Elitism and democracy in content management

Interesting article about wikipedia.

I'd only thought this week about how I would frame the content delivery for the open bible project. Whether to let it work like wikipedia or select/employ differing views along the theological spectrum.

After reading this article I think working it like wikipedia would be a nightmare. You couldn't get more trolls if you opened the content up to fundamentalists and religious nutters and unlike wikipedia the content is more subjective.

The point of the project is to lay information bare, to give the textual and historical context, to give the various interpretations of it from liberal to fundamenthol, and leave you to make your own decisions as to their relevance and validity.

The likelihood is that any view that isn't mainstream will be drowned out in the sea of conservatism. And I don't think that would be good.

Tsunami

Link.

"Each time the water went out, I would see the man who rents motorbikes across the street. Everyday, he sits in the same place under a coconut palm. When the water would go down, he would go searching for a chair, pick it up and sit right back in the same place.

He was sitting there when the second monster wave hit.

As if that first big one hadn't been strong enough, and as if all the other smaller ones that flooded the buildings to several feet hadn't done enough damage, we were fated to get one more doozy - one that brought back all the terrible sounds of that first wave.

I saw it come in, and the motorbike man across the street had to have seen it, but he just sat there, as he always did, as if the motorbikes he rented were still there. He sat there, and I saw him, and the wave came, and when the wave left, he wasn't there anymore."

Beautiful photo of Branson

Christmas is bollocks

Never again. I don't which bit makes me sad the most. The obscene amount of money spent, the sheer amount of presents that the kids are mentally incapable of coping with, the sick translation of love into money, and money into debt.

I can't believe it is 5 years since I did this and we still succumb to the bullshit.

No more. I've made a promise to myself. I will not allow ourselves to be part of the shit again, even if it means we don't celebrate it at all. end of rant. aaagggghhh.

Dedication to a cancelled project

Amazing story - with many wise words.

"We were making great progress, but we couldn't get it done alone. Creating sophisticated software requires a team effort. One person can use smoke and mirrors to make a demo that dazzles an audience. But shipping that to a million customers will expose its flaws and leave everyone looking bad. It is a cliche in our business that the first 90 percent of the work is easy, the second 90 percent wears you down, and the last 90 percent - the attention to detail - makes a good product"

Utopian march of robotics

Now they've made a robot that moves like they've shit themselves.

New addition to my management team

Nobody messes with "the goose".

He looks quite friendly when you first meet him but those eyes can turn very cold.

In negotiations his silent routine is masterful.

A steel fist inside a velvet glove. Together we'll go far.

Gold, frankincense and bleuuurrgghh

Couldn't resist this one. Poor old Callum (james' friend) boffed up in his school nativity at the local old peoples home. Bet they loved that. Nice.

It reminded me of my own vomit-based story. The classes at Bluecoat assembly were packed into the hall in rows, facing the front, with girls first and the boys after. I was close to the girls bit, so quite a way from the end of the line. I started feeling very queasy and immediately started to make my way quickly to the end of the line in order to get out to the gym toilets.

I didn't make it.

Not only didn't I make it, I managed to travel quite a distance whilst regurgitating my Kelloggs Start or whatever filth I'd had that morning. In fact I managed to cover the back of the heads of four or five pupils in the row in front of us. The irony was although I felt fine within seconds AND got to go home - the other poor buggers had to stay at school all day with my special conditioner in their hair.

link roundup

Have you ever dreamed of being carried into the sky by a giant bouquet of colorful toy balloons? Uhhhh - no.

I'm a big fan of experimenting with specs, but there are limits.

The hoffmeister rocks and so does his special edition ipod?!

You can run, but you can't hide.

I've never seen such an apt title to a page
黏土橘子的製造過程--不錯看喔..只能說佩服
The mystery unravels as you scroll down, but you're still left with questions.

Massive build with the "delicacy of a butterfly". Just gorgeous.

Alzheimersman

"Holy memory loss, Batman. They can blow my cover with 10 simple smell tests."

Taking the piss

I'd read last week that the police were going to start charging on the spot 80 quid fines for pissing in the street. Fair enough, I thought. However I find myself out in town on Friday and the main market square toilets were closed at about 12.30. Whats that all about?

Luckily?! There was a drain at the bottom of the stairs before the roller shutters that I could avail myself of. It was only when I thought back yesterday that I could have been charged for doing so. Sounds like a perfect money making scheme to me!

Thinking of starting up in software?

Invaluable advice and much funnyness too.

"Babymosesinabasket, I think we just made $62K in profit!"

HAHA

The answer to the Pizza Hut salad bar con

Yes, yes, yes. Shove it up their extortionate tiny-bowled arses.
We ARE going to pizza hut very soon so I can try this out. Bring it on.

xmlhttp gets its poster child

Google suggest
I haven't had a chance to look at the code that closely, but it uses xmlhttp to return the results. Cue every web application now going DHTML.

Please can you cut MY hair

I couldn't resist posting this from a feature article from our local magazine Breeze. Is this the funniest photo ever? Get your hair cut at T.W.A.T C.A.S.T hairdressers, Beeston.

Recurrent loop: Googletastic

I carried on my search for the mojo jojo t-shirt and saw a link I hadn't seen before on google that looked promising. It was my earlier post on it. Doh.

creativity and the workplace

Interesting article on business creativity

I think that creativity is the lateral solving of a problem. What type of problem defines how it is interpreted by the outside world. For me, there is no difference between solving a coding problem at work, a design issue or a more conceptual art type issue. Which is nice.

'Butt sex is awesome' and other short stories

You've got to love flaky censoring routines..

New specs

Well I've had my new specs a week now and they haven't gone down too badly. I do look like future boy - and those people at work who don't know me very well give me VERY funny looks. Sue in the canteen said I look like I've been to the dentist and forgotten to take the safety googles off- which funnily enough is exactly the ER Doctor look that attracted me to them in the first place.

Anyway no sooner than I've got my pair - the Japanese are stealing my future boy look to sell crazy robotics. Bah.

Mojo jojo t-shirt

I WANT A MOJO JOJO T-SHIRT WAAH WAAH humph. (stamps feet)

I know they exist but i can't find one. boo hoo. On my pilgrimage however I found this great present. Its a proper guitar and only 129 of your english pounds.

Hello this is God

Send yourself random, scary, King James' messages from God via portabible.

Unfortunately you cannot send contextual messages to your friends, pretending to be the omnipresent One - yet. "send verse find drunkenness" haha

Guilt

James was in our bedroom and found something he shouldn't find - after continually asking us what it was and us telling him it wasn't something he needed to know about, we eventually told him it was a Christmas present for him.

Twenty mintes or so later he starts to complain that his tummy feels funny. By the time he goes to bed he tells me he knows what the feeling is - guilt. Bloody hell. Where has he got that from?

I reassured him that it wasn't his fault in the first place. In the one hand we were pleased that he could verbalise that feeling. But wow, that's man-shit.

I don't really do guilt. With three small children survival is our only goal. I refuse to add to the pressure with guilt about anything. It's hardly ever a positive force. When I think change is needed in my life I try to think it through and implement it without beating myself up. Hopefully I can pass that on to James.

Too controversial?

'The UCC's first 30-second television advertisement - part of the denomination's new, broad identity campaign - began airing nationwide on Dec. 1, stating that - like Jesus - the United Church of Christ seeks to welcome all people, regardless of ability, age, race, economic circumstance or sexual orientation

On the eve before the campaign's launch, negotiations with CBS and NBC broke down, after the networks deemed the UCC's all-inclusive message as "too controversial."'

America is one focked up country.