Physics is easy when you’re having fun

Simply brilliant.

Hmm. Seems Steve has forgotten his trip to Xerox Parc.

The reason that you've having trouble is that you don't know anything and you're not working very hard.

via MIT professor to Philip Greenspun.

I wrote this section in 1997 when the Clinton Administration sued Microsoft. Since then GNU/Linux has improved substantially and now far exceeds government desktop IT requirements. However, U.S. federal and state governments have continued to hire lawyers to pick at Microsoft instead of hiring programmers to port their Windows-only apps to GNU/Linux. Then they express surprise that Johnny wants to major in Law instead of Computer Science.

Philip Greenspun.

I’m relying on Twitter and LinkedIn to get real work done. My Facebook account has become a modern-day equivalent of AOL—I’m there because everyone else is.

via ZDNet.com.

This might be sacreligious but I’ve questioned the utility of facebook from the get go. I’ve not been convinced of Twitter/linkedin either. I guess I need a concrete example from someone who is getting “real work done” using these services.

Linking is essential. The author should be recording deep-link information for every useful resource tapped during the book’s creation

via What Will It Mean When the eBook Comes First? | The DocuMentor | ZDNet.com.

I think this info should be recorded regardless of the final medium. PurpleSlurple facilitates this.

It's safe to say that trying to implement it isn't for the faint-hearted. Despite the available work-arounds, Internet Explorer still has a long way to go before it is HTML5-compliant.

via The Download Blog.

Someday we won’t have to account for browser differences (lol).

Technology – Google Apps data is fractured and obfuscated across multiple servers and disks, making it human-unreadable. Data is replicated in multiple data centers for redundancy and consistent availability. To reduce exploit risks, each Google server is custom-built with only the necessary software components, and the homogeneous server architecture enables rapid updates and configuration changes across the entire network when necessary.

via Software-as-a-service has built-in security advantages – Google Apps for business.

Another reason SMBs need to use the cloud

For me, however, one of the most deeply disturbing passages came in the last chapter: “A recent study by the Aspen Institute appears to confirm that business school is, in fact, damaging to the moral fiber of students. Upon entering business school, the researchers found, students cherished noble ambitions to serve customers, create quality products, and otherwise contribute to the progress of humankind. By the time of their graduation, however, students were convinced that the only thing that matters is increasing shareholder value.” Stewart suggests that many of our current problems may come from this corrupting influence of business schools.

via The Management Myth.

Not sure we can blame all our ills on business school graduates, but the message that greed is good seems to have pervaded the country until just recently. I wonder if the message will stick when the economy gets better. Or does one necessitate the other?