TOO MANY COOKS

<geekpost>I read with interest the latest in a spate of flame wars and “informed opinions” regarding the Java IDE brouhaha between the folks who like to code using the Eclipse IDE and those who think that NetBeans is the bee’s knees. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m both an Eclipse and a NetBeans user, although I’ve been using NetBeans pretty exclusively as of late.)  In Too Many Cooks Spoils the IDE, Robert Thornton posits that Eclipse’s successful nature is causing it to be a less capable IDE than NetBeans. While there’s some truth to the argument that the confusion of all the Eclipse plugins and such hampers usability, that’s pretty much admitting that Eclipse is a victim of its own success. I don’t hear anyone complaining that Linux’s myriad packages makes it a less appropriate operating system than, say Windows, although the exact same argument can be made. When (says I) the confusion of Eclipse packages and “personalities” (an Eclipse-ism) becomes an overwhelming issue (and I suspect it will, soon) subprojects will form to steer specific personalities into convenient distributions to alleviate the pain of the problem. It’s childish to complain that the phenomenal rate of Eclipse adoption amongst third party tools vendors gives it a distinct disadvantage, although clearly NetBeans’ simplicity and pretty much single-vendor involvement does give it more of a “designed under a single roof” feel. My take on the whole Eclipse vs. NetBeans war? In a nutshell, there’s room for two competing IDE’s but Sun needs to figure out what its value proposition is for its entire app dev and deployment stack is. Giving it all away doesn’t add to the bottom line and whatever strategy they are pursuing isn’t either.</geekpost>

2 QUIET

Two of my frequent reads seem to have gone silent as of yesterday. Benador Associates, a conservative think-tank and enplaned, a blog about the aviation industry both seem to have shut their doors at some point over the weekend. I hope it's only temporary in both cases, but I fear the worst. Sigh.

FALCON DOWN

SpaceX’s revolutionary inexpensive rocket, the Falcon 1, was lost 25 seconds into its inaugural flight. I got to watch the video feed of the launch and saw the rocket camera roll before losing the feed. Since it was just before the Sabbath, EST, that the launch took place, I had to turn off the computer and couldn’t find out conclusively what happened. Que Sera, although it’s worth noting that all the major rocketry attempts suffered from poor track records at their inception. At 6.7 million a copy, the Falcon is certainly cheap enough to plug on and keep trying. Keep the faith, SpaceX, you'll get there!

SCOOPED

Was watching Domestic Disturbance the other day (fell asleep & never got through it) with wifey and noticed yet another role in which Steve Buscemi gets bumped off. It’s become his M.O. Been meaning to blog about it. Sure enough, this morning the New York Times beats me to the punch. Read: They Keep Killing Steve Buscemi, but He’s Not Complaining (NYTimes, free registration req’d, will time out after a few days.)

ALL YOUR DOG ARE BELONG TO US*

This Popular Science article about “BigDog,” a U.S. Army sponsored, Sherpa-style robot built to accompany soldiers on patrol carrying several hundred pounds of gear is neat. The accompanying video, through, is outrageously cool. You’d think you’re watching some crazy Blue Man Group sketch or something. The legs on this beastie are uncannily human.

*Play on the All Your Base Are Belong To Us internet phenomenon, circa 2001-2002

QUICK NOTE

Baby Bayla Golda (after my wife’s great-grandmother) was born Sunday night, March 19 (20 Adar, 5766) Mother, daughter and big sister Basya are all doing great! Ecstasy tinged with chaos reigns for now.

FORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCE

I wonder if anyone has caught on to the happy circumstance that many of our reservists fighting in Iraq have extensive law enforcement experience. It seems that this type of experience should be quite valuable fighting the “asymmetric” war we seem to be caught up in. Also, David Ingatius comments on our military’s increased competence in executing the war.

WHAT OUR PARENTS KNEW

My father, OB”M, when he would sing to us as children, changed the ending to the song “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly.” Instead of “perhaps she’ll die,” he sang “Perhaps she’ll get sick!” which seemed perfectly natural to me and my siblings when we were little and perfectly hilarious when we got older. As it turns out, my wife’s mother did something similar with “It’s raining, it’s pouring.” Instead of “he went to bed and bumped his head and couldn’t get up in the morning” she sang “he got up late in the morning.” Which I just used as further proof that Lorraine and I were truly meant for each other…

OOH! LET'S WHISPER!

Because that’s what passes for being romantic these days. (At least according to the Bachelor/ette.)

FUNNY: If Microsoft designed the box the iPod came in. (Hat tip: Ned)

WHAT KIND ARE YOU?

When I break apart a pair of chopsticks I rub together the ends that were attached. Those are the ends that have splinters that can embed in my palm as I eat my food. My wife, on the other hand, sands the eating ends. She claims that it reduces her chance of eating wood. Despite this onerous disagreement, we manage to get along and inhabit the same space amicably. Last night, as we were watching In Her Shoes, Mark Feuerstein’s character broke open a pair of chopsticks and promptly began sanding my way. Triumphantly, I turned to my wife and proclaimed something along the lines of: “Hah!” Fittingly, the very next shot had Toni Collette’s character break open her pair of chopsticks, turn them around, and sand them as my wife would. The debate rages on.

GAY RODEO: I just watched the episode of King of the Hill, “My Own Private Rodeo” where Dale reconciles with his father, Bug, the star of the gay rodeo. Has to be one of the all-time great KOTH episodes, up there with “Aisle 8A.”

OVERHEARD: Heidi Klum’s guest character on Spin City: “We have a saying in Germany: Better to have loved and lost than to engage in a land war with Russia in the winter.”

LAST CARTOONGATE POST, I PROMISE

While my friend Scott and I agree totally that the correct response to the cartoon controversy is NOT rioting, destruction and death, there is -it appears- more to the story than meets the eye. Andrew Sullivan links to this counterpoint and this interesting fact. Scott led me to this article, by Pat Buchanan (not a man I’m otherwise inclined to agree with,) which casts the cartoons in a more provocative light. It seems clear to me that the recent unrest has been sparked by some pretty nefarious political actors. It also seems that the original publishers of the cartoons are less than innocent, though. What struck me most, though, is how hard one has to dig to fully flesh out the story. Our regular media channels increasingly don't seem to do the important topics justice.

NEWS FLASH: FRENCH SHOW SPINE

I must not draw Muhammed. Read Andrew’s previous post to see the depths of hypocrisy regarding this issue.

PALESTINIAN ELECTION IN RETROSPECT: Taheri, I believe, gets it right.

RSS AS A SYSTEM SERVICE

This is very cool. Once again, it has taken Microsoft to figure out the potential of an OS-level service for a commonly used internet device.

NEW BROWSER ON THE BLOCK

The Internet Explorer 7 public beta has been released. First impressions? Slick, though slower than IE6 on equivalent hardware (although that may be due to debug code.) Mainly I see it as a catch-up play to the current browser king, Firefox. Actually, surprising how many Firefox features have been incorporated into IE7.

THE POWER(POINT) OF THE DARK SIDE.

JUST WONDERING...

Am I the only Malibu Maxx owner who actually thinks his car is pretty handsome?

A THOUGHT...

Why does throwing out old flowers always make me feel a little sad?

STOP THE PRESSES!

Thomas Lennon, the bookish advertising sidekick to Matthew McConaughey who reminds me of nothing more than a pint-sized, younger Charles Grodin in How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days (not bad) is non other than Lieutenant Jim Dangle!

PALESTINIAN ELECTIONS

While I’m no fan of Hamas, I can certainly understand why they did so well in the Palestinian election. Fatah (the current ruling party) is its own worst enemy. At best inept and at worst (more likely) a criminal enterprise that would make Tony Soprano blush, Fatah has does nothing for its constituents. While the same could be said of the Nazi party and Mussolini’s Fascists –hey, they did make the trains run on time- at least Hamas provides social services, doesn’t have the stink of corruption nor does it have the taint of running things further into the ground (amazingly even possible) that Arafat’s erstwhile party has.

So, here’s to hoping that there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud. It’s been said that nothing tempers a radical group like the requirement to actually govern. This maxim has proven to be patently untrue –as has every other political colloquialism- in the Middle East. Let’s hope (however futile) that the metaphorical Nixon can go to China on this one. (If that’s too obtuse for my readership, let me know & I’ll elaborate.)

UPDATE: This Jerusalem Post columnist makes many of the same points.

WITH HIS HANDS AND HIS FEET

SNL Digital shorts do it again! Young Chuck Norris. Sublimely ridiculous.

EAST COAST VS. WEST COAST: Lazy Monday.

SUBTEXT: Youtube rocks!

FECAL (AND OTHER) MATTERS

I’m not a regular viewer of the Daily Show. As of late my right-leaning tendencies have been at odds with Mr. Stewart’s regular lampooning of the current administration. It’s not that I disagree; I just don’t need to be reminded of our country’s political incompetencies on a regular basis. To be fair, his show is on Comedy Central and not, say, CNN, but my idjit-box time is limited and I’d rather watch pure escapist drivel such as My Name is Earl on the DVR than the quasi-news/comedy shows -no matter how funny or topical. But I digress, the point I started out making is that I’ve been flipping channels and catching Mr. Stewart interviewing –on separate occasions- Former CIA Director James Woolsey and, today, Former Administrator Paul Bremer. Both are pitching books (Funding Evil and My Year in Iraq, respectively.) Both were engaging, witty and enjoyed an excellent rapport with Mr. Stewart. I was impressed by the level of the dialogue and only wished the interviews lasted longer. Way longer.

SIDEBAR: Why can’t my upstairs neighbor get a handle on the physics of toilet use? I’m getting tired of –literally- cleaning up his crap.

NON SEQUITUR: Teller, of Penn and Teller, on an encounter with a Dolphin. (Hat tip: Ned)