Curated
Congestion and decongestion
Two really awesome maps: National Traffic Scorecard and undersea internet cables (via Coudal).
You say simple, I say simple
The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work:
At first the developer said "this is where we're going to disagree on the simplest thing that could possibly work." He argued that we were backing ourselves into a corner by not following the pattern; therefore, what I was suggesting couldn't possibly work. I took a few moments to consider his point of view. I concluded that he might be right, but deleting 60% of the code we were currently working with meant that the remaining 40% was so small that if we did need to rewrite in the future it would actually be easier than the amount of effort required to maintain the prematurely put in place architecture.
Jay Fields is Sage.
Why is oil so damn expensive?
Great article in The Economist on oil prices and what’s causing their painful rise. Double, double, oil and trouble | Economist.com:
In the short run, neither demand for nor supply of oil is very elastic. It takes time for people to replace their old guzzlers with more fuel-efficient cars, or to switch to jobs with shorter commutes, or to move closer to public transport. By the same token, it can take ten years or more to develop an oilfield after its discovery—and that does not include the time firms need to bolster their exploration units.
In short, nothing related to oil consumption changes quickly. It takes a decade for consumers to fully adjust to prices and the same amount of time for producers to field new technology and start mining new discoveries.
In the mean time, this little scooter is looking better and better!
The Joy of Science
Put a Little Science in Your Life:
Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional. To be able to think through and grasp explanations…
Since my run in with Bachelor of Science-grade Physics, I’ve considered myself someone who sucks at science. However, I suppose by Brian Greene’s definition, I am a consummate scientist. I really enjoy diving into a deep subject (economics, linguistics, etc.) and trying to figure out what makes it tick. Its a fun way to go about life.
At the root of this pedagogical approach is a firm belief in the vertical nature of science: you must master A before moving on to B. When A happened a few hundred years ago, it’s a long climb to the modern era. Certainly, when it comes to teaching the technicalities — solving this equation, balancing that reaction, grasping the discrete parts of the cell — the verticality of science is unassailable.
A hearty "Amen!" here. So many topics seem intimidating to the neophyte. "You can’t do this until you’ve learned this, that and the other." Stacked knowledge as barrier to entry is a total bummer.
I think something immersive is more rewarding. They say the best way to learn a foreign language is to surround yourself in it. I think this is true of any endeavor that, at some level, rewires your brain.
Yurii Rashkovskii's Blog: Top 10 Reasons to Avoid Document Databases FUD
Yurii Rashkovskii’s Blog: Top 10 Reasons to Avoid Document Databases FUD:
And… you said “relational”? Facebook and others do a lot of denormalization, they don’t ever use JOIN, they’d rather do several consequent requests and build intermediate results on a webserver (when you have 20 times more webservers than DBs it’s obviously good to move some load there). They treat good old MySQL as object storage with very fast B+ tree indexes. Finally, the resulting database is not a relational one. One thousand of MySQLs is just a distributed object storage with simple fast indexes and a bunch of hand-written code in php/ruby/python/whatever around it.
I’ve come upon this sort of idea several time recently (and the above was written a couple months ago). I’m warming up to the idea. Without piles of cash and able systems-type folks, scaling databases out is a really nasty problem. Even then, my reading is there are definite bounds for how far you can go.
Assembling datasets on the more easily scaled app server is appealing. It sounds fun (hey, real programming!) and is interesting to think about. But I wonder if it leads to having to figure out consistency in your application. From where I sit, its the hardest part of ACID to reason with.
Microsoft's spin on memcached
Microsoft cargo cults memcached! , via Simon Willison.
Back when I worked in a semi-.NET shop, we needed to cache some pretty expensive operations somewhere. In memory would have been ideal, but we had no way to coordinate between application servers. It ended up going in the database, because that made everyone feel safe. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the greatest idea.
Long story short, my internal clock that tells me how long it will take Microsoft to clone a forehead-slappingly-obvious-idea is well set.
Fake Rails environment
For testing some bits inside of ActiveRecord proper.
module Rails
def self.env
o = Class.new do
def production?
true
end
end
o.new
end
end
Evil and fun. Uses Class.new, my favorite Ruby method.
Muahahaha.
Frogged
My current foster-hussy-girlfriend. She’s kind of a spaz, but oh-so adorable. Doubly so when she’s “frogged out” as above.
More fu in your versions
Lazily Announcing version_fu - an update of Rick Olson’s acts_as_versioned that works with dirty attributes. Jordan McKible’s plugin is nascent, but since I have a soft spot in my heart for most things data versioning, I thought I’d point it out.
Info viz with JavaScript
Massive kudos to John Resig for his JavaScript Processing port. Take this plus the new-to-me JavaScript Information Visualization Toolkit, and it seems likely that data on the web is going to get a lot prettier (and less Flashy) in the next 6-12 months. Huzzah!
Halo Photography
Joshuadamon’s Halotography is utterly amazing:
I’m really impressed with what he’s done with some clever camera manipulation and probably some Photoshop loving. All Halo fans should check this out.
Some language twins teach each other
SNL Transcripts: Luke Perry: 02/06/93: Weekend Update with Kevin Nealon:
That wasn't English, Keith! I mean, you're talking in Esperanto, or some language twins teach each other! I mean, the King's English, man! I mean, throw us a bone man - alright!
I wanted to post a video of the Weekend Update skit where Mike Myers plays Mick Jagger and Mick Jagger plays Keith Richards, but it appears such video does not exist on the web. You’ll just have to read the transcript and make it happen in your head.
Reverse shoulder surfing
Rands In Repose: Saving Seconds:
This is the presentation I want to see at the next conference: in a room full of people, anyone is welcome to walk up to the mic and plug their laptop in to the projector. They’ll be asked to complete three simple tasks:
Send a mail to a friend
Find something on the Internet
Save a bookmark or an image.
I would be fixated.
I’ve been independently wanting to do this for a while now. Clearly, Rands was telepathically borrowing ideas from my brain when I met him at SXSW this year :). I’ve been wanting to do something like this at a BarCamp for a while now. Personally, one of my favorite past-times at conferences is to shoulder surf other people. The idea above takes shoulder surfing, turns it around and formalizes it. I’d have a blast watching it, especially if you get a good mix of Windows/Linux/OS X people and GUI/terminal folks.
Aye, ye are a scum!
ScummC: A Scumm Compiler - write your own SCUMM games! Man this takes me back to the first two Monkey Island games. I still think the best examples of the point and click adventure game genre were from LucasArts. (Via _why)
Designing with type
Techniques for designing with type characters ~ Authentic Boredom:
Typography and typefaces, without a doubt, are two of the most fascinating aspects of visual design. Great designers can execute great designs with typefaces and nothing else, if required, and certainly if preferred. Design legends Saul Bass and Paula Scher have proved this many times over, and they comprise only a fraction of a very long list of luminaries who can wield type brilliantly.
As I’ve tried to better grasp typography and designing with it, I’ve found its ideal for developers looking to improve their visual design skills. You don’t need drawing skills and you can work in monochromes until you’re ready to try fancy color palettes.
"Science Machine" from birth to completion
How Chad Pugh’s brilliant “Science Machine” came to life:
This illustration is the inspiration behind the Vimeo login page, which is itself a pretty outstanding example of the genre. If you’re quick, you can order a print of the illustration itself.
(Just for my own ego gratification, I’d like to note that I saw this before it appeared on Kottke. And thus, I am a wonderful and unique snowflake.)
Interviewed by RubyLearning
Ruby Interview: Adam Keys of FiveRuns - Satish’s ability to find an absurd picture of me from five years ago is impressive. The interview focuses on ideas for buddying Rubyists. So if you’re budding, check it out. Really, you should at least check it out for the picture.
