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Tuesday, May 7, 2002 |
Boston.com Consumer Reports recalls its own auto kit for safety reasons. Cool. This is a nonprofit that pays its management team like a Fortune 500 company. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
Consumer Reports has had a fallen from prestige in the last decade or so. This is the last straw, sort of like icing on the cake...He.
6:24:25 PM 
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Dave on Science
Five years ago on this day, I wrote a piece that nails it, as far as I'm concerned, on programmers. It was written at the height of the dotcom mania, as open source was joining the parade of New Economy "business models." Buck's, where I'm having breakfast with Doc this morning, was ground zero for the mania. I believed at that time that programming was heading for disaster, but it was based on misunderstandings. This was my attempt to clear them. It didn't work. In 1997 I wanted to return to the roots. "I think, in some ways programmers, who live the scientific method, are better prepared for life than non-programmers, but the opposite is often assumed. We all have a visual image of the programmer, but this is just the outer package. A great programmer is a seeker of truth and beauty. Successful programmers know how to ask questions, and they know how to ask the *right* question. You can't go forward until that happens. A programmer is a rigorous scientist determined to coax the truth out of the ones and zeros. There's the beauty." It would make me happy if you read the piece today, five years later, and let me know what you think.  [Scripting News]
[From the quoted article]
Programming is good training in the scientific method. For example, last week I spent five hours learning that "50" + 1 = 501 in my scripting system. That truth was available to me the instant I discovered the malfunctioning software, but it took five hours of investigating, digging in, and challenging assumptions before the truth was clear, and I could move on to the next problem.
Dave's 1997 article is a thing of beauty, but I find myself disagreeing with him on programmers. The programmers I know do not follow, or know, the scientific method, they are more artisans than scientists, and I think they should be engineers. I kept substituting "programmers" in the article by "scientists" or "mathematicians". I also don't like the term "scientific method" since it has been so misused in the past. I prefer "reason" or "logic". But, in the end, I agree with Dave: People that follow our scientific tradition are better off to face life and a lot more fun to hang around with!
10:31:10 AM Google It!
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Business Week: Lawrence Lessig: We have given control of the future to the dinosaurs.
>>>As we move from narrowband to broadband [access to the Net], broadband operators are developing technology that gives them control over applications and content on the network.<<< I am seeing this too -- very scary. Primarily because the biggest improvements in consumer experiences online will be the result of the desktop PC becomming a source of content as well as an always-on consumer of content. This is something the cable/telcos don't want to see happen.
>>>The problem is, we've given control of the future to the people who will lose even under best possible plan.<<<
>>>In essence, it asks to create a national police state of music listening by forcing Webcasters to collect data and turn it over to copyright holders.<<<
>>>The traditional vision protects copyright owners from unfair competition. It has never been a way to give copyright holders perfect control over how consumers use content.<<< [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
9:45:53 AM
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New Details Emerge From the Einstein Files
A look at Einstein's file, available at foia.fbi.gov/einstein.htm, shows more about public [~] and bureau [~] attitudes toward scientific genius than toward the genius himself. No feat seemed beyond such a man, according to the file. Through a spokesman, the F.B.I. declined to comment specifically on the file, saying it was up to the public to evaluate the material. Mike Kortan of the bureau said that under the Freedom of Information Act the agency was required to release information from "an earlier era in our history when different concerns drove the government, news media and public sentiment."
[From New York Times]
9:24:28 AM Google It!
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Dutch Election in Limbo After Politician's Murder. The Dutch struggled today to comprehend the assassination of their most controversial politician, Pim Fortuyn. A lone "white Dutchman" was arrested after the shooting. By Reuters.Small groups of men of African -- mostly Moroccan -- origin shouted and celebrated Fortuyn's death, Rotterdam police said.
In his last radio interview, recorded just before he was gunned down, Fortuyn was asked how old he would like to grow.
``When I was 14 or so, I thought: I'll live to be 86 or 87. And that feeling has never gone away,'' media quoted Fortuyn as telling the interviewer.
[New York Times: NYT HomePage]
7:16:24 AM
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Jobs Gives Developers a Thrill. Apple coders catch a quick glimpse of 'Jaguar' -- the next version of OS X -- as Steve Jobs rings a few bells and sounds a few whistles. Farhad Manjoo reports from the Worldwide Developer Conference in San Jose, California. [Wired News]
Apple announcements yesterday were so great that even the minor announcements, the ones the press didn't even mention are amazing. The future looks good! Damn, we have to wait for it...
7:12:15 AM
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Extreme Copyright
Let's see Hollywood aquiesce to the logical extension of its arguments. Do you think Jamie Kellner would agree that if you send him an E-mail, you have the right by your "contract" in creating it to force him to sit and read it in one stretch, a contract he accepted by receiving your E-mail? What about phone calls -- are they required to listen to any copyrighted presentation of yours you may send over the phone lines? Or forbidden from recording it or copying that recording? What if you legally required them to destroy any letter you sent after 48 hours and forbade duplicating or filing it?
[From Life and Deatherage]
7:01:45 AM Google It!
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© Copyleft 2005 Alfredo Octavio.
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