Keeping Perspective

Wow.  The attendance at last night’s talk was overwhelming, probably a hundred or so people; we ended up having to break down an airwall and spill into an adjoining room to provide space (not to mention seats) for everyone.  My deepest thanks go out to everyone who was there to hear me run over my allotted time.  The talk file will soon be available on the Talks page.  Thanks also to Al Wasco for making the event possible.

Just before the talk, an audience member told me he’d read my journal entry where I talked about the Xupiter toolbar and what it can do to IE/Win, and that he’s basically moving to the Macintosh platform as a result of all the security problems in Microsoft.  I’d worry about my apparent power to mold people’s thinking, except I have to remember that’s what it is: an illusion.  There’s not only the Xupiter thing, but SQL Slammer hit the news (and Microsoft’s internal network) in the last week, and shortly thereafter a security consultant mentioned he’s thinking of migrating to the Macintosh because it has far fewer security problems.  So it’s not just me saying this.  If anything, it’s probably just me sailing with the prevailing winds.

None of this really seems terribly important, though, what with tragedies national and personal among those I know.  I even find it hard to get worked up over the whole Opera/MSN thing, which feels to me more like a broken browser detect than a deliberate act on Microsoft’s part.  As a friend likes to say, “Never ascribe to malice that which can be more easily explained by stupidity.”  Sniffing user agent strings to send them different style sheets is, as I may have opined once or twice before, pretty stupid.

I finally managed to pick out frames for my glasses and started wearing them today.  All I can say is that I don’t understand how anyone thought this was a good idea.  My vision is much sharper in the center, and then gets rapidly distorted towards the frame… and then, beyond the frame, the world looks like it always has.  The whole package is messing with my depth perception, balance, and ability to see at all.  No wonder prescriptions have to get strong over time; the glasses are wrecking your vision!  It’s all an optometristic conspiracy, I tell ya!  Aliens would doubtlessly be involved except life isn’t The X-Files.

I wonder how much it actually costs to rent a country.  I suppose that’s one of those “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” deals.

• Keeping Perspective was published on Friday, February 7th, 2003.
• It was assigned to the Personal and Speaking categories.
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