Photo: Steve Bridger

I'm interested in learning Spanish and am wondering for recommendations on tools to help me do it. I know that all of the experts and experience point to the absolute best way to learn a language being to be completely immersed into it. However, that's not remotely feasible any time in the next year or 2.

I took some German, som French and some Latin going through high school and college, and my degree is in English (with a lot of linguistics) so learning another language isn't entirely new territory for me. However, this time I'm aiming to learn more on my own as I'm not really looking to take a formal class or dropping $300 on CD's/software.

So, I'm looking for a little help filtering out the myriad of choices in tackling this particular task. One of the things I'm looking for most is a decent way to build vocabulary. I've used paper flashcards in the past, but would rather have something digital if I can find it. Any recommended software, PDF's, sites, etc as well as any books would be greatly appreciated.

Last week, amidst the media rush to cover North Korea in some unique way, I heard a story on public radio about an animator who spent several months in Pyongyang, supervising animation work.

As an artist, he made up for the restrictions on taking pictures and condensed his experience into a ~200 page graphic novel. I happened to be near a computer when I heard the story and ordered a copy. I promptly forgot about it until Sunday morning, when I left for breakfast and found an Amazon box on the step that I apparently didn't notice as part of the Saturday mail.

I tossed it in the truck and didn't get around to opening it for a while and suddenly remembered ordering it. I spent most of last night and early this morning poring over the black and white drawings. The striking similarities to George Orwell's 1984 are everywhere, including such "facts" as the Glorious Leader's "11 holes-in-one" on his first ever golf outing. That kind of revisionist history just reeks of Newspeak.

With the aging population fast approaching the day when no one remembers anything prior to 1953 and the rise of the current situation, the reality in North Korea is really tragic. If you're even a little bit interested in getting a better understanding of what is arguably the most isolated place on earth, you owe it to yourself to check out this book.

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

Photo: Jeremy Keith

I thought I might get away with it. I watched as those around me got sick over the last couple of weeks and kept going home with my health intact. Today, it caught up with me and I caught the October Crud. I was actually so cold at work today, I worked with my coat on all day. Given that I'm singlehandedly responsible for the lowering of the thermostat in nearly every house and business I visit, being that cold is a BIG sign of a miserable week to come.

I'm pumping the vitamin-fortified liquids, am buried under a pile of blankets with only my hands protruding to reach the keyboard. Hopefully I can keep the Crud under control and stay mostly functional.

If you've had a conversation with me by phone or in person in the last few months, you've probably heard me use the phrase or a derivative of "wanting to have done" rather than "wanting to do". This is a shorthand that's been useful in helping me understand my motivations and whether I'm being honest with myself. It's also something I've been pushing other people to consider.

For instance, most people don't want to restrict their eating and add exercise, but they want to have done these things and reap the rewards.

People want to have done the work to improve their careers. Want to have done the years of practice to become a world-class athlete. Want to have read the dense, great works of literature, but not give up their TV time. Want to have written the great American novel, but not spend the immense number of hours slaving over the keyboard.

So, the next time you're saying that you "want" to do something, ask yourself, do I want to do or have done?

A few years ago, everything that was seeking that certain luster that the marketplace seemed to require in order for software to be sold tacked "Professional" or "Pro" onto the product and promptly applied a multiplier to the price.

Somehow, just by calling it "Pro", we were supposed to believe it was more stable, more thoroughly tested, more full of features, etc. I feel the same way about the term "enterprise". For a while, "enterprise" software just meant you paid the equivalent of a year's salary for something. However, it's pretty much become the Web 2.0 version of "pro".

That said, I'm intrigued by an announcement of an open source "enterprise" content management system. While the smell of that descriptor is usually bogus, it often does mean that the features that businesses are looking for are present. And, I'm always up for at least a quick look at someone who offers a new way to skin that particular cat.

However, what's most interesting is that they didn't use one of the wimpy open source licenses. Nope. They went for my favorite: the BSD license. It's the one I put my own software under whenever I can for a simple reason. It allows you to pretty much use it however you want as long as you don't claim to have written it. You can re-brand it, embed it in commercial software, base a proprietary system on it and otherwise use it to your heart's content without worrying that you might incur the wrath of bearded geeks and their lawyers.

Of course, only an actual implementation and daily use will tell whether it does the job or not, but it's worth a look.