Categories
Life

Martin Fowler on SOPA

Martin Fowler: “Our third problem is the very poor information given in the congressional proceedings we saw late in 2011. There were no witnesses who could talk sensibly on the engineering issues that we mentioned above, which is particularly important given the lack of engineering knowledge in congress. We don’t expect members of congress to understand software engineering issues, but we do expect them to listen to those that do. In general the proceedings seemed very tilted towards the supporters of these bills, which didn’t provide much opportunity for opponents to state their concerns.”

Scary.

Categories
MLOTW

Movie line of the week answer

Good morning! We have a winner!

Congratulations, once again, to Mr. Wesley Minto.

The correct answer was…

Sling Blade

Categories
Business

Twitter, Pot, Kettle

Dave Winer: “It’s not news, and certainly not surprising. And it’s not surprising either that Twitter is upset, but what is surprising is the sheer chutzpah of Twitter complaining about Google shutting them out after Twitter unilaterally reversed course and put most of their developer community out of business when they announced they wanted to completely own the Twitter client business.”

It seems like we’re headed for a bunch of walled gardens. Facebook is already a walled garden and moves like this seem to indicate these guys are desperate for eyeballs. Captive eyeballs. Let’s just keep making the Internet more and more proprietary! Yay!

Oh, don’t worry, SOPA will be the real nail in the coffin of the Internet.

Categories
MLOTW

Movie line of the week

Watchin' it on the big screen!Good morning!

Let’s get to it.

I like them French fried potaters.

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

Categories
Life

A Pathetic America

New York Times: “ON Wednesday, America’s detention camp at Guantánamo Bay will have been open for 10 years. For seven of them, I was held there without explanation or charge. During that time my daughters grew up without me. They were toddlers when I was imprisoned, and were never allowed to visit or speak to me by phone. Most of their letters were returned as “undeliverable,” and the few that I received were so thoroughly and thoughtlessly censored that their messages of love and support were lost.”

America has definitely lost her way.

Categories
MLOTW

Movie line of the week answer

Good morning! We have a winner.

Congratulations to Mr. Wesley Minto.

The correct answer was…

Sherlock Holmes

See you next Thursday.

Categories
MLOTW

Movie line of the week

Hot buttered popcorn and a movie, ahhh!Good morning! Here’s the line, good luck!

Head cocked to the left, partial deafness in ear: first point of attack. Two: throat; paralyze vocal chords, stop scream. Three: got to be a heavy drinker, floating rib to the liver. Four: finally, drag in left leg, fist to patella. Summary prognosis: unconscious in ninety seconds, martial efficacy quarter of an hour at best. Full faculty recovery: unlikely.

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

Categories
Life

No, not in America?

The New Civil Rights Movement:“People die in America because people die in America. And people make poor decisions with respect to their health and their healthcare. And they don’t go to the emergency room or they don’t go to the doctor when they need to,” he said. “And it’s not the fault of the government for not providing some sort of universal benefit.”

Wow, Rick Santorum, you sir, are out of touch. Come down off the mountain and be with the people for a while. Oh, and while you’re at it bring the President and the rest of Congress.

Categories
fun

Random Links

Watch out! It's a blog fly!Lamebook – Funny stuff on Facebook.

Parents Shouldn’t Text – The title says it all.

PayPal, idiots – Heartbreaking article about a stupid PayPal policy.

Eubonicode++ – Funny programming language, by Tom Distler.

Motivational Poster: Programming – Another Tom Distler creation.

Categories
Design

They have a design team?

Inc.: “They’re not the only ones. Unsurprisingly, Facebook (where Cox started her career as a product design lead) has been running its design team in the same way for years. Unlike most software companies where day-to-day and detailed product decisions are made by product managers with business backgrounds, Mark Zuckerberg’s design team is his imperial guard. They work closer to him than any other discipline in the company.”

Based on the giant disaster that is the Facebook UI I thought it was all engineering driven. I’m really surprised to find they have a “design team.”

Maybe this is why they’ve gone on a buying spree. They’re trying to get design talent through acquisition.