Yearly Archives: 2012

Dept. of Obsessive Attention to Detail in Mad Men

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It should surprise precisely nobody that Matthew Weiner is very, very careful about the correct current events in Mad Men, even including what play Don and Megan went to see.

(Also cute: the modern Hare Krishna movement — more formally known as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON — was founded in New York in 1966, just months before the last night’s Christmastime episode.)

Update: It gets deeper. I’m informed via the Well that:

  • The diner Crane and Kinsey meet in at the end of the episode is identifiably Ratner’s, which happens to be just down the street from an actual ISKCON storefront on 2nd Avenue.

  • Mohawk was hit by a strike in December of 1966, which lasted until the end of January.

Yet more reasons to love Miles Davis

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From this Guardian piece, pointed out to us by BoingBoing:

In 1987, he was invited to a White House dinner by Ronald Reagan. Few of the guests appeared to know who he was. During dinner, Nancy Reagan turned to him and asked what he’d done with his life to merit an invitation. Straight-faced, Davis replied: “Well, I’ve changed the course of music five or six times. What have you done except fuck the president?”

Gizmodo on Flickr

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This is widely linked, but still worth reviewing: How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet.

It’s a common story: successful small company is swallowed and destroyed by a larger, more established firm in a futile effort to extract the value. Stories like this are almost certainly a big reason why Mark Zuckerberg has maintained complete control over Facebook, and will continue to control a simple majority of the voting shares even after the IPO.

Flickr is dying. This kills me, because I’ve got years of photos and annotations there that, I suspect, will eventually need to be migrated elsewhere. That sucks. It sucks even more because it didn’t have to be this way; this is only the endgame because Yahoo has been traditionally run by chuckleheads.

Dear Continental

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I think we need to see other airlines. You had to see this coming. Since you hooked up with United, things just haven’t been the same. You gave all this lip service to preserving your customer service culture, but no one was surprised to see how quickly United’s “fuck you, that’s why” attitude took over.

Fortunately, I live in Houston, and most of the places I need to go are serviced by Southwest. The airport is closer, the planes are always normal sized (and not tiny regional jets piloted by 22 year olds), and (more importantly) I avoid your new worldview.

I thought I was going to take one last great flight with you, you know. I have business in the UAE this summer, and flying round trip to the mid-east would very nearly lock in my elite status for 2013. However, since we’re a third party on the deal, we can’t get the client to pop for business class — and we all know what a cattle pen your economy is, especially after United took over.

On the other hand, Emirates flies direct from Houston to Dubai. United connects in DC or Frankfurt. And — not to put too fine a point on it — no one would suggest your coach service is anywhere near what Emirates offers for essentially the same price. Game, set, match to Emirates — even without this really great song from their most recent commercial. That you can get a friendly, helpful, knowledgeable Emirates rep on the phone in mere moments is simply gravy at this point.

It’s been fun, Continental. I’m sorry you’ve chosen this path, but I’m glad I have options. And I’m glad this ticket — the most expensive of my air travel career, I’ll note — isn’t fueling your new, customer-hostile direction.

Dear Atwood: Shut Up.

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I’m not sure any post here has ever needed an epigram, but this one does:

Normal people don’t see exceptions to rules as a big deal, so they forget to mention them. This is why programmers drink so much. — Rob Norris

Rob is one of my oldest friends. I’ve known him for 30 years at least. He’s also a programmer by trade. This quote — which I pulled from a conversation we had about customers and requirements and the difficulty in building the thing the client needs, but doesn’t know how to ask for — could have come from any of a hundred or more conversations he and I have had about the issue over the years, or a thousand or more conversations I’ve had with other colleagues about precisely the same issue.

More than anything else, this is the crux of the thing that programmers and other software development professionals complain about when they go to lunch or happy hours. Not coincidentally, it’s probably also the basis for what noncoders complain about when they talk about programmers. It’s the key issue that separates a coder of any level from the rest of the planet: the ability to understand what the actual rules are, and why exceptions matter. You can’t get to the next level of technical literacy — which things are hard and which things are easy — without this. Taken together, a customer who understands enough about these two basic computing truths is (first) a way better customer to work with. There will be much less drinking! And second, he’s going to be a much happier customer, because communication with him will be easier. But without either, you almost can’t communicate at all.

In my entire 20+ year career of managing projects and writing code, I’ve had maybe one or two customers who actually understood these points. This is because, to a first approximation, nearly everyone outside the programming trade is technologically illiterate when it comes to software development. They don’t get it, and they have never tried to understand it at all. Their computers are mysteries to them. I’ve seen very, very smart people flail utterly when Excel did something they didn’t understand, and you have, too. This failure is because, in part, the machine is a mystery, and they have no idea how the underlying parts work.

So now, this year, there’s a movement called CodeYear whose goal is to teach anyone who’s curious the basics of programming. This is a GREAT idea. It’s not about making everyone a programmer, and it’s certainly not about trying to recruit more professionals. A year isn’t going to make anyone a wunderkind, or really even hirable most likely. What a year of spare time development tutorials will do, though, is make you more conversant in the concepts that, every day, drive an increasingly large proportion of the world around you.

Damn, you must be thinking, that’s a good idea! And it is. It’s a very, very good idea. Spreading understanding — about anything — is never a bad plan.

Unless, apparently, you’re Jeff Atwood over at Coding Horror, who has missed the point of this exercise so much that I really think he might be trolling. Atwood has been, up to now, a fairly well regarded development blogger. I read him from time to time. But he could NOT be more off base here. He comes off as a weird tech-priesthood elitist, and totally ignores the very basic points I note above.

In his misbegotten essay, he even suggests that swapping “coding” with “plumbing” shows everyone how ridiculous the idea is — except, well, normal people already understand way more about plumbing than they do about programming, and a good chunk of them can fix a leaky faucet or clear out a sink trap on their own. Not only is it a good idea for folks to learn a bit about plumbing, in other words, it’s already happened — and there’s entire libraries worth of DIY books to help you expand that knowledge as a layperson. Atwood is too in love with his metaphor to notice, I guess.

He runs on to whine that the effort will result in more bad code in the world, while “real” programmers strive to write at little as possible. While true, this is like saying children shouldn’t learn the basics of grammar because it’ll interfere with the work of poets.

Like I said, it’s almost like he’s trolling, and maybe he is. I’m sure Coding Horror is getting a massive influx of traffic because of the (nearly universal) condemnation of his reactionary rant. It’s more likely, though, that his tantrum is more due to the sort of knee-jerk contrarianism that runs through a great chunk of the technical world (why else do you think so many developers worship Ron Paul?), but that’s not really an excuse.

My hope is that most people will ignore Atwood’s rant, and instead avail themselves of the excellent resources that CodeAcademy has made available for this project. They are, I should note, free.

Finally, I’ll just offer this:

Exactly. FWIW, Jeffrey also shared a couple more links on Twitter that are worth your time if this dialog interests you:

Read ’em both.

More highway robbery — by cops, obviously

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Something really, really, really has to be done about forfeiture laws that allow cops to “impound” cash without charging or convicting the money’s owner with a crime. George Renby was pulled over for simple speeding in Tennessee. The cop asked if he had a large amount of cash on him, and Renby — confident that it was his right as an American to do so — said yes.

He didn’t see his $20,000 again for four months.

Again, I feel strongly that a key piece of the solution is a drastic rollback of the immunity cops now enjoy. This cop needs to fat lawsuit, as does the jurisdiction.

Suprise! More cops behaving badly.

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This is rich.

Shawn Nee already has a pending lawsuit against the LA sheriff’s department, and now has photographic and video proof of their continued blatant disregard for the law.

This will not stop until more police are found personally liable. If a badged bully or two loses their house, maybe they’d get the message that they are not a law unto themselves.

Via The Agitator.

Posted in Pix

This, of course, will surprise no one

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The House oversight committee has noticed the insane amount of money the TSA is wasting, and they are not happy.

Techdirt:

One of the theories that was floated a few years ago when there was that big rush to rollout the nudie scanners, was that much of it was being driven by fear mongering from former government officials, like Michael Chertoff, who had economic relationships with the makers of the equipment. This report doesn’t confirm any of that, but it sure seems to fit that narrative pretty perfectly. Fear monger away, have the TSA buy a ton of questionable equipment it doesn’t actually need, and then have much of that equipment just sit in a warehouse. All on the taxpayers’ dime.

Oh, and, it turns out the DHS knows the porno-cancer-scanners don’t work for shit.

Shocker . . . er, not

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Yet another tale of a giant corporation behaving like a jackass: Booze giant Diageo extorts award out from under rightful winner.

More at Financial Times and the Telegraph.

Diageo, if you’re not familiar, is a Brit multinational and the world’s largest producer of distilled spirits, as well as a giant in beer and wine. Here’s a helpful list of their brands, in the event that you, like Heathen Central, wish to avoid them in the future:

  • Beer: Guinness, Tusker, Smithwick’s, Red Stripe, Harp, Kilkenny
  • Scotch: Johnnie Walker, Carhu, J&B, Caol Ila, Oban, Talisker, Lagavulin, Dalwhinnie, Cragganmore, Haig
  • Vodka: Smirnoff, Ciroc, Popov, Ketel One
  • Gin: Gordon’s, Tanqueray, Gilbey’s, Booth’s.
  • Rum: Captain Morgan, Myers
  • Bourbon: Bulleit
  • Canadian whisky: Crown Royal, Seagram’s
  • Irish whiskey: Bushmill’s
  • Tennessee whiskey: George Dickel
  • Wine: Sterling vinyards, Beaulieu, Chalone, Acacia

I think all I’d miss is the occasional Guinness and, sometimes, Lagavulin (though I prefer another malt).

Brain: Asplode

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The Log Cabin Republicans have issued the following statement regarding President Obama’s comments on gay marriage:

That the president has chosen today, when LGBT Americans are mourning the passage of Amendment One, to finally speak up for marriage equality is offensive and callous,” said R. Clarke Cooper, Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director. “Log Cabin Republicans appreciate that President Obama has finally come in line with leaders like Vice President Dick Cheney on this issue, but LGBT Americans are right to be angry that this calculated announcement comes too late to be of any use to the people of North Carolina, or any of the other states that have addressed this issue on his watch. This administration has manipulated LGBT families for political gain as much as anybody, and after his campaign’s ridiculous contortions to deny support for marriage equality this week he does not deserve praise for an announcement that comes a day late and a dollar short.

Right.

How To Tell If You’re Irritating Your Customers

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Just about everyone gets this wrong, including the joint that cuts my hair, so let me break this down for you.

Unless you ask me explicitly for my okay, you do not have permission to add me to your email marketing list. I’ve given you a phone number and an email solely for the purpose of communicating with me about meaningful things, and that does not include advertising. Email was bad enough; but you absolutely do not have my permission to send me a text message advertising your new text-message reminder service.

A great rule of thumb is this: If you need to communicate with me, specifically, about something connected to my business relationship with you — if, for example, you need to reschedule an appointment — then by all means contact me.

On the other hand, if you’re using an automated bulk service to send the message? It’s mostly likely garbage. Don’t waste our time.

(Confidential to the entire bulk mail industry: You realize that, every time someone does this, more and more folks block email from companies like ConstantContact and DemandForce at the server level, rendering your offering less effective, right?)

Accent Trouble

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On NPR just now, during some sound bite of a European reacting to the election results, I was momentarily confused about the complaints in re: “immigrants” because the speaker’s accent rendered it much closer to “Amy Grants.”

I generally parse complaints about the former as simple xenophobia at best and overt racism at worst; it is, however, entirely unclear to me how I should parse hatred of late-80s contemporary Christian pop artists.

One last Beastie post

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Two bits:

  • From Chuck D:

Last night, I took a 14 hour flight to Sydney, Australia from LA, embarking on PE’s 80th tour in 25 years. I just landed to 65 texts with the news. Adam and the Boys put us on out first tour 25 years and 79 tours ago. They were essential to our beginning, middle and today. Adam especially was unbelievable in our support from then ’til now, even allowing me to induct them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I consider myself a strong man and my father says be prepared to lose many in your post-50 path of life. Still, I’m a bit teary-eyed leaving this plane.

It bears noting that, when Public Enemy and the Beasties first toured together, PE was the opening act.

  • We watched the most recent, and now much more poignant, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction (fro April 14) on Saturday night. Chuck D was joined by LL Cool J for the Beastie introduction, and LL noted something I didn’t know: It was the Beasties who played his demo for Rick Rubin and launched his career. (BTW, Chuck D and LL’s full remarks are here.)

They may have been initially perceived as a joke or novelty act based on the frat-rock antics of “Fight for Your Right,” and if you tuned out or never paid any attention to real hip-hop, you might be forgiven for not realizing just how deeply important the Beasties were to the development of an entire genre of music.

In Which Mysteries Are Solved

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If you, as we at Heathen Central, are baffled by how the band LMFAO — they of “Sexy and I Know It” — got a record contract, well, wonder no more:

LMFAO is an American electro pop duo consisting of rappers, singer-songwriters, producers, dancers and DJs Redfoo (Stefan Kendal Gordy, born September 3, 1975, age 37) and his nephew SkyBlu (Skyler Austen Gordy, born August 23, 1986, age 25).The group formed in 2006 in Los Angeles, California. Redfoo’s father, music mogul Berry Gordy, is SkyBlu’s grandfather.

In the event you are too lazy to click: the elder Mr Gordy is the founder of Motown Records.