Potlach Feast

Following a web of circuitous links in the process of explaining to my son what a computer *not* connected to the Web might be, I stumbled upon some of our early working group notes discussing the finer points of initial HTML specification. Scanning the minutes I found it interesting to note the original cast of characters:

HTML-WG Meeting
Monday, Oct 17, 1994, Chicago World Wide Web conference.

Attendees

Eric Sink            (Spyglass)
Stuart Weibel        (OCLC)
Eric Miller          (OCLC)
Yuri Rubinski        (SoftQuad)
TimBL                (W3O, CERN)
Tom Magliere         (NCSA)
Ron Daniel           (Los Alamos)
Dave Raggett         (HP, UK)
Roy Fielding         (UC Irvine)
Phillip Hallam-Baker (W3O, CERN)
Liam Quin            (SoftQuad)
Corp Reed            (Cold Spring Harbor Lab)
Mitra                (Mitra Internet Consulting)
Murray Maloney       (SCO)
Bill Perry           (Spry)
Terry Allen          (O'Reilly Associates)
Thomas Churchill     (EIT)
David Land           (Verity)
Jeff Sutor           (UCLA)
Jon Bosak            (Novell)
Chris Wilson         (Spry)
John Punin           (RPI)
Dave Hollander       (HP)
Jim Seidman          (Spyglass)
Larry Jackson        (NCSA)

- My son’s response to this particular page was simply: “Hey! Two Erics!” (here is the other one and he’s not a legend)

For those that have been asking about where to send financial support to help Chimezie and Roschelle Ogbuji, The Ogbuji Family Fund has been established.

Thanks in advance to anyone providing whatever they can.

So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and Demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, Beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and Its purpose in the service of your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, Even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and Bow to none. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the food and For the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, The fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and nothing, For abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts Are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes They weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again In a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.

– tecumseh

Earlier this summer I picked up a used Swifty 14 wooden sailboat from Shell Boats. Alex has named her “High Treason” (he’s named my canoe “The Black Pearl” … one might accurately conclude at the age of 5, he’s pretty big into pirates).

The design of the Swifty is quite attractive, and the original craftsmanship quite good. The boat was in need of some “creative” repair, but overall in good shape. I fixed some skuffs, modified the transom, painfully applied several coats of paint / vanish and mounted a bit of chris-craft’esq chrome to help tie her to the dock. More (albiet poor) pictures are available rolled out of the garage for a bit of driveway sailing.

She can easily hold 3 people and only weighs about 250 lbs. I have to admit, I expected the stability from this boat based on the design / plans, but not quite the speed. Overall she’s perfect as single or family day-sailer and / or rower and / or (small) motor-boat. The biggest problem is I can’t seem to get in / out of the water without folks comming up to look at it.

I’ve had a blast both restoring, sailing and rowing this boat with my son. I can’t help but wonder what his take will ultimately be on the subject.

(reconstructed from wayback)

I’m in central London at the moment talking about the Semantic Web with various CIO/CTOs working in and or around the Criminal Justice IT and eGov departments of the UK. During the conference we were notified of the bombings around central London. The conference has been cut short in part because many of the folks I was talking to needed to focus on the real problem at hand. (That, and while it was clear a chain of events were unfolding, it was unclear what the targets were. In this particular case, having so many top UK officials in one single place I suspect was not viewed as a good idea).

The situation was terrible, but the people responded in a fantastic manner. I’m impressed with how Londoners delt with this tragedy - working with each other to help those that need it most. The UK Government officials (Fire, Police, Emergency, etc.) in particular reacted brilliantly in the face of a terrible series of events. People were clearly shocked, but unwilling to let this terrible situation keep them from getting on with their lifes. My thoughts are with those dealing personally with this tragedy.

If there is a silver lining one could see from this event, it was witnessing the indomitable spirit of man rising above such a terrible tragedy. This is certainly not a trip I’ll soon forget.