December 2002

Counterattack = Vigilantism = Bad for Society
Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram newsletter this month says, among other things: Our society does not give us the right of revenge, and wouldn’t work very well if it did. Read the whole thing.

Random Stuff From Thanksgiving Roanoke (Just a list)

• Thanksgiving
• Veggie quiche
• Far from Heaven
• Seared Tuna and Wasabi Mashed Potatoes
• Angel Food Cake
• Buffy Marathon on FX
• Phone call with Leah
• Dad and Photoshop Elements
• Dueling Cats
• My Sister
• Laptoporama
• Salsa-making with my Mom
• “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the world” – A.I.
• Solaris
• Racquetball with my Dad

BBEdit PHP Glossary
If you write PHP in BBEdit, you want the BBEdit PHP Glossary.

Someday we’ll find it, the Phish/Talking Heads Connection
It’s here: Live Phish volume 15: The Omni in Atlanta Georgia. What’s the connection? Phish takes the whole Talking Heads record Remain In Light and covers it live on Disc 3 of Live Phish volume 15. I’ve heard Crosseyed and Painless as they do it. Fun! I don’t know much Phish, but I know some smart folks who dig ‘em.

Usability Standards
Users Begin to Demand Software Usability Tests: Boeing requiring vendors to follow new usability standard for products. This is an interesting article. I like how the MS rep says “customers don’t ask for usability” – which of course rings true. But then customers are implicitly asking for usability when they can’t find what they need and want, are lost, or don’t know what is available to them. The Inmates Are Running The Asylum talks about the endemic problem of products engineered for engineers and not for people. It seems to me that this new common format for usability testing is a nice step. More information on the Common Industry Format for Usability Test Reports (CIF) can be found at: http://zing.ncsl.nist.gov/iusr/

Racquetball Frequently Asked Questions
This is cool—common questions about racquetball—with simply worded answers. Like How do I get more power from my backhand? and Can I let the ball hit the front wall TWICE before I hit it?.

Creative Commons
The Creative Commons project launched this month, and you should be aware of their activities to empower people to license their works in creative ways. I’ve not decided how I will license my own web works, but the items in the Lab have always been more or less public. I intend to license them more intelligently. In the meantime, visit Creative Commons.

Great Signature Line I Stumbled On

Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God.

David Brin is Cranky About Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien—enemy of progress—an excerpt:

Obsession with either past or future can almost define a civilization. Worldwide, most cultures believed in some lost golden age when people knew more, mused loftier thoughts and were closer to the gods—but then fell from grace. Under this dour but recurrent worldview, men and women of a later, coarser era can only look back with envy, hearkening to remnants of ancient wisdom.

Yes it’s sad to say you will romanticize
All the things you’ve known before
It was not not not so great
It was not not not so great

QUALCOMM’s BREW Considered Harmful?
Colin Fahey’s J2ME Cell Phone Experience is one developers’ one-time experience with BREW, a mobile computing platform, which he contrasts with his experience developing with Java for mobile phones. He makes good points, though I wonder if he let his bias for open platforms affect him unduly.