FiatDev Tumble Log

"Beer is a health food. And you do not need to buy it from those wan, unhealthy-looking people who,..."

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:51:52 -0500

“Beer is a health food. And you do not need to buy it from those wan, unhealthy-looking people who, peering disapprovingly at you through rimless Trotsky-style spectacles, seem to run all the health food stores.”

- George F. Will - Survival of the Sudsiest

"The user manual is a list of software design mistakes."

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:32:45 -0500

“The user manual is a list of software design mistakes.”

- Quoted in Could software be a list of business process mistakes?

"Every revolutionary idea evokes three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: (1)..."

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:54:42 -0500

“Every revolutionary idea evokes three stages of reaction. They may be summed up by the phrases: (1) it’s completely impossible; (2) it’s possible but it’s not worth doing; (3) I said it was a good idea all along.”

- Arthur C. Clarke

"There are the languages everyone complains about, and there are the languages no one uses."

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:34:41 -0500

“There are the languages everyone complains about, and there are the languages no one uses.”

- Damien Katz: What Sucks About Erlang

"The fundamental lesson is that property rights are not—and never have been—created by Congressional..."

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:52:45 -0600

“The fundamental lesson is that property rights are not—and never have been—created by Congressional fiat. Property rights emerge spontaneously from the social fabric of a community.”

- History suggests copyright crusade is a lost cause

"[I]…said that I don’t need an IDE, he got mad and called me a name. It wasn’t even a..."

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:38:00 -0600

“[I]…said that I don’t need an IDE, he got mad and called me a name. It wasn’t even a particularly imaginative name, so perhaps he could get his IDE to automatically rename that name for him to turn it into a better insult.”

- Static Languages: Rationalizations and Myths :: Steve Vinoski’s Blog

"The passion is impressive but the clarity, not so much."

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:51:15 -0600

“The passion is impressive but the clarity, not so much.”

- Things I Learned At The Apple Store — Part 2

"Is it more depressing to think that Microsoft, seemingly alone among industry observers, truly..."

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 12:28:45 -0600

“Is it more depressing to think that Microsoft, seemingly alone among industry observers, truly believes that there’s some legitimate “synergy” (ugh) here, or that it is consciously leveraging its bank account to crush a competitor? In one case, Microsoft looks hopelessly out of touch, or perhaps just so desperate that denial has set in. The other evokes the “evil” Microsoft from the bad-old days of the 1990s.”

- Ars Technica: Knee-deep in the dead

"Nevertheless, putting object extensions on RDBMSs is tantamount to adding stereo radios and global..."

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:57:22 -0600

“Nevertheless, putting object extensions on RDBMSs is tantamount to adding stereo radios and global navigation systems to horse-drawn carriages. You will have interesting enhancements, but the wrong base vehicle.”

- Object Database vs. Object-Relational Databases

"I am always pessimistically optimistic about major releases; no wild sales projections, but vaguely..."

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:39:38 -0600

“I am always pessimistically optimistic about major releases; no wild sales projections, but vaguely confident that it’ll be worth my time.”

- Steve Harris on releasing software upgrades

"Authority in general, and physical force in particular, are anathema to many among the..."

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:38:24 -0600

“Authority in general, and physical force in particular, are anathema to many among the intelligentsia, academic or otherwise. They can always think of some “third way” to avoid hard choices, whether on campus, in society, or among nations. Moreover, they have little or no interest in the actual track record of those third ways.”

- Thomas Sowell on National Review Online

"Evolution is a scientific theory, a hypothesis to be tested; it’s not something you..."

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:00:44 -0600

“Evolution is a scientific theory, a hypothesis to be tested; it’s not something you “believe in.” People who demand that others “believe in evolution” are looking for religious dogma in the wrong places.”

- OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

"One of Trevor’s colleagues loved agile processes, and “implemented a process so agile it..."

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:18:44 -0600

“One of Trevor’s colleagues loved agile processes, and “implemented a process so agile it ripped a hole in the space-time continuum allowing us to deliver a failing product several hundred times faster than any other company in existence.” Traditional software development practices were too slow, and the team found that moving testing and planning after implementation and delivery moves the delivery date significantly closer.”

- Reverse Cycle-ogy - Worse Than Failure

"The content owners have made war on the mice, while the lions are busy roaming the savannah. If it..."

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:19:02 -0600

“The content owners have made war on the mice, while the lions are busy roaming the savannah. If it didn’t impact me directly, it would be hilarious.”

- Why the RIAA is Doomed

"But assuming Mr. Spitzer survives that scandal, he could do worse than enroll in anger management..."

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 07:19:09 -0600

“But assuming Mr. Spitzer survives that scandal, he could do worse than enroll in anger management class and take a pledge not to try to ruin everyone who disagrees with him.”

- OpinionJournal

"We do not reward excellence in education. We don’t fund it, we don’t demand it, and..."

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 07:22:02 -0600

“We do not reward excellence in education. We don’t fund it, we don’t demand it, and don’t encourage it.”

- Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis (quoted in OpinionJournal - Outside the Box)

"It’s easy to giggle at the bottled-water-and-Prius vibe of the strike. But if this thing..."

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:55:00 -0600

“

It’s easy to giggle at the bottled-water-and-Prius vibe of the strike. But if this thing isn’t settled soon, if the old system isn’t replaced, the ruthless lean-machine of the Web is going to strip away the gooey inefficiencies of our sweet business and suddenly, tragically, we’re all going to get paid in the worst, most crushing way: We’re going to get paid what we’re worth, and then only in success.

And no one wants that.

”

- Rob Long

"One thing is certain, though: What’s happening right now between Hollywood and the guild..."

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:54:50 -0600

“One thing is certain, though: What’s happening right now between Hollywood and the guild isn’t a negotiation. It’s a murder-suicide pact.”

- Rob Long

"Patterns wrap complex architectures with simplistic descriptions. They create wonderful buzzwords..."

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:33:22 -0600

“Patterns wrap complex architectures with simplistic descriptions. They create wonderful buzzwords that we can use instead of resorting to actual human language descriptions. And they help enforce that feeling that we’re all a part of an elite clique shunned by society not by their choice, but by ours.”

- Chet Haase: Male pattern boldness

"A 34-company committee couldn’t create a successful ham sandwich, much less a mobile..."

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:50:17 -0600

“A 34-company committee couldn’t create a successful ham sandwich, much less a mobile application suite.”

- stevenf.com: Try Again