Unintended Consequences

According to FuturePundit, through Instapundit, the demand for biofuels is destroying rain forests. As Glenn Reynolds said, “oops”.  Apparently, the worldwide market for “green energy” (mainly from Europe) is driving the need for vegetable oils, especially palm and soybean oil. And, this is being met by countries in the tropical climates cutting down their rain forests for farmland.

On the other hand, I keep thinking of the beginning of the last century, when the advent of the automobile was looked upon as a pollution reducer. Imagine a city the size of Manhattan with a horse for every car…

I also remembering someone calling hydrogen burning “non-polluting” because it “just” produced water vapor. Of course, water vapor is a greenhouse gas…

 

11/23/2005 4:02:29 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  general | world affairs

My suspicions are confirmed!
Computerworld just published an article that has confirmed what I’ve suspected for a long time: Linus growth is affecting the Unix community a lot more than its affecting the Windows community.
11/23/2005 3:08:06 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  general | development

Education and Intolerance

Today on Sean Hannity, Sean was interviewing Rebecca Beach, a college student who was verbally attacked (via e-mail) by a professor. Of course, this was a case where a left-wing professor clashed with a right-wing student (why else would Sean be interviewing the student). However, this isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this. My eldest niece, who recently graduated from a state college, had similar experiences, where her professor presented a position that she completely disagreed with. And, she felt that by commenting on this, she would be placing her grade in jeopardy.

When did this happen? When I was in school, the educational system was a haven for right-wing thought, and (surprise, surprise) the “powers that were” did not hesitate to cut off any open discussion on the topics of the day. The professors of today also grew up in this period, and you’d think they would have learned something about the necessity of fostering a free expression of ideas. Instead, we have a current educational system that is at least as closed minded as that of the previous generation.

Schools, especially colleges, should be places where discussions happen, not indoctrination. We need to foster the development of educators who put education and discussion first, not their own particular beliefs.

11/23/2005 2:05:22 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  general

TDD
Microsoft has been receiving a lot of criticism over their TDD Guidelines. I didn’t realize what the real issue was until I read Scott Bellware’s comments. I recommend his his article (and probably his blog) to anyone interested in: agile development, TDD, or (generally) the future of software development. This is good stuff.
11/22/2005 10:54:03 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  development

Nerd TV

Bob Cringely (the real one, not the InfoWorld wannabe) finally has had someone on his new program that’s interesting.

As background, Bob recently (okay a couple of months ago) started a Pod Cast-friendly web “program” called NerdTV. It was a good idea (Bob interviews movers and shakers of the computer industry) that (until now) didn’t work out so well for him. It sounds good to say that you’re interviewing the likes of Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Joy, Dave Winer, or Tim O’Reilly. However, none of these interviews (and I listened to all of them) seemed to result in anything interesting to hear. Now, your mileage may vary. I’ve been tooling around long enough in computer-dom that none of these names were unfamiliar to me, and I suspect that Bob may have dwelled a little too long on computer history rather than anything contemporary.

However, his interview of Anina, a mobile web maven, and (gasp!) international model, was brilliant. Anina brings an interesting perspective to software development, and the mobile web in general: She’s a hobbyist, who got into web technology programming because no one was providing what she needed to stay in touch. Since her initial foray, she’s become a leader in the industry, with her own highly artistic web site as well as a list of credits that would do any technologist proud.

Take some time to hear her interview, I found it extremely fascinating.

Bravo, Bob!

By the way, I was so impressed, that I've added NerdTV to the Nav list...

11/14/2005 4:36:45 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  development | general

Hopping on the Bandwagon

The latest buzz seems to be the latest buzzword / TLA: GYM.

Any guesses what it stands for? It’s pretty easy to figure out (I think)…

 

 

Google – Yahoo – Microsoft.

I guess these are the new 600 lb. gorillas in the web world. Or, as some prefer it, the companies they love to hate.

I think its interesting that Microsoft (arguably the oldest software company in operation) is still at the top of the list. It’s also interesting that Google and Yahoo have gone from darlings of the industry to (in some minds) villains. I guess having ska-doodles (that’s a lot) of money will do that for some folks.

 

11/14/2005 10:09:19 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  general

More Indepth "Stuff"

Alan has been saying that he’s waiting for more in-depth posts from me on the blog. I’d say that I’m doing pretty good, compared to a guy that only posts a couple of times a month. But, he has a point. I’ve had a few thoughts floating around in my head that I haven’t committed to the Net due to a lack of time to compose them well.

I’ll be making time in the near future to get them out, so stay tuned.

As a hint of what’s to come, “Riddle me this, Batman:“

Why is Rosa Parks like Priscilla Alden?

11/9/2005 4:59:39 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  general

Hooray, Hooray!

For years, I’ve been trying to get the recipe for a sauce that was used at local drive-ins in Hawaii when I was younger. Most of those drive-ins are gone now, done away with by McDonald’s, Burger King, and their ilk.  There are now only a handful of places left in Hawaii that serve hamburgers with this sauce.

Today, I was finally rewarded: the Honolulu Star-Bulletin published their own rendition of the sauce, which is still used at the Byron’s Drive-In near the airport. They say its very close to the original in taste. I’ll try it out and see.

For any of you Oregonians who are wondering what this stuff is like, it is very similar (in taste) to Burgerville’s spread.

11/9/2005 4:54:24 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)      Comments [0]  general

Remember the Kyoto Accords?

The US (and its current president) has taken a lot of heat for not ratifying the Kyoto Accords. Yesterday, Michael Barone wrote that, in fact, European countries will not meet their emissions targets. It seems that outside of the United States, the developed nations of the world are just paying lip service to the Kyoto Accords, and those two up and coming juggernauts, China and India, don’t even have to do that much. So, it looks like, in all practicality, the Kyoto Accords are dead. It’s time to put together a rational strategy for worldwide environmental protection.

And don’t talk to be about global warming. Groan.

11/3/2005 9:44:45 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  politics | world affairs

Open Source's Silver Revolution

Bob Cringely has an interesting article on the effect of boomer retirement on the Open Source industry.

It’s an interesting read. By and large, the Open Source community has been the home of the young, since they have a lot of time on their hands and way too much enthusiasm .

However, with baby boomers entering retirement, there will be a growing number of experienced developers with time on their hands. This could really shake things up. While I haven’t been a big fan of the Open Source movement (until recently), I have deep roots in its precursor, the Shareware/Freeware movement of the early ‘80s. And I think I better understand the various motivations in the Open Source community today. That being said, it boggles my mind what armies of experienced software developers could do to the entire software industry by just doing what comes naturally to them.

10/31/2005 10:06:59 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  development