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The Wynn casino is quite extravagant.

As you can see from the photos below, my soon to be little brother AJ had quite a busy first birthday party. My brother Nick, his fiancée Jessie, and the world famous Zeus the Pug made a long drive from Seattle to Las Vegas. My sister also flew in from Oregon for the holidays. My Aunt Bonnie was on hand to help out my mom and grandma. Aliciana and I made the trip from Bakersfield earlier in the day. Lots of people, lots of fun, and lots of blue frosting all over the baby.

My Grandpa forwarded me a neat math trick which you should try:

1. Grab a calculator.
2. Key in the first three digits of your phone number (NOT the area code)
3. Multiply by 80
4. Add 1
5. Multiply by 250
6. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number
7. Add the last 4 digits of your phone number again
8. Subtract 250
9. Divide number by 2

The amazing result: Your entire phone number. This is a neat trick. But, being the ubergeek that I am, I had to figure out how it works.

First Step: Write out the instructions as a math equation. Let the first three digits of the phone number be ‘X’ and the last 4 digits be ‘Y’. The expected result will be 10000X + Y (your entire phone number).

[250(80X + 1) + 2Y - 250] / 2 = 10000X + Y

Next Step: Reduce the equation.

[20000X + 250 + 2Y - 250] / 2 = 10000X + Y

[20000X + 2Y] / 2 = 10000X + Y

10000X + Y = 10000X + Y

Final Step: It checks out, both sides are equivalent. Isn’t math fun!

If you haven’t found time to check out my two newest web sites there is no time like the present to take a look.

Python Hacks - www.pythonhacks.com
I recently published the first part of a two part article on Python Hacks covering threading and how to use threads in Python. The second part of the article is going to cover a cool new feature in Python 2.4 called Decorators.

Aona Security Journal - www.aonasecurityjournal.com
This new content will probably be of more interest to most the readers of my blog. I have an article covering the latest batch of Microsoft patches with links to detailed information on each problem. I strongly recommend people go to http://update.microsoft.com to install these patches because 4 of the vulnerabilities are now being actively exploited. Nothing will ruin your day like having your computer and its data turn into a festering spam-bot, recking havoc on humanity.

I also just posted an article about the two different types of web browser cookies and why third-party cookies are evil. The article gives detailed instructions on how to disable them in the most popular browsers.

For about a year, early on in my career, I worked as a Java developer and I generally liked the Java language. At the time (around 1999), Java had some serious speed problems that we had to work around and it didn’t run well on Linux (this was before Sun made an official Linux version). My roommate Kevin was a Java fanatic, and we often had the Java vs C++ debates. I haven’t done much Java work since then but I have been keeping tabs on the language and I liked the improvements I have seen over the years.

I generally thought C# was a better language choice than Java on Linux, because the Mono implementation was open and Java was very much a black box. It wasn’t really for any technical reasons that I preferred Mono over Java, but ideological ones because I could tweak the guts of Mono and I generally only support software released under Free Software Foundation approved licenses.

Well, the last week shows how things can do a quick 180 in the tech world. Sun made the expected announcement that it was going to open source Java, which they have been saying they were going to do eventually. Well, Sun surprised us all by announcing that not only were they going to open source Java, but release under the GPL! This is going to make Java a much more popular language option for Linux developers. Now every Linux distribution has no reason not to ship the official Sun Java environment with every copy of their OS.

Ironically, Novell, a primary sponsor of Mono C#, is going down the open source road the wrong way, by announcing last week that they have formed a partnership with Microsoft, the open source anti-christ. This is a horrible move and has personally made me loose any desire to do future C# programming with Mono. I had been a big evangelist of the Mono project but now I will be pointing people towards Java and Python.

Eben Moglen, attorney for the Free Software Foundation and an author of the GPL v2 license, states in a CNET article: “If you make an agreement which requires you to pay a royalty to anybody for the right to distribute GPL software, you may not distribute it under the GPL.” Eben is referring to Section 7 of the GPL, which Novell seems to have conveniently forgotten about.

Many open source projects are begging Novell to pull out of the deal, and the complaints are loud that this will cause SuSe and other Novell projects to violate the GPL. The Samba project expresses the feelings of many members of the open source community quite well with the following message to Novell:

Samba Team Asks Novell to Reconsider

The Samba Team disapproves strongly of the actions taken by Novell on November 2nd.

One of the fundamental differences between the proprietary software world and the free software world is that the proprietary software world divides users by forcing them to agree to coercive licensing agreements which restrict their rights to share with each other, whereas the free software world encourages users to unite and share the benefits of the software.

The patent agreement struck between Novell and Microsoft is a divisive agreement. It deals with users and creators of free software differently depending on their “commercial” versus “non-commercial” status, and deals with them differently depending on whether they obtained their free software directly from Novell or from someone else.

The goals of the Free Software community and the GNU GPL allow for no such distinctions.

Furthermore, the GPL makes it clear that all distributors of GPL’d software must stand together in the fight against software patents. Only by standing together do we stand a chance of defending against the peril represented by software patents. With this agreement Novell is attempting to destroy that unified defense, exchanging the long term interests of the entire Free Software community for a short term advantage for Novell over their competitors.

For Novell to make this deal shows a profound disregard for the relationship that they have with the Free Software community. We are, in essence, their suppliers, and Novell should know that they have no right to make self serving deals on behalf of others which run contrary to the goals and ideals of the Free Software community.

Using patents as competitive tools in the free software world is not acceptable. Novell, as a participant in numerous debates, discussions and conferences on the topic knew this to be the case. We call upon Novell to work with the Software Freedom Law Center to undo the patent agreement and acknowledge its obligations as a beneficiary of the Free Software community.

The original source of this announcement is available here: http://news.samba.org/announcements/team_to_novell/

After Novell bought the Ximian group, who many of the top Gnome developers worked for, I though the company finally had seen the light and was going to rescue it’s failing NetWare business by embracing the open source movement and competing with Microsoft with innovation and freedom. But after this latest development, I can only speculate that they were just latching on to the open source buzzword worthiness long enough to become enough of a pain for Microsoft that the evil empire would pay attention to them and buy them off.

Well, as most of you probably know by now, I no longer work for The Bakersfield Californian. I turned in my resignation and my last day was on September 8th. The split was amicable and the major reason I left had nothing to do with the paper. I greatly enjoyed working with everyone at the paper and I truly think that technology-wise they are pushing the newspaper industry to catch up with the rest of the world. Hopefully I will get to consult on some of their future projects.

I decided to strike out on my own and form my own small company, Aona Systems LLC, to follow a dream before it was too late. I have always wanted to have my own small business. Ever since college I never imagined myself working for someone else. I want the freedom to be my own boss and to work on whatever interesting project that might pop into my head.

Aliciana and I have been married for over a year now, and we are starting to feel that ‘itch’ to start a family soon. So, we came to the realization that if I was ever going to try to get a small company off the ground I should do it now, while I still have no one depending on me. We seized the opportunity so that we would never have those “what if” questions in the back of our minds in 20 years. If I fail, so be it, at least I will know what it was like to be my own boss. Life is about the journey, not the destination.

So what is Aona Systems LLC currently up too? The company has 2 major focuses: consulting and in-house product development.

Consulting

• Linux Software Development
• Web Applications
• Security Audits
• Linux Administration

In-house Products

• Palm Applications
• Aona Security Journal
• Python Hacks
• Various Open Source Projects

I have a lot more products currently in the planning stages. The coming months will definitely be interesting… keep an eye on this blog and the Aona Systems website.

Have you ever wanted a community site like The Northwest Voice or Bakotopia? Now you can use our software to make that a reality. The Bakersfield Califorian has officially launched a new venture, call Participata, which will be licensing our software to 3rd party companies.

We are still working out the details like the licensing terms and price, but you can get more information about the venture at www.participata.com and fill out our ‘Contact Us’ form to get added to the “we’re interested” list. We should have more concrete licensing information for interested parties in the near future.

For those of you who frequent The Bakersfield California’s home page, www.bakersfield.com, you might have noticed a new tab along the top. The new “People” tab leads to a section of the site powered by the latest and greatest version of the “bakomatic” platform.

I am on the team developing this great piece of software, and we are excited about a new killer feature in this version. Now, every user with a profile has the option of creating their very own personal web log, a type of online journal, also known as a “blog”.

On your “blog” you can write about your family, your hobbies, your business, or anything else you feel like sharing with the community. This is your personal space, we do not edit it for content, as long as you follow a few commonsense decency rules.

Also included in this new feature is the ability to “podcast”. If you have ever desired to have your own radio show, all you have to do is record yourself, save it as an ‘mp3′ file, and upload it!

Here is some interesting links to get your feet wet:

• View recent blog posts: http://people.bakersfield.com/home/recentblogs.php
• View my blog on bakersfield.com: http://people.bakersfield.com/blogs/cladd

Aliciana and I just got back from a relaxing trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We stayed at the Sol Mar Resort where my Grandma Hauslein has a time share. Accompanying us on our trip were my Mom and Dad, my Grandma Hauslein, and my parent’s foster child, AJ. We spent a good portion of the trip reading by the pool and eating lots of good food. My favorite food of the trip was definitely the guacamole… it was fresh and served with almost every meal. I can’t wait to get an avocado tree so I can enjoy as much of the wonderfu stuff as I want without going broke back here in the States.

Saturday, May 20th

We left bright and early on a 6:30am flight from Bakersfield to Phoenix. After changing planes in Phoenix we flew on to the San Jose del Cabo Airport. My Mom and Grandma picked us up in a tiny rental car and we drove the 40 minutes to the tip of Baja California, Cabo San Lucas. After resting for a bit we started our Mexico experience off with a bang with a “Fiesta” buffet and live entertainment. There was tons of great food, mariachis, singers, and ballet de folklorico dancers.

Sunday, May 21st

My Mom wanted to go to church in an old mission so we headed to the nearest one, in San Jose del Cabo. Aliciana and I explored the shops around the mission plaza at the center of the town while my Dad and AJ relaxed in the shade. It wasn’t too hot during our trip in Mexico, but the humidity felt pretty high.

The amount of construction going on in the Cabo area was pretty impressive. The only place I have seen a similar level of building going on is in Las Vegas. My Mom tells me that there are plans for resorts to be built pretty much all the way up both sides of Baja California. Some of the resorts are built right on top of the surrounding hills… which is pretty scary when you think about the lack of building codes in Mexico.

Monday, May 22nd

Aliciana and I took a walk along the beach to see how far along the tip of Baja Californian we could get. The resort is along the Pacific Ocean, not the Sea of Cortez, which meant the water wasn’t safe for swimming. This was obvious when we saw how hard the waves were crashing against the shore. The consistency of the beach was closer to rocks than sand, so it wasn’t the greatest thing to walk on. Still, it was pretty much deserted, so it was nice to escape from all the other tourists.

Tuesday, May 23rd

We spent much of this day exploring the marina area of Cabo and the beaches along the Sea of Cortez. There wasn’t much wildlife to see in Cabo… it is very much a desert, where the undeveloped land was nothing but dirt, shrubs, and cacti. We did see some pelicans which cooperated with me long enough to get their pictures taken.

Wednesday, May 24th

This was our tourist day, we took a guided tour of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. The tour started off with a glass bottom boat tour to see the famous Cabo Arch and where the tip of Baja California ends and the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific ocean meet. Then we went to a glass factory to see how they take recycled glass and melt it into various cups, bowls, and even figurines. The workers showed off their skills by making a dolphin right in front of us. We finished off the tour with some lunch and shopping in San Jose del Cabo.

Thurday, May 25th - Saturday, May 27th

We spent the remander of the trip reading, relaxing, and just enjoying the slow pace of life. We caught a plane back to Phoenix and then to Bakersfield on Saturday without too much trouble. The line to get our tickets at the Mexico airport was unbelievably long, because they hand searched all checked luggage right there on the spot. Because of the delay we ended up missing our flight, but we got on one that left an hour later, so we still made our connecting flight. So, lession learned… if you are going to fly out of Mexico make sure to get to the airport 3 hours early!