December 2012
1 post
Retreat.
As a new experiment, I am taking January off from all social media. No Twitter, no Facebook, no G+.
And this, too, although given the paucity of posts, that would not actually be noticeable as a “break.”
Those familiar with my situation will know that the past few weeks have been a pretty intense time. I did great damage to a loved one, and the consequences have substantial.
In...
August 2012
1 post
June 2012
1 post
HBO Online
Brilliant idea: Take My Money HBO — and very popular. But the nay sayers are coming out of the woodwork. There are a number of finance and infrastructure counterarguments, from HBO’s perspective. Ryan Lawler, on techcrunch, argues that the numbers no longer add up when you take the marketing and distribution into account, services currently off the books in the cable arrangement. Put...
May 2012
9 posts
Richard Stallman in the Doctor's Office
A few points of reference:
For some years, Richard Stallman was something of a hero to my young techie self.
After a while, however, Richard Stallman seemed at best cuckoo and at worst not very good at what he thinks he’s good at anymore.
Then I learned that Richard Stallman may well be a pedophile. If nothing else, he is on record questioning whether “voluntary pedophilia”...
3 tags
Common Sense and Theoretical Physics
There are a lot of smart crackpots out there who regularly publish refutations of relativity and quantum mechanics. There are good reasons to do so: both theories are highly counter-intuitive. There are good reasons not to do so: both theories have consistently held up under experimental scrutiny. There’s a big problem: these two theories contradict each other.
Nonetheless, they are the...
Your brain literally gets bored and starts scaring... →
mcjulie:
When I tried the image they have set up to demonstrate the Troxler effect, where the outer circle is supposed to disappear? I was literally trying to make it happen and I couldn’t seem to. I would get a hint of the fading out and then I would feel compelled to blink or shake my head or something and would go right back to seeing the outer circle.
Is this why I can never see those...
College Sucks
My friend McJulie posted a link about education. It’s an interesting article, and McJulie’s response is spot on. I started to repost it, but realized I have more to say on the subject.
Much more.
The main point is simple: University as vocational training is a new concept, and I suspect it is one that is about to make an exit. It’s simply not the right tool for the job.
...
Bug Memorials →
wscheryl:
Holy cats, this is fantastic!
Yes! I love it!
Giving Conservatives Exactly What They Want
This is B.S.
I was once a young man who thought anarchy was cool. (Until I read Ursula K. LeGuin’s marvelously nuanced The Dispossessed.) I get it that young people want to rebel, and get arrested and get photographed and generally express their (justifiable) outrage at a crazy world that makes no sense and which does not seem to welcome their input.
I just wish they understood that this...
April 2012
29 posts
Brogrammers Beware!
Must read for people in software:
This article is a riveting introduction to a new manifestation of the sexism inherent in the software development industry.
Particularly well put:
Adda Birnir … said she empathizes with a new breed of coders who are sick of the mainstream view that they are all undersocialized mouth-breathers living in their parents’ basements. “Brogrammers...
Jim C. Hines -- Posing like a man →
I love my bear It’s mine, mine, MINE
This link has been making the rounds — all over facebook too — but it’s worth it. Really great article. It’s the second in a series: in the first one he tries to take the female poses, and struggles. The point is: you may look absurd playing the man, but playing the female is anatomically impossible… for a reason. A kind of...
Ok… first of all, I apologize that you need...
Spotify on Tumblr is pissing me off
First of all, I assume that people who want to listen to tracks I post via spotify need to have spotify installed in order to play it. Secondly, the fact that some tracks I post turn out to not be listenable by contract is *extremely* annoying. At least tell me that the track is not allowed before I post the thing, dammit!
The music industry continues to make me hate it, even though I continue to...
1 tag
This is perhaps my favorite new discovery of the...
De-legitimizing Christians outside the (right... →
mcjulie:
Slacktivist (who is a normal Christian) on the topic of where the normal Christians are. In the comments it comes up again — can the church be saved? Should the church be saved?
Great questions. Personally, I am not very interested in “the Church” — but in the horror of seeing a beautiful teaching and an ancient practice that is simply based on love sullied by those...
One Useful Thing
Accomplished one useful thing today. And that makes it a very good day. Some days that’s a stretch goal.
Once upon a time it was all about writing software. Running code. Shipping code. Creating things. Fixing things. At some point, you don’t necessarily get to do that any more. You reach a point where you need to pay very close attention to make sure you are still part of the...
Hallelujah (not that one) by Boxcar Rebellion.
...
Scientific Retraction →
Another reason to take your “science news” with a grain of salt. Some portion of it is published by “administrative error.” The above link is hilarious.
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”
– Richard Feynman, The Physics Teacher Vol. 7, issue 6 (1969)
modida asked: What is dark matter?
There’s something irresistable about Super...
6 tags
Blogginess
Nothing unusual, a damp day in Seattle.
Weekend was gorgeous, that’s unusual, but Monday morning, sure enough, somewhere just the umbrella side of drizzle.
Bus. Work. Lunch. Work. Bus. The day is symmetrical.
And the renewal of some blogginess.
It’s been a while. Livejournal is still living out there somewhere, but stale. Annoying.
Tumblr, all the hip kids say. Of course, missed...
