chmod a+x /bin/laden
:another unix-geek joke about our friend Mr. Laden. chmod is Change Mode. a means for all. +x means execute permissions. So this translates to change mode for all to execute bin Laden 🙂
Note: these are quoted here not because I support or don’t support what they say, but purely for the unix humor sake! 🙂
So I’ve been watching the logs for people visting this site and there is a definite propensity for people to look only at this page. I’d encourage you to peruse the sections on the left and below. Not all the good stuff is on the surface you know 🙂
New in Thought — caught in the act!* on Sunday, October 14, 2001
New in Rants and Raves* on Sunday, October 07, 2001
New in Eavesdropped!* on Monday, October 08, 2001
On the first day of his class on entrepreneurship, my professor Jack Thorne gave us the definition of Entrepreneurship: “Insane perseverance in the face of complete resistance.” At the time, I was not officially enrolled in his class. Not because I didn’t want to, but because the class was already full and I was enrolled in the School of Computer Science – not in the business school. But in those forts few minutes of the first class, Jack had given me the ultimate argument to make sure he accepted me into his class. I would not take no for an answer.
That was nearly five years ago. And as I think about any human achievement that has ever been attained by the great people in the world, a trait which stands out is perseverance. Perseverance which encompasses patience, tolerance, pain, regret, hard work, diligence, intelligence, vision, passion, courage, strength and will power. So I have to thank Jack for that lesson… and for that definition which seems to be more and more relevant every day.
It seems that the perception of an “entrepreneur” is bi-polar. To most people the word entrepreneur is often synonymous to the words “con-artist”, “opportunist”. When someone is “enterprising” it could mean that they are using means that you otherwise wouldn’t. Unfortunately, that commonplace thinking berates the great entrepreneurs of our time. Most entrepreneurs are different because the things which make an entrepreneur tick are different. And yes, several of them posess character flaws as well, but they also have traits which make them rise to unprecedented levels – be it Bill Gates (Microsoft), Henry Ford (Ford), Sam Walton (Walmart), Akio Morita (Sony) or the numerous others.
The definition of Entreprenuership above is incomplete. It needs a qualifier. Insane perseverance is okay, but only if you know you have a chance, however slim that chance may be. A smart entrepreneur or anyone for that matter, will know how to pick the his of her battles and when to concede and move on to other options.
The ability of humans to persevere and surmount the odds that come their way is fascinating. Somehow… we always survive and and make a comeback.
Had I seen Dante’s Peak prior to September 11th, 2001, my reaction to it would have been notably different. But when I picked up the DVD earlier this weekend at the Carnegie Library, it was not because I genuinely wanted to see the movie, but more so because I wanted to try and get the DVD player on my notebook working and so I just needed a DVD to test it with.
The storyline of the movie is predictable, but then again, so was the storyline of the Titanic right? We all knew what happened. So though the dramatization of the handsome geologist (having a Volcanologist that looks like Pierce Brosnan is about as believable as having a geek that looks like Sandra Bullock 🙂 ) out to save the town didn’t have as profound an impact on me, what did was the special effects that were captured in the movie. As I watched the ash from the volacano engulf the small town at its base as it bellowed lava up into the sky with smoke and debris all around it, what I thought of was the twin towers at the WTC – because I still cannot imagine 2 x 110 stories coming crashing down in the middle of Manhattan.
This was meant to be a review, but it turned into more of a diatribe. Will Hollywood try to capture the events of September 11th? I’m sure they will someday – because the very thing that keeps the world ticking is enterprise and capitalism – and while to some extent, the stories that our cast in the form of books and movies based on these events will evoke memories of the horrendous event, it will also generate lots of revenue for the publishers and the producers who capitalize on it.
Dante’s Peak as a movie is just a little above average, (I’ll give it a partial thumbs up) but seeing it now and linking it with the devastation of September 11th, gives it a different significance. The difference is one event was natural, and there was little that could be done to control it and the other was the nadir of humanity.
Before I get into the meat of this entry, I would like to acknowledge the The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh which offers an amazing collection of books, audiobooks and DVDs to everyone for free. If you’re in Pittsburgh and not using the Carnegie Library, then you are missing something.
This entry is about movies and books that have haunted me as a child – literally. These are stories of danger and courage which got embedded so deep when I saw them or read them that the very thought of them used to invoke the feeling of fear. In fact one of these movies had me petrified for long time as a child… for no rational reason – which I can recognize only now. As I write about the things which hanuted me, I realize that they were and some possibly still are numerous. For most of these I remembered the name, I remembered the story, and remembered the parts that haunted me. For others, I even forgot why they scared me so much and remembered only the fact that they had a profound impact on me.
So what were they? Well, the one that tops the list is the 1978 Charleston Heston movie – Gray Lady Down. I have no idea how old I was when I saw this movie or where I saw it. My guess is that I was probably four or five years old and I do remember that I saw it in a cinema hall. In the movie a nuclear submarine is incapacitated by a collission and lands up several hundred feet under water resting on a precarious incline. The movie depicts the rescue of the few who survived the collisions and the courageous men who traveled to the depths of the ocean to literally try to get humpty-dumpty back up again.
It took me over a decade to come to terms with Gray Lady down and nearly two before I was able to seek it out and watch it again in order to re-assure myself that though it is a chilling story, my reaction to it was more than extreme. I’ve since watched Gray Lady Down twice. It still gives me the chills, but I think I’m finally over it. But as a movie, it told an amazing story and it hit home.
The next item on the list of things which haunted me was a book – The Poseidon Adventure (sorry for the lack of a link, but neither Amazon not Barnes and Noble had this one…). Now, I am guessing that this was the bok, because in this case, I remember the story, in fact I remember distinct parts of the story, but did not remember the name of the book. But this past weekend, while at the Carnegie Library, the DVD for The Poseidon Adventure – the movie, caught my attention and I just had to see it if it was what I remembered.
The thing about the posiedon adventure which has me mesmerized till today, is trying to imagine the world upside down… our whole perception of how we see things is based on a certain orientation. And a change of orientation can really throught things for a loop. In The Poseidon Adventure, the survivors of that disaster, had to climb up to the bottom of the ship that had been complete flipped over by a tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake. The ship was completely inverted… floating…. no sinking as they clammered to reach the bottom — now the top of the ship with hopes of somehow penetrating its steel hull to escape.
There are several other books and movies and stories that have left their mark and I am sure there are several more that will. But to each that has the ability to cause such a long lasting effect I have to give them all a thumbs up.