What's it all about, Alfie?

OK, I started this entry comparing the place I work to a dead/dieing place and crossing the river Styx. That's probably harsh as there are still reasonable people here that care about what's happening, but they're getting fewer and fewer each day, and I'm concerned that they are giving up like I am. Not that it's a good thing to admit that, but it's honest. So instead of talking about this place in the past tense, I decided to talk about trying to find the "Silver Lining" in the clouds. No matter how hard that may be from time to time.

For example, it's a bad economy - $1 trillion on the sidelines waiting for some movement in the market to get back in. It's also a bad time to be an American with pride in their elected officials - Bush is going against the longest standing effective treaty organization - NATO, as well as the UN. It's also the middle of March and it's 20 degrees below normal in Chicago - below zero this morning.

OK... so let's spend a little time thinking about the good things.

Well, with $1 trillion ready to flow back into the market, when things start to move, it'll be a very interesting time to be in the industry. Like having the only tickets to a great show and everyone wanting them. That'll be interesting to see. Lots of moves, lots of re-investment. OK, that's going tobe interesting.

We only have a few more years of the current administration, but there's a lot that can go wrong in that time. However, with Tony Blair getting into hot water with his own party, maybe it'll be enough to slow down the US unilateral response and allow a little more support from at least our traditional allies in NATO. I'm not a fool enough to think that Iraq won't get hit over this silly business, but going it alone will either look exceptionally prophetic or exceptionally rash. I'm against the extremes as that's typically not a good place to be.

OK, so we're not going to see a nice silver lining from that front, but if things can slow down a bit and a more direct/targeted/measured response tried, then that's gotta be a good thing. If the President thinks a man is a danger to this country, then this country has the right/responsibility to take that person out. In WWII the Allies would have hung Hitler (to the happiness of many), and rightly or wrongly, each nation state has that same choice. The responsibility comes in when other countries think we're out of control and start doing the same thing to our elected officials.

OK, so things aren't looking too nice in the geopolitical area, but at least we still have NATO and the UN. Maybe something good will still come from all this. I will say that if the money flows in due to a more stable market (due to a more stable geopolitical climate) then working here will be a little bit nicer as there will be more money and that will mean some of the folks around here will have more breathing room and therefore can afford to be a little nicer. That'll help, and if things really improve then the economy will pick up and the market for IT types might pick up again and that will mean options - and that's really good.

So it's all about linings, I guess. That or self-delusional behavior. Either way, it's working for me. 🙂

I've never been a big gamer. I wrote a few games that my friends liked, but as for myself, I can't remember a game that held my attention to the point that I was really good at it, or six months passed - with the possible exception of my teens when I'd go to the arcade with my friends. But I have to admit that ever since I played Empire or Xconq or FreeCiv I've been hooked. Not really sure why that is, but it probably has to do with my favorite board game - Risk. So I've been playing Xconq for a long while and I have to admit that the versions I've played in the last year are by far the best I've seen - even in the commercial offerings.

So the latest version available on the Xconq web site runs on both X11 and Mac OS Classic - which, on my iBook, runs very nicely. Sure, it's a toss-up which would run better - X11 or Classic as each has to run in a new environment, but I like the look of the Classic version better so I play it.

I will admit that it'd be nicer to have the multiple screens on my iBook that I have on my Linux boxes, but maybe I'll fix that with a new 17-inch PowerBook. I've been lucky enough to have a windfall that's exactly what the new PowerBook will cost - when it ships. It's about the most perfect computer for what I do and need, and with that 17-inch screen I'd be able to play a very nice, large, Xconq game :).

One of the things that I'm really looking forward to is the Carbon-ization of Xconq so that it wouldn't need the Classic run-time environment on Mac OS X and I know that they're working on it - I just have no idea how close they are to getting it done. I'm guessing that there's a ton of work to do, but again, I don't know how close they are. I do know that one of the main maintainers of Xconq is an employee of Apple, so it's likely he knows what to do as well as anyone, and he is working on it. So I'll wait... if a bit impatiently.