My apologies to all those who have been following this blog through the RSS feed. As some of you have noticed, the feed has been behaving rather erratically recently.

This is because I have been migrating everything from pleinair.googlecode.com to the new asktav.com domain. This is now the permanent home for my blog and will remain so until the Plexnet eventually replaces the current domain name system.

The feed should be working properly again and is still at the same place as it always was — http://feeds.feedburner.com/asktav. I don't plan to move domains anytime soon so you can expect a certain level of stability now =)

Unfortunately I wasn't able to migrate over the old comments to the new domain. Disqus doesn't seem to have any builtin comment migration across domains feature. So apologies if you look at an article and don't see your comments turning up.

The comments are still there on the Disqus system — just pointing to the wrong URL. I'll try and see if I can leverage the Disqus API to somehow integrate the comments. I really value all of your comments and hope that you understand.

As part of the migration, I also expanded the backend with some additional features:

$ python -m plexnet.tool.article --help
Usage: article.py [options]

Options:
  -h, --help          show this help message and exit
  -a AUTHORS          Set the path for a special authors file (optional)
  -c PACKAGE          Generate documentation for the Python package (optional)
  -d DATA_FILE        Set the path for a persistent data file (optional)
  -e OUTPUT_ENCODING  Set the output encoding (default: utf-8)
  -f FORMAT           Set the output format (default: html)
  -i INPUT_ENCODING   Set the input encoding (default: utf-8)
  -o OUTPUT_PATH      Set the output directory for files (default: $PWD)
  -p PATTERN          Generate index files for the path pattern (optional)
  -r ROOT_PATH        Set the path to the root working directory (optional)
  -t TEMPLATE         Set the path to a template file (optional)
  --quiet             Flag to suppress output
  --stdout            Flag to redirect to stdout instead of to a file

It now supports multiple authors and even generates pretty source documentation for Python packages, as can be seen on the the new domain for the Plexnet: http://www.plexnet.org

The code is sitting a a new source repository with a pretty Rails-based Subversion browser called Warehouse. You can see it @ http://source.plexnet.org.

Thanks for bearing with the upheaval. To make up for it, maybe you'll be interested to know that some others have started blogging too:

• Mamading Ceesay
• Luke Graybill
• Sofia Bustamante

[This is a reposting of an email that I had sent to some close friends on March 26th 2003 @ 05:35.]

|  george> The theory of blocking off central London is a good
|  george> one but it will still piss people off to fuck.
|
| true. but, we should frame it as pedestrianising for peace as opposed
| to blocking off central london.
|
| although it amounts to the same thing, one is confrontational, the other...
|
|  george> Sounds like the stuff Reclaim The Streets tries to
|  george> do but with better ideas, dialogue instead of
|  george> marching. But that affair always gets hijacked by
|  george> rioters who are pissed off at the police.
|
| surely we shouldn't resign ourselves to accepting that as the only
| possible outcome? if everyone is aware of it before, can't we take
| precautions against it?
|
| on a side note, are people familiar with the roerich banner of peace?
| it's the three red dots symbolising art, science, and religion, with a
| red circle around them representing the totality of culture. the red
| itself represents the colour of the one blood that unites us all.
|
| (btw, can someone come up with an alternative meaning for the third dot?
| religion can be quite shitty...)
|
| here is a quick quote:
|
| //
|   The Roerich Pact and Banner of Peace movement grew rapidly during
|   the early nineteen-thirties, with centers in a number of countries.
|   There were three international conferences, in Bruges, Belgium, in
|   Montevideo, Uruguay, and in Washington, D.C. The Pact itself
|   declared the necessity for protection of the cultural product and
|   activity of the world-both during war and peace-and prescribed the
|   method by which all sites of cultural value would be declared neutral
|   and protected, just as the Red Cross does with hospitals. Indeed,
|   the Roerich Pact was often called The Red Cross of Culture.
|
|   Just as the Red Cross is embodied in a protective sign and banner,
|   so does the Roerich Pact also designate a symbol-the one seen on
|   this page-to be displayed on a banner, The Banner of Peace. This
|   Banner, flown at all sites of cultural activity and historical value,
|   would declare them neutral, independent of combatant forces.
| //
|
| i suggest we adopt the banner of peace for the pedipeace movement. that
| nicholas roerich and ghandi knew and influenced each other lends us even
| more weight.
|
|  george> possible problems could be the way people would
|  george> be spread so thinly that it would be easy for
|  george> the bacon patrol to break up these small groups
|  george> and arrest/beat people without getting too noticed.
|
| good point.
|
| we need to keep the number of circles down until we've gathered enough
| people then. as long as we make people aware of issues like these, then
| they are likely to be relatively sensible?
|
|  george> Do you really think they will allow sound systems
|  george> and parties in the street? They will seize your
|  george> equipment straight away because of that repetitive
|  george> beats law.
|
| then, let's find out more places like those UCL halls on oxford street,
| where we could have sound systems blasting from within the buildings
| themselves.
|
| the key is to get awareness out there. if it's just isolated pockets,
| then it is very easy for them to picked off. but if everyone is doing it...
|
|  george> A huge fiesta taking up the whole of zone 1
|  george> would be amazing though. A lot of people
|  george> would go just for a good time, not caring
|  george> about the causes, and the more people the better.
|
| yes! yes! yes!
|
| (but even those who don't care so much will have their interest piqued
| by the dialogues, and would hopefully gradually end up participating).
|
|  george> But a lot of people that live in central are
|  george> rich and old and used to the world and happy with
|  george> the way things go on, so they won't support
|  george> you, but get pissed off by all the rowdiness.
|
| now, this does worry me. how can we minimise this?
|
| how can we also minimise the impact of the extremist militants / agent
| provocateurs?
|
| how do we ensure that the police will never be able to resort to
| truncheons and tear gases?
|
|  george> It seems the whole protest/marching thing is
|  george> still popular (though showing lack of imagination)
|  george> when people feel strongly about a cause, but a
|  george> lot of the people who do care won't go because
|  george> they won't see the point, so many marches and so
|  george> little effect. The whole idea is stale and so
|  george> usual it goes unnoticed.
|
| right, we all know people (including ourselves), who although they agree
| with the sentiments of no war, at times, don't think it's of any use to
| go down to the marches.
|
|  george> Expressing your discontent is no good if
|  george> no-one listens.
|
| *nod*
|
| one of the reason i find marches such a farce is because of the way they
| are isolated from the rest of society. even on feb 15th, with a million
| odd marching through london, to most londoners it was just a normal
| day... the protests completely separate from their lives.
|
|  george> This is a foolish attitude because it is because
|  george> people choose not to join in that there are not
|  george> enough people to make a difference.
|
| how do we get people to realise this? and, more importantly, to act on it?
|
|  george> If the whole country united for change it
|  george> could come about but too many people take
|  george> the 'one man can't make a difference' attitude.
|
| well, with the dialogues, i'm thinking that we could reverse this mentality.
|
| basically, if you aren't there participating, then you effectively lose
| your voice. so as to encourage all people to come and participate.
|
|  george> Basically, i think the number of people taking
|  george> part in ya proposed idea would be outweighed by
|  george> the number not, and it would be hard to
|  george> organise them.
|
| but, if only a hundred thousand participated on the first day, that's
| still substantial?
|
| do it on a nice sunny sunday... get half a million people down?
|
| i agree about it being difficult to organise them, but it's not impossible.
|
|  george> I think you have too much faith in the genral public.
|
| the general public has to come to realise their own power. otherwise,
| there is no hope.
|
|  george> Although many will agree with you 'in theory' only a
|  george> much smaller hardcore will be motivated enough to
|  george> actually get organised about it...
|
| let's get *everyone* down. this isn't going to be a short war.
|
| we just need to create enough inertia to push people past the "agree in
| theory" phase. it needs to be such a definite, that people will not even
| think of using their cars on that day.
|
| let's sort out alternative bus routes. let's sort out routes to the
| major hospitals so that people's lives aren't endangered.
|
| let's sort out routes for the police so that they can clamp down if
| anyone starts throwing rocks at starbucks. let's sort out traffic routes
| to direct people. let's sort out toilets and dustbins.
|
| let's get people like ms dynamite weaving their magic in the streets.
| let's get *everyone* involved. not just radicals. let's have members of
| parliament having dialogues with the average man on the street. let's
| have policemen participating. let's have teachers. let's have doctors.
|
| let's appeal to mothers of conscience to stand in protection of the
| circles. will police dare beat up pregnant women? will police dare to
| beat up young children? will police dare beat up respected religious
| leaders? will police dare beat up the elderly?
|
| let's have an independent media coverage throughout london. let's setup
| terminals at all tube stations. where people could come and at the push
| of a button print out the latest summary of events and dialogues.
|
|  george> Keep trying and thinking about this hoipefully people
|  george> will soon not be resigned to acceptance.
|
| deep in their hearts, i believe people are tired of the bollocks that
| they put up with on a day to day basis. i believe that people do want a
| better future. they just don't see how it will be possible or what they
| can do.
|
| once they realise that it is possible and that they can help make it a
| reality, i believe that they will awaken.
|
|  george> Also, we are only slaves to oil because we are not
|  george> given alternate energy sources to meet all our needs.
|  george> Sure they exist but reamin out of our hands.
|
| true. but something as simple as not using our cars. and switching over
| our electricity to ecotricity would be a good start...
|
|  chris> i think you can reach people and get them motivated,
|  chris> its all about language.
|
| agreed. it's all about perception.
|
|  chris> Create your own infastructure and co-opt the existing
|  chris> one to reach people.
|
| from a media perspective, i think we are onto a winner here.
|
| see, most road blockades and marches don't get any press coverage not
| because of some global media conspiracy (yes, there is a certain element
| of that), but mainly because it's not news that sells.
|
| *oh look! yet another student has chained herself to a tree!*
|
| just not interesting enough.
|
| we need something that is dynamic. something that will get people's
| minds and hearts racing. something people (i.e. the populace as a whole,
| not just a minority) can get passionate about. something they will buy
| the next days papers to read about.
|
| we can do that here.
|
| we have a sensationalist background of conflict. this will keep people
| on their toes. the police will be out in the thousands. the people will
| be out in the hundreds of thousands.
|
| but that will merely be a backdrop. the key is to refuse to let that
| become the key issue. if we do, then all is lost. so, we should maintain
| the sensationalism of that, yet focus on the dialogue that is important.
|
| let papers be filled with reports sent in from the various circles. let
| papers create maps of what's happening at which crossroads. let papers
| be crammed with wonderful photos of people celebrating life.
|
| let the banners of peace fly. let wonderful smells fill the air. let the
| magical sounds of music sweep people up into ecstasy. let love blossom
| under the spring sun.
|
| we could do experiments in art and science. in art, maybe as a grand
| symbol, we could build a wall around the american embassy like they did
| in rome! in the sciences, we could create community based wireless
| networks! we can do fun things. we can push the boundaries.
|
|  chris> no-one told people that they have to take responsibility
|  chris> for what their country is doing, educate themselves and
|  chris> regain control of their lives. They just used language
|  chris> that contained no responsibility.
|
| chris (and others), could you have a go at phrasing what i am saying
| into "better" words please. i think i am reasonably good at avoiding
| trigger words, and in fact constantly make up new words in order to do
| so, but am sure it could all be phrased a lot better.
|
| thanks!
|
|  matt> the police WILL NOT LET DEMOCRACY OCCUR IN THE STREETS.
|  matt> If you try to make this happen and advertise it as if
|  matt> it will be fluffy and lovely and discursive, you will
|  matt> just be fooling people who will end up with a truncheon
|  matt> in their face.
|
| i beg to differ.
|
| yes, i agree, the inertia is currently against our favour. but we don't
| have to let it be so. the key is for us to strike pre-emptively. not on
| the streets. but in the court of public opinion.
|
| i have been thinking that we should perhaps highlight events such as the
| tiananmen square massacre and genoa. make people aware of what really
| happened. (funny, those chinese were asking for more democracy and
| accurate press coverage just like we are doing so now...).
|
| the developments that took place in the lead up to those events needs to
| become common knowledge. the key here is to do it such that the police
| would not be able to tear gas innocents without a public backlash. at
| the same time, we must take care to avoid instilling paranoia, e.g. the
| black bloc in genoa...
|
| also, what are famous scenes from movies? star wars is pretty good. we
| should make use of strong imagery in movies, books and songs to get the
| point across. we should emphasise the history of the likes of ghandi.
| (perhaps we should all dress up like him?)
|
| the police are, at the end of the day, people just like the rest of us.
| they are influenced by the opinion of others just as we all are. they
| too have children, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers,
| friends, lovers. they too are influenced by what those people think.
|
| london can ring with more than that of the truncheon thing! london can
| ring with hope and love. we can take the first step towards creating the
| world we want.
|
|  matt> There will (it looks pretty certain) be a large event
|  matt> within the next three weeks in London which will
|  matt> (hopefully) be similar to the event that happened in
|  matt> San Francisco....roving groups of people stopping
|  matt> business as usual, along with people blocking key
|  matt> intersections to shut down the city.
|
| why hopefully? sf was a disaster.
|
| the actions in san francisco have been counter-productive. it:
|
|   a) as chris says, polarised both activist+public opinion.
|
|   b) gave the polcie (SFPD) a good excuse to use rather draconian
|      measures. (in related news, didn't a police van drive over a
|      protestor in washington dc?)
|
|   c) annoyed enough of the public so that many actually support the
|      SFPD "peace forces" in clearing out the "troublesome protestors".
|
|   d) instilled paranoia and fear into many protestors. trust has
|      started to break down for fear of infiltration. and some are
|      afraid of doing any form of direct action for fear of their
|      lives.
|
|   e) has started to splinter a movement into militant and non-militant
|      factions. seeing the horrors has made some people more militant.
|      but at the same time, the moderates are shying away. and without
|      strength in numbers, any action will get stamped down very quickly.
|
| we need the majority of people to stand up and support us. we should be
| the people. not some "enlightened" minority.
|
|  matt> I am well aware that this will not perform an educative
|  matt> function, but I think something like this is needed to
|  matt> hammer the point home that people will not stand for being
|  matt> screwed. If not now, when, if not us, then who?
|
| i am tired of seeing some trying to make martyrs of themselves. what
| does blocking roads, and bridges and intersections achieve by itself?
| what does chanting against the police achieve by itself?
|
| notice how words like "anarchists", "hackers", etc. are constantly
| misrepresented? notice how these forces are the ones that actually
| provide some form of real alternative, and thus a real threat?
|
| the point here is that the "establishment" would use any excuse to
| misrepresent all actions. and escalated direct action with no dialogue
| would only serve in their interests. gives them an excuse to represent
| _all_ the "remaining" protestors as extremist troublemakers.
|
| and, is it me, or do people seriously underestimate the might of the
| armed forces? as it stands, there is no hope for reclaiming the bases.
| all it does is provides an excuse for the militant faction of the
| movement to be labelled as "terrorists who pose a threat to national
| security".
|
| reclaiming the bases, if it's to be done, has to be done from the
| inside. with members of the armed forces refusing to refuel the bombers.
| with dockers refusing to load arms shipments. with loved ones of
| soldiers writing in to them to give them support to stand up against
| their superiors.
|
| by chanting outside bases, all we do is cultivate an "us" and "them"
| mentality. so instead, let's:
|
|   1) listen to each other. listen and learn. let's have a war on
|      ignorance.
|
|   2) empower ourselves with dialogue and try to come up with
|      solutions. it's easy to shout *NO* to things. but, without
|      providing alternatives, the shouting is meaningless.
|
|   3) celebrate life. this *is* your life, and it *is* ending one
|      minute at a time. enjoy it. end the solitude. choose life.
|
|  giles> the problem with direct action is that most of the
|  giles> public think, whether right or not, that its just
|  giles> of bunch of thugs/peaceniks/hippies/wasters etc..
|  giles> and will therefore never listen to what they are
|  giles> saying although they may actually find they agree
|  giles> with it if they took notice.
|
| *nod* we need to cater for everyone.
|
|  giles> the answer isnt becoming more extreme but playing
|  giles> them at their own game and although it seems slower
|  giles> you cant change people's opinions overnight. i you
|  giles> act in a way that the media/politicians/public can
|  giles> find fault with then it'll make a much stronger
|  giles> point.
|
| (surely you meant can't?)
|
| in either case, i both agree and disagree. i agree that we should not be
| extremist. at the same time, we must make a strong statement.
|
| blocking off central london is, in my book, a strong statement. yet, the
| idea of dialogue is about toning down from extremist direct action and
| instead focussing on education and empowerment.
|
| i think we have a good balance here.
|
| help me. i am just one person. i can't do this alone. but together,
| anything is possible.
|
| --
| peace is now, tav
| tav@espians.com

[This is a reposting of an email that I had sent to some close friends on March 24th 2003 @ 23:56.]

| rehi,
|
| i have often expressed my discontent of protest marches, petitions, and
| the likes of direct action such as hunger strikes, sit-ins, blockades,
| chaining oneself to..., etc.
|
| i agree with all of them in theory, and in practise they all work great
| as acts of solidarity. they bring people together. let people know that
| they are not alone in their feelings.
|
| however, unfortunately for us, their value has been diminished over the
| years. the hippies did too good a job. values and beliefs and actions so
| adapted by mainstream culture, that they have no effect.
|
| so let's not merely walk from A to B. let's not block traffic and
| achieve nothing besides annoying people and getting yourself nicked.
| let's not chant mindlessly at the police -- these guys are just doing
| their job, they've heard the fucking chants all day long.
|
| it's time to take things a step further. time to do something
| constructive. and so, i would like to propose the "pedipeace movement"
| -- pedestrianise for peace.
|
| let's choose one day, and on that day, not have cars travel through
| london, and form circles at every other crossroads, and have a dialogue
| about various issues.
|
| it doesn't even have to all be a dialogue of words. at some crossroads,
| we could have wonderful music and dance. at some crossroads, we could
| have beautiful men and women giving out free food.
|
| we could discuss nuclear disarmament at oxford circus, palestine at
| cambridge circus. the idea is to have a circle at many crossroads and
| people to come forward to the middle and express themselves. to have a
| dialogue.
|
| we should practise the law of two feet, which states simply that if you
| find yourself in a situation where you are neither learning nor
| contributing – use your two feet and move to some place more to you
| liking. maybe to another crossroad, or maybe to a park somewhere. no
| matter what, don’t sit there feeling miserable.
|
| we could create some infrastructure to make this happen better. e.g.
| let's say that people are discussing nuclear disarmament at oxford
| circus. i go there and text a number (let's say 2661) "nuclear disarmament".
|
| and then, when someone sends a second number (let's say 2662), asking
| where people are discussing "nuclear disarmament", it would send back
| directions to the one at oxford circus. you could add the numbers of
| your friends to the system so that people could filter the results more
| effectively...
|
| so, in summary... we would have true dialogue. not some pompous git
| standing up on stage lecturing us all, but instead dialogue between the
| people. democracy. we would have achieved something constructuve. every
| nite, people could go back and write up summaries of what happened...
|
| we would have people talking to each other. we would have people
| learning more about the land around them. their geography. we could have
| wonderful street parties in the night, celebrating life.
|
| we would be expressing our discontent by blocking off central london.
| and, yet at the same time, we would be practising what we preach by
| using cars less. we are all oil junkies. it's time to ease up on our
| addiction.
|
| many people are angry. many people feel betrayed. but, let's direct that
| energy into achieving something constructive. into creating the world
| that we want. let's not just chant mindlessly. let's come up with solutions.
|
| i would appreciate everyone's thoughts and comments on this. criticism,
| both positive and negative, is very welcome. i would like to give this a
| serious push once we've got a solid plan in place.
|
| --
| peace is now, tav
| tav@espians.com

[This is a reposting of an email that I had sent to some close friends on March 20th 2003 @ 05:53.]

| time. 2am. place. the wobbly (millennium) bridge.
|
| after entertaining myself running around the trees, i pull
| myself up onto the wobbly bridge and gently skip along. my
| heart beats slightly faster as i see the river flow underneath
| me. the thrill of being so high. the thrill of falling.
|
| clumsily pull myself over the side, straddle a beam and sit,
| watching the river flow. i lean back, feel the aura of the
| full moon. the wind blows. so soft. but with a sharpness that
| makes me alert. aware. lyrics come to mind "london calling to
| the underworld... i live by the river!"
|
| i get up to climb back over. i almost slip. heart beats. back
| on the wobbly. start to skip along again. in front of me, a
| giant circle. a perfect circle. a circle of objects. i look
| around -- no-one to be seen. a present from an anonymous
| stranger.
|
| i delight in the find and start exploring. a mobile phone. a
| paintbrush. a block of wood. a pressure valve. a blue tin
| (labelled russian caviar). i look inside. some round stones.
| another block of wood. too many objects to be mentioned here.
| the wind takes on a cold edge, but the present makes me very
| warm.
|
| and in the middle of this perfect circle, at the exact middle
| of the bridge (both lengthways and sideways), a grey and
| white toy bunny with a fat blue alkaline battery. i ponder
| upon the present for a long time. is there a clever message?
|
| for some reason, the words "beautiful girl lovely dress"
| sample across my mind's ear. a cyclist zooms by. i call back
| at him. he stops. he turns. he approaches cautiously. i ask
| him what he thinks. maybe a clock he says. doesn't have
| anything interesting to say. i let him go.
|
| i explore the present further. time goes by. i feel inspired.
| thoughts provoked. another walks by. i wave. we speak. i can
| sense the samani in this creature. we will be good friends.
|
| i bid the present goodbye, and decide to spend the remaining
| hours of the morning exploring the mind of this new found
| friend. and fun hours they were.

[This is a reposting of an email that I had sent to the Hub London list on February 29th of this year.]

| > Following the suggestion of a few members in the last couple
| > of weeks, we've created a new email group for members who are
| > based at The Hub in Islington
|
| Another interesting development.
|
| Whilst all approaches to improving the signal-to-noise ratio is
| very welcome, is this really the right approach? Sure, all those
| mails asking about missing chargers clog up our inboxes. But as
| someone who has had a few of his phone chargers (not to mention
| a laptop!) going walkies from the Hub, I can certainly emphatise.
|
| I'd contest that all the frivolous "noisy" mails are essential
| for the continuity of the community. Otherwise, this is just yet
| another information channel and we already have more than enough
| of those. The reason most people are on here is probably because
| of the quality of the other people on here. I certainly am here
| because it gives me a feeling of the pulse of my Hub family. The
| personal connection. If I wanted impersonal high quality
| information, I'd just go and google. Millions of strangers.
|
| So if it's the personal connections that brings us here, then
| surely we have to deal with the noise from time to time? Because
| it's that which lubricates and keeps the list alive.
|
| I have found 3 things which help form great communities.
|
| * The engaged wise who provide something of value
| * The noisy young who give it character and act as a binding agent
| * The ease of which someone can transition between active/dormant
|
| And all attempts that I've seen which have tried to separate any
| of those have led to poorer communities.
|
| Anyways, just my two cents. Anyone have any further thoughts?
|
| On a side note, do we have any Hubs opening up by the sea? As I
| sit here overlooking the ocean, I can't but feel truly connected
| to the world as a whole. It's euphoric. Whilst they might drown
| if the sea level ever rises, it'd be a worthy investment just
| for the pure pleasure it provides in the now.
|
| --
| love, tav
|
| trajectory: boscaswal -> 3rd -> london -> 4th -> brussels -> 6th
| -> london -> 7th -> paris -> 9th -> london -> ?
|
| founder and ceo, esp metanational llp
| plex:espians/tav | tav@espians.com | +44 (0) 7809 569 369

[This is a reposting of a blog post that I had written at the first Espian Summer Camp (ESC) in July 2005]

Squarepusher pulses around as this is written. In contrast to the horrendous techno that some Germans seem intent on playing, this Brit demonstrates that electronic music can have soul.

Is music the soul of life? Or was that the spice of life? Who cares. Life is good. Too good. One can almost forget the rest of the world here. Enjoy the moment. Savour the taste. Wonder about the grasshoppers. What do they make of this funny existence we share? A shooting star blazes above. Make a wish.

The inevitable question arises. Why exactly are we here? No-one can give an answer. Everyone can give an answer.

“Have a bloody good time!” someone chirps. Yes grasshopper.

Seems we are also here for a coding sprint. What’s a coding sprint you ask. 500m relays with printouts of source code handed between the runners in place of batons? No. Well, almost.

A “canonical” definition:

A “coding sprint” is an event loosely inspired by Extreme Programming, where a number of developers get together for a few days of intense pair programming on a common project.

The practise was pioneered by the Zope and Python communities and is now being rapidly adopted by many software development teams — open sourced and closed sourced alike.

Fascinating eh? Well, no. But a good way to code. Load up emacs. Hit M-x make-frame-on-display. Collaborate. A good way to code. Collaboration. A good way to live.

The world within my mind differs so much from the world outside. Listen to “Jeder ist in seiner eigenen Welt”. Funny song. Within it lies the key to solving all social problems.

The continuing attacks in London worry me. Perhaps one should be afraid. But fear leads to the Dark Side. Our police murder an innocent man. Yet, they defend their new shoot-to-kill policy. Just as worrying as the attacks themselves.

The extremists are winning. Anti-terror laws are passed. Civil liberties and social politeness melt away. Al-Qaeda. Our government seems to have no clue about fighting this threat. They react in the traditional way. They mistake a decentralised organisation for one with a centralised hierarchy. They react just as they are expected to.

One can almost forget the rest of the world here. Almost. Lightning illuminates the surrounding landscape. Thunder puts it into perspective. Whisky flows through my veins. Mosquito bites all over. Must not scratch.

Where are we? Almost as important as why are we here. We are in Wokule. The village of Biesenthal surrounds us. S-Bahn Bernau (part of Berlin’s public transport network) is less than half an hour away.

Grasshopper on laptop screen.

Kpi and Jörg head off to a meeting with Vodafone. Trust maps. Toman. Community currencies. People are impressed. Good contacts made.

Time stands still. You wish.

I gasp for air. 20 feet of water below me. The bank too far away. I am drowning. Primeval reflexes kick in. I surface. They are teaching me to swim. City boy adapts to the lake. A descendent of the water people familiarises himself.

Everyone else in the lake is in the nude. Beautiful girls strip and jump in. Conflicting reactions within me. Be a gentleman and avert your eyes. Or enjoy nature. Neither win. Like this writer, I am left wondering “why we all have such different modesty-maps wired into our brains. What makes a Brit inhibited, a Thai modest and a German relaxed?”.

Are modesty and politeness merely illusions? Probably so.

Pride swells on learning that Comic Life had won “The Best Product New to Mac OS X” in this year’s Apple Design Awards. Atariboy, the head of the espian graphic design squad, is behind it.

The Wokule community do a party @ Schloss Lanke. We help out. I wander off into the forest. Return to meet some fascinating people. Rico introduces me to the 10 Euro intrument — a bastardised version of the Berimbau. I consider making one. Kpi buys me some string. A prelude to making the Jintra.

“Too young!” she exclaims disappointedly. She had guessed 31. I turned out to be 23. She was 27. Has happened to me too often. I consider starting to lie about my age. Perhaps 29. Perhaps 27. What do you think?

Life. A series of addictions.

We look into setting up a screencast of Kalati. Discover wink. Excellent tool. Innovative. Cross-platform. Only lacking in sound integration. Will come soon.

Amazing, the increasing acceleration of meme propagation. Networking effects going into overdrive. Take the term “screencast” for example. Coined by Jon Udell less than a year ago, creations already number many thousands. Whilst there will be no Singularity, it is hard to see why not. Faster! Schnell! Vite!

Microsoft puts out the first alpha version of its next generation operation system — Windows Vista (née Longhorn). Perfect timing. Couldn’t be better for us strategically. Thank you Microsoft.

An ex-Microsoft employee comes to visit us. He likes what we are doing. Next generation. Trust. Social Networking. Friendster. Affluent contacts. Managing contacts. German Senate. Berlin. Google. Vista. Double binds. The conversation meanders.

Zool tells me about the O’Reilly Mapping Hacks book she has written. Points me to the some of the interesting work she has been doing. I am happy that the espian community attracts the likes of her.

Kpi, Jörg, Ina, Kati, and myself head off to the NOG party. Other side of Berlin. Our human-based navigation systems break down. Would be nice to have good geo apps. We arrive just past midnight. Join the mass of hundreds. A friend is behind the bar. Always good. Hallucinogens. I wish she was here.

Oscillation. Grasshopper whispers.

Kpi leads a visualisation technique. We build a timeline across the fields of Wokule. High in the hills far away lies “Plexnet 1.0” — only half visible and far away.

Elka accidentally unplugs my laptop. Battery-less laptop dies immediately. Takes half a day’s work with it. Elka appeases me with sweeties. Mmm, sweeties! Thank you.

Kalati sprint to get the plexnet into a deployable state — version 0.0.0.5

Yet another of evangineer's predictions come true as Django is released. Pitching itself as “The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines”, this Python-based framework follows in the wake of the hype-induced success of the Ruby on Rails web application framework. In its favour are the several well-established and high-profile deployments. Against it is the lack of a charismatic evangelist.

The relation between hype and fashion is a funny one. Whilst much of it is merely a passing trend, some of it sticks around to be relished by future generations. Like good sandwiches. Cucumber and peanut butter sandwich. Very tasty. Thanks qopi.

What is old is new again. DHTML is AJAX. Keywords are Tags. Virtual Folders are Saved Searches. Portals are Digital Lifestyle Aggregators. Usenet is Darknet. Push is RSS.

The dragonflies have grown. Come hither.

[This is a reposting of an email that I had sent to various close friends in mid-2003.]

| /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
|
|   1. realisations and hard lessons learnt.
|
|   2. my plans for the coming 6 months.
|
| /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
|
| \
| #
| / lessons learnt
| #
| \
|
| i have woken up from the funk that i entered back in april.
|
| this has, without doubt, been the quietest period of my life. i achieved
| fuck all.
|
| my apologies also for not really talking and keeping in contact much.
| whereas usually i do that because i am caught up in something exciting,
| and forgotten to even eat, the last few months have just been shit.
|
| anyways, i recently got one of my moments of extreme clarity. when
| everything came together in perfect harmony. the last time this happened
| was when i was 16, and resulted in a lot of fun things, like esp =)
|
| this moment of clarity has served to put my basics back in sync, taking
| into account the experiences i have had and lessons "learnt".
|
| and, although it's probably just common sense to most of you, i thought
| i would share some of my realisations, thoughts and decisions.
|
| #
| / small steps matter
| #
|
| i have always been too fixated on leaps and bounds and have hated small
| steps. this was made even more acute by my will-be-dead-at-27 thing. but
| i have come to realise that without taking small steps, you just won't
| get anywhere.
|
| the problem though is that i have always been afraid of getting stuck in
| a small step. just look around at all the shit jobs people do and
| meaningless lives they lead...
|
| but the solution is pretty simple. you just have to *simultaneously*
| focus on small steps _and_ the giant leaps. and, in the end, it is from
| the small things that the big things grow.
|
| #
| / large ego bad
| #
|
| my ego has always been a source of amusing contradiction for me. on the
| one hand, i am a relatively selfless individual. but, yet, i am
| extremely self orientated.
|
| and, recently, it not only bordered on arrogance, but was arrogant.
|
| but, even worse, my ego was damaging my work to unite the world. at
| times, i became over-protective of my ideas. but, that was just plain
| stupid. not to mention hypocritical for someone who doesn't believe in
| ownership.
|
| so, to be effective, i have to let go of my ego and work with others and
| treat them as the equals that they are.
|
| this, in turn has affected my plans substantially.
|
| for example, instead of creating one large organisation which will be
| the transformative, transindustrial, transnational which will lay the
| way for uniting the world, i have decided to instead focus my energies
| on creating an ecology within which multitudes of organisations can
| flourish and co-operate effectively.
|
| #
| / large ego good
| #
|
| my ego is also one of my strong points. it gives me the balls to do what
| i do, bolsters my confidence and renews my belief in my vision, which in
| turn fuels my optimism and gives me boundless energy.
|
| the trick is to use it appropriately. especially in relation with my
| charisma.
|
| unfortunately, like with ejaculation and orgasm, i had mistakenly
| thought the two came together. but, this isn't so. one can be
| charismatic without an overpowering ego, and yet be fueled by the ego.
|
| unfortunately, i haven't really had much chance to put this into
| practise yet, but now that i have realised it, should be easier to do so.
|
| #
| / like ego, like perfectionism
| #
|
| perfectionism can be a wonderful ally. i expect it from myself and
| others in the work they do for me. however, it can also be a real
| barrier. instead of simply getting something out, i try to create
| systems that accomodate all possible eventualities.
|
| but, when you consider the 20/80 rule (20% effort == 80% output), and
| take into consideration the most precious commodity we all have, time,
| being a perfectionist seems to be neither wise nor advantageous.
|
| i have no idea how i am going to overcome this little problem, but if i
| am to achieve everything that i intend to, then it must be done.
|
| #
| / the importance of completion
| #
|
| one of the drawbacks of enjoying hypomania is that i am easily
| distracted. new ideas. new thoughts. oooh, shiny thing!
|
| add that to my perfectionism, and i can end up in a state of starting
| multitudes of things, but never completing them. i need to bear some
| self discipline in mind. need to ensure that the task at hand is
| completed before moving onto another.
|
| but, this is easily solvable. see, i am amazing at goal-drected
| activities (and this is in fact another benefits of hypomania i am
| told). so, all i need to do is to write and maintain todo lists!
|
| #
| / a self note
| #
|
| be more aware.
|
|               be more aware.
|
|                             be more aware.
|
| #
| / the journey is the destination
| #
|
| although i think i follow this more than most people, i need to remember
| it more.
|
| also, combined with sustainability, i have decided to live out my
| childhood fantasy of doing every job possible. so, i am going to look
| for all sorts of part-time jobs. from being a cook, to a gardener, to a
| builder, to a teacher, to an electrician, to a barman, to ...
|
| the aim with these jobs isn't to make much money, or to find a long term
| career in them, but to broaden my life in general with people,
| experience and knowledge.
|
| and, in money terms, these jobs will make me sustainable with regards to
| my basic needs. for a few days work a week, i could make enough to pay
| any bills, repay some of my debt, and afford good food, clothing and
| transport.
|
| i am tired of living on the poverty line. living on a few quid a week
| gets real tiring after the twentieth time.
|
| also, sustainability means no need to be a burden on others whilst i
| work on more ambitious projects.
|
| #
| / this is my life and it is ending one minute at a time
| #
|
| like the "journey is the destination" maxim, this is another that i have
| lived by for a long time now. but, again, i need to remember it more.
|
| too much time wasted in idling about and not enough in doing the work or
| having real fun. life is too short to simply think/talk about ideas. i
| should write things down, and wherever possible, actually implement
| them, or at least, get the ball rolling so that others can do so.
|
| i have also often found life to be a hell of a lot more fun when i keep
| this in mind constantly.
|
| #
| / integrity matters
| #
|
| somewhere along the way, i lost touch with integrity. not that i was
| intentionally trying to trick people and be immoral. but, my morals got
| perverted by my long-term logic.
|
| e.g. "it doesn't matter that i had told this person that i would repay
| them by this date, because i will simply make lots and lots of money in
| the future, and repay them back tenfold."
|
| too many promises broken. my word has been meaningless, as i was willing
| to compromise it based on my long term aims. too many loved ones hurt.
|
| so, from this point onwards, i vow to conform reality to my words, i.e.
| keep my promises and fulfill expectations, and do my best to fulfill
| previously given promises.
|
| i want to nurture a world full of love, and if i cannot keep my
| commitments and promises, then there is no reason for people to trust.
| and without trust, there is no love.
|
| also, i had been breaking expectations i had set myself. justifying to
| myself changes and modifications to my plans. "it doesn't matter if i
| don't complete this now, as once i have done this other thing, then this
| would have been solved."
|
| if i am to get anywhere in uniting the world, then my word has to be
| stronger than oak. especially to myself.
|
| \
| #
| / a summary of the coming months
| #
| \
|
| so, in order to see how well i conform reality to my words and to write
| a nice todo list for myself, i am going to lay out my general plans for
| the next 6 months, and see how well i do.
|
| so, in no particular order, we have:
|
| * sort out current situation. tie up all loose ends so that i can
|   gradually become a complete and sustainable nomad sometime during
|   the period.
|
| * setup a proper riva (live/work space) at efpee (finsbury park), and
|   gradually expand the various other locations into fully fledged rivas.
|
| * get part-time jobs of varying nature (cook / cleaner / gardener /
|   salesman / barman / stripper / tailor / mason / etc.) to pay the bills
|   and expand boundaries of knowledge and enrich life.
|
| * form a collective, with those willing and close, to experiment with
|   the various economic models, especially eco-economics (i.e. taking
|   ecological footprint into account), to provide for each other's basic
|   socio-economic needs.
|
| * finish developing xnet 1.0. this will provide the necessary groupware
|   communications, knowledge, content, commerce and project management
|   infrastructure for future. setup a few sites to demonstrate the tech.
|
| * see friends that i haven't seen in ages. see if any of my lovers still
|   love me. (my love is eternal, but to many, absence in love is often
|   like water upon fire, a little quickens but much extinguishes).
|
| * get the consultancy (opn tech? via3?) going so that it promotes the
|   toman (my open organisation) model and brings in revenue by selling
|   expertise on the various developed tech, e.g. xnet, kalati, etc.
|
| * perhaps also join via3 as a technical director and transform it into
|   the global intelligence unit for the third sector that it would like
|   to be and develop the tech needed to enable a green barter network.
|
| * work on building up the uniteddiversity lifestyle brand in general.
|   ensure that book selling, nites promotion and ud communication hub
|   have effective infrastructure. sort out ecogoods delivery to members.
|
| * get body and mind back into gear: eating regularly; exercising;
|   cleansing; sleep depriving again; meditating; practising multiple
|   awareness, memory, neural reprogramming, lucid dreaming, etc.
|
| * start reading books again. haven't done this properly in over a
|   decade. use the knowledge management features of the xnet to maintain
|   and grow an effective knowledge base. (do same with music/movies).
|
| /
|
| * code and release plex 0.1 (a decentralised network with built-in
|   indexing, event routers, and trust-matrix based identities). get
|   certain espians working on it and heading towards 0.2 with a better
|   networking layer and a working distributed, component-based
|   application framework (kalati).
|
| * step up on the war on ignorance. ensure that it is being effective,
|   and start out by creating bookshare systems and simple alternative
|   media infrastructure.
|
| * learn languages again. work on elocution wrt english/tamil. practise
|   what little french/hindi i know. and, start properly learning at least
|   one of: spanish, arabic, russian, norwegian, greek, japanese.
|
| * put espmantra into place. get a small team working on building up a
|   global profile. in keeping with the maxim of 'perception is
|   everything', a global image should be promoted through publications.
|
| * create a new business organisation to handle the sms and plex-based
|   reputation service with the venue and events registration/management
|   service. raise capital by selling franchises and traditional equity.
|   use some of this to "buy out" the shareholders of esp of old.
|
| * head out to kristiansand, norway. play with the big girl and the
|   rabbit. work on getting my amazing norwegian espian back working on
|   cool stuff again. visit the zoo.
|
| * interact and get involved with other groups and organisations again.
|   perhaps start off by renewing connections with the capitalist
|   and anarchist groups in kristiansand and giving them better tools.
|
| * go be a hippy and promote the uniteddiversity essence at the big green
|   gathering. (july 29 - august 3).
|
| * write and publish the "seed" + rehimsa document/book. this should
|   coincide with the release of plex 0.2. release both initially to the
|   'friends of tav' mailing list and post-feedback, promote it elsewhere.
|
| * lay foundations for the organisations and projects put forward in the
|   "seed" document. chief amongst these is to revive esp and fundraise
|   for it by placing the plex on the "gift market".
|
| * start repaying debt to friends in installments with the aim of all
|   personal debt to friends being cleared by the end of the 6 month
|   period.
|
| /
|
| * become a technologically enabled sustainable nomad. on average, spend:
|
|   - about a quarter of time learning (e.g. reading, listening, doing);
|
|   - another quarter working (e.g. writing, coding, building, composing)
|     on the various ideas and organisations;
|
|   - another quarter with others (e.g. talking, listening, dancing,
|     travelling, co-ordinating, negotiating);
|
|   - and, the final quarter on life essentials (e.g. eating, sleeping,
|     loving).
|
|   spread the essence of unity and love the world over.
|
| * work on the "instrument" (for those who don't know, this is a new
|   musical instrument that i intend to create. imagine air guitar making
|   actual sounds meeting hi-tech meeting dj'ing meeting manic dancing ;p)
|
| * explore wearable computing (perhaps get involved in the mithril
|   project). see if i can minimise the load of always-on technological
|   capability so that it's comfortable to carry about, and yet, be
|   effective at providing a powerful tool at all times.
|
| * go be a hacker/activist/artist at the chaos communication camp in
|   berlin, germany.
|
|   whilst there, take care of other things too. in particular, spend a
|   bit of time working on "the touch society" regarding the importance of
|   touch. (august 8-11).
|
| * perhaps travel (train?) down to greece. hook up with relevant people,
|   organisations and communities as usual. and, depending on how i feel
|   about a certain someone, meet up with her. (august 12-14)?
|
| * head out to west coast usa. start out by dropping in san francisco for
|   a few days, and then get down to los angeles to meet up with some
|   of the infoanarchy kru and work on the playainfo trailer/installation.
|   hopefully also organise a mini-meetup of all american espians.
|
|   once done, road trip to weather the dust storms at burning man. there:
|   spread the word of the multicultural yoghurt party; deploy wireless
|   infrastructure; host chats around the round table of democracy;
|   facilitate/engage in a barter economy; and, perhaps do a debut
|   performance on the "instrument". (mid august - early september).
|
| /
|
| * finish off the west coast adventure by getting the hell out of
|   civilisation for another week by chilling out with the underground up
|   in british columbia, canada. go hiking, visit hotsprings, chat about
|   gift economies. (first week of september).
|
| * bring together the relevant people and organisations to start up cge
|   (citizens of the gift economy).
|
| * get the "stop listening to the lies" campaign going in full swing down
|   in london. setup effective infrastructure for alternative mass media.
|   (hopefully the espian waveband project would have matured by then).
|
| * direct energies towards the "sustainable london" project.
|
| * setup local "resource centres" in london and as in many other places
|   as possible. amongst other things, these should:
|
|   - bring together local communities.
|
|   - house infrastructure.
|
|   - provides effective and sustainable decentralised distribution
|     mechanism to facilitate trade/plexchange.
|
| * create plex+smart card based alternative currency and identity
|   systems. tie it together with the local resource centres and get
|   individuals and businesses from all over involved and using it.
|
| * utilise the created infrastructure to bring together cultural and
|   commercial aspects of the tamil diaspora. form organisations /
|   corporations based upon this.
|
| * help sellatel get established in the telecommunications industry.
|   in particular, work on creating and launching the dial and talk
|   service leading to community networks and voip.
|
| * start local "open space" meetings in finsbury park. get the community
|   to come together in all sorts of ways. an ecclesia in the pit in
|   finsbury park. discuss issues, flirt, dance into the nite. local wtf.
|
| * attend and perform at this year's sex maniac's "pastoral" ball. a
|   lord? a shepherd? a unicorn? (september 20-21).
|
| * get "prime scholar" going. linked in with the local "resource
|   centres", this would provide better and more useful forms of
|   teaching and learning.
|
| /
|
| * organise esp0rgy. a fortnight of intense development on the plex and
|   other espian projects (e.g. espra), with the aim of releasing a beta
|   version of the plex at the end of it. possibly in london / istanbul /
|   toronto? (late september - early october).
|
| * bring together interesting and relevant groups (from all the various
|   worlds: business, political, environmental, media, artistic,
|   economical, technological, etc.) from around the world for the first
|   wtfcon in toronto, canada. (first week of october).
|
|   besides being a place to demonstrate the efforts of espians and the
|   other organisations working in and with the toman ecology, wtfcon
|   should serve as a gathering of the vanguard of "the root" movement.
|
|   promote the proliferation of local wtfs to discuss and tackle various
|   relevant issues all over the world.
|
| * bring together talented artists (music/theatre/comedy/etc.) to
|   build up awareness and highlight the problems (especially the food/air
|   deal) the world faces and potential solutions to them.
|
| * go to one of the future heartlands of espia (kerala, india) and scope
|   it out, especially in terms of building a city there.
|
|   kerala also happens to be not too far from coimbatoire where a certain
|   someone is doing her mba =) hopefully, she will be free to travel
|   around places.
|
|   whilst in india, also make preparations regarding the organisation of
|   the world social forum in january of next year, and perhaps also
|   travel to other regions, e.g. gujarat. (mid-late october).
|
| * promote relevant ideas at the da vinci institute's future of money
|   summit in colorado, usa, e.g: pecus (plex economic currency units);
|   gift, reputation and eco-economics; global reference currencies;
|   micropayments; automated bartering; and, better organisational models
|   such as toman. (october 27-29).
|
| * perhaps get involved in setting up a business to business marketplace
|   in the cote d'ivore for all that cocoa! provide the producers with
|   both soft and hard infrastructure.
|
| /
|
| * direct esp's energies into creating the plex based automated
|   multi-party bartering network which ties into reputation branding and
|   trust based producers and consumers and, of course, the toman ecology.
|
| * spend some dedicated time promoting the plex on the gift market;
|   become a "darling" of the mainstream media; focus a lot of energies on
|   business development.
|
| * co-ordinate pedipeace. preparations for this should have started right
|   after wtfcon. let peace, love and harmony ring in cities all over as
|   we engage the democracy at crossroads. (early november).
|
| * help organise and attend the european social forum in paris/st dennis,
|   france. listen to what everyone is saying, and try and help everyone
|   work together better. (november 12-16).
|
| * perhaps check out the interesting things happening in south america,
|   especially in argentina and brazil. if possible, try and live there
|   for a few weeks. (mid november - mid december)?
|
| * join the world future council and help them become more effective in
|   creating a viable alternative to the undemocratic united nations and
|   become a true voice of humanity.
|
| * work towards enhancing the status of women the world over. research
|   into and explore matriarchal societies.
|
| * start off a system of voluntary subscription to a one-child policy.
|   experiment with the idea and create a marketplace where child rights
|   can be exchanged.
|
| * establish intellectual property to be a fallacy, and build up
|   awareness of the various organisations, e.g. riaa, wipo, which are
|   hampering social evolution in selfish short-sightedness.
|
| * help create the book of money as an evolving publication/art. write a
|   piece on the various economic models for it, e.g. pecus, etc.
|
| * work a bit on writing the science-fiction novel 'under the shadows of
|   the simura' whenever inspiration strikes. likewise with 'the smiling
|   ones'.
|
| * perhaps visit sri lanka to scope out the viability of building a
|   city there.
|
| /
|
| * attend the world summit on the information society (wsis) in geneva
|   (switzerland) and get involved in the united nations effort to close
|   the digital divide. (december 10-12).
|
|   promote creating renewable-energy powered, wireless mesh-networked,
|   open source operating system and plex enhanced aierus (artificial
|   intelligence enhanced resource units). perhaps also get involved
|   beforehand in the preparatory committee meeting for wsis, prepcom-3,
|   also in geneva. (september 15-26).
|
|   and, if, there is enough momentum for it to materialise, help organise
|   and attend the world forum on communication rights.
|
| * have another session of esp0rgy in either london/istanbul with the
|   intention of releasing a near final version (0.9?) of the plex by the
|   end of it. (mid-late december)
|
| * party! get everyone i love (especially the wasp kru, espians, and
|   udites) for a new year's party that crosses national boundaries.
|   perhaps also tie it in with a big int'l uniteddiversity nite/party.
|
| * head over to india again and work on the preparations for the world
|   social forum in mumbai. provide technological infrastructure to all.
|   get everyone to focus on the solutions rather than on the problems.
|   (january 16-21).
|
| * form a political "party" that reflects the toman ecology, the real
|   biosphere and values of direct democracy balancing the global with the
|   local and the needs of the majority with that of the minority.
|
|   create a common framework for the various commons (land and labour)
|   that are being formed/nurtured, to interoperate, so that eventually,
|   when a global vote can take place on the governing of it, there can
|   be a smooth transition.
|
| * train more guardians. tie that in with putting together and growing
|   teams that can create temporary cities rapidly and effectively. the
|   city builders.
|
| * design architecture for the future that minimises ecological impact
|   whilst maximising usage of technology and fosters an environment
|   which serves to bring people together as opposed to keeping them
|   segregated.
|
| * perhaps (if i can get an invite) attend the world economic forum in
|   davos, switzerland, in the role of ceo of esp. try and convince the
|   various multinationals/nations to adopt the toman model and the
|   related economic concepts. (january 21-25).
|
| /
|
| note: any statement tempered with a "perhaps", especially that last one,
| is something that i either believe is not really possible given external
| dependencies and/or time constraints.
|
| but, as to the rest of the plan, although as a whole, it is without
| doubt extremely ambitious, each item on the todo list is well within my
| capabilities, and thus as long as i keep at it consistently, it should
| all be realisable.
|
| wish me luck, and help me stay on course!
|
| --
| happy kisses, infused with the spirit of the huntress, tav

Earlier this week, I ended up counselling two sets of organisations with regards to each other. They were trying to work with each other but had various concerns and felt that they needed to be “hard” to ensure that they didn't get over-run.

Whilst it is perfectly legitimate to have concerns — especially when it comes to financial matters — most of the concerns would have evaporated had both sides simply assumed good faith about the other.

And as someone who was privy to the private concerns of both parties, I can confidently state that they were both acting out of good faith — they just didn't have the same opinion about the other.

I generally live my life with the assumption of good faith with regards the behaviour of others. And as a result have a lot less to worry about in terms of my interactions. To be fair, this has not always ended up in ideal results.

But the assumption of good faith forms part of the basis for a rule of ethics — which, in my opinion, certainly lends itself towards a better quality of life in general than a rule of law.

Which do you prefer and why? Do you assume good faith in your interactions? Let me know in the comments!

Ideas require the right kind of incubation. They need to be nurtured before being taken into the world — at the right moment in time.

The nurturing and timing of ideas is one aspect which most innovators and entrepreneurs seem to miss. And I certainly can't talk about timing — as the tyranny of timing is something that I've had to learn the hard way.

But I've been extremely lucky with respect to the nurturing of ideas. For reasons still unknown, extra-ordinary individuals seem to be attracted to me. And their influences have been pure gold.

This is a reflection of something that I've heard referred to as the “Florence Effect”. That is, whilst statistically speaking we should have millions of Einsteins and Da Vincis walking amongst us, the reason many of them haven't tapped into their full potential is due to a lack of a nurturing, vibrant community.

In contrast, if you take Florence or Rome during the High Renaissance, you will see that the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Perugino all hung around the same areas.

Not only would they have influenced, inspired and critiqued each other, but many of them actively taught some of the others. Their social networks would have overlapped considerably enough that ideas would have flowed much faster than at other points in history.

The various localities of Florence and Rome — with their various patrons — acted as a positive echo chamber within which ideas and inspirations would have flowed and been nurtured. We need such spaces for the cultural creatives of our times.

For me, the #esp IRC channel has been one such space. And you can see its influence even in the evolution of just two of the ideas:

• Organisational Model & Pecus
• Gift Economy

For the first employment contract, I wrote (in 1999):

The full employees collectively form the “Ecclésia”, and this group owns fifty percent of the Company shares. The Ecclésia elects (by the Australian ballot) on a quarterly basis an executive council of 7 chief officers. This council will decide on company policies on a day-to-day basis, and will put to vote before the Ecclésia – matters of serious import. However, any member of the Ecclésia may voice their opinion on all matters.

Company work will take place over the Company Extranet. The Ecclésia will decide on new projects and assign values of their worth, as well as elect the Project Leader. It is then up to the Project Leader, to define the Jobs needed to be done for the success of the Project, and their respective values in plex economic currency units (pecus).

This later evolved to include trust-based algorithms and certifications — as can be seen from this chat log about the Espian model in 2001. And on an unrelated front, I was also rambling on the Espra dev list about gift economies — also in 2001.

But at that time, these were two separate ideas. But gradual conversations with others helped identify key problems. And in the iterative refinements I came to the intuitive realisation that they were somehow two aspects of the same whole. That there was a simplicity beyond the complexity.

And in my attempt to unify the elements — through hundreds of conversations — early last year, I ended up with:

But it was only after yet more criticism and dialogue earlier this year that I finally ended up with the true essence of the model. What I now call the “Espian ecology” — where the initial Pecus I had touched upon and the gift economy are just two parts of one simple structure.

I'll write an article on it later this month. Until then, what has your experiences been with regards to the evolution of ideas?

A week can sometimes be the difference between heaven and hell. Especially when it comes to matters of the heart.

This one week in December 2006, one of my lovers went from being “madly in love” with me to “hating” me. It seems that I tend to bring out extremes of emotions in people.

Most of these emotional extremes can be isolated down to one major trait of mine. I tried to explain it in a post break-up letter to her:

wrongly assumed that emotional hurt can be glossed over if the spirits are strong. assumption — the mother of all tragedies. but that statement needs some elaboration.

like the naive fool that i am, i place emphasis upon the spiritual connection betwixt indivudals. treat the temporal as inconsequential. because fundamentally, it is. and, as you once said, life shouldn't be taken too seriously.

thus most actions are just superficial and should be repairable. naive? yes. have i learnt otherwise? fuck yeah! go team america! hope this explains the “goldfish memory” behaviour that you witnessed.

What's the trait which causes so much harm? My tendency to speak my mind — uncensored. Whilst perfectly capable of being diplomatic, I've never seen any reason to censor my speech to those close to me.

Perhaps this is laziness on my part. I could have avoided most of the arguments in my life if only I had chosen my words more carefully. But doing so seems to conflict with my intentions of being genuine. To me, consciously altering one's words is comparable to manipulation.

This also ties in with two other characteristics of mine:

• Loving unconditionally
• Living across time

I have always tried to love unconditionally. This is reflected in the fact that I have never been able to fall out of love with those I have loved. Love eternal. When love is unconditional, surely trivial elements should not matter?

Also, unlike most people, within the confines of my mind, I live across time — not limited to the current juncture of the temporal axis. The positive emotions I experienced in the past are as true today as they were back then:

But both of these traits seem to be in contradiction with the experiences of most others. I have met few people who love unconditionally and fewer still who treat their past emotions as if they were still true today.

Perhaps this is healthier. Perhaps this is how people manage to engage in new relationships — unhindered by past emotions. But in doing so, I can't help but feel that people are just lying to themselves. And worse, the more one suppresses certain forms of emotions, the less one feels in the present and the future.

I have certainly felt elements of that decline in relationships as I have gotten older. The unbridled love I experienced in my teenage years pale in comparison to the restrained love I later experienced. All of that derives from fear of being hurt yet again and the occasional attempts of suppressing past emotions.

But the attitude towards love being eternal has gotten me into a mess more than once. I remember one weekend when a lover and I were so enthralled with each other that we were both experiencing orgasmic states before we had even engaged in any physical acts.

But fast forward to the weekend after that and you will have found her broken hearted. Why? Because during a discussion, I naively stated that one of my previous lovers and I were “one and the same — no difference between us”.

It had not been my intention to hurt her with that statement. Only in the days after that did I fully realise just how painful it must have been for her to hear that. Only later could I see how that statement could have been construed as being a denial of her. It was never meant to be so.

By living across time, I feel the past as intensely as the present and the emotions never dull. And especially since my experience of having an orgasm from just dancing, I have strongly felt connected to all beings in this Universe.

Being truly connected to all beings — starting with those close to me — is my highest aspiration. It is a reflection of the Truth that is this Universe. It enables, empowers and vitalises.

It reminds me of a quote by Martin Luther King Jr.

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

But, I cannot help but wonder if my approach is somehow fucked up? Is there something better I can do? Your thoughts and comments would be truly appreciated. Thanks!

My mother emailed me saying:

“We see what we believe, and not just the opposite; and to change what we see, it is sometimes necessary to change what we believe.”

I love my mum. She so wise! What she says seems to be the core message in personal development processes like “The Work” by Byron Katie.

And it also ties into what I've been pondering lately regarding sleep cycles. Especially since, whilst growing up, I experienced different sleep cycles with my mother. When really young, she'd wake me up really early. And then as a kid, we'd often talk late into the night whilst she worked on some poetry or did some research.

Sleep is one of those topics which many of us have rather fixed preconceptions about. We all need it. It plays a vital role in our well being. It plays a large part in defining our lifestyles. Yet, despite enjoyable dreams, it takes up so much of our short lives.

Now I've experimented with lots of different sleeping patterns. Everything from intense sleep deprivation to the Uberman sleep schedule. But I have yet to find the ideal sleep pattern. So I decided to map out my requirements:

• An average of 6 hours of sleep a day.
• Awake at dawn — the most magical time of the day.
• Time for regular “meta” activities which are vital for a balanced life.
• At least 10 hours “quiet” time every other day for highly productive work — for me this is often at night time hours when distractions are minimal.
• Awake and alert for at least 10 hours of professional interactions with others every other day, e.g. negotiations, meetings, &c.
• Awake across “normal” work times in various time zones — especially Europe, Americas and Asia.
• Time to have an active social life — with lots of music and dancing.
• Time to cuddle up with a lover — who probably also leads a busy life — after sex.

Some of these requirements are probably familiar to those who've read my earlier post on daily routines. The last point reminds me of one of the funniest videos I've seen in recent years:

Taking all of the requirements into account, I eventually ended up with the following ruleset. I call this the “Variable Sleep Schedule”:

• Three sleep time slots are defined:
  • 2pm - 8pm (slot 1)
  • 8pm - 2am (slot 2)
  • 2am - 8am (slot 3)
• Within the period of two days, two of those sleep slots must be filled. No more. No less.
• Under ideal circumstances, sleep will be enjoyed during slot 1.

Not only does the above ruleset provide a useful and flexible structure. But as can be seen from the diagram representing my online activity hours over the last 8 years, it isn't too far off my existing “natural” pattern.

All times are in UK time — whether with daylight savings or otherwise. In fact, the time slots are specifically for the UK so that the timezone deviations with other regions fits in nicely. By sleeping during slot 1, I can be awake for:

• Morning, lunch and late night interactions in the UK and Europe.
• Afternoon and evening interactions in the Americas.
• Morning, afternoon and evening interactions in Asia.

I can take advantage of the time immediately after waking up — when the brain is highly active — to do some quality productive work. Avoid the hassles of rush hour. And have meetings from 6 o'clock in the morning =)

And if for any unavoidable reasons, e.g. important afternoon meetings or social engagements, I have to skip sleep on any given day, I can catch up on the sleep debt by sleeping for 2 slots the next day.

In short, I am very excited by this sleep schedule! Question is, what will my lovers make of this? ;p

A fortnight ago, I emailed Jerry Yang, the co-founder and CEO of Yahoo!. It was yet another unsolicited Yahoo! Turnaround Strategy proposal. My little offer to help turn Yahoo! around.

Given that Jerry doesn't know me from Adam I wasn't expecting an immediate reply. But it's now been 2 weeks and still no reply. If anyone knows Jerry Yang and finds my proposal useful, I'd appreciate it if you could prod him to get back to me.

You can find the email I sent below. Apologies for the message being in lower-case — Jerry is famous for writing in that way. And given that for a long time I also had a fascination for the miniscule, I found it rather natural to write to him in that manner.

The email also serves as an introduction to some of the Espian ideas. Would love to hear your comments on those aspects too. Thanks!

From:	tav <tav@espians.com>
Date:	Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 7:28 AM
Subject:	i'd like to help you turn yahoo around
To:	jerry@yahoo-inc.com
Cc:	esp@googlegroups.com
Body:	· dearest jerry, congratulations on having beaten off the microsoft takeover and, as a fellow entrepreneur, my deepest emphaties for the unnecessary shit now being thrown your way. the way of the entrepreneur is little understood and it's easy for people who have never been in similar situations to criticize. i just hope that you have people around you to provide the emotional support that's critical at junctures like this. it would be very easy for you to walk away from all of this. but if you are intent on working through, then i would be truly happy to be of service. you might be wondering what a random 26 year old in london has to offer, but hear me out =) and if you like what i am saying, then fly me over to sunnydale! of the many things that need to be tackled, i'd like to focus on 2 aspects in this email: business model external brand and internal morale yahoo! was the undisputed king of web 1.0. not only was yahoo the first search engine i ever used, but all the other services that i and others used — rocketmail, geocities, egroups — all became yahoo! properties. it consolidated its position effectively. but despite making some really wise acquisitions — flickr, delicious, upcoming, &c. — yahoo! passed up on being the web 2.0 player that it could have been. it's too late to do anything about that now. innovation happens in curves — http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_art_of_inno.html “Too many companies duke it out on the same curve. If they were daisy wheel printer companies, they think innovation means adding Helvetica in 24 points. Instead, they should invent laser printing. True innovation happens when a company jumps to the next curve—or better still, invents the next curve, so set your goals high.” and this is the opportunity that i believe you now have. time to jump to web 4.0 — a web 4 the people by the people. because none of the approaches being taken by your competitors are tackling the real problems that we all face: everything being dependent on advertising revenue information/communication overload intellectual property and surviving in an “economy of free” the depleted social and environmental fabric the lack of identity/meaning in most people's lives you've reaped the benefits by being a pioneer with yahoo! it's time to be a pioneer again and let the others play catch up! your major competitors are now focused on being the ultimate middle-men. but if you can jump ahead and totally disrupt the market — much like paid search has done to tv advertising — then not only do you strengthen your position and revenues, but also take away from the others. how can this be done? well, with a series of simple developments. the first, i call “trust maps”. this is an extension of the concept of “friends” introduced by the various social networking sites. but instead of being just fun, it can be used as a basis for a whole new economic model. and you already have the largest social network on the world to bootstrap this — yahoo! mail/messenger. how does it work? well, a user simply states who they trust and in what context, e.g. i trust “Indy, Katy and Alice” in the context of “architecture”. this trust map can then be used as a filter for information flow. taking what already happens in real life — but making it more automated. a way of enabling people to overcome information overload. and yahoo! has one of the best properties on the internet to make this happen: del.icio.us. delicious has already come very close to implementing this. you can setup what is called a “network” and subscribe to links under certain tags, e.g. i can subscribe to alice/architecture. unfortunately, delicious never added a transitive element to this. that is, if Alice also subscribed to Xiao, then i never receive Xiao's links. some of yahoo!'s researchers have also written a paper on something called “TrustRank”. this can be used to evaluate the entire network from the perspective of the various individuals relatively well. so instead of sites like google, where users are limited to the same global perspective, yahoo! could start offering search results in a way that reflects their personal tastes and perspectives. now, with this new form of search — which in many ways, takes us back to yahoo's original roots — you can in one stroke help people overcome information overload, take back market share in search and make social networking actually useful. but it does not stop there =) as a next step, you can completely destroy the paid search market. microsoft is currently accidentally stumbling towards this with their live search cashback scheme. this is what i call plexchange. to faciliate this, transactions simply take place in specific contexts. for example, let's say that i go and buy the book “Timeless Way of Building” from a supplier for $30. given that this is in the context of architecture, a certain commission set by the supplier (say 10%) is split between the various individuals in my trust map. that is, Indy, Katy and Alice would get $1 each (the $3 commission split between each of them equally). unlike the current setup, this creates a win-win-win proposition. the supplier can increase/decrease their commission appropriately to compensate for how good/established their offering already is. they don't need to waste money on intermediary search advertising. the various individuals in my trust map get compensated for keeping me informed. and if they start spamming me, i simply take them out of my trust map and thus they are incentivized to provide value. and myself, i benefit from being well informed and being able to have a higher quality of life. and in terms of gaining adoption for this, this gives a true business model for all the millions of bloggers (early adopters) out there. it's good to have them on your side. and by giving them a working model — taking them away from being dependent on adsense dollars — you gain their trust and support. i don't know if you still have the stake in alibaba — but it'd tie in quite nicely with that investment too. not to mention revitalizing subsidiaries like kelkoo. next up, you can create a working economy for all the cultural creatives out there — starting with musicians. the music industry is currently in turmoil. and their attempt to regulate the market of “file sharers” simply hasn't worked. and as more and more things go digital, e.g. movies, designs of cars, &c., the need for a new working model for intellectual property becomes important. the only inevitable solution is to create a “gift economy”. imagine that your browser kept tab of everything you've been reading/listening/watching and asked you every month about what you want to give. and say a user decides to give $50 — this then gets split up between all the artists/bloggers/developers/musicians that they've been benefiting from. creators may provide incentives to encourage more giving. for example, the band radiohead may say that the top 100 and a random 50 from the top 10,000 givers in any city get invited to an intimate performance when they are next in the given city. by creating a generic platform for all of this, yahoo! can get the millions of cultural creatives on its side and truly disrupt many markets. building upon this, yahoo! can go onto enabling a new reputation economy. based on something that i call pecus — personal economic currency units — pseudo shares in individuals — individuals can actively promote those who are working towards creating the conditions they want. not only does this allow for fluid, fast-paced and decentralized organizational structures, but it reflects the way that the markets are heading in. such decentralization would focus the world's efforts on truly vital efforts like rebuilding the biosocial infrastructure. because as the new opportunities for growth cease to be in growth and various aspects of the market disappear into economies of free, there is very little left to “capitalise” upon. opportunity lies in the new non-growth growth markets. and biosocial infrastructure is interesting in this regard because due to its scarcity one could set its price as infinite. and anything that has a theoretical infinite value is interesting! and, finally, if yahoo! just did all of this through the web, then it'd do well, but not be truly placed to profit as it could. to truly do this, an open platform needs to be created. the work that yahoo has been doing with regards to building an open platform has been great. extremely under-appreciated by the developer communities, but good work regardless. this work now needs to be taken to a whole new level. to reformulate the web into a more peer-to-peer infrastructure. some of the work being done by your javascript teams have already been accidentally laying down the foundations for this. and by reformulating the web into a new architecture, there is a lot to be gained. things like search can become an integral part of this new network — obviating the need for external search providers. all the information could be stored locally. letting people overcome concerns of privacy because it's not sitting on centralized servers outside of their control. and the various post-PC devices like mobile phones can be leveraged to create effective “peer computing”. and by making all of this totally open source and public, yahoo! can totally blow the efforts of others like microsoft, google and adobe out of the water. the web is nearly 20 years old. and the time has come for a major upgrade! now, by following down the line i've sketched out above, yahoo! can re-establish itself as a pioneer. and this is the key to regaining brand value and revitalizing internal morale. the above solves real problems that people face and can make yahoo! the ultimate middle man for the world. by appealing to people's imagination, hopes and aspirations, you can propel yahoo! back to the center-stage. and, as you already know, on wall street it is all about perception! the old adage of an attack being the best defense needs to be brought into play. with this new model, yahoo! can question the model of its competitors and take the negative focus away from yahoo! i would also recommend doing this as a grand 10-month project in which all of this is developed totally openly and executed. and to do this in a “reality tv”-esque style that will engage with the imagination of the world. get back to the yahooligan roots! make it truly engaging and sexy. like it was back at the start. spin the exodus of the various executives as an advantage — free-ing yahoo! to truly pioneer again — unburdened by egos. and with a solid plan in place with the imagination flaring, getting your shareholders appeased and supportive should be an easy task. they will be slightly reticent to start with, but they can be won over with conviction. i would like to help you do all this. i have the charisma, strategic capacity and technical know-how to make this happen. i can even bring together many of the appropriate people to make this happen — and if you will let me, put together appropriate people from within yahoo! anyways, that should be enough for a first email =) i'm much better at communicating in person. so if you find it at all useful to your current situation, then please fly me over. i'm based in london, but can be over at short notice. PS. i'm cc'ing a list of my collaborators — hope that's okay. good luck and speak soon! — love, tav plex:espians/tav | tav@espians.com | +44 (0) 7809 569 369

Netiquette has long been a dying trait. At best I hope that people might read something like Seth's Email checklist. But I have long stopped expecting others to adhere to much sense on this front.

But the "Don't print this Email" footer meme just managed to push past the annoyance tipping point for me. Especially since it came from someone who I admire as a great systems thinker!

I understand that it is well meant. People would like to show that they care for the environment and would like to encourage having less of an impact on the world. Laudable intentions.

But having a footer on every email is just plain stupid. Especially the large companies who insist on having several paragraphs of text explaining why you shouldn't do so and just how super cool and eco-friendly they are. Often these footers are larger than the body of the message itself!

So why is this stupid? Because by adding these footers you are causing more harm than printing those emails would be causing in the first place! The millions of servers handling email sit in data centers consuming serious amounts of energy!

And the additional size of each and every message — especially as they get replied to and included in replies — adds up to a serious amount of energy use! More routers, servers and switches are needed just because people couldn't handle a bit of systems thinking.

It's not just for keeping the user interface simple that companies like Google spend such effort keeping their home page to less than 28 words. Each extra useless byte directly results in more energy use and a lot more CO2 in the atmosphere.

So, please for the love of the environment, stop including that footer in your emails. The point has already been made. I stopped printing emails in 1999. Just have a chat with people who still insist on printing out their emails. And stop wasting the most precious asset we all have — time!

After a week of heavy pondering, I have nailed down the required functionality for Bootstrap. Have a read:

• Boostrap draft specification

Then let me know what you think in the comments below!

Bear in mind that this is not Espra. It is not based on the Plexnet. It is not decentralised. It is not meant to scale to millions of users. It is only meant to achieve the following:

1. Enable interesting small-scale communities, e.g. socialaction.tv
2. Demonstrate some of Espra's utility, e.g. Trust Maps.
3. Establish credibility with the world that the Espians can code =)
4. Be a powerful communications tool to facilitate Espra's development.
5. Bring in short-term consultancy revenue.

Not to be a fatalist, but I'm increasingly observing how frequently “coincidences” seem to be taking place.

Case in point, this morning Zooko messaged me out of the blue. It's been a few months since we last spoke and was nice to briefly catch up. He pointed me to his latest work — AllMyData.com — an online storage service running on Tahoe, the P2P network he's been working on.

And it just so happened that earlier this evening, I was in need of a storage service to integrate into the coming Bootstrap specification. AllMyData happens to be one of the best fits — closely shadowed by box.net.

Neither contact from Zooko nor the need for a storage service is particularly surprising. But for it to happen on the same day is a pretty low probability. And on its own, not so surprising.

But taken together with all the other hundreds of little opportune coincidences that seem to take place in my life, I begin to wonder if coincidences really are coincidences?

I am a real-time operating system. Alive in the moment. Fluid to all that happens around. But this is only possible thanks to a seemingly contradictory requirement:

I need clear boundaries.

Without clearly defined boundaries, I end up in a sea of endless possibilities and confusion. The number of possible permutations becomes too much to handle and I find myself incapacitated.

But if I can clearly define boundaries between the various shades of grey that life presents us with, I suddenly find myself liberated and able to act without having to think.

I then only have to bear in mind the single rule:

Be alive!

This is true freedom. I don't have to contemplate the consequences of my actions and can freely flow as events unfold.

I can do things like getting completely hammered on alcohol and drugs without worrying about my actions. I can trust myself with absolute confidence. I can take risks without worry. Confidence flows unhindered by pointless contemplations.

However, this isn't a perfect approach. Let me illustrate with two examples.

The first involves my principles with regards to friendship. Whilst generally friendly to all living creatures, I have clearly defined distinctions with regards to how I behave with friends and those who are not friends.

This allows me to be highly “scalable” with regards to the number and depth of the relationships I have. But one time, my rather fixed boundary put me in a rather unpleasant situation.

A friend and I met this girl on the same evening and we ended up competing for her over the following week. Normally I have no qualms competing with a guy for a girl. I can outcompete with ease.

But trying to compete with a friend just left me paralysed. My friendship boundary involves not fucking over friends. But how the hell are you meant to compete with a guy for a girl and not screw him over in some way?

Another point when my sharp boundaries caused some unpleasantness was when I once invited a friend of mine to join a girlfriend and myself in bed one night.

The night itself was rather enjoyable and pleasant. However, the next morning, my sharp boundary thing meant that he was back to being just a friend with the two of us.

Unfortunately, he saw life as shades of grey and managed to piss me off a bit by trying to be intimate with my girlfriend. Not in a sexual way, but just with physical closeness.

Now I could totally understand it from his perspective. It makes for a gentler easing out after sexual intimacy with her, but for me life operates around clear boundaries — especially around friendship, intimacy and love.

But despite occassional blips like this, the clearly defined boundaries allows me to operate in real-time and be totally fluid in how I live. I can also make extremely long-term commitments, e.g. Espia, because I know myself.

What do you all think? Does my approach make any sense? Do you have similar approaches?

Some people have complained that it is impossible to remember the URL for this blog. Unfortunately Google Code don't allow for redirecting domains to it.

At some point this blog will transfer over to http://tav.espians.com — but, until then, here's a persistent URL:

• http://purl.org/asktav

Bookmark it now! =) And, in case you didn't know, PURL is a great “Persistent” URL service.

Some people are photogenic. Some are not. Some people love seeing pictures of themselves. Some people don't. I belong to the second category in both cases.

Having generally avoided cameras my entire life, I was a bit lost when friends suggested that I should change the “profile” picture I was using in video presentations.

First of all, there were few photos in existence. Secondly, they pretty much always had other people in them or weren't taken in a professional context.

How do other people choose profile pictures? Do people have so many pictures of themselves that it's not much of hassle? Am I abnormal to have so few pictures of myself?

In fact, one of the few suitable pictures was the one of me on wikipedia:

But it was taken when I was 18 — in 2001. Sigh! I was left with no choice but to go down the narcissistic route. Time to have pictures taken of myself! Woo!

Cameras have always failed to capture my charisma. But what the hell — time to face the camera. After 15 minutes of having photos taken by Tommy and Xiao, we arrived at:

It's my new “official” profile picture. What does everyone think? Does it convey the “Tav Essence” at all?

I became a blogger in 2002 with Radio Userland. As the trial expired, I decided to wait till better tools were available. 6 years and an active blogosphere later, I presumed things had improved.

So I tried out Wordpress and Blogger. What did I find? Crap. Now don't get me wrong. They are dece