January 2005

Excerpt from:
Things to say when you are losing a tech argument
1 That won’t scale.
2 That’s been proven to be O(N^2) and we need a solution that’s O(NlogN).
3 There are, of course, various export limitations on that technology.
4 The syntax is idiosyncratic.
5 Trying to build a team behind that technology would be a staffing nightmare.
6 That [...]

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I’m having George Carlin flashbacks, what with ‘fuck’ or some derivative thereof being every other word. Besides that, the guy makes some good points. “Caustic” is definitely apropos.
Found this via Scoble – CausticTech has a rant that every techie should read and take to heart. Reading it is cathartic — I am sure [...]

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Another one bites the dust. Could we get more paranoid? Don’t answer that.

Jeremy C. Wright of Ensight was just fired from his job for blogging:

But, they fired me.

My Posts About Work

What did they fire me for? This post:

Getting to surf the web for 3 hours while being paid: Priceless.
Getting to blog for [...]

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A cool story. Reminds me of my days on BITnet and xyzzy in college.
Xeni Jardin:
On John Perry Barlow’s blog today, this account of a random human connection by VoIP — testament to how technology can make this an oddly intimate planet.

I was sitting at my desk in New York on Wednesday night, writing a [...]

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This is an excellent post with a lot of informative comments as well. Personally, for years I’ve known there was a difference in thought process between typing and writing: when I want to write poetry or anything drawn from the depths of emotion, reflection, and introspection, I handwrite; when I want to write and [...]

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Cool idea. I’m not sure how much it adds to the whole kinesthetic feedback thing but it probably can’t hurt.
Fontifier – Your own handwriting on your computer!
Fontifier lets you use your own handwriting for the text you write on your computer.
It turns a scanned sample of your handwriting into a handwriting font that you [...]

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Kathy’s recent post, Creating Passionate Renters got me thinking about the whole 180 thing. And then today, I saw this terrific post on 43folders.com…: Patching your personal suck. I realized there a couple of different ways of looking at the whole “I don’t want to suck” thing with 180 in mind: there’s the [...]

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Excerpt from:
Inside Firefox – The Inside Track on Firefox Development
Every few months a new worm makes the rounds, Sobig, Sober (the 77KB worm which ultimately destroyed my email account) and others. These worms usually travel using Microsoft Outlook as the hook onto people’s systems. Creating an email with an attachment that appears inocuous and beckons [...]

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Excerpt from:
Creating Passionate Users: Most classroom learning sucks
The most depressing result of Skyler’s transition to public school was when she came home one day a few weeks into her 7th grade, and said, “In real school, they don’t seem to like it when you question the teacher…” She was horrified to be labeled somewhat of [...]

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Filmmakers know that the feeling the audience leaves with has a huge impact on the movie’s success. It’s what the audience remembers, and determines how (and whether) they talk about the movie to others. When filmmakers do audience testing, they’re trying to get the ending right, and that’s why usually the best music of the [...]

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USA Today: Education Dept. paid commentator to promote law. Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.

t: Drug Control Office Faulted [...]

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Cory Doctorow:
CoolGov uncovered this US Highway Administration document that explains the numbering scheme behind the US interstate highway system.

* Major interstates routes have a one or two digit number associated with them. North-south routes have odd numbers (I-5) while east-west roads have even numbers (I-10).

* Connecting interstate routes or beltway loops around urban areas have [...]

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Starbucks says in a news release: “With Chantico drinking chocolate, we’re introducing our customers to the pleasures of drinking chocolate — transforming the way consumers think about chocolate, just as we transformed the way consumers experience coffee.” The drink, which debuts on Saturday, Jan. 8, is called “a liquid heart attack” by one STARBUCKS GOSSIP [...]

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UPDATED
CNet’s interview with Bill Gates has any number of howlers, but a couple of them stand out.
He claims, for example, that Internet Explorer is the best browser. Insulting people’s intelligence is par for the course for Gates, but this one is beyond laughable.
More serious, and ugly, is Gates’ attack on people who want to restore [...]

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Of all the weblogs I read, there’s something cool to learn on Headrush almost every day.
Which would you prefer to listen to–a dry formal lecture or a stimulating dinner party conversation?
Which would you prefer to read–a formal academic text book or an engaging novel?
When I pose this question to authors or instructors, I usually [...]

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Starbucks Drinks Simplified (kinda)
Since many people seem to be overly confused by the wide variety of options available at Starbucks, I’ve put together this handy-dandy cheat sheet to help you figure out what you want without spending hours staring blankly at a menu. It’s huge, but that’s because there’s a lot to choose from, and [...]

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The always hilarious BBspot hits it out of the park again. Today, they give us The Top Eleven Geek Break Up Lines.
My personal favorite is number eleven:

(A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail? R
(A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail? R
(A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail? F
Relationship failed.

…excerpt from: http://www.wilwheaton.net/mt/archives/001765.php

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More stupid security from our government. From an AP story: President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House……excerpt from: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/01/shutting_down_t.html

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Xeni Jardin:
It’s official. LiveJournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick says:

Why is Six Apart buying LiveJournal? Lots of reasons:

* Our companies are more alike than different.
* We both use Perl.
* Together we form super robot that’s stronger than the sum of its parts.
[...]

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Excerpt from:
apophenia: The Cultural Divide Between LiveJournal and Six Apart
If Brad is willing to sell, i suspect that this rumor is definitely true. It doesn’t require a brain to know that buying LiveJournal would be a brilliant move on Six Apart’s part. That said, i’m not sure that i like this move at all.
Live Journal [...]

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