how tools come of age

I’m a java skeptic. The promise of write once, run everywhere has morphed into write once, suffer everywhere. The whole notion of java applications, given that your code will only perform as well as the virtual machine, meaning your OS vendor, permits, has never really caught fire. Applets turned out to be a bust: CGI and Flash can do much the same thing in a more platform-agnostic way. It has always struck me as a solution in search of a problem.
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mexican melange

I have always liked simple foods, big on texture and flavor and low on technique. So things like burritos, quesadillas, pizza, pasta, etc, have always been staples on the menu.

Being vegetarian doesn’t really make it more difficult, since most of these items were meatless as a matter of course. With the advent of “better eating through chemistry” it’s quite easy to slip some faux meat/protein into these things. These work well for stuff like tacos and the like.
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joke of the day

Only on Southwest Airlines . . . . .

A mother and her 5 year old boarded a plane, and he asked why there were no baby airplanes. After all, he knew there were baby horses and baby sheep and baby dogs and baby cats: why not baby airplanes?

“Why don’t you go ask the flight attendant?” suggested the mother.

So off the boy goes, and puts his question to the flight attendant.

She takes a breath, smiles and asks, “Did your mommy say you should ask me that?”

The boy nods his head yes.

“Well, you tell her it’s because we always pull out on time. Ask her to explain that to you.”

the century

one hundred of these little nuggets. I never imagined I would reach 100 entries but it does seem to scratch an itch.

Thanks for reading.

Power, stability, simplicity, and elegance

UNIX Porting Guide

For years, power users and developers have recognized the strengths of UNIX and its offshoots. While UNIX-based operating systems are indispensable to developers and power users, consumers have rarely been able to enjoy their benefits because of the perceived complexity. Instead consumers have lived with a generation of desktop computers that could only hope to achieve the strengths that UNIX-based operating systems have had from the beginning.
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