October 25, 2002
Saalon: Check out SoulHuntersStoryCards (the overview) and SoulHuntersEngineeringTasks (the nitty-gritty). Okay, Brennen sort of threw down the gauntlet, so I’ll talk about schooling. Here’s the cycle that I see most students fall into in school (elementary school through college): The semester begins. The students read through the material along with the teacher every day, and do their homework, but that’s it. They don’t (or can’t) pay attention on a level that’s […]
Thursday, October 24, 2002
Arg! I’ve been trying to post this to my writing journal all day, but the FTP server keeps conking out on me. So, I’ll post it here and sort this out later (it should have been posted at 3:48 p.m. yesterday). So. I wrote five paragraphs last night. It was five paragraphs of fiction, and fiction I’m proud of, which was the important bit. Other than […]
October 23, 2002
“Just the place for a Snark!” the Bellman cried, As he landed his crew with care;Supporting each man on the top of the tide By a finger entwined in his hair. It’s all too common. You sneer at something, like free verse, then somebody comes along and blows you away with an amazing example, this time courtesy of Brennen. This is how free verse has power, how it can […]
October 22, 2002
Just read an enthusiastic review in strategy+business for The Merchant of Prato: Francesco di Marco Datini, 1335–1410, the complete memoirs of an early Renaissance businessman. According to the review, the book is fascinating partly because Francesco faced such similar worries in his day as we do today. I just ordered a used copy through Amazon.com, out of idle curiosity. 1:53 p.m. Hmmm. Apparently AnimationStand provides a full-scale traditional animation suite, and it has […]
Monday, October 21, 2002
A few random notes today: Excellent article pointing out that open source systems aren’t inherently more secure than closed-source systems, and discussing some of the reasons why that is. Tsukikage Ran is my latest favorite anime series. It’s a parody of Japanese samurai “buddy” shows (wherein a competent samurai and his sidekick wander rural Japan), but presented as more of a comedy, where the two protagonists are female. […]
October 17, 2002
This is brilliant, but for programmers only (or at least those familiar with programming languages), I’m afraid. 10:32 a.m. And Lileks is a solid personal weblog/article site. I should note that the author is pretty solidly politically Conservative, but his opinions are well-grounded in what appears to be a lot of serious thought. Moreover, I find him to be extremely entertaining: “The US party calls in mortar fire on the enemy positions. […]
Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Saalon has an article about how he thinks he may have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Interesting. I’ll respond, but first: My first reaction upon hearing about another “disorder” is to roll my eyes. I think that a lot of disorders are simply labels of normal or slightly unusual behavior. OTOH, they may very well be accurate diagnoses. So, let’s dive into this one. I’m going […]
October 15, 2002
From JavaLobby (free reg. required), an article about re-organizing that site into a community that can evangelize Java to the world. It ends with a call to arms about a number of topics, and this one struck me: “How can we help get an informed, attractive message about the qualities of Java technology out to the thousands of people who take their first steps into the world of software each and every day?” […]
October 10, 2002
You may have noticed some slight changes in this website. I’m experimenting with color and presentation a bit, cleaning up the code slightly. Let me know what you think. Wow. You know Godwin’s Law, “As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one”? Well, Godwin talks about it. It was a conscious effort on his part in memetic engineering.
October 9, 2002
And here’s why I love Google News: Three articles about the same event, all offering fascinating perspectives. The event in question is Tom Petty’s new album, “The Last DJ,” which laments the current state of radio. Launch Yahoo’s article is rather bland but informative, offering maximum content with minimum fluff. United Press International’s article quotes extensively from Petty’s interview and emphasizes his hippie-ish beliefs […]