November 2011
45 posts
Correct, Beautiful, Fast (In That Order) →
by John Nunemaker
The Greatest Developer Fallacy Or The Wisest Words... →
by Alan Skorkin
#DontBreakTheInternet: How The Web Became a... →
Matt Stempeck, PBS
“Many problems arise when your country’s legislature is consistently more responsive to its donors than its constituents. One of these problems is that simple good ideas can’t just be left alone to bask in their goodness.
The Internet is clearly a good idea — not tautologically good, but certainly one of the better things that’s happened to human...
The Metasociety →
by Stephen Downes
OWS isn’t about solutions. That said, when asked, a few things have been discussed. Among these:
an end to corporate personhood, which would make corporate owners responsible for the debts (including, for example, pension plans that have simply ‘evaporated’) and legal liabilities (eg. the costs of environmental harm) caused by corporations. Because as it...
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
– Dalai Lama (via jedsundwall)
Cracking Siri →
“On October 14, 2011, Apple introduced the new iPhone 4S. One of its major new features was Siri, a personal assistant application. Siri uses a natural language processing technology to interact with the user.
Interestingly, Apple explained that Siri works by sending data to a remote server (that’s probably why Siri only works over 3G or WiFi). As soon as we could put our hands on the new...
The Social Graph is Neither →
“Social networks exist to sell you crap. The icky feeling you get when your friend starts to talk to you about Amway, or when you spot someone passing out business cards at a birthday party, is the entire driving force behind a site like Facebook.
Because their collection methods are kind of primitive, these sites have to coax you into doing as much of your social interaction as possible...
Why programs become territorial →
David Heinemeier Hansson, 37Signals
“The natural progression of programs is towards the territorial. When a programmer has weaved an intricate web of considerable complexity, others are loathe to enter his lair and he is loathe for them to do so.
This is despite the fact that we all agree that it’s bad for programs to become territorial. When only one or a few people know how to work on...
“Book jackets these days, for reasons I won’t unpack, seem to revel, overtly, in...”
– Peter Mendelsund
In other words, cleverness does not indicate intelligence. The relationship between these two attributes is something that’s become a point of contention when I look at certain things I’ve made in the past.
(via viafrank)
“Do a Barrel Roll” on Google, and You Won’t Be... →
“Type the phrase in Google, and the screen will tumble around (it’s a barrel roll, after all). The same thing happens if you search for “Z or R twice.” If you’re feeling lazy, you can simply click here and see the effect for yourself. Because it was built in HTML5, it doesn’t work on all browsers. Firefox and Chrome seem to support it best.
Both phrases are references to Star Fox 64, the...
How Will You Measure Your Life? →
by Clayton M. Christensen
Harvard Business Review
