While I already think the nails are in the proverbial coffin for Flash, and it’s no secret I’m happy about that, it hit me that Adobe’s see-no-evil/hear-no-evil attitude with regard to bugs is really the worst thing they could have done and they are much more their own worst enemy than Steve Jobs. Microsoft learned the hard way that they could never control how crappy some of the Windows applications we’re going to be, but that Microsoft would still get the blame if an app crashed all of Windows or other apps (or just slowed everything to a crawl [...] Continue Reading…
3 steps for the “cool” web frameworks to get a toe in the door at “enterprise-only” organizations
There was a brief mention at the web framework battle royale at sxsw (twitter: #frameworkbattleroyale ) about Java and Enterprise environments and I was reminded of an old peeve of mine: the old enterprise vs. “cool” webby frameworks battle. I don’t want to jump into either the battle or the definition of “enterprise.” For the purposes of this post I’m simply going to define “enterprise” as “acceptable to institutions that only use software described as enterprise.” Realistically, we’re really just talking about Java and .net based platforms and frameworks vs. everything else 
Which brings us to what has always [...] Continue Reading…
Followup to SCOTUS ruling, letter to congress form
A followup to last night’s rant on Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. BarackObama.com has posted a form to send a letter to your local rep. It can’t hurt…
Organizing for America | BarackObama.com | Add Your Voice.
It’s time to abandon the filibuster
The Dems aren’t the ones refusing to compromise. In fact, they’re bending over backwards to try to compromise with each other and get ANY, even one or two Republican votes. No one is budging. The stakes have gotten way too high to hold to a non-legislated procedural rule.
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission: SciFi Dystopian Disasters Set to Come True
For awhile there, it looked like all the paranoid cyberpunk fiction of the 80s and early 90s was just silly. The US had elected its first black president, we were on the verge of getting some kind of major health care reform and things were finally starting to move on reforming banking and finance.
Then came MA special election and Pelosi announcing she didn’t have the HCR votes in the House. That was bad. That was disappointing. It’s nothing compared to the unmitigated disaster that is the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling.
Since it’s not getting anywhere near the [...] Continue Reading…
Posted in Misc
Tagged campaign finance, evil, omfg evil, politics, supreme court, we are so fucked
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Idea Giveaway: How to Kill the Kindle in 4 Easy Steps, No New eReader Required
I was pretty busy today, but I was able to glance long enough at my #ces column in Tweetdeck to see lots of noise about eReaders (for the record, it’s my blog and I can refuse to use the hyphen, cause I hate hyphenated tech stuff). It struck me that all these devices are a high volume of missing-the-vote-itis (that gets hyphens, keeping up?).
The Kindle seemed like the greatest thing ever when I first got mine: “I can finally read Neal Stephenson on the subway without getting neck and should cramps!!!” However, despite being a fantastic device at its [...] Continue Reading…
The 00s in review, part 1, possibly of 1
Well, since everyone is doing lists…
Best moment
The US electing Obama.
Worst moment
Katrina. Yes, it was worse than 9/11. Sorry, it just was. 9/11 may have had a more profound impact on world events and American politics, but ultimately Katrina was a far more horrifying event. (note: I realize this is a profoundly American view. The worst moment for humanity was by far the Indonesia tsunami.)
Douche of the decade
Wow, it was a spectacular decade for douchebaggery. On the list of obvious choices you have Bush or anyone in his administration, Osama bin Laden, Brownie, credit card companies, all the neocon leadership, [...] Continue Reading…
Posted in Misc, politics, web
Tagged 00s, 2000s, blog, blogging, cloud, cloud computing, everything, flash, flash sucks, politics, web
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Google Wave Reminds Me of Microsoft
I got a Google Wave invite (thanks nick) and I am remarkably unimpressed. Essentially it’s a threaded discussion system with the ability to insert different kinds of media and it works in realtime. For one thing, this is not actually new. Calling it “wave” and making it easier to include non-textual media does not make what you are doing new or radical. Sure, Wave is trying to get us to a better kind of email collaboration and email is certainly a technology that is overdue for either some much better client-side functionality or to be retired completely (but that’s [...] Continue Reading…
Posted in web
Tagged collaboration, communication, google, google wave, internet, microsoft, office, realtime, wave, web
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Petabytes on a budget: How to build cheap cloud storage | Backblaze Blog
Backblaze built their own crazy 67TB 4U servers made up of 45 1.5TB drives configured in 3 RAID6 pods of 15 drives each. All I can say is WOW, when are they getting into selling these things? I’m thinking of this setup combined with my hope that Oracle GPLs ZFS and I’m having a home network storagasm.
Petabytes on a budget: How to build cheap cloud storage | Backblaze Blog.
How to Naturally Reset Your Sleep Cycle In One Night | Wise Bread
So this is pretty cool. Harvard Med School did a study that says that fasting during sleep deprivation helps to reset your clock (and let’s face it, Harvard Med School probably knows about sleep deprivation).
My only flaw with the suggestions is that trips are pretty much the only time I can plan to fast. The other times that I end up staying awake for a long time tend to be random, work, parties, etc…
How to Naturally Reset Your Sleep Cycle In One Night | Wise Bread.