Posts under ‘tech_and_market_reflections’

Many of these problems arise because RDBMSs are designed typically with the conceit of being the sources of truth within the organization (e.g. invoice #1234 exists because the database says so), but are often used to reflect external truths about the world, which are input messily and which themselves are often shifting or subject to [...]

Last night, I was typing happily along on my MacBook Pro, unplugged and on battery power with about 40% indicated remaining, when bam, the power went right out like a light. Curse words. Flipped the thing over, and got no LED action from the battery charge indicators. Plugged it in and it would boot, but [...]

I read last week in the Durham (NC) Herald-Sun this AP story, which unfortunately I now find linked only at the ghastly FOX News: Today’s college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors, according to a comprehensive new study by five psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships [...]

I spent some time recently playing around on the post-acquisition YouTube. It seems that Google’s legal department has really cracked down on copyrighted material; about one in six links I surfed from within YouTube were broken (removed due to terms of service violations or such). But in surfing the remaining stuff — most all amateur [...]

I was checking out the new Judy’s Book in an attempt to find a good local accountant. Well, it’s terrible. But of all the ways (incomplete, too many ads, too cluttered, unhelpful categorization, navigational and search deficiencies) in which it’s terrible, there is one which stands out: Judy’s Book sells out its users by trading [...]

I was slow to adopt a lot of new social networking technologies. I read blogs for several years (OK, like, three) before getting into “active” blogging (fairly frequent, first-person writing, unlike the mostly-error-message blog posts I put up at my Harvard Law blog. I was super-fast, however, to adopt Linux, email, instant messaging, online banking, [...]

I spent some time this week with some friends from the Portland Perl Mongers (PDX.pm) at 2007′s first meeting, devoted to Web app frameworks, games, and Martinis, in no particular order. Just as Seattle is blessed with a vibrant Ruby community (the Ruby Brigade meets up on Capitol Hill), Portland has a truly exceptional Perl [...]

I’d been holding out as long as I could, but the time finally has arrived when I have no excuse any longer not to have a Myspace account. Considering that it’s impossible to hear a Web deal pitch these days without some reference to the 800-pound, Goth-dressing, emo-listening gorilla that is Myspace (be it as [...]

Last month I met with a friend who complained to me that his website — a high quality hobbyist community site — received X page views per day, but was turning over less than X / 2 dollars per year in revenue. Doing the math, that turns out to under .15 cents per page view. [...]

I like the idea of Microformats — they’re essentially loosely standardized schemata with a strictly standardized syntax (which plays nice with (X)HTML — hence the “h” in front of hCard, the new groovy Microformat version of vCard). They’re 90% of the way to my new Nirvana of all-text interoperability (I no longer trust binary formats [...]