Personal info for zbir
This person is currently certified at Apprentice level. Name: Zachery Bir
Homepage: http://www.urbanape.com/
Notes:
ICQ: 81118097
Main Entry: ur·ban
Pronunciation: '&r-b&n
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin urbanus, from urbs city
Date: 1619
: of, relating to, characteristic of, or constituting a city
Main Entry: ape
Pronunciation: 'Ap
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English apa; akin to Old High German affo ape
Date: before 12th century
1 a : MONKEY; especially : one of the larger tailless or short-tailed Old World forms b : any of two families (Pongidae and Hylobatidae) of large tailless semierect primates (as the chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, or gibbon) -- called also anthropoid, anthropoid ape
2 a : MIMIC b : a large uncouth person
- ape·like /'Ap-"lIk/ adjective
From Merriam Webster
Recent diary entries for zbir:
Had some more thoughts on the co-op idea today. Perhaps I can get a draft together by this weekend.
Been wrestling with PHP+ODBC+FileMaker Pro today. Why do they always insist on the hard way? Not that I'm one to back down from a challenge, but c'mon.
`ldconfig` is your friend.
Spent today and yesterday staring at my screen.
Spent the afternoon looking at all the other Zacs on Advogato.
I seem to be stuck in neutral.
VICE is cool.
Wow. All me old droogs from Kiva are here. Only Matt seems to be absent from the egomaniacal journey that is the Advogato online diary. But he's too busy actually working. Or working at looking like he's working.
Read through some of Ed's diary today. Gee, I seem to have plenty of time to read everyone else's diary.
The more I think about my decentralized co-op idea, the more I want to set it up. I'd need just a small raise for a while, so I could drop some hours and work on it. Heh, "Boss, can you subsidize my plans to leave and compete?"
That'd be great.
I've been thinking about starting up a computer collective/co-op. So many of us easily trade freedom for security in our day-to-day jobs. I know personally that I make a (tiny) fraction of what I'm billed out for. I've been listening to a lot of anarcho-socialist stuff lately (lots of Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco's combos) and being generally disgruntled about that disparity. I mean, sure, my boss started out risking his own personal worth, and ultimately he owns the capital resources, but aren't we both intimately entwined in this whole venture? Who needs who more? The risk is entirely his. I can more easily find new work than he can find new capital. Should this all fail, I'm looking at a job hunt, while he's looking at bankruptcy. I'm in a strong muddle about all this.
I feel that there is a better way. Sometimes it seems that the key to being a successful freelancer is akin to being a remora, and finding a successful external company to latch onto as the "consultant".
I would like to be a part of something like Garp's Mom's place. I want to form a "Zac's Home for Wayward Sysadmins/Programmers". A big old antebellum house wired with ethernet everywhere, a big fat SDSL line, and lots and lots of servers. I want a place where programmers on the lamb (or just exploring) can stop by for a few nights or weeks. Where they can learn one-on-one with other programmers. Oh, hell. It'd be great for fiction, I guess. Not very realistic, though.
Mostly, I just want something different. I suppose we all have dreams of working independently from the sea shore with our wirelessly networked laptops, guzzling Rum drinks while collaborating with fellow hackers across the globe. All while getting a fat check in the (albeit slow) Caribbean post...
Personally, I think that Anarchy can work on a local level. Where everyone knows everyone. I can imagine that a tight group of dedicated individuals can make a distributed profit-generating co-op feasible today.
It's eleven o'clock and I'm so ecstatic. Finally get to work on just systems stuff. Recently shuffled back to LinuxPPC from Mac OS X Server on my G4 at work. Feels like getting back into comfortable jeans. MOSXS is pretty sweet. I used NeXTSTEP back in college a few times. Came pretty close to nabbing a NeXT slab, ran OPENSTEP on my intel box. Bah. Still a pain in the ass.
Got to write a long winded letter to Chris today. I've been reading his diary entries, silently agreeing with him. When I worked with him back in Indiana, I really coveted his job.
sidenote: I've noticed that Matt hasn't posted any diary entries. I imagine he's got lots to say, but I reckon I `talk` the productivity out of him.
I don't really have a plan for urbanape. I had the notion once that I'd try it out as a living resume. Put up lots of the functionality I create for clients: logins, dynamic content, nice design. Bleah. Who knows? Really, who cares? A friend pointed out, looking at the s00perfly site of a web design firm, "Now there's a place with no clients." Seems true. Busy firms don't always have time to have the prettiest sites.
One of our instructors gave me a brand new IBM WorkPad c3 (basically a rebranded Palm Vx). Sweet little machine. I've got half a dozen Infocom games on it. Get my daily news from half a dozen sources. Got Froggy and Bubblet to feed the monkey on my back. Getting contacts in there one at a time. I love it. Can't seem to use it for "real" work though. Can't seem to bring myself to care.
I want out of this design gig.
This person has certified others as follows:
- zbir certified mml as Journeyer
- zbir certified cdent as Journeyer
- zbir certified zbir as Apprentice
- zbir certified squiggy as Apprentice
- zbir certified suso as Apprentice
- zbir certified ahosey as Apprentice
- zbir certified esinclai as Apprentice
- zbir certified cannam as Journeyer
- zbir certified eknuth as Apprentice
- zbir certified jjw as Apprentice
- zbir certified jlf as Apprentice
Others have certified this person as follows:
- zbir certified zbir as Apprentice
- mml certified zbir as Apprentice
- cdent certified zbir as Apprentice
- mishan certified zbir as Apprentice
- ahosey certified zbir as Apprentice
- nixnut certified zbir as Apprentice
- eknuth certified zbir as Apprentice
- squiggy certified zbir as Apprentice
- jlf certified zbir as Apprentice
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