I’d rather someone love me or hate me than be indifferent

Posted on July 27, 2008 by Karl

That belief is reinforced by Shelley Power’s thoughts on getting negative book reviews.

Sad News

Posted on July 27, 2008 by Karl

Every day so many of us struggle with what we consider ‘fair’ or right in the world. Randy Pausch shows us that being consumed by that question can be a distraction from what is truly important – to live our lives to the fullest no matter the cards we are dealt.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Randy Pausch, noted CMU prof, succumbs to cancer.

His work has touched the lives of many, his “Last Lecture” has inspired people around the world.

Eight web development and programming links for today

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Karl

Ted Dziuba – I’m Going To Scale My Foot Up Your Ass (via Comcaster Mr. Mat Schaffer): “If You Haven’t Discussed Capacity Planning, You Can’t Discuss Scalability” (Bingo!)

High Scalability: Flickr Architecture

Gustavo Duarte – Lucky to be a Programmer: “This analytical side is what most people associate with programming. It does make it interesting, like a complex strategy game. But in most software the primary challenge is communication: with fellow programmers via code and with users via interfaces. By and large, writing code is more essay than puzzle. It is shaping your ideas and schemes into a coherent body; it is seeking clarity, simplicity and conciseness. Both code and interfaces abound with the simple joy of creation.”

TechCrunchIT: : “Geeks and enthusiasts wearing WordPress t-shirts, using laptops covered in Data Portability, Microformats and RSS stickers lined up enthusiastically on Friday to purchase a device that is completely proprietary, controlled and wrapped in DRM.”

Shelley Powers: Painting the Web now DRM Free and on Kindle (Congrats!)

Spartan Programming: SendAnEmail case study (print it out!)

Official Google Blog: Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning

BitWorking: Python isn’t just Java without the compile

It’s important to speak out

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Karl

louisgray.com: Seeing The Web’s Racist Underbelly Is Saddening and Shocking

Why does everything suck?: Does Anonymity Lead To Social Anarchy?

Sexism Runs Rampant on Reddit (and maybe the rest of the social web)

Wha, that last link threw you a bit? Why is that? Is it that we are more comfortable confronting racism then sexism? And has the Presidential campaign reflected that? Why?

How we go about fighting racism and sexism, while protecting free speech is confusing territory.

I figure the best way is by speaking out loudly, and clearly.

PS – Make a donation to the Thomas Jefferson Center for free speech in George Carlin’s name.

Favorite Super heroes?

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Karl

Empire has a feature sharing their choice for the Civil War crossover that took place in Marvel comics over 2006 and 2007. It’s weird, but back when I was a teen, there was no way I’d ever claim to be a fan of Captain America. But as an an adult, I recognize now that his character didn’t represent the blind patriotism I thought it did – far from it in fact.

Here is a related story at NPR.

Now some choices from Empire’s top 50

(But first note, no Superman, sorry Oliver. All powerful super heroes that aren’t the least bit flawed in some way, never really interested me all that much. The funny thing is Supes used to be the template for super-heroes in comics – now he’s the exception – which is making him more interesting to me now)

What does it mean when our media re-writes itself?

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Karl

Boing Boing decided to un-publish, remove from public view, Violet Blue related posts.

What does it mean when our media rewrites itself?

NYTimes: Link by Link – Poof! You’re Unpublished

Boing Boing on the matter.

Violet Blue (NSFW) on the matter.

There are quite a few fellow bloggers who have linked and commented about this – but without more info, it is just conjecture and I don’t wish to add to any of it.

However, I do want to stress the importance of the de-linking – note that the first two pages of Google search results on this subject don’t point to Violet Blue what so ever. You would think they would, but they don’t.

As Rafe states – links are currency on the Web. When we reach a certain level of influence, we’ve earned a responsibility, whether we want to own up to it or not. When we don’t live up to that responsibility, we lose credibility.

Boing Boing, in my book, has lost some.

Jeff Jarvis: Media is Singular (about time folks come around to this)

Politico: Media hype: How small stories become big news (what happens when new media take on old media mores or old media takes on new media mores or… well.. see above)