Tagged with 'rant'

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 of people, anyone is welcome to walk up to the mic and plug their laptop in to the projector. They’ll be asked to complete three simple tasks:

  1. Send a mail to a friend
  2. Find something on the Internet
  3. Save a bookmark or an image.

I would be fixated.

I’d love that.

If developers are the builders, why don’t we talk more about craft? Why are there so many conference presentations about lofty topics, and so few about dispensing with down-to-earth, day-to-day chores?

One of my favorite BarCamp sessions was a group “show-and-tell”—we took turns introducing the rest of the crowd to one tool in our arsenal. I talked about FireBug, someone talked about Google Spreadsheets, someone else talked about Selenium. I’d love to see more of that kind of thing.

If you’re planning a conference, and can’t squeeze one “practical nuggets” session into the schedule, why not?

PermalinkComments (4)

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…

Read more…PermalinkComments (2)

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…

Read more…PermalinkComments (1)

On being super

Read more…PermalinkComments (1)

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…

Read more…PermalinkComments (3)

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…

Read more…PermalinkComments (2)

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:…

Read more…PermalinkComments (1)

Older →