very interesting paper from jonathan rentzsch about how to override functions and inject code into running programs in mac os x. voted best paper at machack 2003. (check out the slides too)#

a write-up of lawrence lessig's warning against "The Danger of State Sponsored Monopolies" and what has been done to save our "free culture" from further thought control. interesting summary.#

karl writes about people who got jobs they weren't qualified for when companies didn't know better and now they are jobless and in denial. like jeremy zawodny i've had this conversation with people before and it's nice to have someone write it down so succinctly.#

is it one of those giant jellyfish or a secret government undersea floaty project?#

very thought provoking discussion over at gene expression about "Are the citizens of 21st century America responsible for slavery?" and questioning whether or not people are responsible for what their ancestors have done, ie are we excusable for hating people who are related to people we hate?#

tony remembers when his love affair with ice cream began. c'est la vie. (he also made a movie the other day but i'm a mac fag and don't know how to watch anything but quicktime)#

peter lindberg relates christopher alexander's ideas about self-conscious and unself-conscious architecture to software and other industries. there seems to be the two extremes that muddle and mess up software projects (bogged down with bugs or meetings?) and a great resistance to new technology in the music/movie industry (only when it can't be controlled yet.) peter thinks it's just because there's a lot of money around and companies (who aren't VC'd) are more interested in slight growth than boom or burn growth.#

peter also addresses the idea of documentation and manuals as protection from the evil of spaghetti code. he worked on a project where the code was nice and the 'documentation' was a set of test cases: the explanation being that if the people who are working on it are expected to be competent programmers then they understand code and what's the easier way to understand what a program does - looking at the code on how to use it. this gets back to peter's other thought that a higher interface (the test cases and usage code) should say something about the code underneath (the project in question), only now he adds that this amount of description is sufficient for explanation and understand.#

funny pictures of kokopelli, the dancing, flute-playing spirit of native american lore from davezilla. my physics teacher, who used to be the war chief and tribal elder of the greater lowell indian council had some interesting theories about kokopelli. he thinks that the 'spirit' is just an interpretation of electro-magnetic force waves that are visible in some parts of the world (they glow blue and look like fountains of light) and because of the electro-magnetic radiation there are oscillating waves of noise that dampen and sound like flute playing. he was an interesting guy. #

david hyatt solicits feedback about safari via trackback because he turned off comments. i have no problems with it but i'm interested in seeing what IS wrong with it.#