“Amusing Ourselves to Death” a comic by Stuart McMillen

A clip of the Amusing ourselves to death comic 

Thought provoking, conversation starting, and probably controversial counting upon who you are, check out the whole single page comic.

Programming Links for May 27th, 2009

InfoQ: Bruce Eckel on Python, Java, Flex, and RIAs

O’Reilly: Dreaming of Rails as the Next Microsoft Access

It’s Only Software: 5 Minute Guide to Spring and JMX

Yet Another Java Blog: 5 Part Series: Intro to Caching,Caching algorithms and caching frameworks

Eli Bendersky: A year with Python

itzer.com: Java Kicks Ruby on Rails in the Butt

Hope you had a good Memorial Day

We spent Memorial Day Spring cleaning, Emma, Richelle, and now me, dealing with some nasty sniffles and coughs. As the day wound down, Emma’s Grandparents came by for some hamburgers and hot dogs, and I got the opportunity to tell Emma that the day was a holiday for people like her Granddad who served in the military, serving all of us.

NPR: Memorial Day Miracle At ‘The Wall’

NPR: Keeping The Memory Of World War II Veterans Alive

NPR: Memorial Day: Not Just For Barbecue

Why is it that we don’t hold our elected officials – hold ourselves – to ethical codes (if not similar then complimentary) that we honor our military for? Is it because we don’t permit ourselves to share such burden that we are, as Rafe Colburn says, losing our moral compass?

Getting rid of ‘social media’ and ‘social software’ tags here

The terms ‘social media’ and ‘social software’ may have been useful for educational purposes a few years ago when development or business leaders were not versed in the changing nature of media or online tool sets, but no longer. Both terms have long ago been appropriated by marketers. The term ‘social media expert’ means that person is a marketer. Nothing more, nothing less. And nothing against marketers.

So first, I am simply renaming all ‘social media’ and ‘social software’ tags across the site to ‘internet’. I will do the same with the site category (that requires a proper 301 redirect) hopefully later tonight.