Pages tagged opinion:

Re: [RFC] Convert builin-mailinfo.c to use The Better String Library. [LWN.net]
http://lwn.net/Articles/249460/

s written in C++, go play with Monotone. Really. They use a "real database". They use "nice object-oriented libraries". They use "nice C++ abstractions". And quite frankly, as a result of all these design decisions that sound so appealing to some CS people, the end result is a horrible an
c++ なくなってくれると,おれ楽なんだけどな...
Olbermann: Gay marriage is a question of love - Countdown with Keith Olbermann- msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27650743/
Unresolvable
Everyone deserves the same chance at permanence and happiness
Everyone deserves the same chance at permanence and happiness. On Countdown with Keith Olbermann, msnbc.com.
The Positive Legacy of C++ and Java
http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=252441
<blockquote>...the true accidental brilliance of Java is that it has created a very smooth path for its own replacements, even if Java itself has reached the point where it can no longer evolve.</blockquote>
In a recent discussion, there were assertions that C++ was a poorly-designed language. I was on the C++ Standards Committee for 8 years, and saw the decisions take place. I think it's helpful to understand the language choices for both C++ and Java in order to see the bigger perspective.
You are being lied to about pirates | San Francisco Bay View
http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates/
1基の7.62mm機関銃が非武装の人間にどれほどの脅威か、この記事の記者が知らないはずはないだろう
Johann Hari on the motivations behind the Somali pirates.
There's a lot more to understand about Somalia... http://tinyurl.com/cfrrpf (via @Xtal)
True? Somali "pirates" are defending illegal fishing
Twitter Quitters Just Don't Get It - Business Center - PC World
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/164107/twitter_quitters_just_dont_get_it.html
News of Twitter's low user retention rate is hardly shocking, and those of us who've stuck with it aren't likely to miss those who don't.
"But eventually, for most of us anyway, it dawns on us that Twitter is a lot more than a worldwide stream of trivial, self-promotional text bombs. And when that happens, we begin to see the beauty in Twitter's simple, terse messaging system. Used in conjunction with a good client app like TweetDeck, Twitter becomes an active massively multi-user conversation to rival any other social medium. " Depends on the kind of conversation you want, I guess; I'm still mainly in the "don't get it" camp.
The point of Twitter? Or just another twit?
Pretty much on point.
Eli Bendersky’s website » Blog Archive » A year with Python
http://eli.thegreenplace.net/2009/05/15/a-year-with-python/
# A converter between binary data description formats, such as Intel HEX. # Several versions of a recursive-descent parser for a simple language # Many scripts for Scite # At work I’ve developed a framework for using Python for verification of VHDL models. Python is used to write the test scenarios and generate VHDL testbenches from them. # A few applications for controlling embedded hardware via the serial port (with elaborate wxPython & PyQt GUIs) # A few applications for analyzing test reports and building summaries in a user-friendly format # A complex multi-threaded web-page download and analysis program for my own use # A couple of games: a Tetris clone with wxPython and a small game with Pygame as part of a tutorial # Analysis of numeric data with matplotlib # Parts of an assembler and linker for a synthetic language # Solved dozens of Project Euler problems, all in Python.
Obama's healthcare horror | Salon
http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2009/08/12/town_halls/
"Both major parties have become a rats' nest of hypocrisy and incompetence. That, combined with our stratospheric, near-criminal indebtedness to China (which could destroy the dollar overnight), should raise signal flags. Are we like late Rome, infatuated with past glories, ruled by a complacent, greedy elite, and hopelessly powerless to respond to changing conditions?"
Liberal writer Camille Paglia = intellectually honest.
A hard look at the problems with the current healthcare proposals, from the moderate liberal perspective.
Aug. 12, 2009 | Buyer's remorse? Not me. At the North American summit in Guadalajara this week, President Obama resumed the role he is best at -- representing the U.S. with dignity and authority abroad. This is why I, for one, voted for Obama and continue to support him. The damage done to U.S. prestige by the feckless, buffoonish George W. Bush will take years to repair. Obama has barely begun the crucial mission that he was elected to do.
Fraser Speirs - Blog - Future Shock
http://speirs.org/blog/2010/1/29/future-shock.html
I'll have more to say on the iPad later but one can't help being struck by the volume and vehemence of apparently technologically sophisticated people inveighing against the iPad. Some are trying to dismiss these ravings by comparing them to certain comments made after the launch of the iPod in 2001: "No wireless. Les space than a Nomad. Lame.". I fear this January-26th thinking misses the point. What you're seeing in the industry's reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock.
I'm often saddened by the infantilising effect of high technology on adults. From being in control of their world, they're thrust back to a childish, mediaeval world in which gremlins appear to torment them and disappear at will and against which magic, spells, and the local witch doctor are their only refuges. With the iPhone OS as incarnated in the iPad, Apple proposes to do something about this, and I mean really do something about it instead of just talking about doing something about it, and the world is going mental.
"Secretly, I suspect, we technologists quite liked the idea that Normals would be dependent on us for our technological shamanism. ... "The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS. "The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table's order, designing the house and organising the party. "Think of the millions of hours of human effort spent on preventing and recovering from the problems caused by completely open computer systems. ... "If the iPad and its successor devices free these people to focus on what they do best, it will dramatically change people's perceptions of computing from something to fear to something to engage enthusiastically with."
Curing Python's Neglect
http://zedshaw.com/blog/2009-05-29.html
I don't know python so I can't say whether these gripes are legitimate, but it's useful to remind yourself to look for such inconsistencies in how you do things, or in the tools you use every day
The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla - Dick Cavett Blog - NYTimes.com
http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/the-wild-wordsmith-of-wasilla/?em
November 14, 2008, 10:00 pm The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla Electronic devices dislike me. There is never a day when something isn’t ailing. Three out of these five implements — answering machine, fax machine, printer, phone and electric can-opener — all dropped dead on me in the past few days. Now something has gone wrong with all three television sets. They will only get Sarah Palin. I can play a kind of Alaskan roulette. Any random channel clicked on by the remote brings up that eager face, with its continuing assaults on the English Lang.
Now something has gone wrong with all three television sets. They will get only Sarah Palin. I can play a kind of Alaskan roulette. Any random channel clicked on by the remote brings up that eager face, with its continuing assaults on the English Lang.
Urtak
http://urtak.com/
Find Out What People Think. Urtak lets you make smart, sticky polls where participants can ask and answer questions. With Urtak you can: * Make unlimited free polls. * Embed polls everywhere. * Analyze results in real time.
Make unlimited free polls. Embed the poll anywhere! Analyze results in real time.
2009-07-01 - 日々是魚を蹴る
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/walkeri/20090701#p1
父が仕事で東京に出てきたので呑みに行った。父は教育畑の人で、あと1年少しで定年を迎える。ここ何年か県の教育庁で仕事をしていたが、今年度からはまた学校に転属になった。  その席で聞かせてくれた話がいろいろ面白かったので忘れないうちに書いておこうと思う。  父曰く……
Japanese self-thinker. A rare-find.
またいつか読んで確認したいと思う。棚卸したら面白そうなのでブクマ。
Op-Ed Columnist - Aaron Sorkin Conjures a Meeting of Obama and Bartlet - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21dowd-sorkin.html
Probably the defining moment in Sen Obama's campaign ... meeting Jed Bartlet!
"The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it."
Saw this all over the place during the campaign, loved it then, and finally found it online ^_^
Understand The Web · Ben Ward
http://benward.me/blog/understand-the-web
Ben Ward - 2 May 2010
About openness, HTML5, flash, Adobe, Apple, the entire current state. He has some valid points
Great essay by @benward on web apps and getting back to the real purpose of the web: http://is.gd/bYEda – Ben Crowder (bencrowder) http://twitter.com/bencrowder/statuses/13552044419
One of the best articles around explaining the difference in 'open', 'the web', 'web-apps' and the current Adobe vs Apple battle.
"...a desire for a free, cross-platform Cocoa or .NET quality application framework that runs in the browsers people already use."
kd.to_tumblr - The Opposite of Momentum
http://kirindave.tumblr.com/post/60776407/the-opposite-of-momentum
Ruby is in a very bad place right now. It’s no longer cutting edge, it’s technically stagnant, is in implementation limbo, and just isn’t… well… fun, anymore.
Dave Kirin on Ruby's growing pains - "Perhaps the most frustrating part about Ruby, to me, is the outrageously outdated state of the current Ruby interpreter. There is basically no way to avoid writing software that leaks memory. It will happen, you just have to make it leak as little as possible. I still remember the massive effort that Tom Preston-Werner went through to get a relatively simple program like God.rb to not leak memory… and it still leaks memory!": 2008-11-20: kd.to_tumblr
Let me start by saying that I’ve been a longtime fan of Ruby. I’ve been a member of the #caboose cabal forever, and I’ve written hundreds of thousands of lines of ruby over the course the last 6 years. I’ve drank the Ruby kool-aid, helped to start two Rails Startups and integrated a lot of code into Ruby. I fought tooth and nail to get Lockheed Martin to include Ruby deliverables in their RSA2 standardization project (didn’t you know? Ruby helps launch rockets!)
Why Ruby is dying
What it's like to debate Sarah Palin
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1001/p09s01-coop.html
I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.
"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.
I know firsthand: She's a master of the nonanswer.
For tonight: a preview if you will.
the new work ethic: just paying attention at intellectual properties
http://www.amyleblanc.com/2008/12/the-new-work-ethic-just-paying-attention
get things done
"Distractions mask the toll they take on productivity. Everyone finishes up their work days exhausted, but how much of that exhaustion is from real work, how much from the mental effort of fighting off distractions and how much from the indulgence of distractions? "
Only just able to finish reading this.