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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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(Thursday, December 1)
Is this Bellsouth Preping for a Googly Fight?
The concept of network neutrality holds that information carriers should be impartial regarding content when moving data across networks, but gigantic, faceless telecoms are asserting those networks belong to them. As an example, SBC's CEO Edward Whitacre believes SBC should be able to charge websites, like Google or AOL, for using 'their pipes.' Smaller sites could effectively be shut down, priced out of business by the page view. Contemplating such possibilities, one could almost embrace the position of BellSouth CEO William L. Smith.
Mr. Smith doesn't want to violate network neutrality at all, rather he supports a 'pay-for-performance marketplace to develop on top of a baseline service level that all content providers would enjoy.' Really, it's no different than choosing a seat on a plane or mailing a package.
When I started reading this the first thing that came to my mind was the Record Industry and Steve Jobs and a John Mayer Trio Lyric off of 'Try!'.
Let me explain. There is a song on the album called "Vultures" and there is one line that really sticks out, I am sure everyone has heard it before but it is [paraphrase] "Power isn't made, it's taken". This is precisely why the record companies did not like the fact that iTunes was getting so popular with .99cent downloads. From what I last heard I think Jobs and the Record companies came to an agreement on different price points for different songs on the iTunes network. Now, previous to this the record companies wanted staggered price points for music (if I was a record company exec I would too). Why should they continue selling songs off Billy Ocean's Greatest Hits (a record I actually just purchased) and also Rascal Flatts (Country Music version of a boy band) at the same price .99c. Why not charge 1.49 per song for the Rascal Flatts Songs (people are willing to pay it) and only .79c for "Get Out of my dreams (and into my car)"? There are very few people who might pay 99c for this song (I am one of them) but a whole slew of more people might be willing to pay .79 for it on a whim. I don't know how the iTunes pricing structure works currently and how apple gets their slice (pun intended). But to me this completely makes sense and as someone who rarely listens to people like Rascal Flats, I am actually cool with it.
So how does this relate to the Bellsouth wanting to control their bandwidth issue? It isn't exactly the same, but the way I see it this is Bellsouth worrying about Google. I know some you (my readers), may think that I am just wearing a tin foil hat in thinking about how all these different business sectors and industries should be worried about Google, but THEY SHOULD, AND THEY ARE worried about Google. Investors in every industry have to worry about them now. Here is why I think this is a chess move from Bellsouth. Say GoogleNet happens (if you don't know what I am talking about read my post here) For me personally it isn�t about if GoogleNet is going to happen, but when. So lets assume Google starts at major cities and at the end of their newly not-dark-anymore fiber lines kicks in Google Wifi. They start in major cities and slowly work around other parts of the U.S. They let you browse the web free from anywhere they are covered, but they reserve the right to track you 'anonymously' and feed you nicely subject targeted geographically targeted ads. With free wifi who needs Bellsouth DSL? Maybe businesses and other critical uptime sites, but who else would need them residentially? Not avg Joe, he gets by with Google Wifi. I don't know what percent of Bellsouth DSL is residential but I would venture to say a pretty good amount. So what�s left? Bellsouth/SBC's investment in Cingular? What happens when Google and Linksys team up to bring you a voip phone? A phone that has your GoogleTalk buddy list already there, and all you have to do is voice chat with anyone for free using Google Wifi. No need for Cingular (except for critical stuff that can't be moved fro hardwire). So Now Bellsouth/SBC are out a little more.
How Would regulating bandwidth traffic to certain sites help them in this Googly future?
a.) They can regulate their user�s bandwidth to Google and its competitor. if Yahoo is 5 times faster than Google, that is a pretty big deal to some people. I guess all those fancy protal'like things that seem to keep sneaking up on the Google search screen might not be there anymore if bandwidth is in play. So now everyone that passes through Bellsouth might have a little more incentive to hit Yahoo or another Search Engine instead of Google.
b.) Now they also have a way to profit from Google's growth, the big G will need to pay its bandwidth bill also to the telecom if they want to continue growth.
Its kind of a scary situation for me as a residential user, it is kind of like watching Mothra and Godzilla battle it out. I am kind of helpless and for some reason I think some shit around me is going to get destroyed in he process and I have no control over it.
Could there be a new "network" as an outcome of all this? I personally feel that as of today in 2005 there is an "Internet" and a "DarkNet". Those are the only two major areas of the Internet I see as of now. I wonder if in 2009 there will be a BusinessNet and a GoogleNet.
Legislation could threaten network neutrality
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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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