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cyber-2006-unrated

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early 2006 a probable date

If you are going to post something that has a link to the original author, why not just post the original instead of someone's copy?

Microsoft hates it's own products? Who knew?

this looks interesting, but it's already aired, and it's not like there's streaming video, so what's the point?

I have nothing but good things to say about Dell Tech Support. Many a time I've called in a faulty part and had the replacement at the front door in two days with a box to ship the old one back. First class service if you ask me.

And by "Microsoft" you mean 4 employees out of 60,000 or so...

This is exactly the same behavior as the very early lisp dialects: they had dynamic scoping in the interpreter and lexical scoping in the interpreter. I wonder if they knew about the history, or not?

Because this one is different and I like it better. Here's your sign.

ok

I'm looking forward to the reaction from the ID crowd if this succeeds.

I hope not. I'm not politically motivated, but it annoys me that the world seems less safe now than it did 5 years ago. We have not helped anything by the way we have behaved and have created enemies with people who previously didn't sway strongly either way

The opinionnaire doesn't appear to ask you to write your name on it, and as talking points or thinking points they are quite good, but English does seem an odd choice of class.

awesome.

But Caucho means that a 0.0.1-step update breaks all your code and you can't see anything about the changes in the Changelog. Much fun!

If money isn't making anyone happy I will gladly accept your money in my paypal account.

Great fonts

My interpretation of the article was more that the singleton pattern is used as a crutch by many programmers to be able to claim that they "understand" object oriented programming and design patterns. This is something I have seen many times myself when interviewing people, and also in a lot of code where the singleton pattern is, as the article describes, very often used in places where it is completely unnecessary. It's not that the singleton pattern is stupid per se, but that it has become the most obvious symbol of how people misunderstand and misuse design patterns in general.

Lush could be wonderful, but it's not. I used it for an actual application several months ago. It is almost completely undocumented. I was very sad when I found this out; it really has a lot of potential.

Some points are interesting, others are definitely nonsense. In the end, I don't think it's worth reading.

typical stupid, vapid "end of the year, no news to report" story. i wish there was a tag for these things that i could assiduously avoid. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

must read

now that was funny.

superficial and it crashed my browser.

This seems to be of limited use. I would want to search the description/comments/documentation of the source, not the source itself.

Amartya Sen's [Development as Freedom](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385720270/qid=1136132459/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-5529811-0612100?n=507846&s=books&v=glance) takes this idea and applies it to developing countries. Great book.

On the surface, this looks like good design. There's some interesting animation, good use of colour, and so on. Dig deeper, and it's way off. It's wasteful, incompatible (Flash), and ignorant of its web context. This is a cute interface for a stand-alone product, but on the web it's just poor design.

When you work at home it's important to set boundaries for other people (and creatures). You should probably have a door that closes, and you definitely need the will to use it. I agree that others may be more likely to make demands on the home-worker's time, but it's up to the home-worker to train them. The examples in the article are lame, because it seems like the home-workers haven't done this. What's with the guy driving his neighbour to the airport? He should ask her for her work number. On a random day the next week, he should phone her at work, and ask her to pick him up some groceries. Click. Understanding.

Another great hack for getting around the magnetic force field (and this is one of those "tricking yourself" hacks) is to tell yourself, "ok, i'm going to work on this for 15 minutes. I can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes." Gather what you need, set a timer for 15 minutes, and begin. Chances are, when the timer goes off you'll have overcome the force field, engaged with the project, and be ready to keep working. If not, schedule another 15 minute session for later--another way of breaking down the task.

Well done, Paul. I have been reading your stuff for about a year and totally enjoy it. You really have a knack for identifying the heart of the issue and are skilled at finding good analogies for explaining it all. Thanks for the inspiration. - john

I like it, and have rewritten it to [use Dojo](http://www.alper.nl/blog/tech/72).

All of them are good points except 7,8,9 which are filler of a sort.

Calling this a synthetic life form is a reach. They're just manipulating genetics, but using scary new tech instead of breeding.

Such a quaint mythology.

wouldn't a better name for the article have been "Programmers considered stupid" instead then? I have no idea what kind of people he's trying to attract to work for Amazon, perhaps it's dumb programmers who acknowledge that they're dumb and don't use powerful tools because of it. C++ and Singleton are elegant and powerful when used well: anyone worth hiring will rightly get pissed off by this essay.

Wow, there's a lot of cool stuff linked from that page. Heavy on the CSS, though.

It's common sense, dickhead. Also, do you see ANY rules anywhere? Does that mean there are none?

Perhaps you should read the article, or take a logic class. There is no explanation. There's the statement > Russians, on the other hand, do everything to stay sober while drinking as much alcohol as possible. Then, it goes on to say how they do it. My question stands.

There are alcoholic drinks that are good tasting. There are certain wines that I'd drink more of if they had 0% alcohol.

Everything written in this article is true, and then some. Note that it mostly applies to those with wives and children. The key to effectively working at home seems to be a combination of two things: a highly disciplined worker, and an isolated, usable work area. I think the latter is the most important and even applies to the office. If you can't work for sensible periods of time without interruptions, your effectiveness drops to nil.

"Similarly, movies take forever to download and come out looking pretty shite for the most part." Actually, they generally look fantastic, and take only about one night to download. At least that's what my ... friend ... tells me.

Looks like the author buys into Web 2.0. Also, sIFR belongs on the list of "Websites I Hope To God Everyone Ignored in 2005". see http://aasted.org/adblock/viewtopic.php?t=1687

The reason the music industry is loosing money is because they focus to much on disposable music. They find the front men (or women)to sing, get some music made by people who know only how to make music that is the sound of the "moment". Everyone knows their role, band member just do what their told to. Then this shit gets heavily marketed and people buy it, but buying audience is small and this stuff only gets brought while it is in fashion. Compare that to music that gets to where it is through talent and passion. When I hear a marketed band singer singing about, say loss, It just can't reach me because it's not true and is sung without meaning. Compared that to a real band where it's the singers real experience. Music like this can continue to sell for decades and by all generations. If the music industry want there sales to go up they should go to the clubs and do talent spotting like they used to and not by people who think what will sell but who think what sounds good and more to the point what *feels* good.

Good god! We're running out of money, so the Bush administrations suggests that we... raise the debt limit!!! Incidentally, this article isn't available on the US edition of Yahoo! News. Only on international versions. That's interesting.

This is a bad idea, why traslate word by word rather than evaluating expressions?

*sniff* My old web server is finally going away.

Very wise.... And offcourse it's good thing to use humengous amount of money to war :P

I found this quite moving. Thankfully, it seems that in 1996, he had found a girlfriend: From http://www.pacificnews.org/marko/961001-kevorkian.html "I live in a pleasant new apartment in Berkeley, California ... I have tons of books, an alarming collection of cassettes and CD's, a girlfriend."

Thanks for that link - had never heard of Richard Hamming but what he says in amazingly interesting (actually so is the Paul Graham site). Thanks

25 web sites you shouldn't have missed if you're a web designer -- but not everybody is a web designer so ...

database seems to have broken...

This happens quite often, actually. The statutory debt limit is just an artificial ceiling imposed by Congress, which only gives allows the treasury to take on a certain amount of debt. But rather than restrict spending to stay below the debt limit, Congress just raises the debt ceiling when needed. Congress has raised it in 2002, 2003 and 2004. See http://www.the-privateer.com/usdebt/usdebt.html and http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=4015 for more info.

I read every single post on Polyphasic sleeping and thought it was very interesting... I don't see there being any issue this being up the top in reddit.

Google Search Quality Engineer, goes into details with Examples of Websites BANNED because of getting caught using Stategies that are disapproved of by Google. The outspoken, learned Readers Chime in to make this one of the most memorable posts for any Webmaster to bookmark for future reference.

Not only that, but they better have damn fast load time! I like having the option of opening a image in it's own window, then I don't have to wait for the original page to reload, I can just click the image closed. Most websites load kind of slow as it is, and I have little patience for gimmicky crap that does nothing but waste time.

Has Bush actually done anything positive? What's so wonderful about living in a police state? There was a study a couple months ago saying that the average citizen is 360 times more likely to die in an auto accident than killed by a terrorist. Should we have a War on Cars? Quit letting FEAR shortcut your ability to reason.

Because murder happens frequently, murder is okay.

Life is so much easier when you can look at things in black and white, isn't it? This is evil, and this isn't. End of story. Makes you wonder why people invest so much effort into that silly thing called "thinking".

Too bad the people who should read it don't read it.

Good to know, thanks rsheridan! However, our elected officals do have a record of deliberately misleading the public on occasion, so . . .

Not sure what is meant by "marked down". I was wondering if this story was going to be noticed, glad someone posted it. What's wrong with being a conspiracy nut? The gullible never realize they've been robbed, because they think no one would ever do such a thing.

This blog entry makes some very good points.

I'm not a web designer, but I have a website. I've already used some of the ideas there to spiff it up.

So why do people insist on making the situation worse by having 2+ kids? Because the Flying Spagetti Monster told them to be fruitful and multiply! Where exactly does it say in the bible to leave your brain at the door?

Just look at these Photos, sometimes a picture tells so much about someone's potential, in their unguarded youth. Can you see how these individuals would become so successful in life - look closely at their eyes and their smiles.

Open the PDF, then follow along with the MP3.

Yep, it's prostitution. A victimless crime if ever there was one. Jesus was able to forgive them, you should too. Yes, it's a touching story because of his disabilities, and yes, if it was about somebody with other problems it would probably be just as touching (and not just in the literal sense). Btw, if you _really_ "don't want to hear those intimate details", then why did you click the link? Perhaps, the next story will be about your experience with a prostitute, and how it opened your eyes, and your heart. I look forward to it.

Good article, nice pictures. Misleading title, though. I expected it to go more in depth about the pre-80's Microsoft.

Yes, but it's BENEVOLENT prostitution.

British oncologists have developed a revolutionary prototype for a dust-speck sized device that can detect cancer in seconds.

AquaMinds is developing a breakthrough collaboration tool - allowing (as of now) up to 36 people the ability to simultaneously view and edit a text document.

The accountants, pharmacists, and engineers tell me the economy is just fine. The massage therapists, store clerks, and delivery folks tell me they're starting to worry how many extra part-time jobs it'll take to keep food on the table.

misses the main thing JS was saying, which is that education in harder concepts make it easier to tell whether someone is bright.

I think that people who work at home have more control over their environment. Like HiggsBoson says, you need to train the people sharing the same house as you. Have you tried doing that to your boss or co-workers at work? It won't work unless you can fire them. Still I would rather be interrupted by my child than my boss coming in every 5 minutes to share his next idiot idea. You can also control the noise level around you. At the office I share the floor with 50 loud people and ringing phones. I'd much rather be at home listening to my stereo. Another thing I would like (yes I don't work from home yet), is the ability to manage my own time. If I have something important to do, no problem, work 16 hours as long as I get paid to do so. But if I can't do anything because I'm waiting for others, I'd rather be able to go and do my laundry than sit around twiddling thumbs while others take smoke breaks and waste away time.

The surrogate was married, too. You forgot 'adultery'. He probably didn't honor his mother and father, either. Tool. (Hey, people modding me down, I am not defending the original poster ... it's called irony ...)

WWJD?

Yeah, one of my favourite sites on the web. Just brilliant

With all the discussion on lisp and the parallel to java. I say introduce them both in the same application. Here is an application on using ABCL and the standard java libraries. I could also suggest using jython.

I thought this article was complete rubbish. I didn't get the feeling the guy knows the first thing about programming, and he only provided extremely vague refutations of what Paul Graham had to say. Nothing concrete, nothing specific. The main point the author focuses on is the superficial differences between painting and programming (one of them is manipulating electronic bits and the other is putting oil on a canvas with a stick and animal hair). From that he concludes the two things are totally and utterly different from each other. Clearly this guy is not a real programmer, or probably even a good programmer for that matter. I am sure that many, or even most programmers are not artists, but that isn't who Paul Graham writes about. He writes about the great programmers, the ones who write code that reads like poetry, or unfolds like great art. There are also plenty of programmers who can make you cry just by looking at their code, but that's a different kind of programmer entirely. Personally I thought this article was stupid and filled with the kind of nonsence that he accused Paul Graham of perpetrating. He complains that Paul Graham, Eric Raymond, and Dave Winer write about things they see in themselves and call that greatness. Apparently this author writes about the shortcomings and failures he projects from himself onto other people. Moron.

I guess that you missed his main points. True, "Java Kids" can do all kinds of things. However, learning "pointers" and "recursion" makes one a *better*, *much better*, programmer. Without looking into C/pointer and Lisp/recursion, "Java-only kids" do not know what they have missed. That's the point! It's a pitty that many people don't get it.

An amusingly ironic response. When the ACLU stands up for something you disagree with, they're showing their true colors -- but when they stand up for something you agree with, those are just cleverly designed PR events to further the conspiracy. But I'm the one being gullible.

You know what? I could sit here and argue with you, but it would be a bad investment of my time. Here's what I'm going to do instead: I'm going to remind you that every word in that article was typed using a freaking *mouthstick* by a man who cannot move anything below his neck. So who the *fuck* cares if he paid money for sex? Moreover, you do see things in black and white, and just because you say you don't doesn't mean it's true. It's all talk, no walk. The only argument you have against prostitution is STDs, which obviously doesn't apply in this case. Thus you have NO logical argument against prostitution in this case, thus your objection stems from black-and-white, binary, low-level thinking, and thus, in conclusion, therefore, ergo, accordingly, _you are a wanker_. Good day!

You really should! It's a lot of fun.

Oh...right...like the time he raised a man who had been dead for 3 days? Come on...you may have your theories, but this article tries to say, "Jesus w as almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month." If you actually studied the scriptural texts, I have no clue how you come up with these theories even if you look at it from a secular point of view. Again, I don't care how much your drench a dead body with cannabis, it sure as hell ain't coming back to life. Either the stories are made up or they are real. An explanation like "cannabis" really doesn't cut it. As a matter of fact, the only reference of annointing oils in the New Testament was when a prostitute put them on Christ's feet. Many of the instances of healing in the NT were spontaneous and mention nothing about any oils. For example, a woman who has a menstrual problem touches Christ and is healed. Christ turns around and asks who touched him because "I felt power go out from me". There is no mention that Christ turned around and put oils on the woman. She was the one who touched him. I imagine this will get promoted purely due to how much people like to read controversial stuff, no matter how far it is from the truth. I wish the 'scholars' involved in this study did a better job of reading the texts.

after the Sony rootkit, and now seeing this, I am NEVER buying music again, at least in CD form.

Like what?

> A victimless crime if ever there was one There's plenty of victims. The actual prostitue is often a victim. Then the spouse of the client.. etc

If you hold shift down while you insert these CDs into Windows then autoplay doesn't run, the "protection" software doesn't run, and the computer sees the disc as a normal audio CD which you can do whatever you want with. Note that you should hold shift down for a good few seconds after you insert the CD, say 30 seconds.

I make my stand by not buying CDs that are marked "Copy Protected".

The power of blogs.

Not a bad article. There is some business-school garbage in the final two paragraphs, but otherwise interesting. The IBM/MS relationship is confusing but not interesting enough to figure out.

Would I want one of these photos hanging in my office? No. Do I take any aesthetic pleasure in looking at these pictures? No. Am I impressed by the artist's talent? Yes. Am I fascinated by diners and ketchup bottles? No.

I never realized what a good speaker he once was. I possibly would have considered him to be a viable choice for my vote if he had expressed his ideas so clearly.

if i didn't hate their music so much i'd hop on soulseek and pirate some of their (shitty) music right now, just to spite them.

nothing new.Just adds some more details but more or less regular stuff.Also it seems like this article was written in 1993. What about Netscape/IE battle?

You could also pay someone, like a cleaner, or gardener.

Another great article from the team at Polosbastards. Keep em coming........ ;-))

It seems that Mr. Goings has spent the last 30 years of his life at eating donuts and staring at table settings at his local greasy spoon. The pictures give me a feeling of bleak loneliness. Besides, if you're going to spend 30 years copying photographs with a paintbrush, couldn't you at least learn to take better photographs?

The author's paintings are very beautiful. Paul Graham's Lisp books are great. But just because artists and scientists create things does not mean that art is like science which is the author's point. Good programmers are computer scientists so I would argue that programming is (or most likely should be) science. Emotions are to art what logic is to science. Emotions and logic contradict big time. What I have written here has nothing to do with art because it is all logical.

Joel Spolsky bores me. Pleased to find that someone else agrees. I find his stuff crap a lot of the time and frankly his company and software isn't that great.

No, because he's not saying programmers are stupid, or even that programmers that use the singleton are stupid. He's saying that there are a substantial number of programmers who think they know good object oriented design practice just because they know what the singleton pattern is, even though they often don't understand when it should be used, and more importantly when it should NOT be used. I completely agree that the singleton pattern is elegant and powerful when used well, but the cases where it is used well are rare in comparison to the number of people who use it blindly without really understanding the underlying concepts.