DailyDigital

I don’t know this guy. But i thing he is dead right. I’ve got a book, called ‘Consumed‘, which basically says the same thing. In a lot more words :-)
But is is true, I think, to a large degree. Everybody needs to consume, and to consume more, and more, and more. And we target people younger and younger in order to turn them into perfect consumers. And they do. Young kids don’t know any better than that they should have mobiles, and a DS and go to the movies twice a month. And what do they see at the movies? More kids, having more stuff. It’s a shame, really…

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There has been a lot of talk about the release from M$ of some drivers – covered, no less, by the GPL.

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I must admit I am ambivalent about this. I’m having a hard time believing M$ is actually trying to play ball here. It is far more in line with what we have come to expect for them to appear playing the ball. Only to wait for someone to look the other way for a second and then to grab it and run away….

Update:

Ah! If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Thus, the case unfolds….

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Turns out our friends in redmond where actually violating the GPL, and had to release this code or be sued… That explains a lot!

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wanneer is die mapampang storing /onderhoud nou eens klaar?
ik kan al een hele dagoe pantje maand mijn belstatus niet bekijken!!!

Ik bel nu dus maar gewoon en natuurlijk krijg ik binnekort een kaolo rekening van tollie 80 euro!!!

T-mobile is echt wack!! wat een doffe provider amateuristisch gedoe hiero

Tja. Wat moet je ervan zeggen? Ergens vind ik het toch wel droevig….

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Well, it happened. Apple updated iTunes to version 8.2.1. According to the changelog, it offers bug fixes and “addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices.” In other words, “Buzz off, Palm Pre. You ain’t no iPhone.”

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Palm: “Oh no you didn’t!”

Apple: “Oh yes iDid.”

Palm: Talk to the hand.

Apple: Bite me!

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The US Postal Service moves 1300 of its servers over to Linux. That is, of course, news I love to hear.
Slashdot, the famous geek-site, had a article about it.

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But it would not be /. if there would not be some very funny remarks:

1300 servers, processing 40 million transactions a day… that’s about 30,800 transactions per server. Or one transaction every 2.8 seconds or so. With an entire Linux box dedicated to it.

I work in the scan processing group at FedEx. At peak, we see over 100,000,000 transactions a day. And that’s handled on 45 linux boxes, and 12 more for the database, doing upwards of 6000 transactions per second during bursts. That’s a peak of about 133 transactions per second, per box. That’s a little better than 0.3 TPS for the Post Office. So we have about 400 times the performance with 5% of the hardware. By that margin, I could do their processing with about 25 boxes total. That would mean another 98% savings on hardware alone.

For some reason, I fail to be really impressed that they’ve gone from “Crappy performance and Expensive” to “Crappy performance and less expensive.”

I wonder if I can get the bazillion dollar contract to rewrite their system… No, wait, my name isn’t “Boeing” or “Lockheed” or Ken Murtha.

To which someone replies:

Maybe their servers are in the union?

:-)

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This quote is from an article about why people can be so easily convicted about almost anything….

To understand what I mean about the feeling of knowing, read the following paragraph at normal speed. Don’t skim, give up halfway through or skip to the explanation. Because this experience can’t be duplicated once you know the explanation, take a moment to ask yourself how you feel about the paragraph. After reading the clarifying word, reread the paragraph. As you do, pay close attention to the shifts in your mental state and your feeling about the paragraph:

A newspaper is better than a magazine. A seashore is a better place than the street. At first it is better to run than to walk. You may have to try several times. It takes some skill but it is easy to learn. Even young children can enjoy it. Once successful, complications are minimal. Birds seldom get too close. Rain, however, soaks in very fast. Too many people doing the same thing can also cause problems. One needs lots of room. If there are no complications it can be very peaceful. A rock will serve as an anchor. If things break loose from it, however, you will not get a second chance.

Is this paragraph comprehensible or meaningless? Feel your mind sort through potential explanations. Now watch what happens with the presentation of a single word: kite.

You gotta love this kind of thing… at least, I do!

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The rest of the article is, btw, just as interesting… :-)

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The first 2 minutes are really boring – but after that, it gets interesting…

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See, I don’t think there is ever a good time or place for SQL.

SELECT text FROM mild_introductory_statements WHERE id=random();

Anyone who says so has never had to use it.

SELECT text FROM statements_indicating_superior_experience WHERE id=random();

I like to compare it with JavaScript.

SELECT text FROM unrelated_tool WHERE id=random();

It’s a language that is difficult to refactor, maintain, and while it’s a standard, the standard is so vague that it’s useless.

SELECT text FROM seemingly_valid_yet_unsubstantiated_objections WHERE id=random();

Like JavaScript, people are trying to build other languages on top of it to hide its shortcomings — for javascript you have tools like GWT, and for SQL you have HQL, Linq, etc.

SELECT text FROM wrongheaded_causal_analysis WHERE id=same_one_as_two_queries_ago();

Not to say that there is anything wrong with relational databases, we just lack a good tool to interface with them.

SELECT text FROM reasonable_sounding_parthian_shot_to_obscure_trolling WHERE id=random();

—

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I love these kind of posts.

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