Journal Journal: Anyone looking for a Linux Sysadmin Job? 2
If interested, leave me a comment with contact info, and I'll send the information.
#1. Nail the basics.
Creeping featuritis. Do I really need to say any more?
#3. Don't be all things to all people.
Of course, Microsoft doesn't want you, the application developer, to be all things to all people, because it's too busy solidifying its cartel status in the OS and core application market -- that is, becoming all things to all people itself -- to want anyone to horn into its market share. You could almost say that Microsoft has a corporate philosophy of trying to be all things to all people. (Tie this in to my later point about the word "enable.")
#7. Make it just work.
This is truly a laudable goal, which wouldn't be quite so laughable if anything that came from Microsoft "just worked" outside of a user space roughly the size of a breadbox. "just working" in the Microsoft paradigm is often "Do it our way, and you won't get hurt."
#10. Make it a pleasure to see. This doubtless explains the Windows XP default interface, which only a colourblind person or a four year old with a huge collection of Duplo blocks could love. Actually, personally, I think this is a misstated goal entirely. I don't think an interface should be "a pleasure to see." I don't want to take pleasure in the interface; I want to not notice it 99% of the time. Granted, since a lot of that is habituation, the design goal for a UI should be Make it unobtrusive. (That's an awfully big word for this document, though.)
#11. Keep it simple.
It would be a bad design document if it didn't mention the "KISS Principle" at least once. However, in terms of user interface design, especially in applications (operating systems are an entirely other matter, kaff kaff), I think it's more important to achieve clarity than simplicity. Complex applications generally do not (and should not) have simple interfaces, but there's nothing saying that a complex interface can't be clear. (Terrible precision of language in this document, don't you think?) Perhaps I'll go into more detail about this sometime, as it's threatening to become an entire article on its own.
#15. Don't be annoying.
This one broke my irony meter and exploded the top off my head, all at the same time. Question for Microsoft: If you know this, why don't you practice it?! It took you bloody damn long enough to shoot the paperclip (and I notice there's still an "Office Assistant" on new copies of Word). Your paradigm is notorious for the "Oh! You said 'Do X,' you must mean 'Do Y'!" problem. In the name of making things easier for novice users -- how many completely novice users of Windows do you think there are left in the world?! -- you've implemented things that you've purposely made difficult to turn off and ignore (Automatic Updates, for example) that drive the rest of us nuts. Perhaps you might want to reconsider your design paradigm in terms of relative annoyingness?
#16. Reduce effort, knowledge, and thought.
While I agree with most of the actual concrete suggestions given as bullet points under this tip, the phrasing of the tip itself makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I am always in favour of increasing the user's knowledge and thought, although I advocate gentle learning curves wherever possible. Engaged, thoughtful users help you create better products in the long run, through constructive feedback. Taken as a semantic entity, this tip is just a little too close to the prevailing Microsoft dumb-down for comfort. Don't dumb down, smarten up!
A Further Terminological Note: In the next document in the series, called "Powerful and Simple," the writer explains "our definition of power" (in application terms) thusly:
An application is powerful when it enables its target users to realize their full potential efficiently. Thus, the ultimate measure of power is productivity, not the number of features. Different users need help in achieving their full potential in different ways.
Someone walked right into a connotational minefield here, mostly dealing with pop psychology
and certain social situations. As I remarked earlier, I've been here before.
You can pretty much tell they were itching to use the word "empower" there, but it got
scrapped in favour of the quasi-synonymic "enable." That particular word, however, conjures
up some pretty scary connotations that are rather apropos to Microsoft itself, that of the
codependent relationship. Microsoft depends on its user base, and they depend on it (not
too many tech writing jobs using Linux or Mac these days), but the relationship is abusive
at best. You see, they'll get you all sorts of cool toys (like that
application-by-application volume control everyone's raving about in Vista), but smack you
around with an ugly-ass UI full of DRM and phone-home features, and then get in your face
about it when you complain -- "Whaddaya gonna do, switch? Yeah, go ahead and try it,
bitch."
I'm also bristling a bit at the "need help achieving their full potential" phrasing, since
the other place (besides Microsoft design manifestos) I hear that phrase a lot is in
dealing with programmes and services for disabled people. Usually the kinds of programmes and services for disabled people where the staff ask their adult clients, "And how are we today?" *golf clap* Nicely done. I'd
shudder to think what kind of a picture of Joe and Jane Averageuser this Microserf has in
his/her head. And if that doesn't tell you practically everything you need to know about
Microsoft's attitude towards UI design, as revealed subliminally (or sub rosa) by its
discourse, I can't help you.
________
* Dismantle point-by-point, in the style of adversarial journalist Robert Fisk
I'm looking at the
def getIndexItem(self):
# create a summary of the entry
digest = self.body[:self.DIGEST_LEN].replace('\n', '');
digest = self.HTML_STRIP.sub('', digest);
digest = digest.replace('>', '').replace('
When I learned about Python and started to work with it, I was told not to use the semicolons. In fact, I thought that was illegal. Is the parser just throwing them away? Does it have any purpose other than making those C programmers happy?
Is it just me or has every book review ended with "this book is useful for the experienced individual as well as the beginner. No geek should be without."?
What's the point of reading reviews if everything that comes along is great? Tell me what books also suck so I don't walk through a book store any buy one of those.
Book reviews - actually useful or marketing pimps on
...or something like that. I read the following front page article on Java being a dead language. While I won't go as far to kill anything this afternoon, I do have to agree with Mr. Eckel that Java is unpleasant to C#. After working for 5 years in a Java environment, I actually found C# fun to program and always wondered why Java didn't have the same features.
I found myself envying three C#isms - type safe generic support, the "all data types are objects" mentality and C++ style code orginization.
The first to features do away with a lot of casting syntax. The damn java.util classes always manipulated elements as Object and for good reason. A list is generic. Give the list something to hold on to and it will. Yet, the lack of generics made this more error prone and just messy code. Cast an element coming out of a list and you get an exception. Type the expression into an IDE and it will tell you that you're getting an object, not a Widget.
I know Java added generics with Java 5, but it looked like it was more of a preprocessor than a fundamental design decision built into the type system. This creates a new issue where I have a SuperWidget and only want to create a list that can hold SuperItems. If I want to use generics I end up opening the list up for everything. If I pass things around as a SuperItem, I still have casting hell. This might seem too picky but think about how many times you have some generic process that should only be applied to a certain class of items. C# ends up implementing generics and keeps them type safe.
I also don't know how many times I've butted up against code that uses the primitive int type versus the class Integer type. Did you ever try to work with a Map using a primitive data type? I just hate having to type Integer.getInt(foo) into my code all the time.
Ok, the last one is a personal preference. I like to combine lots of stuff into one file. It just makes sense that I add a few loosely related classes into a single source file. Not close enough for an inner class but not separate enough for a new source file.
Just remember, opinions on programming languages are like a$$holes. Every one has one and they all stink.
but here I am. Basically, my girlfriend got transferred to Seattle for at least 18 months. She leaves next week but I need to stay in town and finish up my education (graduate in May!).
To make matters more complicated, I've been working on a Wisconsin business plan competition. If I win, that means nice chunk of state funding as long as the business stays in Wisconsin. On one hand, I'd really like to win and work on this web application full time without part time work to get financing. But things would be easier if I just threw the contest and then move out with her once I graduate. It's starting to remind me of the first relationship I was in and I threw away some good things for something that didn't work out in the end. I don't want to make that mistake again.
I've been trying to be the strong boyfriend. I want to be the one there for her to lean on, cry to when things get difficult, and support her and this great opportunity that she has. Yet, I find myself growing depressed as that date grows closer. Tonight, someone is coming by our place to give her a moving estimate and it's going to be strange listening to them talking about what to take and when. Even my parents are worried that this is going to come between us and they really like her. It's just a lot to add into the rest of my life right now.
I just hope that I can make it.
Does anyone have a good reference, book or website, that contains information on programming pages with JavaScript. All I can seem to find are references that want to explain what a variable is and don't touch on the different IE vs. NS api.
This is more frustrating than that time I tried to learn brainf*ck.
First, thanks to all who helped out with my grub problem. I finally let it loose on the MBR and everything still works. That solved a major problem because I could now boot into my new installation. After that, I had to solve a couple more problems:
Now for the complaining. If there are solutions, I would love to hear them. I'm not claiming to be anywhere near expert status.
That's it for now. I haven't given up but those are the biggies on my list preventing me from going to Ubuntu for development.
I've been trying to install Ubuntu on my personal laptop and dual boot with Windows (I still need those pesky business application, so don't suggest ditching Windows). I would rather use the Windows boot loader and I know this is possible if I don't install grub in the MBR.
My drives look like:
Primary 1: Main Windows Partition
Extended:
Extended 5: Data Partition
Extended 6: Linux Swap
Extended 7: Linux/
Do I specify (hd0,7)? I tried (hd0,6) and it didn't seem to work. What's going on with grub (or me)?
I've been working on this application that requires adding a key value pair to an existing dictionary. The quick solution I found was:
$one = array( 1 => "one", 2 => "two");
$two = array( 3 => "three", 4 => "four");
$new = array_merge( $one, $two);
Is there some way to just append without the merge? While array_merge works in this case, what if I just want to append a single item? Also, is there an OO implementation of an array? I'd like to be able to say $new->sort() instead of using a function.
ABC Radio Lawyer tells Spocko to Shut Up
Three days before Christmas I got a Cease and Desist letter from ABC Radio regarding my use of audio clips from KSFO radio hosts Melanie Morgan and Lee Rogers on my blog, Spocko's Brain.
KSFO is a Disney affiliate whose radio hosts broadcast violent rhetoric directed toward journalists, liberals, Democrats, Arabs and Muslims all over the SF Bay Area and to the world via the Internet. I commented about the content of these host's broadcasts on my blog and informed KSFO's advertisers about what they were supporting by letting them listen to the exact audio quotes from the hosts.
Why the C&D Letter Now?
In mid-December I got confirmation that a major national advertiser, VISA, pulled their ads from the Melanie Morgan and Lee Rogers show, based on listening to audio clips I provided them. I also think that FedEx, AT&T and Kaiser are considering pulling their ads. Visa isn't the first advertiser who has left KSFO, multiple advertisers have left the station, especially from the Brian Sussman show. In July of this year when KSFO lost MasterCard as an advertiser someone from KSFO "outed" me on a counter-blog (which I won't link to). This same person has also threatened me with local and federal criminal action for using the audio (which I clearly used under the fair use portion of copyright law). And because they have suggested violence toward me (in addition to talking about suing me "for everything I have") I have chosen to remain anonymous. [You can't check this because Spocko's blog is now down, but I will personally vouch for having seen the violent and inflammatory comments made by that person, and in fact, corrected them at length on the legal definition of "defamation," which they were apparently too arrogant or lazy (or both) to look up. -- ?!]
As Thers has said, 95 percent of blog fights don't mean anything, but I think this one does since KSFO is using the full weight and force of an ABC/Disney lawyer and copyright law against a private citizen blogger. I dared to use the audio content in question for nonprofit educational purposes (I don't even have ads on my blog!), and thus under the protection of the Fair Use Doctrine set forth in Section 107 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.107.
It's about Money not Ideology
Talk Radio is a multi-billion dollar industry. It is also a regulated industry because the public gave the broadcast airwaves to radio stations. There are rules. First there are FCC rules with fines of $325,000 for obscene and indecent speech, thanks to the Christian Right. Interestingly, the radio union (which KSFO hosts hate so much) worked very hard to stop those fines from being directed to individual radio hosts. So the corporation will bear the burden of any fines. Next, there are guidelines at the local station level, the network level and the parent company level. So even if the inciting of violence and hate speech is ignored by the FCC, the continued violent rhetoric has been, and continues to be, approved at the station level (KSFO) the group level (KGO-KSFO) the company level (ABC Radio) and the parent company level (Disney). They are ALL aware of this speech, and because they have not acted in a meaningful way, they all are giving approval for it to continue.
No Management Action
When Keith Olbermann and Media Matters ran Melanie Morgan's comments [In no small part, I think, because of the yeoman's work our Spocko has done in publicising Morgan et al and their speech habits. -- ?!] about "putting the bull's-eye on" Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi, management did nothing. Morgan did a jokey non-apology where she never even mentioned she used the term bull's-eye.
I'm guessing Lee Rogers may have gotten a memo telling him to stop talking about burning people alive, torturing them and blowing their brains out, because on November 30th, he defiantly said to management and advertisers, "Nobody is gonna tell me what to talk about or not talk about or in what fashion on this radio program. It ain't gonna happen!"
ABC/Disney acted only when they lost revenue. Then they went after ME with a cease and desist letter.
Why me? I'm not the one saying journalists should be hanged, thieves should be tortured and killed, people should be burned alive, stomped to death or have their testicles cut off. I'm not the one saying that millions of Muslims should be killed on the presumption that they are extremists or just because they live in Indonesia. I'm not the one who says that lying is as natural as breathing to Egyptians and Arabs or demanding that a caller "Say Allah is a Whore" to prove he is not an Islamist. I'm simply documenting this speech and providing it to the people who are paying KSFO hosts on commercially supported broadcast radio.
They have Lawyers, Guns and Money. I've got a 5th tier blog and no money
[Technically, this is not true. Right now, Spocko has no blog and no money. But what he does have is space on a tenth-tier blog, and, more importantly, a tidal wave of publicity. -- ?!]
Because I and some other listeners hit right-wing talk radio in the pocket book, they are acting like wounded animals and brought out the big guns, Corporate Lawyers. Am I scared? Hell yes. They can easily squish me like a bug and tie me up in legal battles for the rest of my natural life (and Vulcans live a long time), not to mention that unlike KSFO radio hosts, I'm not getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and generating millions of revenue for a multibillion-dollar parent company. If I pursue this further I expect the next step is a "CyberSLAPP" suit.
I don't want to consider the possibility of Morgan's good friend Michelle Malkin deciding to publish my address and real name so that her minions can send me death threats or "white powder" in the mail. Chad Castagana, was charged with mailing more than a dozen threatening letters containing white powder to liberals. He got the idea from someone that journalists, liberals and democrats were the enemy and deserved to die.
Brian Sussman proudly poses with his handgun in KSFO publicity shots and says that he thinks that everyone should have the right to have a machine gun. Maybe I'm over reacting, why would they attack me? I'm not famous, I'm not an elected official, I tried very hard to be accurate about what THEY said BY USING THEIR OWN WORDS.
I tried to help companies protect their brands from being tainted with the violent rhetoric and anti-any-religion-but-right-wing-christianism speech. I wanted to help the VPs of marketing avoid being associated with Lee Roger's "testicle talk" or Sussman talking about cutting off a finger and a penis of an Iraqi in his imaginary torture sessions.
It's about Brands: All the Blessings, None of the Taint
I have found out that KSFO is sold to advertisers as "a Disney affiliate" with all the associated family-friendly connotations. So KSFO is getting all the benefit of the Disney name as well as the massive infrastructure of ad sales at the national level. Clearly ABC Radio doesn't want KSFO hosts' horrific comments to actually reach advertisers. Advertisers are kept in the dark so KSFO can benefit from the Disney brand glow (ABC Radio News creditability glow?).
Advertisers should be able to decide if they want to keep supporting this show based on complete information. We already know that management at ABC and Disney support these hosts, which means that the ABC/Disney Radio brand now apparently includes support for violent hate speech toward Muslims, democrats and liberals.
But instead of directing the hosts to refrain from violent rhetoric and hate speech, they go after the weakest person with the fewest resources. It's cheaper and easier.
Bottom line: ABC/Disney is supporting and profiting from this violent speech, they should at least also accept any negative connotations or financial impact it might have to their image.
What can you do?
1) As El Gato Negro [of Online BlogIntegrity] suggested, let's distribute the audio clips of violent rhetoric and hate speech to multiple locations on the Internet so that the ABC/Disney lawyers will have to find and send cease and desist letters to ISPs with stronger policies than the nice people at 1&1.
2) Crank this up around the blogosphere/internet, if you have a blog or site, please post about this.
3) Let's see if anyone in the mainstream media cares. Sadly they have a hard time writing about people who want them dead. I would think that at least the PUBLISHERS and MANAGEMENT at the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Associate Press would want to at least defend their own journalists and photojournalists. To date only the LA Times has called Morgan out for accusing them of photojournalist misconduct.
Some members of the press HAVE covered this. When Joe Conason at Salon did a story about Morgan and KSFO [in which Spocko was mentioned -- ?!] he got called a hack by Morgan. When Todd Milbourn of the Sacramento Bee did a story about Move America Forward he got called a liar by Morgan.
4) Donate to groups who would defend bloggers, journalists and others that Morgan, Rogers and Sussman attack. Specifically I'm recommending you donate money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation [which has, incidentally, provided Spocko with some legal advice, so all the more reason to donate -- ?!], the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Media Matters.
You can also support the journalists who are doing their jobs and are threatened with death from talk radio hosts.
5) Write the advertisers of KSFO. I have a list of SOME of the advertisers who advertise on KSFO. Drop me a line at spockosemail @ gmail.com and I'll send you a link to an updated list.
As always, be polite, let them know what they are supporting and how it is impacting their brand in your eyes. They often times have their own stated values that they want to maintain, you may want to ask if their corporate values align with what is being said on KSFO (often times the hosts are the VOICE of their brand in the Bay Area, so it's not just the fact that their ad is run right after some violent hate speech, but that the person who is reading their copy is the person who is spewing the violent rhetoric.)
I'm open to other ideas too.
I'd like to thank everyone who has written letters to advertisers, especially PTcruiser, BP and Zeno. Thanks to Interrobang and Blog-Integrity folks for the forum, and special thanks to El Gato Negro.
LLAP, Spocko
There you have it, folks.
I'd just like to reiterate to readers that if you do send nastygrams to any of the offending companies (and some of them are very offensive), be polite and professional. Thank you.
Update: BoingBoing has picked this up as well, here, and the original audio clips are here.
Well, we decided to use Hibernate for our next project. The boss and I played with a small demo program and he was sold. Reasons:
1. We found our development staff to be less than stellar when it comes to writing SQL.
2. It's fast.
3. We can get support from Redhat in the future.
The last one is huge. I always laughed at people who bought support but then I had an issue with perl. I could have found the answer myself, but it was easier and faster to call ActiveState.
Now, where's are the best Hibernate docs and tools hiding?
With your bare hands?!?