Life, politics and... application development by Frank Quist.
I'm a second-year social work student in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Here I occasionally "blog" on random topics, as a means of distracting myself from the place of intense chaos that some call Hogeschool Utrecht. Also, I have to channel my nerdier tendencies somewhere... social work does not tend to work for that.
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I do not think the compiz behavior is wrong, just hard to understand.
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Talk of swine flu might have been hysterical, but it was necessary. - By Anne Applebaum - Slate Magazine →
To which the correct response should be: So what? Before “that panic was ridiculous” becomes the conventional wisdom, let’s be frank about it: Where infectious diseases are concerned, panic is good. Panic is what we want. Without panic, nothing happens. Up to 500 million people will get malaria this year, and more than 1 million of them will die, mostly in very poor countries. Yet there is no fear of malaria in the rich world; there is no hysterical media coverage, and thus there is still no satisfactory prevention or cure. By contrast, designs for preventions and cures for swine flu are already, after a mere two weeks of hyperattention, well on track.Text
For those as annoyed by GNU inconsistencies as me
If ‘find’ throws “unknown predicate `-regexptype’” at you, it’s because it’s -regextype. Do ignore that the regexp argument is -regexp. Might escape you, as it did me, if you’re very very tired.Text
aTumble for Android ($0.99)
Testing if it works. It looks like it does whatever it’s supposed to do, but its features seem meager. No post editing, no hooks into Android, and the post screen layout is slightly messed up on Cupcake. Right now there’s little benefit above Pingdroid and it’s smooth tumblr/twitter/facebook/gazillion other services combination. A separate tumblr app only makes sense if it has smooth Tumblr integration. Dashboard viewing, private posts and tags are a start but I’m thinking editing posts, drafts, image linkthroughs etc.Link
The Development Dilemma: Can parking tickets explain why poor countries are poor? - Reason Magazine →
RCPS is foreign aid targeted at employing young men—the most likely to take up arms in times of famine—and providing food to rural families, which are the most likely to kill off helpless old grandmothers and aunts when food is short. RCPS is humanitarian aid, but it aims at prevention rather than cure. Whenever rainfall patterns indicate that famine is ahead, donors send money to head off violence before it starts. And because rainfall cannot be controlled, dictators cannot manipulate it to win a larger flow of foreign aid. Fisman and Miguel believe that Botswana’s long record of strong economic growth has been safeguarded by a domestic drought relief program. The idea may or may not be workable on an international scale, but it certainly does not lack ambition.Link
Republicans try to take back the word "universal." →
Since when do Republicans use the word universal to describe their health care policies? And what—if not government-sponsored, single-payer, socialist health coverage—do they mean by it?Quote reblogged from an egg-basket in a centrifuge
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.”
Video reblogged from Travors.com
Excessive Ping Pong celebration (via adambobrow)
:’D
Link reblogged from Slate In Brief
It's time to kill the idea that newspapers are essential for democracy. →
Most newspaper stories aren’t about government, and other organizations will step in to fill the investigative role.
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The Magic Behind Amazon's 2.7 Billion Dollar Question - OR: how to write an article based on a premise that's awful bullshit →
In 2008, Amazon brought in $19 billion, of which 70% came from media products, such as books, movies, and music. It’s not an accident that these products also make the best use of the reviews feature. As we’ve watched Amazon customers make purchases on the site, we can clearly see that promoting the most helpful reviews has increased sales in these categories by 20%.(One out of every five customers decides to complete the purchase because of the strength of the reviews.) From this, we can project it has contributed to Amazon’s top line by $2.7 billion. This is a case of a simple question - asked in the right way at the right time - that can have a dramatic affect on the success of the organization. Simple, subtle design once again proves it has great magical powers (and, in the right circumstances, very lucrative ones).
The above paragraph is all the proof the article contains that Amazon’s “was this review helpful to you” question has been responsible for almost 15% of all their profits. Insane.
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