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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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CNN.com - Audit: U.S. lost track of $9 billion in Iraq funds - Jan 30, 2005
The $8.8 billion was reported to have been spent on salaries, operating and capital expenditures, and reconstruction projects between October 2003 and June 2004, Bowen's report concluded.
Do you know how many American lives could be saved if you invested 9 Billion Dollars in the Atlanta Police Force and Security in Downtown/Buckhead?
We got Cops and Firefighters who get paid jack shit, while this happens in another country. Do you want to know who probably recieved atleast over 50% of this money that is 'unaccounted' for? Big Business. More and More each day I belive this war was merely a grand investiment of my tax dollars into a select few U.S. Companies.
I would not be near as disturbed at this article if U.S. Soldiers (reminder: the people that are dying) were on the recieving end of this 'mislplaced' taxpayer money.
CNN.com - Audit: U.S. lost track of $9 billion in Iraq funds - Jan 30, 2005
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(Saturday, January 29)
Mark Cuban Entry
Ok I admit i'm impressed. But I bet the odds of choosing a good location in a city such the size of Bahgdad is limited. I get this channel and I am interested to see whats happeing (i.e. your self-promotion worked :) ) But the future opin on stuff you decide to cover hinges on the scenes that I see (that sounds bad for the make-stuff-up Geraldo Reviera's of the world). But it's the truth.
Blog Maverick Entry
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(Friday, January 28)
iPod Stats
iPodStats is now live so you can see what I have been listning too this week...
iPod Stats
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News Item
Last week, Japanese scientists explaced... placed explosive detonators at the bottom of Lake Loch Ness to blow Nessie out of the water. Sir Godfrey of the Nessie Alliance summoned the help of Scotland's local wizards to cast a protective spell over the lake and its local residents and all those who seek for the peaceful existence of our underwater ally
Myth and Legend
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(Tuesday, January 25)
Latest News and Financial Information | Reuters.com
Before the invasion, then-White House budget director Mitch Daniels predicted Iraq would be "an affordable endeavor," and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz assured Congress: "We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."
When then-White House economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey estimated Iraq costs at $100 billion to $200 billion, he was derided by administration colleagues and later lost his job.
Military operation in Iraq alone already cost more than $1 billion a week.
Seriously, were does 1 Billion dollars a week go?
Latest News and Financial Information | Reuters.com
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Gonzales excludes CIA from rules on prisoners
"WASHINGTON Officers of the Central Intelligence Agency and other nonmilitary personnel fall outside the bounds of a 2002 directive issued by President George W. Bush that pledged the humane treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody, Alberto Gonzales, the White House counsel, said in a document.
In written responses to questions posed by senators as part of their consideration of his nomination to be attorney general, Gonzales also said a separate congressional ban on cruel, unusual and inhumane treatment had 'a limited reach' and did not apply in all cases to 'aliens overseas.'
That position has clear implications for prisoners held in U.S. custody at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, and in Iraq, legal analysts said."
Is this a fantasy world? Did I really just read this? If a Canadian Reporter is arrested in Iraq does this Legally apply to him? I am sure this has happened for years, I just didnt know about it, but it was also illegal nonetheless. I will not even go so far as to say that in certian instances this should not be done (don't ask about what those instances might be) But is this saying that it is now legal for a CIA opperative to do this? Thats a large step I don't agree with.
Gonzales excludes CIA from rules on prisoners
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(Thursday, January 20)
Arcade Fire Live
Excellent recording of an Arcade Fire (#18 on my best of 2004 Albums) show that was on Tues on a Radioshow called 'Morning Becomes Eclectic':
The Arcade Fire
Live on 'Morning Becomes Eclectic'
KCRW, Santa Monica, CA
January 17th, 2005
bradley's almanac
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stereogum: Bonnaroo '05 Lineup
damn... might be heading to Bonnaroo this year.
Widespread Panic (2 shows)
Dave Matthews Band
The Allman Brothers Band
Jack Johnson
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Modest Mouse
Gov't Mule
Bela Fleck Acoustic Trio
The Mars Volta
John Prine
Yonder Mountain String Band
My Morning Jacket
Keller Williams
STS9
Earl Scruggs & Friends
Joss Stone
O.A.R.
Toots and the Maytals
Umphrey's McGee
Iron & Wine
Ozomatli
Rilo Kiley
Karl Denson's Tiny Universe
Drive-By Truckers
Particle
Joanna Newsom
Xavier Rudd
Ray Lamontagne
The Gourds
Secret Machines
Donna The Buffalo
John Butler Trio
Ollabelle
Citizen Cope
Brazilian Girls
M. Ward
Madeleine Peyroux
stereogum: Bonnaroo '05 Lineup: "
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ZeD - Guest - Salam Pax Interview
Remeber Salam Pax? He was the bloger in Iraq who gave very good accounts of the day to day happenings in Iraq before the war on his blog. I read it a decent amount and thought it was great to hear a voice form someone actually in Iraq rather than some Foxnews dolt. It looks like he is in an online interview. Check it out:
ZeD - Guest - Salam Pax Interview
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More Bush Spendatures.
"'Precedent suggests that inaugural festivities should be muted -- if not cancelled -- in wartime,' Weiner wrote to Bush, saying that the money could pay for 690 Humvees and a $290 bonus for each soldier serving in Iraq.
Weiner cited the example of President Franklin Roosevelt, who celebrated his trimmed-down 1945 inaugural with cold chicken salad and pound cake.
Bush said he rejected such criticism.
'It's important that we celebrate a peaceful transfer of power .... You can be equally concerned about our troops in Iraq and those who suffered at the tsunamis (and) with celebrating democracy,' Bush said in a CBS News interview released on Monday.
He said inauguration activities would include military-themed events such as a Commander-in-Chief Ball and a Salute to Service. 'There's ways for us to honour the soldier and, at the same time, celebrate,' the president added."
Roosevelt was a true President.
Top News Article | Reuters.co.uk
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Now this people is why the internet was created. You know all those swanky people that get Chinese character tats? This is the blog of a guy who likes to research thier english equivalents. It looks like a lot of them are actually correct, but some of them are quite funny.
HanzisMatter
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(Sunday, January 16)
CNN.com - Journalist: U.S. planning for possible?attack on Iran - Jan 16, 2005
YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!
Are they serious? I absolutely loathe what they did in Iraq. I supported it at first but then was able to see the realization of the actual status of the country of Iraq. Are they honestly thinking about invading ANOTHER country? At what point do we as Americans literally have to ask A.) Is this right? and B.) Do we even have the resources? I mean we cannot put enough men in Iraq to support GW's first mistake. How can we even begin to think about his second mistake? It is the most asinine idea ever conceived to even think you are going to stop nuclear proliferation in the middle east, or for the world for that matter. In the short amount of time that GW made his Iraq mistake look at what North K. has done. 10 nukes! 10 FUCKING NUKES. SADAAM DID NOT HAVE 1!!! That is not even counting what may or may not be on the black market from former Russian states already. Message to GW! I repeat Message to GW! spend the money that you would spend on foreign wars here in the US! Amazingly it does 2 things; makes America more secure at home, and also doesn�t piss as many people off. Mark my words, America will be paying for GW in lives and in tax dollars for the next 20 years. GW is the opposite of FDR. No accountability in fiscal social or wartime spending, and the amazing ability to create new enemies without brining in allies or pacifying non-allies(read situation in Iraq sucks). I am gonna thank you ahead of time for my 2016 1040 of 65% of my wages to pay for your wars, and I promise to not think about all the enemies in Iraq and Iran who are just as smart as the man the crashed 4 planes into innocent Americans that you have failed to catch yet in your trillion dollar spending.
CNN.com - Journalist: U.S. planning for possible?attack on Iran - Jan 16, 2005
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Kasabian
I have been listning to the Kasabian album for last month or so non stop. It is such a great album. I signed up for the Kasabaian mailing list and recieved this information from it, looks like they are going to release a version of the record in the US:
** American album release
Kasabian lp released March 8th 2005 in North America.
Also in US, Club Foot video is currently on FUSE, MTVU and on M2's Subterranean (next showing this Sunday Jan 16th).
Alternate sleeve for US release can be viewed on front-page at www.kasabian.co.uk, and US specific forum now open on Message Board.
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New MSN Search is LIVE
Well From the looks of things (SERPS) I keep up with. It looks like the best weapon against Google has been moved from Beta to Live. It is always nice to see a new search algo that cna compete with the 600lb gorilla. This one has (imho) great result sets too. So it looks like to me it is now officialy Google, Yahoo, and MSN in a 3 way cage match with teoma, a9 (Google), Clusty, ad my new favorite Gigablast all on the ourside ropes. Gonna be a good match.
MSN Search: Eric Thompson Programmer -- More Useful Everyday
New MSN Search is LIVE
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(Thursday, January 13)
Suprnova Sellout.
I was greatly disheartened when the MPAA cracked down on bittorrent sites last month. They took away all the great bittorrent sites like suprnova.org, which basically just tossed in the cards and said 'We are not gonna fight it, they are too big'. I know from multiple experiences that running a site that has 10,000-100,000 users a day is a full time job. I cannot imagine running a site like suprnova.org. It must have had 500k+ hits a day. For people that don't work on web sites, they may just think that this is something some server somewhere can handle, well when you start throwing in redundancy it gets a little more complicated, when the main business object of your site is a file (even a small under 30k torrent file) it gets costly on bandwidth. This is not even considering the time it takes someone to throw in modding forums, basic webwork, working with all the advertisers, legally getting everything straitened out with banks and tons of other factors that basically tell me I am wholeheartedly impressed if suprnova.org was a 1 man show. If it was, that man was made by the Swiss army (Think multiple arms like Shiva). Now if you can keep a site like that running, with all that traffic and become as popular as suprnova did (hey they sold T-shirts, I even ordered one) and you have space for advertisers (which suprnova had a decent amount of, then it is hard not to make money off of advertisers. I think that a site like this ran by someone with a decent sense of marketing could harness the traffic on suprnova.org and make some decently big checks from advertisers, even on sub 1% conversions. Don't get me wrong, I don't blame them, they worked to get it that large and by god they should do with it what they wanted. I personally also think that 50% of other torrent sites fed strictly off of suprnova.org's list. I might even go so far as to say 25% of the major bittorrent sites out on the net utilized suprnova.org for 75% or more of there new torrent listings. Now what really surprised me was when I first heard about the MPAA lay | | |
Very Cool.
