a cure for the common breakup

c-ares contributions

I was credited in the c-ares 1.7.0 release notes. Very minor changes, but it's nice to be contributing to the open source community again.

Thanks go to these friendly people for their efforts and contributions:

Phil Blundell, Japheth Cleaver, Yang Tse, Gregor Jasny, Joshua Kwan,
Timo Teras, Jakub Hrozek, John Engelhart, Larry Lansing

Review: Millenium Restaurant

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I had a wonderful dinner with someone special at Millenium Restaurant, my first experience with vegetarian fine dining. We opted for the "November Harvest" four-course fixed menu. I found the food generally tasty, the wine-pairings pleasing, and the portions well-sized. I was nonplussed by the gnocchi, which cried out for a softer and wetter texture, and perhaps a richer sauce. The tables were squeezed too close together, leading to an unfortunate water bottle mishap. The steep price did nothing to discourage their patrons, even during a recession--the place was still packed at 9PM. Overall verdict? I would go back if it were cheaper. At the same price, my beloved Ad Hoc seems a bargain, with better food, service, and ambiance, and they are quite happy to accommodate vegetarians and vegans. But that's not really apples to apples, since Ad Hoc is in Yountville.

Anyhow, quite a delightful evening, filled with mischievous flirting and banter, and a few inappropriate conversation topics for such a crowded room. We left the city relaxed and comfortably full.

The Aging of Facebook

Check out the year-over-year change in Facebook's age demographics. Mom and grandma have crashed the party. In the last year, the overwhelming majority of Facebook's user growth was in the older-than-30 age bracket. In 2008, this group was a tiny fraction of Facebook's user base. Now it represents about half of the user population. The effects of this on the character of the Facebook social experience will be fascinating to watch. (Fascinating like a slow-motion train-wreck, if I had to guess.)

This data was sourced from Facebook's public advertising front-end, and was compiled into chart-form by one of my coworkers.

Mark I. Chester: slide show and gallery tour

[NSFW]: ALL links in this post are NOT safe for work.

I had the distinct privilege of spending my Wednesday evening with Kemi and Michelle at an invite-only exhibition of Mark Chester's fine art sexual photography. Mark treated us to a slideshow of his work, while narrating stories of the gay counterculture movement of the 1980s. He gave his first-hand account of the Folsom Street Fire of 1981 that left his half-burned bedroom open to the street and ransacked by police and firefighters. He talked of the friends and lovers he lost to the AIDS epidemic, showing pictures of many. Powerful stories.

All of his exhibited photographs were erotic, but the most striking of these combined eroticism with displays of intense human weakness and vulnerability. A man with AIDS, covered in lesions, a few months before his death. Another man whose right hand was necrotized from a blood clot. Both with hard dicks, smiling for the camera, intensely human. Powerful pictures.

I bought each of us a signed hardcover of his last book, Diary of a Thought Criminal.

While on Folsom Street, we stopped by Wicked Grounds, a newly-opened kinky coffee shop. I met the owners at a party several months ago, where they talked excited about their plans to open the store. I was thrilled to see that store is open, and business seems to be booming. Where else, but San Francisco?