Posts

Showing posts from June, 2003
So what is the conservatives' next move? The main argument -- that gay marriage puts marriage "under attack" -- is such utter and total bullshit. Yet it persists. The amusing thing is that these same GOPers have no problem with the horrible problems like homeless families , unaffordable childcare , or underfunded k-12 schools , things that really and truly hurt kids and families, but rant on and on about how straight people getting married more will solve everything. I guess they will also fear-monger, the "slippery slope" that Rick Santorum brought forth: if you say that the hallmark is privacy and consent, this allows incest, prostitution, and perhaps touch-dancing. Whatever. Of course, not every conservative is crying in her beer. The worst are already putting terrific pressure on Bush to nominate folks slightly to the right of Heinrich Himmler to replace the eventually-retiring William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor. As Phyllis Schalfly said today
Ghostbuster quote for today: Dr. Raymond Stantz: Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything. You've never been in the private sector. They expect results.
"You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that need altering." -Doctor Who [via baron]
If Ellison pulls off his PeopleSoft bid, it could allow SAP to focus on just one major competitor. "It might even be better for us," says [SAP CEO Henning] Kagermann, "because the difference between Oracle and SAP is clearer than between SAP and PeopleSoft in the culture of the companies." - from "The Man Who Mooned Larry Ellison" [found on Ditherati ]
Because mySQL is now under the GPL, PHP5 will no be bundled with mySQL . This isn't unexpected, since SAP acquired mySQL you figure this sort of thing would be happening. But it's a little weird, all these OSS apps that seemed hippy-dippy and free are becoming commodities. Is this the missing future that people are talking about?
"Placeholder for Mindy's Editorial." Take a look at Slate's sneak of BushCo. web site , coming soon to a browser near you. I love all the faux headlines: "President Signs Amber Alert Law," "President Acts to Lower Rx Bills." Would some unsuspecting soul actually venture to the BushCheney04.com site to have a taste of phony news? Why are sites like that even necessary? The web is weird.
For several years... [public policy professor Richard] Florida queried audiences, asking which career they'd choose: machinist with higher pay and job security, or hairstylist with lower pay and no job security. "Time and again, most people chose the hair salon, and always for the same reasons" - flexibility, freedom from supervision, stimulation, creativity, and the immediate satisfaction of their customers. The aesthetic imperative has spread new economy values beyond just knowledge workers. -- from Virginia Postrel's "The Aesthetic Imperative" I have to say, I bought all of that "end of work" stuff, I was totally into it. I used to stare at those Business 2.0 print ads by Guru.com . I thought, "in my generation..." And I am still thinking that my days in my (relatively) creative job are quite numbered. I have more or less the job I dreamed of five years ago. I do web design, database design, flowcharting, technical writing, and
Here's Andy about the left's moral abdication vis-a-vis Iran . OK, guys, the American left should extend the love to Iran's dissidents. But conservatives have bad history with dealing with democratic countries, in the sense that it likes to intervene with non-aligned democratic govts., and is loath to intervene w/ allied govts. So Pakistan... there's a slim definition of "democratic nation," but the administration won't rock the boat there. There are much more repressive folks in the region, like, the Saudis, upon whom Bush has applied little or no pressure. And they haven't said much about Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi. Actually, the State Department is talking about that . And Iran, well, the US didn't really do a good job the last time . I just think it's the Rumsfeldian selectivity (sounds like a psychological disorder) that irritates me. The fact that everything that the Administration doesn't want to talk about (read: WMD) is just dis
I used to have an affection for lists and list-centered writing, especially The Book of Lists . I loved that book in the fifth grade because (a) it contained a ton of sex information and (b) it bestowed volumes of worthless trivia, a boon to pretentious fifth-graders everywhere. But list books are now the bane of gift stores, with hundreds of "1000 things that will make you smile" type-books polluting the book industry . And lists in magazines are now so prevalent that they warrant their own hit piece . So: death to lists.
Working on my PHP error handling . Security, error handling, a little intimidating. Error handling is a weak spot. I guess it's the perfectionist in me, I don't want to mess up something that isn't messed up already.
You gotta love Jon Brion .