Day: November 9, 2011

The Social Graph is Neither (Pinboard Blog)

[This is deep in the technical weeds, but the piece is great and this made me laugh, so it is worth noting thinks I. ]

The Social Graph is Neither (Pinboard Blog): Here the Ghost of Abstractions Past materializes in a flurry of angle brackets, and says in a sepulchral whisper:

“How about we let people define arbitrary relationships between nodes…”

(subject,verb,object)
“Maybe even in XML…”

<Person "john">
    <likesToShareRecipesWith "susan" />
</Person>

“Of course, we’ll need namespaces…”

  <ns:Person rdf:about="http://www.example.org/#john">
    <ns:likesToShareRecipesWith 
     rdf:resource="http://www.example.org/#susan" />
  </ns:Person>

And RDF rises lurching out of the grave to infect the brains of another generation of young developers.

Sorry, Charlie

Sorry, Charlie: If you think you’ve found a flaw in an airport’s security checkpoint and demonstrate that by getting a harmless smoke bomb through and setting it off in the gift shop, you’ve definitely made your point, but spare us the expression of shocked surprise when the airport cops rush over to beat you with sticks instead of shaking your hand and showering you with flowers and chocolate.

[Well said.]
Source: Coyote Tracks

Accept credit cards already!

Too many small businesses do not pay attention to what’s going on in technology with the oft stated “It’s all too complicated..” etc. But it’s not any more in many cases, and can make life simpler for both you and your customers.

Here’s an announcement from the late to the party Intuit and AT&T. If you like those guys, maybe this is for you. But they’re about two years behind Square, who have added CardCase to their lineup to make things even easier for your customers.

I had a conversation with a small vendor who complained about the ever increasing charges for various cards (points, no points, debit, etc. and the fact that he had to lease the machine forever. All that goes away with Square.

Now I’m the first to admit that the slick scenarios painted by the marketing vids are just that, but even if all it does is allow you to take credit cards it’ll help. Recently the October Snow took out small businesses credit card machines near me. If you’re a pizza shop, and there’s thousands of locals who have had no power for days, shouldn’t you be able to take a credit card? Also, the snow meant roads got salted. I go to the car wash since I’m too lazy to turn on the spigots I shut off for the winter, and once again, no credit cards. Really? Seriously? C’mon people. There’s no excuse anymore. And I wouldn’t mind a “Hello Mr. Berlinger, thanks for returning. Same wash as last time?”

Adobe ends mobile Flash development

Adobe ends mobile Flash development:

If web developers must make non-Flash implementations of everything, why bother making the Flash versions at all? This isn’t just the death of mobile Flash: it’s a confirmation from Adobe that all Flash is on its way out.

Adobe’s management is also being pragmatic about its priorities. Rather than fight a losing battle for a particular runtime, Adobe can focus on what it does best: making tools for creative professionals.

Whether those tools build Flash or HTML apps shouldn’t matter: they should build what creative professionals need to build, and these days, that’s native mobile apps and HTML5 web apps.

[I, for one, will not miss it, though I suspect that it’s HTM5 brethren will visually clog pages just as badly. But maybe, some lessons have been learned…]
Source: Marco.org

iPad coding… hmmm.

Two iPad apps I just got:

I just bought Prompt by Panic. I was inspired by that guy who replaced his Macbook with an iPad. It occurred to me that I could ssh into my dev machine from anywhere in the house and write code using vim. And I’m just weird enough to want to do that. (By “anywhere in the house” I really mean “three feet away on my other desk.”)

Prompt is cool. Simple, good.

[I enjoyed Brett’s honesty here (3 ft away, heh.), and I think while I know some folks who are screen based text editor lovers I cannot count myself among them, mostly because I can never remember the key commands that I need to remember (other than the most basic ones). Give me that GUI any day. That said, there are a lot of times when I need to SSH into a VM somewhere and get something done, and Prompt has been there for a while allowing to ease concerns regardless of where I am. (Now, to convince people to allow me to be out about even more… but anyway…)

There was one time when a session like that went from just a quick thing to “seriously?” in a very short while. I remembered that I had a wireless keyboard in my bag, got it paired up to the phone and got back to work. Infinitely better. So I get how you could do the same thing only even betterer on an iPad with its much larger screen. And I now take a keyboard with me more than I should.

But in the end I don’t see a big difference between using an iPad and a keyboard and using a MacBook Air… at least for coding and operations work. I know they are actual and conceptual differences (everything from cost to OS etc.) I do love that folks are stretching the way they work to make things more pleasant. For those of us at the pointy end of the web, running tests, or compiling code can often cause sword fights to break out. So while the novelty is cool, and I love the idea of running tests etc. remotely as part of a workflow, and I think it bends people’s minds around how you can work, where, and with a very small footprint, make sure you’re not working hard at using cool tools if it doesn’t make sense.]
Source: inessential.com

Risk vs. Danger : Red Kite Prayer

Risk vs. Danger : Red Kite Prayer: I’ve made mistakes before and crashed. I’ll make mistakes again. The last thing in the world I’d want my error to do is cause people to avoid exciting roads. I can’t speak for Robert or his family, but the example of his life suggests that he would endorse getting on with the business of living by putting ourselves out there and we achieve that electric thrill no one will ever get from the TV.
The greatest service we can do our fellow riders is to remember them accurately, to ride with the care that will keep us out there, to remain clear on the difference between danger and risk, and to keep that sense of adventure alive.

[And another take. I agree with this as well.]

Death. « Speedbloggen

Death. « Speedbloggen: You may think it’s ok to die riding because its doing something you love. I call bullshit. Dying having overcooked a turn is a real shit way to die. We’ve all over cooked a turn in our lives… its not worth dying over and knowing how to save it is a basic skill. Yes it takes luck. Yes people die every day in any number of stupid ways, and people die on their bikes.

Work on your descending. Don’t get suckered into anything above your level. Don’t be afraid to melt a rim or pull off and think about the next set of turns. And really think about those big group rides. If the nature of the ride is that being off the front or the top ten folks is the only good place to be… tap out. It’s not worth it. I love Rapha products. I’ve come to love them. I love the branding and the adverts… but you know it isn’t real. Don’t show up for that ride thinking what you see on the website is real. Riding isn’t a sentimental act. It’s not romantic until you’re off the bike and the photos are processed and printed. Ride present, ride smart, think critically and make your own luck.

I saw a picture of the guy… he looks like he was a lovely fellow. His bars were too high, too many spacers. I’m willing to bet his stem was too short. How you sit on a bike matters. How your bike fits matters. How much weight you have and where your center of gravity is going down a hill matters. It’s life and death.

Thanks for indulging my rant. I’ll probably take this down later.

[I feel this is worth repeating because it is too easy to get caught up in other things. My closest riding buddies know this. Others who I ride this more occasionally seem to get lost in their own fantasies. “Ride present, ride smart, think critically and make your own luck.” ]