Katrina, New Orleans: Unforgivable
I don't have anything to add, but here are some incredible bits that I came
across:
There's lots more but just read those and follow their links. And our President said: "No one could have foreseen this". Huh? "What, me worry?" Technorati Tags: katrina
New Orleans
I've been away for several days, while following the catastrophe in the gulf unfolding, via TV and radio. I (yes oddly) didn't have internet access but thought to myself that there would be lots of very interesting blog posts covering the events from a unique angle. And indeed, now that I came across these two perspectives:
"The police are looting. This has been confirmed by several independent sources." from a blogger working out of the Directnic.com data center.
"No one is saying that's what happened this time, but they should figure out why the levee broke where and when it did, if the water topped the levee and then eroded it out, or if it was helped along by someone with a shovel or a bit of explosive." from Dave Winer, who was a student in New Orleans.
Technorati Tags: katrina
Who will buy Skype, and why…
Robert Cringely has a relatively little known quasi blog , for some reason on www.pbs.org. The stuff is generally very good, and little noted. Given Microsoft's recent acquisition of Teleo, this recent post about Skype is interesting and timely:
Expect Skype to be sold, another viral marketing success sucked up by big business. Expect it to go to either a major broadband provider or, more likely, to a big mobile carrier with no fixed telephone assets. And whoever buys Skype, expect them to throw money into making the company into even more of a multinational telecom headache than it currently is. (from Skyed on I, Cringely - read the whole thing!)
There even is a very well hidden RSS feed. (Yes, remember the Cringley column in PC Week? Same guy!) Technorati Tags: microsoft, voip
[QUASI-GEEK] Dan Bricklin describes how fiber to the home is installed in the real world
At a level of detail only a geek could love reading (or bother writing), Dan Bricklin gives us an interesting and fun illustrated story of installing Verizon fiber to his home: "…… Once that was all done, the installer cleaned up all the dropped wire insulation, empty boxes, etc., and we said goodbye sometime around 4 PM. I then connected my line to the router and plugged it into my laptop upstairs. Things work well." (from "Installing Verizon FIOS fiber-optic Internet service to my house") I do have one question about the Terms of Service: I ordered the 15Mbps down/2Mbps up service which has a list price of $49.95 a month before the discount. (They also have 5/2 for $39.95 and 30/5 for $199.95.)Terms of service say they "do not permit customers to host any type of server, personal or commercial". You know what they mean (maybe) but they do say it wrong (in an Internet application, each side often plays the part of a "server" as well as "client" -- they are using lay terms in a legal document)." What exactly does anyone think people will use 2Mbps upstream bandwidth for?… Technorati Tags: danbricklin, verizon
Cool Tool!
From my new favorite Podcaster, Todd of Geek News Central, I came across Flash Earth, a fun and beautiful animated globe that will give you hours and hours of family entertainment! Technorati Tags: cool, cooltool
[GEEK} Good article about pluggable LAFs in Java
One of the hairier and most interesting parts of Swing (Java's GUI layer) are the so-called pluggable look and feels (or is it looks and feel?.) Truth is that you can live a very happy Swing life without knowing how it works, but if you are curious or need to know for some reason… This document is a good summary, even though a little dated, if you are interested in really understanding it. Like many things it's not so complex once you understand it. Technorati Tags: java, swing
Incogruous
Florida-202 Originally uploaded by claesk.
Space shuttle in a parking lot. Funny. p.s. I found this with a BlogBridge SmartFeed on Flickr pictures about "shuttle" and I blogged it directly from Flickr's blogging interface. Cool!
[Geek] Good Java Mailing List
I've subscribed to this list from OCI ("Object Computing Inc.") for a while now. They always have interesting readable articles on one thing or another related to Java. If you are interested in Java, I recommend it! Technorati Tags: java
Bill Gates Foundation supports Intelligent Design?
The New York Times is running a series on the Evolution/Intelligent Design 'debate'. Quite interesting. I was startled to see this in the article, though: Referring to the Discovery Institute, one of the main think tanks pushing the ID agenda, the New York Times says:
"A closer look shows a multidimensional organization, financed by missionary and mainstream groups - the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides $1 million a year, including $50,000 of Mr. Chapman's $141,000 annual salary - and asserting itself on questions on issues as varied as local transportation and foreign affairs." (from "Politicized Scholars Put Evolution on the Defensive", New York Times)
The New York Times series is just beginning (2 articles so far) and seems to be a good survey of the issue.
[GEEK] More tips for the 40 year old virgin
Here's something funny I came across: "Sex Tips for Geeks: How to be Sexy" where we learn such gems as:
"While human beings often have sex for pleasure, the instincts that drive human mating behavior have been shaped by a deadly serious game of evolutionary selection. Sexually attractive people are those whose characteristics suggest they are well equipped to help you propagate your genetic line successfully. Good looks are sexy because they correlate with health and a robust immune system; wealth and status are sexy because they signal ability to sink high levels of investment into offspring, increasing their chances of surviving to reproduce" (from "Sex Tips For Geeks")