"This is the story of when I re-wrote the Lotus Notes Formula Engine.... So here was I was, offered this position that I clearly wasn't qualified for. I had no experience with language runtimes or compilers, I knew very little about C and didn't know anything about C++, I had never dealt with platform byte ordering and packing and all the other issues associated with writing something for eight different operating systems, I had never even used proper version control. But none of that mattered to me. It seemed to me like an amazing opportunity and I would be doing exactly the kind of stuff I enjoy most..."
posted by grumblebee
on Nov 24, 2007 -
64 comments
A recent article in Reason magazine discusses a World Bank report that comes to some unexpected conclusions, not the least of which is that "human capital and the value of institutions (as measured by rule of law) constitute the largest share of wealth in virtually all countries." Worldwide, the study finds, "natural capital accounts for
5 percent of total wealth, produced capital for 18 percent, and intangible capital 77 percent." In other words, rich countries are not rich because they have cheap natural resources (or exploited those of other countries), they are rich because of their social institutions.
[more inside]
posted by woodblock100
on Sep 11, 2007 -
31 comments
24 Ways - 2006 Edition This year's possibly useful 24 articles containing 24 tips and tutorials for those of us who love CSS and other related web development techniques. Last year's links are included too.
posted by juiceCake
on Dec 30, 2006 -
4 comments
Clean water is a right: "The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published its annual
report on human development. It denounces the world's complacent disregard for such unglamorous subjects as standpipes, latrines and the 1.8m children who die each year from diarrhoea because the authorities cannot keep their drinking water separate from their faeces.
The study is both coldly analytical and angry..."
posted by kliuless
on Nov 24, 2006 -
18 comments
Foreign Aid: Can it work? The conundrum facing the rich countries is that everywhere in the developing world, and particularly in Africa, you see children dying for want of pennies, while it's equally obvious that aid often doesn't work very well....But the pitfalls of aid tend not to be discussed among humanitarians, at least in loud voices, for fear of scaring donors. And now along comes William Easterly, in his tremendously important and provocative new book, The White Man's Burden, which asserts with great force that the aid industry is deeply flawed.
posted by storybored
on Sep 23, 2006 -
63 comments
``I managed developer teams in Windows for five years, and have only begun to reflect on the experience now that I have recently switched teams. Through a series of conversations with other leaders that have similarly left The Collective,
several root causes have emerged as lasting characterizations of what's really wrong in The Empire.'
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Jun 18, 2006 -
75 comments
What separates GM from Honda? The development process. An interesting read about Honda's lean and mean development process, as compared to the bureaucratic nightmare that exists at General Motors. A fascinating read and good insight into one of the many reasons why the domestic automakers are getting spanked these days.
posted by tgrundke
on Apr 5, 2006 -
43 comments
Cenotes (say-NO-tays), scattered across the Yucatan peninsula,
vary greatly in shape and size, but are often quite
beautiful in any case. Some cenotes were apparently used for ritual
human sacrifice by the Mayans, and some, say scientists, contain waterlife which may be helpful in
treating cancer. However, these cenotes and their connected ecosystems may be in danger if the rapid and largely unchecked
development of the
Maya Riviera continues.
posted by Stauf
on Mar 26, 2006 -
16 comments
It's official, humans are dumber than chimps.
These guys show (at the NY Times level) that human kids will over-imitate every ritualized nuance modeled for them, whereas chimp kids just wanna get the damn cookie out of the box. Their website also describes
more of their studies.
posted by Eothele
on Dec 13, 2005 -
42 comments
Today in
Delta BC, a city within the
GVRD, a
fire burns out of control. The largest raised peat bog (
over 10,000 acres) in western North America,
Burns Bog is sending smoke and ash across the area. Major blazes occurred in 1977, 1990, 1994 and 1996. The 1996 fire
covered Greater Vancouver in smoke and ash for two days, destroying 170 hectares. Smaller fires have burned for months in underground methane. However, there are other
risks to the "Lungs of
Vancouver", including a proposed theme park.
posted by Kickstart70
on Sep 12, 2005 -
34 comments
What Makes People Gay? --long, informative article from Boston Globe on recent scientific developments regarding nature or nurture. Studies on twins, brothers, CGN, the "big brother" effect, fetal development, genetics, hormones, etc.
and don't miss the Evangelical Preacher who converted to the belief that homosexuality is not a choice but rather a predisposition, something "deeply rooted" in people.
posted by amberglow
on Aug 15, 2005 -
151 comments
The Bluth's will be back -- Fox
order's another full season of "Arrested Development."
posted by JPowers
on May 16, 2005 -
70 comments
Mountain Voices. 'This website presents interviews with over 300 people who live in mountain and highland regions round the world. Their testimonies offer a personal perspective on change and development.'
posted by plep
on Apr 10, 2005 -
2 comments
"Whether it is an impressionist masterpiece, or just wallpaper, if you take the colour juxtapositions and their proportions from nature, you won't go far wrong."
Choosing colours for web pages.
posted by reklaw
on Apr 11, 2004 -
10 comments
The Visible Embryo. "This spiral represents the 23 stages occurring in the first trimester of pregnancy and every two weeks of the second and third trimesters. Use the spiral to navigate through the 40 weeks of pregnancy and preview the unique changes in each stage of human development." via
The Eyes Have It, which sadly looks as if it hasn't been updated since February, but still has much of interest to offer.
posted by jokeefe
on Jul 27, 2003 -
13 comments
Did you know that... Aid fell in the 1990s—by nearly a third on a per capita basis in Sub-Saharan Africa? In Sub Saharan Africa, half the population lives on less than 1$ a day? At current rates Sub-Saharan Africa will not meet the poverty Goal until 2147? If all the food produced worldwide were distributed equally, every person would be able to consume 2,760 calories a day (hunger is defined as consuming fewer than 1,960 calories a day)? These and more facts can be found in the
2003 UN Human Development Report.
posted by stonerose
on Jul 8, 2003 -
25 comments
WTC Redevelopment Today at 1pm EST, the 7 proposed
new plans for redevelopment of the former World Trade Center site will be revealed. Currently, they're carrying the announcements of the new proposals (with architect descriptions of their projects) live on wnyc.org on the
Brian Lehrer Show.
posted by callicles
on Dec 18, 2002 -
30 comments
The World Summit on Sustainable Development, aka "Earth Summit II," will start soon in Johannesburg, ten years after the Rio
Earth Summit. Have things improved at all in the last ten years?
While there are some reasons to be
optimistic, the data isn't cheerful. Our
climate is growing unstable; tens of millions are
dying or likely to die, and hundreds of millions more likely to be made refugees, because of environmental pollution and degraded ecosystems; and half the plants and animals on the planet seem
headed for extinction over the next century. In short, things are grim.
What steps, big or small, are you taking to do your part for the environment?
posted by AlexSteffen
on Aug 17, 2002 -
30 comments
"A Contrarian View of Open Source" - Bruce Sterling on the open source attitutude:
"Don't like it? Hey, just reconfigure it yourself, don't bother me!" It's the Hippie Squat Model of software architecture. "If I want to paint the doors and floors bright blue and put the toilet right into the kitchen, why not?"
posted by GriffX
on Aug 9, 2002 -
12 comments
Adobe has won 2.8 million from Macromedia for "patent infringements." Apparently Macromedia may be forced to pull Flash MX from their product line. As an avid Flash-developer I am personally affected. Is there something that we can do about this?
posted by banished
on May 3, 2002 -
24 comments
Let's stop wasting US$ 78 billion a year. Is software development really this inefficient? Aside from the main theme, there is also an interesting statement from a CIO towards the end of the article. "Those folks [involved in the open-source movement] are very knowledgeable, very good at what they do, and they're producing really great code," [...]
posted by HeikoH
on Oct 20, 2001 -
5 comments
"Language Gene" found... (link to
arstechnica discussion)
"A group of Oxford University researchers presented findings in this week's Nature that they isolated a gene called FOXP2 that appears to be involved in both speech and language development." this is intriguing... that so much can start from so little.
posted by zerolucid
on Oct 5, 2001 -
7 comments
The Baltimore Sun has a series of articles that explore the possible failure of
Columbia, MD to live up to expectations after 30 years.
posted by rorschach
on Dec 28, 2000 -
20 comments
