wilwheaton:

CreativeAmerica, the astroturfing group that pretends it’s a “grassroots” operation — but which is funded by the major Hollywood studios and run by former studio/MPAA execs — is amazingly inept at communicating with the public, especially considering these guys are supposed to be communications experts. Remember, this is the same group who, while fighting for stronger laws against copying, flat out copied the email of anti-SOPA activists, and changed a few words to push their own pro-SOPA message. 

Their latest move is even more bizarre. The group is touting its latest slickly produced propaganda film, insisting that SOPA/PIPA are needed for a variety of reasons — almost none of which are true. It throws out the bogus claim of jobs being at risk, even though the evidence shows otherwise. But where it gets totally ridiculous is that the video focuses mostly on Megaupload and Kim Dotcom/Schmitz. The point of focusing on Megaupload? To claim that it can’t be reached under existing law. Seriously. It talks about Megaupload for a while (claiming that it brings in $300 million per year — which turns out to be 10x the actual number, by the way) and then says:

US law enforcement is only permitted to shut down US-based IP addresses. Overseas sites, like Megaupload and Megavideo, and the Swedish-based Pirate Bay, are out of reach.

Yes. And they’re releasing this video five whole days after the US government showed that existing laws actually do allow them to reach Megaupload and shut it down. So, um, why do we need these new laws again? 

Quick! Someone get Chuck123 on the phone! We need more lawmakin’!

wilwheaton:

Maybe instead of using FUD to terrify Tumblr users into uninstalling Missing E, Tumblr could use that time and energy to give Tumblr users the functionality they installed Missing E to get in the first place.

What more needs to be said?

kyle-burton:

It’s also why I leave stacks of 3x5 cards at every desk, cups full of pens at every desk (and in every conf room) and a heap of markers at every whiteboard.  I can see it interrupt their flow when one of my devs has to stop and look around to find something to write with or on. 

Now I have to get them the pick up the same habit…

This is also just one type of scarcity - Jon Tran got me thinking about abundance, to quote him: “When you’ve made something abundant you haven’t just made something better, you’ve made something completely different”.  That has really stuck with me.  I try to make the dev tools and environments for my team abundant usually through heavy automation and reduction of steps.  It really makes a qualitative difference to be able to have a single button or step to perform repetitive tasks.

This reminds me of you introducing me to git. The speed & qualitative difference completely transformed my workflow.

mnmal:

nevver:

10 Years

I think in another 10 years we’ll things are actually are truly magical.

dealanexmachina:

It’s funny because it’s true.

LOL

viafrank:

There’s an old story, true or not, that people love telling about writing implements in space. The American space program discovered that normal ink pens didn’t work on missions (no gravity in orbit to pull down the ink), so they spent millions to research and develop a pen that could write…

While I’m familiar with this story, having read it before, the original writer flat out misrepresents it to make his point — a failure in my book. “true or not” implies there is some doubt to it — that it may have happened. Yet the article actually linked to by the original author, in Scientific American, flat out refutes the story. There is no truth to the story — it is not “true or not” — it is a myth and untrue. It shouldn’t be used to introduce an argument, especially not insinuating that it may be true when you know it isn’t, unless it is being used it to illustrate how people like to make up untrue stories to prove a point. Personally, starting off the post this way puts me off the entire thing.