[ music | U2 – Mofo ]

Sometimes we overlook the little things. I switched from the Mozilla Suite to Firefox shortly after 1.0 came out, and after a short time getting used to it, loved it. Now, after two patches for 1.5, it’s just better than ever. And I’m looking at folks workinghard on FF2 and even planning and implementing groundwork for FF3, I stopped to think, “these folks really are serious. It’s not just an aimless passtime like it was in the first 8 years.” And they’re doing a pretty damn good job of it too. And in all the accolades Firefox has won, the devs haven’t really taken time to pat themselves on the back, they just keep working harder. I also just read this piece from Joel Sposky, and this passage jumped out and smacked me with it’s incredibly elegance, how it took the truth and boiled it down to the essence of the point about outsourcing.

“Here’s something Pradeep Singh taught me today: if only 20% of your staff is programmers, and you can save 50% on salary by outsourcing programmers to India, well, how much of a competitive advantage are you really going to get out of that 10% savings?”

That perfectly sums up why outsourcing internal development is not a solution in and of itself. And I thought about Firefox. Here you have a core group of devs working hard on a product, and producing magic, and you have some supporting players taking care of marketing FF, and support, and keeping the lights on and bills paid, and it’s working wonderfully. It’s working so well that they are making enough money to pay the devs and staff without even charging for the product. Everyone is benefiting, too. But before that, there were devs working for years on the core code without much recognition or accolades, they just kept working. And now with all the recognition and accolades, they’re still working hard. so I thought, let’s take a minute and just say Thank You. Thanks to everyone at MoFo and MoCo, thanks for Firefox, and Thunderbird, and everything else. We appreciate it.

[ music | Aimee Mann – Save Me ]

I have such a crushing headache my head feels like it’s filled with neutronium. I’m not sure if it’s gravity is trying to implode my head, or it’s explosive pressure is trying to blow open my skull. Either way, with various meds doing NOTHING to kill it, it’s time to pass out for a while and let it ooze out my ears.

[ music | Beastie Boys – Sabotage ]

I didn’t want to say anything until the personal courrier came, and he’s just left. I have in my hands a signed contract and my initial pay. I am now working for Miscrosoft as the head of their Community Conversion department. I’m helping Bill implement his “Closing Open Source” project, starting with Mozilla! Over the next few months, I’ll be contacting every single code contributor to Mozilla informing them we would like to purchase the copyright to their code. If they choose not to sell, I’ll share some of the data gathered by our Internal Intelligence department and attempt to blackmail them. If that fails, we’ll simply sue them into nonexistence. Simultaneously, we’ll be suing MoFo directly for what looks to be a giant stack of patent violations as well! The pile of violated patents I have here is in the four and a half foot tall range, so I think we’ll be able to bleed MoFo dry just in legal fees.

I’d like to thank Bill for this opportunity to help destroy what so many wonderful people have helped create over the years. Once the Berlin Wall fell, I was afraid the days of wholesale evil were behind us, but it’s alive and well in Microsoft. And remember, it’s all just business! Take care!

[ music | Peter Gabriel – Shock The Monkey ]

I really shouldn’t enjoy this as much as I do. But it’s bloody funny as hell.

PS: A little background if you have no idea WTF that clip is about, but actually care. 🙂

[ music | Led Zepplin – Immigrant Song ]

Lou, I have to stand and applaud your appearance on Live From (with my favorite anchor Kyra Phillips). You refused to allow her Maria Elana Salinas to get away with the most common tactics used by people who know they’re on the wrong side if an issue, obfuscation and a shell game with the issue. They speak to the side of an issue. She tried to change the issue about ALL immigration. You, me, and the millions of people like us, are against illegal immigration, that is people crossing the borders contrary to the legal method already in place.

Half of my closest friends were born outside this country, and I can’t imagine how much poorer my life would be without them. But they’re all here legally, and all of us are better for it. But illegal immigrants make a mockery of every single legal immigrant who took the effort to go through the most liberal immigration process in the world. Supporters of illegal immigration want nothing more than to get away with their flouting of our laws because it benefits them. They want the easy way out.

She also tried to make it a racial issue, which is the tactic of the truly desparate. It’s not about race, it’s about the rule of law beign equally applied to EVERYONE. Supporters of illegal immigration want special exemptions from the law, and that goes against the very backbone of our Constitution. That’s the bottom line.

[ music | Guns ‘n’ Roses – Get In The Ring ]

If you tune out geekish entries, don’t ignore this one, this is a good old fashioned rant.

I visit BusinessWeek Online to read this story on IE7. I scroll down, but there’s nothing to read. They have succumbed to the idiotic Audioblog/Podcast meme. I hate podcasts, I hated them when they were audioblogs, I liked them when they were called talk radio, but that’s because I was in the car, and you can’t read and drive at the same time (safely). Anyway, so people rarely provide a transcript, so I generally ignore their podcasts. This is why (this is if you already know why).

But this one is newsworthy enough that I was going to break down and listen. But they can’t just provide a link to the media file, no. That would be far too simple. You have to either use iTunes, which I hate, or subscribe to their RSS Feed with your feed reader. So I just peeked at the source to their RSS feed, and grabbed the media file’s link manually.

They typoed the goddamned filename. They make you jump through hoops just to listen, and then they can’t even type the damn filename right.

[ music | Badly Drawn Boy – Once Around The Block ]

<Tom> jx are you stable now or what
<jX> Temporarily stable. Still moving back to Boston though, just to a nicer place.
<jX> I look at this as like a plane going back to the taxiway after discovering a problem on the runway.
<Tom> oh you're back home?
<jX> yeah, for the moment.
<jX> sadly.
<jX> but it's ten thousand times better than that hovel.
<jX> And after driving in Boston for a week, I will NEVER EVER AGAIN bash PA or Pittsburgh roads again.
<jX> Apparently, the concept of a level driving surface is unknown in Mass.
<wheels> o_O
<jX> And they have loops on roads, where multiple roads connect (rather than cloverleaf exits and such), they call them Rotaries. Rotaries are exempt from all driving laws apparently. They're little mini Thunderdomes.
<jX> The only rule I discovered is if you think you have to slow down, just go faster.
<jX> And if your car can't accelerate fast, God have mercy on your soul.
<Chewie[]> Or, er, body.
<jX> No, soul, because if you can't gun it, your body is history.

[ music | Monty Python – Always Look On the Bright Side Of Life ]

I want to go for a walk…

[ music | Johnny Cash – The Wanderer ]

Ok, I’m packing up and heading out soon. So for now I’m disabling comments here on the site. You can still email me all your love and hate letters, but I probably won’t see it till the weekend. I have a lot of work to do, and very little time to do it, just how I like it. 😉 Later folks.

[ music | Joan Jett – Victim Of Circumstance ]

Well, CNN did it, they let go the classiest and most interesting anchor they had. As if giving Wolf Blitzer three solid hours every day wasn’t bad enough, they’ve let Aaron Brown go from the network. I liked him almost instantly from the morning of September 11, 2001, when he was on the roof of CNN’s New York offices covering the horrors of that day. And I liked his NewsNight show ever since. No longer. If he shows up on another news network, I just might find myself watching a lot less CNN.

Update: Ok, Anderson Cooper, who now has Aaron’s timeslot, just finished his first hour in that timeslot with a 4 minute piece on Aaron’s background, his time at CNN, how they worked together at ABC and then CNN, and thanked him in a very generous and sincere manner. Not a ten second blurb or something thrown together, but a 4 minute segment with old footage and such that actually took time and energy to do. CNN is was damn lucky to have Aaron, and I’m telling you, they’re damn lucky to have Anderson Cooper. They dismissed Aaron in a very tactless manner, but Anderson Cooper just showed the world that some people at CNN still have class. Bravo, Anderson, bravo.