Heat map of gas prices in the US

find out where the gas is cheaper!

Python 3.0 documentation

It's in beta, but won't be for long.

Threaded Documenting XML RPC server over HTTPS

I have been looking for something like this for a while now... Excellent!

Time Warner Cable being very slow

my download speed is smaller than my upload speed.



Following advice from obscure unremembered forum postings: placing the wireless router further away from the cable modem (from 1/2 foot to 3 feet) seems to have resolved this.

stackoverflow

I've been using the beta of stackoverflow.com, and so far I am very pleased.

Update: Today (August 26, 2008) at 2:29 PM, the site has been down for more than 30 minutes so far. Not good.

Unhappy Road Runner Customer

These past 10 days, roadrunner (time warner) has been completely horrible for me. Very slow internet, DNS issues. Unreliable.

Perspective for Firefox

This is a firefox extension that checks the certificates of websites that firefox would normally give the horrible warning window about. I just installed it.

Coworking

I'm desperately waiting for someone to open up a coworking facility in the San Fernando Valley.

Not Responding Too Well

This past weekend, I had food poisoning and this week the painters are at the house (the router is in a box) so there has been and will continue to be limited connectivity/activity from me. Even the answering machine is not plugged in!

August 15 update: The house is almost finished and looks great. The internet is back, but the house is a mess, so I have no time to get on the computer at home.

Woo Hoo!!!

I just made a penny on google adsense with this blog. from 255 impressions. that means, at that rate, that I 've got to show 255 million ads per month to make $10,000 /month.

Of course, hosting with blogger, I don't have to worry about server scalability at all... So, I just have to get really good at writing great stuff to get the 80% of the US population coming to my blog each month. Of course by then I'll be on CNN and Larry King and giving advice to Rupert Murdoch...

Onward!

Jeff Atwood on project management

Well written blog on the ills of bad project management. Lots of good stuff in the comments.

Blastwave unavailable, genunix down

But genunix.org/wiki still available at http://204.152.191.100/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Update: Glynn Foster twits: seemingly dennis is tired of funding it, and some internal politics around not accepting funding offers

Update: Dennis Clarke says that what Glynn wrote (above) is incorrect.

Update: genunix.org is available at http://genunix2.org/

Update: genunix.org is available again, at genunix.org.

Update: August 8 2008: more updates: Dennis is still in charge of Blastwave Inc. The servers are still running, and he's in the process of making some legal changes with blastwave. Note that I am just compiling information from various publicly available sources and you need to research this further before making assumptions. Want me to be more specific? leave comments asking me to, otherwise, I've got other things to do.

Update: August 12 2008: More info from Ben Rockwood.

The final word: August 21, 2008, from Dennis Clarke himself: http://www.blastwave.org/dclarke/blog/?q=node/111

on Collective Stupidity

Bruce Eckel asks "Why does a company full of smart people make stupid decisions? How do we keep it from happening? "

I replied at the artima forum:

I think it's because companies are insular in nature, and the longer one is in the company, the more skewed their view of the real world is. Companies tend to stabilize things, (to have repeatable process, etc) so over time become a less challenging environment than the real world for the people who have been there a long time and have learned the politics of the company. These people tend to be managers and lifers (hoping company won't fail before they retire).

In this safer environment, the instinct is to hold steady. And that means not introducing new technology as rapidly as in the real world (which means you fall behind eventually) and not bringing new ideas as rapidly as in the real world (which means you fall behind eventually), and ultimately you have old technology and old thinking and that will not produce solutions to real world problems.

This is why startups are more brutal but more innovative. They live in the "current real world month" and have to deliver valuable solutions to actual current problems.

So, collective stupidity happens when people try to apply organizationally-reinforced old thinking and old tech to current problems.

I realize I didn't answer the question fully, but I think what needs to be done becomes painfully obvious.

Edison

I'm downloading this thing. My work PC can sure use it.