Joseph Spiros

My desk at work

On February 16th, I started my new job as Web Developer in the Oberlin College Office of Communications. The only position of its kind in the office, I am charged with maintaining and extending the CMS used by their new website, and providing the benefits of my experience in the form of suggestions and proposals in related technical matters.

This being my first proper “office job”, wherein I physically work in a shared location with my co-workers, has provided me with an interesting new experience in which I’m learning and socializing daily. I believe I’ve adapted smoothly, and I now find the change of pace considerably enjoyable. Although the bureaucratic protocol of the office environment leaves much to be desired, my co-workers are good people, and the knowledge I bring to my position seems well-suited to affecting positive change. read more »

Haven consists of a daemon (referred to as havend) and a library for communicating with that daemon (referred to as libhaven). Individual computers will run a single instance of havend, and any other software (referred to as client software) running on those computers which requires access to the database utilizes the libhaven library to communicate with the local instance of havend. read more »

At the lowest level, Haven utilizes a document-oriented, schema-less database. I’ll use the term “object” where other systems would use “document”, to avoid connotations of “document” that are not appropriate at such a low level. Objects have a UUID to define their identity, and an arbitrary number of key/value pairs as content. Key names are informally standardized using reverse-DNS semantics. All objects, once assigned a UUID, are immutable. The immutability of objects referenced by a given UUID allows for the Haven database to be distributed over many, perhaps distant, computers. Ideally, there is only one Haven database (or, object namespace) for all eternity. read more »

I often find myself thinking about how the next great computing environment should function. Although computer hardware has advanced considerably over time, the user-oriented software that allows us access to that hardware’s potential has been stuck. We’re constantly rehashing the same tired metaphors that were developed decades ago: keyboards, mice, windows, icons, files, applications, clients, servers, users, passwords, and so on. A little more than a year ago, I started thinking about how the computers of the future should store and access data. After much refactoring of my ideas and their consequences, I have settled on a system that I call Haven, which I will be describing in this and later posts. This first post will talk about the sorts of problems that I have attempted to solve. read more »

Which will you go for? Which will you love? Which will you choose from, from the stars above? Which will you answer? Which will you call? Which will you take for, for your one and all? And tell me now, which will you love the best? – Which Will, Nick Drake

The festival was upon him. After the city-wide parade, the murder descended onto central park for an afternoon of entertainment by local musicians. The food vendors were not caught unprepared, and had provided an aisle of carts stretching through the middle of the park offering an entire world’s variety of cuisine. As he wandered amongst the displays of local artwork spotted throughout the park, stroopwafel in hand, Julian felt alive. He, and the rest of the city by his estimation, lived for this day. read more »

She asked him, “Why can we not be together? Why is it we have to part? Why do you leave with a stranger when I am revealing my heart?” “Because I love the unknown, I love the unknown,” he said. He loves the unknown. – I Love The Unknown, Eef Barzelay

Julian awoke with a start, and desperately tried to maintain a hold on what had just happened. How many others had there been? He couldn’t remember. What had the last one said with that unmistakable implication of melancholy as he left? Not again? As tended to happen with dreams, his memory was losing definition with each passing moment, and soon it seemed to have faded completely. He looked at the clock, when his ringing cell phone beckoned him to begin the afternoon. read more »

The modern implementation of capitalism, founded upon the none-the-less sacred principles of individual liberty, stifles the great innovation needed to transform our society into one that is sustainable for the foreseeable future.

Innovation is achieved by creative individuals, who almost always work as part of for-profit institutions to implement their innovations. These institutions have their own preservation and profits, and not the well-being of human society as a whole, as their motivation. However, I believe that most individuals are socially conscious, and that they work for these institutions not for the institution’s gain, but to fulfill their very basic needs to provide for themselves financially. This reveals a lack of options for these individuals to work in an environment which can provide for them, and allow them to provide their innovations directly for the public good.

Government has traditionally been seen as the platform upon which public works can be implemented. This is the basis for the political system known as socialism. Unfortunately, most socialistic governments have been incompatible with the basis for capitalism, individual liberty, as they are implemented with state-owned and controlled enterprises. Such governments only exist by essentially stealing from those they govern to obtain the financial and material support needed to implement their works. The result is that the creative individuals that are the true source of innovation in society are still stifled by the government’s need to sustain itself.

Proposed is an alternative, a practical system for achieving ends supportive of the public good, which is compatible with the capitalistic economy that predominates. read more »