In the last few weeks, I’ve switched over to Git for most of my version-control needs, at home and at work, after putting it on the long finger for months.

We continue to use Subversion at work, but I’ve recently followed Pavel and Eric’s lead in using git-svn. I work locally on my own private branches and git svn dcommit and git svn rebase oc­ca­sion­al­ly. I’m primarily on Windows at work, but I have a Linux box and a Mac Mini too, while at home, I have a MacBook, a Linux netbook, and a Vista desktop. I’m using msysGit, oc­ca­sion­al­ly sup­ple­ment­ed by Tor­toise­Git and QGit. Pavel’s on a Mac and …continue.

Nathan Oliver is a great writer, but a horrible man. Adam Dalgleish of Scotland Yard is called in when Oliver is found murdered on an island that is ex­clu­sive­ly reserved for VIPs. Only a handful of people could possibly be the killer.

P.D. James adds psy­cho­log­i­cal insight to a tightly plotted classic mystery. Dalgleish is both a poet and a detective. Both aspects are required to get to the heart of what happened on Combe Island.

William Gibson has abandoned cyberspace for the present day. No matter. The same elements of paranoia, adrenalin, and tech­nos­peak are present.

His story follows three sets of characters, all of whom ultimately intersect, chasing the same mcguffin.

Enjoyable, if confusing.

Today is National Coming Out Day, a day to promote awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans­gen­der people. For anyone who doesn’t already know: I’m bisexual.

I’m married to Emma. That leads people to tacitly assume that I’m straight. Too often, I do little or nothing to challenge that assumption, either from straight people or gay people.

I came out in grad school, a couple of years after leaving Ireland. It was difficult at first, but ultimately rewarding.

I’m married to a woman, but I could have ended up with a male partner, a partner whom I could not legally marry in Washington state. Emma and I married because anything else is second class. This …continue.

I’m breaking radio silence to explain the un­char­ac­ter­is­tic drought of blog posts. In my last post, I mentioned that I had created a Twibbon overlay for Approve71.org, allowing you to overlay Approve71‘s badge over your Twitter icon.

The next day I went over to Approve71’s head­quar­ters and introduced myself to the tech team, Josh, Joe, and Adam. One thing led to another, and I spent that weekend writing my first-ever PHP code, which allowed you to upload a photo to Approve71’s website, stamp a banner on it, and then save it so that you could sub­se­quent­ly upload it to Facebook for your profile picture.

It’s been a big success, used a …continue.

I attended the Approve Referendum 71 community or­ga­ni­za­tion meeting this evening and came away with several good ideas.

Emma and I are going to organize a fundraiser in late September or early October. Stay tuned.

I’m getting Freely Speaking Toast­mas­ters and BiNet Seattle to officially endorse the Approve Referendum 71 campaign.

Large businesses like Microsoft and Boeing endorsed the campaign yesterday. I’m told a number of small businesses have too. I’m going to ask our CEO to endorse the campaign. Robbie was willing to host Patty Murray at Cozi and to appear in her press releases, so why not.

I offered my technical services to the campaign, though I’m willing to do grunt work too.

Twibbon is a service that allows you to overlay a cause’s badge over your Twitter icon.

I created a Twibbon overlay for Approve71.org.

The results look great on Twitter and Twibbon.

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, if I save the image and upload it to Facebook as my profile picture, it doesn’t look so good. Even if I use the FB UI to pan around in the image, the cropping ruins it.

I just mailed stormideas, the people behind Twibbon, asking if they could do something similar for Facebook profiles.

The SPECTRE-like Stockholm Syndicate is ruthlessly spreading terror among the European gov­ern­ments. The shadowy Telescope or­ga­ni­za­tion, led by former cop Jules Beaurain, is fighting it.

The plot is pre­pos­ter­ous but engaging in a classic Cold War thriller way.

After the events of The Letter of Marque, Jack Aubrey is reinstated as a post-captain in the Royal Navy. He and Stephen Maturin are sent on a diplomatic mission to the South China Sea. Stephen gets to indulge in both a great deal of natural history and in behind-the-scenes political intrigue during the ne­go­ti­a­tions. Soon after their departure from Pulo Prabang, the Diane beaches upon a reef and breaks up during a storm, marooning them on a remote island.

The book stands on its own merits, but …continue.

Two months after our memorial for Frank Maloney, we took the ferry over to Vashon Island to scatter his ashes. It was a beautiful September day, sunny but not too hot, and a 20-minute ferry ride was most pleasant.

Kim and Holly fed us lunch at their place and we all fell in love with their six rescue kittens. We drove to a secluded beach and each of us scattered a teaspoon of Frank’s ashes upon the waters. We sat there for a while and talked and wandered. Then, back to Holly and Kim’s for cake and coffee.

I know that Frank would have thoroughly enjoyed the day: the fine weather, the ferry …continue.