Table of Contents
And this just in...
Here's the part of my site where I get to tell you what I've been up to, what I'm currently doing, what I may be into down the pike, or anything I might feel like expressing in a somewhat public fashion. If you see something here and have questions or thoughts that you'd like to communicate to me, you can use my contact form or look up my contact info here.
Note that dates and times for posts are listed using the U.S. Eastern Standard time zone, and times are listed in 24-hour format (e.g. 7:04AM is 07:04, 7:19PM is 19:19, etc.).
Posts
Panic Attack
| Title: | Panic Attack |
| Rating: | |
| Author: | Jason Starr |
| ISBN: | 978-0-312-38706-8 |
| Pages: | 324 |
| Format: | hardcover |
| Started: | ~2013-12 |
| Finished: | ~2013-12 |
[Short opinion coming soon…]
Why Does the World Exist
| Title: | Why Does the World Exist |
| Rating: | |
| Author: | Jim Holt |
| ISBN: | 978-0-87140-359-9 |
| Pages: | 307 |
| Format: | paperback |
| Started: | ~2013-12 |
| Finished: | ~2013-12 |
[Short opinion coming soon…]
You Only Die Twice
| Title: | You Only Die Twice |
| Rating: | |
| Author: | Christopher Smith |
| ISBN: | ?? |
| Pages: | 439 |
| Format: | ebook |
| Started: | ~2013-12 |
| Finished: | ~2013-12 |
[Short opinion coming soon…]
Broken As Designed is BAD
I was having an IM conversation today where I accidentally came upon an incredibly awesome acronym. Ever since I started working with computers, I've used the the phrase, broken as designed. I love using it because it so perfectly describes so many things in this world that are quite literally broken as designed. And to inject a current events element into this, as I'm writing, the new U.S. government's healthcare.gov website comes to mind. Anyways, back to my serendipitous discovery. Here's my bit of the conversation (edited to protect the guilty):
Me: it is so going to be fun when it becomes obvious most of [censored] processes in [censored] are BAD™ = Broken As Designed lol
Me: and Dang, dude, I just came up with a real Bad-ass Acronym!!!! rofl
What I find hilarious about this, is first of all, I had no recollection of ever having heard or read the the phrase before, to say nothing of the acronym. So I thought I was being ever so clever. Until I googled it, that is. Using “bad broken as designed” as my search terms, the very first hit to come up was this entry in Eric Raymond's Jargon File :
BAD: /BAD/, adj.
[IBM: acronym, “Broken As Designed”] Said of a program that is bogus because
of bad design and misfeatures rather than because of bugginess.
See working as designed.
Imagine my disappointment! I felt like I'd uniquely invented an acronym, though, if only for a brief while. Ay, asi es la vida. :(
UPDATE: Curious about whether or not I might have subconsiously picked up the broken as designed phrase from the Jargon File, I found an archive of historical versions. I started using computers back in 1987, and the first version to list the phrase is version 2.4.3, dated 24 January 1991. The 2.4.2 version is missing from the archive, so I can't check its date. However, the 2.4.1 version is dated 14 January 1991. So it is entirely possible that I came up with the phrase on my own, especially given that I wasn't even aware of the BAD™ acronym until today. Fascinating!
Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy
| Title: | Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy |
| Rating: | |
| Author: | Lawrence Lessing |
| ISBN: | 978-1-59420-172-1 |
| Pages: | 327 |
| Format: | hardcover |
| Started: | ~2013-11 |
| Finished: | ~2013-11 |
[Short opinion coming soon…]
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