Corporate Mofo discusses the Matrix universe in detail too deep for a philosophical lightweight for me to comprehend. But he picks up on, and explains something I noticed too. He says: Not coincidentally, most of the people in Zion seem to be black or Hispanic, which makes perfect sense: If you’re a white suburban Matrix resident, driving your Matrix SUV to your Matrix golf club, why doubt the nature of reality? ...
I watched Ars Digita, because I sensed something important and interesting was happening there. I was saddened when it all fell apart. To me, it was an important part of the tale of the dot-com days. I found an article that looks to be an interesting insider’s view on things there. Update: Eve has removed the article from her website.
Some usability researchers reported that with a 35 degree viewing angle, women are slower at navigational tasks than men, but when the viewing angle opens up to 70 degrees or more, the gender difference disappears. The improvement only shows up if the animation is smooth like reality, not jumpy. Somehow I feel just a little bit pleased and superior as a result of reading about this. I know I’m not supposed to, but I still do. ...
This description of life at Microsoft is pretty accurate. There’s more to it, of course. Every big company has politics and culture “issues”. Also, not every employee of Microsoft is so privileged to work at a level where they can control their own fate as much as the article implies. But for a certain class of Microsoft employees, it really just as he says it is. I didn’t leave because I was being overly controlled or constrained by The Borg. I left Microsoft because I was dissatisfied with the business ethics of the company, and was not willing to commit my effort to changing it. Instead, I chose to put my effort into a smaller company where I could more easily reinforce the behaviors I wanted to see in my employer. ...
Girls, listen up!
Why is it that so few people ask the interesting questions that turn institutions on their heads? Philg contemplates colleges optimized for learning.
The little loan on my house got sold to Countrywide (though a closer inspection of the paperwork makes me think it was probably sold to the Bank of New York, which is having Countrywide service the loan for them). They kick ass, because they have real people, not lawyer-automatons write their letters. Here’s an excerpt: Welcome to Countrywide Home Loans, the nation’s largest independent home loan lender. Your home loan servicing was recently transferred to us and this is your official notice, as legally required. So please excuse the formality. ...
I used to work for Arnold de Leon. He has a method of teaching his coworkers lessons that Dave Winer just explained: Moore did coin a new phrase, and like all good bloggers wanting to initialize a new meme, he repeats it over and over. This is not a new idea. Jake Savin was a music major at Reed College. He told me his composition teacher taught him that a good theme is worth repeating, many times. ...
I spent yesterday reading, debugging, and then fixing a Java program. What a pain in the ass. If I manage to go another 5 years until I do Java again, I’ll be happy. The problem with Java is that the language provides the tiniest little basic units, and everything else you need you have to build. Or use other things that other people built for you (but first you have to learn about them and understand their quirks). That all makes sense from a theoretical viewpoint, but it is just much harder to use than a language like Perl which has very well developed, robust primitives whose quirks I already mastered years ago. ...
In the Daily Telegraph, Patrick Bishop writes of American soldiers, “In short, they must work harder to show that they belong to the human race.” I don’t know who he is or if he has any credibility, but if the difference is visible to him, it probably is to the Iraqis too.