The Lurker
Enterprise quality
In a nutshell: here is the problem with enterprise security products - they charge enterprise prices, but they do not deliver enterprise quality.
You misunderstand. That is "enterprise quality". All products and services sold to "the enterprise" are that bad.
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The uselessness of Microsoft's update descriptions
Advanced Micro Devices - Other Hardware - AMD Processor
Date last published: 2/21/2008
Download size: 52 KBAdvanced Micro Devices Other Hardware software update released in August, 2007
System Requirements
Recommended CPU: Not specified.
Recommended memory: Not specified.
Recommended hard disk space: Not specified.
I haven't got the faintest idea what this update modifies, nor why they changed it, nor why I'm receiving an August 2007 patch in February 2008.
And that's the "Details" page!
Related topics: Microsoft Windows Rants
A rare thing: sensible commentary on intellectual property
Generally, there are only two types of comment about intellectual property on the internet: inappropriate analogies to physical property (see every single comment by Martin McPhillips in that discussion), and arbitrary justifications of copyright violation (ridiculous "this is illegal, so delete it after 24 hours" statements and other silly rationalisations seem to be common).
I can't remember the last time I saw an exception to this rule, so I wanted to note this one from Timothy B. Lee at Cato:
The reason this matters is that if an injunction is granted, it can often drive the losing party into bankruptcy. In 2006, for example, Research in Motion, makers of the popular BlackBerry mobile device, was forced to pay $612 million to a company called NTP that had no employees, no products, and patents that were subsequently ruled invalid by the patent office. By rights, NTP shouldn't have gotten a dime (because there was ample prior art for its "inventions") but because RIM would have been forced to shut down its BlackBerry network before it had exhausted its appeals, NTP was able to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from the firm.
Related topics: Politics Quote of the day
On the futility of discussing Apple products
Amid an utterly pointless discussion of whether or not the term "lock-in" is an appropriate choice to describe the arbitrary limitations Apple's popular products all seem to have, Stuart Langridge wraps the real issues up in a neat little package:
There are plenty of people who hate the iPhone, and Apple, way more than they deserve, but there are equally plenty of people who flat-out refuse to hear a word against the device or anything else that comes out of Cupertino. If you're somewhere in the middle ground on this, like most people are, and you're prepared to put up with the restrictions that Apple put on you to get the good experience they provide, you go for it. If you get fucked, then that's the way it is, but hey: sometimes being fucked is nice. That's why the human race still exists, after all.
Related topics: Web Rants Quote of the day
Truth in advertising: homeopathy
FairDeal Homeopathy promises that Nothing acts as well as FairDeal Homeopathy
:
Homeopathy works through a complicated interaction with the human body and mind known as the "placebo effect". Many homeopaths will try and explain any health improvements through made-up science such as "memory of water", "nano-particles" or other non-existant molecular interaction. [...] For some reason, many homeopaths feel they have to tell their patients lies and fairy stories, and try to baffle them with pseudo-science. Here at FairDeal Homeopathy, we treat you like adults, and only tell you the truth.
Don't miss the testimonials.
Related topics: Mindless Link Propagation Quote of the day
Unanswered questions
Everything you ever wondered about airline security but knew there was no point asking:
- why do window shades have to be opened during take-off and landing?
- why do tables and leg rests have to be stowed away during take-off and landing?
- why can't I recline my seat during take-off and landing?
- why do they shut down the in-flight entertainment during take-off and landing and force you to watch advertisements and map views? Are those less likely to cause interference?
Related topics: Mindless Link Propagation Rants Quote of the day
A safe bet
At the end of the event, a man yelled out to Obama that he will be a better president than George Bush. Obama responded, "So would you!"
Related topics: Politics Quote of the day
On the influence of natural languages in programming language design
In response to Larry Wall's Natural Language Principles in Perl, a comment on Reddit neatly sums up why I've never been comfortable with Perl:
The (implicit?) point is: "People's brains are wired to handle natural languages; the more programming languages borrow from natural languages, the better they'll be handled by human programmers".
As often, imitating nature too literally isn't a good idea: the wheel doesn't imitate paws, planes don't fly like birds, factories aren't wombs, programming languages don't strive on natural languages' ambiguity and redundancy. In all these cases, the human invention operates under a set of constraints radically different from nature's, and what's optimal in one case is inadequate in another.
Related topics: Mindless Link Propagation Quote of the day
Bubble metrics
How to tell if there's a bubble:
Have you seen Wired Magazine lately? The last issue was I believe 272 pages.
The best gauge of a tech market bubble is the thickness of Wired. And Wired ain't been this heavy since March 2000. I remember around 2003 it was down to like eight pages.
Related topics: Mindless Link Propagation Web Quote of the day
Best headline ever
Related topics: Mindless Link Propagation Politics Quote of the day
All timestamps are Melbourne time.