I met him in a hotel lobby in Visalia in the mid 90s. He was like an astral projection in reverse: he clearly was not really in our world, but rather in some other world, looking out into ours. His handler/helper talked to us, and he told me what day of the week I was born on and what my sign was and tricks like that.
MySQL is an open-source database that was bought by Sun not too long ago. Oracle makes a competing commercial database. I *think* that it would be bad if Oracle managed both, but I'm open to someone else telling me that I'm wrong.
"Design professionals don't need to be managed." -- complete claptrap. As people, they might not be, but as a project, and as a vendor, of course they do. Designers are no more infallible than anyone else who is part of a project, and while you should know when to listen to their wisdom, you don't have to like what they produce. Geez.
Seriously, folks, if you read one blog post this week, make it this one. It's funny and sad and true all at once, and when that can be said about an iPhone-related post, that's saying something.
This quote really hit home: "Unwittingly, we pass feelings to others -- whether in person, on the phone or online -- and influence the pattern of human connections surrounding us."
“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)