"This emphasis on thinking as the solution to our problems fails to introduce the Person who has come not only to change the way we think about life, but to change us as well. We are more than thinkers. We are worshipers who enter into relationship with the person or thing we think will give us life. Jesus comes to transform our entire being, not just our mind. He comes as a person, not as a cognitive concept we insert into a new formula for life."

from How People Change.

This quote resonates with me on lots of levels. I like the reference to the fact that we are worshipers. Whether it is Apple, Jaguar, Starbucks, Barry Bonds, or John Calvin, people naturally devote themselves to things. I also like the reminder that a relationship with Christ is not all about theory. It is a whole body, mind, soul, heart, experience because it is a relationship not a technique. Finally an error that the quote refers to is the error of thinking that good design will solve all problems. This thought is the institutional sin of my entire line of work.

Just thought you might like to see what Inbox Zero looks like baby! Oh yeah.... To do list infinity but inbox zero. That mean no emails. Nothing on my desk. Nothing on my table. Nothing in my inbox. Nothing on my bed. Nothing on the file cabinet. It's all in the system. Now to get cracking...

Take that Mike.

The Chief Household Officer reports that the reinforcements have arrived. It is not clear whether or not this is a fresh recruit or a seasoned "refurbished" veteran. It is enough to say that this is the turning point in the battle for progress.

The religious right (in the media) are complete hypocrites. I cannot believe that anyone is endorsing Guiliani just so that they can support a Republican candidate. It tells me that their all consuming issues of homosexuality and abortion are nothing more than manipulations to keep an iron in the fire of power. Because now, sticking to their guns on those issues promises to kick them out of the Republican power circle because Guiliani supports both homosexual rights and abortion. What is a modern-day Pharisee to do? Just change your convictions. Now they shift the focus of the fear away from gays and unwed pregnant teens to terrorists. They continue to keep Christians afraid so that they can retain power. News flash: Jesus commands Christians "Do not be afraid" here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Of course, "not being afraid" only makes sense if God is guiding your steps, sanctifying your suffering, and guarding your future. So if you aren't a Christian, then being afraid is completely rational. Maybe that explains the religious right's constant fear.

So, I've had it. Facing a future of Hillary Clinton vs. Rudy Giuliani. I've switched parties to being a Democrat so that I can vote for Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries.

He is not the savior. He is a politician. His administration will be sinful and corrupt. But I think he is a better option then the rest of the field.

Here is a brilliant speech by Obama on reconciling faith and politics.

"Folks tend to forget during our founding that it wasn't the atheists and civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the 1st amendment. It was the persecuted minorities, it was Baptists like John Leland who didn't want the Congregationalists and the established churches from imposing thier views on people who were getting happy in the fields and teaching the Scriptures to slaves. It was the forebears of the Evangelicals who were the most adamant about not mingling government with religion because they did not want state sponsored religion hindering their ability to practice their religion as they understood it."

This was so outrageous that it deserved a blog entry:

"An email mailbox represented as a 3D, virtual LAX airport. in this "world's coolest email program", based on the origin or destination of the email, each message is depicted by any of over 80 world airlines (e.g. for UK, it comes by Virgin or British Airways). emails with attachments are carried by the couriers: FedEx, UPS, DHL, and CargoLux. in addition to the pilot chatter & roaring engine noises, the 3D world depicts has both day & night scenes"

Click on the trailer on the left.

I found out about it from information aesthetics

The home espresso machine has gone down! We had to call in reinforcements. All of our coffee gear mustered on the table ready for duty. We have been relying primarily on French press and drip these last few days (at home - at work all is quiet on the front).

The remarkably anti-Murphy's law bit of intelligence that has arrived from the Chief Household Officer is that the two year extended warranty ran out two days after the machine broke. So by the grace of God, we are spared several hundred dollars in coffee related costs. It's hard to recognize the grace of God in your life when it comes in the form of disasters that you never see.

I got to see Richard Stallman speak today at UCI. He is the founder of the free software movement (FSF) which has completely changed the landscape of software programming. In my opinion his work on the GPL has caused the computer software ecosystem to advance by leaps and bounds. It is at the expense of people being able to make money off of writing software, but has created an industry in software support services.

Stallman comes across like a quintessential computer programmer. Crazy facial hair and all. His presentation reminds me about how fine the line is between homelessness and brilliance.

The biggest takeaway point that I got from his speech was the observation that software patents are only hurting small software developers. Small software developers may patent their work, but they cannot go after say, an IBM, for using their patent because IBM will turn around and sue the small software developer for one of any of tens of thousands of patents which cover parts of what the small software developer is doing. So the small developer is forced to sign a cross-license agreement which gives IBM the ability to compete with the exact same technology. So in effect the patent system has actually served to create a paperwork drill which ends up invalidating the threat of software patents, but only for the large companies which hold patents.

This was just another great opportunity that I've had in the last two years. It's curious that going to Cornell I got to be exposed to lots of political leaders. In contrast being at UCI has allowed me to be exposed to lots of technological leaders: Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, and now Richard Stallman. It is another good day to be a professor in Southern California.