Python Liberation Front

Jython Web Applets and Apps for the Sharp Zaurus

I am working with Jython on two related projects. First, I want to create a Java applet version of my askMerlin script; this script accepts any question from a user and then uses an algorithm that uses the data available on the web to come up with a most likely answer. It's a simple little script but a lot of fun. Currently it is a command line Python script.

The second is a related project called Decision Analysis that evaluates and helps a user decide between and amongst various alternative courses of action. I have a command line version of this Python script running on the Sharp Zaurus (which runs a version of Linux), but now I want to create a Java version that will be self loading and will not require the Zaurus user to download and install Python and various Python libraries.

Jython is a lot of fun; my scripts run just fine from the Jython command line without changes. In order to create a web Applet that can be run from this web site, it is just necessary to create a GUI using the Java libraries and then to compile using the jythonc compiler with the proper arguments to compile the Python interpreter and needed libraries also. Hmmm, OK it sounds easy but I haven't quite got it working yet...

Soon, I hope to have a version of askMerlin working from this web site , a cool little user applet. Stay tuned....

P.S. The command line Python scripts can be found and downloaded from my Python Learning Foundation page, for those interested...

SCO and Intellectual Property Law

The SCO case threatens to expose key weaknesses in the USA's system of intellectual property law, allowing a better system to emerge elsewhere and thus fostering the birth of new economic order. The central economic driving force has been moving west for hundreds of years, from Holland to England to the USA, with each region enjoying a boom period of great prosperity, as each has created a superior and improved economic system.

The SCO case illustrates how our system allows a company to make overly broad claims that tie up progress and hinder innovation, and wind up harming our economic and technological progress. Ultimately, no matter how absurd the claim, the outcome can not be predicted in advance, because it all depends on interpretation, and no one can predict how the courts and judges will interpret the case.

It is unlikely that east Asian countries will accept this kind of system. More likely, they will create a new kind of intellectual property control system, more suited to the information age, which will help them to become the new center of economic dynamism.

Ode to the Baby Boomer Generation

Mourning for an elegy of fortune unreceived,
Mourning for a legacy of destiny deceived;
Like Mozart, too early felled by fickle hand of fate,
Mourning for what they could not comprehend nor consummate;
Forever on the cusp of what they never could achieve.
Like vampires, not still alive, but merely yet undead,
Their mountains still unclimbed, their stories left unsaid;
Forever on the cusp of expectations unachieved.

Thoughts on Mel Gibson's " The Passion of Christ " Immediately After Seeing the Film...

Sometimes you have to see it to believe it.

Before I went to see the movie, having seen so much publicity, I had some thoughts about what I expected.

I was almost afraid to see the movie, because of the violence. I suspected that the charges of anti-semitism were over-played. I did not expect the film to be anti-semitic. I had wondered whether the film would emphasize personal, altruistic, genuine faith, or else dogmatic, stultified religion. I wondered how people of different backgrounds would react to the movie.

I considered that the crucifixion story still resonates, for many people, after all these years, in a way, that, for instance, the Greek myths do not.

Immediately after seeing the film (it is just past midnight and I have just arrived home from the theater as I write), my reactions are different than what I expected.

I do not doubt Mel Gibson's good intentions, nor do I doubt that the film will inspire some good in various people. Many in the audience were visibly moved and crying. I don't doubt the film's power to inspire and motivate. However, I do not find the film to be completely good.

For one thing, the film includes a lot of stuff that is not Biblical. Having grown up reading the Bible, I know pretty much what is in the Gospels. The movie elongates and multiplies the scenes where the Jewish Sanhedrin deliberate Jesus' fate, and shows scene after scene of the Jewish leaders practically forcing Pilate, against his will, to finally order Jesus' crucifixion. This includes putting words into people's mouths that are found nowhere in the Bible. Perhaps these words and scenes are found in the history of European passion plays, or else maybe Mr. Gibson read them in extra-Biblical works, I don't know. But why include them, and why dwell so excessively on this topic?

The portrait of Pilate painted in the film is simply unbelievable. He is an extra sensitive man, and his wife is a secret follower of Jesus who actually takes towels to give to Mary and Mary Magdalene while Jesus is being scourged; the two Marys then use these towels to wipe up Jesus blood spilled during the scourging. Pilate even expresses exasperation at Jesus too harsh scourging! It seems to me that, on subject matter of this serious nature, one should not take liberties with the known accounts. And if one does take liberties, why do so many of the liberties need to paint a picture of Jewish villainy?

The film is violent, that's for sure. I feel sorry for the lady in Kansas who died during a matinee peformance yesterday. I was careful. I diverted my gaze occasionally, and I even closed my eyes a few times during the scourging and crucifixion scenes. I feel I did see the whole movie; some bloody scenes were dwelled on for long periods of time. I did not gorge myself in the gore, as I did not want to overdose on it. Certainly, one should be prepared emotionally before seeing this film; children should not see it.

Sometimes, being too explicit tends to cheapen a good thing. Perhaps we would all be better off to read the Gospels rather than seeing this movie. Too much spectacle of this kind may ultimately lead to the mythologizing of the crucifixion story. The material is too important and too sensitive to allow someone else to interpret it for you; you need to read the authoritative accounts for yourself.

You'll have to decide for yourself whether to see this movie or not. If you do see it, just be prepared emotionally, and keep your wits about you. James Caraviel is an actor, not God.