Saturday, August 18, 02001
I've been playing with CSS and XHTML a little more. I've got the main page set up as a valid XHTML document now, and I've got it looking pretty much the way I want without any table, font or blockquote tags. It still looks like someone with absolutely no design skill put it together, but that would be true ! It also probably looks really bad to anyone not using a CSS-compliant browser. I wonder if I'll ever get the rest of the pages to a similar state...
Posted at 07:53 PM EST [Link]
Thursday, August 16, 02001
Belguim researchers have found unexpected DNA in Monsanto's genetically "engineered" soybeans. I have placed engineered in quotes for a reason, since poor version control is definitely a sign of a poorly engineered product.
I've made the argument in other posts that genetic engineering is like doing software engineering on million year old legacy systems with no documentation. In such a system it is neccessary to do massive amounts of testing because you can't reasonably be expected to understand all the different logic paths that the control can flow. Changing something small can have a huge impact somewhere else that would never have expected it to be involved. This is what happens in systems 30 years old developed by at least partally rational beings - how can random mutation do any better ?
Version control is another aspect of development which is absolutely neccessary. It's impossibily to make sure your changes aren't introducing any unexpected consequences unless you know what you are changing.
It's also been my experience that sloppy version control is indicitive of the entire engineering culture at a company.
Posted at 01:32 PM EST [Link]
Tuesday, August 14, 02001
In Kazakhstan, Tolkienist are being tortured.
Yes, Virginia, there are people who make their fun re-enacting scenes from Tolkien's books.
Are they strange ?
No doubt.
Are they stranger than people who re-enact scenes from the US Civil War ?
Probably not.
Do they deserve to get tortured.
Definitely not !
Posted at 02:32 PM EST [Link]
As if the Viridian missives weren't enough, Bruce Sterling now has a weekly column, eh "blog", at www.inifinitematrix.net.
Posted at 02:13 PM EST [Link]
I don't think there's ever been a joke-of-the-day on this blog. Let's fix that. Thanks to Vance.
Son: Dad, I have to do a special report for school. Can I ask you a question?Father: Sure son. What's the question?
Son: What is politics?
Father: Well, let's take our home for an example. I am the wage earner, so let's call me Capitalism. Your mother is the administrator of money, so we'll call her the Government. We take care of your needs, so let's call you the People. We'll call the maid the Working Class and your baby brother we can call the Future. Do you understand son?
Son: I'm not really sure, Dad. I'll have to think about it.
That night the son is awakened by his brother's crying. The boy goes to see what was wrong. Discovering that the baby had seriously soiled his diaper, the boy goes to his parents' room and finda his mother sound asleep. He then goes to the maid's room where peeking through the keyhole, he sees his father in bed with the maid. The boy's knocking goes totally unheeded by his father and the maid, so the boy returns to his room and falls back to sleep. The next morning he reports back to his father.
Son: Dad, now I think I understand what politics is.
Father: Good son! Can you explain it to me in your own words?
Son: Well Dad, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class. Government is sound asleep. The People are being completely ignored and the Future is full of shit !
Posted at 01:13 PM EST [Link]
Monday, August 13, 02001
There's been a ten million dollar drug bust involving white, suburban kids in the Northern Virginia area. How long before the Internet is blamed for the parent's failings ?
For six months during his senior year, when he was allegedly peddling drugs, Wolfe dated the daughter of the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Washington regional office. Wolfe's friends said he boasted about dating a DEA agent's daughter.The official, Frank Chellino, now special agent in charge of the DEA's Miami office, said Wolfe seemed a well-mannered, stable youth.
Vote on Frank's job performance at the strange DEA watch weblog. Apparently its focus is thoughts of rank-and-file DEA agents. The layout was too hard on my eyes to spend much time on it.
Posted at 01:33 PM EST [Link]
Sunday, August 12, 02001
You can buy naming rights, but you can't force me to use them.
Hats off to the Denver Post for refusing to use the corporate name of some stadium in Colorado.
This sort of nonsense doesn't only happen in corporate sponsorship. It was a couple years ago that the Republicans changed the name of the local airport. It's still National to me, and everyone else in the area, including Metro as far as I can tell. I couldn't find any updates concerning the stop getting renamed since March.
Posted at 10:32 AM EST [Link]
The USSR exploded their first hydrogen bomb on this day in 1953. It makes me wonder if they were aiming for the anniversary of the Japanesse bombings, and the project slipped a couple days.
Posted at 09:30 AM EST [Link]
