I finally made my hotel reservation for PHPCon East in New York. Amusingly, I called their 1-800 number a few hours ago to find that their reservations desk was closed and that I'd have to call back on Monday. WTF?! Worse yet, their automated message never suggested their sucky web site.
So I went there anyway and made a reservation. And guess what... I got a better price. They're offering $124/night on-line. The conference discount is supposed to be $169/night.
Now I know why their phone message doesn't drive you to their web site. They can make more money off you on the phone. I'm sure this isn't news to Rudy Maxa but it's the first time I've run into this.
I recently bought the Garmin MapSource TOPO CDs from Amazon. Why? So I could add maps to my GPS and manipulate paths, waypoints, and other cool stuff on my computer. But the installer is really stupid
First, check out this picture. I'm being asked to choose from a list of exactly one. Why? That's retarded.
Second, there's no way to say "I have a big hard disk, so please put all 3 CDs worth of data on my laptop instead of making me carry 'em around with me." Granted, Garmin isn't the only who doesn't get it. But this isn't rocket science. Garmin builds portable navigation devices. Don't you think that someone interested in portable navigation might like the option of not dragging CDs around with 'em?
I think so.
I couldn't agree more with Sterling when he says I want my web back. He's sooo right. This stuff is getting too hard. Have we lost sight of what the web is supposed to be about and how it has managed to grow this quickly?
I used to love putting stuff on the web. Now it's a pain. I seek out tools to make the job easier. Not because I'm lazy but because the barriers to publishing seem to have gone up. I have to worry about so many more stupid things. Granted, some of it comes from the increased expectations. I could keep publishing like it's 1994, but I suspect that would cause its own problems.
Thank god for MovableType, huh? Have you paid for your copy? (I have. And it was some of the best money I ever spent.)
Hmm.
I hadn't intended this to be an advertisement for MovableType. Sorry about that. But I have no problem chatting about my favorite tools and why they're great.
MT is easy to use (it Just Works) but is also very hackable at the same time. Witness the growing repository of MT plug-ins.
Now that the standard 3 month delay has passed the MySQL 4.x article I wrote for the January 2003 issue of Linux Magazine is on-line.
Here's a the intro...
MySQL has a lot in common with the Macintosh: both products grew out of their creators' early vision and passion to become the great products they are today; both have begun to fill very visible roles in the Open Source world; both have been popping up more and more in corporate settings; and both have managed to generate communities of vocal and loyal supporters -- communities that continue to grow and thrive.
But the most important and striking similarity between MySQL and the Mac boils down to the emotional response each product evokes. Few people who have used a Macintosh come away unimpressed -- they either love the Mac or hate it. People have a similar reaction to MySQL. And recently, there has been more to love and less to hate about both of them (and with the advent of the Unix-based Mac OS X you can run MySQL on a Mac for the first time).
...and so on.
After flying yesterday, Adam called and asked if I was hungry. So we met at the fish place. Then decided a movie was in order. I called Movie Phone only to find that, no, Old School wasn't available. (Last showing had already started.) The Real Cancun hadn't opened yet. Damn.
So we headed up to the theater to see what they had to offer. Not much. Adam suggested House of 1000 Corpses and I didn't care too much. The other options were Anger Management and Phone Booth.
Despite what jwz says, the move was bad. Very bad. Very very bad. I have never ever seen a worse movie. Ever.
The only way I can think to possibly make up for the 2 hours wasted is to tell all my friends how great it was, in the hopes that they'll waste 2 hours and I can laugh at them.
In summary, don't see it.
Phil Windley has recently gave a talk titled Programming the Internet and it looks quite good. There are PDF slides up on his site. It looks like he did a nice job of presenting an overview of what it means to build services on an Internet infrastructure and how it's different than more traditional LAN-based systems.
Good stuff, as always.
I just stepped outside to take out the trash. It's 68 degrees, sunny, and there's a light breeze. Damn, I love northern California at this time of year.
