March 2011
1 post
February 2011
1 post
rentzsch.tumblr.com: CS is not for me →
rentzsch:
Eugene Wallingford: Of course, using a powerful, fun language in CS1 creates a new set of problems for us. A while back, a CS educator on the SIGCSE mailing list pointed out one: Starting in Python postpones the discovery that “CS is not for me”. After years of languages such as C++,…
The first institution that formally taught me CS began with C (we were the last batch, the...
September 2010
1 post
August 2010
3 posts
Maniacal Rage: The Problem with Facebook's... →
Here’s the thing about Facebook that really gets under my skin: They are slowly incorporating the features from every other independent web application on the internet. This is not inherently a problem—companies get bigger and they begin to have the resources to widen their feature set—the issue…
True. Facebook is pushing all the competing services they choose to “integrate”...
App Store "Try Before You Buy"
rentzsch:
Mark Gurman:
Today Apple added a new section dedicated to promoting free applications on the App Store. One of the subsections of this new feature is “Try Before You Buy.” This section features many of the popular “free” or “lite” editions of apps, but the section title is what makes this all interesting.
Apple willfully ignored 25+ years of commercial software distribution...
July 2010
7 posts
Psychiatric Tales: Out At Last →
Psychiatric Tales is a book that attempts to demythologise mental illness. Forget what you’ve seen in movies or on TV. This book shows what the experience of mental illness actually is for both patients and the staff who treat them.
Media representations of people who suffer mental illness tend to be appalling. We live in an age where racism and sexism is considered unacceptable. Yet...
Contradiction
People spending lots of energy, time and money fighting for the welfare of animals, and yet, aiding the killing and mistreatment of another animal, 3 times a day - by eating factory farmed animal flesh, eggs and dairy products - which constitute the vast majority (all?) that’s available in your supermarket and restaurant.
To put it in human terms, it’s like fighting for human rights...
Felt Tip blog: At 23, my one-person Mac software... →
At 23, my one-person Mac software company was very profitable. But I wasn’t very social at the time. If I could tell my 23-year-old self one thing, it would be: Go out, be social, make friends, and don’t worry so much about the money, because there will always be enough, and more won’t buy you…
Worth thinking about.
“We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don’t...”
– John Waters (via ashponders, prostheticknowledge)
rentzsch.tumblr.com: App^H^H^H Webapp Store →
In case it’s not apparent, Brian is talking about web apps that allow payment via your Carrier. That is, website charges that land directly…
If this API catches on, look out for AT&T (and other carriers) bending over and letting Apple hook up iTunes to your phone bill.
June 2010
6 posts
Sick Systems: How to keep someone with you forever →
How Apple, Electronic Arts and many other companies keep their employees. Many people also inadvertently do this to their significant others.
Anyone can get caught in your sick system if you start slowly enough.
Anyone can fit into your sick system if your standards are low enough.
Any sick system can meet your needs if you keep your needs small enough.
EDIT: Written somewhat as a...
Good grief, America…
ashponders:
kurafire:
Your common bread here is truly horrendous. Even the stuff that doesn’t have high-fructose corn syrup in it is an abomination to taste.
I can’t believe I’m forced to hunt down artisan bakeries that produce just normal, everyday bread, just to eat a proper slice of bread with cheese.
Alternative: Make your own bread with an hour every day or two days:...
Texas →
Conflict Kitchen - a take-out restaurant that only... →
So brilliant - placing faces and delicious food behind this intellectual concept of countries.
A 13th Century Castle Rises in Lead Hilll,... →
ashponders:
They’re making it by hand, using 13th century tech, and wearing 13th century getups.
Also needs 150,000 visitors (US$1 million) annually to finance the project. Needs more than 13th century marketing to pull that off, but I sure hope they succeed.
May 2010
24 posts
Pedigree Dogs Exposed →
Link goes to Flash video of a BBC documentary, 2 years in the making, on the health and welfare issues facing pedigree dogs in the UK. Though the documentary focuses on the situation in the UK, this phenomenon is found worldwide. A powerful documentary, not to be missed by anyone who has ever had or cared for a dog, and anyone who cares about animal welfare. DVD available. Wikipedia entry.
...
“I am frequently reminded just how widespread our love for companion animals is...”
– From this PDF written by the Royal New Zealand SPCA, linked by the No Kill Advocacy Center website. New Zealand has embarked on a race to become the first “no-kill” nation.
For quite awhile, my stance on this issue is that shelters like SPCA Singapore are just doing the dirty work for...
Meaning of life
We are only capable of asking the question of having a meaning in life because we are temporal creatures, capable of thinking of the passage of time in a way many other animals don’t. Take away the ability to fathom time - and we can’t even understand how lives could have meaning.
The perception of time is all in our heads and can even be manipulated - an illusion, like color...
Happiness and satisfaction in life
Is it “good” to place the persuit and maintenance of happiness and satisfaction as the primary goals of our lives, shaping everything that we do in this framework? Ironically, the very persuit of happiness and satisfaction can sometimes bring us furthur from it.
What is the value of happiness? Cats seldom express happiness, like the way dogs do. Are the lives of cats any less than...
A theory about Buddhism
Buddha realized, that human unhappiness and dissatisfaction is wholely manufactured by “modern” (Neolithic and beyond) living. The path to happiness and satisfaction in life is to live like animals. Not straying from the middle path of too much or too little, living in the moment, etc.
To be elaborated.
Hell
“… But as for hell, I think Tertullian’s vision is pretty mild.
Hell would be far worse if it were not a place where you are tortured or brutalized but, rather, a place where you are forced to torture and brutalize those you love most. You are forced to do this even though you find it sickening and this revulsion permeates through you to the depths of your soul. You are forced...
Grief and Remembrance
My maternal grandmother is the sort of classic grandmother that’s portrayed on television and movies. Every time, we, all of us little grandchildren would visit, she’ll prepare beautiful soups and wholesome food for us and pamper us the best way she knows how. She’s a gentle soul, rarely raising her voice and nearly always with a smile on her face. I still remember waking up...
Three Women of TED and their values
The intellectualism, humor and geekiness of Erin McKean: http://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_redefines_the_dictionary.html
The adventurism, willing to get hands dirty, practical sensibilities of Roz Savage: http://www.ted.com/talks/roz_savage_why_i_m_rowing_across_the_pacific.html
And the empathy, wisdom and daring of Jane Goodall:...
Defending The Lemon
I can’t remember where i’ve first heard of this concept, but I like to call it “defending the lemon”.
You’re shopping for a car. The autodealer is quiet today and the salesman comes over and introduces himself and starts with smalltalk. He finds out your budget, and points to you your perfect car. The one for you, with your name on it. You sit in it, stroke the...
Why Honey Is Vegan →
It’s happened to me over and over. Someone will ask me why I’m vegan—it could be a new friend, co-worker, distant family, or a complete stranger. I know I then have but a tiny window of opportunity to indelibly convey their first impression of veganism. I’m either going to open that window for that person, breezing in fresh ideas and sunlight, or slam it shut as the blinds fall. So I talk to...
Why do couples who choose to cohab have... →
I’m quite baffled by this and have some thoughts, but i’ll let it stew for awhile.
Epiphany 2: If I can only tolerate 2-3% of the...
Worse, most of those amongst those I can stand are of the same gender as I am.
Epiphany: I can stand only 2-3% of the people I...
That corresponds to an average of 1 person for every 40 people that I meet. Which corresponds to 1 person for every primary/secondary/high school/polytechnic/university class of unique individuals i’ve been to.
And that sounds eerily accurate especially when I look at 30 years of my life, with memories of 25 of them. In some groups, I meet more people that I can stand (like the Mac...
April 2010
25 posts
“…There are certain people who come into your life, and leave a mark… Their place...”
– Sara Zarr (via quote-book)
Steven Frank - stevenf.com: My Mac Mix →
My Twitter tweet from a while ago about preferring my MacBook Air over my MacBook Pro caused some raised eyebrows to appear in my inbox. Metaphorically speaking.
There seem to be two dominant computing methodologies here in the world of 2009:
Buy the best laptop you can afford, and use it as…
And in 2010, the workflow becomes iPad + a desktop.
Steven Frank - stevenf.com: [IMPORTANT NOTE:... →
I’m furious with Apple and AT&T right now, with regard to the iPhone.
Let’s talk quickly about Google’s official client app for Google Voice. It’s not the only thing I’m mad about, but it was the final straw.
And that caused the infamous boycott of the iPhone by a co-founder of a leading indie Mac software company. With the possibility of Skype et. al. being allowed full-featured on...
Steven Frank - stevenf.com: Stars →
The problem with rating systems in general is that only people who feel very strongly about something will take the time to rate it. For a five star scale, that suggests mostly one and five star ratings.
This is why most iPhone apps will have a three star rating. A lower quality app will tend to have about 2.5 stars, and a higher quality app will tend to have about 3.5.
As soon as an app has...
Reincarnation
Although I think it’s probably bullshit, reincarnation is a really seductive idea to believe in.
Imagine.
All that you’ve learned this lifetime, all your skills and knowledge that you spent your life improving and collecting? Unless you pass it on to someone, it vanishes as though it never existed (maybe that’s why people have kids?). Yes, it impacts the world while you live and has effects that...
Half a lifetime for a month of work
Sad, how we have evolved to the state that in many developed countries, people have to work a third, or even half their lives just to be able to get a place to live of their own. And tiny places at that.
Shelter for humans used to take us:
1) hours - find and walk into a cave, drive other creatures out, build a fire, barricade with some rocks and leaves.
2) a day - find/cut natural material and build a shelter. When you're bored, make it better with more construction.
3) a week - with tools and expertise, a small hut.
4) a month - with tools, experience and friends taking turns to build shelter for one another, you can get a very decent cottage with furniture.
And now, we have people slaving for their entire lives, just so they can retire in a cottage in the countryside with the last years of their lives.
How developed are we, really?