Merlin Mann asks the question Does this next action belong someplace else? and then proceeds to answer the question with a great breakdown of the likely problems with your next actions and how to fix them. (If you’re wondering what a “next action” is, I guess you haven’t drunk the Getting Things Done kool aid yet. Google “GTD” to learn more.)
BSOM is now running on its new server at Hostik. A big thanks to Sitelutions for two years of great, low-priced service! The reason for the move to Hostik is that I am uncomfortable with a shared server for Blazing Things. So, I’m moving everything over to a new dedicated server at Hostik.
So far, the Hostik folks have been great and responsive. I’m running Fedora Core 3 and find myself needing to get up to speed with SELinux quickly.
As of this writing, posting of comments is broken. I hope to fix that soon. Posting of trackbacks is also broken, but I’m not going to fix that immediately (more on that in another post this evening).
A link showed up on Blogdex for Graphics and Web Design Based on Edward Tufte’s Principles. For those not familiar with Tufte, he is the author of three very fine books: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Envisioning Information and Visual Explanations. These books, which Tufte beautifully self-published, are filled with great examples (and counter-examples) of good ways to communicate information.
Tufte also wrote a paper on the woes of PowerPoint presentations. This makes it somewhat ironic that the “Graphics and Web Design Based On Edward Tufte’s Principles” boils down Tufte’s books into a bullet list outline. Sure, there’s more content there than in a typical PowerPoint presentation, but it still struck me as mildly amusing.
For those not familiar with Tufte, though, you might check out that outline for a taste of what’s in the books. The books are certainly a lot more visual, and I’d highly recommend them if the content in that outline sounds appealing. Tufte is also a good speaker, if you happen to find him coming to your area.
I just noticed the note on the SQLite home page:
The new ADD COLUMN capability is made possible by AOL developers supporting and embracing great open-source software. Thanks, AOL!
(No snickering that they’ve only just now added ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN… remember that we’re talking about a 250K database). The interesting thing here is that AOL developers helped to enable this. Couple this with Apple using SQLite in the new CoreData feature of Mac OS X Tiger and it would seem that this little database is getting some hefty attention.
Sure, you’re not going to power Wal-Mart’s 1 million employee HR system on SQLite. But, as an embedded database in desktop apps, it works pretty well indeed!
Boing Boing: India’s amazing statement on IP and international development actually sounds a lot like our Constitution:
The legal monopoly granted to IP owners is an exceptional departure from the general principle of competitive markets as the best guarantee for securing the interest of society. The rationale for the exception is not that extraction of monopoly profits by the innovator is, of and in itself, good for society and so needs to be promoted.
Too many people in Congress are being swayed by lobbying from the RIAA and the MPAA, and too many citizens are allowing it to happen. I think many people are not aware of the fact that the public domain is truly the norm and the copyrights are the exception.
TUAW makes the statement: buy Apple stock! Here’s my response:
Something you see a lot on the Fool regularly is that you really need to by stocks by value. And, not just value relative to other stocks, but real value of the business. According to Yahoo, Apple is worth about $30.5 billion right now, even after the 9% drop.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=aapl
Apple earned about $300 million this past quarter. That would work out to $1.2 billion per year. But, adding in more growth and the fact that the 4th quarter is the biggest moneymaker, maybe they can do $1.5-$2.0 billion. Historical price-to-earnings ratio is about 16, and that earnings range puts them between 15 and 20.
What does all of that back of the envelope calculation boil down to? Beats the hell out of me. Just kidding. Actually, AAPL seems like a good value *if* the iPod business or something like it keeps on chugging.
If the economy goes sour, though, I’d bet that fewer people will pony up $250 for a music player.
(This should in no way be construed as financial advice. Talk to your financial professional. Do not eat AAPL.)
The Ajaxian Blog had a link to Direct Manipulation Using JavaScript and CSS, a bunch of fabulous examples of drag and drop and in-place editing, all in the web browser. I was using Firefox, not IE, and there are warnings about IE problems. Who needs IE support, anyway? It’s only about 90% of the browser population, after all.
These are very nice examples, and something to consider striving for as you’re building an app.
Comic Life is exactly the kind of app that comes out for the Mac but would seem out of place on a Windows box. It lets you take your photos and arrange them comic book style, adding in baloon text and whatnot. Looks nicely done.
As seen on /. and Boing Boing, SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator managed to get a paper accepted as “non-reviewed” at a conference. The paper is really entertaining.
Along these same lines, to accomplish this mission, we
concentrate our efforts on showing that the famous ubiquitous
algorithm for the exploration of robots by Sato et al. runs in
Ω((n + logn)) time [22]. In the end, we conclude.
That last line has gotta be the best line EVAR in a paper.
I hope that And the Verdict on Justice Kennedy Is: Guilty (washingtonpost.com) is really talking about an extreme right-wing minority and not the 50% that voted for Bush. Check out this choice gem:
“The Constitution is not what the Supreme Court says it is,” Schlafly asserted.
Wow. There’s someone that wasn’t paying attention in government class, or at least hasn’t read the Constitution.
This article talks a lot about impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Kennedy. I didn’t realize that such a thing was possible, and it’s certainly not desirable. Supremes are “for life” for a reason. While I hate to think of the types of judges that Bush will nominate, I do think that the system of government set down in the Constitution is a good one and worth following.
