Untropy

A true visionary. A must-read article, if you care at all for how techno-savants think.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.02/jobs.html?topic=&topic_set=

So, how about this for annoying. I was developing my site and suddenly started having all these pages started having 404 errors with the following text:

No User matches the given query.

No matter what I did, all the login pages were failing. I thought it was a problem with the database, or my code somewhere, but no changes were having an effect. I couldn't figure out what changed, so I did some research and found this simple, albeit less-than-obvious solution.

Help Kill Internet Explorer 6

Awesome.

I think facebook is using these "top five" quizzes and fan lists to build their advertising knowledge. I've seen evidence, and actually thought to do this myself. But, with such a large user base, who are willing to do the market research for them, how could it go wrong. And, why would I make this accusation?

I recently started reading a great book, Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely. In it, he describes some psychological reasoning behind why people don't seem to behave as they think they would. For example, what marketing people do to make products seem more appealing or trustworthy. I won't say much more, except to read it! Oh, and that I took some advice from the book. Chapter 8 (Keeping Doors Open: Why Options Distract Us from Our Main Objective) talks about the effects on a person when they keep their options open, and how that can actually detract from their ability to complete a task, or make good choices. For the past three years, I have been planning this web project but also many other tasks simultaneously. Trying to do so many things at once makes it impossible to finish anything at all. And, new and interesting concepts and ideas are always appearing. So, in order to avoid the cycle of FAIL, I'm halting all other projects until I have something to show for my first post-graduate idea. Then, I may reconsider getting back to the other things. As such, this site won't be getting any significant updates besides chronicling my progress. Maybe once it's done, I will re-design the site using my own template(s).

This is hilarious, and sad at the same time. Good luck, you Zune idiots; glad you made such a wise choice.
http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/gen-1/38114-zune-frozen.html

It was quite a burden to write posts on the site by logging in, and then clicking on a series of links to get to the editing screen. One has to properly format everything, and change modes to do more tricky posts types, like including images and HTML where necessary.
I just discovered ecto, an app for Mac and Windows that makes this easier. Basically, it's a text editor / word processing app that lets you post to your blogging engine of choice. Pretty, simple, and straight-forward.

I happened on a link to a book about C++ and Objective-C, and how the two compare to one another. Now, anyone that knows me can safely say I have a, ahem, negative view of C++. While not being completely biased, this book does a good job of explaining how the two differ, and is written under the premise that the reader knows something about programming to start.

I once thought it impossible to design a user interface worse than the fabled FileMatrix(dailywtf.com). How would it be possible to make something more brain-dead than that monstrosity. Well, poor design is alive and well in 2008. Introducing the wonderfully designed Bulk Renamer(bulkrenameutility.co.uk).

A lot has been going on the past few weeks, and that hasn't left much time for writing substantial content here. But, here's an attempt to catch up. I have been working on Cocoa stuff, the project, (some games), and more stuff on the site. This is, of course, in the midst of normal work and life stuff. How much can I get done during my vacation? We'll see. Read more for details.