2/7/2000

News.Com: Corel, Inprise in $2.44 billion merger.

NetDyslexia: How to Make a Popular Weblog. Don't miss this story. Better yet, link to it from your own weblog.

I didn't realize it, but with over 3,000 reads, this page has to be one of the most popular EditThisPage.Com pages.

ViewFromTheHeart writes about the power of Heinlein novels to inspire and teach kids. Me, I'm still getting inspired, still learning, even on the nth re-reading.

***Linux stuff

Is there a Linux-programmers-newbies site? For people new to developing in C and C++ on and for Linux, not new to programming in general. Is there a Linux developers magazine, something like MacTech?

What's a good POP server for Linux? I bought this big book on sendmail, which I need in any case, but apparently sendmail isn't also a POP server. No problem. So what do people use? Update 12:15 p.m.: André suggests pop3d.

Martin Spernau suggests that a driver could allow any Linux tool to access a Frontier database.

Apple's got a page on Linux for Macs. Cool, but I wish Mac OS X were Linux-based.

***Baseball

Brian Hunter gets a $700,000 raise, arbitrators rule. That's a little nutty: the guy didn't even hit .250.

In other baseball news, no deal yet for Griffey. Note to whoever ends up with Griffey: he's a great player, but an undisputed head case, a prima donna. What's worse, he's so-so at stealing, lousy at sliding, uneven at bunting, doesn't hit much better than .300 in a good year, and tends to choke at the bat in late innings. Trade him already. (Okay, he does everything else better than anyone else alive, but still.)

I'm at the point where I'd rather see Charles Gipson in center field. He's no Griffey, but he's an exciting player with lots of speed and a good glove -- and he's grateful, as any pro should be, to just be in the show. From Griffey we've endured a few years of the-fans-take-me-for-granted talk, which just blows my mind. You won't hear that from Gipson.

Maybe you have to be just my age to understand. I left college in the very early '90s, in the Bush years, when the country was in a deep recession. (Remember?) Some analysts were starting to use the word depression. I was grateful to get a job at all, I didn't mind so much that I was a 20-something busboy, clearing tables in seafood restaurants. The intervening years of prosperity have not changed my attitude: if you're doing well, if you've earned some privilege, you should show some respect to the people who paid for it, who helped you get there.