wingolog

I've been hacking a bit recently, and meaning to write about it but keep getting backlogged.

I upgraded my linux kernel to the latest git when I was in the states. I was pleased to see someone pushed in the powerbook capslock-mangling patch, although with (ahem) some needed fixes. I gave nouveau another shot, and it actually worked. Unfortunately it required me not to use nvidiafb, leaving me without backlight control, so I wrote a module to control backlight on nvidia cards, which works fine for me.

That's me tooting my own horn. Sorry about that! If there is any lesson out of this it's that hacking the kernel is for any programmer; it's just another piece of software. If I can do it, it's not special :)

Other than that, I haven't been hacking that much. I made a guile-gnome release last month. Did you know that emacs could automatically give you documentation for the symbol at point? This pleases me.

roots

One of my flatmates works the night shift at a hotel in the center. Every morning I wake up to see that he has brought home the day's copy of El País from work. So often in the bar where I go to hack I find myself reading the paper instead of pounding parentheses.

Anyway, the "Fourth Page" editorial from yesterday, Iquique, un siglo del drama was very moving, discussing the massacre of hundreds of peacefully protesting saltpeter workers in the northern Chilean city of Iquique. A kind of southern Haymarket.

I've been bathing myself in the radical media in recent days; realizing the extent of the inhumanity of the current system invites cynicism. I've become very convinced that the complacent obedience exhibited by most adults is actually a state that was inflicted on them by schooling. The award-winning teacher John Taylor Gatto reaches the same conclusion, expressed in his resignation essay, I Quit, I Think. Worthy reading.