From Kevin Gamble:
There is a lot more to building and supporting communities than installing software.
Amen to that.
Dear Facebook,
What James said
Hotel California is particularly appropo I thought.
You lose nothing implementing feeds and an OpenID consumer - and you gain a lot. You’ve already shown you had a modicum of sense - but going only part way doesn’t cut it.
Now get with the program.
p.s. This will also be my last [...]
…And on this Memorial Day, I offer my deep gratitude to these American men and women. Those that went to war in noble pursuit when America called. Those that gave their service and their lives that I might have life and freedom and have it to the full.
To each and every one of these American [...]
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Posted 27 May 2007
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From Terry Chay:
Be honest about the consequences of your actions: whether it is the programming language you choose, a framework/no-framework you adopt, a design pattern you apply, or the choice to simply download someone else’s application and install it. Choose wisely. A lack of self-reflection leads to a poor choice and spells disaster.
I soooo wish [...]
I’m in complete agreement with The Dinner Table Rule
From Christopher Blizzard:
Learning requires the transparency that free and open source software provides.
People - and companies - that don’t get this have some learning to do. People - and companies - that purposefully fight against this idea aren’t just ignorant and ill-informed. They are corrupt.
Two things that I’m exceedingly thankful and happy for:
I don’t have to manage Microsoft Windows systems and I don’t have to write Java.
… and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
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Posted 14 May 2007
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So for the first time that I can recall - I actually wanted to listen to an audio clip of an interview at NPR. You see, I like my web in text. But I do typically like NPR and wanted to hear Scott Simon interview Andy Griffith
But NPR, while they apparently get the [...]
Young’s Law:
“Every stop-gap becomes a permanent feature in applications written in University environments.”
corollary(a):
“Every internal application eventually becomes an external application, with no additional design or resources granted to make it so.”
corollary(b):
“All external application users will eventually complain about the design quality of the given application and wonder why on earth such an application was ever [...]
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Posted 13 April 2007
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Episode moved to its new home at conversationswithplasticdinosaurs.com
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Posted 21 March 2007
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Also tagged: CWPD, ruby
Ars Technica: University of Wisconsin Decides Not to Pass Along RIAA Settlement letters (also at recording industry vs. the people)
“These settlement letters are an attempt to short circuit the legal process to rely on universities to be their legal agent,” Brent Rust, communications manager for the school’s Division of Information Technology
FANTASTIC!
Euan Semple (via James)
making a wiki look like a web page doesn’t make it easy, it makes it confusing
bonus quote:
simple meant prioritizing the things that they thought were important which would almost certainly make it harder for everyone else.
ooooh, and one more bonus quote:
Expecting people to make a little bit of effort isn’t always a [...]
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Posted 11 March 2007
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From a comment on Scott Adams’ blog:
Any democracy without a sense of humor is not a democracy.
I think that’s my litmus test for any functioning government (or perhaps even down to organizations), can its people make fun of it without repercussion?
The post approved by a beaming Harry S. Truman holding up a Chicago Tribune.
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Posted 08 March 2007
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In one of my management-oriented software classes in college - I studied under a prof that was a pretty big fan of TQM - so I spent a lot of time in the class dealing with the terms “Hoshin” (or Hoshin Kanri) and “Kaizen”
While I still have a fairly healthy respect for some of the [...]
from Rogers Cadenhead:
There aren’t many situations in life where an anonymous mob of people, working in an atmosphere allergic to the concept of personal accountability, is relied upon to achieve a societal good.
I think you could even replace anonymous mob with just group and it still works.
This whole Essjay thing with Wikipedia had been fascinating. [...]
So I came into the office today to find this on my voice mail:
To Review Your Message, Press One (mp3)
Transcript:
Hi,
This message is for Mr. Jason Young. Hi Mr. Young, my name is Colleen Sullivan. I’m with Congressman Tom Cole in the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington. We would like to recognize [...]
My wife’s IM status message last week - which is completely applicable to my own job in so many ways.
It’s like trying to duct-tape Jell-O to the wall
There’s some controversy about whether that’s supposed to be “nailing Jell-O to the wall” - but duct tape is obviously far more appropriate.
Peter Lacey’s 2nd Law of Computing:
Whenever the word ontology is used in a technical context, what is being promoted is likely of limited practical value.
Ain’t that the truth.
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Posted 22 February 2007
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So, if a work created by an officer or employee of the United States Government that’s part of the person’s official duties (see also Cornell Law) - is Public Domain…
Then why on earth isn’t it the same for officers and employees of states, and state and federal funded institutions that are created as part [...]
You know, it wasn’t until I started this job and had more interaction with folks that didn’t have a University background that I came to really understand that there was any kind of us vs. them perception between developers and system administrators.
In the University, it’s typically “support staff” vs. “systems staff” - and “systems [...]
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Posted 26 January 2007
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Also tagged: sysadmin
