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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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Where is Ian Turner? | Threadwatch.org
I have never met Ian, but I participate in the online Search Engine Community a decent bit. There is a conference every couple of months related to Search Engines (SES/WMW/etc), and there was one in New Orleans last week. Ian attended the conference, and, from what I understand, got on a plane back to the UK (with an exchange here in Atlanta) and has not been scene since. Being an Atlanta blogger, (which means a good deal of my readers may be in Atlanta) if you see or have seen Ian around town, give these people a call, his wife and family back in the UK are understandably worried:
if you've seen Ian, or have any information about him that might be useful (anything at all, at this stage) please contact the New Orleans or Atlanta police department.
New Orleans P.D. - (504) 821-2222
Atlanta P.D. - (404) 730-5700 (Fulton County)
Atlanta Missing Persons - 404-853-4235
Where is Ian Turner? | Threadwatch.org
UPDATE: (7.2.2005) - Ian has been located. You can read what happened here.
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(Wednesday, June 29)
Google Maps API
This is going to be one of the most entertaining API's anyone has ever introduced (Go Ahead and Click):
Kick Total Total Ass.
Google Maps API
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The Shore
[ 9/10 ]
("The Thorns" + "The Thrills" + "Rufus Wainwright like vocals" + "Richard Ashcroft Lyrics") - (3 x "The") = "-The Shore" [Self Titled LP]
Great Great CD, destined to be drove into the ground and back by either a.) a "Music of the O.C." Volume CD or b.) An in store Ambercrombie and Finch CD.
Regardless, great music.
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(Tuesday, June 28)
The President's Speech Tonight (8:30 EST?)
Me and Mc have telepathic powers and wanted to let everyone who reads this blog (and hopefully his) know that we have been creating a list of predictions of what the President is going to "Clearly" describe tonight.
I like to call it "SOS" at work.
Talking Point 1:
Iraq is going well despite some setbacks. Making a lot of progress in the spread of freedom and democracy; still a lot of hard work left. Military men/women are great Americans. We must remain supportive. Insurgents hate freedom.
Talking Point 2:
Don't worry about North Korea they are full of hooey, and Syria and/or Iran better stop looking at us funny.
Talking Point 3:
Attack on democrats for submarining his Bolton to the UN thing and SS "reform". Where's the democracy in non up/down votes?
In the spirit of the Bunny's SW Ep3 drinking game. Tonight have your own drinking game during the speech, drink when hearing:
"Liberate"
"Freedom"
"Evil Dictator"
"Pull Out"
"Economy is doing better"
"Resolve"
What you won't hear (If heard you have to eat half a loaf of bread to sponge up the alchohol):
"Weapons of Mass Destruction"
Yep...
Same Old Shit.
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Supreme Court Strikes a Blow against P2P Sharing - Popular Science
This decision won�t kill P2P sharing. Engineering students write P2P software in 11 lines of code as class assignments. Most Internet users use file-sharing software, and that�s not going to stop, no matter how many lawsuits the labels win against customers and companies. P2P will outlast today�s generation of technophobic record execs who are steering their companies to slow, spectacular suicide.
But what today�s decision will kill is American innovation. Chinese and European firms can get funding and ship products based on plans that don�t have to comply with this decision�s fuzzy test, while their American counterparts will need to convince everyone from their bankers to the courts that they�ve taken all measures to avoid inducing infringement. This is good news if you�re an American corporate lawyer but not if you�re an inventor creating a new way to enjoy content. Both sides went to the Supreme Court hoping for clarity on what is and isn�t legal in P2P, and instead the court tipped a fresh load of grenades into the decade�s most perilous legal minefield.
I completely agree with Doctorow. I have said it many many times. The only thing this is going to do is hinder innovative thoughts that deal with p2p (in other ways besides commercial file sharing) and all this will still be all available it will just move to the darknet.
Supreme Court Strikes a Blow against P2P Sharing - Popular Science
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Google's Earth
This is the most amazing piece of software ever produced. Not because of the code, but because of the framework that it lays down for millions of other things.
I will remember this day for the rest of my life. I know that sounds like an over statement, but I really will. I think that this is a pivotal day for technology and humanity because of today's release of Google Earth. Everyone was impressed with maps (I was) everyone loves Google local's data integration. But today, it covers earth. This app is HUGE step for everyone. Way bigger than people realize I think. A company (an information company/an advertising company) can literally show you most things on the planet we live in. We have been able to catalog data into on object. The highest object in the hierarchy of human information. Earth. (I don't need directions to Saturn). I really don't know how to state in words what an important accomplishment for humanity this is (I honestly believe it is). Someone has cataloged and organized a table that now millions of other ideas can be set down on. Think about the integration of live data from all over the world. Everyone has always been connected to the internet, but the live data portion, that part that we all don't know about (that has been easier to find lately). I call it 'the nothing' we now have the tool in an easy to use graphic format to find all the parts of the 'The Nothing' at any given time, in something a child can use. In something (that as long as we are connected) can be put in cars, can be put on watches, in eye glasses. THIS IS A MONUMENTAL THING PEOPLE! There is a framework for real time data acquisition for the normal human. That goes beyond the realm of search and the internet. I am just blown away. Seriously floored. Remember June 28th, 2005.
Go download Earth:
Google Earth - Home
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(Monday, June 27)
Seal @ Chastain
 | Probably one of the top 5 most influential artists to me personally, both in 'view of life' and 'artistic creation' is Seal. There are very few artists who I can enjoy any song from their entire catalog (yes even the Fly like an Eagle cover from Space Jam), but I can listen to any single Seal CD all the way through and enjoy any song off the four records. Unfortunately for America, Seal is a lot bigger overseas than he is here. Unfortunately for Atlanta, when Seal does tour in the U.S. he usually only hits the big metro cities (LA/NY). Trying to catch Seal here seems to only happen about once every decade (last time was in 1995 @ Chastain also). 95 was about the time I bought my first Seal album, Seal II. I was talking to my dad earlier in the weekend and he even talked about how I drove the album into the ground when I was younger. There are very few songs that I have ever heard that are as beautiful as Prayer for the Dying, Don't Cry,Kiss From a Rose, State of Grace and Lost My Faith. Then came Human Being which was just a little more twisted and dark, but just as good. I had never seen Seal live, but I have heard tons of live stuff from him (most recently [3 weeks ago] a 5.1 CD/DVD combo from a concert in Paris last year came out, and earlier in the year an acoustic/remix cd was packaged greatest hits album on iTunes), one of things I love about him as an artist and really wanted to experience live was the fact that like some other bands(Counting Crows comes to mind) the songs sometimes sound completely different (sometimes stripped down/sometimes added onto) live then they do on his albums. I LOVE this in an artist because I enjoy how it shows that they are not confined to music interpreted through their producers (and unfortunately sometimes the record company) but that they might have a different vision of the song the entire time and they still want to share it with you. All in all great concert, may have been a little short (Chastain rules say it has to end at 11pm on Sunday) but Seal and his band played an awesome set, and the opening act Chris Pierce was great too.
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John Battelle's Searchblog: News: Google To Launch Online Video Playback This Monday
I wrote a few days ago about the a few impending deaths I see on the horizon with the rate of speed of broadband pipes gaining momentum. I actually do think monopolies (Ted/Rupurt/ CC/Infinity) are going to be starting to shed little pieces of themselves as the next decade passes, until the media companies that we know of today really don't exist in 2015. One of the reasons that I wrote about was Google Video, which is really gearing up to be an ondemand PVR (not for media shows as we know them, think podcasting for TV) created by more individuals. Well John Battelle has some news about some of the web based playback of some of the video's people have been uploading recently. Pretty cool stuff:
I've confirmed that Monday Google will launch an in-browser video playback feature based on the open source VLC media player. This is the logical next step for Google's video search and upload function, which began taking uploads from anyone who cared to submit back in April.
John Battelle's Searchblog: News: Google To Launch Online Video Playback This Monday
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Poptest.
"For another thing that movie was already made and it starred the Governator, who I sincerely hope transcends the Constitution and one day becomes President just so we can finally acknowledge in public what we all know to be true in our heart of hearts about our political system."
Quote of the day from Justin via an email chain discussing the new Rocky Rambo Movie.
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Clear Channel Radio Goes Podcast Happy
Radio giant Clear Channel Radio seems ready to fully embrace the podcast revolution as today they announced they were setting up multiple podcasts tied to various stations across their empire. This greater rollout is based on the successful podcast debut of WHTZ-FM Z100's 'Phone Tap� which received over 20,500 accesses over a two week period.
Radio is swiftly dying. They hold no more control except in automobiles (which is changing also). I think clear channel's decision to start doing podcasts is a clear sign that they realize this too, altough it may be too little too late. I am loving every minute.
The Lines of Journalism and who are journalists is blurring. I am loving it although there is a question of who is authority (the site with news that quotes?, or the site with news that answers?).
Everyone has an outlet as a journalist.
Everyone has an outlet as a Broadcaster.
With the advent of higher broadband across a greater population could this be the blurring point of what is "broadcast" television.
The whole media landscape is changing, atleast for the way I view it. I don't know if it is all for the better, but someone is going to have to capitilize on the payment systems for all these new delivery mechanisms. I think within the next 5 years, all iPod-ish portable music/video/cell phones/pdas will be always connected (spread of wifi/G3 proliferation). Will this be the point at which people capitlize on streaming as opposed to on-media audio? Is this going to be the point at which someone has iintervene and explain?, or will people still understand that they dont want to rent audio (or video) via streaming, that they want to have it localized and available at all times. Will we always have to be connected to have access to what we pay for? It is a big shift in what people are willing to pay for i just hope people understand what they are agreeing to. They already are starting to rent and not own. I personally think centralization is the answer and everyone should be able to stream to themselves anywhere where ever they are. Thats why I think this may be a killer idea.
Clear Channel Radio Goes Podcast Happy - Portable Media News - Designtechnica
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(Thursday, June 23)
The Modern Age
DW: Ricky Gervais told me there's a story that Liam thinks Spinal Tap are a real band. Is that true?
NG: Yeah, he thought they were real people. We went to see them play in Carnegie Hall. Before they played, they came on as three folk singers from the film A Mighty Wind. We were laughing and he said: 'This is shit'. We said: 'No, those three are in Spinal Tap. You do know they are American actors?' 'They're not even a real band?' 'They're not even English! One of them is married to Jamie Lee Curtis.' 'I'm not fuckin' 'avin that,' he says, and walks off right up the middle of Carnegie Hall. He's never watched Spinal Tap since. He'd seen the film and loved it and thought they were a real band.
The Modern Age
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McCain Fights For Municipal Broadband - The 'Community Broadband Act of 2005'
Texas Rep. Pete Sessions - a former SBC employee with a financial stake in the company - is trying to pass a law that would ban towns and cities from wiring themselves for broadband. Now Senators John McCain and Frank Lautenberg are set to propose the �Community Broadband Act of 2005' as a polar opposite. The act doesn't advocate municipal broadband, but it does protect a town or city's right to explore the option.
Thanks to heavy lobbying by incumbents, fourteen states have passed laws banning municipal broadband. The SBC backed (likely even written) 'Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act of 2005' was the first of what will be many attempts to institute a national ban.
Woo hoo. I posted about this a few days ago, I am happy that McCain has pushed this against such a self indulgent bill by Pete Sessions (R-Texas).
broadband ? News ? McCain Fights For Municipal Broadband - The 'Community Broadband Act of 2005'
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(Wednesday, June 22)
Sue Jennifer Wilbanks.
It appears that run-away bride Jennifer Wilbanks and her fianc�, John Mason, are going to profit from her irresponsible and immature behavior this Spring.
I am exploring the possibility of filing a class action suit against the couple to prevent them from earning anything related to her actions. Members of the class could include professionals and volunteers who gave up time and goods to aid in her search, media outlets who devoted airtime to the story, citizens who altered plans or routines out of fear, or business owners who may have lost income.
I don't listen to the radio at all, and this kinda smells of publicity stunt, but I do completly agree with the guy. She should not profit on her self induced (and criminal) mid-life crisis. It is a good idea I hope he can find a lawyer to help him and the other people who went looking and might be on the suit.
SUE JENNIFER WILBANKS
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80% is Perception.
After winning the Nobel prize, Max Planck went around Germany giving talks. His chauffeur heard the talk so many times that he had it by heart, and so one time, he asked Max Planck if he could give the address. Planck agreed, they changed places, and the lecture came off famously. But then came the Q&A, with the very first question being one that the chauffeur had no hope of answering. The chauffeur replied: "I'm surprised to hear such an elementary question on high energy physics here in Munich. It's so simple, I'll let my chauffeur answer it.
Awesome Read.
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$50 for 15 gallons.
If oil hits $3 a gallon, people will demand that the government focus on domestic problems and the economy.
It will be a sublime irony if Bush's popularity slumps because of oil prices and not because of the Iraq war, since the Iraq war was an attempt to keep cheap oil flowing if the Saudi supply was in danger.
But because other reasons were used to galvanize support for the Iraq war the government is now in a curious position of having to continue to fudge the WMD issue and not reap the benefits of the emerging reality.
I agree with Galbraith and I like how he isn't sugar coating it. I am a firm believer that not only will be see $3 per gallon during Bush's 2nd term, but I think we will see $3.50 if not $4.00 before 2008. I do agree that their will not be a shift in perspective from foreign problems (Iraq, which were created by the GW administrations failure to plan and a failure to find what we were told was over there) to domestic ones (economy IS looking up, but Oil is going to enslave the average American) until it starts to hit people in their pocketbooks. It stinks that it has to come to that for people to realize what is going on and how much GW f'd this thing up, but I for one will actually enjoy $3 and $4 gas just so people start paying more attention to domestic problems, and see that Iraq was one major waste of money. Lots and lots money. That somehow has lined the coffers of a lot of companies who are profiting from the war. About 2 or 3 weeks ago I was on an email chain with some friends and it was funny how a lot of the Bush supporters on the chain were quick to defend Bush that he isn't over in Iraq to steal oil, that he has not taken a single barrel. I still don't know if people understand that this war was not about commercial profiting on Iraqi oil. (Although that may have been the plan at some point, it hasn't formalized) This war made money off commercial profiting of certain U.S. business related to war at the expense of U.S. tax dollars and U.S. tax payers. It was all a big funnel movement of money from normal U.S. citizens (via Tax dollars) to large corporations (for war spending). Its not about taking from them, its about taking from us.
David Galbraith
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CNN.com - Former Klansman found guilty - Jun 21, 2005
I just went by Cosco for lunch (pick up a cheap salad to eat) and I was standing in line and the lady in front of me (20-30ish southern house mom non-working, probably owned a nice fat SUV with a W sticker on the back and lives off credit cards [aka normal Alpharetta soccer mom] said and I quote "It is a crime that they would put a man that old away", I nicely responded "that the crime was that that he got to live like a normal man for 40 years". I usually keep these thoughts to myself or only share with my wife, I just accidently said this outloud. And I saw an emotion on her face that I have not seen in a long time, the look of "disgust/how could anyone be so cruel". I would have loved to have been Marty McFly and been able to 88.8 gigawatt her fat ass back 40 years to Mississippi to see what "cruel" was.
CNN.com - Former Klansman?found guilty - Jun 21, 2005
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EFF: DeepLinks
You Have 48 Hours to Stop the Broadcast Flag
June 20, 2005
Rumor is afoot that Hollywood is taking another crack at the Broadcast Flag on Capitol Hill, this time by sneaking a Flag provision into an appropriations bill before the Senate.
If what we hear is true, the provision will be introduced before a subcommittee tomorrow and before the full appropriations committee on Thursday. That gives us 48 hours to stop it.
EFF's action alert, geared to people with senators on the committee, is here. Public Knowledge also provides a number of excellent talking points in an email urging readers to phone their senators:
This was defeated in the courts, I don't see how this subcommittee can circumvent the judicial decision on the matter. That is pretty shitty if they can/are.
EFF: DeepLinks
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(Monday, June 20)
Bonaroo 2005 Show / Torrents
Bonaroo sounded like a blast this year. I am trying to keep up with the Torrents that are hitting the net for download. As I come across them I will post either a direct link from someone else for download, or the torrent itself (please note there are tons of other bands out there, i am only posting the ones I dig and downloaded):
Thur
Signal Path (Torrent Here)
Fri
Dave Matthews Band (Torrent Here [16bit version/There is a 24bit (DVD) also out there)
Drive By Truckers (Torrent Here)
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US Supreme Court delays decision on P2P
"Despite expectations (and in some cases, hope), the US Supreme Court today announced that they would not be issuing a ruling on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster case today. Per the Supreme Court rules, a decision will come by the end of the month, either this Thursday, next Monday, or the following Thursday.
Doesn't look like a decision is comming today. :(
US Supreme Court delays decision on P2P
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How To Select.
Dear .NET Developer:
Have you ever tried to find a component for your .NET application only to waste more time in
research than you saved in using the component? Or gotten 80% of the way to launch, only to
discover that the component you were depending on lacked one crucial feature? Depending on
your project's scope, such problems can range from minor annoyances to major disasters. But
with all the great .NET tools and components out there on the market, these problems can be
avoided...if only you can find the right components for your own particular needs.
Unfortunately, getting information on components has been a hit-or-miss proposition. That's
why we're launching the How-To-SelectTM Guide series. Our goal is simple: we want to bring
you the comprehensive, unbiased information that you need to make an informed choice when
picking the components that you need to make your .NET project a success. Each How-To-Select
Guide will look at a particular category of components in depth. We'll offer guidance on what
components in that category can do, and show you how to choose between the various components
on the market. We'll also list and evaluate every component that we can in the category
(limited only by the vendor's willingness to provide us with their software to evaluate).
How-To-Select Guides go far beyond simple feature checklists to address the issues that really
matter to working developers who need to find the right components for serious projects. We'll
help you sort out the use cases for the various components, discuss vendor support and licensing
policies, and make sure you understand what each component can (and can't) do for project. We
include free and open source software right alongside commercial offerings, so you can choose
the most economical component that will get the job done for you.
We're also committed to keeping the Guides up-to-date. Assuming chan"
Awesome Idea. [via Brendon @ Devcow]
PDF Components
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Who is providing your results.
Great Way to see who supplies whose results. Most people think Search Engines are separate entities. Usually you are just getting a combination of results (both paid and organic) from multiple search engines. I used to always refer people to the infamous Bruce Clay diagram, but it is getting kinda busy, I think this Flash may be better.
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