Mission Accomplished!

A lot of people are linking to this article about the state of the practice in CS curriculum and its use of Java creating dull replaceable drones. mdehaan points out a wonderful section wherein the authors relate Java programming to a plumber in a hardware store, finding pieces and putting them together to solve a problem, rather than their unmentioned alternative (maybe an artist molding clay?) If this is true, then we, the software industry and software engineering fields, are done. »

Facebook eats babies

I’ve been trying to understand the popularity of facebook over the past week. In particular, why is it seemingly more popular than friendster or orkut (unless you’re Brazilian)? Devan phrased it well (using his elite new irc nick): 12:39 <@jbowes> facebook is way too much like orkut 12:40 <@jbowes> or all them other ones 12:40 <@jbowes> why is it that people seem to like it more? 12:40 < kryptos> it tries to replace everything 12:40 < kryptos> we have email 12:40 < kryptos> we have blogs 12:40 < kryptos> we have flickr 12:41 < kryptos> i wouldnt even be on facebook if i didnt have to check email for plans tonight, and constantly see facebook emails 12:41 < kryptos> maybe i need to filter them to trash Facebook wants become the canonical source for your data. »

Heroes - Destroying Family Values

If your wife/SO has not yet watched NBC’s Heroes do not let her! My wife, Devan’s wife, and Jeremy’s finance all have some sort of a thing for that Hiro character. If your relationship has not yet been affected by this pandemic, protect yourself, and stay away from this awesome show. »

Fair Criticism of Criticism?

Yup. Marc’s reply to my chart is right on the money. Some of the words I chose were intentionally over the top, when they probably shouldn’t have been. I should also mention that Marc is someone that I greatly respect, and look up to. I may not agree with how he chooses to supplement his income (he might not agree with my selling overpriced board games on ebay, either), but he has every right to do so. »

On Sponsored Blog Posts

On the planet, a certain blogger has been writing sponsored blog posts (aka selling out to the man). This blogger is free to do whatever they feel is acceptable, I suppose. What follows is an infographic generated from posts made by said blogger since the start of December. Only 45% of the content is not shilling or about shilling. Imagine watching an hour long program, only to find out that 33 minutes are commercials. »