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May 29, 2003

Be vewy vewy quiet, we're hunting tewwowists

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

Iraq will never be successfully pacified or reconstructed without regime change in Iran. The connections between Iran's ruling Islamofascist elite and al Qaeda need to be the subject of intense and sustained intelligence work. I suspect that we might find greater links between Tehran and al Qaeda than with any other terrorist-sponsoring state. Yes, we need to focus on Iraq right now. But not at the expense of the real source of trouble in the region.

No, I'm telling you, it's really Iran! Has been all along! Really! Honest! It's Iran! I misspelled it! I-R-A...

I suspect that we might find greater links between Tehran and al Qaeda than with any other terrorist-sponsoring state.

Well, yeah, since none were found in Iraq. They must have left them next to the WMD. The cynicism and condescension are breathtaking.

(via pudding time!)

Posted by John at 8:33 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

May 28, 2003

Extra crispy or original recipe?

jwz: no good deed goes unpunished.

Highly entertaining flamefest over at jwz's livejournal site. Contains the soon-to-be-immortal line:

Consider it done. Please choke on a bucket of cocks. Thank you.

Posted by John at 6:32 AM |

May 26, 2003

Refactor the numbers

Scripting News: Who will pay, part 2

Let's say you spend 100 hours a year using a piece of software and assume your time is worth $50 per hour. So that's $5000 of your time flowing through the software. How much self-respect is there in paying nothing for software that leverages so much of your time?

Because if for lack of quality documentation, poor design, lack of bug fixes, I spend 100 hours instead of 50 using a piece of software, and my time is worth $50 an hour, then how much self-respect is there in paying for software that wastes $2500 of my time?

It just seems silly. I pay $1 to ride the subway downtown. It costs $300 to fly to NY and back (two hours in the air). A cab ride to the airport -- $40. My monthly rent is in the thousands. Medical insurance about $10,000 per year. Everything costs money. So does software. Don't fool yourself.

Take Amtrak. Get a cheaper apartment. Berkman fellows aren't staff? Harvard doesn't provide them with health insurance? Things are tough all over.

If you pay nothing for software, you probably won't die from it, but you may lose data, you're virtually certain to waste time, and at some point, money.

Oh, please. Was there some particular software this is referring to, by any chance?

Posted by John at 8:15 AM |

May 22, 2003

BBEdit's greatest hits

Bare Bones Software :: Products :: BBEdit :: Anthology

The BBEdit Anthology is a collection of every final commercial release of BBEdit since the first one 10 years ago, including the latest version, BBEdit 7.0.

"The BBEdit Anthology is a collectors' item -- something that no true BBEdit fan should be without" says Rich Siegel, founder, president, and CEO of Bare Bones Software.

Only 1000 Anthologies have been produced - and each one is individually numbered.

The BBEdit Anthology is priced at US$249 (plus shipping). Order before June 30, 2003, and get an additional 10% off.

This is funny and all, but basically you're paying $249 for a copy of BBEdit 7.

Posted by John at 1:33 PM | | Comments (1)

Assault jacket

Wired News: Shocking New Jacket Hits Street

Wired reports on an anti-assault jacket that shocks potential assailants. It crackles and makes electric arcs when touched. This'd be a hoot on a crowded 4 train during the morning rush. Don't miss the video.

Posted by John at 1:06 PM |

The smallest tv room in the house

Gizmodo : ReplayTV might remove commercial skipping

They are going to add one feature to their current line of DVRs, though, the ability to start watching a show on one ReplayTV and finishing watching it on another one in a different room.

Is there really a big demand for a feature like this? Is one of the rooms the bathroom?

Posted by John at 1:02 PM | | Comments (1)

emoticode

via splorp:

iChat code editing

So what's with that authenticator.connectButt thing going on there?

Posted by John at 12:55 PM |

Bubble babies lose interest

Computing's Lost Allure

To be sure, there are still many enthusiasts at the undergraduate level. Eugene Chung, a sophomore at Berkeley, is pursuing a double major in computer science and business. Although he worries about getting a job when he finishes, he is studying computer science because he enjoys it. "Personally I like it, whether there's a job or not," he said.
Finally, someone with a little more vision than the buck. One of the things that bugged me during the boom was that so much of it appeared to be bandwagon-jumping rather than interest in thr subject.

Posted by John at 12:37 PM | | Comments (2)

May 21, 2003

New iTunes Applescripts

The Mac Observer - Expand & Enhance iTunes 4 With New/Updated iTunes AppleScripts

These are very useful. Go get 'em. I should post the script I wrote to flip artist and track names (it happens.)

Posted by John at 4:56 PM | | Comments (1)

My dear dear friends at MS

'Free' Linux movement should end | CNET News.com

This ridiculous movement is nothing but a vain socialist attempt to marginalize the software industry. Moreover, it has been rather unpleasant to watch you and others over the past three years develop the single largest false advertising campaign in the history of commerce, knowing all along that it was pure chicanery. That is, touting that Linux is free when in fact all commercial (i.e. useable) versions are not.

Damn them vain socialists - so superficial. You think maybe he doesn't like Linux?

Posted by John at 4:54 PM | | Comments (1)

The boys of IT

via Burningbird: Women in IT stuff

I imagine this is at least part of the reason for the relative lack of women in IT: they feel enormously pressured by the obsessive, almost semi-autistic nature of some of their prospective IT colleagues. In most of the IT groups that I've been involved with, you have to be willing to engage in rhetorical near-war in order to be heard, and you have to put up with challenges to your ideas that are so aggressive, so intense, and so basically anti-social that it's almost impossible not to take them as personal affronts.
In my experience this nails it. I have seen far too many people pull this kind of aggressive oneupsmanship. And there's no reason to be surprised to see some women in IT acting in like fashion - they have to adapt and survive in the field too. It often feels like all defense and no collaboration.

Posted by John at 4:51 PM | | Comments (1)

Bookmarklet salvation

Very Big Blog, via Scriptygoddess

If you're using Safari and have been frustrated by MT bookmarklets not working, go here and get this code.

Posted by John at 4:45 PM |

Excellent Eclipse article

BeyondCode.org - Exploring Eclipse

An introduction to the Eclipse IDE, from a die-hard Emacs user, of all things. I've toyed with Eclipse a bit, it might be time to really see what it can do. I had used VA for Java in the past and been very pleased with it, and Eclipse incorporates some of VAJ technology.

Posted by John at 4:41 PM |

Use the "red key"

In a bizarre junket that I haven't quite made sense of yet, Slate has sent Tad Friend (that's "Don't Call Me Mr Latte or Mr Amanda Hesser" to you) and his wife, the NYT food pixie Amanda Hesser, to France with the apparent purpose of riding Segways around Paris. This has got to be somebody's massive commercial - the series features a "Promotional Considerations" page where you learn that pretty much everything was paid for by some company, although it doesn't appear to have been directly financed by Segway. But what mostly confuses me about this is who the hell this is aimed at - Amanda Hesser fans? Foodies? Francophiles (not the best timing for THAT one)? Boulevardiers? It's obviously meant to sell Segways, since I haven't yet read a single even mildly negative comment. But why is Slate shilling Segways? And WHY did they pick these two to do it?

And I thought R.W. Apple's getting the Times to pay for his vacations was bad.

Posted by John at 1:50 PM |

May 17, 2003

Reciprocity

Hey, it's a blatant quote (forget where I read it,) but I really, really like Pudding Time!

Been saying intelligent, thoughtful stuff on the current crises in the blogosphere (God I always hate that word after I type it.) On the roll. Which might bring his Page Rank up a quiver.

Posted by John at 5:48 PM | | Comments (1)

May 16, 2003

Kinsley on small biz

The Fabulist - Bush's absurd obsession with small business. By Michael Kinsley

So you get rich with a dozen different types of tax-funded help, you become a Republican, and you live happily ever after complaining about how much you pay in taxes. Maybe President Bush was right after all, that is the American dream.
If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, maybe a libertarian is a liberal who got rich.

Posted by John at 1:34 PM |

Hi, I'm Sammy, the Talking Windscreen

BBC NEWS | England | Oxfordshire | 'Talking windscreens' could stop accidents

Hi-tech "talking windscreens" used in cars instead of mobile phones could reduce the risk of accidents, researchers claim.

If only I had had one of these Monday, the Day From Hell, when I flubbed an interview, I came out of the interview to discover I had left my lights on in the parking lot and my car battery was dead, and (once I finally got a jump from a kind woman, after a guy driving a Mercedes had responded to my request for a jump with "Not with this car" - was this a class comment, or do Mercedes not ahve battery terminals or something?) when I was driving to the train station to get to work I was busted by the New Rochelle Police (well, a New Rochelle Policeman, I don't want to make it sound like a SWAT team was after me) for using my cellphone in the car (which I never do; I made an exception this once to get sympathy from L about the interview and the dead car battery) and not signaling a right turn in a right-turn only lane. And the ridiculous thing is that I normally always signal and normally never use the cell when driving, since I drive a stick and need both hands free, a problem which apparently the vast numbers of cellphone-using SUV drivers round these parts (you know who you are) don't have. Although Sammy the Talking Windshield would have probably just called me a putz and had done with it.

Posted by John at 11:15 AM |

May 15, 2003

The boss key writ large

WSJ.com - Shirk Ethic: How to Fake A Hard Day at the Office

It has never been easier to be a white-collar slacker. While the uninitiated are still grousing about how mobile technology has created a 24/7 work culture and sabotaged their private time, a savvier crowd has moved on to a more rewarding pursuit: using technology to make it look like you're working when you're not.

Posted by John at 11:15 PM |

Java books

Blog for thought: Java book bonanza. List of Java books which can be downloaded for free. There's some good stuff in there.

Posted by John at 11:12 PM |