Six months in the jungle with Sean Penn [filming Casualties of War] is tricky, but he’s a real talented guy. I sent him a note at the end of it saying, “I can’t say that it was a pleasure, but it was a privilege.”
Michael J. Fox
To my amazement, USAspending.gov has launched. It’s a database of recipients of contracts and other assistance from the federal government. It’s worthwhile to read about the bill responsible for the site’s creation. Today I’m cheered by a small victory for information transparency in government.
From John Resig: Bad Background Browser. This reminds me of the arrival/departure monitors at airports — one out of every 16 of those is guaranteed to have the XP “illegal operation” window in the center.
Mass Effect
This is perhaps the most gorgeous game I’ve ever played. More than half of the credit goes to stellar art direction; the game projected a 1980s EPCOT view of the distant future, complete and meticulous. It gave me chills. I’ve played through it once, but will have to postpone a second play‐through because there are too many other excellent games in my queue.
Unfortunately, to start this incremental rendering, Safari requires a kilobyte of data at the beginning of the stream. In Orbited, we use 100 tags for this. But at some point we’ll perhaps switch this to some tasteful ASCII art.
Jacob Rus
Rails 2.0 released. Includes the 1.6.0.1 release of Prototype (which will see an official release very soon).
I want the WGA to set up a website and on that website we can all post stories about every no‐talent, idiotic, amoral producer and executive we have ever dealt with. Just like they do to us on shows like Extra and sites like TMZ (owned by Warner Brothers.) Set up a website and tell the entire world, via the internet, your own anecdote about some of the witless boobs you have endured in Hollywood and beyond. The strike will end in a week.
Alec Baldwin
Just in case anybody needs instructions, contact the NCAA and its Division I‐FCS, Division II and III football teams. They’ve had an actual playoff system for decades.
Gene Wojciechowski
Why I Program In Ruby (And Maybe Why You Shouldn’t). Exactly! I tire of JS framework wars for the same reason I tire of language wars: you should use whatever makes you happy. You’re not trying to get your framework of choice to “win”; there’s nothing to be won. Evangelism is a good thing; you ought to share your happiness with others. Zealotry is not.