Nice Fall Day
Nov. 6th, 2005 02:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ljpliceaseToday I went down to visit my one and only client Chuck. I made some updates and fixed some annoying bugs in the conversion script. I also told him about my planned move to Australia in 2006. It went better than expected, and he didn't seem worried about my departure. I plan to keep the website, which runs both my personal stuff as well as IdeaBank.
I always take an interest in immigration issues, and I read an article in this week's Economist about Britain's citizenship quiz. The newspaper contrasts that quiz with the American equivalent which is drawn from 100 patriotic questions[1], including seven which are about the flag[2], and conclude that Britain is more hesitant and lacks patriotic certainties.
My next computer will be a Thinkpad T43 named crux, the Latin name for the Southern Cross. I intend to use it for mobile (notebook computing) mapping as well as other activities (storing pictures from my new digital SLR and general mobile computing). My current mapping computer is named polaris, after the north pole star, which is not visible in the southern hemisphere (where I am headed), which does not have an equivalent pole star. In the old days navigators in the southern hemisphere used the Southern Cross to figure out which direction South was.
[1] BTW- if asked the civil war was fought to free the slaves. This answer may not provide complete historical coverage, but it is expedient if you want to pass the test.
[2] I have always felt that elevating the value of a piece of fabric above one's values was dangerous, but I'm just a programmer, so what do I know.
I always take an interest in immigration issues, and I read an article in this week's Economist about Britain's citizenship quiz. The newspaper contrasts that quiz with the American equivalent which is drawn from 100 patriotic questions[1], including seven which are about the flag[2], and conclude that Britain is more hesitant and lacks patriotic certainties.
Sir Bernard Crick, who wrote two chapters of the booklet [that trains potential new citizens to take the quiz], explains that the national culture is poorly defined, thanks to the lack of revolutionary heritage or a constitution. Britishness, he says, consists mostly of living in Britain. Instead of ideals, the nation has (unwritten) rules. "If you spill a stranger's drink by accident," trainee citizens are told on page 101, "it is good manners (and prudent) to offer to buy another."I like the idea of a society where moral certainty is less important than being courteous.
My next computer will be a Thinkpad T43 named crux, the Latin name for the Southern Cross. I intend to use it for mobile (notebook computing) mapping as well as other activities (storing pictures from my new digital SLR and general mobile computing). My current mapping computer is named polaris, after the north pole star, which is not visible in the southern hemisphere (where I am headed), which does not have an equivalent pole star. In the old days navigators in the southern hemisphere used the Southern Cross to figure out which direction South was.
[1] BTW- if asked the civil war was fought to free the slaves. This answer may not provide complete historical coverage, but it is expedient if you want to pass the test.
[2] I have always felt that elevating the value of a piece of fabric above one's values was dangerous, but I'm just a programmer, so what do I know.
