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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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(Saturday, July 30)
One Man Army.
Why would I love to go to the PDC? Well for one I work for a semismall company. (read: a company who does not send their developers to things like the PDC). I don't fault them, it's just the way it works. I actually love being what I call a one man .net army. I get to design and implement all by myself. I get to yell at myself when a SqlData object appears in the business or UI layer. I make myself do push ups when I don't refactor. Sometimes late at night I will pull a Carolyn Burnham (American Beauty) when I don't thoroughly NUnit everything that I have changed. My bipolar Swiss army knife programmer mentality needs a break. Architect Eric needs to be around other architects, programmer Eric needs to be around other programmers, before something bad happens to programmer Eric.
Programmer Eric: I am a great programmer you couldn't ask for better.
Architect Eric: I don't know sometimes he like to use 'p' instead of '_' at the beginning of his private class variables.. that really ticks me off
Programmer Eric:I do that to add a little excitement to your otherwise boring design.
Architect Eric: BORING Design! If you call the sensible use of abstract GoF patterns in a perfect way as boring then I don't know what to tell you. Say another word and I am gonna go Stroustrup on your ass.
As you can see it is hard to keep both my architect/designer embodiment and my programmer/implement all in check. The PDC would help though.
Crap, here comes DBA Eric.
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(Friday, July 29)
The Register: 'My comment ability vanished too!'
It is funny how The Register loves to criticize Microsoft for having someone like Scoble who introduces conversation between people (especially as early as a beta 1), but yet a The Register doesn't even have it available for people to enter comments? There are sites that are have an overt hatred for Redmond, ( \. ,etc) you can see it in their posts, but at least they allow comments for people to discuss the story. Scoble does the same. Why doesn't The Register?
UPDATE (10:25PM 7/29/2005):
With Scoble catching a lot of flack about this I emailed Andrew Orlowski at the San Francisco Bureau of The Rgister to see if he would post the entire email with headers (without the person's email who it was sent too). I am sure if he is legit about the email he will be happy to post the info. I will also post his response. Anyone can email him via the The Register site's Contact Us page.
Below is my email to him:
Andrew,
Would you mind displaying the entire email (sans name) but with header information in an update to your toolbar/ie7 beta article? It would probably clear up a lot of confusion as to it's authenticity.
Microsoft blogger: 'My toolbar vanished too!' | The Register
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(Thursday, July 28)
Installing Windows Vista Longhorn Beta 1 on VPC
I was having problems installing the new dvd iso of Windows Vista Beta 1 on VPC on my laptop and this is how I have solved it:
The problem came when partitioning a drive (form vhd) for Vista Beta 1:
1.) Start Install and when you get to "Where to Install Windows" screen, allocated the partition (give the sys a second) then restart the vpc (if you have not done this all the drives will be "unavailable")
2.) After restart, No when you get to the same screen I think it will say all the drives are still unavailable, so then I formatted the newly partitioned drive. Give it a second then restart the vpc again. (This will avoid the temporary file copy error?)
3.) Now after this, then the install should kick in. I have not finished the install yet, (takes a little while), but seems to be going ok so far.
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Thoughts on Ryan Adams Interview with Pitchfork.
Pitchfork: Do you miss the south?
Adams: Sort of. I miss the south I grew up in, but it isn't there anymore. It's modified, and they've built Wal-Marts on top of cemeteries, and the music venues that used to be privately owned are operated by Clear Channel now.
or ...
Pitchfork: "New York, New York"?
Adams: Yeah. Where we had a run, but OK, it didn't work. And in some weird way that song was almost like that Bon Jovi song, you know (sings), "Better to have loved and lost..." Basically saying that same thing, but people attached this meaning to it. Recently somebody sent me a funny e-mail they'd gotten where this guy wrote, "It's bad enough that this guy, like, totally calls himself Ryan Adams, so that he can get Bryan Adams' fans, but like, he's still playing that 9/11 anthem?" And I was like, that's the best e-mail I've ever seen! But you know what I mean? That song, for some people, changed. It didn't change for me.
this whole interview just cracks me up:
Pitchfork: So have you ever met Bryan Adams?
Adams: Yeah, once.
Pitchfork: Was it weird?
Adams: It was pretty weird. He was at this hotel in Germany. And I was upstairs, and I had really bad, bad fucking bronchitis, and I had to fly, you know? I think it was Munich. And I had flown over to do a week of press. I was so ill, like before the plane even landed, I was dying. So we tried to get the in-house doctor to come see me because I definitely needed something to break up some of mucous. And I got all these drugs, and then I got extra drugs, just because I was there, whatever else I was into at the time. I mean, it's no mystery what I was into at the time. I basically got fixed up, he helped me to sleep. And it got charged to Bryan Adams' room.
Pitchfork: Did he call you?
Adams: Yeah! So it was this big thing, and I get this call. And he's like well, I think they've been charged to the wrong room. He's got an English accent, I think his mom might be English or something. And he really wanted to come down and meet me. But I said no, I was too sick. I thought it would be greatest thing, I was just super-contagious. So we talked for awhile, and he was like "I definitely want to have a truce." And I was like, I'm not mad at you! He was being really emotional about it. And I was like, I don't talk shit about you. I think everyone else has been making really weird comparisons or getting caught up in the name. And I was like, it's a fucking Catholic name! Whatever. So then the medication I was taking made me kind of high, and I ended up calling him back later and asking him to be the tin man in that video I did with Elton John. Which he of course declined.
I have always thought of Ryan Adams as one of those guys who if he was in a really bad car accident and his face got mangled up and I didn't know who he was, and I was introduced to him over rum I would probably stay up all night with shooting the shit. Presumably not knowing who he was visually, and I would probably never asked him what he did for a living, but we would be cracking up all night.
Full Interview Here
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West Paces Hotel Group plans Solis luxury hotel and resort in Alpharetta - 2005-07-27
The first Solis property in metro Atlanta will be The Stanbury hotel and spa in Alpharetta, which scheduled to open in late 2007 in the 66-acre Prospect Park development off Old Milton Parkway near Ga. 400. The mixed-use property will combine a 144-room boutique hotel with a high-end spa, luxury condo residences, a signature restaurant, meeting and banquet facilities, and space for office, entertainment and retail use. The hotel is planned to reflect a series of historic Southern manor houses arranged surrounding a central house as an iconic showcase. The residential component will be built in three mid-rise towers directly adjacent to the hotel's wedding garden and conservatory.
Solis also will open hotels in Chicago; San Antonio, Texas; Paradise Valley, Ariz.; Orlando, Fla.; and Frankfurt, Germany."
Is Alpharetta becomming the new satellite city got Altlanta? (like Buckhead in the 80s?)
I just can't imagine Alpharetta with "mid-rise towers".
West Paces Hotel Group plans Solis luxury hotel and resort in Alpharetta
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Sony Agrees to Halt Gifts for Airtime - New York Times
Sony BMG Music Entertainment, one of the world's largest record companies, agreed today to stop providing lavish gifts, free trips and other giveaways in exchange for airtime for their artists on radio stations, under the terms of a settlement with the New York attorney general's office.
The settlement, which includes a $10 million payment to a fund for music education, is the first in a broad investigation by Eliot Spitzer, the New York attorney general, into incentives that record companies offer to radio stations in hopes of getting airtime that will raise their artists' profiles, increase a song's ranking and, of course, drive up sales.
'This agreement is a model for breaking the pervasive influence of bribes in the industry,' Mr. Spitzer said in a statement. 'Contrary to listener expectations that songs are selected for airplay based on artistic merit and popularity, air time is often determined by undisclosed payoffs to radio stations and their employees.
Wow, i thought it was because the music was just good! (dear reader last comment was a dual bladed knife of sarcasm).
UPDATE (7/26/2005): Check out some of these awesome memo's to / from the promoters (doing the paying) and the people at the stations:
In discussing a bribe given to a radio programmer in Buffalo, one promotion executive at SONY BMG's Epic Records wrote to a colleague at Epic:
"Two weeks ago, it cost us over 4000.00 to get Franz [Ferdinand] on WKSE. That is what the four trips to Miami and hotel cost . . . At the end of the day, [David] Universal added GC [Good Charlotte] and Gretchen Wilson and hit Alex up for another grand and they settled for $750.00. So almost $5000.00 in two weeks for overnight airplay. He told me that Tommy really wanted him to do it so he cut the deal."
Another Epic employee who was trying to promote the group Audioslave to a Clear Channel programmer asked in an email:
"WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET AUDIOSLAVE ON WKSS THIS WEEK?!!? Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen."
A promotion employee unhappy with the times assigned for spins of the song "I Drove All Night" by Celine Dion wrote this internal email:
"OK, HERE IT IS IN BLACK AND WHITE AND IT'S SERIOUS: IF A RADIO STATION GOT A FLYAWAY TO A CELINE [DION] SHOW IN LAS VEGAS FOR THE ADD, AND THEY'RE PLAYING THE SONG ALL IN OVERNIGHTS, THEY ARE NOT GETTING THE FLYAWAY. PLEASE FIX THE OVERNIGHT ROTATIONS IMMEDIATELY."
Radio sucks.
Sony Agrees to Halt Gifts for Airtime - New York Times
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Rush 24/7: Why We're Not on iTunes, Satellite
Let me give you a little history of this, and then some business facts. We spoke to iTunes, we spoke to Apple, the iTunes division, numerous times about this within the past two to three months. When they told us that their main requirement for the podcasts on iTunes would be that they be free, we said we can't do that because our subscribers get the podcasts free but we still have a subscription fee for our members at RushLimbaugh.com, and, folks, there's just no way that we can tag podcasts and put them on iTunes so that only 24/7 subscribers can get them.
Ever wonder why Rush's Podcasts are not on iiTunes? Well it's all about the money.
Who would PAY to hear Rush Limbaugh?
Rush 24/7: Why We're Not on iTunes, Satellite
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EA GAMES� :: View topic - The truth behind all of these "random" unlocks...
Well, what a wonderful few days it has been. Since EA didn't take the time to respond (or maybe even read) our emails about various stats-server security holes, it clearly showed us how much they care. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that modifying 5 million accounts wouldn't be that big of a deal.
That being said, accounts with ids from 40,000,000 to 45,000,000 now have all of their weapons unlocked.
What will be next week? Perhaps we'll give everyone their Distinguished Service Medal, or maybe we'll elevate everyone to the rank of Sergeant Major.
The ball's in your court, EA. Time's up at the buzzer, how well will you play?"
If this is true (I have not verified it yet). Then this cracks me up. I wrote about how I thought Battlefield 2 was not worth the $50 they charged for it (You can read my Battlefield2 Sucks entry here). And in my list of things I didn�t like about the game I did not list security of the servers because I didn't see it as a downside. Apparently the security sucks and this fella went in and hacked the accounts of 5 million people and opened up all 5 extra weapons for them. This is totally cracking me up. Then the guy had the balls to go post what he did on EA's message board. Is this an EA PR gimmick? It seems pretty real, as soon as I get my new rig up an running I am gonna go see if I am one of the lucky 5million. Totally awesome.
EA GAMES� :: View topic - The truth behind all of these "random" unlocks...
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(Monday, July 25)
Podcast Fad? Podcast Awards a Fad?
I love Podcasts.
I hate Podcasts talking about how they are nominated for some podcast award and want you to go vote for them.
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(Sunday, July 24)
Scoble, Geeks, IPAs, Virtual Earth and my free day from 'mes del agua'.
It looks like MS's new VirtualEarth was up today for a short while (4pm - 10 am ) this morning, before an official launch of tomorrow I think. I am a big fan of Google Maps/Earth (check out http://www.kmz-archive.com) I am eagerly awaiting to see what VirtualEarth is going to look like. It sounds like it is going to be a fairly open API at launch (based on mappoint?) so it will be cool to see a competing format to kml/kmz over at G*.
Last night I went to the Atlanta Geek Dinner over at 5 Season's Brewery (the only brewery with a kick ass IPA (at least this month) and a blog of their own) and shot the shit with a bunch of people. Robert Scoble from Microsoft (I was hoping he would drag Bill Gates along from Six Flags, but alas) was there along with a decent amount of the board from Ineta.org. I have been going to the geek dinners for about 4 or 5 months now and sometimes it is just me Shawn and Brandon, but tonight was a great turnout. I think Scoble drew the crowd, but while people were pulling him aside it was cool to see everyone having a good time. One thing I have found that is kind of interesting about the geek dinner's is one would think that there would be tons of discussion of code and theory, but generally it boils down to beer, geek movies, mmorpgs, and talking about upcoming meetings and events by both MS and the local ATL developer community.
And yes I will admit, I had two IPAs at the meeting and they effected me greatly because of my mas del agua. Me and the Wife both agreed that yesterday was a free day (only 1!) and that she could drink something other than water at a friends bachelorette party, and I could drink something other than water at the geek dinner. So seeing as though we both have only been drinking water for the past 21 days alcohol effected us both pretty greatly (her maybe a little more than me). All in all it was a cool night at 5 seasons, and I hope that a lot of people will join us at Shawn's geek dinners from here on out.
I also gotta give 5 seasons credit for a kick ass IPA this month (Sparrow Agnue? Spinnow something?) I forget, I am sure it is over on their blog.
UPDATE : VirtualEarth is now live (7/25/2005)
Chandu Thota's WebLog (VirtualEarth Dev)
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Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News
Microsoft confirmed to internetnews.com that it will deliver the beta 1 version of Longhorn Server on August 3, along with the beta 1 release Internet Explorer 7. They'll be available along with the beta 1 version of Windows Vista, the next-generation Windows client formerly known as Longhorn, which Microsoft announced Friday morning.
Tom's Hardware Guide: Tom's Hard News
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If World War Two had been an online Real Time Strategy game, the chat room traffic would have gone something like this.
Got this in an email, quite funny:
*Hitler[AoE] has joined the game.*
*Eisenhower has joined the game.*
*paTTon has joined the game.*
*Churchill has joined the game.*
*benny-tow has joined the game.*
*T0J0 has joined the game.*
*Roosevelt has joined the game.*
*Stalin has joined the game.*
*deGaulle has joined the game.*
Roosevelt: hey sup
T0J0: y0
Stalin: hi
Churchill: hi
Hitler[AoE]: cool, i start with panzer tanks!
paTTon: lol more like panzy tanks
T0JO: lol
Roosevelt: o this fockin sucks i got a depression!
benny-tow: haha america sux
Stalin: hey hitler you dont fight me i dont fight u, cool?
Hitler[AoE]; sure whatever
Stalin: cool
deGaulle: **** Hitler rushed some1 help
Hitler[AoE]: lol byebye frenchy
Roosevelt: i dont got **** to help, sry
Churchill: wtf the luftwaffle is attacking me
Roosevelt: get antiair guns
Churchill: i cant afford them
benny-tow: u n00bs know what team talk is?
paTTon: stfu
Roosevelt: o yah hit the navajo button guys
deGaulle: eisenhower ur worthless come help me quick
Eisenhower: i cant do **** til rosevelt gives me an army
paTTon: yah hurry the fock up
Churchill: d00d im gettin pounded
deGaulle: this is fockin weak u guys suck
*deGaulle has left the game.*
Roosevelt: im gonna attack the axis k?
benny-tow: with what? ur wheelchair?
benny-tow: lol did u mess up ur legs AND ur head?
Hitler[AoE]: ROFLMAO
T0J0: lol o no america im comin 4 u
Roosevelt: wtf! thats bullsh1t u fags im gunna kick ur asses
T0JO: not without ur harbors u wont! lol
Roosevelt: u little biotch ill get u
Hitler[AoE]: wtf
Hitler[AoE]: america hax, u had depression and now u got a huge fockin army
Hitler[AoE]: thats bullsh1t u hacker
Churchill: lol no more france for u hitler
Hitler[AoE]: tojo help me!
T0J0: wtf u want me to do, im on the other side of the world retard
Hitler[AoE]: fine ill clear you a path
Stalin: WTF u arsshoel! WE HAD A FoCKIN TRUCE
Hitler[AoE]: i changed my mind lol
benny-tow: haha
benny-tow: hey ur losing ur guys in africa im gonna need help in italy soon sum1
T0J0: o **** i cant help u i got my hands full
Hitler[AoE]: im 2 busy 2 help
Roosevelt: yah thats right ***** im comin for ya
Stalin: church help me
Churchill: like u helped me before? sure ill just sit here
Stalin: dont be an arss
Churchill: dont be a commie. oops too late
Eisenhower: LOL
benny-tow: hahahh oh sh1t help
Hitler: o man ur focked
paTTon: oh what now biotch
Roosevelt: whos the cripple now lol
*benny-tow has been eliminated.*
benny-tow: lame
Roosevelt: gj patton
paTTon: thnx
Hitler[AoE]: WTF eisenhower hax hes killing all my sh1t
Hitler[AoE]: quit u hacker so u dont ruin my record
Eisenhower: Nuts!
benny~tow: wtf that mean?
Eisenhower: meant to say nutsack lol finger slipped
paTTon: coming to get u hitler u paper hanging hun cocksocker
Stalin: rofl
T0J0: HAHAHHAA
Hitler[AoE]: u guys are fockin gay
Hitler[AoE]: ur never getting in my city
*Hitler[AoE] has been eliminated.*
benny~tow: OMG u noob you killed yourself
Eisenhower: ROFLOLOLOL
Stalin: OMG LMAO!
Hitler[AoE]: WTF i didnt click there omg this game blows
*Hitler[AoE] has left the game*
paTTon: hahahhah
T0J0: WTF my teammates are n00bs
benny~tow: shut up noob
Roosevelt: haha wut a moron
paTTon: wtf am i gunna do now?
Eisenhower: yah me too
T0J0: why dont u attack me o thats right u dont got no ships lololol
Eisenhower: fock u
paTTon: lemme go thru ur base commie
Stalin: go to hell lol
paTTon: fock this sh1t im goin afk
Eisenhower: yah this is gay
*Roosevelt has left the game.*
Hitler[AoE]: wtf?
Eisenhower: sh1t now we need some1 to join
*tru_m4n has joined the game.*
tru_m4n: hi all
T0J0: hey
Stalin: sup
Churchill: hi
tru_m4n: OMG OMG OMG i got all his stuff!
tru_m4n: NUKES! HOLY **** I GOT NUKES
Stalin: d00d gimmie some plz
tru_m4n: no way i only got like a couple
Stalin: omg dont be gay gimmie nuculer secrets
T0J0: wtf is nukes?
T0J0: holy ****holy****hoyl****!
*T0J0 has been eliminated.*
*The Allied team has won the game!*
Eisenhower: awesome!
Churchill: gg noobs no re
T0J0: thats bull**** u fockin suck
*T0J0 has left the game.*
*Eisenhower has left the game.*
Stalin: next game im not going to be on ur team, u guys didnt help me for ****
Churchill: wutever, we didnt need ur help neway dumbarss
tru_m4n: l8r all
benny~tow: bye
Churchill: l8r
Stalin: fock u all
tru_m4n: shut up commie lol
*tru_m4n has left the game.*
benny~tow: lololol u commie
Churchill: ROFL
Churchill: bye commie
*Churchill has left the game.*
*benny~tow has left the game.*
Stalin: i hate u all fags
*Stalin has left the game.*
paTTon: lol no1 is left
paTTon: weeeee i got a jeep
*paTTon has been eliminated.*
paTTon: o sh1t!
*paTTon has left the game.*
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(Friday, July 22)
FIREFLY: THE COMPLETE SERIES Finally Gets Televised, Starting Tonight On Sci-Fi!!
FIREFLY: THE COMPLETE SERIES Finally Gets Televised, Starting Tonight On Sci-Fi!!
I am � Hercules!!
The SciFi Channel is doing what Fox never did: running all the �Firefly� episodes produced, and running them in the correct order.
I reckon they�ll have run though all 15 hours right about the time its big-screen sequel, �Serenity,� hits cinemas Sept. 30.
Hand downs one of the best sci-fi shows ever on television. I have a feeling it will be brought back after Serenity comes out. I have said it many times great TV show for sci-fi geeks, the humor is very dark and gut wrenchingly funny. Joss Weadon, good stuff. I can't wait for Serenity.
Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.
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Bush and his mother pitch his agenda as good news for seniors - News - MSNBC.com
His mother at his side, President Bush on Friday sought to rekindle interest in his languishing Social Security restructuring plan, marketing it as part of a ''Senior Security'' package. Calling his mother, Barbara Bush, 'my favorite senior citizen,' Bush said that the new prescription drug program under Medicare -- which takes effect in January -- would benefit nearly every one who signed up.
Because Barbara Bush is like every other senior citizen that pays for medication?
Why not get normal people (with normal budgets) to describe how it will help them? Not oil money matriarchs. Why bring your mom with you to tout policy?
This reminds me of how Jessica Simpson got the other ugly Simpson a TV show of her own. (yes, yes I know it is MTV, but I guess it can still be called TV)
Bush and his mother pitch his agenda as good news for seniors - News - MSNBC.com
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Infectious Greed: John Doerr Gets Dizzy with Dazzle
Support for a dying communications medium plus having a better interface now qualifies you for a Kleiner investment? Rather than pretending such a bizarre thing is true, I�d rather Doerr said the obvious: This is a nascent market and a well-capitalized fast-follower could still supplant an incumbent like CafePress. Pretending otherwise is silly."
If you don't read Infectious Greed by Paul Kedrosky you ought to. I love the non-bullshit. He is a very tech-saavy (almost to point where I don't want to use that term becuase it sounds so lame) VC guy (I think he is a VC investor of somesort). Regardless I love reading his blog and give his Feed a little more time in my reader, ven though I am not in the industry. Give it a read.
Infectious Greed: John Doerr Gets Dizzy with Dazzle
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(Wednesday, July 20)
Unocal backs $17 billion Chevron merger bid - Oil & Energy - MSNBC.com
LOS ANGELES - Unocal�s board of directors Tuesday recommended that its shareholders accept a last-minute, $17 billion merger bid from Chevron, rejecting a higher offer from China�s third-largest oil company.
Chevron boosted its offer by $2 per share shortly before the Unocal board met Tuesday night, raising its bid to $63 per share, or more than $17 billion. The company originally bid about $16.6 billion in April.
much much higher respect for Unocal after this. Since, in effect, we are using Chinese money to pay for Iraq (who owns most of the U.S. debt right now), this is a welcome sign. It is nice to see that Cali based Unocal is keeping the company local. I have a feeling we will soon be fighting a major economical battle with China (for oil/energy) as their population starts driving a lot more (some might say we already have). Selling large companies like this to Chinese businesses is a bad move.
Unocal backs $17 billion Chevron merger bid - Oil & Energy - MSNBC.com
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(Tuesday, July 19)
VoIP on a bike | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-07-19 | By Ephraim Schwartz
The mission of Inveneo, a nonprofit group of inveterate high-tech adventurers, is to bring developing communities that never reached a 20th century level of infrastructure into the 21st century. Its bicycle-powered system brings not just VoIP but also e-mail and Web browsing to remote areas, using a combination of Linux and the Asterisk (Overview, Articles, Company) open source PBX.
This is kinda along the same lines as the solar powered Hotspot, i wrote about a few weeks ago. Pretty neat tech.
VoIP on a bike
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Serious greasemonkey vulnerability?
In other words, running a Greasemonkey script on a site can expose the contents of every file on your local hard drive to that site. Running a Greasemonkey script with '@include *' (which, BTW, is the default if no parameter is specified) can expose the contents of every file on your local hard drive to every site you visit. And, because GM_xmlhttpRequest can use POST as well as GET, an attacker can quietly send this information anywhere in the world.
I think I am uninstalling greasemonkey till this gets sorted out. Kinda scary. Anyone know if it is just V0.4 ?
mozdev.org - : /pipermail/greasemonkey/2005-July/004022
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(Monday, July 18)
News Corp to buy Intermix for $580 million - Yahoo! News
NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp. (NYSE:NWS - news) on Monday said it would buy Intermix Media Inc. (AMEX:MIX - news), owner of the popular MySpace.com social networking site, for $580 million in a move to expand the media conglomerate's Internet offerings.
The deal comes after News Corp., home to the Fox television network, Fox News and 20th Century Fox film studios, announced on Friday the creation of an Internet division to hold the company's sports, news and entertainment sites.
Geez. Now Rupert Murdoch will know the deepest inner-secrets of 14 year olds and an accused spyware comp, for a mere 580 million.
News Corp to buy Intermix for $580 million - Yahoo! News
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Bush says he will fire anyone who breaks law - Politics - MSNBC.com
President Bush said Monday that if anyone on his staff committed a crime in the CIA-leak case, that person will 'no longer work in my administration.
You have got to be kidding me. So when GW said "There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. If there's leaks out of my administration, I want to know who it is, and if the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of." he really meant a "crime". This is a serious issue dealing with national security when a President has someone in his administation gives away the identity of an undercover CIA officer in a political retribution via the press, and now he is chaning the criteria. My guess is he did not know Rove was the originator of the quote back then, now he does. How can he protect slime? Another reason I think GW really is one of the worst Presidents in my life.
Bush says he will fire anyone who breaks law - Politics - MSNBC.com
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CC Beer w/ guarana!11!!
Version 1.0 of the libation is brewed using classic techniques but has a special ingredient to make it unique. Each batch of the golden-brown ale has guarana, a South American stimulant, added to it. The guarana is equivalent to 35 milligrams of caffeine, which Vores ?l suspects should counter the drowsiness-inducing effects of the 6 percent alcohol level.
Open source Beer with a guaran additive?!? (think Bawls with Vodka?) After Aug 2nd (end of mes del agua) I am all over this.
Wired News: Free Beer for Geeks
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(Friday, July 15)
Stealing Osama's Identity
Security, the TSA, and the No-Fly List You would think that our National Security apparatus would be like the TV series '24', with the most ingenious and sophisticated technology available. You would be wrong. Disclaimer: TSA is not an intelligent intelligence agency. Here's a blurb from the resume of the designer(Kenneth Mack) of the application the airline industry uses for *PDF* managing their employee data and the cross-checking them with the no-fly list:
- Sr. Developer: Developed a program [for Goddard Technologies] that uses the 'No-Fly List' Excel spreadsheet, provided by the FAA and the database of badged employees to permute the name combinations. It takes into consideration multiple first and middle names, with Soundex and the various 'initial' combinations. This program reduced the time for comparison from 3 days to 10 minutes.
The scary yet interesting part of all of this is that the No-Fly List is nothing more than a password-protected spreadsheet (see this PDF). One would guess our Government's geeks would know that it's a bad idea to send email attachments containing social security numbers and dates of birth, unencrypted, over the internets, even if they might be terrorists.
Can anyone verify this?
How scary is this if true? Check out full article from metafilter.
Stealing Osama's Identity | MetaFilter
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