July 2007
95 posts
“We are the town with Manny Ramírez, Tom Brady, Kevin Garnett, Daisuke Matsuzaka,...”
– Dan Shaughnessy
License Afghanistan's opium for pain-killing... →
The U.S. has attempted to eradicate the opium industry in Afghanistan, but has utterly failed. Crop-dusting campaigns not only don’t work, but they go against the will of the Afghani people. Opium is one of the few crops that can grow in the harsh region, and is therefore a major part of the Afghani economy, which could be stabilized by licensing the opium crops for pain-killing medications...
Freebase →
An extremely easy-to-use, massive database. Combines the best of modern Ajax with Wikipedia and Google goals.
Modules vs. Classes in Ruby
From David Black’s excellent Ruby for Rails tome:
Entities or things are best modeled in classes, and characteristics or properties of entities or things are best encapsulated in modules. Class names tend to be nouns while module names are often adjectives.
A class can only have one superclass, but it can mix in as many modules as it wants. Don’t use up a class’s one and only...
Kevin Garnett to become the newest Boston Celtic?
Marc Stein says Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge are resuming talks over trading KG to Boston.
The ESPN Trade Machine says it’ll work:
Boston gets:
Kevin Garnett
Minnesota gets:
Al Jefferson
Theo Ratliff
Gerald Green
Sebastian Telfair
Ryan Gomes
As tough as it would be to see Al Jefferson go, it is not a tough stretch to imagine the Celtics winning the Eastern Conference in 07-08...
Copenhagen Consensus →
“When we look at the evidence, we discover again and again that the best...”
– Bjørn Lomborg
Quick overview of opposing sides of death penalty... →
“Thou shalt not kill” is the foundation of all laws. Why should the state be excluded?
“His campaign says he won’t increase the deficit, but Edwards says reducing...”
– Steve Chapman
50 redheads protest Wendy's, ride the subway to... →
Wendy is a pigment-free, pigtailed redhead with freckles the size of quarters. Here’s some of the sweet slogans from the rally:
“Redheads rule, your logo is cruel.”
“Biggie-sized bigotry.”
“You want lies with that?”
Then, they ride the subway in New York City, turning a usual minority (redheads make up less than 1% of the world’s population)...
“In health care, as in so much else in modern life, financial incentives matter...”
– James Capretta, What’s Ailing Health Care?
Political ads stage a comeback in newspapers →
At a time when many categories of newspaper advertising are declining, the political message is making a comeback. As overall spending on campaigns doubled to $3.1 billion between 2002 and 2006, the amount spent on newspapers, including their online editions, tripled to $104 million, according to PQ Media.
“Medicare is on track to single-handedly bankrupt the federal government. Its...”
– James Capretta, What’s Ailing Health Care?
“Seek peace, and follow it. Defend ourselves by all means we can.”
– Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“Hobbes is the teacher of Locke, and Locke is the teacher of Jefferson, and...”
– Leon Kass
Strategy, not technology, creates a disruptive...
The term disruptive technology was coined by Clayton Christensen in his 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma. In the sequel, The Innovator’s Solution, he replaced disruptive technology with the term disruptive innovation because few technologies are intrinsically disruptive or sustaining in character. It is the strategy or business model that the technology enables that creates the...
“The critical economic problem is scarcity. Money is scarce, but in most things...”
– Tyler Cowen
New England Bartending School →
Thinking about it in the evenings…
“When you can’t poll anywhere near Fred Thompson, and when the Ron Paul...”
– William Wolfrum on Senator John McCain’s failed presidential campaign.
Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran →
Military solution is back in favor with President Bush as Condolezza Rice’s argument for diplomacy loses out. (shades of Colin Powell)
A well-placed source in Washington said: “Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo.” The Washington source said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney did not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal...
“Isn’t it weird how chairs exist even when you’re not sitting on...”
– Ben Stone in Knocked Up
Ron Paul profile in Sunday New York Times
There’s an excellent profile of Ron Paul in today’s Sunday New York Times. It included a number of things about him that I didn’t know. For instance, he has more formidable political skills than I assumed:
Anyone who is elected to Congress three times as a nonincumbent, as Paul has been, is a politician of prodigious gifts. Especially since Paul has real vulnerabilities in his...
Barney Frank →
One of my favorite Congressmen.
Ruby Application Archive →
Great place to read other people’s code and get familiar with Ruby-style.
Microsoft is eating into Apache's market share →
Is ASP.NET becoming more popular? Is Microsoft’s sales and marketing machine kicking ass? What does this mean for open source technologies like Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Ruby on Rails?
10 reasons why Christianity is wrong →
An atheist dissects religion in Letterman form.
Capistrano 2.0 →
Jamis Buck releases Capistrano 2.0 … the first version was a lifesaver … looking forward to seeing what’s new in 2.0 … Thanks, Jamis!
“I always knew that one day Smalltalk would replace Java.
I just didn’t...”
– Kent Beck
Spread Firefox →
Firefox is a very important application. It is an open source web browser that has been around for a while, increasingly built market share, works on internet standards, and allows you to plug in tons of modules and features.
Also, it is not Internet Explorer (IE), which is owned by Microsoft and is closed source. Microsoft will increasingly try to force developers to build their sites to...
“Use it then close it or quit it” isn’t the metaphor on the iPhone, however. When...”
– Daring Fireball ~ iPhone first impressions
President of Red Sox Nation →
My family absolutely needs to convince my grandmother to run for this.
Yahoo! Answers ~ Politics & Government →
“In an old house in Paris, that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls...”
– Ludwig Bemelmans
American programmers guild
I’ve always thought that a programmers guild would be a great idea in the modern political and technology landscape, but I’m not convinced that the subjects upon which The American Programmers Guild is lobbying the U.S. Congress are the truly important fights.
I require more thinking on the political front, but it occurred to me that were my pet project,...
The mint way to manage your money →
Upcoming personal money-management web application.
Idea for a bricks-and-mortar laundry service
Laundry service like Toots. Except, jurisdiction is restricted to the areas of Boston that the T goes to. The deliverers go on foot, riding the T.
The prices are lower for the laundry service than any other because the deliverers are carrying shirts and whatnot around in a laundry service bag. On the bag we sell advertising to local businesses.
The deliverers are hired for their outgoing,...
“I’m the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy.”
– Mark Wahlberg in The Departed
“This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever.”
– Sigmund Freud on the Irish
“You got any suits at home or you like coming to work dressed like you’re...”
– Matt Damon, The Departed
Widespread Panic setlist ~ last night
07/18/07 (Wed) Fleet Pavilion ~ Boston, MA
Set 1: Chainsaw City, Little Lilly > Walkin’ (for your love), Down, Tickle the Truth Into Submission, Can’t Get High > Bear’s Gone Fishing > Hatfield > Blackout Blues
Set 2: B of D > One Arm Steve > Thin Air (Smells Like Mississippi) > Love Tractor, Pickin’ Up The Pieces, Stop Go, All Time Low, Junior E: Me...
“I like any music with its own sound. you musicians are supposed to be creative...”
– Noah
Web 3.0 →