October Rules Fest 2009

Greetings:

Well, ORF 2009 is ready to rock and roll in downtown Dallas again, only this year the conference will be in the center of the downtown Dallas restaurant district rather than on the outskirts like last year. Just point your Google Earth to 1400 Commerce Street in downtown Dallas and you'll see what I mean. Everything from MacDonald's to The French Room to the "ultra cool" Fuse restaurant. After we check them out, the ORF web site have an ever-expanding list of top (not necessarily expensive) restaurants within a two- or three-block walking radius.

We won't have the same space as last year so, counting the 30+ speakers that we will have, there will be room for only about 170 attendees - first come first served. So, register early and you will still get your 20% discount. There is still no extra charge for tutorials if you are attending the conference and this year's tutorial have a great line up. As a matter of fact, the entire agenda is great. As you can see from the speaker bios those who are returning and the new speakers for this year are strictly "top drawer" - the best of the best.

If your company is interested in becoming a sponsor, contact info@OctoberRulesFest.org and let them know. Again, remember that there is room this year for only 170 attendees. Maybe 180, but that's about it. More on the hotel as it develops but it is down to a choice of only two really great hotels for the same price as last year - but more goodies.

So, register early and ensure that you have a great spot at the Second Annual October Rules Fest. Most of all, like last year, we're going to have FUN and we're going to enjoy ourselves.

SDG

jco

MacWorld is now iWorld

Greetings:

Apple is finally showing its true colors:  Green, as in the almighty dollar.  Yes, you have to make money as a corporation otherwise you become a philantrophy and not a commercial organization.  

So, what is the problem?  The latest MacWorld came today.  And there is NOTHING in there about the Mac computers EXCEPT in how to do movies or photos in the back.  The rest is devoted to iPhone, iPod, iShuffle, and all of the other iCrap toys that Apple has foisted on the world of mindless teeny-boppers and drugged-up skateboarders.  

Even the products page failed to mention the latest advance of the Nehalem processors for the Mac Pro - all that they mentioned was the Xeon Quad core that is several months out of date now.  (I guess that the single article from last month on the Nehalem processor failed to catch the attention of the deely-boppers in the game room.)  Ergo, my reasoning for calling it iWorld rather than MacWorld.

OK.  I'm an old dude who just doesn't get it, right?  Probably.  But Apple's foundation is (was) computers, not toys.  They seem to have forgotten who brought them to the party.  If they are going to degenerate into a world of i-R-Us then I'll have to find another Unix hardware provider.  And, no, Linux is not a good substitute.  Linux is for Windows-haters who don't have the bollocks to do real, hard-core Unix.  (You know, I think all of this started when Steve Jobs decided to use Intel consumer junk for the CPU rather than the more advanced, more stable Power PC of the former Mac Pro.)

SDG

jco

Rulebase Benchmarks 2009

Greetings:

It is beginning to look like Miss Manners 2009 might (just might, not will) be a good benchmark for checking rules.  The other will be the WaltzDB-200.  I will be depending on vendors to double check all of my rules for them on that one since the database is generated from WaltzDB.java file that puts it into the "expected" format for the rules.  (Thanks to Dr. Forgy for re-writing the WaltzyDB.c file into Java for OPSJ but it can be extended to any rulebase needed.)  

Georrrey De Smet has made some changes to the original (hastily done) data file and has blogged about it http://blog.athico.com/2009/05/miss-manners-2009-yet-another-drools.html  in case you want to read his blog as well.  

SDG

jco