Living with journalistic enemies

When I was a boy, I imagined that one day I might become so skilled as a writer that I would silence all the critics. I was very young, and, of course naive. But I can’t help remembering that dream now that I am a writer and have made some permanent enemies as a [...]

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The wolf banner

A banner, I’ve found, is hard to hang by itself. Several weeks after buying the Bill Reid raven banner that is one of my daily delights, I limped back to the Bill Reid Gallery to buy the wolf banner in the same series.
Since an injury had delayed me picking it up, I had been [...]

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My musical mis-education

I don’t come from a musical family. One my parents admits to being stone deaf, and the other never developed much musical taste beyond the musicals and popular songs of the Fifties and their latter day equivalents. As a result, most of what I know about music I’ve learned through trial and error on my [...]

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Living with art

Since I bought the Bill Reid banner last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about living with art. I pass the banner several dozen times a day, and, at just under two by one meters with a powerful design, it constantly catches the eye.
My first conclusion about living with art is that it’s not a [...]

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Save me from passionate leaders

Today, I was interviewing someone who stated that any company or free software needed a leader who was passionate about the work.
The idea was that, being a leader, they could quickly make the decisions necessary for the smooth running of the company, and that, being passionate about the work, they would make desirable decisions [...]

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I’ve acquired a Bill Reid banner

For many people, Bill Reid is the epitome of Northwest Coast art. The reputation is both deserved, given the quality and variety of his work and unfair, given the number of artists in the same tradition who are equally worthy of acclaim. But regardless of how you view his reputation, Reid has a strong claim [...]

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Seven tips for leading free and open source software programmers

(This is an article that originally appeared on the IT Manager’s site. Since the site has shut down, I’m reprinting the article here to give it a more permanent home)
Books about management techniques rarely mention how to lead computer programmers. The few that do sooner or later reach for a cliché and compare the effort [...]

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Deciding to go into business for yourself

There are two ways of going into business for yourself: The way described in books, and the way that it really happens.
On the surface, the standard advice sounds sensible in its caution: Do your research before beginning, build up your business on the side, and don’t quit your regular work until you have at least [...]

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Indoor squirrel hunting

The other day, I was just finishing breakfast when I heard something crash to the floor in the bedroom. I didn’t think much of it at first, supposing that the curtain blowing in the wind had swept something from a counter.
But,when it was repeated again, I found a gray squirrel sitting on top of [...]

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I thought I’d witnessed a tasering

Having finished my quota of articles for July early, I took yesterday to run errands and browse a couple of book stores downtown. I took most of the afternoon, and had worked out most of the kinks from spending too much time in front of the keyboard when the relaxation was undone in a moment [...]

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