Mapping the Penalties of Failure. Below is a picture of of a map that hangs in my office; it shows an area in the Balkans and was created around 1790. I bought it in a dusty little bookstore in Juneau Alaska, but that's another story. It's inscribed in French, Polish, and Turkish (written pre-reform in Arabic script). Like many maps it's very beautiful, but it's more than a little weird, and carries an important lesson.... [ongoing]

A very good analogy, and being a fan of maps (I have dozens!), I have to agree.

6:37:55 AM   

Documentation writers shouldn't write documentation. GEEKS should write documentation. After all, they know the product inside and out. And for most things needing documentation, well, most likely it's gonna be geeks using it.

Ok. I'm just a little miffed. I've been sitting here trying to figure out how assign a port so I can use Radio remotely. I did everything they say and it doesn't work. In small print at the bottom of my http: setup page for the router it says, "refer to the Belkin Wireless Router Users Guide". So I pulled out the guide and read the section again. Still the same, can't get to Radio. Being the logical person I am, I went to the website to look for further documentation. Just a PDF of the userguide.

Thing is, the user guide sucked! I can't believe they put something like that on the market. Personally I think they should ask you at the counter, "Sir, would you say you are a geek?"

To which I would reply,"Doesn't the pocket protector and the fact that I'm carrying everything from a PDA to a GPS unit give it away?" To which they'd hand me THE BIG BOOK OF GEEKY ROUTER THINGS, not this piddly little thing that I'm wondering why they wasted their time printing it.

Rant done. I feel better. On with the show! Oh! If anyone knows how to configure this damn Belkin POS router give me a holler.

6:29:18 AM   

Argentina Makes Its Software Play. Driven by peso devaluation and a domestic downturn, Argentine technology companies are marketing the country as a great place for other nations to outsource software programming. Eleonora Rabinovich reports from Buenos Aires. [Wired News]

Here's a list of other great places to outsource programming. California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania...hang on! I got about 33 more places!

5:23:40 AM