The Baseline Scenario: Article on how Microsoft Excel is a key tool in accounting and economic work, but prone to errors. Also, the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group has its own list of horror stories.
The economics of open source development
Recently, I watched a video from JSConf.EU by CJ Silverio on the economics of open source development. She recounted the story of the start of Node.js and the Node Package Manager (NPM), and how the creator of Node.js gave the source code to the Node Foundation, but the creator of Node Package Manager retained all rights and created a company to continue development of NPM and took VC money. The video is a good watch, with lots of excellent examples on how business get value from open source software, but don’t (in general) pay anything for the software (either development or support costs). My additions to this video: (1) people who want to make money from the software they create should think hard about how they are going to do that before they start releasing that software, and (2) people who use open source for profit should invest some of their profits in keeping the wheels of progress turning (pay the developers something), otherwise the supply may dry up.
Got problems with Windows 10 sound/app focus? It might be a stuck key…
Recently, I had two problems with my Windows 10 computer at work. The first one was an inability to control the volume of the computer during Google Hangouts. The volume would always go to 100%, and I could not reduce it. Eventually, I figured out that there was a function key on my keyboard for increasing the volume, and it was pressed down and stuck. After fiddling with it for a few seconds, I managed to loosen it, and was able to control my PC volume again.
The second problem was that a Radeon Graphics setting pop-up started popping up. At first, I thought it was a computer problem again, but then I started searching and found that this particular pop-up is tied to Alt-R. Sure enough, when I looked at my keyboard, the left Alt key was stuck, and after more fiddling, I was able to type the letter “r” without bringing up this pop-up.
Moral: Look at your keyboard when weird things start happening on your PC. If they persist, maybe get a new keyboard…..
Jeremy Keith: Building the World Wide Web in Five Days – recreating the original CERN web browser using modern web technology.
CodeDrome.com: Martian gravity: An Exploration in Python
More news on Boeing MCAS issues
The New Republic features an article by Maureen Tkacik on the MCAS issues for the Boeing 737-MAX. This one references many of the previous articles from other publications on topics like the outsourcing of software development and the use of DERs on the program. To me, this article breaks new ground in examining the management culture of Boeing, how things changed after Boeing purchased McDonnell Douglas, and how this affected the 737-MAX development process. A recurring theme from previous articles is how the pursuit of profit and “making your numbers” can result in safety impacts and, in this case, loss of life.
A picture post of sorts
Happiness is a new pen!
I have lost two of these Parker pens already (they cost about $9), I will try to hold onto this one….
I saw these signs on a truck today:
Now that second photo – THAT is a unique selling proposition! People who need big holes should call these guys!
Exploration of the Moon is still going on!
Recently, I saw a post from Amit Gawande on a partial failure of an Indian space mission to the Moon (communication failure with the lander, orbiting part is still working). First, I was surprised that there was any national space program still active in lunar exploration. I think that the Lunar Prospector program in 1998 was the last effort from NASA to perform lunar research (oops! looking at this page, I guess there have been a few NASA missions since then…). Second, Amit mentions that it must be getting crowded on the lunar surface with all of the objects sent from Earth. While there may be a lot of debris in a small area, to me this is still just a fraction of the lunar surface. An alien visiting the Moon would still have quite a bit of undisturbed territory to explore…
Announcing the Media Feed Project
In a recent post, I commented on an idea from Dave Winer on providing a definitive list of RSS feeds for new organizations, and trying to get universities involved. I decided to take some action on my own, and created the Media Feed Project website and Github repo. The content in the OPML files at the Github repo are from my prior work on a news site called FullBlastNews.com. If anyone has RSS feed lists for news organizations, I would be interested in getting a copy. Let me know!