OK, with any luck a small BME update is now in place. Emphasis on small; just over 200 images. I'm still converting all the BME maintenance software to handle my new drive array so a lot of today has been finding glitches. Oh, if the image on the right is broken for you, then DNS hasn't propagated for you yet… It's being kind of problematic right now so I apologize in advance if there are hiccups over the next 72 hours or so.
I also wanted to share an update on the Israeli “tattooing” story that had been mentioned earlier. I wanted to fill in a little more info that I just got from an IAM friend that was there at the time:
The media went haywire about this incident (March 2002), and blew things out of proportion. What actually happened was that the a few soldiers, without orders, proceeded to make pencil/pen markings on a few Palestinians. I was in the army at the time, webmastering the IDF website, and I remember having us post something on this issue. Here's the link: "A briefing given by Col. Gal Hirsch, operations officer of the Central Command"... Even though we're not actually talking about tattooing here, I still think it's wrong, and inexcusable. Just wanted to clear up any misunderstandings.
There's always another side to a story.
I'm just waiting for the conclusion to that “Saddam has an H-bomb” farce. Oh, and I almost got arrested earlier today, but that's a story for another day…
I think some others of you may have answered this interview for a fellow IAM member's school project as well… Here are my answers. Again, I'm not really posting them here for others to read, more just to archive them for my own records… But, if you find them interesting in some way, feel free!
I don't believe in work per se. I believe in setting goals for myself that I believe will both enhance my life, and improve the world. There's definitely a great deal of work effort that goes into all this, but I'm just not down with being a slave, so I don't think that “work” in the normal context of the word is appropriate for what I do. I do the things I do because I believe they are what I should be doing. Hopefully they feed me in the process.
That said, I've had jobs in the past that most definitely did not meet those goals. While those jobs did make me very wealthy at the time, they also left me quite empty and burned out on the inside. I'd like to think I learned from those mistakes at least.
2. Tell us a little bit about your career.
As far as what's relevant to BME, I think my first “real” job was doing design work for VideoText systems and then on a product called “Perfect Terminal”. Next I worked as lead programmer in a fax-control product called “SciFax” which was included in a product we built for CNCP called the Fax Booth, a multi-media communications phone booth which handled all of the interactive media of the time (this was at the end of the '80s).
I'm skipping over a lot, but that lead me to develop a multi-line terminal emulator which was then later used as a multi-player interactive gaming platform but because BBS's were on the way out and the Internet was on the way in, it never really went anywhere. I then started doing both Internet development focusing on community and gaming systems (our primary customers at the time were in the online casino market), and then IVR (interactive voice response) development, also focusing on community and gaming work.
I started BME as a personal project just for fun, but as time has gone on, it dominates more and more of my time and resources and over the past couple of years I've been forced (not that I'm complaining) to start considering it my primary business and “career”. Given that I've been employed by everyone from Columbian drug cartels (using fax software sales to launder money) to the “Jewish Mafia” (Internet gambling engines) to Malaysian sex agencies (phone sex and personals systems), it's quite wonderful to be involved in projects that I can respect.
3. What inspired you to begin BME?
Nothing, really… I just felt like expressing myself.
4. What steps did you follow to start BME?
I never thought of it as a business, so I just did whatever I believed was right (rather than seeking to achieve some money-making goal). But to put it into a meaningful context, BME is an expression of truth. That is, it's what it is, not just a shell wrapped around a business plan. I've always put business second to protecting BME's truths.
5. Did anything you anything you learned in school help with your career? What and how?
Well, not really to be honest. After high school I rebelled against my family who were pushing me toward a science degree by accepting a fine arts scholarship. At that university I really didn't do much besides take and sell a lot of psychedelic drugs which later lead me to processing credit card databases for Russian gangs and processing identification systems for underage prostitution rings (hey, this was ten years ago, I think I can talk about it now)…
Anyway, I dropped out a year later. I eventually went back to university and took a year of computer science, which certainly did clean up some of my sloppy programming, but I wouldn't call any of it particularly helpful given how much money it cost.
6. Would you say you are successful in your career? Why or why not?
I put everything I've got into what I do, and I seem to be achieving or at least successfully working toward my goals, and I believe that I'm making the world a better place, at least a little, in the process. I'm very aware that sometimes everything in life comes crashing down unexpectedly, and who knows, maybe that'll happen, but I'm proud of what I do and even if everything collapses tomorrow I won't feel that I've failed.
1. What is the purpose of working? Why do you work?
I'm told I didn't really answer the questions like I was supposed to, but hey, those are my answers. It's not my fault I'm too dumb to understand the questions!
Post a Comment