By Rip Rowan on
12/11/2008 10:09 AM
A new Senate report is poised to present a major challenge to the dogma of global warming. The preview, made available today, provides some tasty hints as to what the full report will contain. Here’s my favorite quote: “Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical.” - Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.” My favorite part of the quote: “Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly.” The unspoken implication is deafening.
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By Rip Rowan on
12/10/2008 9:36 PM
Is global warming dead? Last March, NASA reported the oceans have been cooling for the last five years. Sea level has stopped rising, and Northern Hemisphere cyclone and hurricane activity is at a 24-year low. Environmental extremists and global warming alarmists are in denial and running for cover. Their rationale for continuing a lost cause is that weather events in the short term are not necessarily related to long-term climatic trends. But these are the same people who screamed at us each year that ordinary weather events such as high temperatures or hurricanes were undeniable evidence of imminent doom. I wonder how long it will be before this guy gets shot? To the extent global warming was ever valid, it is now officially over. It is time to file this theory in the dustbin of history, next to Aristotelean physics, Neptunism, the geocentric universe, phlogiston, and a plethora of other incorrect scientific theories, all of which had vocal and dogmatic supporters who cited incontrovertible evidence. Couldn’t agree more.
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By Rip Rowan on
12/9/2008 9:42 AM
 I’m not particularly interested in reviewing Malcolm Gladwell’s latest pop-sociology treatise, Outliers. Who needs another review when such outstanding writers as Stephen Kotkin, Michiko Kakutani, and our buddy Joel Spolsky have all weighed in?
Instead, I thought I might critique the critics. In order to critique the critics, however, I will have to at least briefly review the book. So, here goes. I read Outliers. It was a fun and insightful read. The author’s thesis is that innate talent isn’t sufficient to create success, but instead hard work and good fortune are also required. Gladwell points out and refutes two common misconceptions: that the gifted rise effortlessly to the top, and that if you aren’t the very best and brightest you have no chance of success.
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By Rip Rowan on
12/7/2008 1:09 PM
There was a bit of debate on the issue of bugs versus features I raised in Coding Horror-ibly. I tried my best to keep it concise, but apparently, didn’t explain myself well. It seems worthwhile to clarify, Mythbusters-style.
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By Rip Rowan on
12/2/2008 7:05 PM
So I got roped into trying this health-food crap called "VaNu". It's an acai / goji / cupuacu juice from the rainforest, sold by an MLM company from Dallas called "Fountain of Life". It's blended with cacao and vanilla, and has a nice taste in my opinion, sort of red wine meets chocolate.
If you know me, I'm really skeptical about this sort of thing. And the stuff is really expensive - about $40 for a 24 oz bottle. So it'd better do something.
As it turns out, it really seems to. I tried it at the recommended serving size of approx 2 oz per day, and it didn't have much effect. So, being me, I tried doubling the amount. And you know, I felt great. My energy levels went way up, my performance in my yoga class was stronger than ever, my digestion improved almost immediately, and I just felt good.
I know what you're thinking. "Are you sure it says cacao and not coca?" No, the ingredient list is quite pristine: acai, agave, cupuacu, goji, camu-camu, cacao, and vanilla. That's it.
Yeah, whatever. Call me crazy. But you know what, the stuff actually worked. And I think I'll keep on using it. It's expensive, but no more so than what a lot of people spend daily on Starbucks. And this is a lot better for you.
OK, fine. Go ahead and laugh.
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By Rip Rowan on
11/25/2008 5:04 PM
So I’m deleting this really big folder from my USB hard drive, and I get the message from Windows: 
which is odd, because I know there’s over 35,000 files totaling over 370 GB of data in that folder.
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By Rip Rowan on
11/25/2008 11:44 AM
I love Jeff Atwood’s blog. But sometimes, I think he’s smoking crack. His latest post, “That’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature Request” gets it way wrong. Regarding Bugs versus Feature Requests, Jeff writes: There's no difference between a bug and a feature request from the user's perspective. I almost burst out laughing when I read that.
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By Rip Rowan on
11/22/2008 11:11 AM
- That can’t happen.
- That doesn’t happen on my machine.
- That shouldn’t happen.
- Why is that happening?
- Oh, I see.
- How did that ever work?
Hat Tip: Brian Shaler.
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By Rip Rowan on
11/14/2008 9:56 AM
I was looking for a power antenna replacement for my car today, and the top site returned for my search was Installer.com. The web site is so horrific I refuse to shop there. I opened it and immediately closed my browser like I’d accidentally clicked a pr0n link. It’s like walking into a store with ultra-bright lights playing loud death metal, with salesmen shouting at me – I’d walk right out. SEO is good, but someone needs to seriously reconsider this web site.
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By Rip Rowan on
11/14/2008 9:38 AM
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By Rip Rowan on
11/14/2008 7:54 AM
This is probably much funnier for me than for others, having actually played Zork compulsively on an actual Apple ][+. Lyrics here.
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By Rip Rowan on
11/13/2008 4:40 PM
This morning Google announced its new video chat capability with an eye-catching link at the top of the Gmail window. Clicking the link takes you to this page, where you can see a nifty video that makes video chat look pretty cool. But the link to “Get Started” takes you to a dead page (http://mail.google.com/videochat). The interesting thing isn’t that the service coughed up blood on its first day out. The interesting thing is that, ten hours later, http://mail.google.com/videochat is still 404. It can be hard to revive an overwhelmed application, but it’s really, really easy to put up a page to let users know what’s going on. I wonder why Google is leaving this page 404? It doesn’t inspire confidence.
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By Rip Rowan on
11/12/2008 12:06 PM
The DotNetNuke Blog module has had a checkered history with Permalinks. The earliest versions did not use them, so old blog entries never had a Permalink created for them. Instead, links to entries were generated programmatically, on the fly.
It’s been trouble ever since.
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By Rip Rowan on
11/3/2008 10:09 AM
Taxonomy is one of the least understood weapons available for SEO. We all know the basics of effective SEO:
- URLs constructed with relevant terms, avoiding parameterization
- Each page can be accessed by only one URL
- Effective use of keywords in the title tag
- Use of keywords in H1 tags
- Links back to the page from other pages
How does taxonomy fit into all of this?
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By Rip Rowan on
10/31/2008 7:21 AM
 Well, that didn’t take long.
HP is already rolling out its new line of multi-touch enabled PCs. Take a look at the advertisement and see what you think. Here’s what I foresee: the thing is cool looking, and multi-touch is certainly popular. So they’ll sell. HP includes a touch-enabled application suite, which I’m guessing will suck generally compared with the applications it’s designed to replace. Some people will use the suite, others won’t. People who use a personal computer as a toy will like it, people who use it for work, not so much. Here’s what they don’t show. You have to put the thing close – in easy reach – so it won’t “sit right” for some people. You’re always reaching for the screen, then back to the keyboard. And really, most of the time, you’re using the mouse and keyboard. I’m betting that the allure will fade. But, then again, a lot of people thought that the mouse was a fad. I’m interested in your opinions. Check out the PC and post a comment. Let me know what you think!
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By Rip Rowan on
10/29/2008 10:28 AM
In a previous post I stated that the Blog module would offer an interim 3.6 release to provide users with a few more features before the team undertook the full-on rewrite to move the module to version 4. Well, as it turns out, plans change. The team has decided to go directly to version 4. There will likely be a 3.5.1 release to patch up any bugs that surface after 3.5 is released, but no 3.6 “feature upgrade”. This is really great news. The team has grand plans for this module which are currently stymied by a few factors, including a lot of old deadwood in the code and poor developer productivity in the older VS 2003 environment. Of course, the key reason is that DotNetNuke has officially left the .NET 1.1 environment so all new releases must be based on .NET 2.0.
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By Rip Rowan on
10/29/2008 7:02 AM
 Last night I was desperately seeking help for some DotNetNuke core classes, and I came up short. Fortunately I was able to resolve my problem with a little help from Antonio, but I still wished I had a better help file available.
Well, today I discovered that Ernst Peter Tamminga has put together an MSDN-style help system for DotNetNuke. Exactly what I was looking for. If you do serious DNN development, this is a must-have. Thanks Ernst!
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By Rip Rowan on
10/21/2008 6:56 AM
Just read a great article about the future of Flash on the iPhone. At its core the article is dead-on: the issue with running Flash apps on an iPhone isn’t technical, it’s business. Apple wants to own the multi-touch UI paradigm and is fiercely guarding it. Flash apps, written for the WIMP (Window, Icon, Menu, Pointer) UI metaphor, will break the seamlessness of the multi-touch experience on the iPhone and dilute the value proposition. I think that’s a fair and true assessment. About a year ago I wrote about the JazzMutant Dexter: a brilliant multi-touch mixing device for use with most popular DAW software. On publishing it, I realized that there are a great many people who don’t understand the fact that multi-touch isn’t a technical issue, it’s a UI issue. A lot of the comments on the Dexter review heralded the imminent arrival of multi-touch displays for the PC, at which time anyone could just “mix with their fingers” on a multi-touch screen using their current software. The notion is absurd, unless one happens to have needle-sized fingers. There is a notion out there in the Big World that one day, multi-touch screens are going to replace keyboards and mice. It’s true that iPhones – and their multi-touch user interface - are compelling. But if you think that multi-touch displays are going to replace the WIMP metaphor, you’re gravely mistaken. They can’t.
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