My Traveller Profile...

	Your travel type: Culture Buff The culture buff needs to see a museum, an art gallery, a 16-th century church every day during his holiday. When he travels he is always well prepared. He has read history books, speaks a few words of the lingo, knows about the strange habits the locals have.
	top destinations: Venice Amsterdam Beirut	stay away from: North Korea Ciudad Perdida Darien Gap

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700 miles of wasted effort

I don't get it. I'm more republican-ish than democratic-ish on a lot of things... but this isn't one of them.

How does a 700 mile fence help us? At all? Why wouldn't an immigrant go to mile 701 and walk around the darn thing?

One thing I know to be true, if people want in they'll find a way in. Fence or no fence.

What we have to do is incent people not to immigrate illegally. Make immigration legal and relatively simple -- but only if you're a productive member of society, pay taxes, and abide by the laws of the country. If you don't "play nice" you should get kicked out of the sandbox. If you're helping to make the US a better place, then you're more than welcome!! For those who are already here, put them on the proverbial path to citizenship, but be extra harsh for those who don't "play nice."

Building a fence is not racist. It's not anti-Mexican. It is just stupid rhetoric to earn the votes of some out-of-work manufacturing workers for this year's mid-term elections. The sad thing is that it won't even help their jobs... unless they're in the fence-part manufacturing business that is. How about spending some of that money to help retool a workforce or offer expansion in areas that could use people with those skills instead...?

I wonder if any of the "workers" on the fence are illegal immigrants themselves? Wouldn't that be poetic???

A fence is a waste of tax-payer money -- end of discussion.

Welcome Nicholas

Yesterday (Oct 25) Alice gave birth to our new son, Nicholas.

6 pounds, 7 ounces
19.5 inches

Mommy and the baby are doing great!

Now we've got a month full of family birthdays... CAKE for EVERYBODY!!!

The Departed - Great movie!

Alice and I went to go spend our last day as parents of 2 kids (oh, and my birthday too) with a nice lunch and a afternoon movie. We saw The Departed, which stars several big name actors including: Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Mark Walberg. It was directed by Martin Scorscese (sp?).

They all did a great job acting -- Leonardo in particular gets no respect as an actor, but personally I think he's actually quite talented as an actor. The story was great -- "lots of twists and turns" says Alice.

Although there was quite a bit of graphic killing by bullet to the head, I'd highly recommend it. Oh, and "Sleepy Alice" gives it a no Z's rating (the highest possible, meaning she didn't sleep at all in the movie).

Novell not getting credit ...

I recently finished listening to the Red Hat Q2 2007 earnings call and I've read a few analysts reactions to the quarter. Basically, they were projecting a slight slowdown of growth. What's frustrating is the common thread I see in the financial press' thinking - that this slowdown is being attributed to one of two things... (a) a overall slowdown in demand for Linux, or (b) increased competition from Microsoft.

HEY, I guess the fact that Novell and SUSE Linux is kicking some butt is not an issue...


For the record, and as a perspective from the trenches... I have not seen either A or B (above) be remotely true. In fact, quite the opposite.

Toot-toot!

I recently finished a tour of the Novell Southeast Area, visiting 5 cities in 2 weeks and being the primary presenter for Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 "Your Linux Is Ready" Tour.

The cities I presented in were:

• Memphis, TN
• Atlanta, GA
• Miami, FL
• Charlotte, NC
• Bethesda, MD
• http://www.novell.com/yourlinuxnow
  

I thought the event went very well. Turnout was great (very high) and excitement generated by the event was terrific. Apparently that's not just my biased opinion...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Wow, I'm almost famous! Generally, I'm not a big fan of tooting-my-own-horn -- but how often do I get a mention by name in the press? :-) A member of the press was apparently at the SLE 10 Tour event in Charlotte... Big THANK YOU to everyone who supported the event - it was definitely a team effort!!

http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/70337/

Last night I took a cab...

Last night I returned from a business trip and took a cab back from the airport -- Washington Flyer cabs from Dulles Airport. Usually they're very reliable and fine. After last night's ride home, I felt compelled to fill out the comment card and mail it in...

"Cab No. 469

This cab driver should NOT EVER be allowed to drive at night!! It was a scary ride! 11:30pm @ 9/14/2006.

45 mph on Rt 28 (a 55 mph road) -- WTF?!?! On Herndon Avenue, high beam headlights AND he was straddling the line AND going 25 mph in a 35 mph road. CLEARLY he cannot SEE at night!!!

Kevin, South Riding VA"