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Whoa! My first was a COSMAC ELF - built it from scratch, with 256 bytes of RAM. There's a guy in the referenced article actually had one too! Bizarre!

First Computers [Slashdot]
2:09:16 AM     comment []

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I really do need a 'humor' category! This'd fit nicely!

Morons ... I give the first CD encoded this way three hours on the open market before it shows up on Kazaa, and the protocol itself three days before it's cracked digitally.

No, Really, You Can't Copy These. Philips Electronics is about to launch a new digital rights management system. They say encoded songs can be played anywhere on any device, but absolutely cannot be copied. Hackers, take note. [Wired News]
9:33:22 AM     comment []

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What's the world coming to? A factually toned, nearly blabber-free, article in The Register ... pretty good, too.

Why Real sued Microsoft. Analysis Future battles beyond the PC [The Register]
11:47:53 PM     comment []

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Due to continuing frustrations with Radio Userland, as well as the upcoming renewal cost (due in February, which'll mark my first complete year blogging), I'm considering moving this blog to a new platform, and consequently a new address.

The address thing will also address some confusion - I run a web hosting service behind The Raven Banner, and some folks Googling have wondered whether the Raven Banner is a blog or a hosting company.

As to platform, I'm looking seriously at Blosxom. I like the simple, file system like structure (I used a similar scheme in many of my telephony products). I like the very minimalist approach to "flavoring" a site. Plus, it's true Open Source software - unlike Moveable Type, which also requires a database setup and is somewhat more complicated to configure.

I'll have to considerably revamp my "publishing system" - including finding a new RSS aggregator (one that hopefully works better than Radio has been of late) and a new system for pinging weblogs.com and other utility functions.

Anybody out there have any comments?
10:15:50 AM     comment []

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Censored songs in a Windows only format for 11 cents less ... hmmm, I think I'll stick to iTunes.

Wal-Mart Sells Songs for 88 Cents. The retail giant rolls out its new online music service, which boasts songs edited to remove offensive lyrics, and a price designed to undercut iTunes and other competitors. [Wired News]
9:58:13 AM     comment []

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I saw this on CNN last night but was too depressed to post it directly. Guess I'm still on the "bleeding edge" of technology after all ... 235,000 Fewer Programmers by 2015 [Slashdot]
9:56:23 AM     comment []

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This bit on "off shoring" (moving technical jobs overseas to save money): Outsourcing's offshore myth from CNet so infuriated me that I had to write a response.

It turned into quite the rant, so I moved it into my stories section as it was just too lengthy to fit properly on the front page as a post.

Here's the link: On Off Shore
9:30:25 PM     comment []

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Here's a link to a nice piece on the underlying design differences between Unix and Windows ... and why Windows cannot be made secure short of a complete rewrite.

Mac OS X Security Criticisms Countered [Slashdot]
9:12:19 AM     comment []

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Bastards! I've spec'd my last IBM box for a client...

IBM mulls sending engineer jobs to India. White collar crimes [The Register]
9:05:56 AM     comment []

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Every once in a while there's a real gem posted over a t CircleID. Below is one of them ....

When Did We Give Away the Internet?. I've been following the recent news on the World Summit on the Information Society, and it's getting really bizarre. The Wired article is one example of out of the out-of-this-world coverage on the World Summit; I heard a similar spin yesterday on a radio show that often shares material with the BBC. What king or dictator or bureaucrat has signed the document giving power over the Internet to one organization or another? Did I miss the ceremony? One laughable aspect of news reportage is... [CircleID]
8:35:50 AM     comment []

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Yet another reason to switch to Mozilla.

IE bug lets fake sites look real. Microsoft says it is looking into reports of a potential bug in its Web browser that could help malicious hackers design convincing Web site spoofs. [CNET News.com - Front Door]
1:01:19 AM     comment []

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The more I think about this (linked) article from the New York Times, the madder I get....

In the 80's we were told that manufacturing was going where it was cheaper, so we'd better learn to be a service economy: forget learning how to weld and build autos, you'd better get an education and learn a high tech skill like programming.

Now, apparently, coding has been reduced somewhat, at least in the eyes of this "project management guru":

It's all about innovation and productivity. As long as we maintain those two engines, we'll continue to have a very high standard of living. Out in the Bay Area there are plenty of folks who would love to create a little bit of protectionism around their I.T. jobs, but we are far better off letting a lot of those jobs go. Low-skill jobs like coding are moving offshore and what's left in their place are more advanced project management jobs.

Somebody better tell this bozo that real innovations come from the people who acutally innovate: not their managers. An MBA does not innovate in the real world: he may come up with a new way of moving money around, but that's not the same thing as designing a program (or building a bridge).

Between these imbeciles sending everything that's not nailed down to Third World pestholes where they can use slave labor to make their useless shit for practically nothing, and the thieving lawyers doing their utmost to lock any creative product in a corporate strongbox for eternity, we're going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg, economically, in this country.

Would you like a fast Fourier transform with that burger?

Outsourcing Winners and Losers [Slashdot]
4:33:49 PM     comment []