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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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In 20 years, would you have rather been the 2007 Heisman or the 2008 First Round Draft Pick? Only One.
Me and a bunch of good friends have an email list that we have had for about 4 or 5 years now that basically contains only posts about politics, tech, brew, religion, and ncaa football (The 5 Pillars). On Nov 13th I gave my prediction about how the rest of the ncaa season would go down:
Cyan the Swammiii says:
OSU beats Mich
USC beats ND
Ark beats Fla (look at SC/UGA games)
Ark gets in BCS Vs Mich
LSU will get a BCS invite also (sympathy for hurricane) and UF will be pissed they didnt get one.
It will be OSU Vs USC, OSU by 17
Smith get Heissman and Champ Game MVP, but will not get first pick, that will go to Calvin johnson (even though Tech loses to us)
Looks like the 5th list item is starting to happen:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15969953/
I have a good feeling about Ark on Sat also. Have to wait and see.
As for CJ getting 1st round draft pick, I honestly think he will. Being a UGA grad I hate tech with a passion, but Calvin was a blast to watch last Saturday. Oliver did a hell of a job covering him, but I have never seen a receiver lay out for catches like that throw after throw (and yes, he might not have had to superman so much if Ball could have placed it better) but the guy gave 110% on every pass thrown to him Besides being a state rivalry, Tech had already secured the ACC Champ game, so I really wondered if he was going to play more conservatively to minimize the risk in him getting hurt. To be fair for someone 1st round draft bound every jump or tackle their parents hold their breath to make sure they get up and every piece is where it should be. One arm break could be worth a couple million dollars less on a contract negotiation. But Calvin gave it everything on every play. He was very impressive. I am just glad we had someone like Oliver with the skill to cover him (with the help some great free safety playing).
Also everyone is saying Peach vs VT for the dawgs. That would be nice. We usually don't go to bowl games, but peach is so close I don't know why we would not.
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(Tuesday, November 28)
Times Seeks to Bar Review of Phone Data - New York Times
"The New York Times asked the Supreme Court yesterday to bar a federal prosecutor from reviewing the phone records of two of its reporters. The records, lawyers for The Times said, would allow the government to learn the identities of many of the reporters' confidential sources.
The case arose from a Chicago grand jury's investigation into who told the two reporters, Judith Miller and Philip Shenon, about actions the government was planning to take in 2001 against two Islamic charities. The United States attorney in Chicago, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, sought the reporters' records directly from their phone companies, and The Times filed suit to stop him."
At what point is the freedom of the press completely eroded? Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt whatsoever that someone in the Gov't has already reviewed these phone records and already knows who their contacts are, but in this instance they are trying to go through all the records, which not only could give up these reporters sources (where one has gone to jail for already) but ANY sources they have ever had. How on earth can we as American's belive that ANYONE will ever come forward with ANY knowledge on ANYTHING if they can't believe that they would be an anonymous source. It is already scary that they believe they need to be anonymous, now they can't even be guaranteed that. Everyone always gives the press shit about not reporting this, or slanting that, but damn this is one of their most basic and trusted tenets is the ability to shield sources in critical articles. This would set a very very dangerous legal precedent imho and I can't believe it isn't being talked about more (esp by the press).
Times Seeks to Bar Review of Phone Data - New York Times
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(Monday, November 27)
4 More For Reggie Ball
"To: NCAA
We, the undersigned, do hereby request that the NCAA grant Reginald Lewis Ball of the Georgia Institute of Technology an additional four years of eligibility in football. We realize this is an unprecedented move for the NCAA, but consider the following:
Richie sent me this. Some of the signatures are as funny as the petition its self. #54 cracks me up just imagining the "author" of #54 actually typing that in.
Grant Reggie Ball an additional four years of eligibility Petition
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(Tuesday, November 21)
The life of a 'sisterwife'
We all live in the same house. We have a bunk-bed double on the bottom and single on the top. Husband, first wife and the "ON" wife sleep on the bottom and the other two "OFF" wives sleep above. We find this very intimate as we all are sleeping in the same bed though on different levels and we can still feel and hear what is happening when sex happens in our bed.
Hell yeah, this sounds like the beginning of a movie I once pay-per-viewed at a hotel in...
No, we don't have physical relationships between sisterwives because its not permitted in our religion. We sleep with our arms on top of our bed covers so it doesn't happen. And in any case if any wife was foolish enough to try all would feel it in our bed; a simple rule - no touching or kissing in bed or at any other time between one woman and another sisterwife and another.
Doh.. Nevermind
The life of a 'sisterwife' | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited
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Where's Jake Scott?
Scott, a star of the Dolphins' Super Bowl runs in the early 1970s, doesn't return for the perfect season reunions, didn't attend a gathering of Super Bowl Most Valuable Players last winter in Detroit, rarely surfaces in public and hadn't talked to the media since he retired from football in 1979.
But in a wide-ranging interview over two days, Scott said he hasn't worked a day in his post-football life, spends half his time in Hawaii and the other half either in his native Georgia or traveling the world. He also gave his take on several Dolphins stories.
"I'm living a great life,'' he says. "I do whatever I want."
Forget Golf. Scott has the good life.
Monkey sent me this. Great subject, great writer, very good article.
HYDE: Where's Jake Scott? We found him.: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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(Sunday, November 19)
Blue Man Group @ Gwinnett Arena 11/18
Blue Man Group
Originally uploaded by 1337Minx.
We went and saw the Blue Man group last night at Gwinnett Arena. I was pretty pumped because a.) never seen Blue Man group live and have only heard good things, b.) never heard a concert at Gwinnett Arena and heard it was a great venue, c.) its been a long week at work and they serve beer,
I found out that
In relation to a.) you can't say enough about this show (Although it could be called a concert in its own right, I think it of it more of a sensory show). Go see it. Easily worth the price, my parents saw them in Vegas a few years back and I am sure if they had more time to set up other visual/audio hardware it would be even better, but still it was a very good job for a traveling show. I was very impressed.
In relation to b.) I though Gwinnett Arena's acoustics were only on par with other places. We sat on about the 10th row from the bottom on the opposite side of the stage and although I think BMG was a little loud, the accoustics really were not all that supurb as I had heard people say abut it.
In relation to c.) the beer was good.
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(Tuesday, November 7)
HD movies, TV shows coming to Xbox Live
"On November 22, the anniversary of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft will be offering high-definition television shows and movies for download. The offerings span a large demographic, from CBS and Nascar to Adult Swim and MTV (yes, 'Pimp My Ride' will be included). Movies include, Nacho Libre, Superman Returns, and the original Jackass: The Movie. The TV shows will be download to own, while the movies will only be rentals."
I love Netflix and have no problem wtih DVD quality movies currently. Yes HD does look better but it isn't going to make me upgrade my equipment and dvds to HD/Blue Ray. The #1 reason I won't is the HDCP, I still like having a DVD in my hand and acting like a Ninja wanting to throw it at something. During last week's Xbox Live upgrade I noticed the media section had changed, so I figured this was inevitable (although I figured it would only be music/tv shows at first). This seems to be their first step with the Zune tie ins for the x360, i assume that Urge will be coming to the x360 soon also (which is a good thing because we pay a monthly fee for it and I would love it to come to the x360), but alas I don't think my measly 20gig x360 hard drive is gonna make it very far... OH WAIT! WHATS That you say? a 100 gig HD is on the way from MS? How convenient!!1!
Anyways, I won't be downloading and paying for any movies on my x360 anytime soon (esp with cable boxes being so nifty these day) but it is a step forward. I just hope average Joe doesn't think it is cool to pay $5-10 for a movie downloaded over an hour to his x360 which he can ONLY watch on his 360 is even comparable to just driving down the street to blockbuster and picking it up, or to Best Buy and paying $15 to OWN a copy of it.
There is this really good cartoon I saw in a guitar magazine once that had this kid with his electric guitar and all these fuzz boxes and stomp boxes and processing equipment and he is standing with all this equipment and his electric guitar and he looks at the other guy and says "Check it out dude I can make it sound like an acoustic" That pretty much sums up this announcement for me.
HD movies, TV shows coming to Xbox Live
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(Monday, November 6)
1st Official "No Skip Button on Music Player of Choice " Week
I have filled up my ipod and as I go down the list to delete stuff I can't really find anything that I want to delete. So I have decided that this entire week I am not allowed to skip any song on my ipod. Hopefully by forcing myself to listen to every song that the God awful randomizer on my ipod (seriously has to be the worse randomizer in the world) it will force me to decided if I really need that 33:42 minute version of Mountain Jam.
No skipping. At All. It should also be noted that I probably only have about 30 or 40 single songs on my ipod, the rest are entire Albums (i like to listen to the album in order) so there is totally some suckage in some of those full length albums (FOXYMOPHANDLEMAMA Anyone?), but I will not break apart albums, so even though I have to get through "One More Night" to get to my official Zuma playing theme song "Easy Lover" (ask the wife, nothing better than 3 or 4 beers, standing around in a boxers with the wireless x360 controller in hand dancing/playing zuma), it has to be done. I will report my deletion findings at the end of the week.
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Red Ale Brew Batch #1 - Bottling Phase
My first Red Ale has been bottled. I am extremely excited about this batch and hopefully will be damn good in about 4 weeks. If me and the wife were ever sold into beer bottling slavery (would that not be the best slavery you could be sold into?) then we would totally kick ass on the bottling line. We bottled 24 pints (around 48 beers) in under 30 mins, she filled, I sealed. Good times. I hope it turns out good, cause there is a lot of it.
7 Bridges Red Ale Mash-Extract Recipe
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(Thursday, November 2)
Hardware Pr0n
"We won't dwell too long on the specifics of the Core 2 Extreme QX6700. This product, which lived its early life going by the code-name Kentsfield, really is two Core 2 Duo chips mounted together on the same package. If you want to know more about the Core 2 Duo's basic technology, I suggest you read our review of that processor. Intel has used this multi-chip packaging technique in the past to create 'dual-core' processors, such as the 'Presler' Pentium D. Lashing together two separate chips rather than making one large chip makes good sense from an economic standpoint, because smaller die areas tend to make for higher yields of good chips from each wafer.
The result of this multi-chip fusion is a processor that plugs into a regular LGA775-style socket and packs four processing cores alongside a total of 8MB of L2 cache. Cosmetically, it looks for all the world like any other recent Intel desktop CPU."
There is a huge wetspot on the front of my pants.
Intel's Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor - The Tech Report - Page 1
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11Alive.com - Driver Fired for Flipping Off Bush
A school bus driver fired after she reportedly made an obscene gesture at President Bush has filed a union grievance in an attempt to get her job back.
The 43-year-old driver, whose name was not released, was driving middle school children back to school after a zoo visit on June 16 when the president and Republican Rep. Dave Reichert drove slowly by in a motorcade.
From the bus, the children waved; with the windows down in their car, Bush and Reichert waved back.
That's when the driver gave the president the finger, according to Reichert and Issaquah superintendent Janet Barry.
"The congressman hadn't seen it, but the president turned to him and said, 'That one's not a fan,"' said Reichert spokeswoman Kimberly Cadena.
Although I would have patted her on the back after she did this, I do understand the school system's point of view on it. It totally had to be worth it though for her.
When I was little we used to throw primarily grapefruit and other miscellaneous fruit out the bus windows on the way to school in the morning. I wonder if Secret Service would have blown out our bus tires, had this chance fallen in our lap (via timewarp where it was Bush and not Reagen).
11Alive.com - Driver Fired for Flipping Off Bush
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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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