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2007

  • 1 min read

Fun article for airplane buffs

"Isn't that cockpit a little drab? Perhaps a spider plant, or a simple lithograph, would liven it up!"

Check out the article, it's interesting, especially click on the links to the photographs, they are cool too.

  • 1 min read

Question to ponder…

"How is it that many times we forget how to spell a word, so we write it down and then pick the spelling that seems to "look right"?

Anyone out there know the answer or have a link to an answer?

  • 1 min read

Venezuela’s lost human capital

Really interesting article about what is going on in Venezuela and the impact of Hugo Chavez' policies…

"Our gain is Venezuela's loss. These newcomers represent the human capital of Venezuela, something that Chavez, grounded in Marxist materialism, can't understand. He views these talented people as political pawns -- traitors." (from Investors Business Daily)

Read the whole thing.

  • 2 min read

I was away when Boston and Fox both embarassed themselves

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Check out [this

post](http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Bostonist/~3/86877983/where_the_mooninite_money_is_going.php) from Bostonist:

mooninite.jpg
Attorney General Martha Coakley announced today that the
Boston area cut a deal with Turner Broadcasting and Interference, Inc.,
the brains behind the marketing campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Colon Movie Film for Theatres that made life in Boston a little
nutty last week.

Boston will receive $2 million dollars for its trouble. In return,
Turner Broadcasting and Interference won't face charges. Here's the
basic breakdown - $1 million goes to reimbursing state and local law
enforcement for their troubles. Another $1 million will go to
"goodwill" funds.

Here's a more detailed breakdown of which agency gets what from the
attorney general's press release:
State Police - $691,126
Executive
Office of Transportation /Mass. Highway Dept. - $45,466
MBTA -
$630,396
Massport - $8,380
City of Boston - $484,590
City of
Somerville - $69,113
City of Cambridge - $24,794
US Coast Guard
- $46,136

Of special note: The MBTA will get $132,772 in additional restitution
and $315,198 in "homeland security and community initiative funds."
This is your chance for more green, MBTA. Use it wisely.

The budget for
the movie is listed on the Internet Movie Database as $750,000.
Even if settlement is a drop in the bucket for Turner Broadcasting,
that's still a hefty marketing campaign budget.

The settlement also came surprisingly fast, which suggests that all
parties involved wanted to move on. Boston is embarrassed and Turner
is embarrassed. Neither group wants the words "Aqua Teen Hunger Force"
and "terror attack" tied together in the press anymore.

The only unresolved issue involves the fates of Sean Stevens and Peter
Berdvosky. Bostonist says Coakley should let 'em off the hook. She
probably doesn't want those two hanging around the courthouse, anyway.

Image of Mooninite in action fromThe
Trades, which debates the Mooninite fallout.

[

](http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/Bostonist?a=AcXLAw)

(from: Where
the Mooninite Money Is Going)

  • 1 min read

Neat Bank of America site security feature doesn’t do anything !

If you use the Bank of America online banking site you've seen what they call the 'Site Identity' feature that is supposed to save you from being phished:

"… online banking customers are asked to select an image, like a dog or chess piece, that they will see every time they log in to their account.

The idea is that if customers do not see their image, they could be at a fraudulent Web site, dummied up to look like their bank's, and should not enter their passwords." (from NYT)

Well I use it (and, hmm, my image is a chess piece!) and it seemed like a reasonable idea. But not according to this study:

"The premise is that site-authentication images increase security because customers will not enter their passwords if they do not see the correct image," said Stuart Schechter, a computer scientist at the M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory. "From the study we learned that the premise is right less than 10 percent of the time."

"He added: "If a bank were to ask me if they should deploy it, I would say no, wait for something better," he said." (from NYT)

Oh well… Read the whole article!

  • 1 min read

Is Eclipse too “Windows-esque”?

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Check out this
post from dzone.com: latest front page:


The basic premise of most of the Eclipse-meshes-badly arguments was
that Eclipse's whole design and layout (directories used, startup, etc)
is solely oriented toward Windows. An example that Alex cited was that
until recently (Eclipse 3.3), Eclipse wasn't even a properly dockable
app in MacOS X

» Visit DZone
Jobs for great people and great opportunities.

(from: Is
Eclipse too "Windows- esque"?)

  • 1 min read

Another fascinating post from Scott Adams

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I don't know, maybe it's because he's a mini celebrity but I found the
continuing story of Scott Adam's voice problems just gripping. Check out [this

post](http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/01/voice_update_1.html) from The
Dilbert Blog:

"As regular readers know, about two years ago I lost my ability to
speak. The problem is called spasmodic dysphonia (SD). This update is
primarily for the benefit of the other people with SD. Many of you asked
about my experience and for any advice. The rest of you will find this
post too detailed. Feel free to skip it.

[snip…]

If SD is a neurological problem, it's hard to explain why people can
recover just by talking differently. It's also hard to understand how
bronchitis causes that neurological problem in the first place. So
while I am not qualified to judge Dr. Cooper's theories, they do pass
the sniff test with flying colors.

[…snip]" (from : [Voice

Update](http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/01/voice_update_1.html))

  • 2 min read

Dreaming in code

I heard about this book, "Dreaming in Code"… it looks really interesting but kind of depressing to read which is why I didn't run out to buy it.

Building software is just really really hard and for some reason no matter how smart and experienced we are, projects still can easily run themselves into the ground.

I've often heard (and said) why can't we build software the way we build bridges? People building bridges don't have the kind of disasters that we have in software. (Note: Joel on Software's blog's logo is a bridge…)

Anyway, you should check heck out this post from Joel on Software.It's full of great quotes. I will pull out a few for you:


"_Number two, you hired programmers before you designed the
thing. Because the only thing harder than trying to design software is
trying to design software _as a team …."

[…]

"I can't tell you how many times I've been in a meeting with even one
or two other programmers, trying to figure out how something should
work, and we're just not getting anywhere."

[…]

"What kills me is the teams who get into the bad habit of holding meetings
every time they need to figure out how something is going to work."

[…]

"Did you ever try to write poetry in a committee meeting? It's like a
bunch of fat construction guys trying to write an opera while sitting
on the couch watching Baywatch. The more fat construction guys
you add to the couch, the less likely you are to get opera out of it."

(from: The
Big Picture)