Really?

So after more than two decades of very sporadic efforts to complete Zork III on my own, I gave up and looked at a walkthrough (read: I decided to cheat). It turns out that I needed to say “Hello, sailor” to the ship that comes by when you’re waiting on the beach in order to get the vial that will turn you invisible so you can get past the Guardians (of course!).

I was annoyed at first since I would never have figured this out on my own. Infocom games are usually based on puzzles you can reason out, but this just seems a bit random. Since this does seem so random though, I at least feel better knowing that I didn’t overlook something I should have been able to piece together.

Although this was a bit of a let down, I still love the old Infocom games. Maybe I’ll try to play the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy sequel next?

Creating A Community Census?

Just to throw in my two cents about the 2010 goals, I think it would be worthwhile to increase our effort to define the scope and the activities of the Mozilla community. This isn’t something that can be finished by 2010 since what the community is doing and who is involved is constantly changing, but it would be helpful to have a better understanding of what is happening.

This is an ongoing activity that people are working on, but there are parts of the community that haven’t been covered closely yet. For instance, we only have a partial view of who is re-using Mozilla technologies. I suspect we have even less visibility into who supports our values but aren’t actively participating on blogs or mailing lists.

Perhaps one concrete thing the Foundation could do by 2010 is create a community census. Having more information about the shape of the community could help us figure out where to devote resources, who to include in decision making and how to structure our own activities to complement what is already being done.

More Than 150 Applications Built Using Mozilla Technologies

I’ve been updating the Map of the Mozpad Universe page and noticed that the list now includes 150 applications. Many of these, like BlueGriffon, are new projects that have been announced over the last few months, but many long-time users of Mozilla technology have also been added recently.

This list originally focused on applications that used Gecko or XULRunner code, but there are many other technologies that the Mozilla community creates. I spent some time last week pulling in information about applications that use SpiderMonkey, Rhino and NSS so that this list will be a comprehensive resource for all sorts of Mozilla-based applications.

Although I have no idea how large this list will get, I’m certain that more projects will continue to be added. There are still internal Mozilla-based applications that we suspect are out there and there are also other Mozilla technologies, like XPCOM, that aren’t represented on the list yet.

If you know of any applications that are missing, please feel free to edit the wiki yourself or post information here.

So They Have Pancakes In Hell, Huh?

I just finished Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. When the English translation came out a few years ago I meant to pick it up, but then never did. Back then I was going through a period where I was reading as much of Murakami’s work as I could find, but then I got burnt out and couldn’t read any more. The same thing also happened when I read several of Salmon Rushdie’s books — it felt like I was reading the same thing over and over.

It’s not that the books are reusing the same plots, it’s more that the details that make up the story seem to keep coming up. For instance, in Kafka on the Shore and the Murakami short story I recently read there are characters in both that are very meticulous about how they handle pencils. Also in all of his books, inevitably there will come a point where the main character will cook a simple meal at home and eat it with a beer.

A page from A Wind Up Bird Chronicle from Evan

These are not complaints, but it does explain why I’m reading this book now and not a few years ago. I’m glad I got around to reading it since I enjoyed it — there’s strange stuff, interesting characters and good writing. Even if some of the bits and pieces do get reused, that’s OK (write what you know, after all) but I’ll just remember to read other stuff between Murakami books next time.

Up next, a pile of magazines that have been building up recently, including a New Yorker short story collection.

More: I forgot to mention that the library in this book reminds me of the Magnes Museum in Berkeley (the history of the building, the location, the layout). I also ended up reading one more thing by Murakami in the pile of magazines I went through recently (an excerpt from his book about running that was in a recent fiction issue of the New Yorker). OK, so that’s it for Murakami for now. Up next, A Canticle for Leibowitz.