Trying to eat better

(Cross-posted to healthy_fen.)

Based largely on the comments on this post by hvideo and others, it looks as though I'll be trying to reduce carbohydrates in my diet. Makes sense -- the one time I actually lost weight (back in college) I did it by cutting back on carbs.

I'm not going to be fanatical about it, but I'm going to cut back on dried fruit, bread, and potatoes, and I'm not going to worry about the fact that I feel better after a breakfast of eggs and bacon (or Ma Po tofu) than I do after milk and cereal. And I'll quit stocking up on dried fruit for at-the-desk lunches and go back to tofu, nuts, and pepperoni (a package of two sticks lasts two days).

Links for low carb: about.com, Wikipedia.

hvideo also suggests looking into alpha-lipoic acid, an OTC antioxidant diet supplement that "significantly and rapidly reduces the frequency and severity of symptoms of the most common kind of diabetic neuropathy" according to this article on MayoClinic.org. There's another article here.

As long as I'm clearing out my tabs, here's exercise.about.com, and the Wikipedia articles on exercise and walking (which aren't as useful as they might be). The article on aerobic exercise is better.

Clearing my tabs: the social network

The most recent items in this this collection are The Social Network Operating System and Using Open Standards to Free the Social Graph, both at O'Reilly.

They refer to XFN - XHTML Friends Network, and to Six Apart's claim to be Opening the Social Graph, though I'll believe that when I see it.

From a much earlier post by technoshaman (which I'm having trouble tracking down) we have Thoughts on the Social Graph by Brad Fitzpatrick, which leads to a couple of other useful and interesting places, including MoveMyData.org, and a couple of Wired articles: Slap in the Facebook: It's Time for Social Networks to Open Up and Replace Facebook Using Open Social Tools

My earlier post linking to Don Marti's thoughts on online communities via distributed revision control is also very relevant here.

Book: Producing Open Source Software

Producing Open Source Software by Karl Fogel:

Producing Open Source Software is a book about the human side of open source development. It describes how successful projects operate, the expectations of users and developers, and the culture of free software. It is available in bookstores and from the publisher (O'Reilly Media), or you can browse or download it here.
Producing Open Source Software is released under an open copyright that allows everyone to share and modify the book freely. The latest version is always here. The online version is the same as the commercially available print version — in other words, you can buy a printed copy and know that it's up-to-date. When and if there are significant differences, we will list them here.

It's available online as HTML, multi-page HTML, PDF, XML, and even as a Subversion repository.

This is a good introduction to the art of starting and managing an open source project. Starting and maintaining a community is very different from starting and maintaining a piece of software, so even an experienced hacker is likely to find something new and interesting here. Most of it is based on Fogel's experience with the Subversion project, but it's widely applicable, and the appendix listing free version control systems is reasonably comprehensive.

I'm not going to bother posting the TOC -- just go here for the real thing.

Well worth a read, and the price is right.

Remember, remember...

I am perversely amused by the fact that, without even thinking about it, I managed to re-schedule my upcoming jury duty for the week starting the Fifth of November.

In other news, it was raining when I woke up at the perverse hour of 5am.

Not much of a walk today

Not much of a walk today -- just a couple of times around the building. The weather was looking distinctly dicey, but more importantly I wanted to let my calf muscles and left ankle recover a bit. So maybe 10 minutes; at least, with a couple of trips up and down the hill on the East side of the building, I got a little exercise.

It rained a little this morning. It RAINED this afternoon. Quite impressive. I was on my way to a meeting in another building at the time. It seems to have cleared now. Hopefully I'll get a good walk tomorrow.

Upcoming party at the Starport

This year's Halloween party at Grand Central Starport will take place Saturday, October 27th. As usual, it's a potluck -- kids, friends, and musical instruments welcome.

I, alas, lack the power of bilocation, so I won't be there, but it will be an event not to be missed nevertheless. The location and directions can be found on the Household website.