Chaos Magnet

Telling it like it is

Sometimes I think if I didn't do this for a living, I would just get out of programming altogether. I know it's not true, because I'm just hooked on it. But I do get pretty disgusted at all of the turf wars and methodology wars and acronym wars and all of the other wars that go on around new technologies. I just posted a link to a good article that pretty much tells it like it is. Do the simplest thing possible. Period. no more, no less.

The "Translate that dictation" contest

Because I can't type much anymore, I use a dictation system, and sometimes it can lead to some pretty funny stuff, especially when I'm working and somebody strikes up a conversation with me. But even with the microphone on, it usually doesn't pick up anything recognizable unless I'm actually wearing the headset. But I just got off the phone from a rather heated conversation, and when I came back, I found the microphone had decided that I had said the following:

To go and he you where I seen you in on ay he lied in now he so you don't have a reworking that let you know a known as because he is so you he youe yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah he he he wanted to and from a law he he he yeah I like to I. I. unrefined type and yeah yeah yeah yeah so you see him in runs at a theater in I reeling from a zoo in Hong Kong thinking and version should not be I know I have and he's very little is is the yeah yeah yeah okay well I see him in line now you as an on the yeah actually yeah yeah yeah yeah okay for him in the who is in Italy in a & l

So here's the contest: you decide what it was I actually said, or the very least the subject of the conversation, and drop it in a comment to this post. one month from today, on April 29, I will pick the answer that is either closest, or most humorous/interesting, and that person will get a prize. I'm not quite sure what it will be yet; probably something like a $10 gift certificate from Amazon, unless anybody has any other suggestions.

Go to!

Star Wars is coming to TV

Yes, yes, I know they've been talking about this since, what, before Revenge of the Sith? But today I found an article in which Rick McCallum says it'll be about Luke's childhood, and that they plan to make at least 100 episodes of it.

You know, they say a goal is just a dream until you write it down and tell somebody about it. So I'm going to say this out loud now.

I want to write at least one episode of that TV show.

Sandra Day O'Connor: US slipping into dictatorship

When I first read Dictatorship is the danger in The Guardian, the British newspaper, my first reaction was to check to make sure that it was a real article, rather than a hoax. Very little searching read me to the original broadcast of NPR's Nina Totenberg, who was there when Sandra Day O'Connor told a small group that the assaults on the independant judiciary are indicative of the type of interference and retaliation that can, in the long run, lead to dictatorship. Are we in danger of having jackboots in the streets next week? Probably not. But she points out "We must be ever vigilant against those who would strong arm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

[Additional note: Without net neutrality, it would be easy for a conservative ISP to block postings like this one, if they don't like it. China has (no joke) 30,000 "cyber-cops" that block access to sites with information the government doesn't like. Right now that can't happen here. The death of net neutrality would be a first step in that direction.]

Net Neutrality: It's not just a good idea, it's essential

AT&T was broken up for good reason. Now, with the pending merger with Bellsouth, they're just about back where they were, with one big difference. Now we have the internet. Good, right? Wrong. AT&T is one of the largest supporters of the end of "net neutrality", which means that all data traffic is treated equally. If these opponents have their way, they will be able to blackmail content providers into paying an extra fee so they don't get degraded service. In other words, if Yahoo! pays a fee to Verizon, and Verizon is your ISP, you may see perfectly good speed out of Yahoo!, but, say, slow response from Google. Or worse, no response at all. Don't Be Neutral on Net Neutrality explains this a bit better, and includes this quote:

"AT&T CEO and chairman Ed Whitacre told 'Business Week,' 'Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment, and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!'"

Excuse me, but if it weren't for Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or any of the other content and service providers, why would you have those pipes in the first place? You DO get paid for those pipes. Your CUSTOMERS pay for those pipes every month.

ARG.

[Additional note: Without net neutrality, it would be easy for a conservative ISP to block postings like this one, if they don't like it. China has (no joke) 30,000 "cyber-cops" that block access to sites with information the government doesn't like. Right now that can't happen here. The death of net neutrality would be a first step in that direction.]

The New Orleans Public Library Needs Books

I received this on one of the author mailing lists. [NOTE: Please check out the site for the latest instructions. I've seen other messages asking people to have their own book sales and send the money instead.]

===========================
The New Orleans Public Library Needs Books
===========================

New Orleans Public Library is asking for any and all hardcover and paperback books to restock the shelves after Katrina. The library staff will assess which titles will be designated for the shelves. The rest will be distributed to destitute families or sold for library fundraising.

The books can be sent to:

Rica A Trigs, Public Relations
New Orleans Public Library
219 Loyola Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70112

If you tell the post office that the books are for the library in New Orleans, they will give you the library rate that is less than book rate.

Can you please share this information with the education staff and students? It is a great opportunity to help.

New Orleans Public Library

Area codes in 1947

OK, I recognize that finding this interesting is completely geeky, but I stumbled across LincMad's 1947 Area Code Map this afternoon, and I think it's really cool. Particularly the fact that originally, states with only one area code had a "0" as the middle digit, and those iwth more than one had "1"'s as middle digits, as well as the fact that area codes with a "9" as the middle digit are "are reserved for expansion to longer telephone numbers, some time in the 21st Century."

People actually get paid to think about how best to format phone numbers 20, 30, 50 years from now. I find that fascinating.

So mock me. I don't care. :)

The king of hoaxes

I've often considered starting a really bizarre rumor just to see how far it would get. I imagine when it finally comes back to me in an email two years later and I tell the person who sent it to me, "I can tell you for sure that this is a hoax; I started it!"

Then I consider the hundreds of times after that that it comes back to me and people still believe it, and it doesn't seem so funny anymore.

But consider Alan Abel, who could be considered a professional hoax-ster. His latest was hoax that convinced a diner full of people and wiithin 15 minutes, a passel of reporters, that Bob Pagani, who participates in many of his hoaxes, was a trucker who'd won all of the $365 million Powerball jackpot. 'It's performance art," Pagani said. "You don't exactly know what you're going to accomplish."

Abel is the one who, in the 1950's, came up with "the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals (SINA), a fake campaign to clothe creatures with the slogan, 'A nude horse is a rude horse.'"

The future of media

I've been doing a lot of musing lately about the future of the Internet and the future of media and how the two of them may come together, so Hollywood's evolution via 12 key solutions, which tracks Hollywood from its very beginnings -- 1 minute silent shorts that were essentially proof of concepts for motion pictures -- to today, a world in which George Lucas actually said out loud that he thinks the days of the blockbuster are over. I do think there will be a convergence, and in fact that we're already seeing it. Witness the preponderance of sites like Squidoo, which count on people to provide content that will hopefully attract "viewers" so that they can sell advertising. Doesn't that sound like television to you?

Well, almost. Squidoo has a very nice revenue-sharing model in place, so if the site does well, those who provide content will do well as well. I've got a few "lenses" up there myself, some on technology (JSON) and others on entertainment related topics. I'm still working on my Star Wars lens, but my Harrison Ford lens -- still not entirely finished -- seems to be doing surprisingly well. I'll update you as a get these things in place, and let you know how that goes.

Donald Duck in trouble again

Apparently the folks down in the Monroe County, Florida Sheriff's office have too much time on their hands.... Disney Star Runs Afoul Of Law - February 24, 2006