TedPage

Through a turn of events I'm going to be taking a trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma. So, I'm looking for things to do in Tulsa, good restaurants, entertainment, free WiFi, the important stuff. I came across this site with a listing of Middle Eastern restaurants in Tulsa. I'm still laughing. Seems that someone isn't familiar with that little place across the pond called the Middle East.

So far I'm most excited about seeing the Philbrook Museum of Art though the Golden Driller is a close second.

posted on Fri, 12 May 2006 at 20:10 | permanent link

We're now in the process of rating applications for Google's Summer of Code and we have some really good applications. One of the interesting things is that we have several applications to add SVG filters to Inkscape. This is an important feature, and one that we'd really like to see implemented. How to choose? I think that Bulia came up with a pretty creative way, one that could only be done in Open Source:

To show your ability to learn Inkscape codebase, go to our bug tracker, choose some simple (but real and reproducible!) bug and try to fix it. Of course you can ask any questions on the inkscape-devel list and on the jabber channel. When ready, submit the patch to the patch tracker. (If you can fix more than one bug, it's an extra bonus! :) I think it's the best way for you to start learning Inkscape code and for the Inkscape team to get acquainted with you. As far as I understand, we still have some time left before we select the final projects and participants, so if you do this now it will help us make a good choice when it's time to choose.

Wow, being able to judge someone by their ability to work on the code that you're interviewing them for! How novel! How much sense it makes now that I've seen it suggested. Open Source, it just makes sense.

Though, it also reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon where he solves the client's problem in an interview.

posted on Wed, 10 May 2006 at 02:11 | permanent link

In the last year gas prices have risen pretty dramatically. But, some people are labeling it a crisis which I would say is going a little bit far. Anyway, it is providing a political motive in congress, though they seem to be unable to do anything real. It seems they believe government can provide a quick fix, which is entirely what governments are bad at. Instead they should be focusing on the long term solutions to a systemic non-renewable energy dependency in our economy. Thinking that politicians would realize that is probably being too optimistic.

I did come up with a plan for Mayor Villaraigosa, a short term plan that could provide long term benefits for LA. I e-mailed him, but I thought I'd put it here so that someone would read it:

Dear Mr. Villaraigosa,

All politicians are looking for a way to be seen as helping in the current increase of gas prices. I think I have a way that you could help, help the Democratic party, and in turn help LA even more.

I think, for the summer, you should subsidize half the price of the monthly Metro passes. The monthly passes, because this encourages people to ride the bus or rail more than once. For the summer, because I imagine it is a smaller amount of money that can more easily be found quickly (summer is here!). Bus passes, because you'll be helping the people who really need help in this situation, not those who can actually afford Lincoln navigators.

When you do this, the national press is going to love it. They're enjoying putting up gas prices every night, but they have little other content to go with it. You would be providing that content. Which would get you national attention. Which, you could then spin to "a way that Democrats are helping the people." This is important, this will help your party in the next election, and give the direction to the solutions towards public transportation in Washington.

Which, in the end, is how it will all help LA. As congress is looking to pass a bill to solve problems caused by increased gas prices, they're going to be spending money. If you can direct the conversation to public transportation you can probably get the money that you want to extend LA's rail lines -- Red line to the ocean excites me.

All in all, this is a simple action that will get you and LA good press in the gas crisis (LA rarely gets good press when cars are concerned). It also becomes a politically savvy move hopefully getting federal funding into our rail line.

     --Ted Gould

posted on Tue, 09 May 2006 at 12:52 | permanent link

I got looking at my del.icio.us page and the cloud of tags on the right. I have it set to display all the tags with over five pages associated with them. Here is that list of tags today: (in alphabetical order)

activism art chemistry design development education environment fashion games gnome graphics humor inkscape javascript kids language linux maps music news photography politics programming svg technology US:CA:LA visualization web

I wonder how successfully this describes my interests as a whole. It is definitely an interesting snapshot of the things I find interesting.

posted on Fri, 05 May 2006 at 20:16 | permanent link