A Monument for Bruno

We're losing a friend.

Last week, I was notified that a long-time Linux Advocate is dying.

His name is Bruno Knaapen and he has brain cancer.

Honestly, I don't know what to say.  There are not any words that I can give him or his family that communicate the gut-wrenching sorrow I feel.  The fear...the inability to stop the inevitable.

I don't do well with the whole "death" thing.  Having fought this Monster for my own life, I take it a bit too personally, and when it attacks a friend, I feel like an impotent bystander watching a murder.

So I do what I can.  I come here to celebrate Bruno's accomplishments and triumphs with you....a few of them anyway.  I simply don't know what else to do.

I started my Linux career much later than most of  you.  Linux came to me as an epiphany...a revelation that changed the way I lived my life.

Still, I had to have a source of reference...a table where I could study this and learn as quickly as I could.  I found that source, and in the ensuing weeks and months, rarely did I have to go elsewhere to get the knowledge I needed.

I found it at brunolinux.

It was there that I learned the poetry of the code that makes up this thing we do.  It was there that I learned of the simplicity of a computer, the beauty of a community...

And the Dedication of Bruno Knaapen.

Bruno has kept this simple yet all-inclusive learning site up and running for years...but now, we should concern ourselves for it's fate...

For who else cares for something as much as its creator?  If you care to help keep this site alive, contact vtel57 at gmail. com.  You can do so directly here.  We will be doing our part to do the same.

♫

I did not come here to write a eulogy...Bruno is still with us, in the loving care of his children and grandchildren, but the time approaches none the less.

So it is here that I will announce the initial planning of the Bruno Knaapen Technology Learning Center.  It will be built in Austin and it will serve those who need it most.

Bruno Knaapen served them without hesitation.  He did so mostly at his own expense and on his own time.

He did what he did because he cared.

Bruno, you made a difference.  If you take anything from us through The Veil, please remember that.

You made a difference.  You changed our lives.

With our Love Bruno...

Ken

The Tower of Babel

I've been told that English is one of the toughest languages in the world to learn.

I disagree.

I believe it to be the toughest language in the world to teach.

And I do have first-hand experience doing so.  I still have nervous ticks from the experience and the doctors say that in time, my sleep patterns will return to normal and the nightmares should subside.  I didn't even get paid for my efforts...

I tried to teach my first wife to speak English.




People living in Europe have the upper hand on us linguistically...at least for the most part.  I don't think I've met many people under the age of 40 that didn't speak their native language AND English.  Even in our global tech community it is obvious.  My friend Sander is a perfect example.  He hails from the Netherlands and his English is perfect. 


So I decide that Gaby needed to learn proper English if she was to live in the US.  It started out easy enough.  We went over some basic "rules" of English and then began some practical exercises.

"OK honey...this is simple.  We are working with 4 letter words, every word has a vowel as the second letter and a silent "e" at the end.  When you see words like this, you will know that the vowel carries a "long" sound.  Like the letter "a" will sound like you are saying the letter "a"...not "ah".  Here are some examples."


Home.


Bone.


Came.


Safe.

Easy enough, right?  I went to work the next day confident in the knowledge that we could move along to our next lesson that evening.

Uh...no...it didn't work out that way.

The glances were less than warm when I came in the door.  She didn't say a word...she just placed a piece of paper in front of me as I took off my boots.  It had one single word on it.

Gone.

Why, she wanted to know, did this word not follow the rule I laid out for her?  How could she know, she asked sceptically, that this word would not follow the rule?  It was the exact model shown in the others but it seemed to be a rebellious little word.  What was her visual clue that this word was not the same... a word that didn't follow the rules.

If she had followed the "rule" and been asked to read something in public containing the word "gone", she would have made a fool of herself.  Why was this?

I couldn't answer her...but then again, she wasn't done.

Oh, and "done".  Thank my stars she didn't snap to that one.

She was persistent in her questioning:

How is it we come to spell the "K" sound with a "ck" at the end in some words but just a single "k" will suffice in others.  AND why was the letter "c" allowed to fill in for the letter "k" when it was obviously a "k" sound at the end.

Any Eric's in the audience that want to field that one?

If not, it's ok...don't panic.

Those were just a couple of incidents that helped make the decision to send her to a professional English as a Second Language course.  Teaching someone your language is not a task for the weak-willed or uncommitted.

But in remembering this, it brings to mind what new Linux users may be going through...and more to the point, what we probably need to remember in teaching them.

Sure, we speak the language...it's second nature for us. We think nothing of a file system with identifiers such as .etc and .var.  Sudo apt-get and sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list rolls off our fingertips as if we were navigating  the simplest of tasks.  Some find the /.init/.d folder and subsequent commands second nature.

But to the New User, it's as if we are digital geniuses, blazing a trail through black screens and cryptic symbols running in endless strings.  We are speaking a language they cannot understand.  Hitting the tab key to complete a command string is voodoo to them...most of them anyway.

"Why can't I just click something and do the same thing"

Well, you can in the majority of cases...I've plenty of examples where our users haven't ever used the command line.  But then again it's all in what you want to do.

Do you want to write the next Shakespeare sonnet or ask directions to the nearest train station?  I mean, it's all in your need and intent.  I would guess the majority of casual computer users could afford to let the command line remain a mystery.

I am thinking that it all comes down to two things.  The patience of the teacher and the willingness to learn of the student

...Well duh helios...state the obvious much?

But...if you are going to assume the roll of teacher, you will need to make sure both parties are committed to doing this...otherwise, both will end up frustrated.

In thinking about it, if given the choice, I would much rather teach someone to use Linux than teach them English.  Holy cow, who decided the current American/English language was ready to come out of beta?

I think there are important modern-day lessons to be taken from the story of the Tower of Babel.

Or is it Babbel

or bable

All-Wrighty Then

Going Forward...Knowing who you are

First off...


I wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great.

Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes.

and to everyone else...

 Happy New Year!

Thanks to my life-long friend Kirk Ellsworth for that Politically Correct New Years greeting.  If some of you feel I am poking fun at political correctness...

Bingo.  You win the stuffed panda.

Manufactured in China and probably containing highly flammable stuffing and the remnants of some endangered rain forest. Probably.

But Seriously...

I don't "do" New Year's Eve.

Not saying I haven't ever.  Fact is, I've celebrated New Year's Eve on five continents...Imbibing my share of new year cheer...and waking up feeling like I had been hit with a blivit.

I just choose not to do that anymore.  I choose to acknowledge the new year by reflecting, by outlining new goals...replacing weaknesses with strengths.  What I did on New Year's Eve is spend time with a few close friends gathered around a roaring fire out in the middle of their back yard.  We roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and talked.

We talked about you for a good part of that evening.

Yes you.

All of you.

Not particularly by name, although a couple dozen were mentioned...we talked about you as a single entity...as a force, a factor-of-change...

We talked about you.

I told them about a year of mixed results.  A year of roaring success, a year of horrible illness and a year of revelation.

I told them about how you had made it possible to do what we do at The HeliOS Project.  While we didn't have our greatest year...

It wasn't that bad all things considered.

I told them about how a global community came together and helped me heal from an illness that could have easily killed me.  I told them about a global effort to bring computing freedom to people who before now, had no idea they had a choice.

I told them of your warmth, your passion, your dedication...

And your humor.

So if the new year has come and gone and you still haven't decided on that New Year's resolution...

Don't sweat it.

Personally, I like you just the way you are.

All-Righty Then...