04 Aug 2016, 15:51 p.m.

Advice on Starting And Running A New Open Source Project

Recently, a couple of programmers asked me for advice on starting and running a new open source project. So, here are some thoughts, assuming you're already a programmer, you haven't led a team before, and …

Read More
04 Aug 2016, 11:55 a.m.

MidAmericon and Zambia

MidAmericon II, the 74th Worldcon (a long-standing yearly celebration of scifi and fantasy and the fandom thereof) has just released its programming schedule. I'm participating in several program items. All of the following take place …

Read More
02 Aug 2016, 9:26 a.m.

A Few Thoughts On Recent Scifi/Fantasy

Star Trek Beyond is actually a Star Trek movie rather than an arbitrary summer blockbuster wearing Starfleet paint. (I thought the MacGuffin was going to be the resonator from "Gambit" but the movie ended up …

Read More
14 Jul 2016, 13:08 p.m.

A Great Explanation of WebDriver and Browser Automation

Maja Frydrychowicz's "Untangling WebDriver and the Browser Automation Landscape I Live In" is a delightful, very satisfying read. It covers the difference between the W3C WebDriver specification and Selenium WebDriver, explains their history and future, …

Read More
04 Jul 2016, 16:58 p.m.

Five Loosely Connected Things

Unexpected beauty: There's a little stretch of quiet waterfront walkway with benches tucked away behind the Astoria Costco. It's just north of Rainey Park. Fierce spycrafty women: At the launch party for Genevieve Valentine's new …

Read More
30 Jun 2016, 11:19 a.m.

Ambition And Failure

People who are trying to make stuff often feel like we're failing. Ira Glass's articulation of the gap between taste and skill gets at this. He suggests making more stuff, for deadlines, for others, as …

Read More
21 Jun 2016, 12:28 p.m.

On A Fraught Word

(This is a blog post specifically aimed at people who aren't in or from the United States and who have conversations with people from the US, especially online. Also, content note: I explain what lynching …

Read More
13 Jun 2016, 20:51 p.m.

Pulse

I am deeply grieving the Pulse massacre. Malinda Lo: "In the Club" Alfred Soto: "Only When I'm Dancing Can I Feel This Free: Queer liberation, dreams, and self-discovery on the dance floor" Sigrid Ellis: "The …

Read More
23 May 2016, 10:02 a.m.

Two OSCON Conversations, And A Trip Report Between Them

Conversation the last night of OSCON, reconstructed from memory: "So, Neil Young --" "The singer-songwriter?" "Yeah." "Man, what a white guy name." "Are you impugning Neil Young? That man sells organic eggs at the farmer's …

Read More
21 May 2016, 17:39 p.m.

Inessential Weirdnesses in Open Source Software (OSCON 2016)

"Inessential Weirdnesses in Open Source Software": written version of a speech I delivered at the OSCON conference, Wednesday, 18 May, 2016, Austin, Texas. O'Reilly will be posting the video behind a paywall sometime in June …

Read More