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- January 6, 2005
Live Journal’s Back End
January 6, 2005Read moreLiveJournal has been in the news recently for being purchased by the makers of Movable Type. Not being very knowledgable about LiveJournal, I was browsing around and found this description of the server architecture they use. It’s a set of slides that describe how they grew from one server to many. Although terse, it was fascinating to see how they evolved to the state they are at now, and as a result I’m more aware of the kind of issues that a growing website might face. A lot of interesting technology to investigate later, I think!
- January 5, 2005
Party of Five…Star Wars Movies
January 5, 2005Read moreGed sent me this link to a group picture of all the major characters from all five Star Wars movies. As hardened as my heart had become toward the newer films, it gave a little tug when I saw this. Apparently it was original posted via Aint It Cool News.
- January 5, 2005
You’re Old
January 5, 2005Read more
Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) had a couple funny articles on the 1-up website, in which they recorded what a bunch of kids say when forced to play old video games. You know, the ones we grew up playing. I’m constantly amazed at how far graphics have come since the old days, when we had bricks for pixels…you know when you’re gettin’ old when you start getting some perspective. Some excerpts:
On Super Mario Brothers:
EGM: What do you think of those graphics? Niko: In those days it was like, “Whoa—awesome!” But now…it’s no Splinter Cell. EGM: In those days? What days are those? Becky: My mom and dad’s days.
On Space Invaders:
Kirk: I’m sure everyone who made this game is dead by now.
- January 4, 2005
More Wiki Tyranny
January 4, 2005Read moreContinuing my previous thread of thought:
In response to the original laments about Wikipedia’s growing pains, Clay Shirky’s “Rebuttal” points out the organizational issues, calling it “governance”, and comments that (my paraphase here) the academic process is one of collect-filter-publish by experts; academia values this process to the exclusion of Wikipedia’s group-filtered process.
Shirky makes the prediction that a “core group” will develop to combat the hoards in an attempt to maintain some kind of academic-ish credibility, but realization that the hoards just will keep jumping in will eventually follow. Acceptance will come that freedom brings what freedom will bring.
Personally, I think this is contigent whether Shirky’s description of Wikipedia as a “real time reference / resource” is accepted as its primary identity. Wikipedia is different things to different people: to academics, they classify it as a reference-wannabe. To Netizens, it’s proof that the collective will and effort will lead to further democratization of information. To Students, it’s the easiest way to get a school report out of the way. These are not incompatible views. It’s only when one puts the expectations of one group over another that until you start to impose group standards, be they philosophical or methodological, across all users of the service. And that’s when governance becomes an issue; the number of issues scales with the number of viewpoints and people wielding power and influence.
From a pure project perspective, you can look at Wikipedia as an example of the conflict between the “do it now” versus “do it right” schools of thought. The “do-it-now” people always get something out first, irking the hell out of the “do it right” naysayers who are still formulating what “right” is. And usually, they’re the ones who ultimately are correct, given a particular viewpoint. Then they will all argue which “right” or which “now” is the most important and bicker bicker bicker.
No one will be happy until the “do what is right” people, those adroit individuals with charisma, vision, and contextual intelligence, are able to clarify the viewpoint that should be and can sell it to the whole team. Assuming that there is a problem in the first place, and it passes the “for the project, not the person” test.
I have a horrible feeling that I’ve made a case for the existence of politicians. Oh well.
- January 4, 2005
Procrastination
January 4, 2005Read more
This animation accurately and eerily captures my own internal monologue when I’m procrastinatin’. Fantastically on the mark…brilliant! Via BoingBoing.
