Sunday, January 20, 2002

Speaking of JD's rant, I also agree with Dave on a number of other items; I'm not at all convinced that something as complex as a modern, secure, multitasking operating system or a massive word processor can be (or should be) so simple that every single complex feature should be instantaneously graspable by anyone on earth.  File systems and security on the NT-based OSes are complex, true, but they're far simpler than the same topics on Unix-like OSes, and besides, it's a complex idea for the layman. I simply don't think it's possible for things as massive as modern software products to be completely comprehensible from stem-to-stern without documentation, any more than I could go out and disassemble my Honda without mechanical expertise and a factory service manual. 11:37:35 AM      comment [] JD Lascia's rant about Microsoft would really irritate me if I hadn't done something similar myself.  His comments about the "blind-wearing programmers at Microsoft" not being able to create user-friendly software, and Dave's reply, which was basically that JD should try writing software, that it's much harder than it looks, really ring true with me. Several years ago, when I first met Ken, he showed me an RPN calculator he had written for Windows in Borland C++ or Delphi or something.  I, being a complete jackass whose only modern programming experience had been with Turbo Pascal, completely dismissed the accomplishment... in my vision of software development, it must be sickeningly easy to throw together a reliable, stack-based calculator with a UI, right?  Then I learned the basics of Windows programming, the slow, hard way... I regretted my cavalier attitude ever since. [Scripting News] 11:33:43 AM      comment [] too much blogging, must sleep. damn ken, that crack dealer.  damn Radio, my new crack. 1:38:39 AM      comment [] No way, a significant religious leader actually bucks the mainstream, stays true to his ethics, and criticizes the "war on terror"?  I'm astounded; ever since we defeated the Taliban, just about everyone less cynical than Noam Chomsky suddenly began toadying to the US/UK party line. On a slightly more serious note, as my friend Ryan said the other day, I really don't see how shooting up a girl's bat mitzvah is going to help the Palestinian cause at all; the only thing it will accomplish is to get alot more Palestinians killed when Israel decides to kick some ass.  Besides, it totally plays into Sharon's hands.  I really think the Palestinians should have accepted the best offer they got from the last Israeli labour PM and worked to improve it; it would have saved alot of lives on both sides. 1:32:39 AM      comment [] Ah, F1 trash-talk.  I'll be glad when the season has actually started so we can focus on results. Rubens Barichello continues to delude himself and think he is Michael Schumacher's equal.  Alain Prost, Niki Lauda, maybe; Ayrton Senna, Juan Manuel Fangio, certainly.  Rubens Baricehllo, no way on earth. Michael, in the mean time, is downplaying retirement rumors, and dismissing Coulthard's hopes at a championship run.  DC responds by demonstrating that both Schuey and JPM have gotten under his skin.  Coulthard's a real gentleman and a pleasure to watch drive, but I think he's outclassed in both the psychological aspect of F1 and on the track, when going at ten-tenths and it's do-or-die. I agree with him about Montoya being over-hyped, however.  Oh, and by the way, just in case his childish behavior after stupidly ending Jean Alesi's last F1 race last year (an incident where Alesi clearly behaved like a consummate gentleman) didn't convince me, Kimi Raikonnen really is a dickhead. 1:26:08 AM      comment [] McLaren unveiled the MP4-17, the steed for David Coulthard and Kimi Raikonnen in the upcoming Formula 1 season.  It doesn't look very different to me from the limited angles I've seen, but the pundits are claiming significant aerodynamic changes.  They'll need them to keep up with Ferrari and Williams next year. 1:16:45 AM      comment [] Even more Enron scumminess.  I continue to be astounded by what a bunch of dirtbags these guys were: "If there was a dodgy, cutting-edge, "innovative" way to get around the spirit and letter of the law to be found, they were looking for it. This is a company, after all, that, in order to avoid paying federal income taxes, set up more than 800 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands alone." But I thought the free market would inevitably lead corporations to act in the best interests of their customers and employees!   1:00:03 AM      comment [] I keep harping on the fact that I just don't get the new iMac; apparently I'm not the only person who feels this way: "Besides, the iMac's proportions strike me as a little out of whack -- the base unit, though only 10.6 inches in diameter, just looks too big (not in the photos, but when you see it 'in person')." Personally, I'm going to try and override my kneejerk "Apple is bullshit" response until I see a new iMac in person; that may not be for some time now, however. [GlennLog] 12:46:41 AM      comment [] Via Adam Curry, and right on: "Enron's dismal story simply doesn't meet the high bar of triviality the press today demands. The sums of money involved are too great; the flaws in our political system that it exposes are too vast. It's just too real to qualify." http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/01/18/enron_scandal/index_np.html 12:41:38 AM      comment [] As Ken points out, "Making FTP Work in Red Hat is really handy."  One of my major reasons for starting a weblog was to create a centralized storehouse for all those links that make (or made) my techie life easier, with the added bonus that maybe others can find that info someday when they need it. One thing about that article incensed me, however: the discussion of RedHat's Up2Date system, which is apparently a subscription-based auto-update system.  Why on earth should you have to pay for updates to keep an OS from being hacked?  Even Microsoft doesn't make you pay for Windows Update!  (Not that that people actually apply the patches to keep their machines from being attacked...) 12:35:34 AM      comment [] Speaking of Simon Fell, this is gonna be super-dee-dooper handy for my XML-RPC development.  Nothing like actually being able to see the raw HTTP traffic... 12:21:38 AM      comment [] This is just the kind of thing I need to read and read again: details on Radio Extensibility by Simon Fell, along with Dave's Going crazy with macros.  Radio is a super-cool crack-like product on its own but I think the extensibility is where we're really going to be seeing true coolness and I want to make some of it. [Scripting News] 12:19:29 AM      comment [] I'm trying the new Radio Spam-free mailTo feature; it looks like Radio hasn't done its overnight update yet on my machine, so it's displaying a macro error at the moment.  Hopefully in the morning it'll be working okay. [Scripting News] 12:14:18 AM      comment [] Just finished watching the Patriots vs. Raiders game.  I want to say that the Raiders were robbed; that call on the Tom Brady fumble was bullshit, and if the rule says that a dropped ball is an "incomplete pass" even if you were pump-faking and had just regained control of the ball, the rule is bullshit.  Gruden's ability to avoid going off during the press conference is simply amazing; I'd be laying mushroom clouds. On the other hand, the Patriots were playing their asses off and their hearts out, and I feel like they deserve the victory after pushing so hard in the last half.  Damn them :) Speaking of football, the Buccaneers were a bunch of jerkoffs for firing Tony Dungy and I'm glad that Parcells isn't interested in the job now; they're well and truly screwed, and it serves them right.  Dungy is probably the classiest coach in the NFL, and turned them from the worst team in the league into consistent, solid playoff contenders.  His reward: to get kicked to the curb for not winning a Super Bowl.  It delights me to no end to see the karmic payback for such disloyalty. 12:05:56 AM      comment []

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