How we identify

Matt Bors points out that political cartoons are frequently described, maybe attributed to a paper, but rarely to an author.

It may seem like a small gripe, but this is routinely how cartoons are referenced in the media. You would never quote a brilliant …

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Tech talk

I’ve been thinking lately about how many of the talks at tech conferences are bizarrely impractical. For a counter-example, Rands has this seemingly un-radical suggestion

This is the presentation I want to see at the next conference: in a room full …

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Joel Spolsky is being an idiot in public again

Joel Spolsky has written a screed on what he sees as “the mother of all flamewars”. He’s right at least, in that there has already been a bit of froth over the flip-flopping “web standards support in IE 8” announcements …

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Massachussets-style health-care reform: results are in

A group, Physicians for a National Health Program, has an interesting press release, distilled from an “open letter” signed by 250 doctors in Massachussets. (I learned about it from CJR…

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On being super

I have a super power. I have Peter Petrelli’s power. I just haven’t met any other supers.

Yet.

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More Leopard: Stacks suck

One of the much-touted features of Leopard is stacks, these pop-up menus that you can create by dragging any folder into the Dock. Actually, OS X has long had a vaguely similar ability, but the pop-up menus were slower and less attractive.

In fact, I …

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Logistical empathy

I keep encountering this… thing, this psychological reaction, lately, that I don’t think has a name, so I’m going to give it one: logistical empathy. Specifically, I think most people lack it.

A couple of examples:

• Liz was doing some …

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Arguing the facts of the case

I've received a number of wrong numbers lately (moving always does this), but lately, the callers have begun to argue with me about the validity of their dialage. Something like:

Them: Hi, do you have Halo?
Me:…

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It's a cliche, but...

Today is Canada Day, the Canadian answer to the 4th of July in the US. (I still occasionally get friends or relatives in the states asking me if they have the 4th of July in Canada. Yes? No? Not exactly? Still not sure how to answer that one...)

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Lazy typing comedy

So, does zero equal 'principal' ?

That's the question that's been driving me nuts today. More accurately, why does PHP think zero and 'principal' are the same thing?

I have this array of people at a school. Some of them are teachers, some of them are principals …

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