Nicholas Avenell has recorded and linked for download a recording of his reading Shelley Power’s Mockingbird Wish. Is it all about us finding our own songs or having our voice criticized as beeing just like everone else’s? I liked this piece back when it was just a story. Have a listen to the MP3.
Irish Progressive Rock… From Philly?!?!
Give a listen to The Helots. A local band that has a unique sound along with some killer chops and songwriting.
And yes, it’s another band with a bass player I know and consider a great person. What?s up with that? Are bass players just cooler human beings or something?
The More The Distance, The Easier The Violence, Or The Flame
Mark Bernstein blamed the confusion and flamefest that occured in a particular weblog community on comment and trackback usage. He suggested turning off both and relying on weblog front pages for communication. I disagree.
Flamefests, whether in user comments or on weblog front pages, are not in the best interests of one on one communication. There is a tremendous threat to the person being communicated to of being defined by it. Weblog postings get cached, linked to, and syndicated by thousands, making one on one communication, which is already hard enough in person, to have the additional weight of thousands of on lookers and potential band waggoners.
The more personal the contact, the less likely the violence. The more remote the exchange, the easier it is and more likely, for spears to be thrown.
I prefer e-mail or voice to weblog postings for one on one communication and find those that attempt to criticize/help another person from their weblogs without attempting at least e-mail first to be suspect. If you mean to have true one on one discussion, then you got to go to the most intimate means of communication.
It’s not the tools fault. It’s the people who refuse to come a little closer to talk. Just like so many other problems in this world.
Model Rockets Don’t Kill People – People Do
Not enough hobbyists to make bones over this but I just find it sad. Model rocketry was a great hobby to have as a kid and the couple summers my brother and me could do it, well it was special.
It’s especially galling since after 9/11 all government lists ? including voter registration, immigration and driver?s license lists ? were checked for links to terrorists except one: specifically prohibited was the F.B.I. from examining background checks on gun purchasers. Source dangerousmeta, whose source was Noonday in the Shade (NYTimes).
How Microsoft Develops Its Software
Microsoft employee Jim McCarthy wrote a piece that shares some principals that any good development team should keep.
How Microsoft Lost the API War
If your a developer and havn’t read this Joel on Software piece, whatsamadderwityou?
How To Lose Friends And Infuriate People
Over at Regent Business Review is a little article describing how in 15 simple steps.
Thursday’s Kerry Meetup
Another Anti Democratic Supreme Court Decision
I thought that the Supreme Court is above partisanship. I was definitely wrong. The court has decided to protect the anonymity of those attending a Cheney ran meeting on energy policy (Yahoo!). This is the same court that stripped away our implied right to anonymity for any other citizen of the United States earlier in the week.
And to top it off, I guess Cheney’s feeling good about himself now, he tells a senator to F— off (Yahoo!).
Going to see Fahrenheit 9/11 is now an act of protest and free speech. Do it and make sure you thank the movie theaters showing it (thanks to fellow Kerry Meetup folk for that idea).
The URL Is The Command Line
I have long told co-workers that “The URL is the command line”. It’s been like a mantra for me for the past few years and its something I inevitably feel the need to repeating when building various web apps. It’s great reading an essay that explains why from someone else.