Mending casino fences
It’s been an exciting week on the blog with two new posters adding their thoughts via blog posts. Many of this blog’s readers fall on one side or the other in the on-going Middleboro casino issue and have followed the local happenings – the CFO forum, the pro-casino forum, all the various blogs in town, and town elections – that always seem to have pro/anti undercurrents even today. If you did follow these things you probably remember our new poster Tony Lawrence.
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You might also remember that Tony and I got into some pretty good battles on the local ‘net – some of it pretty nasty. I’m not going to rehash any of that but will tell the tale, from my perspective of how we got to where we are today.
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I’m on several technical email lists including one for MRBS – the Meeting Room Booking System. Several years ago I contributed some code to improve the navigation, allow for easy branding, searching, and a customizable help/FAQ page. The list traffic is pretty light and one day I see this message come in from a Tony Lawrence. Looking at the email address I figured out pretty quick that it was that Tony Lawrence. One of his customers was having trouble with their MRBS install and he was looking for help. The lead developer could tell from the error message that the application had been altered and basically said “sorry dude, you’re on your own”. I replied to the list with the basic commands to connect to the database and getting started, posted my phone number, and offered to help if he needed it.
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This led to a series of emails and Tony ended up sub-conning the work to me to fix the application – which turned out to actually be an email or DNS issue. This involved Tony giving me the root password for the machine and other information needed to connect to the customer’s site via VPN. It was quite a leap given the way things were during some of the worst times of local animosity run wild. I went to his house one day to connect to the customer site when I was having trouble with my own VPN set up. Tony and his wonderful wife(who’s clearly too good for him) came to my last Flat Iron Cafe gig, and in short … things are just … normal.
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So in my mind it all started with an email to a technical list. I could have been a jerk and not offered help and Tony could have been a jerk and found help elsewhere – which he could have easily done. I’ve discovered that Tony is possibly even more liberal than I am, hates Windows just as much, and is an old-school Unix guy. Other than the casino and his insane propensity for using vi instead of Emacs, we have much in common.
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Including letting things go and moving forward.
Please join me 
I deny everything.
Only today have I leaned that you are THAT Mark Belanger. I should have known – there’s something very wrong with people who use Emacs.
Oh, well – the damage is done. Your failure to disclose your past is behind us. It was dishonest of you to not fess up immediately, but I’ll be magnificently magnanimous and lower myself to grudgingly forgive you (for the Casino stuff – never for Emacs!).
Oh, and Linda still thinks you are “wonderful”. Obviously she’s insane.
Peace at last!
Very Interesting! That’s what I labeled vi years ago. I used it on unix based AT&T 3B1′s and 3B2′s. I was told they were very advanced for their time. I didn’t know anything about that. I just drove the things. I didn’t know anything else. I’m not really computer savvy, but I must use what is at hand. That stuff was good?
That stuff was good?
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If by “stuff” you mean unix yes unix is great. Apple got smart a few years ago and took their crap OS with it’s elegant user interface and replaced it with a unix variant. Linux while technically not unix is easy enough for anybody to use. By “technically not unix” I mean it was written from scratch to work like unix instead of starting off with trademarked unix source code.
If by “stuff” you mean vi and emacs ….
The problem I have with many text editors today is that they suck at editing text. Sure they’re great for creating a flyer to find your lost cat (that’s not actually lost but rather eaten by a coyote) … .but they’re terrible for processing large quantities of simple, unformatted, vanilla, ascii text. Both emacs and vi kick ass when it comes to editing text. There is steep learning curve, but in the course of your computer life it’s worth it. They exist for Windows but I’m not sure I’d advise a pure windows user to go to vi or emacs. I use emacs on windows, but I rarely, rarely, rarely actually use windows.
@Wally Glendye
I’ve been at peace with most for a long while now. People I’m not at peace with – or rather are not at peace with me – have resisted my efforts to coexist in a constructive fashion. I’ll try to a point but eventually cast them into my “no upside to dealing with” bin and move one.
Most people need word processors, not editors. Programmers definitely need editors, most other people usually don’t.
Just in case you are wondering: the simple find/replace functions in Microsoft Word and similar apps are very weak. VI and Emacs run circles around that.
I’m trying to take the same path B.B.
Chuck has a sign in my yard that’s got a pretty good slogan for someone running for Town Assessor Office – “The Buck Stops Here”.
At times I type before my brain catches up: It’s “The Buck Starts Here”.
Sorry for the delay posting comments – must be getting gobbled by my spam filters.
Memories of one of my favorite Pols – HST! Got to finally go to the Truman Library last summer. Best Presidential Library IMO. LBJs is a close second.
Hard core on both sides are a very small group. I treat them like extreme moonbats and wingnuts – ignore them. Read and listen only for amusement.