Unsolicited Opinion
The semi-coherent thoughts of The Kibitzer
Three Tech Podcasts
Nov 8, 01:28 PMThere’s three tech podcasts I listen to regularly and the difference between them is fascinating.
First, there’s Software Engineering Radio, “intended as a lasting resource for professional software developers. It is not a newscast. It is also not specific to certain technologies. To get the maximum of it, you should listen to the regular episodes in sequence.” This is a bunch of Germans (very smart guys). They are precise in their speech, very academic, don’t joke around much (unless it’s something like, “Vonce, I yoost the vurt ‘Obchekt’ vhen I meant ‘Komponent’! Ha ha ha!”) and zey are very por-lite, asking each other kvestions und waiting for the uzzer to feenish before starting again to speak. You might hear something like this:
“Maybe here is where we start to define the difference between an Object and a Component. Markus, what is the difference and why is it important?”
“Yes, this is one of the key concepts of object-oriented design and it is very important to make a distinction between these two ideas.”
Next there’s The Java Posse, “a group of four veteran Java software architects that know each other well, love to talk about Java technology (and technology in general), and happen to have a bad habit of recording audio stuff and publishing it on the web.” This is three Americans and one Brit who lives in the US; these guys are quite relaxed. They generally let each other speak but sometimes butt in if they get a bit excited. They joke around quite a lot. One of the guys once recorded his bits while on holiday in Mexico and it sounded like he had a few margaritas before and during the ‘cast, which lent a certain colour to his comments. They might have an exchange like this:
“OK, so, the big news this week is that NetBeans 5.5 is released.”
“You know, I’ve been watching their website and load of new people are trying it out. It’s becoming pretty popular.”
“I still miss JBuilder. When I was working on that we had a feature that would delete whitespace at the end of lines.”
“Joe, you’re not still on about that are you? Check out my NetBeans plugin to highlight tabs in the source code. Tabs are evil.”
“OK, so, shall we move on to the next news item?”
And then there’s LugRadio, “a fortnightly British radio show that takes a relaxed, humorous look at Linux and open source. Note: language may offend some.” Relaxed and humorous doesn’t quite cover it—hilariously anarchic and very likely alcohol-fuelled is closer to the mark. This is four British lads who are passionately Linux and open-source and very vigorously opinionated. They talk a lot about tech and open-source but I’ve heard an exchange like this:
“OK, who has the stupidest beard in open source?”
“That’d be you Jono.”
“Well thanks very much, perhaps I should shave it off.”
“No, then you’d look a fucking twat.”
“There’s gotta be someone else…”
“maybe Eric Raymond?”
“No he has no beard”
Of the three I’ve been listening longest to The Java Posse and they’re still my favourite, but the LugRadio lads are very funny when they get going. Software Engineering Radio is more a resource than a diversion—something I feel I should be listening to, like reading a software design book or something.
All of which probably says more about me than about the podcasts.
makes a change from leaves on the line...
Oct 25, 08:30 AMThose of you who are animal lovers, look away right now.
During my time in England, British Rail became famous for its excuses for delays, most notably “leaves on the line” and being unable to clear snow from the tracks because it was “the wrong type of snow”. So it make a refreshing change that recently, trains were disrupted by “a smouldering badger on the line”. Get the full story at El Reg.
Caveat: this was reported by the UK Daily Mirror so there’s some room for doubt about the story’s veracity…
A Fun Web 2.0 Game
Oct 18, 08:27 AMOnce again, Jeffrey Zeldman cleverly lampoons the stupid Web 2.0 trend.
Hitler Cats
Oct 11, 07:24 PMI don’t like cats. I’m really more of a dog person. But if you’ve nothing better to do, you could check out Cats That Look Like Hitler. Sheesh. I’m telling you, the Interweb is full of, well, shite.
Although, for a lay-down-Misere of Hitler Cats, this has to be it.
And, no. I don’t think Wikipedia is an arbiter of truth. But it is convenient.
Giant Earwig Menacing Arlesberg, Germany
Sep 29, 09:15 AMIt’s true. There’s a gigantic insect menacing Arlesberg, Germany. Just check out Google Maps. For advice on how to cope, check The Register.
The Dinner Railroad
Sep 27, 08:43 AMNow this looks like fun: a miniature electric railway to transport food from kitchen to table! Gotta get me one of those.
Bullets can hurt people
Sep 19, 08:59 AMIn what seems to me a farcical attempt to establish green credentials, a weapons manufacturer has stopped using lead in bullets because they “can harm the environment and pose a risk to people”. Now there’s a newsflash for you. The Register has the full story.
Cat loses domain name!
Jun 5, 08:19 AMOK, this is just dumb. The Register reports that a cat—one Baroness Penelope Cat—has lost its bid to keep the domain mymorganstanleyplatinum.com. Why do people do such things? Mind you, it’s entertaining.
Sit up front and learn more
Apr 20, 08:40 AMTor Norbye of Sun Microsystems has made an interesting blog post. He claims that if you sit centre front in a presentation / classroom you actually retain more of the material presented. This is in contrast to most people’s instinct to sit as far from the front as possible. I recently attended a two day conference; perhaps I should have used this trick. Certainly some of the presentations were hard going.
History of GUI Development
Apr 12, 08:19 AMI’m probably the only one but I find this site fascinating:
Welcome to guidebook, a website dedicated to preserving and showcasing Graphical User Interfaces, as well as various materials related to them.
I’m current reading Insanely Great by the always excellent Steven Levy; this book is about the history of the Macintosh computer, “the computer that changed everything.” What I’d totally forgotten about the Mac was how revolutionary the user interface was—there was nothing like it at the time. Now, this kind of interface is taken for granted but it’s amazing to compare the original Mac UI with modern UIs and see how similar they are. Mac/OS was first released around 1985; we haven’t actually come that far in 20 years.
(site found through digg)
In praise of the FPS
Apr 11, 08:59 AMLet us now praise insanely violent first-person-shooters.
Let us praise the joys of double-wielding a pair of Uzis with unlimited ammo; let us delight in the gorgeous fractal carnage of a rocket launcher as it slams into your target. Let us talk openly about how just totally awesome it is to grab a fully loaded railgun in Quake 4 and wade into a mass of gibbering Strogg aliens and kill and kill and kill again, until there are guts on, like, the ceiling.
So begins this entertaining article on Wired. I love FPS like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, always have. Boy does this article ring true. And that first paragraph makes me laugh every time!
A man walks into a bottle shop...
Apr 7, 11:36 AMI went into a bottle shop the other day to purchase some wine. There was one girl in the line ahead of me and the cashier asked her for ID—I guess she looked a bit young. So, engaging in a bit of friendly banter when my turn came I asked the cashier, “Do you want to see my ID?” He said, “No, I reckon you’re pretty safe mate.”
Then he paused.
Then he said, “No we don’t give Senior’s Discounts.”
Hmmmmm.
Disturbing Anatomy
Apr 4, 07:49 AMThis is a quite disturbing expression of artistic creativity by one Honoré Fragonard, an 18th-century French anatomist: he used dead things to create strange sculptures. The first one would not be out of place in Doom.
The Bounceometer
Mar 2, 07:22 PMOK, this is a totally gratuitous boobs-related link but it provided me with literally moments of diversion.
A line of UK bras called Shock Absorber has created a boob simulator to show how much boobs bounce during exercise, and how much they don’t bounce wearing a Shock Absorber. It’s very cool but I was… well… mesmerised…
FF+G—do they make ‘em that big? Must be hard just walking around…
(via Boing Boing)
Jimmy Barnes' Celebrity Playlist
Feb 28, 09:00 PMSo much for updating more frequently, eh?
Anyways.
There’s a “Celebrity Playlist” for Jimmy Barnes on iTunes Music Store.
Now, let’s be honest. I freakin’ hate Jimmy Barnes. Not the guy himself ‘cause I’ve never met him. But his voice and contributions to Australian music are way over-rated, Cold Chisel or no.
So it’s no surprise to me that every one of the songs on his “Celebrity” Playlist are dull, boring or outright stupid. For your listening reading pleasure, here they are:
- A Bell Will Ring—Oasis (Blur’s better)
- Won’t Give In—Finn Brothers
- Promised Land—Chuck Berry
- Shake, Rattle and Roll—Joe Turner
- Street Fighting Man—The Rolling Stones (yawn)
- Common People—Pulp
- A Face in the Crowd—Tom Petty
- Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl—Mink DeVille
- The Last Chance Texaco—Rickie Lee Jones
- God Only Knows—The Beach Boys (another artist I hate with a passion)
- Remedy—The Black Crowes
- Forever Young—Bob Dylan
Wha?? I even hate a Dylan song? Well, yeah. Never really got into his stuff. For guys who can write fab lyrics but can’t sing for shit (and Robert, please forgive me), I prefer Robert (The Cure) Smith. (Cure Official Site)
And since we’re talking ‘bout artists I hate (which means I’ll change the FM channel if they come on), let’s include Bryan Adams1 and Coldplay2.
1 A more obvious, rock-channelled, derivative artist is hard to find. [2]
2 A more shallow crowd-pleaser with non-sensical rhymes is hard to find—other than Bryan Adams3.
3 Did I mention—Bryan Adams is an absolute no talent hack? Shit, man. How can this guy sell records?