This is a fantastic conference overview, and it happens to be an overview of what many people described as the most fantastic software development conference of the year. I’m really going to try to attend Strange Loop in 2012.
This is a fantastic conference overview, and it happens to be an overview of what many people described as the most fantastic software development conference of the year. I’m really going to try to attend Strange Loop in 2012.
In what was probably the best piece of political writing I’ve read this year, Mark Lilla discusses the huge gap between how Obama-hating conservatives and sane people perceive the Obama presidency. This describes an experience many of us have had:
Whenever conservatives talk to me about Barack Obama, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else. But what exactly? The anger, the suspicion, the freestyle fantasizing have no perceptible object in the space-time continuum that centrist Democrats like me inhabit. What are we missing?
He doesn’t get any closer to an explanation than anyone else I’ve read, but he describes the phenomenon fantastically well.
The Well does not own your words
San Francisco Chronicle columnist and long-time Well member Jon Carroll attempts to explain The Well. If you’ve ever been curious about it, now is a great time to join.
Git has taken over where Linux left off separating the geeks into know-nothings and know-it-alls. I didn’t really expect anyone to use it because it’s so hard to use, but that turns out to be its big appeal. No technology can ever be too arcane or complicated for the black t-shirt crowd.
Linus Torvalds, by way of Typical Programmer. Satire, of course.
Data Centers Waste Vast Amounts of Energy, Belying Industry Image
This is an area where the Internet industry could use improvement. Here’s the damning statistic:
But at the request of The Times, the consulting firm McKinsey & Company analyzed energy use by data centers and found that, on average, they were using only 6 percent to 12 percent of the electricity powering their servers to perform computations. The rest was essentially used to keep servers idling and ready in case of a surge in activity that could slow or crash their operations.
We can do better than that.
Update: You should read this rebuttal of the article as well. (Chris posted a pointer to it in the comments but it should get top billing.)
A new site for digging into prior art from Stack Exchange. Will it result in more patents being overturned? I doubt it. Certainly prior art exists for this type of effort. Back in 2000, O’Reilly launched a site called BountyQuest with similar goals. Tim O’Reilly explained why the site never worked out in 2003.
Generally speaking, I’m not convinced that the patent problem can be solved by digging up prior art like this. Most of the time when I see a patent claim, I can think of products that covered similar territory before the patent in question was filed. I’m sure that defense attorneys and their consultants can do the same.
David Simon: Mitt Romney paid taxes at a rate of 13 percent and he’s proud to say so. Redux.
David Simon is a values voter.
New York Times: Steve Sabol, 69, Creative Force Behind NFL Films, Dies
Farewell to a man who was the master of his craft.
In today’s New York Times, David Carr writes about the subjects of articles demanding to review their quotations before they are published. Needless to say, this practice is corrosive to the practice of legitimate journalism, which is about reporting on things that public figures would not openly tell you on their own.
I think it’s interesting to look at why this is taking place. Not only is the democratization of the media hurting news reporting as a business, but it’s also reducing the value of the media as an interface between public figures and the public. At one time, if public figures wanted to disseminate a message, they had to talk to reporters with the hope that the reporter would convey their message in the way they intended.
That’s no longer necessary. A celebrity, politician, or business leader can publish a tweet, or a tweet that links to a blog post, or a video on YouTube. Those, in turn, will be shared by everyone who cares about them. The idea of making an announcement by giving a reporter an exclusive interview is almost completely dead.
The power to reach the public directly gives public figures the power to dictate the terms of their relationships with reporters. The other side of this story is the increased reliance on anonymous sources in reporting. In the modern age, if you’re going to speak publicly, you may as well just deliver the news yourself. Talking to journalists is what you do if you want to deliver news without having to give your name.
I don’t see this relationship between the media and sources changing anytime soon, so it’s up to us to take this changing relationship into account as media consumers. One thing’s for sure — it’s not a great time to be a journalist.
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Anil Dash on the Blue Collar Coder
The Blue Collar Coder
Anil Dash writes about a career path for people who are coders but not necessarily computer scientists. We already see this to some degrees in areas like ops, data center work, and desktop support. I certainly think there is plenty of room for this idea in software development as well.