +influential members of the Brno community—who made my father crazy just +when he hears the sound of the name of the city), so if the citizens of +Brno humbly accept in their hearts the fact, that Brno is one of many (I +don’t know, fifty?) half-million cities in the Europe and nothing more, +than they could suddenly taste freedom in this attitude. And of course, +it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t use all their effort to be the best +Brno they manage to be. It doesn’t mean that I would have anything +against \`\`Husa na provázku'' or abundant supply of culture in Brno per +se. Of course, the question arises who is paying for it and whether it +is not paid from the state money which could be used better in something +else than in paying oversupply of theaters, but that’s different +question. When I am saying that they should accept the fact, that they +are nothing more than one of many half-million cities in Europe, it +means nothing about their effort to be the best half-million city in +Europe (whatever it means). + +And yet another thought came immediately after that. That we people of +Prague are in the exactly same situation. Unless we accept the fact that +we are one of many many million-plus cities in Europe, and nothing more, +then we are same idiots we love to hate on people from Brno. Yeah, it +happens, that it is probably one of the most beautiful cities +architecturally in the world, but what does it mean for my life in +Prague else then number of tourists who come here? Yes, I am living in +the very center of Prague and working five minutes walk from home (so +far, we will have to move soon), but what does it mean for things +I found in Boston to be more important for life like my wife and +children, my job, my culture, my church, my calling and ministry in +life? Yes, I like it here (and there is nothing wrong with that), but +necessary answer to the previous question is that nothing fundamental +would change if I had all these things somewhere in the center of +Africa. diff --git a/_posts/carey.rst b/_posts/carey.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8aa02e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/carey.rst @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +category: + - research +title: Mannheim’s Paradox +date: 2005-04-26T06:00:00 +--- + +Reading Carey (1989), I met again the issue of the Mannheim’s Paradox +(the author’s name), which is fancy name for finding that social +scientists themselves are humans and thus subject of ideological +pressure and laws of human behavior, which could influence how they +perform as scientists. Or in other words, how scientists being humans +and thus not fully rational cannot create purely rational theories and +purely rational conclusions not influenced by their personal preferences +and prejudices. + +Carey suggests that there are currently two main streams of +understanding of ideology—he calls them “causal” and “functional” +explanations of ideology. The result of both theories is that seemingly +irrational behavior is not considered to be what it really is. The first +theory tends to explain ideological behavior in terms of social +structure, power struggle, and class interests. The problem with these +theories is that they are really hopeless in terms of quality of their +predictions. People just do not follow their class interests enough to +make these theories quite useful. The reaction to causal theories are +functional theories, which try to explain ideology as an attempt to +restore balance in the society which is perpetually malintegrated. +Unfortunately these theories typically produce unbelievably complicated +and obscure explanations omitting participants’ understanding. Carey +citing Geertz (1973) summarizes this notion in this way: + + […] a group of primitives sets out, in all honesty, to pray for rain + and ends up by strengthening its social solidarity; a ward + politician sets out to get by or remain near the through and ends by + mediating between unassimilated immigrant groups and an impersonal + governmental bureaucracy; and ideologist sets out to air his + grievances and finds himself contributing, through the diversionary + powers of his illusions, to the continued viability of the very + system that grieves him (p. 206). + +The problem is obviously in the fact, that these theories implies +elimination of anything which wouldn’t fit into the rational model of +science, namely “the experience itself as some ordered system of +meaningful symbols.” Of course, Carey sees as a solution following the +tradition of symbolic interactionism and introduce study of symbols and +their meaning. He also follows in this Blumer (1969) with the big stress +on keeping research close to the data and omitting from data anything +which is not convenient for the development of “scientific” theories. + +Moreover, one thing which is common to all these theories is that they +are really weak on explanation of the links between suggested +explanations and observed action. E.g., what is the mechanism by which +that wonderful solidarity is created in praying together? diff --git a/_posts/case_for_wonder.rst b/_posts/case_for_wonder.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab647ae --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/case_for_wonder.rst @@ -0,0 +1,61 @@ +category: + - faith +title: The Case for wonder +date: 2005-04-25T07:54:00 +--- + +The three similar stimuli met me in the last days. First I have read in +“Communication as Culture” (James W. Carey, 1989) that a good sociology +is similar to an art in its orientation towards “making the phenomenon +strange”, because + + […] the social sciences can take the most obvious yet background + facts of social life and force them into the foreground of + wonderment. They can make us contemplate the particular miracles of + social life that have become for us just there, plain and + unproblematic for eye to see. […] + +There is some beautiful naivety here at work — it is suddenly possible +to take seriously the good old Aristoteles notion, that basis of all +philosophy (i.e., all science, because it was contained in that time in +philosophy) is curiosity and wonder. Moreover, for me personally it is +calling back to the position where what really matters is something +really personal and internal (after all, we are talking here about a +qualitative research, not just data crunching). + +And just immediately when I have begun to think about writing a blog +record like this one, I opened again “More ready than you realize” +(Brian McLaren, 2002) and found there this (p. 145): + + Modern Christianity has (inadvertently, I think) tended to reduce + God to a being containable by human concepts or propositions or + logic. It has too often acted as though it had God bottled, labeled, + and hermetically sealed, a commodity we own and attribute at will, + logically proven, and theologically defined. […] No wonder + evangelism seems dreary under these circumstances. As Walker Percy + once wrote, instead of “Jesus saves!” we could as well easily be + shouting “Exxon! Exxon!” because God has become a product we are + selling or promoting. […] Christianity has not always been like + this. Gregory of Nysa of the fourth century once said, “Concepts + create idols. Only wonder understands.” Martin Luther reputedly + reflected this realization: “If I could understand one grain of + wheat, I would die of wonder.” + +And finally, when I was talking with a friend this afternoon, she told +me about her feelings of people having too big expectations from her. +After some further talking I suggested (because I begun to see the +pattern) that actually the only way (aside from knowing that God knows +as well and has neither too high expectations and in the same time he is +not full of depression and self-hate as we are) how to defend herself +against these feelings is to go deeper in knowledge of herself, and from +that position to be able to stand up against any unreasonable (or +misguided) expectations. + +And of course, it is something which is of the utmost importance for me +as well. What I am writing about images in newspapers, should be +especially the most personal expression of myself — not stupid +graphomaniac diatribes which does not interest anybody, but that the +only measure of what I should write is what I honestly know about +myself, not what anybody expects from me. + +This was an interesting experience. diff --git a/_posts/chelcicky.rst b/_posts/chelcicky.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb4fa85 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/chelcicky.rst @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +title: + - Chelčický +category: faith +date: 2005-09-23T18:34:00 +--- + +`Charis Enns`_, quite interesting Canadian missionary in Tábor (which is +an interesting combination in itself), wrote about her wacky dream to +translate `Petr Chelčický’s`_ work(s) into English. + +It is certainly a great idea and I would love to see her translations +publised (it would be nice to put Chelčický on CCEL_). However, I have +slightly uneasy feelings towards the ectasy of `some current Christian +authors`_ over his writings. Being `a conscientious objector`_, I +certainly accept value in his discovery of pacifism (as far as I know he +was the founder of Christian pacifism), but even that is usually read +through the eyes of `Leo Tolstoy`_ + +The problem with Chelčický is that aside from this interesting notion +(and being probably one of the first medieval anabaptists), there is not +much which could be useful now. Critique of pope and a German emperor? +Critique of society’s division into three classes (peasants, soliders, +and churchmen)? Who cares? Moreover, concerning the Czech brethern, the +problem is that (rightly or wrongly) brethern themselves later rejected +most of his teachings except of the general environment of legalistic +lay monasticism, which is IMHO not much useful today (`comments of the +Prodigal Kiwi`_ notwithstanding). + +.. _`Charis Enns`: + http://threehouses.typepad.com/three_houses/2005/09/petr_chelcicky_.html +.. _`Petr Chelčický’s`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petr_Chelčický +.. _CCEL: + http://www.ccel.org +.. _`some current Christian authors`: + http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1852403039/ +.. _`a conscientious objector`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientious_objector +.. _`Leo Tolstoy`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy +.. _`comments of the Prodigal Kiwi`: + http://prodigal.typepad.com/prodigal_kiwi/ diff --git a/_posts/community-on-the-edge.rst b/_posts/community-on-the-edge.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac7b890 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/community-on-the-edge.rst @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +category: + - research +title: The community on the edge +date: 2006-01-29T22:16:00 +--- + +There were again two shootings yesterday, one in Mattapan and other in +Jamaica Plain. I was thinking about the TV news report about that and +how does it shows the image of the community, and actually I found one +thing interesting—the phrase “a community on the edge”. Somehow it again +lead to the Dave’s “resist outrage” slogan. Of course, that it is +terrible that somebody was killed, but what edge we are talking +about—civil war, uprising, falling into anarchy? Probably, they meant +the last one, but is it really so? Is really “the highest number of +murders in ten years” (which is still somewhere around the Boston +average of the long trend) reason for being on the edge? + +And of course, that the point is not, what is the truth about the +homicide rate, but how is it presented and what is the image of that +homicide rate. What is probably the most interesting (but it may be +again just the image) is that in this as in the December quater-murder +people living around were claiming that this was previously rather quite +neighborhood. Was it really (power of self-dellusion is enormous) and is +it thus change in the focus of murders from the Blue Hill Avenue area? +Or were they living in dellusion and whole Dorchester, Mattapan, +Roxbury, Jamaica Plain is dangerous? + +Much more questions that answers. Oh well. diff --git a/_posts/community.rst b/_posts/community.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..238f1a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/community.rst @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +category: + - research +title: Concept of community? +date: 2005-09-23T23:45:00 +--- + +First of all, this is what I’ve got from a member of my dissertation +committee: + + What you propose so far is quite interesting, but I still do not get + a clear sense of how you propose to study the Boston Miracle. The + theories you review are there for explaining crime, but how you link + them to the kind of response that produced the so called Boston + Miracle needs to be better delineated. I was disappointed in the + methodology. This seems to need considerable work. Your proposal to + look at newspaper reports is quite sensible. But that doesn’t go far + enough in telling what exactly you’ll be looking for in those + reports. You need to expand this section. All I can tell from your + proposal is that you wish to study newspaper reports and how they + represented minorities during this time of crisis. If so I would + think that the data at various points are rather thin. You might + want to take a sample of what you think might be out there and code + accordingly to make the better case for what you propose to do and + how you propose to do it. + + Suggestion: + + Given your interest in bureaucracy and where you were raised why not + take a critical and deeper look at the concept of community? It is + so often used and yet it has come to mean so many things to say many + people. You use it. Others do as well. Community policing, community + organization, etc. etc.… You could show how the concept of community + has driven the Boston miracle, and how the term community has been + used in the media. This I think would allow you to work with a wider + set of data and enable you to draw on the Boston miracle as just one + example of how community is used as a concept and as a way of + explaining social change. You can even divide this literature into + that which relates the internal and external attributions of + community. For instance, you could suggest that the Boston miracle + is empirically related to newspaper attributions that see the change + related to internal as opposed to external representations of + community. External representations I would say link the community + to the broader political economy, while internal representations + emphasize the local political economy and the values of those + directly involved in the community. External would be foundation + support, federal and state economic aid, etc.… + +This is a lot. Basically, if I understand this correctly, he suggests to +throw away most of what I have done so far and begin again. On the other +hand, there is a part of me agreeing with him—it seems that there really +may not be that much explicit about the image of the community. I would +have to interpret even more from the given material—which could lead to +pretty stupid conclusions (given my lack of local knowledge), or to +something really interesting and new. + +Which leads me again to the necessity of going through fundamental +conceptual stuff and makes me less certain that I know what I am talking +about. I mean, is it really possible to find out something that’s really +going on out there, or do I just write again my superstitions into the +previously created myth of “The Boston Miracle”? Should I just write how +wonderful it is when people work together, talk about each other nicely, +and kill each other less often? All that could be covered into nice +“scientific” labels of “social capital”, “trust”, or “civic society”? + +I am afraid, that after all scientific talking is said and done, it may +come down to the question which story I am willing to take as a base of +my own thinking. Unfortunately, there isn’t just one story to be +told—the one about good pastors raising up the community and empowering +themselves to fight crime. There is also much more sad story about the +Ten-point Coallition which is (according to some spoken and unconfirmed +information) more or less broke, about former co-workers (Rev. Hammond +and Rev. Rivers) who were bashing each other in public (that was couple +of years ago—what is the situation now?). The latter story may be really +about the non-profit organization paid by the federal money which run +out (was it because its own success and thus less need to prevent crime +or because of the general economic downturn and need to save federal +money or maybe even about the cutting down the federal budget?). The +last possible story which comes to my mind is altogether nasty—about +white voters supporting government’s support of the anti-crime +prevention when fearing blacks to kill them (while killing each other), +but hesitant to continue when the situation has turned better. The last +two stories have in common that they understand TPC success as a seed of +its own problems—maybe that is worthy to be investigated. + +However, the last story, about fearful voters, can be at least to some +degree verified, because at least some (indirect, self-censored, +politically very correct, to be sure) footprints should be possible to +find in newspapers, if there is at least some level of this discussion +in the readers’ community (whatever such community means, yes). diff --git a/_posts/conflict-in-TPC.rst b/_posts/conflict-in-TPC.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e25050d --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/conflict-in-TPC.rst @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +category: + - research +title: Conflict in TPC and payment for the Miracle +date: 2005-08-28T20:37:00 +--- + +Reading an article from the Boston Globe (2001-11-02) “Friction among +clergy members seen in partnership” I begun to think again about some +totally non-scientific comments. First of them is the Honza Horálek’s +comment on difference between alliance and community—whereas in the +world, people organize into alliances given their shared interest or +goal, in the Church people should first organize into community and such +community can then organize some action (and he has even fancy examples +of this from the Book of Revelation; I guess from Rev. 13 about an +alliance between a beast and dragon). And really, I can see on the +Living Waters team in the church how much this principle is valid—unless +we work through all our internal conflict and unless we pray for each +other, we wouldn’t be able to work together well as a team towards +participants of the program. + +It seems to me that the strength of the Ten Point Coallition (yes, +Coallition is probably closer to an alliance than to community) was +sufficient to hold its leaders together only in economically good times +when government supported all extra-curricular activities and such, but +it looks like that when the waters begun to be rough (because of an +economic crisis of early 2000s’) relationships and vision were not +strong enough to keep TPC together. I would like to ask Rev. Hammond and +Revers (if I will ever get hold of him), whether they invited each other +for dinner to their home or something in this sense. + +However, getting back to more sociological and “scientific” level, it +could be really interesting to think how much is at least indirectly +level of federal support to after-school programs responsible for the +Boston Miracle. diff --git a/_posts/consistency-of-experience.rst b/_posts/consistency-of-experience.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e31589d --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/consistency-of-experience.rst @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Consistency of user experience or Contra-zenclavier +date: 2005-11-26T00:04:00 +--- + +(Answer to discussion caused by my `message on +gmane.comp.editors.vim.outliner about creating Kate syntax highlighting +file for VimOutliner`_). + +Probably it is just brain damage of mine caused by many years of using +Windows, but somehow even after couple of years of using vim it still +feels very strange and unfamiliar. However, discussion cannot be made +around feelings, so here are some rational (or semi-rational) reasons, +why I begun to think a lot about leaving vim. + +I guess that you are a programmer (or some other CS-guy—why would you +edit Common Lisp scripts?) and so the most of your time is spent editing +plain text in a text editor. That is not my case, and I found myself to +spend bigger and bigger proportion of time in some kind of KDE +applications—KMail, KNode, LyX (OK, it is not KDE-based yet, but with +similar user interface), Konqueror, which is probably the reason that +even when I was editing plain text files (Python source code, R-scripts, +different XML files) it felt better when I did it with kate (BTW, +talking about XML files, kate’s XML plugin is probably the only +comparable environment for editing XML files to Emacs’s PSGML I’ve met +so far). It seems to me that more and more I work with KDE it is more +and more difficult to achieve satori (I guess you have already read +`“Zenclavier: Extreme Keyboarding” by Tom Christiansen`_, it should be +obligatory reading for any vi-geek) and contrary to the Tom’s article it +was more and more simple to achieve it working with KDE programs. As if +the most important condition of the satori is not the best design of the +computer program (and there could be much said about clever design of +vi—Tom has already wrote it), but uniformity of the user experience. It +doesn’t mean, that there are many ways how to screw up design of a text +editor (for example, no one explained me well, what are toolbars good +for editing texts), but that the design is not everything. When you +achieve relatively good design (and of course all main text editors for +Linux and many other for Windows or Mac did it) then the familiarity can +kick in and you can achieve oneness with your computer. + +This leads to some rather strange conclusions. If the homogeneity of +environment is the most important requirement, then the best Desktop +environment is the one which provides the most homogenous user +experience (which is IMHO one of the reasons why OS/2 failed and why +Linux achieved competitivness with Windows for general public IMHO only +in the last couple of years, although both desktop environments were +much better in terms of their window managers, background philosophy +etc. for many many years already). True, I have never tried GNOME hard +enough in the last years to make any reasonable comparisons (so this +should not be understood as a shot against GNOME in the KDE-GNOME holy +war), but it seems to me that KDE is currently the best desktop +environment on Linux (and not only on Linux???) in terms of its overall +homogeneity. For each application which makes KDE you can probably find +a comparable or better alternative (although sometimes you have to +search really hard—for example, KMail and Konqueror are just bloody good +programs in themselves), but each of these alternatives leads to the +special world of their own not that much consistent with anybody else (I +have to note though that I almost never use KOffice, which could change +balance towards OpenOffice.org and GNOME for others). Mozilla programs +are one world for itself, Emacs and GVim are kind of addictive drugs +closing ones’ mind to anything else, and closeness is probably present +pretty much in OpenOffice.org as well. + +And then there are some just plain technical reasons why I am getting +worried about any dependency on GVim—see for example `this thread`_ or +`the thread I have originated in comp.editors`_. No, and `I don’t think +that yzis is the answer`_. + +.. _`message on gmane.comp.editors.vim.outliner about creating Kate syntax highlighting file for VimOutliner`: + http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.editors.vim.outliner:964 +.. _`“Zenclavier: Extreme Keyboarding” by Tom Christiansen`: + http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/news/zenclavier_1299.html +.. _`this thread`: + http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.user.kde/13562 +.. _`the thread I have originated in comp.editors`: + https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.editors/76Vjb7dT6D0 +.. _`I don’t think that yzis is the answer`: + http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.editors.yzis.devel/522 diff --git a/_posts/continuing-story.rst b/_posts/continuing-story.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4dd02e --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/continuing-story.rst @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +category: + - research +title: Continuing story? +date: 2005-12-06T00:00:00 +--- + +While reading an excellent introduction to SI `“Symbolic Interactionism: +An Introduction, An Interpretation, An Integration”`_ by `Joel Charon`_ +I was thinking about my research (of course) and about the current craze +about rising murder rate in the City of Boston. Although I certainly do +not want to diminish the real pain of murdered victims’ families, I just +do not see anything so terrible around, which would deserve `moral +panic`_ going around just now. + +So, for example `today’s “Here and now”`_ was introduced by the headline +declaring `“Stop snitching” T-shirt`_ as part of nation-wide conspiracy +to frieghten witnesses to testify in gang-related court cases. + +.. _`“Symbolic Interactionism: An Introduction, An Interpretation, An Integration”`: + http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0131114794 +.. _`Joel Charon`: + http://www.mnstate.edu/scj/Charon/ +.. _`moral panic`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic +.. _`today’s “Here and now”`: + http://www.here-now.org/shows/2005/12/20051206.asp +.. _`“Stop snitching” T-shirt`: + http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/12/05/snitching_t_shirts_come_off_the_shelves/ diff --git a/_posts/danish-cartoons.rst b/_posts/danish-cartoons.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f405a91 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/danish-cartoons.rst @@ -0,0 +1,63 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Danish “offensive” cartoons +date: 2006-02-09T20:55:00 +--- + +I did not know what to think about the Danish cartoons much. First of +all, when you look `at them`_, it is really hard to be sure whether the +author meant them to be offensive at all. Second, well of course, I am +too much reader of `The Voice of the Martyrs`_ to take seriously Islamic +complaints about how Christians are disrespectful to their faith. I +really shouldn’t dig into the reports of VoM about situation of +Christians (and especially new converts to Christianity) in Pakistan or +Saudi Arabia, should I? However, nothing of that seemed interesting +enough to be written down and I didn’t have a time and urge to research +this thoroughly. Meanwhile, all what I wanted to say was written in much +better way and with true understanding of what’s going on by +`HonestReporting.com`_. And, just one example—\ `Tom Gross’ selection of +Arab Cartoons`_. + +However, `I know`_ that the reasons for many social actions do not lie +in the rational causes, but in the symbolic struggle for status and +support. So, it seems that Honest Reporting’s (which is really strange +name) suggestion, that this case Islamic fundamentalist struggle to +affirm their support lovely collaborated with their governments effort +to find some other enemy than themselves. How lovely. + +Thanks Mark_ for pointing me to the Honest Reporting site. + +One off-topic comment. While looking at the `Tom Gross’ website`_ I +found that it contains a lot of highly controversial and critical +material. However, his articles on Roma_ sometimes get closer to the +skin, than feels comfortable. I have never heard about `Milena +Hubschmannová`_, which is shame and I just like `this picture`_. + +---- + +I have decided to publish here the one picture—the most controversial +one, not because I would like to offend muslims, but because I really +believe that this picture is actually quite interesting and it can be +interpreted in many other ways than just the one selected by protesting +Moslems and almost all Western print. + +.. _`at them`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy +.. _`The Voice of the Martyrs`: + http://www.persecution.com/ +.. _`HonestReporting.com`: + http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Offensive_Cartoons.asp +.. _`Tom Gross’ selection of Arab Cartoons`: + http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArabCartoons.htm +.. _`I know`: + http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0252013212 +.. _Mark: + http://marcsmessages.typepad.com/mm/2006/02/humor_in_the_mu.html +.. _`Tom Gross’ website`: + http://www.tomgrossmedia.com +.. _Roma: + http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/Roma.htm +.. _`Milena Hubschmannová`: + http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/MilenaHubschmannova.html +.. _`this picture`: + http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/img/roma_large.jpg diff --git a/_posts/depmod-forever.rst b/_posts/depmod-forever.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d04fff1 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/depmod-forever.rst @@ -0,0 +1,8 @@ +category: + - computer +titel: Depmod forever +date: 2006-08-10T11:27:00 +--- + +Mental note to myself: whenever there are some problems with kernel +modules, run ``depmod -a`` first! Always! diff --git a/_posts/dominus-jesus.rst b/_posts/dominus-jesus.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5132f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/dominus-jesus.rst @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Dominus Jesus +date: 2006-12-01T08:02:00 +--- + +When we were on the vacations of our church in Prague in the hotel owned +by our denomination, one sister, who is a professor of medieval +literature (and thus interested in M. John Hus & co.) mentioned in +passing “that horrible letter Dominus Jesus”. I have heard about that +letter before, but now my curiosity was ignited, so when we returned to +Prague, I have found this declaration `on the Vatican website`_ and read +it (or at least part IV., paragraphs 16 and 17, which I think constitute +the most important part of the letter for me). + +I have to admit that some parts of this reading caused the strongest +attack on my hope of the Unity of the Church at all. All the time +before, whenever I met a Roman-Catholic who undestood ecumenism solely +as return of “separated brethern” to the arms of the Mother +Roman-Catholic church, sole source of salvation (and I did couple of +times), I believed that at least since the II. Vatican Council such +belief is just a local closemindness and the official line of the +Catholic church is much more open. I expected more of the ecumenism and +longing for the unity of the Church, and I met many Catholics including +some priests who supported such belief. First time in my life it +occurred to me, that there is always the second possibility—that we were +mistaken by our wishful thinking and that actually the Roman-Catholic +church is still so stupidly closeminded as it was since at least +XVI. century, that all the talks of the Council were just cosmetic +changes of the finishing on the whole structure of the church, but that +particularly in the area of relations with other Christian denominations +not much has changed if anything at all. + +.. _`on the Vatican website`: + http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.html diff --git a/_posts/fr-class-actions.rst b/_posts/fr-class-actions.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16e6006 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/fr-class-actions.rst @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +category: + - research +title: French class actions +date: 2005-10-07T10:01:00 +--- + +`USA Today`_ reports about `possible introduction of class action +lawsuits in France`_. That’s really interesting, because I was studying +a possibility of class-actions in the Czech law many years ago. The +conclusion we’ve came to with `Martin Mainser`_ was that class action is +not compatible with the legal regime in countries where every litigant +has a right to control destiny of the litigation. I wonder what will +French do with this problem—will they create some kind of mixed legal +regime, or they will make class-actions somehow compatible with the +European legal culture (I have no idea, how it could be done)? +Interesting question. + +.. _USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com +.. _possible introduction of class action lawsuits in France: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2005-10-04-french-online-classaction_x.htm +.. _Martin Mainser: http://www.fpm.cz diff --git a/_posts/genericwiki.rst b/_posts/genericwiki.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7a3d14 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/genericwiki.rst @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +category: + - computer +title: genericwiki plugin maintained again +date: 2005-06-18T05:11:00 +--- + +I have fixed genericwiki.py plugin for Pyblosxom_, made it into the +real entryparser, and made it to produce standard compliant HTML +(block-level elements cannot be in <p> element). It is available on `my +website`_. I am not sure whether I will maintain it like forever, but so +far I like it. + +.. _Pyblosxom: + http://pyblosxom.sf.net +.. _`my website`: + http://www.ceplovi.cz/matej/progs/scripts/genericwiki.py diff --git a/_posts/go_deeper.rst b/_posts/go_deeper.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31b466d --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/go_deeper.rst @@ -0,0 +1,57 @@ +category: + - research +title: Kant and Living Waters +date: 2005-04-26T18:10:00 +--- + +While reading this morning next chapter of Carey (1989), I again hit +some of my familiar spirits. I was thinking yesterday about the symbolic +interactionism (the first chapter of Carey is actually a thorough +explanation of the background of ideas feeding into the symbolic +interactionism and similar constructivist sociological tradition), and +it came to me that I should write into my dissertation proposal about +the relation between the symbolic interactionism and the tradition of +those who (following `Kant`_, among others) considered “the real world” +impossible (or hard) to understand directly. Actually, I am really not +that interested in Kant’s philosophy itself (it is tempting to write “in +itself” :-)) — I have never read any of his `Critics`_ — I use him more +as a symbol of a whole line of thinking, which includes also +`Wittgenstein`_ and the whole bunch of postmodern thinkers. + +That is obviously just a small (and not that important) note, that could +be added to the proposal in a minute. However, much more important is +that I was actually thinking about this whole relation between “Kant” +and the symbolic interactionism (and I was certainly not the first one, +who thought about that — I wonder, what has been written on this theme +in the “Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism” (2003)). I was actually +saying to myself, that these things I found about SI remind me of +discussions with my brother about Kant. And yet, I have not thought that +I could actually use it for my dissertation, because what I really tried +to do was to create a work which would resemble other scientific works I +have read. However, the path to truly interesting stuff and to finding +out something new goes exactly in the other direction — to use my own +resources and thoughts as much as possible. The dissertation (especially +with qualitative methods) should be as personal as possible — I don’t +mean personal in terms of sharing my personal issues, but I have to go +deeper in finding out what I actually think, what really matters to me, +etc. + +Actually, somewhere here may lie a root of my father’s dissatisfaction +with sociology. Citing (again, there are more cites here than my own +thoughts :-), oh well) my advisor Len Buckle, “real sociological truths +are either common sense or nonsense”. Except that it sometimes requires +a lot of uncommon thinking to discover common sense. And unless we go to +the personal depths and appreciation of the artistic dimension of +science, we don’t find anything that really matters. + +Citing (indirectly) Markus Hoffmann, whenever we are insecure in our +world, it is a reliable sign that we should go deeper in our healing. +Whenever I feel bored and drained by the routine work, I should go +deeper as well. + +.. _Kant: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant +.. _Critics: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critique_of_Pure_Reason +.. _Wittgenstein: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittgenstein diff --git a/_posts/gods-conscience.rst b/_posts/gods-conscience.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..357e550 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/gods-conscience.rst @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +category: + - faith +title: God’s subconscience +date: 2005-08-01T17:27:00 +--- + +Just a really simple thought. Does God has a subconscience? Being +omnipotent and omniscient, one would expect that not. But isn’t it just +modernistic ideal of simple rational life? And if he doesn’t have one, +how come that we as `bearers of His image`_ have one? Is it just +limitation of creation (as apparently it was necessary to make man and +woman as two separate individuals, although God himself apparently +managed to comprise both full masculinity and feminity in himself—or is +it part of the mystery of Trinity)? The reason why I am dealing with +this rather esoteric question is that the last possibility would be that +a subconscience is a product of The Fall and thus something which should +be (at least gradually and maybe just partially) eliminated in our +sanctification, i.e., is subconscience *per se* good or bad? + +.. _`bearers of His image`: + http://www.studybibleforum.com/htm_php.php3?do=show_marg_and_gh&b=1&c=1&v=27 diff --git a/_posts/guiliani.rst b/_posts/guiliani.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5edd8a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/guiliani.rst @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +category: + - research +title: Guiliani’s farewell address +date: 2005-06-22T21:46:00 +--- + +While reading `Guiliani’s farewell address`_ I was quite surprised how +much liberal it sounded—if I am not mistaken then the biggest +achievement he saw in his work as a mayor of the New York City was that +the situation of the poorest has visibly improved. I don’t know if this +is genuine compassionat conservatism or he was just trying to apeace +liberal New York public (after all New York is very blue state, isn’t +it?). + +Another thing is that his point of view on the Boston-NYC discussion +about policing seems to be much less radical, then what I would expect +from (mostly liberal and pro-Bostonian) articles I read so far. It +sounds more like his wounded defense of a good work he did (and Compstat +strategy) against the attack of liberal professors then anything else. +Actually, when reading his address I thought that the difference between +Boston community policing strategy and New York more policing strategy +may be more political and virtual then real (after all, most supporters +of the Boston miracle *are* liberals). Yes, Boston policing was probably +more participatory then New York one, but it seems to me that the root +of the idea (“Broken windows”) is present in both of them. In New York +the broken windows are taken much more literally (petty crimes, +disorder, etc.) and in Boston more abstractly (lonely kids, conflict +resolution, having a bullet), but the idea that fight against huge +crimes should begin with clearing out small issues is the same. + +.. _`Guiliani’s farewell address`: + http://www.rightturns.com/special/rg20020101.htm diff --git a/_posts/habent_papam.rst b/_posts/habent_papam.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4f49f27 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/habent_papam.rst @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Habent papam +date: 2005-04-19T07:30:00 +--- + +`Joseph Ratzinger`_ was just elected_ as a pope `Benedict XVI`_. I do +not know much what to think about it. On the one hand he is actually not +my pope (hence the title of this blog record), because I am not a +Catholic, and if he wants to be the one then he must deserve it. + +On the other hand, I hope that a German pope could understand more than +a Pole that communication with non-Catholics is important and it cannot +be one way street. On the third side, he is just not from Germany, he is +from Bavaria. + +Another interesting question is how will he relate to Jews. He will +probably follow the policy of the late John Paul II. in being very open +to them, but it will be interesting how as a German will he present the +Catholic repentence for the anti-semitism. + +We’ll see. + +.. _`Joseph Ratzinger`: + http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4606698 +.. _elected: + http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4462077.stm +.. _`Benedict XVI`: + http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/ diff --git a/_posts/how-to-does-it-work.rst b/_posts/how-to-does-it-work.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b802a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/how-to-does-it-work.rst @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ +category: + - research +title: How does it work (preparing for appointment with Len)? +date: 2005-12-28T01:51:00 +--- + +Len asked me to explain him how should all these theories I quote in my +dissertation proposal work together and how I am not creating yet +another Great Sociological Theory. + +Of course, that this question hits on the most complicated part of the +question. How does it all fits together? Am I not creating just another +grand theory which has answer for everything but understands nothing? +And if I want to get my theories out of data, and not to impose my +theories on data, what should I do with the theories which already exist +and which seem so close to what I see in my data? And isn’t whole that +founding theories only on data more or less humbug, because there just +are plenty of theories around and research cannot (and shouldn’t) just +ignore them? + +Somehow it resembles a denomination which is based “solely on the New +Testament” and they “purged their teaching of all human inventions” (I +have actually met a pastor who told me these two things about his +denomination; needless to say, that I have run out of his church +immediately ``:-)``) — these are usually the most dogmatic and +legalistic church groups, whereas those Christians who just do not care +that much about purity of their teaching tend to be quite often most +relaxed, loving, and free. Isn’t best research also the one which is not +that much concerned about purity of methodology? Of course, one +shouldn’t go to the other extreme (in the Church context it would be +liberalism), and to throw away all good rules, which generations of +scientist found, as good preventive measures how not to fools +themselves. + +Back to the main question of how to deal with my different theories and +my data. The basic idea I had was that there are many streams of thought +which seems to lead to the similar conclusions, although sometimes the +theories go from very different and strange angles. So for example, both +Braithwaite (criminologist and founder of the theory of reintegrative +shaming) and Charon (introduction to the symbolic interactionism) +mention as an important factor how symbolic interactionist perspective +does not include static concept of personality, which is a static result +of our past experience (or it is inborn and thus even more static) +determining our present action, but it accept that past experiences +influence our present action through *definition of self based on our +reactions to the past experiences*. When I read this for the first time, +I was shocked. In that time I was just discovering (through a +church-based program of inner healing) how much my understanding of +myself very much determined (quite often not for good) my behavior, and +how much I need to learn (and be told) who I am, so that I could see +world differently and hopefully grasp more of the life. I didn’t expect +much that I could find in (then still rather dry) sociology something +corresponding to this very personal experience and new understanding, +which seem to be too churchly and far from secular science. And yet, +this was exactly what I read in this criminological textbook! + +And when I was reading many newspaper articles about crime in Boston, I +could see struggle of Black Bostonians to grasp self-image of “the +ordinary citizen” and to persuade everybody that they are such. I could +believe that actually Black pastors stepping into this self-image and +BPD switching their approach of Roxbury & co. from “enemy battlefield” +to “part of our city, where our fellow Bostonians need help” (my own +terms, not quotations), that these steps could help to empower and +mobilize Black communities of Boston to help eliminate crime in their +midst. And this effort could clearly explain quite angry opposition of +Rev. Rivers against Jessie Jackson’s trashing of Boston as racist—not +only that Jessie offended his friend in the effort to improve position +of Blacks in Boston (both Mayor Menino and BPD representatives), but he +also directly attacked this new self-image of ordinary citizens and +pushed them back to the image of poor underserved oppressed Blacks. + +Unfortunately, the story continues, this business of changing self-image +is very long-term process — actually this is just part of the process of +overcoming Black slavery which (with interruptions) has been continuing +for past hundred and fifty years and it is far from being finished. When +the first effort made a huge difference, because improved cooperation +between BPD and the Black community of Boston made a huge difference in +the crime statistics, people in power of the City of Boston lost +interest in supporting this process and it collapsed on insufficient +funding (totally unsupported hearsay claims that the Boston Ten Point +Coallition is broke and relations among participants of TPC are falling +apart). Now, the only hope is that Mayor Menino & co. will get afraid +again from the Black crime and will find some resources to support +programs in Roxbury. + +Moreover, not only that this example very well works in this +psychotherapeutical-SI context of self-image, but it seems to be very +nice example of how the theory of reciprocity describes that “[people] +perceive that others are behaving cooperatively/shirking […] they +cooperate/retaliate.” + +All this is nice, but obviously this kind of anecdotical thinking is an +exact example of all wishful thinking which would be rightfully trashed +by Bernstein & co. And qualitative and interpretative research being +what it is, I do not see any way how to make this into testable theory +and how to eventually prove it. diff --git a/_posts/incompatibility.rst b/_posts/incompatibility.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0431a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/incompatibility.rst @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +category: + - research +title: Incompatibility between paradigms +date: 2005-05-14T21:07:00 +--- + +Two things. First of all, while reading (and marking up) newspaper +articles about The Ten Point Coalition, I have been again shocked how +much people could misunderstood world of Rev. Hammond (and tend to agree +with him on this point very much). Boston Globe from 2003-09-16 +reported, that gay activists were very surprised by his negative stance +on a gay marriage. I would brutally take this situation for my own +purposes to say, that this is kind of illustration of incompatibility of +the true conservatism with the democratic/republican dichotomy. +Although, most of his actions look like quite liberal (socialist) ones, +caring for poor, needy, disadvantaged, etc., he is not part of any +crowd. God bless him! diff --git a/_posts/intertwingling.rst b/_posts/intertwingling.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..abf08ed --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/intertwingling.rst @@ -0,0 +1,31 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Intertwingling +date: 2005-05-21T16:58:00 +--- + +Many Internet seers (e.g., `Nancy McGough`_) prophesied that the future +of messaging lies in intertwingling of all messaging platforms into one +stream of messages transported by different means. + +I have thought about cross-posting a message to two groups at +`Gmane.org`_ and I had to think how is Followup-To: header translated +into email lists. I have no idea—it is probably dropped without +replacement. However, during that moment I could clearly see how +newsgroups are actually very much different from email lists (where I +spent most of my discussion so far). It seems to me that with good use +of Followup-To: header and cross-posting the thread is actually much +more independent from the newsgroup were it originated and being +off-topic is much more rude than in email lists, where because of +email’s inferior capabilities there is not much to do when the +discussion genuinely shifts to the topic which is not related to the +main topic of the list. + +So when the intertwingling comes (and it is already coming) then only +the lowest common denominator will remain and everybody will get poorer. +Oh well. + +.. _`Nancy McGough`: + http://deflexion.com/messaging/ +.. _`Gmane.org`: + http://www.gmane.org diff --git a/_posts/jagged-fonts-update.rst b/_posts/jagged-fonts-update.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06396ee --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/jagged-fonts-update.rst @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Update on comment about “jagged fonts” in Linux +date: 2005-08-17T21:54:00 +--- + +I mentioned that I was using msttcorefonts_. They are good, but +`Dejavu fonts`_ are better. Highly recommended. + +.. _msttcorefonts: + http://packages.debian.org/msttcorefonts +.. _Dejavu fonts: + http://dejavu-fonts.org/wiki/Main_Page diff --git a/_posts/jagged-fonts.rst b/_posts/jagged-fonts.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3c8e69 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/jagged-fonts.rst @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Jagged fonts +date: 2005-03-31T02:26:00 +--- + +Tim Bray blogged about his `gripes with Mac OS X`_ and then among the +reasons why not to unswitch from Mac OS X he mentions "jaggedy spidery +fonts" and "fast start". Did he every heard about FreeType_ or +here_? Since I have installed msttcorefonts on my Debian_, I have +never seen any jagged fonts at all. And with fontconfig_ and its +support in KDE_, I have never had problems with installing all +beautiful fonts I can find (this_ is my favorite for writing). + +Concerning the fast start. Suspend/resume is supported in 2.6.\* Linux +kernel and there is even more stable and robust kernel patch +swsuspend2_, which is not dependent on sometimes rather hairy ACPI +support in Linux. + +.. _`gripes with Mac OS X`: + http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/03/29/Switch +.. _FreeType: + http://freetype.sourceforge.net/image/ft2-kde.png +.. _here: + http://freetype.sourceforge.net/image/ft2-nautilus.png +.. _Debian: + http://www.debian.org +.. _fontconfig: + http://www.fontconfig.org/ +.. _KDE: + http://kde.org +.. _this: + http://www.stormtype.com/free.html +.. _swsuspend2: + http://www.suspend2.net/ diff --git a/_posts/jesus-is-magic.rst b/_posts/jesus-is-magic.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3372525 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/jesus-is-magic.rst @@ -0,0 +1,111 @@ +category: + - research +title: Jesus is Magic +date: 2006-05-09T00:00:00 +--- + +(I really don’t know anything about `the movie`_, I just saw its poster +in the window store and the title looks barely OK for what I want to +write about.) + +It is about magical thinking. One of the most interesting people I met +in the last couple of months was Mario Bergner, episcopal priest whos +ministry is in the inner healing. He had a talk to us about magical +thinking and about persistence and staying in pain of unresolved +suffering. He explained his thoughts on Romans 5: + +>>>3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that +suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and +character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because +God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which +has been given to us. + +The point of this is, how do we live with present suffering. And I am +not talking about high-level stuff, like being in the concentration camp +or things like that. No, he was talking about everyday suffering caused +by unfulfilled desires and hopes—what is the God’s calling for my life, +how to finish my PhD thesis, and so forth. We have two major bad ways +how to deal with this issue. One is obvious and well known—just ignore +or try to persuade the problem that it doesn’t exist. When it is +possible, great! But most of the time, it is not possible. Or variant of +the same, we can decide, that acutally we don’t care about the +resolution of this problem that much—“whatever”. Unfortunately, the +problem is real and so we cannot just avoid the resolution. + +The other possible solution could be, what he calls “magical thinking”. +The problem is very well known, but the pain of being in the unresolved +situation is mitigated by the unfounded hope, that the solution will +somehow “resolv itself”. A boy looking for accquintance with a girl, may +just hope that somehow a girl will find him without any of his effort +(and just to emphasize, I do not mean effort to find a girl by his own +means; just an effort to live in the place, where God can bless him with +her). Mario Bergner mentioned that he has a number of friends who are in +their fourties coming through a mid-life crisis and dreaming about being +a priests themselves. His answer is simple—“just go and apply for the +study in seminary.” But that is for most people not enough. They want +solution **now** and hopefully without any of their effort. So they +don’t do anything and they get nothing. + +However, this need to act on the basis of God’s calling for something, +doesn’t mean legalism and dependency on our own effort. There is a third +pitfall to avoid (mentioned by other of my pastor-friends). He called it +“Christian unbelief in God”. The problem is that although most of the +full and healthy solutions for these problems is in the God’s power +only, and it cannot be replaced by our efforts, it looks plausible, that +we could at least make our pain more bearable. Unfortuantely, it doesn’t +work this way. Once we decide to resolve the pain and suffering on our +own and “as if God was not alive”, we shut-down his ability to heal us. +Moreover, practically, our own solution where we ourselves found today +is absolutely from the situation we will find ourselves couple of +months, or maybe a year or two. Therefore, the solutions we create +today, may not be applicable or may be outright misleading us from the +way the God has prepared for us in some time in the future. + +You ask, my dear reader, why is this rant in the category `research`_ +and not `faith`_? I believe that this problem on the personal level +can be very well transformed to the similar problem which plagues most +of social sciences and political practice on the level of whole society. +There is something in our environment, which is not what we like it to +be—for example, people are killing each other and we want to persuade +them not to do it. Or they have other people as slaves. + +There are in my opinion many bad reactions to these realities. The most +important problem with most of them is that we focus on this **problem** +(I am now using thoughts of `Dorothy Sayers`_ in “\ `The Mind of the +Maker`_\ ”). And instead of really understanding of what’s going on we +use any methods and tools to get rid of the presentation of the problem +as fast and as easily as possible. And the problem is not presenting +anymore in the appearance we defined as the problem, we claim that we +have managed to resolve the underlying causes of the problem. So, when +the fastest way how to eliminate slavery in the United States is to +raise a very blood Civil War with subsequent long history of racial +hatred and segregation, be it—Lincoln could claim that he had removed a +problem of slavery (accepting for a sake of this example, that removal +of slavery was among reasons for waging the war). And, to get finally to +the topic of my research, when the murder rate of the Boston youth (or +especially of the Boston youth) has decreased dramatically, everybody +congratulated themselves how much **they** removed the problem of the +crime wave. + +My point is that all such “problems” are usually just very shallow +presentation of the real problems in the structure of human society (or +maybe they are not problems at all—if James Fox is right and crime rate +in Boston could be largely predicted by the changes in demographic +variables, then they are mostly natural events as hurricane waves; +“hurricane prevention” anyone?). And if we wanted to help black +Americans in slavery or another set of black Americans killing each +other in our times, we need to get much deeper and develop much +long-time oriented strategy and then persist to keep it running until +real problems in the society are resolved, even when it could take fifty +years of continuous effort (and spending of taxpayers money). + +.. _`the movie`: + http://imdb.com/title/tt0422528/ +.. _research: + /blog/categories/research/ +.. _faith: + /blog/categories/faith/ +.. _`Dorothy Sayers`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Sayers +.. _`The Mind of the Maker`: + http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0060670770 diff --git a/_posts/lyx-structured.rst b/_posts/lyx-structured.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de78ae8 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/lyx-structured.rst @@ -0,0 +1,191 @@ +category: + - computer +title: LyX, OpenOffice.org, structured authoring, and me +date: 2005-05-02T18:48:00 +--- + +(This record is a slightly edited version of my `message to lyx-users +list`_. I would like to thank once more to the developers and all other +participants on the list for their very civilized tone of the +discussion.) + +Sometimes around 1998+ I was working in law firm and was persuaded that +Word is certainly not ideal, but probably the best what we can get and +only occasionally I was dreaming about something better, which would be +more helpful than just Word with its stupid styles (if you think, that +Word style are best thing since sliced bread, or even better than that, +then please define a style, which would have a first line intended +except when it is a first paragraph after a heading style or list). Then +I have learned more about HTML, structured authoring (separation of +style from presentation etc.), XML, etc. and found out that (especially +because I was moving out of legal field, so I did not need compatibility +with the rest of the M$ world so much) what I really want is some tool +which would enable me to focus on what I write and leave the +presentation for sometimes later or to somebody else. After playing with +some other stuff (namely lout_ and Amaya_), I finally settled with +LaTeX, mainly because of LyX_ (LyX supports partially Docbook/SGML, +but many parts — including bibliography support — are missing), which +allowed me to work on my stuff without being bothered about the +underlying stuff and because truly good XML tools (Epic_ from +ArborText) are terribly expensive and absolute overshoot for my needs (I +do not want to maintain my thesis and personal letters in Oracle SQL +database and paying $10k for that; thank you). Moreover, they usually do +not run on Linux that well (or at all). + +While working with LyX (currently I am working on my PhD thesis in +sociology/criminology/law-and-society) I’ve got really addicted to +BibTeX and nice support I get from LyX. Moreover, I love the simplicity +of the environment. You know, writing scientific papers is actually all +about sufficient number of characters put down on the paper — therefore, +I am really not that interested in OLE, WordArt, included live +spreadsheets, etc., but I need something where I could write a lot of +text and my attention (not that strong in the first place) is not +distracted by everything else (and the program is sufficiently fast in +the first place). Moreover, it is possible to change a lot of the +underlying programs to do more what could I do (so for example I am able +to include export of Docbook/XML into LyX menus — actually it is just a +small script which gets Docbook/SGML on input and then with sgml2xml +utility creates Docbook/XML. Unfortunately, there is no way how to +include support for some BibTeX-alike bibliographic system, so I am +stuck. + +While working with LyX I have unfortunately met some of its limitations +and I am getting more and more frustrated, because I feel that there is +actually so little what I really want (see below). + +* Although there is a pretty good crowd of LyX users, there is too small + pool of actual developers (BTW, I am not the one of them either, + because I just cannot spend a time to learn C++ and code in it) — just + some six of them in fact. + +* So although LyX probably cannot be considered dead yet, its + development is even slower than global warming and there are many + issues from small to big which are just not addressed. Moreover, the + program is in the state of perpetual rewrite and for couple of years + users have been calmed down by saying, that when this cycle of + complete rewrite will be finished programmers of the code will address + our wishes and concerns. I guess most of users gave up on hoping that + their concerns will be ever addressed, as I did. I am not saying that + these rewrites are not necessary, I have really no clue about + underlying programming, but I just do not feel that my concerns are + addressed at all and LyX is IMHO becoming to be “programmers’ project” + rather than “users’ project”, if you know what I mean. + +* Moreover, one of the projects which was silently dropped and will be + addressed probably sometimes around the time orange farms move from + Florida to Boston (or from Spain to my native Czechia) is support for + scripting of LyX. So users like myself cannot address themsevels some + small issues in the program itself — for example, LyX doesn’t have + Transpose Characters function (Ctrl-T in Emacs) and there is no way + how to emulate that. Kind of WYHIWYH (What You Have Is What You Have + — and that’s it). + +* I am getting more and more tired with LaTeX itself — it is not real + document format, but really just a heap of hacks how to make life at + least bearable and normal LaTeX document is usually just a mess of + code (environment and macro definitions), presentation stuff and some + actual text. LyX document is usually much better because most of the + non-document stuff can be hidden in LyX stylesheets (.layout files), + but then you get to utter dependency on LyX itself, and as I said + above I am getting more and more worried than LyX will soon die out + completely. + +* Even more so, because of OpenOffice, we cannot hope anymore for that + moment of conversion, when people would finally figure out that + structured authoring (and LyX) is better than WYSIWYG. If they do, + they will probably end up with OOo. + +* I have checked out what is actually available now in OOo and I was + quite shocked, that the situation is actually much better than what + I expected. Actually, I think, that in rudimentary (and not always + useable) form most of the stuff I am interested is there. And what is + more important, there is at least hope that most of my concerns will + be addressed — either through huge crowd of programmers (I know that + it is not ideal, but still there are more than six real programmers + working on OOo, aren’t they?) or (and that is for me the value of my + exercise with bibliography with Docbook) I can do actually a lot + myself — either in StarBasic or with XSLT in export filters. + +So what are my requirements? + +* easy-to-use WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean — LyX’s community + term for something very similar to “structured authoring”) tool. No, + I am not willing to go to PSGML_/nXML_ or whatever mode of + Emacs_, that’s not enough. + +* support for bibliography (actually, the thing I like about BibTeX is + that I can happily maintain the databse just with my text editor + — I have never really falled in love with the idea of dedicated + bibliographic managers; which makes my excitment about `MODS`_ etc. + slighlty smaller — I really will not want to maintain XML document + with vim anymore). Current support of bibliography sucks royally, but + I think it could be fixed to at least somehow workable state (limited + to just numerical citations for example) quite easily — citations + compression and inclusion of the page numbers into refernces would + make OOo working for me. + +* international support (I would love UTF-8, but I still survive with + inputenc, fontenc, & babel and 8bit encodings). And yes, I hate that + I still do not know how to persuade OOo that although my locale is + cs\_CZ I DO WANT to create mostly en\_US documents and so I want its + fields to generate things like “Bibliography” and not “Seznam použité + literatury”. + +* Stable document format — I have six years of work in LyX and LaTeX and + I do not want to use for my long-term storage any format which will + change in next five years six times. Which is the reason why I am + interested in Docbook_ and slightly cautious about new `OOo ISO + document format`_ — the format which is actually not shipped yet in + any real application is not what I am hoping for. However, export to + Docbook would have to be make covering all my document needs. + +Actually the last point illustrates some of my other frustration — it is +painful to see how many projects from many different sides are for so +long time really close my ideals and none of them really hits the bull’s +eye. I am mostly working in sociology, so I really do not need that much +advanced equations, complicated graphs, etc. and other complicated stuff +which is usually associated with `“document format for scholarly +authoring”`_ Probably the only four things I would need above HTML +(which I consider to be minimal format for this purpose) is: + +1. footnotes + +2. bibliographical citations + +3. table of contents + +4. generated cross references + +Some of these could be addressed with some simple namespaces over XHTML, +but there is just no-one who would provide complete set of tools and GUI +WYSIWYM environment for it. And it is frustrating to see how there are +many programs which are darn close — Amaya is the most obvious example +for many many years (`ThotEditor`_ seems to be failed attempt to do +something similar for Docbook). . + +.. _`message to lyx-users list`: + http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.editors.lyx.general/19370 +.. _lout: + http://snark.niif.spb.su/%7Euwe/lout/lout.html +.. _Amaya: + http://www.w3.org/Amaya +.. _LyX: + http://www.lyx.org +.. _Epic: + http://www.arbortext.com/products/epic_editor_datasheet.htm +.. _PSGML: + http://psgml.sourceforge.net +.. _nXML: + http://www.thaiopensource.com/nxml-mode/ +.. _Emacs: + http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ +.. _MODS: + http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/ +.. _Docbook: + http://www.docbook.org +.. _`OOo ISO document format`: + http://xml.coverpages.org/starOfficeXML.html +.. _`“document format for scholarly authoring”`: + https://web.archive.org/web/20060328034957/http://www.xmlshoestring.com/xml499/authoringrequirements +.. _ThotEditor: + http://nongnu.org/thoteditor diff --git a/_posts/mac-kde-fonts.rst b/_posts/mac-kde-fonts.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4bdd76 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/mac-kde-fonts.rst @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Once more on jagged fonts in KDE +date: 2005-04-28T07:09:00 +--- + +I have made Baghira_ working on my desktop (copying configuration from +notebook -- I have no idea, where I screwed up, but now it looks +perfect) and as a celebration of my return to emulated Mac world, I have +found a followup on the previous post about Linux fonts. There is very +interesting `comparison of Mac and KDE`_, with two very interesting +screenshots: `Mac screenshot`_ and `KDE screenshot`_. If I should +choose, then I would stay with my KDE. + +.. _Baghira: + http://packages.debian.org/kwin-baghira +.. _`comparison of Mac and KDE`: + http://www.valdyas.org/fading/index.cgi/software/linuxosx.html?seemore=y +.. _`Mac screenshot`: + http://www.valdyas.org/%7Eboud/images/osx.png +.. _`KDE screenshot`: + http://www.valdyas.org/%7Eboud/images/kde.png diff --git a/_posts/macros.rst b/_posts/macros.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43359be --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/macros.rst @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Bitching about macros +date: 2005-10-07T10:20:00 +--- + +After many years I got to work with `M$ Office`_ again and I got in +contact with one of my old feelings about various Linux office suites +(`Openoffice.org`_ may be slightly exception, but not `that much`_)—none +of them is suitable for high-level professional business work, because +they all fail in providing functional user macros. I mean real macros +for normal users who need to make their work goes faster by eliminating +repetitive tasks. Take this one Excel macro as an example: + +:: + + Sub CleanMissingJobCode() + ' + ' CleanMissingJobCode Macro + ' Macro recorded 10/5/2005 by mcepl + ' + ' Keyboard Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+X + ' + Application.ScreenUpdating = False + Selection.Cut + Selection.End(xlToRight).Select + ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select + Selection.End(xlUp).Select + ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select + ActiveSheet.Paste + Selection.End(xlToLeft).Select + Selection.End(xlDown).Select + ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select + Selection.Delete Shift:=xlUp + Selection.End(xlToRight).Select + Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlDown)).Select + Selection.ClearContents + Range(Selection.Offset(-1, 0), _ + Selection.Offset(0, 0)).Select + Selection.FillDown + ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select + ActiveCell.End(xlToLeft).Select + Application.ScreenUpdating = True + End Sub + +I don’t show this macro here, because of its beauty, but on the contrary +for its complete ugliness. The point is that although it is just result +of macro recording and a little cleaning afterwards (Excel’s Macro +Recorder put a lot of absolute references into the script) it *just +works(TM)*. Whenever I looked at macro facilities (or rather their bare +foundations) for Koffice_, it seemed like a foundation for “real +work”, i.e., programmer who would open his IDE, debbuger and other +development tools, and begin to develop some custom application based on +the office suite, using a lot of complicated DCOP calls etc. But I do +not want to do anything significant with macros—just make my spreadsheet +do some work for me! + +.. _`M$ Office`: + http://office.microsoft.com/ +.. _`Openoffice.org`: + http://scripting.openoffice.org/ +.. _`that much`: + http://framework.openoffice.org/proposals/macro/macrorecording.html +.. _Koffice: + http://www.koffice.org/developer/dcop/ diff --git a/_posts/miracle.rst b/_posts/miracle.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2804098 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/miracle.rst @@ -0,0 +1,39 @@ +category: + - research +title: Boston Miracle as a religious experience +date: 2005-06-22T23:09:00 +--- + +It was very interesting comment by Amy Farell—the important part of the +Boston Miracle is that it was described so much with the religious +subtone. City deeply immersed in the desperation, sin, and murder is +saved by the mission of pastors, who redeem poor black teenagers! It’s a +miracle!!! + +This comment reminded me also about my thoughts when reading +`Christopher Winship’s article`_. In the latter readings of this article +I saw quite strongly lack of critical attitude towards the object of his +writing, yes the article looks to me like a hagiography_ of +saint-to-be Eugene Rivers, Ray Hammond and police officers who talked +with them. I am not saying that they are not incredibly interesting +people (and maybe even candidates for sainthood; I am not a Catholic, so +I am not knowledgeable in that matter), but that scholarly article is +supposed to go deeper in its understanding. No, that’s too much—Winship +does offer a lot of analysis and it goes certainly further than just to +the description of the story. However, only later I found that there are +many other opinions on the whole preachers’ collaboration with police +and city government—namely that African-American (and I use this term +deliberately, instead of preferred “black”) politicians viewed whole +partnership as something between collaboration with enemy and expression +of the endless naivity `(CommonWealth magazine, Fall 2003, p. 66)`_. I +would love to look in my research to both of this debate. Although, I +have a tendency to believe volunteering minister more than unsuccesful +politican, I do not want to write yet another chapter in Eugene Rivers +hagiology. + +.. _`Christopher Winship’s article`: + http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/soc/faculty/winship/winshipp1.pdf +.. _hagiography: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagiography +.. _`(CommonWealth magazine, Fall 2003, p. 66)`: + http://www.massinc.org/handler.cfm?type=1&target=2003%2D4/black_power.html diff --git a/_posts/noMiracle.rst b/_posts/noMiracle.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a01eb75 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/noMiracle.rst @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ +category: + - research +title: What if there is no Miracle at all? +date: 2006-04-09T08:23:00 +--- + +The interview with Martella Wilson-Taylor (CEO of YWCA Boston) was +really inspiring for me. First of all her naked scepticism about any +Boston Miracle whatsoever was interesting. diff --git a/_posts/patent-madness.rst b/_posts/patent-madness.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5163634 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/patent-madness.rst @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Interview with Gary Edwards (ODF) and the madness of software patents +date: 2005-10-13T10:00:00 +--- + +If there is one line which could make anybody clearly understand madness +of the current U.S. practice of patenting everything, then it is this +one from `the interview with Gary Edwards`_ (one of co-authors of Open +Document Format): + +>>>Microsoft’s new strategy in this second war is patents. They’re +filing patents on how you use XML. They can’t *own* XML, so they are +filing patents on ideas of how you *implement* XML. They're current goal +is to file **at least 300 patents per day**, and they claim that they +want to double and triple that amount yearly. + +When I was in the law school, our professors used examples of Thomas +Alva Edison or Alexander Graham Bell (or their `Czech equivalents`_) to +explain why patents are useful for dissemination of groundbreaking +inventions and stimulating development, but there is no way that +Microsoft’s people would create 300 such groundbreaking inventions a +day. And the `only real software patent which IMHO would be worthy of +patenting`_ is in public domain. Well, `somebody is great`_ and somebody +has to fake it via legal methods. + +.. _`the interview with Gary Edwards`: + http://madpenguin.org/cms/index.php/?m=show&id=5304 +.. _`Czech equivalents`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franti%C5%A1ek_K%C5%99i%C5%BE%C3%ADk +.. _`only real software patent which IMHO would be worthy of patenting`: + http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/%7Eley/db/journals/spe/spe11.html#KnuthP81 +.. _`somebody is great`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth diff --git a/_posts/power-of-praise.rst b/_posts/power-of-praise.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c378e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/power-of-praise.rst @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Power of praise +date: 2005-05-13T00:00:00 +--- + + The point of this book (Merlin Carothers, “Power in Praise”) is not + to be polyannish, but to praise God **where we are**, and not to + praise him when (and if) we will be **where we want to be**. + +I have always had a problem with this praising God for everything and in +all situations by a “virtual Polyana” praising God for giving her +crutches on Christmas. The problem I had with this was it looked so much +like denial and against a personal vocation of truth and reality. +However, the truth of this praising is actually all about seeing the +reality of this actual God in this actual real life situation and +conditioning our praise on satisfaction of our desires. diff --git a/_posts/process.rst b/_posts/process.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..07e1cad --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/process.rst @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +category: + - research +title: Process +date: 2005-06-22T21:32:00 +--- + +The issue of analyzing for process (Strauss, Corbin, chap. 11) brings +another view on whole story of the Boston miracle. What kind of process +are we actually observing? What is routine, what is a reaction to +unexpected and what is emerging from the process? + +How does the changing image (from scary & dangerous city to community & +cooperation with satisfaction & glorification) influences the process? + +One thing is obvious—when I have turned to newspapers and image +analysis, I have also shifted from pure criminology towards something +which has in itself a lot of political science. Are there any lessons +about image-driven behavior already developed in the political science +which can be brought to criminology and to the theory of reintegrative +shaming & co.? diff --git a/_posts/purposefulness.rst b/_posts/purposefulness.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..56045a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/purposefulness.rst @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Back to the purposefulness +date: 2005-04-26T06:00:00 +--- + +There is this task in front of me and I have a limited time to fulfill +it. The same framework for work I strived to find in the legal work, I +should find in an academic one. And the root is the same — because I do +not believe that I could give correct answer (whatever it means in given +context), I try to find more and more evidence for what I say, so +finally I say nothing. Lord, have mercy! diff --git a/_posts/re-ooo.rst b/_posts/re-ooo.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ce9cda --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/re-ooo.rst @@ -0,0 +1,89 @@ +category: + - computer +title: (from discussion on OpenOffice.org questions list) +date: 2005-11-27T17:21:00 +--- + +Regexp is a fairly complex beast and probably quite unnatural unless you +have some sort of programming training. In that sense it is questionable +how useful regexps are in a generic word processor for the general +public, but if you happen to have regexp experience by using tools like +perl, awk, grep, lex and alike then you can express quite complex +searches efficiently. + +OK, first of all there is a famous `cite of Jamie Zawinski`_: ‘(Some +people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I’ll use regular +expressions.” Now they have two problems.)’ There is something about +that ``:-)``. Nevertheless, I use regexps quite often and when limited +to useful level of complexity, they could be quite useful. But, it +**is** difficult to use them and learning curve **is** quite steep. Perl +(probably the best and fastest implementation of RE currently available) +has four manpages for RE (perlrequick, perlretut, perlre, and +perlreref). + +Sideshow for serious geeks: first read this_, `its continuation`_, and +conclusion_. Explanation of this mystery is simple, but thought +provoking—\ `apparently Perl has support for REs so complex, that all +other RE implementations break down on them, but this complexity has its +cost in slightly lower speed`_. And BTW I do not use Perl if I don’t +have to (much prefer Python_, but apparently here Perl is better than +anybody else). + +Back to our main presentation tonight: there seems to be two ways how to +deal with REs in OpenOffice.org (and elsewhere). Either you will ignore +them, or you will bite the bullet and learn them. Actually, the first +way is not so ridiculous as it seems to be. As it was repeated many +times by vi-people (`vi-family editors`_ don’t have anything else than +RE for searching): “plain string is valid RE and as such will be +evaluated” (let’s ignore case sensitivity of REs for a moment); i.e., +when you are searching for “moron”, you can just put “moron” into your +RE field and everything will work as expected. Being in this position +you are not worse off, then if there were no REs at all. + +However, learning REs is not so difficult as it seems to be from looking +at some really advanced examples (yeah, sure you want some examples; +this RE in Python syntax ``r"(\d{3})\D*(\d{3})\D*(\d{4})\D*(\d*)$"`` +parses US phone numbers and returns their parts in different fields; +`courtesy of Mark Pilgrim`_). You can begin for starters with just +something so simple as “\ ``colou?r``\ ” and even that will be +incredibly helpful. Just throw “regular expression tutorial” into your +friendly Google and you will find a lot of stuff which can help. You +have to be aware only of couple of things—first of all, that there are +at least two incompatible lines of REs living well “in wild” (for more +info on that read `aricle on Wikipedia`_). The best way how to deal with +this is to learn just the type of RE used in the application you’re +going to use (for OOo I just randomly stumbled upon `some tutoliar on RE +in OOo`_). BTW, you could just go to Help “List of Regular Expression”, +but it is really just a reference material, which is not enough for +somebody who doesn’t what’s going on. + +The last thing—thank you, OOo developers, that you have included +full-size REs into OOo and not something crippled like `“wildcards” in +M$ Word`_ (which is just a small subset of REs packaged for non-geeks). +This and other things (XSLT filters and scripting, albeit the latter is +severly underdocumented) made OOo much more than just another free +office suite-like (there are others), but serious platform for doing +things in the proper geek-like way. Thanks! + +.. _`cite of Jamie Zawinski`: + http://www.jwz.org/hacks/marginal.html +.. _this: + http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/08/22/PJre +.. _`its continuation`: + http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/08/26/PJre2 +.. _conclusion: + http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/11/20/Regex-Promises +.. _`apparently Perl has support for REs so complex, that all other RE implementations break down on them, but this complexity has its cost in slightly lower speed`: + http://perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=502408 +.. _Python: + http://www.python.org +.. _`vi-family editors`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi +.. _`courtesy of Mark Pilgrim`: + http://www.diveintopython.org/regular_expressions/phone_numbers.html +.. _`aricle on Wikipedia`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression +.. _`some tutoliar on RE in OOo`: + http://homepage.ntlworld.com/garryknight/linux/ooregexp.html +.. _`“wildcards” in M$ Word`: + http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/assistance/HP051894331033.aspx diff --git a/_posts/real-false-self-SI.rst b/_posts/real-false-self-SI.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d95a6e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/real-false-self-SI.rst @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +category: + - research +title: Real self v. false self & symbolic interactionism +date: 2006-04-20T12:00:00 +--- + +To know that all SI is just a game, because in reality we are not just +who were made in the interactions. We don’t know any better how to +describe our personality, but we know that there is something more. And +we would love to know and we would love to see our own real image—which +is God’s image. diff --git a/_posts/rorh-in-iraq.rst b/_posts/rorh-in-iraq.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a9a696 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/rorh-in-iraq.rst @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ +category: + - faith +title: My first political blog +date: 2005-06-17T21:23:00 +--- + +Oh well, I tried to avoid falling into trap of commenting publicly all +the stuff I have no clue about, but I cannot avoid thinking about +politics, when I have finally found `Richard Roth’s quotation on pain`_: + + According to the Franciscan priest Richard Rohr, spirituality is not + for people who are trying to avoid hell; it is for people who have + been through hell. In many ways, spirituality is about what we do + with our pain. And the truth is, if we don’t transform it, we will + transmit it. + +(I know it is second-hand quotation, but I haven’t found anything +better, and this cite is repeated so many times over the web, that I +assume it is reasonably correct). + +I was listening to the `Christopher and Dorothy’s sermon about raising +children`_, where they quoted this claim by Rohr, and so I have finally +searched for it on the Web. I found it quoted many times, but I have +never found the original. However, I found one interesting `article by +Rohr about post-09/11 America`_. + +When I was cooking a dinner I was thinking about it, and one thing which +came to me very clear was thinking about Iraq and Afghanistan. How +actually there is much about transmitting pain in invading Iraq and how +little of true transformation happened in the United States after 09/11 +(transformation meaning especially μετάνοια—changing the ways we think +about the world). And in order that I would not be accussed of +anti-Americanism, then I have to say that other thing which came to my +mind in the same moment was doubts about the reasons why the Central +European countries (“New Europe” of Mr. Rumsfeld) participated in the +invasion to Iraq. It seems to me that there is something about cynical +calculation of safe playing on the same side as the biggest guy on the +playing field, maybe even subserviency to the stronger guy. + +However, despite writing this I am not sure, that whole Iraq campaign is +necessarily bad decision—besides getting rid of the Saddam Hussain, +whole Middle East may be really shaken up to reform itself to more +democracy and eliminate the Islam fundamentalism in the long run. Just +that not all reasons for doing this were noble and pure. Who knows about +the future? + +.. _`Richard Roth’s quotation on pain`: + http://thecorner.typepad.com/bc/2004/04/transform_not_t.html +.. _`Christopher and Dorothy’s sermon about raising children`: + http://sermons.cambridgevineyard.com/050612-sermon.mp3 +.. _`article by Rohr about post-09/11 America`: + http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/2185.htm diff --git a/_posts/stalled-inovation.rst b/_posts/stalled-inovation.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be3076b --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/stalled-inovation.rst @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Stalled inovation +date: 2006-08-10T17:34:00 +--- + +I am still thinking about scriptshow incredibly useful they are and how +surprisingly little of them are in GUI-Linux world. Given the fact, that +every Linux user (not talking about programmers) knows very well how +scripting capabilities could be useful for everybody (not only for +programmers), I would expect that every Linux application would be +script-enabled sooner than application from any other environment. It is +not so. From major applications, there is a long list of those which do +not have scripting or the one they have is inferior. Even OpenOffice.org +(which is probably the most advanced in this area) has scripts which are +such mess, that even thousand-times cursed VBA is just a dream against +it—talking to a scripting user about +``com.sun.star.style.CharacterProperties`` (and that is one of the +shorter names) is just not good. And I am not even talking about most +KDE applications (which I otherwise prefer)—they have either nothing_ +or something terribly unusable (kate_ is going to get some reasonable +scripting only in upcoming 3.5 version). And that’s even worse given the +fact that underlying KDE technology has so excellent `inter-application +scripting technology`_. + +Now, another sad story from the world of Linux. I was reading Tim Bray’s +`blog about expiration`_ of his `RDF challenge`_. I have tried to get +bigger picture of what he is talking about, so I read also `his +introduction to RDF`_ and I was struck as with a lighting—he is talking +about my beloved pet, bibliography and sucking BibTeX! You see, I am +becoming to be a social scientist and I used to be a lawyer. And in +academic writing in both of these professions there is huge amount of +references which needs to be quoted. So, for example my wife (who is a +linguist—other heavily referencing area of science) switched immediately +from Word after her first simple article written in `LyX`_ —convenience +of having all bibliography material in one file is just so big, that the +switch was just not question. So, it is obvious that having separate +bibliography database and the referring document as such is The Right +Thing™. However, then we get to the blue part of the story—almost only +usable bibliography manager in the world of Linux (and in the Free +software world itself) is [BibTeX]. + +http://hamish.blogs.com/mishmash/2004/01/bibliographic_r.html + +.. _nothing: + http://koffice.kde.org +.. _kate: + http://kate.kde.org +.. _`inter-application scripting technology`: + http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/3.5-api/kdelibs-apidocs/dcop/html/index.html +.. _`blog about expiration`: + http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/10/24/RDF.net +.. _`RDF challenge`: + http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/21/RDFNet +.. _`his introduction to RDF`: + http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/01/24/rdf.html +.. _LyX: + http://www.lyx.org diff --git a/_posts/technorati.rst b/_posts/technorati.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f417723 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/technorati.rst @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Technorati +date: 2005-12-22T19:45:00 +--- + +Just that I would like to register this blog with Technorati_ and they +want to see `the link to my profile`_ here. + +And just for kicks_ -- this is HTTP_ + +.. _Technorati: + http://www.technorati.com +.. _`the link to my profile`: + http://technorati.com/claim/8jvks7m5uj +.. _kicks: + http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/%7ejpheale/help_spam_google.html +.. _HTTP: + http://www.w3.org/Protocols/ diff --git a/_posts/thinking.rst b/_posts/thinking.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f364a76 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/thinking.rst @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +category: + - research +title: So, what is the problem with The Ten Point Coallition? +date: 2005-09-22T18:01:00 +--- + +Or actually is there any problem at all? Well, there seem to be +problems—Rivers fights with Hammond (and vice versa?), there are no +money for after-school activities, and it is not that important whether +the number of murders actually increases, or whether it was just return +to mean. Why is it so much dependent on the federal budget, cannot +Menino let some money go into anti-crime prevention? Or is it? Actually, +how much The City of Boston spends on this? I should get some kind of +annual reports of TPC and Boston in this area. + +Or is there an alternate version, that TPC served its purpose and now +something else should be built up? How much can TPC serve as a provider +of after-school care and high-risk prevention activities? Could and +should they do what DYC is supposed to do (or is it)? Why should it be +done by pastors and not by professionals? + +Or is just a simple sad old story of people so celebrating their own +success and trying to make themselves bigger by grandioze plans, that +the original thing is kindly forgotten? + +There are so many questions and not enough answers. Even worse, most of +the questions are rather nasty and suspicious, and I have no idea how to +keep myself in believing into innocence until proven guilty and yet to +ask some hard questions those who are ‘suspects’ themselves. diff --git a/_posts/three-streams-christianity.rst b/_posts/three-streams-christianity.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ad8c05 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/three-streams-christianity.rst @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Three streams in the Christianity +date: 2005-11-02T18:01:00 +--- + +`Today Dave‘s sermon`_ was mainly about the prophetic stream in the +Christianity, but before that he was talking about *three different +streams of the ministry* —I was quite pleasantly surprised that his three +different streams of Christianity were apparently pretty similar to what +I was thinking on the similar theme (although I had only two streams in +my model). + +The original idea comes from my reading of Floyd McClung’s “\ `Father +Makes Us One`_\ ”—he mentions that many clashes in churches is caused by +two different streams in the church: on the one hand there are +missionary groups trying to primarily reach to unsaved and then there is +the body of local Church itself, which is mainly focused on development +of current Christians and the body of Christ. I think that this is very +right, but I tried to extend this theory from just practical advice on +how to avoid conflicts in the Church to more general theory of many +conflicts in the Church as whole. On the one side there are whom I would +call “pastors”—people who are deeply interested in building Church +(particularly specific local congregation), they care for current +Christians, cry with them somewhere in the corner struggling with their +personal issues, they study (often poor) popular books on psychology, +they support diversity a enjoy spritiual (and psychological) depths (in +their best members they could be great mystics). And there are +“missionaries”—they running out to the world catching unbelievers and +dragging them to Christ, they expect everybody to be pagan and object of +their missionary activities (just kidding :-)), they are usually +congregated in different para-denominational organizations, they are +deeply involved in the sprititual warfare, while the pastors may have +tendency to be sometimes too liberal (in the theological meaning of the +world), the biggest temptation for them is legalism and superficiality +(they have usually tendency to be more interested in the business +management and marketing of missionary work then in the mysticism). Of +course, that these are just a caricatures made into the extremes, but I +think that they may well illustrate my point. + +I thought that I could go even further and deeper (you can see, that I +have a tendency to be more “pastor” ``:-)``), and that this dichotomy +could be paralleled in the dichotomy between masculinity and feminity +(we all, both men and women, have both qualities and each of has some +combinations of them). Whereas pastor tends to have more developed +feminine qualitites (Church as relationships among people and with God), +missionaries are more on the masculinity side (Church as an army and +organization), and the parallel could go even further. I believe that +both types of Christians are absolutely necessary for healthy life of +the Church, but it is clear to me that their coexistence has to lead to +conflicts, which have to be acknowledged and solved, so that these two +types of Christians could live together (Biblical note: it seems to me +that these two types of personal traits could not be combined without +problems into one person—Jesus could be an exception from this +rule—because even God did not create one universal human man-woman, but +Adam and Eve). Which lead again to the better vision of the need for +unity of Church, and to see how much it is a pitty, that Christians are +talking so little with one another (and yes, the situation is slightly +better in Czechia than here in the States—thanks to Communists for +that). Even worse, not only that we do not talk with one another but we +are pretty busy creating artificial barries make such communication even +more complicated (see my inability to go to the Lord’s supper at the +Catholic conferences). + +OK, so this was my idea about the two types of Christians, which Dave +made even more complicated. I do not want to give up on the wonderful +parallels with masculinity/feminity, but it is true that without +including the third type of Christianity and Christians it is hard to +deal with (for example) the Black Church, with the Christian activism; +the pastors I saw in Roxbury are hugely different from the evangelical +crowd I know best, and this different part is certainly a lot about +active participation in turning your own community around (be in your +church or not). + +Of course, much more important then this dry theoretical catalogization +of Christians was Dave’s call to the ministry of justice and care for +the poor. There is really no way how to get around the fact, that +substantial part of the Bible (including famous Micheas 6:8) put care +for the poor and disfavored among the most important parts of faith +(much more important then more religious activities). “Religion that is +pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans +and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the +world.” (James 1:26) Suddenly it seems to be more important then +personal religiosity, prayers, sacraments, and many other things which +are so important. + +And yet, I do not know much how to begin this ministry. I know, I heard +many times, that the Lord Jesus did not favor anybody, but does it mean, +that I should give away all my money (or at least some money) to the +random beggars I meet on the street? Probably not. Does it mean, that I +should do something myself? Probably yes, but what? I am consoling +myself, that we care for Andulka and participate in the Living Waters, +but does it mean, that the poor care that much? I do not know. Should I +rise my butt and go to help to some soap kitchen or something of that +sort? I do not know. Probably, I will just keep this on a back burner +(in the same way I deal with evangelization), and if I will meet an +opportunity, then I will participate. However, what is the opportunity I +am waiting for (“You will have always enough poor”)? I do not know. + +.. _`Today Dave‘s sermon`: + http://sermons.cambridgevineyard.com/051009-sermon.mp3 +.. _`Father Makes Us One`: + http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0961553421/ diff --git a/_posts/two-biblical-notes.rst b/_posts/two-biblical-notes.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3963df5 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/two-biblical-notes.rst @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +category: + - faith +title: Two Biblical notes (from VCFC sermons) +date: 2005-07-08T12:27:00 +--- + +`Deut. 5:9f`_ —these are not about different generations, but God is +offering to all of us both blessing and curse—blessing for thousand +generations and yes, we should be aware of the possibility of a curse +for four generations. This is probably more about being aware of +possible consequences of our action (even for the following +generations), however (so that we are not that much frightened) God +immediately adds that his blessing is much more powerful than curses we +bring on heads of us and four following generations. + +`Sirach 35:21-23`_ —the prayer once prayed will not rest until it will do +great things! + +.. _`Deut. 5:9f`: + http://www.studybibleforum.com/htm_php.php3?do=show_node_root&b=5&c=5&v=9&show_ti=0&show_ts=0&show_user_id=0&show_question_id=0 +.. _`Sirach 35:21-23`: + http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/sirach/sirach35.htm#v17 diff --git a/_posts/two-hopes.rst b/_posts/two-hopes.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc4ece0 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/two-hopes.rst @@ -0,0 +1,149 @@ +category: + - research +title: Two images and two hopes +date: 2005-08-27T10:38:00 +--- + +This is probably the most obvious conclusion from reading of all the +materials about the Boston Black community (shouldn’t I use term +“neighborhood” as describing just geographical proximity of its +members?), but in the spirit of Len’s theorem that all sociology is +either common sense or non-sense, I should not forget to record it as +well. + +There seems to be two images, two lines of thought, and two hopes +present in both primary and secondary literature on the Boston Black +community. First there are those (let’s call them “liberals”, but it is +not a good label, because it implies too much homogeneity in their +thinking and too much about what they think) who think that the most +important things in the Boston are *causes* — prejudice, racism, +government neglect and many others. I do not know whether they have any +hope at all, but if anything then they would like to install justice and +apportion blame to all who caused the current situation. The other group +of people is much less concerned about the causes of the current +situation and much more about its possible *solutions*. I have two +examples to show it. First is from the article “Putting our minds +together for community—young leaders share their wisdom on prejudice, +bad schools, lost opportunities” (Boston Globe, March 5, 2000, C3): + + There is also a problem on the development side, or the side of the + built environment, where we don’t really realize the potential and + value of what we have. The number one thing of value in our city is + our intellectual capital, our ability to put our minds together to + think about an idea. That is something that all of us here as + panelists share, how we think about things. But the problem is, + while there is an incredible resource structure in the city … it is + inaccessible to people that live in the neighborhoods. + + So we have these great schools, these great museums, and these great + places, but even the young people that are in my program in MYTOWN + couldn’t tell you where the MFA was. They couldn’t tell you the last + time they’d been to the JFK Library. + + All of the wealth that we have in the city, [and] the 574,000 + Bostonians who live here and their children, the 60,000 young people + that are in the schools, they may as well live in another state. + That’s a problem in terms of our resources, how we distribute them, + how we understand them, and how we value the people that live here. + It’s a big problem. + + […] + + The second thing is to understand that we are a city of great + wealth, wealth that is material, wealth that is unseen as well as + seen, and to put that to work for our city. … Take all those … + underutilized resources—urban youth, urban communities—and let it be + a benefit to the community, because we are sitting on vast assets + that we do not realize. + + So many people come from outside of Boston, from all over the world, + and tell us how great it is, but we are blind to it. + +This sounds to me like a great example of speech by experienced +community development professional and I would dare to say, politician. +It doesn’t say much about specific proposed solutions, but it offers +unification of all parties (“That is something that all of us here as +panelists share, how we think about things.”) and then to all those such +united parties his own solution is put into their mouth (“But the +problem is, while there is an incredible resource structure in the city +… it is inaccessible to people that live in the neighborhoods.”). All +language is economical, promising, and very non-specific. + +Contrast this with this quotation from the article (created in context +of the Democratic Convention in Boston) “Jesse Jackson’s Dressing–Down +of Boston on Race Draws Rebuttals” (Mens’ News Daily, August 1, 2004): + + Jesse Jackson, the nation’s leading purveyor of identity politics, + came to Boston to practice his shtick and received his comeuppance. + + […] + + This was the past that Jackson sought to exploit when he came into + town for the Democrats’ convention with one of his familiar lectures + aimed at eliciting concessions in the form of racial preferences and + wealth redistribution. Speaking to the press on the second day of + the convention, Jackson publicly chastised the city for what he saw + as its lack of racial progress and failure to adequately serve as a + “shining light on the hill.” + + […] + + But then an unexpected thing happened: Boston’s political leadership + did not bend over backwards in a fit of apologies to appease the + Rev. Jackson. Instead, they fired back in defense of the city’s + strides in race relations. + + “It’s nice he comes into our city and makes a statement like that,” + Boston Mayor Thomas Menino sarcastically retorted. He told the + Boston Herald that in his 11 years as mayor, Jackson has never + contacted him to discuss any racial or other issue involving the + city. + + African-American activists who actually work regularly in Boston’s + black neighborhoods also took issue with Jackson’s comments. + “Jesse’s talking trash and blowing smoke,” said the Rev. Eugene + Rivers, chairman of the Ten Point Coalition. “This is Jesse’s + showboat.” + + Rivers seconded Menino’s assessment of Jackson’s lack of involvement + in Boston: “Jesse Jackson has never, ever come to me or any of the + black clergy that work on the streets of the city of Boston. Jesse + has been too big to actually meet with the black clergy that work in + the trenches and have been doing that for many years, so we are sort + of mildly amused that Jesse has so much to say about something he + knows so little about.” + + The Boston Herald also reported the reaction of a black state + legislator who immigrated to the Boston area from Haiti in 1969. “I + guess the reverend is entitled to his opinion,” said Democratic + state Rep. Marie St. Fleur, “but as an individuals who was raised + here, in the city of Boston, I have seen an experienced major + changes. To tell me there hasn’t been progress is not real for me.” + +I abbreviated the article just to parts relevant to the discussed issue +and I have removed all opinions of the author (which were rather +conservative). However, I think that even this list of quotations makes +a pretty good picture of the rift between two different pictures about +the Black community problems (of course, I do not pretend that Jessie’s +speech was just motivated by pure intellectual reasons, and I can easily +accept that he was probably more trying to make points without any real +concern and knowledge about the reality on the ground). If there was any +Boston miracle, then it seems to me that one of the most important +components of it was this ability to step over the past hurt and talk +with people who were (and who still are) viewed as one’s enemies. + +Which leads to more personal comment on whole issue. I have to repeat to +myself, that if I want to make something sensible from my research then +I have to use whole of my person in it and so it is no surprise that I +will see in my research issues of forgivness and reconcilliation. Which +also reminds me that I should study some history of White-Black +relations in 1970s’ Boston. + +*{added later}* Again, it is about hope. I remember talking with a +pastor who claimed that the biggest issue of the young gang members +which led them to gangs is lack of hope for their future. Unless you are +a basketball wizard, super-super-smart, from rich family (at least so +that they can afford college), or you go into army, there is no hope for +you to get out of Roxbury and the only way which you were told by your +parents (if there are any) and people around you is that the only hope +is to sell drugs and make quick bucks. diff --git a/_posts/utf8.rst b/_posts/utf8.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..953044e --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/utf8.rst @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Finally, UTF-8 locale (and about Compose) +date: 2005-09-23T01:16:00 +--- + +I have finally bitten the bullet and switched my locale to +`cs\_CZ.UTF-8`_. When still writing this blog in gvim (`the end of my +relation with vim`_ and here_), I begun to write it in `UTF-8`_ and it +was such a relief. Suddenly, I didn‘t have to use ugly kludges like \`\` +or --. Of course, the problem is that there are so many supplementary +characters which could be suddenly used, that no keyboard layout is able +to handle all of them (I think) and some other solution has to be found. +Vim has digraphs_ which are really quite useful, but as everything +else in vim, there is no connection to the outside world. Switch to +Kate/KWrite was very pleasant issue, but obviously there are no digraphs +native to them. My first reaction was to use `HTML entities`_ and +translate them to the pure UTF-8 version with `my special Python +script`_. However, I felt very strongly that this is not the way. + +`I asked on cz.comp.linux`_ about experience of people with inserting +these non-keyboardish characters and the answer was “Use Compose key”. I +begun to search on Google for the answer how to make it work and finally +I found that actually the best source of information about the +combinations of keys for Compose (aside from `the article on +Wikipedia`_) is `directly in my computer`_. The only problem was that +with ISO 8859-2 based locale only very small part of keys actually +worked. This was the last straw which broke my back of resistance +towards switching whole computer to UTF-8. The problem is (as always) +`Midnight Commander`_, which Debian version doesn’t work with UTF-8 at +all (especially, panel frames are affected by this). So, again, Googling +and Googling until I've found `this thread on some discussion board`_, +which contains `a link to patched version of MC`_ (requires also +`non-standard version of slang`_), which somehow works in my console. +However, MC is not a critical for me anymore, now when Krusader_ is +finally `stable enough and featurefull enough to compete with MC`_. + +One more problem—when I have switched to UTF-8 many filenames with +accented characters were suddenly broken. I thought that Linux +filesystems store all metada in UTF-8 already. Oh well, they probably +don’t. So I had to run output of ``locate`` through ``cstocs`` and then +to find out with ``diff`` what all has been changed. + +Looking at all this issue with at least some distance, it seems to that +actually Compose key combines best from all the options—it works as well +as vim’s digraphs, but it is X11-wide, which is cool (and yes, of +course, it is much better than M$-Windows’s ``Alt+<number>``). + +.. _`cs\_CZ.UTF-8`: + http://www.cestina.cz/pocestovani/unix/ +.. _`the end of my relation with vim`: + http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.maint.kde/browse_frm/thread/17b2a7cdaf669266/ +.. _here: + http://groups.google.com/group/comp.editors/browse_frm/thread/efa5636fb753e83d/ +.. _`UTF-8`: + http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/unicode.html +.. _digraphs: + http://www.vim.org/htmldoc/digraph.html +.. _`HTML entities`: + http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/entities/ +.. _`my special Python script`: + http://www.ceplovi.cz/matej/progs/scripts/deent +.. _`I asked on cz.comp.linux`: + http://groups.google.com/group/cz.comp.linux/browse_frm/thread/f86c0425956b296c/ +.. _`the article on Wikipedia`: + http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compose +.. _`directly in my computer`: + file:///usr/X11R6/lib/X11/locale/en_US.UTF-8/Compose +.. _`Midnight Commander`: + http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=242194 +.. _`this thread on some discussion board`: + http://forum.ubuntu.ru/index.php?topic=83.msg529#msg529 +.. _`a link to patched version of MC`: + http://yuozhny.ru/deb/mc/mc_4.6.0-1_i386.deb +.. _`non-standard version of slang`: + http://yuozhny.ru/deb/mc/mc_4.6.0-1_i386.deb +.. _Krusader: + http://www.krusader.org +.. _`stable enough and featurefull enough to compete with MC`: + http://linuxtoday.com/developer/2005060900426NWCYSW diff --git a/_posts/video-of-my-guadec-presentation-is-now-available.rst b/_posts/video-of-my-guadec-presentation-is-now-available.rst index 3f4262d..d054b90 100644 --- a/_posts/video-of-my-guadec-presentation-is-now-available.rst +++ b/_posts/video-of-my-guadec-presentation-is-now-available.rst @@ -1,9 +1,9 @@ title: 'Video of my GUADEC presentation is now available!' categories: + - computer - bugTriage - jetpack -date: "2011-02-22 16:06:00" -tags: +date: 2011-02-22T16:06:00 --- So, finally being made active by Ehsan_, I have cut a relevant portion @@ -14,7 +14,9 @@ T-shirt, so sound is sometimes awful. .. raw:: html - <video controls src="http://blip.tv/file/get/Mcepl-GUADEC2010bugzillascripts864.webm" height="480" width="640"></video> + <iframe width="420" height="315" + src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/77J8iwTO9Vk" frameborder="0" + allowfullscreen></iframe> Enjoy! diff --git a/_posts/whoAmI.rst b/_posts/whoAmI.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddeebd4 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/whoAmI.rst @@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Who am I? +date: 2006-05-25T11:11:00 +--- + +OK, the perennial question of humanity – “Who am I?” was resolved. At +least for me. According to `The Simpsons Personality Test`_, I am +Lisa_. Yeah, she always seemed to be kind of nice :-). + +.. _`The Simpsons Personality Test`: + http://www.matthewbarr.co.uk/simpsons/ +.. _Lisa: + http://www.matthewbarr.co.uk/simpsons/lisa.htm diff --git a/_posts/why-yzis.rst b/_posts/why-yzis.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1377af --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/why-yzis.rst @@ -0,0 +1,122 @@ +category: + - computer +title: Why lua? or questions about yzis +date: 2005-04-13T23:45:00 +--- + +(This article is a slightly edited version of my post to `comp.editors`_ +newsgroup). + +I just want to vent my frustration with state of vim on KDE. I hoped +that in the Unix world we will get sooner or later even in GUI world to +the situation equivalent to the one at console, where you have your +$EDITOR set and everything just works (of course, I have it empty, so +vim is what I get). However, as far as I can tell I have these options +at the present (using KDE 3.3.2): + +* suck it up and use native KWrite & co. Not that this option wouldn’t + have some temptation for me (coming originally from M$-Windows, + although many years ago, I still feel rather well with Shift+arrows, + Ctrl+[xcvspo]), but there are two things missing: + +1. scripting -- although Kate is going to have support for KJS Very + Soon(TM) it will take years (if ever) to have so developed base of + scripts as there is currently available for vim (and Emacs, but my + religious needs are well satisfied by my Lord Jesus Christ, I do not + need any other religion, thank you :-)). Currently I am getting + really dependent on VimOutliner (I am a Debian maintainer of its + package), I am in the process of developing Qualitative analysis + tools based on Vim (and some Qt-C++ dialogs, maybe later KDE, but + I have to learn programming with KDE and C++ first), I have ongoing + flirt with vim-latexsuite, etc. + +2. and it wouldn’t help me anyway, because there are so many programs + which don’t use kpart technology for the editing (KMail, KNode -- + that one at least is willing to open external editor in new window, + how is the situation with editing box in Konqueror?); shoot! I know + `it is not KVim’s developers’ fault`_, but it seems to me that + non-availability of any good KDE vim editor doesn’t help (see below). + +* Forget about KDE-only solution and use GVim for Gnome (which is what + I do now). Aside from being plain ugly (sorry, I am used to KDE + look&feel; consider my brain to be degenerated if you are Gnome user), + I get really crappy support for vimpart (it basically doesn’t work at + all) and of course full power of vim (which is what matters most, so + I am grinding my teeth and hold it). + +* Hope for something better. + +The most frustrating part of this situation is that there doesn’t seem +to be any good solution coming, so point #3 sucks a lot. KVim is +officially dead (although it sucked in many ways, it was by far the best +solution to at least some of my problems and I was its somehow happy +user, until it was eliminated from Debian) and there doesn’t seem to be +any replacement coming. + +Now, we are getting to yzis. Of course, that I know about that, but I am +afraid it won’t be answer to my problems. I have tried to install M3++ +(from the package 20050430-1) and I found it to be somehow nice but +alpha quality. Nothing bad about that (I have a four month daughter, so +I know that we were all young and we all did mess into diapers), but +worse thing is that kyzis doesn’t seem to be much promising. + +However, before saying anything else, let me note one more thing. This +message is about personal gripes and I do not want to say that you +should even react to them -- I perfectly understand that you are +volunteers doing what matters to you and you have no obligation towards +me whatsoever. Let me just vent my frustration, please. + +1. NIH syndrom everywhere -- why in the h..ll, it is not just a KDE C++ + clone of vim? Why it is not compatible with vim’s syntax files and + scripts? The most important reason, why I am not using + Kate/KWrite/etc. is that I have all these scripts available for vim. + And I do not think, that anybody will redevelop VimOutliner, and + myriad other small scripts in Lua, just because it is theoretically + better language than the vimscript one (and I don’t like it that + much, but it doesn’t matter -- Perl is also ugly as hell and yet how + successful it is). Have you ever saw `a list of Emacs clones`_? It is + quite long and impressive list of totally dead projects, and they are + all dead, because Gnus doesn’t work there (or Calc, or AucTeX, or + PSGML, or fill-in any other popular Emacs mode). And BTW, elvis and + vile are IMHO not doing that well against vim either (whenever, I ask + something about vi, it is assumed I mean vim), but I may be terribly + wrong in this respect. + + Or in other words, isn’t creating yet another vi clone with GUI + extension, something similar to rewriting program (actually, it is + rewriting a program)? For that see, of course, `Joel on software`_ + and `Jamie Zawinski’s comment about Apple choosing KHTML instead of + Gecko for Safari`_ or here_. + +2. Although I am not programmer, so I cannot comment much about reasons + why KVim was killed, I still do not feel right about it. After all, + it DID work. Poorly, but at least as a proof of concept it was + persuasive enough to make it work well, wasn’t it? Now, we will have + to wait for couple of years before yzis stabilize, before we can + repeat argument on KMail/KNode/etc. people to finally use kpart for + editor, and even after that the result will be suboptimal to well + working kvim. Oh, well. + +3. It is slow as molasses. I understand that it is alpha-version, but + having an experience with kvim (and to some extent with gvim and + kwrite as well), I am really afraid that it is going to be far from + vim, I was used to. There used to be a times, when vi users joked + about EMACS, that it is “Eight Megabytes And Constantly Swapping”. + Well, ``free`` shows that I have 250 MB of RAM, but still I think + that this joke went slightly out of popularity these days. Oh well. + + +I wonder what reactions I will get on NG. + +.. _`comp.editors`: + news:comp.editors +.. _`it is not KVim’s developers’ fault`: + http://groups-beta.google.com/group/linux.debian.maint.kde/browse_thread/thread/d8863e0dd351e54 +.. _`a list of Emacs clones`: + http://www.faqs.org/faqs/emacs-implementations/ +.. _`Joel on software`: + http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html +.. _`Jamie Zawinski’s comment about Apple choosing KHTML instead of Gecko for Safari`: + http://news.com.com/2100-1023-980492.html +.. _here: + http://www.jwz.org/gruntle/nomo.html diff --git a/tags/index.md b/tags/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6500e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/tags/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +title: tags +type: tags +--- |