Thursday, December 05, 2002

SOAP Spec Authored During Beer Bust". "Eventually, after the booze got the better of us, we started inventing protocol names. Dave came up with the name Stupid Object Access Protocol so called because it used this crazy bandwidth-hogging on-the-wire format (editor's note: XML), no implementations, had nothing to do with objects and wasn't even really a protocol." How come this story sounds utterly believable? :-) [All Things Distributed] [Sam Gentile's Radio Weblog] 5:19:35 PM     Digital Cameras: Where to Start?. Digital cameras are on a lot of shopping lists this holiday season, but how do you find the right model for you? Experts offer some advice, and users give their favorite picks. By Elisa Batista. [Wired News] 5:15:43 PM     Saw this on Bryan's blog  via Brad: A few thoughts - I thing Christmas has been pumped up by Corporate America and has become an integral part of the incredible Consumerism that drives the US economy. All the cards you see floating around - thank Hallmark for that one. I have my own problem with what I perceive are other holidays that have been elevated much above their typical standing by companies wanting a reason to spur people into spending more money (or going into more debt). Secondly if a person doesn't share Christianity he or she will clearly be a minority in that regard in the US. Kind of like a Christian might feel in India. Also, as a side note, I've had a roommate from Israel who always got a big kick out of the importance that Hanukka has in the US. He said it wasn't nearly as big a deal in Israel itself and so we both speculated that it had to be all the little boys and girls that didn't celebrate Christmas and felt left out of all the gift giving and "spending" that drove this holiday to importance here in the US. Oh and while I'm on this trail - Kwaanza was invented as a counter Consumerism celebration in order to give African Americans, who may or may not be able to participate in the spending orgy of December,  a way to celebrate values that transcend the act of showering someone with presents. All this is to say that many people feel alienated by this season for many reasons. I can definitely sympathize with that emotion. 7:17:06 AM

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