 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
 |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
(Friday, April 20)
(slash)Google Rant On
Since Google announced plans to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion last week, privacy advocates have expressed growing concern over the mountain of data Google's would hold following the deal. The largest search engine in the United States, Google fielded as many as 3.5 billion search queries last month, and it regularly stores that data. (It recently said it would begin to get rid of those records after 18 to 24 months.)
The company also collects and stores data on a range of other services, including user's schedules on Google Calendar, address information from Google Maps and e-mail documents from Gmail. By acquiring DoubleClick--the country's largest advertising network, with a reach of about 80 percent to 85 percent of the Web population--Google would have access to a database of user's surfing habits across hundreds of sites, including DoubleClick customers such as Time Warner's AOL and Viacom's MTV Networks.
The public-interest groups contend that by holding all of that data, Google is vulnerable to security breaches and surveillance by law enforcements in the United States and abroad. They say people's right to privacy could be severely diminished.
Among other requests, the groups ask that the FTC order Google to create a "meaningful data destruction policy" and give users reasonable access to information stored about them.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: I am not necessarily scared of google having a massive amount of data on me as long as they reciprocate the deal with providing me free services, and more targeted relevant advertising. What I am scared of is a 3rd party having access to a mass amount of data on Americans (be that the gov't, hackers, etc).
I have a feeling these discussions will be a lot more public with this acquisition on the line, and maybe the general Google consumer (even though it is free, we are still consumers) will sit down and realize how much Google knows about them (their schedule, what they search for, how they search for it (mobile at the office, etc) where geographically they search for it (again mobile but in the near-future), what they are working on at work, and if all goes planned, what they were listening to when they heard the ad or what they were watching, and the place in which they bought something etc.
But don't get me wrong, Yahoo and MSN Search would be doing the same thing if they were this big. Only problem is that they are not and won't be any time soon.
Google draws privacy complaint to FTC | CNET News.comLabels: google, privacy
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
Feist - The Reminder
I CANNOT GET "I feel it all" OUT OF MY HEAD. Period. Great album, angelic voice. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worse Nightmare
No Sophomore slump here. Just as good (if not better) than Whatever they Say. |
|
|
|
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.. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
|
|
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. |
|
| |
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 |
|
| |
 |
|
|
|
