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January 30, 2011
Thoughts on Egypt
This week Egypt erupted in protest as the people cried out for change. The government responded by cutting off their internet access, causing even more outrage among the people. I spent this morning reviewing what information I could find, and...
January 29, 2011
Web 3.0: The New Rock Bands
Yes, it's true. The recent announcement of a cool $150K for YC graduates proves it. Web startups are the new rock bands. The analogy falls apart very easily, of course, but the important thing here isn't to figure out the...
January 27, 2011
It's Painting, Stupid
A while back, I read "Hackers and Painters". What a great book. Written by Paul Graham, it's all about the world of technology and startups. The problem was, Paul uses an analogy between hackers and painters. That didn't work for me.
January 24, 2011
Start Small, Stay Small
Got through reading another great startup book over the weekend, "Start Small, Stay Small" It's for hackers who want to learn how to become entrepreneurs. Sound familiar? I really enjoyed the author's style and the depth of coverage. Hn-books.com has...
January 20, 2011
How to Write the Perfect Meta Article
Perhaps it's time to move up to the meta-article. The meta article takes all articles of a certain type and provides advice at a higher, meta, level. Meta articles promise to give the reader more general -- but still very practical -- advice.
January 17, 2011
Roll Your Own Linkbait Tech Headline
I've noticed two things in the last month. First, there seems to be an overwhelming number of stories in the tech world about how Google search results all look the same. Second, how these stories themselves look all the same.
January 11, 2011
SEO Boot Camp
I don't know if there's an SEO boot camp around -- if there was I'd probably like to go, but the next best thing is getting a bunch of famous guys writing books that we can all read. Since I'm...
January 9, 2011
The Social Disease
Stephen King once said that he could publish his grocery list and it would be a best seller. Of course he was exaggerating -- maybe a bit -- but I couldn't help but think of that quote as I was...
January 8, 2011
Wikileaks: the "Yes But" Story
Do we live in a time of unprecedented secrecy? One in which the government is no longer accountable for it's actions? One in which the average citizen is not informed enough to make a wise decision about his or her...
January 6, 2011
The Sparrow
I had five sci-fi books in my "fun" reading stack for the holidays. Three books were okay, but were mostly average. For instance some folks might have loved "Containment" but it didn't do a lot for me. It was good,...
January 5, 2011
Making peace with Allison
A couple of years ago I wrote a blog article about a girl named Allison (who's full name will not be mentioned for reasons that are apparent later) I had noticed that certain stuff always gets traffic, so I found...
January 2, 2011
The American Civil War Turns 150. Get Ready for the Fight
So as the heat gets turned up over the next few years -- as you hear about various groups protesting various other groups celebrating the war -- remember that the combatants themselves managed to forgive each other and move on. A lot of people died so that we can do the same. We should honor their sacrifice.
Continue reading "The American Civil War Turns 150. Get Ready for the Fight"
January 1, 2011
Confession: I am Facebook Login Scum
Especially as programmers, we need to realize that the web is mostly used by folks who couldn't plough through Wikipedia articles even if they wanted to.