This site was hacked twice in the past couple weeks (or just once and I never fully cleaned up the mess the first time). Either way, it’s my fault for using the same ancient version of wordpress for years. Fortunately the hacker seemed to be only using this domain to send Halloween themed Viagra spam. Heh.
So I’ve rushed an upgrade and will stay at the default WordPress 3 theme… for now.
I normally don’t talk politics, but an email I just received is utterly horrible and completely unacceptable. You can find the text of that email at this blog.
There have been way more than 13 tragic events in the past 50 years, and cleverly editing the list to be exclusively Islamic and male does not mean jack.
You could just as easily list 10 headlining white male serial killers from the past 50 years. Does that mean that all middle aged white men are a threat to society! Certainly not.
Furthermore, remember what our country was founded upon.
We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
How it is equal to point your finger across the security line in an airport and say that that man is dangerous because the way he looks? Was not America the place that accepted people across the world with open arms? Was it not the place where you could, “Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps”? Is it not now the place where you can establish yourself by your own hard work instead by your name, accent, or color?
This is exactly what the goal of Terrorism is. To instill fear. To terrorize. If we give in to that fear we are raising a white flag and turning our backs on our Founding Fathers.
Please live your own life. Don’t let others rule it by fear.
Comcast certainly doesn’t make it very easy to figure out what service you need to get the channels you want, so I took some time today to figure that out. After a bit of screen-scraping, shell scripting, and a phone call here is all the info. Note that these packages are cumulative so buying a more expensive plan gets you all of the above channels. Also you might be able to get a better deal if you sign up for these packages as a new customer.
Hope this helps someone else!
Digital Starter Channels
2, WGBH-2 (PBS)
3, CN8
3, BAT (Brookline only)
4, WBZ-4 (CBS)
5, WCVB-5 (ABC)
6, WSBK-38 (IND)
7, WHDH-7 (NBC)
8, TV Guide Network
9, CN8 (Brookline only)/BNN TV
10, WLVI-56 (CW)
11, WENH-11 (PBS)
12, Comm. Programming/RAI/SmarTraveler TV
13, NESN
14, New England Cable News
15, ESPN
16, Lifetime
17, CNN
18, WZMY-50 (MyTV)
19, WBPX-68 (ION)
20, C-SPAN
22, The Municipal Channel
23, Community Access/Health Channel-Senior Reading (Brookline only)
24, The Educational Channel/BAT (Brookline only)
25, WFXT-25 (FOX)
26, Cuencavision
27, WUNI-27 (UNI)
28, BET
29, USA Network
30, TBS
31, The Learning Channel
32, TNT
33, Spike TV/EWTN
34, Fox News Channel
36, ABC Family Channel
37, MSNBC
38, CNBC
39, The Weather Channel
40, MTV
41, CNN Headline News
42, E! Entertainment
43, VH-1
44, WGBX-44 (PBS)
45, Boston Catholic TV
46, WWDP-46 (Shop NBC)
47, QVC
48, Comcast SportsNet
49, WYDN-48 (Daystar)
50, WUTF-66 (Telefutura)
51, Swap & Shop/Access
52, WMFP-62 (IND)
53, WNEU-60 (Telemundo)
54, Nickelodeon
55, Trinity Broadcasting/EWTN/RAI
56, TV Land
57, Animal Planet
58, Leased Access
59, Country Music TV
60, Travel Channel
61, HSN
62, VERSUS
63, Food Network
64, The Golf Channel
65, ESPN2
66, Home & Garden TV
67, TruTV
68, Cartoon Network
69, A&E
70, Discovery Channel
71, Disney Channel
72, History
74, FX
75, TVOne
76, Comedy Central
77, Sci-Fi Channel
78, AMC
79, Bravo
80, Spike TV
200, MoviePlex
209, WGBH World ²
217, WGBH Kids ²
237, WGBH Create ²
247, CSPAN 2
267, GSN
268, BCTV
297, WHDH Weather Plus ²
Added in the Digital Classic package ($10.95 extra)
183, Jewelry TV
202, Flix
203, Encore Action
204, Encore Love
205, Encore Mystery
207, Encore Westerns
208, Hallmark Channel
210, National Geographic Channel
211, style.
212, Independent Film Channel
214, TV One
215, Women’s Entertainment
218, PBS Kids Sprout
219, G4
220, NickToons
221, Discovery Kids
222, Toon Disney
223, Noggin
224, The N
226, Discovery Health
227, Science Channel
229, Trinity Broadcast Network
232, Fox Reality
234, Jewelry TV by ACN
235, Gospel Music Channel
236, The Word Network
238, EWTN
241, BBC America
244, Soapnet
245, Weatherscan Local
246, Bloomberg
248, ESPNews
249, CSPAN 3
254, Current TV
258, ESPN Classic
271, fuse
272, Urge TV
273, MTV2
275, VH-1 Soul
277, VH-1 Classic
280, MTV Jams
282, CMT
283, Fox Business
326, Encore
705, mun2
711, MTV Tr3s
Added by the Digital Preferred package ($12.95 extra)
201, Sundance
206, Indieplex
216, Oxygen
225, Retroplex
228, Nick TOO
230, FitTV
231, i-Lifetv
233, Planet Green
239, Fine Living Channel
240, Do It Yourself Network
242, History International
243, Biography Channel
252, Investigation Discovery (I.D.)
253, Military Channel
260, TV Games
270, Lifetime Movie Network
276, CMT Pure Country
279, Great American Country
281, Logo
Does not include 705, mun2 from before.
Added by the Digital Preferred with HBO package ($28.45 extra)
301, HBO
302, HBO2
303, HBO Signature
304, HBO Family
305, HBO Comedy
306, HBO Zone
307, HBO Latino
321, STARZ!
322, STARZ! Edge
323, STARZ! in Black
324, STARZ! Kids & Family
325, STARZ! Cinema
327, STARZ! Comedy
870, HBO HD
875, STARZ! HD
Added by the Digital Premier package ($53.45 extra)
341, Cinemax
342, MoreMAX
343, ActionMAX
344, ThrillerMAX
361, Showtime
362, Showtime Too
363, Showtime Showcase
364, Showtime Extreme
365, Showtime Beyond
366, Flix
381, The Movie Channel
382, TMC Xtra
868, Cinemax HD
877, Showtime HD
Does not include 875, STARZ! HD from before.
Added by the Digital Premier with Sports package ($57.45 extra)
213, Turner Classic Movies
250, The Speed Channel
255, Outdoor Channel
256, FOX Soccer Channel
257, NBA TV
259, NHL Network
261, CBS College Sports Network
262, FCS Atlantic
263, FCS Central
264, FCS Pacific
265, NFL Network
266, Tennis Channel
274, BET on Jazz
599, NBA TV
680, TV Globo
714, Gol TV
715, NFL Network
875, STARZ! HD
I’ve seen many people link to Edward Tufte’s video on the iphone interface so I followed suit. Yes, he does a good job articulating some of the great design choices made by Apple and throws in some good suggestions, but he seems to make the assumption that the single point of interface design is to increase information density/resolution.
I disagree with his assessments on the stock and weather widgets. Yes, you could change them to present more data on the screen. But that has several consequences. The biggest thing is that more information requires more cognitive load. More is complex. More is slower. Wouldn’t you be pissed if you just wanted to know what the temperature is tomorrow — but you had to move the iphone close to you and squint to see it?
Please, let’s not teach people to optimize interfaces by one single metric. Design is the art of balancing. You are not designing if you ignore the other end of the see-saw.
ps: If you are into this stuff I highly recommend reading and listing to Aza Raskin. IMHO, he’d win the “Sharpest, yet still practical” designer award. I was really wowed when I heard him say “the content is the interface” at the AJAX Experience. Watch and learn.
Posted as a comment to the IE Blog
Yea, I know that IE is in a tough spot. This is (at least) partially deserved but I’m going to try and not hold a grudge.
I personally think that you should really consider making the real IE8 engine (“super standards” as some have called it) the default option. Or at least make it the default option when HTML5 is used.
If you are serious about promoting web standards, its time to start teaching the mom and pop web developers of the world. If the default is IE6/IE7 mode all of their new websites will work fine and they will go on their merry way… still coding incorrectly. Feel free to document the meta tag as the first bullet in your IE FAQ, but don’t let the unknowing masses perpetuate the issue (and just push solving the problem till a later date).
The message I get from your proposal is that Microsoft cares more about its (short term) IE marketshare than the (immense) difficulties that web developers have to deal with today. And really, you can do that if you’d like — but it makes me realize (even more) how bad it is to rely on proprietary software from a very proprietary company.
The web is a great and wonderful thing. I sure hope that it doesn’t die, but moves like this are not helping.
I think I’m finally packed and ready for my trip with Cindy to Vienna, Budapest, Munich, and Prague. Be back in another 11 days :)
pictures and posts will follow…
Holding a Program in One’s Head
In fact, if you look at the way software gets written in most organizations, it’s almost as if they were deliberately trying to do things wrong. In a sense, they are. One of the defining qualities of organizations since there have been such a thing is to treat individuals as interchangeable parts. This works well for more parallelizable tasks, like fighting wars. For most of history a well-drilled army of professional soldiers could be counted on to beat an army of individual warriors, no matter how valorous. But having ideas is not very parallelizable. And that’s what programs are: ideas.
And some interesting thoughts from the comments:
One possible alternative organization pattern is the “band.” …
It would be interesting to see how a band-style organization would apply towards more practical software products. Software so produced would come in boxes with the band’s logo, but more importantly, a _list of credits_, anecdotes about the software’s creation, etc. That is, to make the delivery of the software more _human_.
Back in the day, when credits on software were more commonplace, it was possible to judge the quality of a product (to some extent) based on who was involved with it. Some people became reknowned coders, reknowned technical writers, etc. I think it gave two incentives: first, your name is going on the box of that package — this gave prestige in the community post-sale; second, it allowed the customers to predict the overall feel of the software prior to actually purchasing it, based on their experiences with software written by the same or similar authors.
The only part I don’t really agree with is the implicit condemnation of programming done by large companies. Yes, their methods result in mediocre software, but that’s often what you want. There’s a reason they try to treat programmers as interchangeable cogs, and resist having an entire program in one person’s head.
To use the tired “building a house” metaphor – you can get a renowned architect to design the next landmark in a city, or you can get mediocre, interchangeable architects to design a row of townhouses. Both approaches are valid and have their own place, but there’s no point asking the famous architect to build townhouses.