It seems that we’ve finally achieved one of the icons of the 1950s vision of the future: the living room videophone. And it might even catch on.
But come on, guys… you promised that sixty years ago. That’s a heck of a long time to deliver on a promise. And where’s that flying car you promised at the same time? 😉
Wow… there’s been some debate over whether Google’s response to the whole Chinese hacking episode is just posturing, but more recent news seems to suggest that they’re seriously pissed at the Chinese government. And now comes the news that they’ve added code to show users when an account is accessed from an unexpected geographical area — useful to everyone, but quite obviously added to block the Chinese government from spying on those who disagree with it.
I doubt it will have a major effect on the Chinese, since they will just need to go through a proxy in the geographical area of their target to get around it, but it does point to one seriously ticked off company. And I, for one, wholeheartedly approve.
So eat chips (that’s Brit-speak for “fries,” to us Yanks) and you’ll be okay with the bombing of Hiroshima? Hm, makes me wonder what they put on the fries over there — and whether I could get some too. 😉
Hot on the heels of my own version-control post, Joel Spolsky writes one of his own. It’s a good overview of what’s different between a traditional version-control system and the new distributed version-control systems, and how the new ones are better. (It works for me, I use Git myself.)
The takeaway quote:
If you are using Subversion, stop it. Just stop. Subversion = Leeches. Mercurial and Git = Antibiotics. We have better technology now.
Many programmers claim that multi-threaded programming is painfully difficult, to the point that when I say otherwise, they claim that it shows “a lack of expert knowledge.” (Obviously, I disagree with that assessment.) 😉
But just because it’s “not difficult” doesn’t mean that it’s easy. And since most people who write programs don’t have my level of experience (yet, at least), I’m cautiously in favor of this fellow’s stab at preventing such problems. I’m even more interested in the “Jinx” bug-spotter that his company is supposed to be releasing. I’ll probably never get it myself, because I don’t really have a lot of need for it, but it’s interesting nonetheless.
Has humanity lost its collective mind? Just because some guys smash their guitars on stage, does everyone think that they have to do it? Are people really that wasteful?
(Yes, those are rhetorical questions. The answers are well-known: yes, yes, and yes.) 😉
A good article, and one that will (to quote my sainted grandmother) “scare the pee-water right out” of anyone responsible for corporate-level security. But the main reason I wanted to mention it was for the excuse to put the amusing phrase “your panties in a bunch” into a blog title. 😉
A kid and his mother playing the Sims 3. It wouldn’t seem like a learning experience, but you might be surprised — there are six lessons listed there, and only one of them is something I’d expect. (Which one is left as an exercise for the reader. 😉 )
I think our generation has pretty much put paid to our parents’ idea that computer games are a waste of time.
Somehow I can’t see my wife allowing me to practice this move. I don’t speak Japanese, but I’m pretty sure I get the gist of what they’re saying — and it probably includes “don’t try this at home, kids.”
(c-square, this is the one I was telling you about.)
Um… what the f***?
I have to agree with the first commenter, “es76grl”:
Get over yourself, Lindsay-no one even thought the ad was about you until YOU started saying it was…..I hope you don’t get a dime!!
(Via Boing Boing)