04 Mar 2003
This great summary of M$’s current actions, written from the perspective of a small biz consultant (found via /.), has some great little snippets. On billg’s mug shot:
The smiling Bill Gates mug shot from 1977 exemplifies this attitude. Microsoft claims it was for a traffic violation, but the laws of New Mexico say otherwise - mug shots are reserved for more serious offenses. What was the offense? Microsoft’s money has caused that to vanish from the record. As long as money buys “justice” Microsoft will respect neither law nor justice.
On security:
If you have criminal intent, or antisocial tendencies, I suppose you already know what to do and are probably already doing it.
17 Feb 2003
Just found a url to this article by Clay Shirky: In-Room Chat as a Social Tool. Super intresting. I would have loved something like this at any conf. I’ve been too, but more importantly, every college/high school class I was ever in. I have a idea that I might get to go to PNG and give some classes on Linux. I would really like to take this idea with me, but I have doubts that every student will have a pc.
17 Feb 2003
In this interview with Guido van Rossum he mentioned his declining intresting in Python multimedia stuff in the std lib. I think this is a pity. I could really do with a standard way to output audio in all platforms (libao doesn’t cut it, it’s GPL). Also I would love a standard API for reading, seeking and getting metadata out of audio files.
#python
17 Feb 2003
… read this! It’s really long, but really worth it.
Adults can’t avoid seeing that teenage kids are tormented. So why don’t they do something about it? Because they blame it on puberty. The reason kids are so unhappy, adults tell themselves, is that monstrous new chemicals, hormones, are now coursing through their bloodstream and messing up everything. There’s nothing wrong with the system; it’s just inevitable that kids will be miserable at that age. This idea is so pervasive that even the kids believe it, which probably doesn’t help. Someone who thinks his feet naturally hurt is not going to stop to consider the possibility that he is wearing the wrong size shoes. I’m suspicious of this theory that thirteen year old kids are intrinsically messed up. If it’s physiological, it should be universal. Are Mongol nomads all nihilists at thirteen? I’ve read a lot of history, and I don’t think I’ve seen a single reference to this supposedly universal fact before the twentieth century. Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance seem to have been cheerful and eager. They got in fights and played tricks on one another of course (Michelangelo had his nose broken by a bully), but they weren’t crazy.
14 Feb 2003
“If you don’t go looking for trouble, it follows you around and bites you on the ass.”