The record companies always claim that they’re looking out for the artists, just trying to make sure that the little guys get proper compensation for their music. The major flaw in this claim is that no single record company is purely a record company anymore. Most of the record companies have conflicting business interests: they […]
John Dvorak criticizes Creative Commons, calling it “one of the dumbest initiatives ever put forth by the tech community.” The thing is, just about every complaint John has about Creative Commons is based on erroneous information. Also, John seems very confused. He starts by saying that Creative Commons places more restrictions, and ends his column […]
My amazing fiancee defended her Neurobiology PhD thesis at MIT yesterday. Even though I’d heard her practice her talk a few times, I was still amazed and impressed by the quality of her defense presentation. I thought about what might lead me to such strong feelings about her work (beyond my strong feelings for her, […]
I heard about the London bombings first thing yesterday morning. For some reason, it took until this evening to really hit me. I’m quite sad. And angry. To the right wing and to the left wing: please stop with the cheap commentary on this issue. It’s inhuman to rejoice at the hope that “Europe will […]
I’m a sucker for a good action flick. Actually, I’m a sucker for any action flick, really, provided it offers a better-than-horrendous plotline. So I’ve been somewhat excited about War of the Worlds, the Steven Spielberg movie starring Tom Cruise. Except now I think I should boycott the movie because of Tom Cruise. Let me […]
Microsoft is sick of spam, and Bill Gates has declared that spam must end by 2006, so they’ve decided to unilaterally implement their Sender ID approach at Hotmail. What that means is that, if your domain hasn’t adopted Sender ID, Hotmail users will never receive email you send them. Sender ID is a simple and […]
Republicans are trying to overrule the courts once again, but this time in the most disgusting way possible: by taking away their funding. You heard that right. They don’t like the decision, so they are actively taking away the courts’ enforcement money. There is a way for Congress to override the courts. It’s called a […]
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s web site says he is board-certified doctor (specifically, a surgeon). Indeed, he is, with an active certification due for renewal before February 28th, 2006. One should note the following facts about this actively certified physician, especially when taking into account Tennessee’s General Rules and Regulations Governing the Practice of Medicine […]
Alright, everyone is talking about Apple supposedly switching to Intel chips. There’s no doubt that this could be a big deal, if it is what it sounds like. There are potentially far-reaching implications to the processor platform wars, in particular what the future of computing looks like and whether users still control their own machines […]
In software and, more specifically, data modeling, there is a concept called normalization. The idea of normalization is to determine the dimensions of your data in order to prevent duplication and ease data maintenance in the long run. For example, you might want to categorize your instant messenger buddies into “Work,” “Family,” and “Friends.” How […]