rc3.org

I just read a job listing for a couple of Perl programmers, and in addition the job description and the basic requirements of the job, it included two homework assignments. One was to explain why you’d use a certain programming construct in Perl, and another to explain how you’d solve a big refactoring problem that [...]

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A Florida House candidate has apologized for remarking that based on his experience, African Americans generally can’t swim. What fascinates me is that he has obviously not put any thought toward why that might be. In Baton Rouge, Lousiana’s city park, they have a swimming pool that’s been filled with dirt. It was open for [...]

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I’ve been using the Motorola Pebl I bought on eBay for a couple of weeks now with much success. I am able to call people, sync the address book with my computer, check my voice mail, and access the Web. The phone still has the wrong menu entries (they’re for the Italian mobile carrier) and [...]

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The Foreign Policy blog describes a new “terrorist detector” that the TSA is considering adding at airports. Basically, you sit in the machine and answer questions while hooked up to sensors of some kind. It uses answers and measurements to determine whether you’re “afraid of being caught.”

What’s interesting to me is that they claim an [...]

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Let me get this straight: the British authorities had been tracking a cell of would-be terrorists for nearly a year, and had appraised the US government of the threat months ago. Furthermore, they have known for some time that the terrorist plot involved the use of liquid explosives, a potential means of attack that was [...]

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I think he’s exactly right when he says:

It is not clear that bloggers had much real impact on the Connecticut primary, but they’re a new wild card in the political process, and that makes them a story. I have always appreciated the fierce independence of bloggers, and I fear that, as they accumulate [...]

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I wanted to solicit some advice regarding status reports. Let’s say you’re managing a project with several participants. Do you require them to submit weekly status reports?

I am of two minds about this. On one hand, I can see where the reports would be useful. It would be interesting to have a list of what [...]

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Over at O’Reilly Radar Nat Torkington debunks an argument that I was once very sympathetic toward, which is that Apple (and other platform vendors) are evil when they incorporate features into the operating system that are provided by third party software vendors. In this case, the argument specifically revolves around small third party shareware applications [...]

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Last weekend I took my first real trip with the Nikon D50 in tow, a few impressions follow.

First of all, the pictures it takes are wonderful. I find myself to be lacking as a photographer, but I certainly can’t blame the tool. The pictures are sharp, the colors are great, and the indoor photos came [...]

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I’m going on a short trip over the weekend, so activity will be lacking around here until next Tuesday. The good news (for me) is that I’ll be escaping the stifling heat for a few days.

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