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The Magpie Developer
Jeff Atwood is one of the best programmer/writers around. I love reading his stuff, some I agree wholeheartedly with, other stuff we disagree, but this post is about a dead-on as they come. This idea has been floating in my head for a long time, but it is hard for me to conceptualize it in words, Atwood does a brilliant job at it. Must read for any developer. |
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Andy Olmsted's Last Blog Entry.
(Warning: Pretty rough) No matter how you feel politically about the war, this reminds you that each number people throw around as statistics is a human life. This is extremely well written, and pretty rough on your soul towards the end, but something everyone should read. Its a shitty situation all around, but there is always a human face behind the statistics and I want to make sure I never forget that. |
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Drinking stories that put yours to shame
Via Keith
To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.
Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood. |
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making vodka pills in 24 hours
Recently, Chef Fabian was experimenting further with the Adria/Torreblanca technique of making 'vodka pills.' I use this word to describe the process of making liquid-filled candies by pouring flavored alcohol syrups into cornstarch and letting it set until a hard outer shell forms. |
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Strategy Letter VI - joelonsoftware.com
As a programmer, thanks to plummeting memory prices, and CPU speeds doubling every year, you had a choice. You could spend six months rewriting your inner loops in Assembler, or take six months off to play drums in a rock and roll band, and in either case, your program would run faster. Assembler programmers don’t have groupies.
Entire Article is Dead On. A must read for anyone in the software biz. |
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(Friday, September 24)
Flippy Floppy (Said in Talking Heads Voice)
I was think about how funny it was that people label Kerry a Flip Flopper because he supported the war Iraq before the war but in hindsight does not support it now. Also if you ask him (and basically anyone in the world) if Iraq is better today because of Sadaam not being in power, then he would answer yes. Does that indicate that he thinks the war was necessary, I do not think so. I can draw many parallels with him in the fact that I too thought the war was necessary before the invasion and now that the primary reason we went their (for WMD) which was presented by GW to the American people as the reason and to the world (via the UN) as the reason, gave me reassurance that it was the correct thing to do. Alas after all this time without one WMD, I can agree with Kerry that it was failed reasoning. I am glad we got Sadaam (I wish they would just kill him, fair trial be damned, we have disregarded world/UN "rules" thus far, why start now?) but the main reason we went to war has proved untrue. I do not think that it was a "lie" but I do think that it was a wrong decision. But alas because of my support before the war, and because of my despair about it now , along with Kerry I should be labeled a flip flopper. (If any man throughout history has ever come to the conclusion that one of his decisions made with the best possible information at a given time, turns our to be false, then they too can be labeled flip floppers) So I guess I am a Flip Flopper also. So what is better than having 1 Flip Flopper run for President? How about 2! Some of GW's transgressions and re-admitions in change of decision over the past 4:
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03/2002 Bush Implements Steel Import Tariffs. Got Flak about it some here, but in all it helped the US steel makers.
12/2003 Bush recants tariffs from international trade pressure.
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10/2000 Bush ridicules Gore's Tax Credit on Hybrid Cars citing no one owns them an that it is very "targeted" relief
1/2003 SoU speech he promises X billion dollars in research (Im keeping my fingers crossed it will get there, i mean I would think it would be hard to promise a lot of money to an industry that would destroy the industry that you and your family prosper on)
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2000 Bush says Gay Marriage is a "States Issue" and not an interest of Nat'l Govt
02/2004 Bush promotes a Constitutional Amendment on it
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3/2003 Bush says will seek UN Vote on Going to Far With Iraq
3/2003 Bush goes to war without seeking UN Vote.
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1/2004 Bush doesn�t want a Independent Bipartisan Commision on Sadaam's WMD
2/2004 Bush Appoints 9 dudes to bipartisan Commission on Sadaam's WMD
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11/2002 Bush is opposed to independent 9/11 commission
11/2002 Bush appoints independent 9/11 commission (to be fair on this one I think it was more of a relent, than a flip flop imho)
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3/2004 In the above, Bush says he will only sit for 1 hour with commission.
3/2004 Ok, ok, No time limit. (another relent?)
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10/2001 After 9/11 Bush doesn�t want a Homeland Security Cabinet.
3/2003 Super Faxing Hero Tom Ridge creates the league of superheroes known as HS.
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1/2001 Ashcroft says Bush will support Assault Weapons Ban Extension
9/2004 Assault Weapons Band is terminated.
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The Glaring One for me:
Pre 9/11 Bush talking about Clinton:
"I'm worried about an opponent who uses nation-building and the military in the same sentence. See, our view of the military is for our military to be properly prepared to fight and win war and, therefore, prevent war from happening in the first place."
Post 9/11 We are rebuilding 2 nations.
The above are not necessarily there to reflect bad on GW. I think GW made good decisions on a lot of these and has very good points on others. But everyone yammers on about Flip Flopping Kerry and how he said one thing 20 years ago and he can't really believe that (one could ask where GW was 20 years ago [Drugs Alcohol]) but I won't go that far because i don't think it is relevant. My point is this: People make better decision in both hindsight, and when they have better information.
I have not decided if I am voting for Kerry or not, but from someone who doesn�t really support either candidate it is funny how hypocritical some Republicans are.
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Travis - The Boy With No Name
Travis is back. I wouldn't say I hated 12 memories, it was meant to be very political, I just thought it went a little overboard and was somewhat preachy. Then when the greatest hits CD came out to be honest I was really hoping it didn't mean the end to one of my favorite brit bands. Boy With No Name is everything they were capable of. Supurb CD all the way through. Every song is brilliant. Big Chair is probably my favorite song and the opening to the CD on 3 Times is as good as it gets in music imho. |
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Pop! Why Bubbles are Great For The Economys (Gross)
One of the better economic books I have read in while, where the author gets their premise across in a well written, clear and concise manner. Basically Gross believes that the infrastructure left over after economic bubbles, provides companies with the ability to move forward (maybe more than the original bubble did). Not a hard read, I would definitely suggest it for a day and the beach/lake. |
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Feist - The Reminder
I CANNOT GET "I feel it all" OUT OF MY HEAD. Period. Great album, angelic voice. |
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Catan - Xbox Live Arcade
I am hopelessly addicted to this board-turned-video game on the xbox360. I had never played the board game but had seen it being played in some comic shops growing up. Click the Pick and play the demo, it isn't the 360 interface, but same game. |
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Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worse Nightmare
No Sophomore slump here. Just as good (if not better) than Whatever they Say. |
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Beautiful Evidence (Tufte)
Tufte reads like a text book, most people would say bleh, but the information about "information" that he can deliver is top notch. My first Tufte book was "A Visual Display To Quantitative Information" and it was extremely well done, albeit confusing at time. I think beautiful Evidence is a little easier of a read (I am still only half way through it) and a little easier for myself to understand the ideas he is presenting.. |
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Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather
Fountains of Wayne are the Gods of pop music. If Welcome Interstate Managers was a collection of short stories in song form, then Traffic and Weather is an even better collection with more humor. I already feel like CNN has the hottest female anchors, imagining them throwing their lust around like the Title track to the CD makes it even better. |
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Game of Thrones (Martin)
I started this book assuming it was going to be a high fantasy novel. Elfs, Dragons, Magic and the like. It isn't. It IS fantasy but more surrounding the politics and cunning of a few high ranking families. Incest, Murder, Intrigue, unscrupulous midgets. It has it all and more. |
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.
© Copyright 2003-2007, Eric Thompson |
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