I have Jew envy. Seriously. I have always admired Jewish people for more reasons than one. I don’t really have an overwhelming number of Jewish friends, but I have found myself in the company of Jewish people everywhere my entire life somehow.

Call me an armchair sociologist, but I love to compare cultures and how certain ethnicities have thrived in the United States. Jewish folks are a standout bunch considering their strikingly low US population.

I could write opinion articles all day long comparing and contrasting Indians and their various splintered groups with Jewish folks. There are so many similarities between the two, but yet there seems to be one big difference: Jews seem to have a stronger sense of community than Indians do. Maybe that’s just my perspective from the outside looking in, but it’s clear even in India that the people are divided by more than geography.

The diversity of languages, dialects and religions cast across Indians likely contributes to the formation of sub-social groups within the greater context. This also contributes to the lack of political strength and the resulting cohesion for a group of people who are more similar than not, but yet Indians somehow are unable to fully capitalize on the democratic process in the States where other ethnicities thrive. Just take one look at the Hispanic lobby. Enough said.

I always think about things like this, but I wrote this specifically after I read a post on Mark’s blog about the Jewish reaction to the call for anti-Semitic cartoons by the Iranian media.

The reaction is beautiful. Jews participating in the anti-Semitic cartoon contest?? Come on!? That’s a group of people I’d like to be around.

Jeff Nolan seems to have the early scoop on definitive news that JBoss and Oracle are getting jiggy on the dance floor.

This means very little to you Web 2.o folkies. But to enterprise people this is a pretty big deal. It feels like Oracle is getting into the open-source game like Michael Jackson was into the Beatles catalogue —- it will be worth something one day.

I happen to frequent the same building where JBoss US HQ is located here in Atlanta for another purpose entirely. I have no direct or indirect reason to visit for purposes related to JBoss. It’s complete coincidence that I have personal business there.

But I keep my ears open and eyes peeled all the while. A coffee shop at the bottom of the building seems to be a frequent spot where JBoss employees congregate. I stop and get coffee as well and tend to listen while I meander about continuing with my own business.

I never did get anything remotely as juicy as acquisition news, but I do get a sense that the employees dig what they do. The environment seems like it’s a positive one. Let’s hope that Ellison keeps it that way if the rumors are in fact true.

How long before Times New Viking just blows the fuck up? It’s going to happen. I predict it. Feel free to drop my name when you hear about them. “Raj said that these guys would be huge.”

This is pretty damn funny. But it makes me wonder if blog posts are becoming the new email forwards?

By way of Brad Feld: State Of The Union

An application programming interface (API) is not a magic bullet. And it shouldn’t be used to create a black box that you can think about later.

Creating big black boxes surrounded by cute little interfaces symbols can be a troubling sign. I see it all the time. People are quick to say “have them use the API.” As if using the API will mysteriously circumvent the shortcomings of product functionality or process.

Think about the controls inside of your car that allow you to “interface” with the engine and the other services. Would you be able to apply the brake pedal if brakes did not exist. Of course not. Same thing with an API. A function won’t exist in the API to execute some command if the server itself doesn’t do the intended task. An API is only as good as the server itself. If the server can’t do it, the API can’t either.

So why do people use the term? It is usually to overcome shortcomings of a given product, but what they’re really saying is “Write a ton of your own code and use our API to provide a little value-add.”

Another related cliche is: “We can do that through a professional services engagement.” Right. Anything is possible with enough time and money, so what they’re giving you is a vague answer that smells of positivity.

When they start saying stuff like “That’s programmatically possible,” it’s time to head for the door.

A rather kind gentleman emailed me today asking if I would add Feedblitz email subscriptions to my humble ol’ blog. And so I did. I have been meaning to do it for a while.

From my perspective, it would appear that Indian films have taken giant leaps in creativity and cinematography from what I remember. I have never been a fan of Bollywood movies. Ever.

Indian pop culture as a whole has never interested me. The films all seemed to revolve around a handful of themes and storylines. Much of the writing was just way too obvious in meaning. The end result, in my opinion, is that many of the films are too similar and lack any substantial differences. The emotionally repressed society seems to live vicariously through film. I’m just sayin’. No need to send any nastygrams my way — it’s just my opinion.

Recently, I watched a movie called The Terrorist, an Indian film about a Sri Lankan woman who sets out to become a suicide bomber to avenge the death of her brother. The cinematography is incredible!

I’m currently watching The Journey, a film by Ligy J. Pullappally. She’s a former Chicago lawyer of Indian descent who put out her first short after graduating from law school. Released on February 14 on DVD, the film will surely create a stir in the somewhat homophobic Indian community because of the themes involving love between women. Looking beyond the obvious, the film appears well constructed and obvious that significant effort was involved.

There have been some standouts throughout the years. Mira Nair is a director that I have followed rather closely. It all started when I saw “Salaam Bombay.” She also did Monsoon Wedding and Vanity Fair, but Salaam Bombay is still my favorite. I’m a sucker for female vocals and dramatic stories of poor people and their lives.

Then there was Born Into Brothels last year that completely consumed me. This is a must see movie. Read more about it here.

This is really going to be big. Really. See it in action here. Click on “live chat” at the bottom.

This is the first in a series of chronological explorations of one of the greatest bands ever: Guided By Voices. Robert Pollard IS the greatest living American songwriter in my opinion. The 48 year old former elementary school teacher has released more records than twice my age.

I’m going to make an attempt to step through his collection of thousands of songs and allow you to listen to how he has evolved from writing 90 second pop-filled ditties to much more mature and sophisticated pieces that demonstrates his enormous song-writing talent.

We’ll also note some of the contributing cast of characters of the revolving door that is GBV from Tobin Sprout to Doug Gillard.

Here’s a tracklist:

Guided By Voices - Let’s Ride - Forever Since Breakfast (1986)
Guided By Voices - The Other Place - Forever Since Breakfast (1986)
Guided By Voices - Old Battery - Devil Between My Toes (1987)
Guided By Voices - Cyclops - Devil Between My Toes (1987)
Guided By Voices - Hank’s Little Fingers - Devil Between My Toes (1987)
Guided By Voices - Captain’s Dead - Devil Between My Toes (1987)
Guided By Voices - A Visit To The Creep Doctor - Sandbox (1987)
Guided By Voices - Everyday - Sandbox (1987)
Guided By Voices - Barricade - Sandbox (1987)
Guided By Voices - The Future Is In Eggs - Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia (1989)
Guided By Voices - Trampoline - Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia (1989)
Guided By Voices - Short On Posters - Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia (1989)
Guided By Voices - The Hard Way - Same Place The Fly Got Smashed (1990)
Guided By Voices - Drinker’s Peace - Same Place The Fly Got Smashed (1990)

To play with iTunes:
1. Download iTunes version 6 and install it
2. Select Advanced, Subscribe to Podcast, and enter this into the dialog:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/internmentcamp/loudspeakers

LoudSpeakers At InternmentCamp.

Alternately, you can play the mp3 here.

I wrote recently about FreeNas, an open-source lightweight OS appliance based upon BSD and the m0n0wall project.

Before discovering FreeNas I came across another open-source project called OpenFiler. OpenFiler appears to be the special sauce behind the hardware developed by Xinit Systems. OpenFiler is based upon CentOS and has a much larger footprint than FreeNas though it is indeed aimed at being an appliance as well.

From the perspective of an enterprise deployment I like the concept of OpenFiler quite a bit. Choose your own hardware, possibly from Xinit and buy support from them as well. It’s not that different from the model of other enterprise open-source vendors.

My problem is that I can’t give you a simple review of OpenFiler because I couldn’t get very far with the install. As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t install at all on rather generic x86 hardware. It was an installer issue, but it prevented me from being able to get a glimpse of what the appliance offers.

For my purposes, paid support is out of the question and the particular bug that I encountered seemed to be acknowledged with no workaround or estimated fix.

Maybe you’ll have more luck than me. If you are able to get the latest OpenFiler stuff working, let me know.

Richard Morrell, the creator of the once uber-popular SmoothWall firewall distribution, is at work developing an open-source NAS solution called NetServa. He’s an interesting character for many reasons, but based upon his work with SmoothWall it’s obvious that NetServa is something to keep an eye out for.

I get downright giddy when I discover that a service I use (other than a blog or traditional news content site) has introduced an RSS feed. Last.fm added an RSS feed for recent tracks. Can I get a hell’s yeah?

Here’s my RSS feed for recently listened tracks.

Wiley getting upset at Calacanis for use of the “For Dummies” tag is so comical that I think I’m going to create an entirely new Wordpress category without their trademark attribution. Because I can.

One might actually think that Wiley would feel complimented that Jason would choose to use “For Dummies” in one of his blog networks posts. In some ways, it furthers Wiley’s cause rather than infringing upon it.

. Nothing more to see here. Move along.

I have ignored her primarily because she is such a fucking joke. But her recent comments are insensitive and work against everything we as Americans want to represent to the outside world.

I’m not even sure what credibility she has to be so popular as she is other than her sensationalistic rants full of factually incorrect statements. In an interview with the CBC….

Coulter: “Canada used to be one of our most loyal friends and vice-versa. I mean Canada sent troops to Vietnam - was Vietnam less containable and more of a threat than Saddam Hussein?”

Bob McKeown counters: “No, actually, Canada didn’t send troops to Vietnam… Australia was there, not Canada”

Here’s video proof.

Unfortunately, her recent comments will make the rounds at the various international news publications and readers will naturally associate Coulter as an American —- with America and everyone else who lives here.

It’s the same thing that happens with President Bush, but on a much larger scale. He says or does something completely stupid and the Americans that didn’t vote for him end up looking like a bunch of jack asses.

I’d like to scream to people abroad that Bush, Michelle Malkin, and Ann Coulter do not represent me and most of the people I know.

Link: Huffington Post

You’re never to old to breakdance on your birthday. You might break something though.

This picture shows me after I fell from standing position while attempting some Bob Pollard leg kicks. You have to be a pro to do that shit. And I was wearing socks.

Someone was getting annoyed at me.

It takes a massive amount of booze for me to actively take a bone from a dog and begin to chew. Cindy demonstrates her lack of fear.

I am late in creating my “intro to GBV” podcast for a variety of reasons, mostly because it requires more time than I originally planned. This weekend should clear that up. Instead, I decided to put out a mid-week podcast full of the best current top 40. Not really, but I did use Tom Zé to carry me through the podcast.

Here’s a tracklist:

Arab Strap - Don’t Ask Me To Dance
The Aislers Set - Emotional Levy
John Vanderslice - Plymouth Rock
The Concretes - Sunbeams
Aloha - Big Morning
Raising The Fawn - Carbon Paper
Larrikin Love - Little Boy Lost
Cee-Lo - Soul Machine
Archie Bronson Outfit - Got To Get (Your Eyes)
Camera Obscura - The Sun On His Back
Architecture In Helsinki - City Calm Down
Tom Zé - Defect 1: Gene [Gene To Gene Mix]

To play with iTunes:
1. Download iTunes version 6 and install it
2. Select Advanced, Subscribe to Podcast, and enter this into the dialog:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/internmentcamp/loudspeakers

LoudSpeakers At InternmentCamp.

Alternately, you can play the mp3 here.