Recently in the "Found" category...
As usual, Dadcentric sums it up.
I have slammed doors and stood behind them as you cried yourself to sleep.
I have slept in your bed, curled around you like a blanket and felt my legs grow slowly numb.
I heal your wounds and you fix me when I am broken. We meet in the middle and find much happiness there.
Seriously, Dadcentric has some of the best writing out there.
A nice comparison chart, though I’m pretty sure that this applies to any startup, not just tech ones.
[Via Fred Wilson]
Here’s a little gem I just found on the interwebs: an interview with Michael Bywater. Michael is an astounding wordsmith; writer of my favourite columns in Punch and allegedly slept with my boss. Not my current boss, mind you.
Some gems:
My main memories are of course of Anita. And her bull terrier, Murdoch. And of the chaotic offices in the ancient and haunted part of London called The Borough, a warren of streets and alleys on the south side of London Bridge…
and…
Even things like Myst - which, hell, was just a droopy post-hippie HyperCard stack with a rather good music loop — were way below the level of Magnetic Scrolls or Infocom in narrative terms. So the era came to an end.
My time at Magnetic Scrolls was a wonderful time of my life and I enjoyed every moment of it. Hopefully this article will give you some sense of what it was like for the non-engineering folks who passed our way.
Read it over here.
In an attempt to start posting on this blog again rather than everywhere else (friendfeed, twitter, facebook, etc…), I present you with the following:
Enjoy.
Awesome.
A cover of Still Alive, the finale song by Jonathan Coulton for Valve’s Portal.
Ticket bought. I am so going to this gig!
Note that I said “ticket” and not “tickets”. I don’t believe I know anyone locally that will join me…
Kev, fancy a visit to the states?
I can now watch any movie available via Netflix’s “WatchNow” on the TV in my living room via the Xbox 360, streamed from Netflix:
It just works. Completely. Wow.
The only niggle was that I had to make IE7 my default browser on the Vista box for this to work…
[Tip’O’Hat to Lifehacker for the info.]
This is seriously one of the best explanations of how the banking system, and money in general, works.
Do yourself a favour and carve out 45 minutes to watch this. You’ll thank me.
One thing I like about the short flight from Seattle to San Jose is that I get to catch up on a bunch of TED videos.
Two of the videos I watched on yesterday’s flight really stood out for me:
- 18 minutes with an agile mind - Clifford Stoll gave a wonderful, eccentric talk that danced around a number of subjects and ended up with him talking about how he teaches College grade physics to 8th graders. You even get to see his glass-blown Klein bottles…
- 2008 TED Prize wish: An African Einstein - Neil Turok, a theoretical physicist from Cambridge University talked about his research and the setting up of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.
Definitely worth watching. Enjoy.
Apparel I want, but cannot afford.
Brilliant. I also want this one:
Take a look around the site. Their FAQ and pitch are priceless. Well, that’s not actually true. It costs $100,000.
VC Wear. Pure brilliance.
Via Ewan:
- Change one letter in a movie title.
- Photoshop the results.
Brilliant.
Click through for the rest and split your sides…
Very funny. Respect the salesforce…
And no, I don’t believe they can be expensed…
I just received a couple of stickers from The Daily WTF. Yey! My laptop now has a new decorative item.
Never heard of the site?
Well, if you’re a developer, it’s a must-read. Amusing and sorta-instructional in a “no way I’d ever do that” kind of way.
Recommended.
Seattle Suburb Endures Growing Pains
My pal Andy just let me know about an article on NPR this morning about Kirkland and in particular Houghton (the area where we live).
It talks about the growing pains that the area is experiencing and mentions Google.
An interesting article claiming that:
…Computer Science (CS) education is neglecting basic skills, in particular in the areas of programming and formal methods. We consider that the general adoption of Java as a first programming language is in part responsible for this decline. We examine briefly the set of programming skills that should be part of every software professional’s repertoire.
Another interesting quote:
It [Texas A&M] did [teach Java as the first language]. Then I started teaching C++ to the electrical engineers and when the EE students started to out-program the CS students, the CS department switched to C++.
Definitely worth a read.
I’ve have been worrying for some time that the core programming competence of candidates coming out of colleges has been dropping over the years as the “helpful” languages proliferate and the spectrum of languages that students are exposed to declines…
What’s a pointer, again?
Worrisome.
[Tip’O’Hat to Lambda the Ultimate for the link.]
According to The Guardian, the Queen (or more likely some footman) has launched her own channel on YouTube.
The Queen has taken a bold stride into cyberspace by launching her own channel on the video-sharing website YouTube. The Royal Channel launches today as Buckingham Palace seeks to promote Britain’s monarch to a youthful global audience.
While aides were utterly convinced it was the way forward, the 81-year-old Queen - who only recently mastered emailing and had never used a personal computer until two years ago - was not immediately acquainted with the YouTube phenomenon. But after the concept was explained to her by, among others, her granddaughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie - both avid Facebook fans - she personally approved the channel’s go-ahead after viewing its contents.
I guess we’ll be watching the Queen’s Speech online this year.
Bonus points to the first person to find the Princesses on Facebook…
Looks about right to me…
[Tip’O’Hat to the wife for the link. Are you trying to tell me something honey?]
