as someone who grew up in naperville, this doesn't surprise me at all. naperville is easily one of the most republican cities in illinois. it's where GW called that nytimes writer an asshole.
more to the point though, naperville *has* had a number of very bizarre cases of...perversion? some dude was recently busted for walking through the halls of napervilles largest high school without any clothes on. that, plus the hardcore conservatism plus the insanely hardcore police system there...none of this is surprising at all.
lastly, someone here made a comment about trust, as in it's not the technology it's trusting those in charge to use it wisely and how we wouldn't know if it's being abused or not. i would buy that argument if we didn't have a free press. but we do. and our free press takes pleasure in finding abuses of power (a good thing). im not saying this still isnt shady business, but really, minding the paranoia is a better use of energy.
it's like when people freak out about giving up the SSN. yeah, i would to if i didn't have the proteceted-by-law ability to say "none of your damn business." no one is being forced to give their fingerprints. if you (a general 'you') don't want to have the librarian log you on then you and your pride will just have to go somewhere else.
"[T]he temperatures of summer 2003 were almost undoubtedly the highest in Europe for over 500 years."
So what? When i hear that Europe has had the hottest decade in 500 years I'll get excited.
"According to our model, by the middle of this century every other summer could be even hotter than 2003." So based on one hot-ass year we're trending out the rest of the century? I firmly believe in global warming, but these kind of overt scare tactics give non-believers the fuel to say these scientists are wreckless, dont believe them.
I'm from Chicago. We had 525 old people die from a heat wave in 1995. (http://www.sws.uiuc.edu/atmos/statecli/General/19 95Chicago.htm) Why? Power-outtages, slow reaction to the issue by local government and the urban heat island effect. Was it caused by global warming? If it was the global warming has decided to go elsewhere ever since. The past three summers have been downright balmy and relatively short. Oops, there I go looking for trends within a few short years.
What's clearly going on here is some enterprising activist thought they could advance their cause by attaching it to a catastrophe that had a huge loss of life. But let's look at what really caused most of the deaths in the one country that got it all wrong, France:
Temperatures broke 100 a few times in France during the heat wave
As many as half the deaths were at nursing homes, which were short-staffed because many aides and doctors were on vacation and were overcrowded because many families had checked in elderly relatives and also headed off to beaches and mountains.
Most nursing homes and hospitals lack air conditioning because of health laws. French authorities have long believed air-conditioning systems do more harm, by spreading germs, than good
About 20% of the victims died at home, alone. Most homes and apartments in France also lack air conditioning.
the number of deaths in France was much higher, even on per capita basis, than anywhere else in Europe.
(http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2003-08-26-f rance-death_x.htm)
It's funny because the foibles of the French was mocked in the press ad nauseum. Those who were paying attention then know that, like Chicago in 95, the heat didn't cause the deaths. Those who werent paying attention then most certainly arent now.
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45
romenesko's media news site is a fairly influential blog sponsored by the even more influential poynter institute.
only 20% of US oil imports come from persian gulf states. the rest, the majority, comes from venezuela, mexico, canada, nigeria, the north sea, etc.
when we're looking out for oil interests, when we stick our nose in the middle-east, our concern is the global economic impact of middle-east oil reserve problems (its not altruistic -- global problems can effect us in a big way). so if you're posing this question with the idea of divesting ourselves from the middle-east, the rest of the world would need to follow suit in order for us to no longer care about what happens in persian gulf states.
perhaps if you went by suggested retail prices you could come up with a chart of competitors that looks like the one the author has at the beginning of his article. however, unlike apple devices its fairly easy to find mp3 players that sell for drastically less than the MSRP which, when comparing store prices, could then be added to the list to (then) point out why apples prices are ridiculous. to wit:
and of course we could go on and on. 4GB for $250 that *actually sells* for $250 is absurd. competitors are judged by the price at which it can be purchased *and* features. going by MSRP alone is pointless, especially in apples case.
most of you here make it sound as if the way you code is your decision. as if youre working in some babylon of development in which all of those real life factors (timelines, cost, client demands, client stupidity) dont apply. you guys need to tell me where this candyland of fancy code resides so i can apply.
really though, i find that many of the ppl who post to sites like this act as if theyre working under no restraints. arguements about standards almost always lack the attention that must be paid to industry standards vs. best practices.
best practices would be what you are all talking about. no one can deny that complying to web standards would be one of the pillars of best practices in web development. unfortunately, most clients dont give a damn about web standards. in fact, nine times out of ten they could give a damn about the code at all.
Reasons
essentially clients care about two things: speed to market and cost. the thing about that is, those are two corners of the classic quality triagle (speed to market, cost and quality). the rule says you take one corner away and the other two suffer. when you take two of the corners away...forget about it.
yesterday we (here at ye olde agency) were minutes away from delivering a large, dynamically driven sub-site to a wireless carrier. this would be the second site we've made for a wireless carrier, and, like nearly every other project ive worked on, this company wanted it done in an absurd amount of time. how long, you ask? how long was i given to build, test and debug 22 templates? three days. you know what kind of crap you produce with a timeline like that? three days.
in three days time i knew i wasnt even creating code that could be exanded upon when changes may be required. in three days time i was able to test my html in one version of ie and one version of netscape on one platform. after my alotted three days i gave the site over to development. they also had so little time that the two original developers on the project (eventually that number doubled as we were forced to take two ppl off of a project in new jersey to fly them back here to chicago to work) that they were here working from 1pm to 9am everyday. and sure, we *could* kick out a site that *visually* looks okay in that amount of time. we could if the client didnt come back to us with a plethora of changes day after day, all the way up till the day before the site was to launch. do you really think it matters to management (on either side of the fence) that the design and content cutoff was passed weeks prior? in this economy? please. if you dont think that in these days its all about money youre sorely mistaken.
so after building sites for companies that make more money in a month then most small countries make in a year, it doesnt take long for one to realize that the deciding factor in the way you produce your work, be you in design, production or development, is entirely dependant on the amount of time your given. in a previous arguement ive had about this, someone said oh well your just jaded. jaded? hey, when you look back on months and months of work only to realize that in the end youd rather tell people no, i wasnt the poor son of a bitch who was part of *that* ugly-ass project when in fact you built the damn thing...jaded? no, its much more personal then that. this is my job, my life. i didnt fall into this like most people. i actually planned on ending up at a company which allows me to work on sites for microsoft, slate, sears, thermos, morningstar, etc. but now that im here...let me tell you, its very, very hard to reconcile with mediocrity when you know you can produce greatness if you were only given the chance. but i dont get to make those decisions. if you want to, either be a project manager or work for yourself. of course, if you work for yourself, get set to have a whole other world of problems which, not coinidentally, also revolve around money.
when i first started interviewing at agencies back in 97 i read an interview of lynda weinman, creator of the web-safe color pallette, author of many widely read web books. one of the first questions she was asked was, why did you quit your job? 'clients are jerks,' she said. ill never forget that.
Slashdot Mirror
as someone who grew up in naperville, this doesn't surprise me at all. naperville is easily one of the most republican cities in illinois. it's where GW called that nytimes writer an asshole. more to the point though, naperville *has* had a number of very bizarre cases of...perversion? some dude was recently busted for walking through the halls of napervilles largest high school without any clothes on. that, plus the hardcore conservatism plus the insanely hardcore police system there...none of this is surprising at all. lastly, someone here made a comment about trust, as in it's not the technology it's trusting those in charge to use it wisely and how we wouldn't know if it's being abused or not. i would buy that argument if we didn't have a free press. but we do. and our free press takes pleasure in finding abuses of power (a good thing). im not saying this still isnt shady business, but really, minding the paranoia is a better use of energy. it's like when people freak out about giving up the SSN. yeah, i would to if i didn't have the proteceted-by-law ability to say "none of your damn business." no one is being forced to give their fingerprints. if you (a general 'you') don't want to have the librarian log you on then you and your pride will just have to go somewhere else.
Temperatures broke 100 a few times in France during the heat wave
As many as half the deaths were at nursing homes, which were short-staffed because many aides and doctors were on vacation and were overcrowded because many families had checked in elderly relatives and also headed off to beaches and mountains.
Most nursing homes and hospitals lack air conditioning because of health laws. French authorities have long believed air-conditioning systems do more harm, by spreading germs, than good
About 20% of the victims died at home, alone. Most homes and apartments in France also lack air conditioning.
the number of deaths in France was much higher, even on per capita basis, than anywhere else in Europe. (http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2003-08-26-f rance-death_x.htm)
It's funny because the foibles of the French was mocked in the press ad nauseum. Those who were paying attention then know that, like Chicago in 95, the heat didn't cause the deaths. Those who werent paying attention then most certainly arent now.
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45 romenesko's media news site is a fairly influential blog sponsored by the even more influential poynter institute.
only 20% of US oil imports come from persian gulf states. the rest, the majority, comes from venezuela, mexico, canada, nigeria, the north sea, etc.
when we're looking out for oil interests, when we stick our nose in the middle-east, our concern is the global economic impact of middle-east oil reserve problems (its not altruistic -- global problems can effect us in a big way). so if you're posing this question with the idea of divesting ourselves from the middle-east, the rest of the world would need to follow suit in order for us to no longer care about what happens in persian gulf states.
perhaps if you went by suggested retail prices you could come up with a chart of competitors that looks like the one the author has at the beginning of his article. however, unlike apple devices its fairly easy to find mp3 players that sell for drastically less than the MSRP which, when comparing store prices, could then be added to the list to (then) point out why apples prices are ridiculous. to wit:
RCA Lyra Jukebox (40gb) : $260
Rio Karma (20Gb, ogg support, ethernet) : $267
Samsung Napster (20GB,line-in,fm transmitter) : $260
Dell Digital Jukebox (15gb) : $249
(source: cnet.com)
and of course we could go on and on. 4GB for $250 that *actually sells* for $250 is absurd. competitors are judged by the price at which it can be purchased *and* features. going by MSRP alone is pointless, especially in apples case.
the who, why and where was reported over a year ago in the atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/07/cohen-j. htm
most of you here make it sound as if the way you code is your decision. as if youre working in some babylon of development in which all of those real life factors (timelines, cost, client demands, client stupidity) dont apply. you guys need to tell me where this candyland of fancy code resides so i can apply.
really though, i find that many of the ppl who post to sites like this act as if theyre working under no restraints. arguements about standards almost always lack the attention that must be paid to industry standards vs. best practices.
best practices would be what you are all talking about. no one can deny that complying to web standards would be one of the pillars of best practices in web development. unfortunately, most clients dont give a damn about web standards. in fact, nine times out of ten they could give a damn about the code at all.
Reasons
essentially clients care about two things: speed to market and cost. the thing about that is, those are two corners of the classic quality triagle (speed to market, cost and quality). the rule says you take one corner away and the other two suffer. when you take two of the corners away...forget about it.
yesterday we (here at ye olde agency) were minutes away from delivering a large, dynamically driven sub-site to a wireless carrier. this would be the second site we've made for a wireless carrier, and, like nearly every other project ive worked on, this company wanted it done in an absurd amount of time. how long, you ask? how long was i given to build, test and debug 22 templates? three days. you know what kind of crap you produce with a timeline like that? three days.
in three days time i knew i wasnt even creating code that could be exanded upon when changes may be required. in three days time i was able to test my html in one version of ie and one version of netscape on one platform. after my alotted three days i gave the site over to development. they also had so little time that the two original developers on the project (eventually that number doubled as we were forced to take two ppl off of a project in new jersey to fly them back here to chicago to work) that they were here working from 1pm to 9am everyday. and sure, we *could* kick out a site that *visually* looks okay in that amount of time. we could if the client didnt come back to us with a plethora of changes day after day, all the way up till the day before the site was to launch. do you really think it matters to management (on either side of the fence) that the design and content cutoff was passed weeks prior? in this economy? please. if you dont think that in these days its all about money youre sorely mistaken.
so after building sites for companies that make more money in a month then most small countries make in a year, it doesnt take long for one to realize that the deciding factor in the way you produce your work, be you in design, production or development, is entirely dependant on the amount of time your given. in a previous arguement ive had about this, someone said oh well your just jaded. jaded? hey, when you look back on months and months of work only to realize that in the end youd rather tell people no, i wasnt the poor son of a bitch who was part of *that* ugly-ass project when in fact you built the damn thing...jaded? no, its much more personal then that. this is my job, my life. i didnt fall into this like most people. i actually planned on ending up at a company which allows me to work on sites for microsoft, slate, sears, thermos, morningstar, etc. but now that im here...let me tell you, its very, very hard to reconcile with mediocrity when you know you can produce greatness if you were only given the chance. but i dont get to make those decisions. if you want to, either be a project manager or work for yourself. of course, if you work for yourself, get set to have a whole other world of problems which, not coinidentally, also revolve around money.
when i first started interviewing at agencies back in 97 i read an interview of lynda weinman, creator of the web-safe color pallette, author of many widely read web books. one of the first questions she was asked was, why did you quit your job? 'clients are jerks,' she said. ill never forget that.