java is a strange world. I am use to ./configure && make && make install. edit a config file or two, then run it. Not so with java. First you have ant, which is java’s answer to configure && make apparently. But instead of ./configure –enable-foo they decided that java -Dant org.apache.tools.ant.Main -DFOO=true is better. [...]
There are reasons for the way things are. There is the right way, the wrong way and the unix way. Tradition in the computing world has its roots in rational thinking. Those traditions should be ignored only after careful consideration. While the url might not be strictly ‘unix’, it has had a long tradition on [...]
Thanks to skype, I now know what all those people on my roster sound like. Turns out they all sound like Stephen Hawking. Why do people use skype? Sure its free, but the quality is so abysmal that its intollerable. You can’t talk simultaneously, there is only one level of compression (I think its the [...]
I would love to know if anyone has ever bought music hoping it was DRM enabled. And if so why? I can just imagine the thoughts running through the person’s head as they see DRM on the album: “Great! This CD will only play in a few really crappy audio players.” “Thanks to the thoughtful [...]
There is a project out there creating webisodes called Strand Venice (no link on purpose). Instead of publishing the show through the normal TV channels, they are putting up bittorrent files. Very cool, first episode is free, the rest are a nominal fee. I can get behind this and was quite excited about it. Of [...]
Hey scoble, you might want to consider not using proprietary video formats. Publishing wmv files is the technical equivalent of using WordPerfect and gopher as a blogging tool. The world has moved passed the horrible days of closed gardens. For the love of your major deity get a clue.
Thank your major deity, meta blogging is finally dead. Rejoice and be glad in it.
I just read Fred’s phishing dilemma, so here is my response: Would you pick up a defecated business card from the depths of NYC’s sewer system and expect it to be a good deal? Then why on earth are you placing some insane judging system on email? If people are still using email as their [...]
The wonderful world of TCO. Anyone with two functioning brain cells knows its a bunch of crap. My point? Why not have two numbers? TCO and TCC. TCO: total cost of ownership TCC: total cost of change That way you can get twice the amount of crap for the same price!
I have been reading Freds, A VC blog for the past few months. By the subjects he covers and the opinions that he expresses I thought he ‘got the net’. Today Fred announces a new firm, with a link. Like all good netizens I followed the link. I am then presented with a javascript alert [...]
My father uses linux. He does so because I gave him an option when he got his computer, $100+ for win32 or linux for free. He chose linux. Seeing as how he has never used a computer before the learning curve was about the same. Today he asked me about a window that amazon shoved [...]
If you are doing something, anything, for the consumption of others, please don’t talk about how great that something is. It very rapidly gets annoying and tedious. It starts a horrid trend for newbies to follow and takes a loooong time for that habit to die. So for the love of a major deity, stop! [...]
My ISP, RoadRunner, decided that it would be a good idea to increase the downstream from 3Mbps to 4Mbps. This is great timing since I am having a purchasing orgy over at magnatune But… there is always a but… I do not really care about the downstream. Sure I can grab that 600MB iso a [...]
One of the businesses that I still support, legacy biz from way back when, had their db system die on them. It was running on nt4 with sql7. I set this up waaaay back in the 90's before I discovered the wonderful beauty that is *nix. So the system drive puked all over itself. This [...]