(you can always get it back from the repo)
via @FrancescoC
via @FrancescoC
Saturday, March 31, 2012
The West Coast Problem (for East Coast People)
Unfortunately, nobody told your body this, and it quite majestically wakes you up at the decidedly un-fun hour of 2 f**king AM because that is 5 AM out east where your body-clock seems to still be residing.
After an hour of trying to get back to sleep, you realize that yes, your elapsed sleep for this night is going to be 2 hours.
Boundless Joy...
Friday, March 30, 2012
Breaking: NoSQL developers club baby seals!
Mind you, they did miss the following very important points tooData integrity—In order to achieve high performance despite massive size, non-relational database systems compromise data correctness guarantees. The traditional rules about writing data are loosened, making it far more likely that data can be lost or overwritten. Thus the best applications for a non-relational approach are those that have low-to-medium requirements for data integrity, for example, social media applications. Any application whose data integrity requirements are absolute requires a relational database; NoSQL is a non-starter.Flexible indexing—Relational databases are very good at letting users query data from multiple perspectives. Joins and indexes are not weaknesses of relational databases, they are strengths. To achieve speed and scale, NoSQL technology relies on assumptions about how data will need to be viewed; it can be extremely difficult or even impossible to achieve an alternate view of data.Interactive updating of data—Many NoSQL solutions are designed for bulk updates and quick reads. They are not optimized for applications requiring fine-grain updates and rapid saves.Concurrency guarantees—When many people are accessing a database it can be important to define and guarantee when and how updates are revealed to concurrent users. NoSQL generally provides no guarantees for the propagation of updates.
- Baby Seals: NoSQL developers club baby seals with joy and abandon, and make gloves with their flippers
- Puppies : Using NoSQL makes you want to kick puppies (and kittens!)
- Nazis : Hitler used a NoSQL database
Surviving Migration Plans
Sounds like badness, right?
I say thee nay!
In my books, this was actually a pretty huge success - it actually worked. And that, my friends, is a huge, huge win. As Clausewitz (or Moltke?) said a while back, "No campaign survives contact with the enemy", and in this case, the enemy is Reality, which, my friends, is a harsh harsh mistress.
My point?
One of the major advantages of The Erlang Way is that it significantly aids Tap Dancing Under Fire.
Mind you, hot code-loading is probably one of the major advantages here - compile and deploy yer module without having to touch the vast majority of stuff thats out there, and It Just Works. (Incidentally, this is one of those things that you just don't get unless you do erlang. Yes you can do it in Java, but man, is it ever complicated, and does it blow).
The other advantage, which is almost as cool, is the error log. Face it, the odds are that your migration is failing, and you're spinning out error messages. In erlang, your error log almost always tells you exactly whats wrong, as compared to java where your stack trace is just the beginning of your long nightmare.
So yeah, Erlang is A Good Thing, especially when you need to Migrate...
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Bruce Schneier vs Kip Hawley
Schneier's latest contribution is a justifiable (and judicious) outraged rant including such bon-mots as
- Remember when we would mock Soviet-style “show me your papers” societies? That we’ve become inured to the very practice is a harm.
- (The TSA) wants us to trust that a 400-ml bottle of liquid is dangerous, but transferring it to four 100-ml bottles magically makes it safe. He wants us to trust that the butter knives given to first-class passengers are nevertheless too dangerous to be taken through a security checkpoint. He wants us to trust the no-fly list: 21,000 people so dangerous they’re not allowed to fly, yet so innocent they can’t be arrested. He wants us to trust that the deployment of expensive full-body scanners has nothing to do with the fact that the former secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, lobbies for one of the companies that makes them. He wants us to trust that there’s a reason to confiscate a cupcake (Las Vegas), a 3-inch plastic toy gun (London Gatwick), a purse with an embroidered gun on it (Norfolk, VA), a T-shirt with a picture of a gun on it (London Heathrow) and a plastic lightsaber that’s really a flashlight with a long cone on top (Dallas/Fort Worth).
- The goal of terrorism is not to crash planes, or even to kill people; the goal of terrorism is to cause terror. Liquid bombs, PETN, planes as missiles: these are all tactics designed to cause terror by killing innocents. But terrorists can only do so much. They cannot take away our freedoms. They cannot reduce our liberties. They cannot, by themselves, cause that much terror. It’s our reaction to terrorism that determines whether or not their actions are ultimately successful. That we allow governments to do these things to us—to effectively do the terrorists’ job for them—is the greatest harm of all.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The Mechanics of Addiction masquerading as a Borderlands review.
- Borderlands Gearbox somehow managed to make it gritty and ultimately appealing to the hardcore gaming crowd sending out their totally hardcore reviews from Mom's Basement Central
- ... in Diablo "co-op" meant "You log in and shout 'Hi Everybody!' and someone kills you instantly and takes every last goddamned shred of a possession you ever owned while mocking your ancestry.
- It's OK for the characters to be juvenile. It's OK for the target audience to be juvenile. But it's a fucking train wreck when the writers are juvenile, because they'll alienate everyone above their own level of sophistication -- a demographic that just so happens to have the most disposable income to spend on games
- it's missing many of the other elements people have come to expect of RPGs -- elements such as "the decisions I make affect the plot outcome", "I have meaningful, stateful, persistent interactions with individual NPCs", "I put on my robe and wizard hat", "People mock me in real life", and all the other things we've come to expect from role-playing games and gamers.
- Once they start handing out those gold stars, you'd shoot your own grandmother to get one.
Go check it out...
Rules to Invest By (aka Don't Be The Patsy)
via Larry Swedroe on CBS News
Really, really obvious stuff, that is - unfortunately - only obvious in retrospect to most people...
The bottom line? If you don't get it, don't get it...
- Never buy an investment product if there's a commission attached to it.
- Only work with an advisor who offers a fiduciary standard of care.
- Only invest in a product if the seller can demonstrate that they also are investing in the same product.
- Never buy a complex product; if you can't fully understand the nature of the risks and the costs, run as fast as you can because you can be 100 percent certain the complexity is designed to favor the issuer. In other words, you'll be the patsy at the poker table who doesn't know he's the patsy.
- And if you can't adhere to these rules, hire a fiduciary advisor. The cost of the advice will almost certainly be a small fraction of the value added, simply by making sure you only buy products that are designed in your best interests.
The bottom line? If you don't get it, don't get it...
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Mahesh's Fourteenth Law - Java Garbage Collection
If you haven't yet mucked with Java Garbage Collection, you will.
Corollary
If you don't need to muck with Java Garbage Collection, something will break.
Sub-Rule
With a double dose of pain and suffering when it comes to Heap Analysis
Corollary
If you don't need to muck with Java Garbage Collection, something will break.
Sub-Rule
With a double dose of pain and suffering when it comes to Heap Analysis
The U.S. Melting Pot - How many of you are there?
Monday, March 12, 2012
Billionaires Behaving Badly (aka The Virtues of a Tilted Playing Field)
Q. [...] What do you think in general about the influence of people with your means on the political process?...I actually happen to think he is correct. They do have "insufficient influence".
A. [...] I think they actually have an insufficient influence. Those who have enjoyed the benefits of our system more than ever now owe a duty to protect the system that has created the greatest nation on this planet ... Not for themselves, but for their kids and for their grandchildren ...
Huh? What?
Look at it this way - a level playing field sucks from the perspective of your team winning. You want your team to have the most tilted field possible, to ensure your own victory. This may, of course, suck for the spectators, but thats their problem, not yours, right?
So, yes, Ken Griffin is correct, he does have insufficient influence. Ideally, he'd pay up his campaign contribution to his Congressman / Senator / President, and in return, he'd get pretty damn much anything he wanted. And he'd be happy.
'nuff said.
I think the key here is the word Insufficient. After all, he is not saying "no influence". For example, if he was in, say, Nigeria, Zaire, Russia, or Kenya, he'd be have all the influence he wanted or needed, right?
Oh, as far as the bit about "kids and their grandchildren", f**k 'em. I mean, isn't the whole point here that you should be willing to sell your grandmother's soul for an extra buck? :-) The kids should fetch a wee bit more, right?
Premier lounges, AA and BA
And boy, is it a letdown.
Well, to be absolutely fair, its not bad by domestic standards, but frankly, that is really, really not saying all that much. You get some peace and quiet (good), all the bubbly that you want to drink (which, given the quality of the bubbly, is not all that much), and a bunch-a food.
Oh man, that food. Rubber chicken, hockey puck beef, leather salmon, in short, exactly what you expect to get at pretty much any wedding. The smart thing to do is to just buy a sandwich on the way to the airport and eat it.
Come to think of it, its almost worth it to fly through Heathrow 'cos of the amenities. Which, in the end, is the exact opposite of virtually all travel experiences in the US.
Go figure....
Europeans! Argh!
In fact, the whole place tends to be filled with polyglots - its terribly annoying.
<long pause>
Sigh - I just realized that when I'm in India, conversation at home tends to seamlessly switch across at least three languages (English, Hindi, and Kannada).
I'm just as bad as the rest of them.
Oh, what the heck - Indians! Aargh!
I guess I'll never be a "real" American :-)
Come to think of it, Erlang? Perl? Java (ugh)? Cobol? Lisp? Aren't most of these languages too?
Sunday, March 11, 2012
First Class on American Airlines (Sigh...)
A *lot* better.
Oodles better.
But then again, having a pre-frontal lobotomy without anesthesia is better than flying cattle-car nowadays.
All that said, AA First is not really all that good in absolute terms.
Its a lie-flat bed, and they "make the bed for you", which sounds a lot cooler than it is - they basically put a wee mattress on the lie-flat seat. The "lie-flat" seat is, admittedly, a lot better than the one in Business, but that is only because AA has the patented "lie flat in business class, but by flat, what we mean is lie kind of flat in two possible positions, neither of which is actually comfortable. Or flat" seats.
And the food.
Oh my.
The "food".
Its not bad, really, but in the end its exactly the same damn food that they serve in Business, except that they bring it 'a-la-carte' (yes there are quotes around it. And yes, I put them there on purpose, to express sarcasm. Deal with it), but its the same damn food!. Down to the frozen ice-cream desert thingy which you basically hack through to consume because its the best part of the meal, and lord knows it ain't all that good to begin with.
Did I mention the service?
I'm fairly certain I didn't, because I have to tell ya, if I meet one more flight attendant who never smiles with their eyes, I am going to, well, probably do nothing because they are really quite put upon, but thats not my problem y'know? I mean, their life might suck, but they do get to travel, and the wait-staff at our favorite restaurant probably gets paid just about as much and they are friendly and nice, and, well, you get the point.
Actually, I wonder if it is an AA thing. I have a bunch of very close friends who are United flight-attendants, and they are truly Nice people.
And that, possibly, is why I don't fly United. I just don't want to know...
Friday, March 9, 2012
Levels of Genius
Obvious in retrospect.
Once you know how its done, you think to yourself "I could-a done that". But you didn't...
Examples:
True Genius
Still remarkable in retrospect.
Once you know how its done, you think to yourself "Holy Crap! I could never have come up with that!"
Examples:
Thursday, March 8, 2012
You *don't* know what the future will hold (or, Austerity Sucks)
You Don't.
Wait, I can do better
YOU DON'T
Ok, a riduclously trite and trivial statement, but the point I'm getting at is that you may think you know what is going to happen. In fact, for really small time horizons, you probably have a really really good idea. For example that slice of toast that you just dropped is absolutely positively going to land buttered side down on your expensive persian carpet.But, slide the time horizon out, say, 5 years, and what d'you get? Is that carpet still going to be there? Will you still like toast? Will butter be outlawed? Who the heck knows?
Which is why I love it when our elected officials make decisions based on tax receipts 10 years out. Remember the crazy Bush tax cuts? As a memory jog, we were supposed to have surpluses as far as the eye could see, and decided to cut taxes pre-emptively. We all know how that turned out.
And now, it looks like Medicare growth is slowing down, despite our absolutely conviction that we were doomed, doomed I tell you, etc., etc.
The bottom line is, we *don't* know what the future will hold. As Karl Smith puts it
i.e., be careful when messing with the future...Every time you ask a real living person to suffer for some future goal you have to know that you are betting their well-being on your being right about the future.How sure are you that you are right?Austerity costs with probability one. Attempting to effect long term growth is always a gamble.
Levels of Security
Good Security
Do a bunch of security related shit.
Better Security
Then turn off the computer.
Best Security
Then pulverize said computer with a sledgehammer.
Grand Prize
And chuck the pieces into a black hole
Do a bunch of security related shit.
Better Security
Then turn off the computer.
Best Security
Then pulverize said computer with a sledgehammer.
Grand Prize
And chuck the pieces into a black hole
Why are we talking about iPad specs? (Cognitive Dissonance Edition)
[The] Apple approach is software dominated while the "other" approach is fixated on hardware specs.
Think about it - after an initial flurry of "How great is this iPhone display, wah! wah! w00t!", you pretty much hear nothing else about it, but do hear a metric ton about Siri, iCloud, Apps, etc. In the Android world however, virtually all the discussion about the new phones tends to be the exact opposite, i.e., after an initial flurry of "How great is Ice Cream Sandwich, rejoice!", its all about pen-tile displays, quad-core processors, NFC, etc.
To hammer the point home, just look at the discussion of any set of PCs vs Macs - the PCs are all about the latest processor from Intel, screen size, etc. while the Macs have always been about "oooh check out this totally cool way in which I can ... on my Mac!"But post the "New iPad" launch (No link here. You know damn well what I'm talking about), all the articles have been about the retina display, 1 GB of RAM, A5X CPU etc. Where, on the other hand, are all the articles talking about the cool new abilities, the nifty things you can do, the ground-breaking revolutionary whatever?
I know, I know, its a 3rd generation product, etc., but still, I'm getting this massive feeling of cognitive dissonance here...
Oracle on Java Futures - "More OO!" "We're still cool!"
“Java is not the new Cobol,” Ritter said. “I've seen analyst reports where Java is the new Cobol where it drifts off into insignificance but I don't believe it is that way.”which, of course, smacks of Bill Clinton's plaintive "The president is still relevant" line. I mean, come on, you don't say stuff like that...
“This requires more discussion, to make Java a true Object-Oriented language,” Ritter said of the potential move to OO.Which, of course, promptly causes furious head-scratching from the billions of java-dweebs out there who are thinking to themselves "Huh? I thought it was OO?". Of course, there is the simultaneous snickering from all seventeen smalltalk developers out there saying "Well, d-uh. About time too!".
Fun times indeed :-)
Note: For what its worth, my opinion on OO/Java
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
if you want people to respect your ideas, get better ideas
via @scalzi
total douchebag Kirk Cameron is terribly upset that people don't respect his asinine views.
(referring to Kirk Cameron) I will defend to the death your right to say whatever ridiculous, ignorant and bigoted thing that has been fermenting in that cracked clay pot you call a brain pan. But the First Amendment also means that when you say such things, other people have the a right to mock you and the silly, stupid words that have dribbled out of your skull through that word hole above your chin. If you call someone “unnatural,” they might call you an “asshole.” That’s the deal.To put it another way: The First Amendment guarantees a right to speech. It does not guarantee a right to respect. As I am fond of saying, if you want people to respect your ideas, get better ideas. Likewise, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence. If you’re going to parade around on television engaging in hateful bastardry, then, strangely enough, people will often call you out on it. They may also call you out on the hypocrisy of maintaining that when you say that the way someone else lives is unnatural and detrimental to civilization, you mean it with love, but when they call your words bigoted trollspeak, they’re crossing a line or engaging in slander — the legal concept of which, incidentally, you don’t appear to understand very well, nor libel, which generally speaking is probably more applicable in this case, you crazy public figure, you.
[...]Kirk Cameron, I fully support your right to speak your mind about moral views. I also fully support the rights of other people to criticize you and those views, and also their right to be mean to you while doing so, and not justbecause, in my opinion, it’s mean and not in the least bit loving to suggest gays are detrimental and destructive, simply by existing and loving who they choose to love and refusing to accept your desire for them not to be who they are. You’re entitled to your stupid, petty, awful, hateful bigoted opinion. Everyone else is entitled to call it exactly what it is.Oh, the reference is that
"I should be able to express moral views on social issues," he told ABC News via email, "especially those that have been the underpinning of Western civilization for 2,000 years — without being slandered, accused of hate speech, and told from those who preach 'tolerance' that I need to either bend my beliefs to their moral standards or be silent when I'm in the public square."He called for learning how to debate such issues "with greater love and respect."
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Of Gods and Governments
via @anildash
Our god is real and awesome and all-powerful and 100% useless unless his will is enforced by a government we vilify as ineffective and evil.
Our god is real and awesome and all-powerful and 100% useless unless his will is enforced by a government we vilify as ineffective and evil.
Protecting Our Freedoms - Words DHS Monitors...
From EPIC, via Animal, we have the following words that are monitored by the DHS on social media to, y'know, Protect Our Freedoms.
Now y'know...
Now y'know...
2.13 Key Words & Search Terms
This is a current list of terms that will be used by the NOC when monitoring social media sites to provide situational awareness and establish a common operating picture. As natural or manmade disasters occur, new search terms may be added.The new search terms will not use PII in searching for relevant
mission-related information.
DHS & Other Agencies
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- Coast Guard (USCG)
- Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
- Border Patrol
- Secret Service (USSS)
- National Operations Center (NOC)
- Homeland Defense
- Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE)
- Agent
- Task Force
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Fusion Center
- Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
- Secure Border Initiative (SBI)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)
- Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS)
- Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
- Air Marshal
- Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
- National Guard
- Red Cross
- United Nations (UN)
Domestic Security
- Assassination
- Attack
- Domestic security
- Drill
- Exercise
- Cops
- Law enforcement
- Authorities
- Disaster assistance
- Disaster management
- DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office)
- National preparedness
- Mitigation
- Prevention
- Response
- Recovery
- Dirty Bomb
- Domestic nuclear detection
- Emergency management
- Emergency response
- First responder
- Homeland security
- Maritime domain awareness (MDA)
- National preparedness initiative
- Militia
- Shooting
- Shots fired
- Evacuation
- Deaths
- Hostage
- Explosion (explosive)
- Police
- Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT)
- Organized crime
- Gangs
- National security
- State of emergency
- Security
- Breach
- Threat
- Standoff
- SWAT
- Screening
- Lockdown
- Bomb (squad or threat)
- Crash
- Looting
- Riot
- Emergency Landing
- Pipe bomb
- Incident
- Facility
HAZMAT & Nuclear
- Hazmat
- Nuclear
- Chemical Spill
- Suspicious package/device
- Toxic
- National laboratory
- Nuclear facility
- Nuclear threat
- Cloud
- Plume
- Radiation
- Radioactive
- Leak
- Biological infection (or event)
- Chemical
- Chemical burn
- Biological
- Epidemic
- Hazardous
- Hazardous material incident
- Industrial spill
- Infection
- Powder (white)
- Gas
- Spillover
- Anthrax
- Blister agent
- Exposure
- Burn
- Nerve agent
- Ricin
- Sarin
- North Korea
Health Concern + H1N1
- Outbreak
- Contamination
- Exposure
- Virus
- Evacuation
- Bacteria
- Recall
- Ebola
- Food Poisoning
- Foot and Mouth (FMD)
- H5N1
- Avian
- Flu
- Salmonella
- Small Pox
- Plague
- Human to human
- Human to ANIMAL
- Influenza
- Center for Disease Control (CDC)
- Drug Administration (FDA)
- Public Health
- Toxic
- Agro Terror
- Tuberculosis (TB)
- Agriculture
- Listeria
- Symptoms
- Mutation
- Resistant
- Antiviral
- Wave
- Pandemic
- Infection
- Water/air borne
- Sick
- Swine
- Pork
- Strain
- Quarantine
- H1N1
- Vaccine
- Tamiflu
- Norvo Virus
- Epidemic
- World Health Organization (WHO and components)
- Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
- E. Coli
Infrastructure Security
- Infrastructure security
- Airport
- CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources)
- AMTRAK
- Collapse
- Computer infrastructure
- Communications infrastructure
- Telecommunications
- Critical infrastructure
- National infrastructure
- Metro
- WMATA
- Airplane (and derivatives)
- Chemical fire
- Subway
- BART
- MARTA
- Port Authority
- NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center)
- Transportation security
- Grid
- Power
- Smart
- Body scanner
- Electric
- Failure or outage
- Black out
- Brown out
- Port
- Dock
- Bridge
- Canceled
- Delays
- Service disruption
- Power lines
Southwest Border Violence
- Drug cartel
- Violence
- Gang
- Drug
- Narcotics
- Cocaine
- Marijuana
- Heroin
- Border
- Mexico
- Cartel
- Southwest
- Juarez
- Sinaloa
- Tijuana
- Torreon
- Yuma
- Tucson
- Decapitated
- U.S. Consulate
- Consular
- El Paso
- Fort Hancock
- San Diego
- Ciudad Juarez
- Nogales
- Sonora
- Colombia
- Mara salvatrucha
- MS13 or MS-13
- Drug war
- Mexican army
- Methamphetamine
- Cartel de Golfo
- Gulf Cartel
- La Familia
- Reynose
- Nuevo Leon
- Narcos
- Narco banners (Spanish equivalents)
- Los Zetas
- Shootout
- Execution
- Gunfight
- Trafficking
- Kidnap
- Calderon
- Reyosa
- Bust
- Tamaulipas
- Meth Lab
- Drug trade
- Illegal immigrants
- Smuggling (smugglers)
- Matamoros
- Michoacana
- Guzman
- Arellano-Felix
- Beltran-Leyva
- Barrio Azteca
- Artistics Assassins
- Mexicles
- New Federation
Terrorism
- Terrorism
- Al Queda (all spellings)
- Terror
- Attack
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Iran
- Pakistan
- Agro
- Environmental terrorist
- Eco terrorism
- Conventional weapon
- Target
- Weapons grade
- Dirty bomb
- Enriched
- Nuclear
- Chemical weapon
- Biological weapon
- Ammonium nitrate
- Improvised explosive device
- IED (Improvised Explosive Device)
- Abu Sayyaf
- Hamas
- FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia)
- IRA (Irish Republican Army)
- ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna)
- Basque Separatists
- Hezbollah
- Tamil Tiger
- PLF (Palestine Liberation Front)
- PLO (Palestine Libration Organization)
- Car bomb
- Jihad
- Taliban
- Weapons cache
- Suicide bomber
- Suicide attack
- Suspicious substance
- AQAP (Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula)
- AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb)
- TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan)
- Yemen
- Pirates
- Extremism
- Somalia
- Nigeria
- Radicals
- Al-Shabaab
- Home grown
- Plot
- Nationalist
- Recruitment
- Fundamentalism
- Islamist
Weather/Disaster/Emergency
- Emergency
- Hurricane
- Tornado
- Twister
- Tsunami
- Earthquake
- Tremor
- Flood
- Storm
- Crest
- Temblor
- Extreme weather
- Forest fire
- Brush fire
- Ice
- Stranded/Stuck
- Help
- Hail
- Wildfire
- Tsunami Warning Center
- Magnitude
- Avalanche
- Typhoon
- Shelter-in-place
- Disaster
- Snow
- Blizzard
- Sleet
- Mud slide or Mudslide
- Erosion
- Power outage
- Brown out
- Warning
- Watch
- Lightening
- Aid
- Relief
- Closure
- Interstate
- Burst
- Emergency Broadcast System
Cyber Security
- Cyber security
- Botnet
- DDOS (dedicated denial of service)
- Denial of service
- Malware
- Virus
- Trojan
- Keylogger
- Cyber Command
- 2600
- Spammer
- Phishing
- Rootkit
- Phreaking
- Cain and abel
- Brute forcing
- Mysql injection
- Cyber attack
- Cyber terror
- Hacker
- China
- Conficker
- Worm
- Scammers
- Social media
