Category: Uncategorized

Idle Words criticizes Paul Graham’s Hackers and Painters in Dabblers and Blowhards:

It is true that both painters and programmers make things, just like a pastry chef makes a wedding cake, or a chicken makes an egg. But nothing about what they make, the purposes it serves, or how they go about doing it is in any way similar.

It’s an entertaining, though somewhat brutal, attack on Hackers and Painters. He points out several factual errors in the essay and, in effect, tells Graham to stick to the subjects that he knows, such as Lisp.

I, for one, enjoy Paul’s essays and hope he continues writing on whatever subjects catch his interest. His essays are always well-written and thought-provoking, whatever you might say about their factual accuracy. (via Zach Beane)

Good news for smokers according to this New Scientist article:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition describing a range of severe inflammatory diseases of the lungs including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. More than 90% of cases are caused by cigarette smoking, and even when a smoker quits the habit, the disease continues, becoming progressively worse – often until the patient dies from respiratory failure.

COPD currently kills more than 30,000 people in the UK every year and is predicted to kill over six million worldwide by 2020, becoming the world’s third biggest killer.

To date, it has only been possible to ease the symptoms of COPD. Researchers have failed to understand why steroids – an effective treatment for asthma-related lung inflammation – have proved ineffective in treating COPD. Now, scientists at Imperial College London, UK, have taken the first step towards a cure for the fatal disease by discovering why it is resistant to steroid treatment.

Peter Barnes, professor of thoracic medicine, and colleagues examined the role of an enzyme in the lung cells called HDAC2, which “switches off” the genes responsible for causing inflammation. Usually, steroidal drugs are able to facilitate this process by providing a molecular pathway between HDAC2 and the appropriate genes. But Barnes discovered that levels of HDAC2 were very low in COPD patients, which was why steroids had little effect.

This is the kind of news that makes me wonder why I bother to take care of myself.

In Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas, Paul Graham writes about some of the mistakes he and Robert Morris made in their first venture:

Viaweb wasn’t the first startup Robert Morris and I started. In January 1995, we and a couple friends started a company called Artix. The plan was to put art galleries on the Web. In retrospect, I wonder how we could have wasted our time on anything so stupid.

He goes on to identify three main reasons Artix was a bad idea:

We did the first thing we thought of; we were ambivalent about being in business at all; and we deliberately chose an impoverished market to avoid competition.

It’s worth a read.

VentureBlog has some advice on giving demos in The Dos and Don’ts of Presenting at DEMO:

• It is all about the demo.
• Leave room for spontaneity (or at least appear like you have)
• Have fun
• Have a backup plan
• Don’t praise your own product
• Don’t use a tag line
• Don’t say what you’re looking for out of your DEMO
• Don’t list your partners unless they are great (and probably even not then)
• Don’t try to be funny if you aren’t funny
• Don’t sing

The article is directed to those who are presenting at the DEMO conference, but most of the advice seems generally useful for anybody who is demonstrating a technical product, be it to VCs or otherwise. (via Scobleizer)

Announcing Head First Scheme (via Lemonodor):

Once again, Tim O’Reilly has proved his savvy (and bravery) in allowing us to do the book we wanted — market size be damned.

An O’Reilly book on Scheme? I suppose that means that Scheme has moved into the mainstream. Time to switch to Mozart-Oz.

Speaking of Michael, he tipped me off to WaterlooTechJobs.ca in Looking for work in the Waterloo region?, writing:

Just came across the site WaterlooTechJobs.ca. They provide a list of hiring companies and a list of openings. There’s a link for logging in, so I’m guessing they’re offering notification for jobs that might appear (since I’m not looking, I’m not going to bother trying that out though). Looks like the site was helped out by Communitech and they have a few sponsors. Happy job hunting!

When I saw Michael Hiemstra’s comment on my Dinner at Bhima’s post I felt a strange mix of glee and dread: glee that somebody from Waterloo was actually reading my blog and dread for, well, the same reason. Anyway, Michael has an excellent blog going over at Bits of Life: nicely designed, articles on topics local and global, and writing so relaxed and conversational that you’ll just hate him. Highly recommended!

I shudder to think what extraoplations businessmen and politicians are going to make from this New Scientist article:

Modern humans may have driven Neanderthals to extinction 30,000 years ago because Homo sapiens unlocked the secrets of free trade, say a group of US and Dutch economists. The theory could shed new light on the mysterious and sudden demise of the Neanderthals after over 260,000 years of healthy survival.

I shouldn’t rule out the possibility of an April Fool’s prank, I suppose.

In What Is Real?, Evelyn Rodriguez writes:

I’d rather be real than great. I have never gained anything I truly wanted from a pure pursuit of greatness. I’m not saying these two are mutually exclusive, but the focus can lead one astray. Nothing kills relationships – personal and professional – quicker than when I stop being real. It’s costly in the tangible cash realm too.

If phoniness is so harmful, why is it so common? Here’s my guess.

Being real carries a tremendous social risk. For every Evelyn receiving praise for writing a heartfelt blog post, there are plenty of children being scolded by their mothers for vocalizing a embarrassing observation; and junior-highers being ridiculed by their peers for revealing an affection for an unpopular classmate; and employees being labeled a renegade for pointing out a fact that makes their managers look bad. From a very young age, we are trained to shut up about every uncomfortable truth we discover, and in the process learn to punish those that don’t.

It takes courage to be real, but every attempt fortifies the soul, building more courage for the next attempt.

Phoniness works the same cycle in reverse. Being a phony doesn’t require any special effort, but every act of phoniness kills a bit of one’s soul, draining one’s courage for the next opportunity until one slowly turns into Bill Lumbergh (who has my disdain and pity in about equal measure).

So here’s my theory on why phoniness is so prevalent: as it requires no special effort to be a phony and there are many social forces pushing people towards it, phoniness becomes the common style of interaction.

On the Applied Improvisation Network, Denzil Meyers asks:

Everyone and their dog seems to be blogging, except for me. What’s the big deal?

I can’t speak for everyone or their dogs, but I can tell you why I blog. Here are my motivations:

• to connect with others who share my interests
• demonstrate some ability in my profession (i.e. personal marketing)
• improve my writing skills
• learn more about the world
• …
• Aw, who am I kidding? I’m in it for the sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll, baby!

Can’t say I’m making much progress, though.