A former dBase architect sees ominous parallels between Ashton-Tate swan-song dBase IV and Windows Vista. Looks like Microsoft’s much-maligned OS could in fact be the beginning of the end for Redmond. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Bill Gates has decided to end his day-to-day involvement in the company at this time.
Ah, I long for the days when Canada was a sovereign country.
A few days ago Canada’s diplomats were issued a training manual that listed the USA and Israel as countries which would potentially torture prisoners we handed over to them. I had a sinking feeling that this wouldn’t last, because Stephen Harper is such a pathetic little servile house-boy to his American masters… and I was right of course. The government today has servilely apologized to the countries that torture. The sooner we’ll be rid of those little shits that are in government today, the better off the country will be.
I’ve been in the business for a while, and this seems spot-on.
Confused by all the software engineering methods out there? Don’t be! Chet Haase has written a blog post that untangles everything.
If only there had been some way for them to kind of foretell the future…
The Astrological Magazine was forced to stop publication in December 2007 due to “unforeseen circumstances”. I guess they just didn’t see that one coming…
Blog
I’m a big fan of the BBC show Top Gear. That’s not a particularly rare or interesting fact, but I also happen to be a fan of SOMAfm‘s Secret Agent net radio station, and while re-watching some old episodes of the BBC TV show I couldn’t help but notice that a surprising amount of the music used comes straight from the net radio station’s playlists. I’ve been watching one and listening to the other for a couple of years, and I’d never noticed that before…
I wish I’d known about the “I think†/ “maybe†item sooner, it does put some things in perspective.
Nick in Shanghai has written an excellent piece on the Top Ten Mistakes Native Chinese Speakers Make When Speaking English.
Of law, sausage, and charity…
One of the big stories in the world of charity at the end of 2007 was a new kid on the block, a hedge-fund-trader-headed meta-charity called Givewell which was promising to shake up the world of philanthropy by analyzing other charities on a number of points and soliciting money to give as parts of its own grants. However after its founder transparently attempted to game the Ask Metafilter web site it turns out that Givewell combines a mix of high administration costs, shady publicity pratices, publicly bad-mouthing other charities and questionable behavior by board members.
“Don’t make me use it! Now you’ve done it! You… forced me to use it!!!” -Ren Hoek
Today I used a crack to start a computer game I like to play. Now, don’t get me wrong. I own the game, a few months ago I went down to the shop and bought it fair and square. I haven’t lost the DVD, or even just thrown out the guide with the DVD access key by mistake. No sir. The reason I’m using a crack is because I have to. And I’m here to tell you that neither I nor anyone else should have to do that.
Continue reading “Don’t make me use it! Now you’ve done it! You… forced me to use it!!!” -Ren Hoek
“This is not the target market” -Mitch Hedberg
This morning I noticed a message entitled “Happy birthday Windows Vista” in my inbox. The message was in French but the subject line was still in English, which kinda hints at the idea that Microsoft “doesn’t get” Canada’s bilingualism, but that’s nit-picky of me… the message offers me a 2-for-1 on Vista Ultimate upgrades. If I buy one, I get a second one free.
Continue reading “This is not the target market” -Mitch Hedberg
The tyranny of low expectations.
The City of Montreal swears it will have the streets cleared of snow. By Christmas. Seriously, that’s the official story. Christmas is the 25th, and thus 9 days since last Sunday’s snowstorm, which only dumped 30cm of snow in the city. How pathetic is that? 9 days to clear 30cm (40 if you count the dusting we got yesterday)… What will happen if we get a 60cm storm? Will the city close down? I used to laugh at New Yorkers who couldn’t deal with a bit of snow, and it turns out that Montreal isn’t really doing any better.