[Cross-posted to The Farm]
Which one is a more accurate reflection of what’s going on — Web 2.0 or Bubble 2.0? I’ll leave
that as an exercise for the reader.
Here’s O’Reilly’s
Web 2.0 Meme Map:
Click the image to see it on its original page.
And here’s Bubble
2.0’s remix
of it:
Click the image to see it on its original
page.
Click the image to download the book [4.8 MB, PDF].
I remember reading about A Short Guide to Iraq [4.8 MB, PDF] in SPY magazine during the
first Gulf War — a guide for U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq during
WWII. Here’s the intr, which aside from the bit about defeating Hitler, is still applicable today:
YOU HAVE been order to Iraq (i – RAHK) as part of the world-wide offensive to beat Hitler.
You will enter Iraq both as a soldier and as an individual, because on
our side a man can be both a soldier and an individual. That is our
strength — if we are smart enough to use it. It can be our weakness if
we aren’t. As a soldier your duties are laid out for you. As an
individual, it is what you do on your own that counts — and it may
count for a lot more than you think.
American success or failure in Iraq may well depend on whether the
Iraqis (as the people are called) like American soldiers or not. It may
not be that simple. But then again it could.
In its 44 pages, the book provides the U.S. soldier enough
cultural and background information to function as a simple goodwill
ambassador in Iraq. Some of this information may be fairly obvious to
the cosmopolitan modern reader, but you have to remember that this was
a time before CNN, the internet, relatively inexpensive air travel and
several wars that taught us all about mideast geography.
The book looks like a pretty thorough introduction to Iraqi culture and
it seems as though the War Department (since renamed to the Department
of Defense) was taking great pains to win hearts and minds.
(Perhaps it was an era of better-behaved U.S. soldiers, the sort of whom Joi Ito wrote about in his piece on the anniversary of the atom bombing of Hiroshima.)
The illustrations included in the book are rather amusing. Here’s
“Bargaining takes time”, a fact that would’ve been unknown to many
Americans back then, but now familair thanks to cheap trips to Asia and
the bargaining scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian:
“How ’bout 30 dinars and I don’t electrocute your balls?”
This bit of advice is obvious today, but it wasn’t back then:
As is this:
My favourite tip in the “Do’s and Don’ts” section:
If you should see grown men walking hand in hand, ignore it. They are not “queer”.
Bay Street Video (1172 Bay Street, just south of Bloor), one of Accordion City’s best video stores, not only puts funny comments on post-it notes in their video library,
they also put amusing comments on the sandwich board outside the store.
Here’s what I saw on the north-facing side of their sandwich board
recently:
And this was on the south-facing side:
I’ve got both these photos in a larger format in a photo album — you can check it out in album or slideshow form.
Be sure to check inside the store too — they’ve got a great selection for purchase or rental.
Listen to the bear: punk rock lives!
Gabba Gabba Bear!
That’s my brother-in-law, Andy, who plays bass for the Ramoniacs. The Ramones may no longer be around, but these guys are still beatin’ on the brat with a baseball bat in Boston.
If you’re in the Boston area, you can catch the Ramoniacs this Sunday at The Rack (24 Clinton Street) at the Battle of the Bands. Cheer loudly, expose body parts and throw women’s underwear at Andy in Tom Jones style — he’d appreciate that.
…was worn by karaoke regular “Johnny O”. I shall dub it “Honore de Balzac”, but not for literary reasons…
Here’s what I wore to Kickass Karaoke on Sunday: “Indigo Girls Fan”.
Wendy says that if you took away the cowboy hat, collar and leash, this
was the sort of thing she wore all through high school:
Wendy and I joined my sister, brother-in-law and nephews yesterday for their Hallowe’en run, which took place in their Kingsway
neighbourhood, on a street heavy with young families. Some of the
houses went all-out, with giant inflatable jack-o-lanterns, faux
gravestones and smoke machines. Some of the houses did such a good job
at being scary that my nephews Aidan (age 4) and Nico (age 2)
refused to go anywhere near them.
Here’s Aidan, in his “George Shrinks in his zip-car” costume.
Nico went as Thomas the Tank Engine:
There’s more to being a programmer than just programming: a lot of the job involves “managing up”. I do it with Boss Ross, Boss Ross does it with his Boss Noss,
and Boss Ross’ Boss Noss does it with the Illuminati/Mason/Alien
Conspiratorial Triumvirate, often with a suitable sacrificial goat and
a PowerPoint deck.
But seriously, folks — over at the blog I get paid to write, The Farm,
I’ve started posting articles that you, a techie, can take to
management. These articles are marked with this unmistakably suit-y icon:
The first of these articles is Ajax Linkdump,
a laundry list of some recent interesting articles covering the web
programming paradigm of the moment. The last item in the list points to
an Adaptive Path white paper which explains Ajax to management,
including some answers to the all-important question: how’s it going to affect the bottom line?
Feel free to use these “Suit-Friendly” to make your case, support your
arguments or just to make it look as if you don’t spend 30 minutes doing
actual work and rest of your day looking at pictures of women with no
pants on.
Don’t say I never did nuthin’ for ya!
