OK I was installing and configuring an installation of RT and I went to change the default password for the root user in RT and the REAL name that was entered Enoch Root.  And I chuckeled to myself and immeadatly began writing this post.  Why?  Well I now I am not sure but there it is.  Now back to work…

Well we now have a couple of changes here login is now required for commenting. And once you have an account you will now be able participate in the Tombstone forums! So login have fun, we’ll be tweaking things as we get started so if you have suggestions let us know.

The Times UK has evidence that Google still is exploring the off-shore datahaven idea still.  It sounds crazy, but if there was one company that could pull it off it would be Google.

Here is a good giveaway a t-shirt with the definition of the work “Bulshytt” now how cool is that!

Here is a SciFoo entry on the Google Open Source Blog.  And the title SciFoo:  200 of the Worlds Top Scientists Meet at Google’s Annual Meeting of Really Really Smart People,  so incase there was any doubt Neal Stephenson is Really Really Smart, Google says.  Not that I needed Google to tell me that.

Steven Levy has an article on Neal and the new book.  Go read it here, good article.

At 43 Folders there are pt1, pt2, and pt3 of a series about working and priorities by Merlin Mann.  They do speak the truth and reference our favorite author Neal Stephenson, and his unique views on correspondence, e-mail and the like; forgive me as I quote:

The point, from my perspective, is that Stephenson possesses the man-sized pant stones to declare precisely what the people who enjoy his work should expect from him. And, in so doing, he has drawn a clear line that some might find hard to love, but that is very easy to see, understand, and respect.

I mean anyone of of us (fellow Tombstone followers) has ran out to the Internet found that infamous site and read that sending an e-mail to Mr. Stephenson is not going to result in much of anything really.  And then you feel crushed unable to share with him how cool he is…but I digress.  You can certainly respect someone who lays it out up front, that here is where I am and now let me get back to work.  Those 900+ page books don’t write themselves you know.  It is good to see that while you may have initially found Neal’s stance alienating really it says, here is what I do and to create the BEST possible results here is what I need (or do not need) from you.  So feel free to use this as a “therapeutic” time to release your pent up Neal correspondence dreams in the comments.

At The Long Now Blog they have a rather unique insight for Anathem, as it turns out it was a question posed by The Long Now Co-Chairman Danny Hillis about what a possible The Millennium Clock might look like. This is quite interesting and the board of directors is a who’s who of pretty cool people (Hillis, Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly, Chris Anderson, only to name a few…) and technological luminaries to say the least along with Brian Eno, the board is just jam packed with awesome thinkers.  The site is certainly worth a read.  Plus as if advances of the book were not cool enough…

“The Long Now Foundation will be hosting the book launch event in San Francisco on the evening of September 9th.  The evening will include a reading by Stephenson, Q&A with Danny Hillis, and a small concert of the original music inspired by the book.  Signed copies of the book will also be available.”

So join up soon and you too might get a shot at and invitation to what looks to be a very good time.

OK, I think that this pretty interesting and really had to sit back and really marvel at the fact that this was a book group meeting in The Readers Garden on Info Island within Second Life to discuss Snow Crash.  I mean WOW. Here is a group getting together to discuss a book that influenced, if not directly inspired, the very place in which they are meeting in…heavy, huh.  Anyway here is the link to a blog with all the details if your interested.

OK this is REALLY old news but still kind of funny (sad funny) here is a good excuse to post a youtube clip, of TSS Leo LaPorte and Martin Sargent exploring a story from adequacy.org that details 10 WARNING SIGNS that your child is an evil HACKER!  And number 4 is the presence of Hacking Manuals (wouldn’t it be a good thing if your child had and had read all of these books?…) the first ones listed are Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, by the infamous Neal Stephenson.  But there are other great books listed too, that might be of interest if you have not read them all ready.