Casman Blog

just back from lecture on japanese software at the mechanics institute in san francisco “why only nintendo?’ not a convincing answer…

Craig Oda and I got to the Open Source Conference 2008 in Okubo — middle of Tokyo — last weekend.

Basically, I was totally blown away at how many interesting projects and little companies are sprouting up. I’d guess several hundred people in attendance, something like 50 companies and projects. The event was held in a 7 story building that houses the Japan Electronics Technical School (日本電子専門学校）which had a smaller feel to it than maybe most “normal” shows. Lots of great tables, everything from OSASK OS (a home-grown OS, only 76k total) and Koedo Linux Users Group (with the most professional looking LUG quarterly magazine I’ve ever seen) to the bigger boring guys (NRI doing open source consulting called OpenStadia) and many others.

We talked with Asial for a while. Young, smart supplier of PHP tools and services aiming for Asia. They seem like they’re really in the Silicon Valley mode, building up a company quickly, on their own.

NTT Data Hineos is an interesting open source project that appears to be like Groundwork’s Nagios (IT Management software) with some additional features.

SecureVM is an interesting open source virtual machine project that is designed for Japanese government use with involvement from the Japan National Information Security Center (NISC). It is going to be open sourced this month as a work in progress. The project involves Tsukuba University, Intel, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Keio University, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Toyota National College of Technology, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, NTT, NTT DATA, and SoftEther.

Pretty exciting energy, all in all. Two weeks ago I wouldn’t have thought so, but I’m wondering now if open source might be the catalyst, allowing Japan to get in the software game in a much bigger way. We’ll see!

I woke up this morning in Honolulu, Hawaii, and after a light breakfast watched three plus hours of the National Hockey League’s Winter Classic, broadcast from Buffalo, NY. The game was great, the first professional outdoor game in the United States, with over 73,000 people attending. It is a bit strange looking out the window at the palm trees swaying in the breeze, sitting in my surfer shorts, and watching a game played on ice, snow coming down, with the wind chill factor at somewhere around 20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hockey could never be a real sport in Hawaii, right? It’s not natural.

What makes a game natural? In tropical Hawaii, surfing qualifies, for both connection with the environment and tradition. There’s canoeing and a bunch of other smaller sports. But football, baseball and a handful of other modern summer sports have really taken root in the volcanic soils of Hawaii. They’re considered summer sports. Does that make them fit in Hawaii? What about football is natural? Major stadiums, major budgets. Sure you can play touch football on the beach, but that’s far removed from the University of Hawaii’s game today, for instance. Golf? Nothing very natural or local about a golf course.

So why not ice hockey? Unpopular, sure. Unnatural, no. Not any more unnatural than any of the other modern sports.

I’m going into my third week of no news. I actively avoid it. It’s a bit of an effort, to be honest. My job requires that I’m very much up on the news. But that’s specific to my clients. It’s not national politics. It’s not op-ed and opinion pieces. It’s not the latest murder case. Guess what? I don’t feel that different. My mornings are more pleasant. And I can no longer enjoy “Wait, Wait..” on NPR on the weekends. But other than that, how am I worse off?

I noticed something lately. I’ve always read the news. The Internet for me has been first and foremost The New York Times. I know that sounds ridiculous in a way, but my start page has been nytimes.com for years, as I’ve always considered it important to stay up-to-date with the world around me. I’ll avoid, for the moment, the argument about biased news sources, diversified news sources, whathaveyou. I started reading the New York Times when I was in high school. My father’s girlfriend loved the NY Post and its salacious, vacuous articles. Drove my father crazy. She was great, but her taste in news was not. Periodically the New York Times would appear and he’d always talk about the quality of the writing, breadth of scope, the variety of news. He’d always point out how the Times would print the full text of the President’s speeches. They’d give it their spin, if you chose to depend on their analysis, but they’d give the speech in toto, if you wanted to get it verbatim.

But I wake up in the morning, I read the news, and what does it get me? Do I do something with it? Does it help me accomplish something? No. It makes me angry. It makes me frustrated. Nothing else.

So I’ve stayed away from the news for two weeks and running. And, surprise! Life’s better.