So this critique led me to the same authors notes on infoliberalism which led me to his notes on a monetary system which led me to the link to Ripplepay & Ripple Project.

So back to being ‘on the outside’ – The issue of homeless people has really been sticking in my mind lately. Once you are on the streets, and you have no phone, no address, no clean clothes etc and worst of all, once you have it in your mind “this is what I am” and you begin to look invisible to the thousands of people who walk past you each day without a thought (or maybe we do??), how do you get out of it? How do you change your mind about who and what you are, first of all because that is the biggest challenge of them all.

I had an experience on Friday night where I did ‘a bit more’ than usual for a homeless guy and I saw the look in the guys eyes and he reached out to shake my hand. He wasn’t an alcoholic, a drug user or visibly mentally ill. It was raining in Sydney, it was about 10pm and he had no shoes and was probably mid to late 30′s. All I have thought since then is that I didn’t do enough, that I could have done more. I have told myself, it’s a start. I’m sure Mother Theresa even questioned her own efforts at times.

If this kind of thing interests you, be sure to check out these links:

Street Kids in India run their own Bank
54 Ways you can help the homeless
Homeless.org.au and forums.homeless.org.au – A Sydney based home for the homeless run by a 31yo guy from Brisbane, which seems to have been originally self-funded. Some great stuff there.
The Homeless Guy Blog
GrandCentral – Project Care program – A phone number for everyone – I can think of a mini way of doing this in Australia using Oztell’s WebPABX or using Asterisk and using extension numbers with mailboxes where people can give out their phone number and their extension. They can collect their voicemail via a phone or have the messages emailed to them. You would just need one DID.

Obviously, a man living on the street in Australia has an experience far different to a child living on the street of South America, India or Africa. Here’s an NGO organisation in Peru started by a husband and wife in 2001 called BrucePeru – youtube video below. You can volunteer there starting at $395 US per month, including all your meals and accommodation. Prices decline depending on your length of stay.

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Technorati Tags: django, python, ripplepay, ripple project, microfinance, monetary system, lets, homelessness

I spent much of my schoolhood attending a nice, good ol’ Baptist School – we had a “non-contact” rule, or a “2 inch rule” ie: males and females who attended the same school were not supposed to go within 2 inches of each other and here’s the best part. This was in Australia in the late 80′s / early 90′s – we had been using the metric system for some 20-30 years already?

Anyway – here’s why Christianity needs to have a good rethink about it’s current situation.

1. Adopt a Nun – I just don’t get the whole idea of priests, nuns etc retiring? What do they retire from? Serving God? Did Mother Theresa ever retire? What about Saint Francis of Assisi? I’ve never heard of an Indian Yogi or Buddhist Monk retire, though maybe they do and I don’t know it.
2. The Christian version of ‘eternal life’ – let’s just get a ‘reference point’ – a few definitions of ‘eternity’

1. Time without beginning or end; infinite time.
2. infinite time; duration without beginning or end.

This one really gets me and I really understand Lewis Black’s frustration here because a common phrase in Christian rhetoric is “will have eternal life…” – now, I may be one for semantics but considering that eternity is without beginning or end, does it not stand to reason that  I have always existed, am existing and will exist forever more into the ‘future’ ie: that I already have eternal life? The normal Christian dialogue here is that I only get eternal ‘life’ when I ‘die’ and it’s just a matter of which direction I go – up or down, to the nice guy or the bad guy, the hot place or the one with eternal air conditioning. Eternity is simply not eternity if it had a beginning ie: I only came into existence when I entered this physical body.

Now, let’s talk about ‘idolatry‘ – ooh, this one get’s me going. A friend of mine was once advised by his christian lady friend that she did not want to have a certain object in their house that was gifted to him by his Buddhist uncle because it was an idol. Seriously, I just love the little representations that we give atom and neutrons spinning around each other. When does something become an idol? Those familiar with ‘A Course in Miracles’ may remember one of the first lessons – “I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me”. If I were to sit and pray under a tree, is that tree now an idol? If I stand in awe of a tall mountain, is that an idol? And what’s the whole issue with idols anyway? Here’s the lowdown

“I am the LORD your God…You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” (Exodus 2:2-5).

Backup there because I somehow think that either Mr Author of Exodus has made a bit of an error, something got lost in translation or the God that Mr. Author of Exodus is talking about is just not the kind of God I think worth of listening to. Jealousy huh? How many Christians would stand up and say “jealousy is a Godly trait” – hey, I bitch-slapped my woman because I was jealous of her talking to that guy at church.. and the congregation says “amen”, yea right.

Seriously idolators, we put our work first, our ipod first, our relationship’s first, our mum and dad first, our family first, our blog first, our tv first.. so, that little buddhist statue thing is no worse than your little photo of Jesus now, isn’t it? Here’s one to ask your Christian friend who is offended about your little ‘idol’ – “Show me somewhere where God isn’t” 

Another one of my favourites – Harry Potter is the work of the devil. You know, these Christians really belittle their God. Here’s the devil – he makes movies, he writes books, he’s out making fossils – I mean the guy’s really a bit of a happening dude and seems to be the omnipresent / omnipotent one here. Where’s God? Oh, he’s the quiet pacifist, who sits back and let’s the devil do his business.

It doesn’t stop there. The devil was apparently a fallen angel who want’s to usurp God’s position.. what’s that position? I mean, according to the Christian’s about the only useful purpose God has is to heal sick people (through human prayer – because until someone prayed, he just didn’t care right?) and his other purpose is to sit on some cool, golden throne with 24 elders passing judgement on those people who didn’t ‘believe Jesus died on the cross for them’ – nice guy..it kind of reminds me of the film “Baraka” where the baby chicks are getting sorted and debeaked. Now, the Christian version of God is definitely the kind of guy you’d want to be ‘your’ father right?

No wonder we have so many choosing aetheism these days. I see it more as a revolt against Christianity than anything else.

Anyway, on with my debeaking of Christianity – check this out.

The evil of any kind of ‘extra sensory’ powers like clairvoyance, clairsentience, psychics and the like. All of that stuff is from the devil also and yet, these are traits that Jesus displayed – notice any kind of contradiction when you read Mar 8? Ol’ Jesus was out there healing people, asking about reincarnation and predicting his death. His own people would call him the work of the devil, even today.

The Healing of a Blind Man at Bethsaida
22They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

24He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

25Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t go into the village.[a]“
Peter’s Confession of Christ
27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”

28They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

29″But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the Christ.[b]“

30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

Jesus Predicts His Death
31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life[c] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

I specifically like this part: Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him
and they went and told the whole world! They obviously can’t be trusted now, can they.

And here’s where Lewis Black wraps it all up into one well said piece.

Technorati Tags: christianity, rant, philosophy

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I came for the models, I stayed for the templates

While it’s not all been smooth sailing for me mostly due to my lack of python experience, the guys on IRC especially “Magus” have been tremendous. Is he paid to help people??? Someone should give him a fulltime position on the IRC channel.

The other part that tripped me up was newforms library as it’s still under development and isn’t fully documented as yet. This article at Big Nerd Ranch was a big help as was Colin Grady, once more. I often found myself overcomplicating issues that were much simpler than I was imagining.

Anyway – the more I use Django, the more I learn the true depths of it’s greatness even though I still feel as though I am skimming the surface. I have met Malcolm Treddinick face to face, a fellow Australian and mad hacker. His commits on the Django project have been somewhat impressive. I can’t wait to be able to add some value back into the community once I get over a few more stumbling blocks.

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Technorati Tags: mifos, microfinance, open source

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As is the case with most software I seek out, it is cross-platform and it’s written in Java. It has excellent shortcut capabilities that allow you to link, navigate, add, move, raise, lower, highlight etc all without touching the keyboard.. it really stands back, gets out of your way and lets the thoughts flow. It has the ability to export to html, sxw (old openoffice format), png or jpg format.

I was recently in Canberra attending a VMware course and I was able to connect to my home Linux server during my breaks and quickly add a few ideas to Freemind. I’ve even started using it to transfer my brainstorming into a database design so I can then start creating my django models.

So that’s freemind.

The next application I came across in my travels was Mifos ie MIcroFinance Open Source, a project of the Grameen foundation for managing loans and savings accounts for Microfinance institutions. It is built upon Java and Mysql although it aims to be database agnostic.

If you have never heard of the Grameen bank, it was founded by Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace prize winner who started providing Microloans to very poor (I dislike that term) people in Bangladesh in 1976. Since then, the Grameen Bank has flourished and has now issued more than US$ 5.1 billion to 5.3 million borrowers since it’s inception. Muhammad has also authored “Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty” which is currently on my “to read” list.

So, there’s two great FREE applications. Free your mind or free people.. you choose.

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Building Low Cost Disaster Resistant Housing Programs with Women – at changemakers.net and this link at worldchanging.com

Adobe buildings – Auroville Earth Building Insitute

Kiva – Direct p2p microfinancing

Ecolonomics – expressing the understanding that our ecology and economy are two sides of the same coin

For those that do arrive at this page, don’t let the “Maverick” title and the cheesy photo on the front cover of this book turn you off the content. I strongly believe this is the way that not only businesses should be run but also governments.

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Where do I start? Let’s start with the fact Peru had a large earthquake on the 16th August near the cities of Chincha (The Afroperuvian epicentre), Ica and Pisco. These places are approximately 140kms south of Lima, where my wife is from (and her family are living).

I subscribe to Treehugger RSS feeds and the same day as the Earthquake comes a post with Vinay Gupta, the brainchild of the Hexayurt project, an open source disaster relief shelter, to put it simply. I suggest Treehugger subscribers pitch in some funds to send Vinay to Peru to kick something off and Vinay responded with this post, to which I also responded. When Vinay was discussing the Hexayurt, he mentioned “wood gas fire” as seen in this clip

I happen to work with a guy who is right into his steam engines.. now, I don’t really discuss my “treehugger” leanings with him, as they burn coal in those things but the above wood burner did lead me to think about how a closed system steam engine might possibly be able to fit with the goals of yet another open source project called worldbike, which is a group of bicycle designers who make open source bicycle designs to build or modify an existing bike to be more suited to our brothers and sisters in Africa.

I would like to think that the goals of Open Source Green Vehicle are somewhat similar, in brief – a group of people who come together in like mindedness to share some of their skills for the betterment of humanity. People may not realise just how much Google has it’s hand in all this. Google is almost like the glue of all knowledge. Google has shown us to realise how powerful open business models can be and helps reward people for sharing their knowledge. Staying with the our OSGV project, for the moment. I came across this group of videos on youtube (now owned by google) that discusses in depth two big interests of mine. How to convert an engine to hydrogen and use it for both automotive use and / or when used in housing (whether emergency or not) it can provide a source of electricity, heating and clean water. Now, with the amount of instructional video content on youtube, it’s really a knowledge sharing platform just as powerful (if not more so) than Sourceforge or Wikipedia.

Vinay also linked to this Microcredit system being used in India, another area which I am interested in and I am not bullshitting about this, you can view my Amazon wishlist on this. I am currently on three weeks holiday. The first week (right now) I am in Canberra, the Capital of Australia doing my Vmware Virtual Infrastructure course. The following two weeks, I will be starting to code the beginnings of a Microfinance System that I will be writing in Django. I have been really working hard teaching myself Python (and Spanish) using my own modified version of the “Seinfieldian” system.

Now, it’s also worth mentioning that through Vinay’s posts, I ended up finding “The Open Business Guide” and Open Source Ecology that Vinay offered up to me, which I haven’t yet had time to have a good read of as yet.

I could write a lot longer of the “bizaare” sequence of events but I have some reading to do.

Richard Stallman may yet become the modern day Marx, the way things are going..

The simplest example of open source that I use as an analogy is

“imagine eating in a restaurant where you loved the food and the chef was willing to share the whole recipe with you – you may go home and make it yourself but if he is a good chef, you will no doubt return for ‘his way’ of preparing the dish” – this is the nature of open source, to give something to humanity and yet you lose nothing.

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I know myself that FROM A USER’S PERSPECTIVE, very high disk i/o can kill a HP DL-585 with 5 x 15K SAS drives, meanwhile the same task running on a lower end HP9000 running HP-UX11a will manage just fine. Go and run bonnie++ or gzip 2 x 4GB archives and also try and USE Linux, you will notice a a severe almost unusable system.

Now, I am one of those people who get caught reading comments of articles. I find some of my nicest little gems there, other suggestions etc. I came across Haiku and Syllable OS, two open source Operating Systems that AREN’T linux. Most people familiar with Linux will be aware that it’s roots are in Unix and so too are the BSD’s but Haiku and Syllable OS do not have Unix roots. Haiku has it’s roots in BeOS and Syllable is a fork of “written-from-scratch” OS called AtheOS.

Now, these aren’t the main two Operating Systems of interest to me. The really interesting ones for me are Nexenta OS and ReactOS. Why these two?

When I was looking to move from PCLinuxOS (and decided upon Ubuntu) I was taking a very strong look at running OpenSolaris for my desktop but I was seeing myself spending too much time trying to build from source or trying to get a decent desktop running as I wanted it. What drew me to Solaris? Three things:

• Zones & Containers
• ZFS File System
• Dtrace

ZFS was the main thing. It provides true snapshotting capabilities, among other things and I really wish something like OpenFiler offered ZFS as it’s main file system rather than LVM on Ext3. I would also like to do some Solaris Certification, so I want to get down and dirty with Solaris – when you work in IT with Financial Services, everything is very conservative – for godsakes, it’s a major problem trying to get approval to get bash and vim installed grrr. anyways..

Anyway, Nexenta OS is essentially Ubuntu on a Solaris kernel, as I understand it.. so I can have my pie and eat it too.. the best of both worlds – I expect it will probably end up replacing Suse 10.2 as my virtual machine fairly soon.

Next on the list, I mentioned ReactOS, why? It’s a windows clone ie: it’s designed to be an open source clone of windows. ie: it’s aim is to be 100% compatible with windows programs, drivers etc. Why is that necessary, why is that powerful? Because it can give to the windows world what we have in the Linux world. ie: distributing mini-virtual machines that are preconfigured with specific sets of services, databases etc. I know of quite a bit of software written for Windows that has no need for 90% of the windows ‘features’. The web hosting industry is a perfect example. Most of those running Windows are only doing so for asp, VB.net and C#.net and MSSQL of course. Now, the dotNet land has been mostly filled by the fruition of Migueld e Izaca’s dreams in mono. Ok, now we can compile and run .Net programs in Linux but there’s many who still need to run win32 applications that haven’t been (and won’t for a while) be compiled in Mono.

Many people dual boot their Linux PC into Windows just to play games – they are still tied to Bill and his crew. That’s where the power of a project like ReactOS shines. It starts to break those ties. It’s an alternative.

I’d still love to take Syllable and Haiku for a test-drive.. but I have too much on my plate at the moment. Maybe one day.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu, solaris, haiku, syllable, nexenta, reactos, haiku, open source operating systems

Update May 2009: If you made it here trying to find how to write Django apps for Facebook, probably the best resource I have seen to get started is How to build a facebook app in Django

Interesting links of the day:

Python, Django and Facebook with pyfacebook.

Jerry Seinfield’s GTD method on Lifehacker

Came across www.opensourcefood.com and Open Source House

Recipes are a perfect example of how open source works and yet can still be profitable / financially sustaining.

Imagine, my Open Source House that utilises Open Source Automation that I can control with my Open Source Phone that I can design new covers for using my Open Source Fabricator which synchronises, monitors, tunes my open source car or maybe even tracks my daily travel on my open source bike.

I am currently writing a full article about this.. stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: open source, django, facebook, home automation, home fabrication, openmoko

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Him: Can I speak with “Insert name here”
Me: May I ask who’s calling
Him: Stuart(?) from Sonofon
Me: Can I ask what it’s regarding?
Him: Some people from our office came out a few months ago and showed him some of our products (complete lie) and I am just calling to let him know we have some great deals on at the moment.
(Staring at www.sonofon.com.au by now)
Me: Is it regarding phone or pabx products? Because if it is, we are not interested and we only have 4 phones anyway
Him: Is he busy at the moment? Because I can call him back
Me: He’s always busy, there’s no use calling back because we don’t want anything.
Him: But how would he know if he doesn’t know what we’re offering.
Me: Because he didn’t go looking for you. When he needs something, he goes and looks for it.
Him: Can you pass on a message to him?
Me: Yes
Him: But are you going to pass it on?
Me: No, I am going to pretend to take the message and then forget you ever called.
Him: You’re a fucking wanker mate..

At this point in time, I had wasted enough time with Sonofon sales techniques and hung up. So I sat there wondering if he was having a bad day or that my voice just pissed him off? At least the Indian call centre people don’t get upset when I tell them no and no again.

Too bad I was the guy he was asking for huh?

Maybe if we met under different circumstances, it wouldn’t have been this way – if he came to sell me some uber-cool open source pabx that we could do really cool stuff with..maybe.

Anyway, it’s exactly the reason I am not in sales.. I take rejection a bit personally also – maybe one day I will get over myself and become the world’s best BDM.. who knows. Until then, I would probably feel the way Stuart does and maybe I would be pushed to the edge also by some wanker who doesn’t do what I want him to do and actually give smart-ass replies also. Who knows what life holds for us.

Now, if we weren’t going to buy anything from Sonofon previously.. you know what? We might just change our mind now – Thanks Sonofon.

You’re welcome to share your own stories about super-slick sales people also.

Technorati Tags: sonofon, sales techniques, pabx, australian company

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