Great topic, poor execution
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Death Of A President could have been better, had it paid more attention to detail.
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Tycho:  With PAX coming up this weekend (!!!), we didn't really have time on Friday to invest in Virgil's Wikiscanner - that mystical oracle that takes a raw IP range and then excretes a list of that organization's Wikipedia edits.  This is the pulsing, possibly Martian device that dished up last week's awesome Electronic Arts edits.    I wasn't sure if we should feel sorry for them or not - now that EA is situated in the number two slot, does that make them the scrappy underdog? - but I quickly realized it probably doesn't matter.  They can come right out and say "Yes, we edit it all the time," mischaracterize the nature of the edits, and by the time it's on the second page the events in question never happened.  People don't remember anything these days that isn't on the first page of their feed aggregators. In any case, the entire affair is talking place  on Wikipedia.  Kudzu will grow over the propaganda soon enough.    Though time was indeed in short supply, we did fritter some portion of it pawing through ancient email headers, scraping for filth on old enemies.  Or enemies with whom we have resumed talks.  Or enemies who are now friends!  Even people I hope to make enemies in the future by my careless commentary must fall beneath the scanner's baleful eye.    Like a chugging trawler, we hauled up net after net of treasure onto the deck, sifting it on hands and knees.  I'd never expose it, of course - sparking a desperate arms race to find self-serving commentary is a conflict I'm likely to lose.  And with the deep catalogue of nemeses we've inspired worldwide (and even below the world, in the warrens of the pale Gambrya, where hate is eternal) it's not what I'd call a fabulous scenario.  For us, at least; no doubt, our foes have already begun their malevolent harvest.
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When I suggested in a recent column that a problematic 5 percent of employees account for 75 percent of the IT support burden, I expected a wave of âright on!â letters from IT support staffers. After the column was published, the letters did come â most of them disagreeing with my premise, with one reader suggesting that the real whiner was yours truly. I still think itâs outside the realm of overextended IT departments to provide training on basic computing skills (which I defined as âmanaging and finding files, and basic working knowledge of suites such as MS Officeâ). But my thinking was adjusted a bit by the thoughtful feedback.
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I find Rocky Anderson's crusade to "stay in the news cycle" a little over the top. His arguments against the "crimes" of the Bush administration are a little like the pot calling the kettle black.
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The current story-line is NOT autobiographical. Angela and I will be celebrating 12 years of marital bliss in Feb and are in no danger of divorce. If anything, the fact that I&#8217;ve never really been touched by divorce, even in my extended family, makes me wholly unqualified to write this arc. So I&#8217;m trudging through to [...]
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Comment is free: Sarah Churchwell: From Marilyn to Diana, biographies are too often trashy. But readers must take a share of the blame.
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Tycho:  Despite what the Mr. Period comics might imply, I think of grammar as somewhat tyrannical, and believe that an obsession with the mechanical perfection of language is at odds with actual communication.  At the same time, I know (generally) how things should be arranged, and so non-standard uses deliver naughty thrills.  There are floating syllables in the recent Twisp & Catsby thing that can only be resolved by a very specific reading, and they project from the phrases in a suggestive way.  I even like trade names:  words that evoke fierce, yet sensitive gladiators or spry androids.
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FoTW Inability to follow a story by reason of anger, part 73
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There are no guarantees in business -- especially when it comes to getting to the top of the ladder. Wired's How To Wiki gives you career-advancement suggestions that don't involve subterfuge and blackmail. But we can't cover everything ... without your help, so please give us your suggestions, too. It's a wiki, you know.
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They talk about them all the time on the news shows, every day the major Presidential candidates have conference calls with reporters. It seems much of the real action in the campaign happens here, but we (voters, taxpayers, citizens)  have no access. I listened to an MP3 of one of the calls, with the chief strategist and communications director of the Clinton campaign. It was fascinating, gave me a picture of how the press and the candidates relate that I had never seen before.  Now I want more -- I want it all!  I've been asking around, where can I get MP3s of all the conference calls, the day they happen, in full, not spun through the reporters, and so far have come up with nothing. So I'm bringing this issue to as many people as I can think of who might either know how I can get them, or apply pressure to one or more news organizations to make them public. I'd of course like to see them made available as an RSS 2.0 feed with enclosures, so it will be accessible to everyone with a podcast client. I would help create this, even host the feed if necessary. Anyone at a major media organization would have access to this content. I'm pretty sure it's all on the record. Any help would be much appreciated.
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PHILADELPHIA _ There's no way to tiptoe around the subject of this story. It is gross.  And if you think it's hard to read about, imagine what it's like to live with the problem facing hundreds _ and possibly thousands _ of Philadelphia homeowners such as David Rizzio.
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Lukas Smith has posted some ominous thoughts about the future of the LAMP stack in the online development world - specifically asking if the popularity of the grouping could be what might ultimately cause its downfall.   The issue is that there is simply not enough top qualified talent that knows LAMP well enough to hire. Or maybe its just too hard to find them? It seems all the good guys are already hired. As a result companies end up looking for other technology, not because they actually believe that these technologies are any better or worth the license fees that these usually require to be paid up...   He suggests two things that could be possible lead-ins to the "demise" of LAMP - the fact that LAMP just isn't taught along side other languages in school and that, since PHP is only just now getting into the offices of the "major players", there hasn't been enough time to prove to them that PHP has worth in their business.   Be sure to check out some of the great comments on this one.
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I've heard thousands of sermons over the years, and a ton of them were about sex and money (or substitute: lust and greed). It's as if the two issues are synonymous, and in a way, they are.
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We asked Americans about current events, history and cultural literacy. And we got some pretty disheartening results.
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If you are new to contemporary art, you might find âArt:21 â Art in the Twenty-First Centuryâ a useful, mildly engaging introduction. Informed viewers will find it annoyingly superficial.
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I read the March 4 story "Water woes" about Rhode Island's problems with fresh water with great interest. My view on this issue may be oversimplified, but there was no mention of harnessing the state's greatest resource, our proximity to the ocean.
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After Yahoo! showed me their new site for the holiday season, I was pretty much underwhelmed.  How could Yahoo! Shopping not introduce something incredibly bold for the holidays?  And unfortunately I couldn&#8217;t even properly articulate my disappointment.  I know Chris and Matt (and Haley) wanted to strangle me that afternoon&#8230; What I want [...]