Friday, May 11, 2012

Weekend Reading: The Geeky Edition

Everyone else will have Mother's Day links for you... and oh yay! Time Magazine has stirred up another motherhood shitstorm on the internet. I'm going to ignore all that. Instead, I've got some links for the geek in you.

First, via my husband, the most awesome Star Wars-Star Trek mash up ever:



Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror reminds us all about email security. My husband has made the switch to two part authentication. I'm considering it and will probably make the switch soon, but have at least moved my important passwords to pass phrases.

Also via @CodingHorror- this comic pretty much sums up how I accomplish anything technical these days.

I really liked this xkcd cartoon. One of the day care Dads did the Mentos and Diet Coke thing for the kids recently, and I can confirm that watching someone see it for the first time is fun. Watching ~10 5 year olds see if for the first time is downright awesome. But more on topic- I like the idea of seeing the chance to tell someone something new as more fun than the usual cynical response.

7 comments:

  1. Zenmoo12:41 AM

    I printed that xkcd for my desk at work, the other one I have printed is http://xkcd.com/169/ (Words that end in GRY). I don't have much tolerance for smart-ass know-it-all technical types.

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    1. Ooh, that's a good one, too!

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  2. Love that xkcd! The one before it was great until I got to econ (which is dismal, but not a science)... And then I read the pit-bull controversy by "real" scientists on the academic blogs, and realized that "real" scientists seem to know even less about the scientific method than we dismal social types (one side is using anecdote = anecdata, and the other side is using proof by ridicule-- neither actually gets to the question of whether pit-bulls are genetically more dangerous than other dogs or just trained to be so).

    Time magazine must really be hurting. I suppose this is symptomatic of the entire industry... Newsweek (which I used to read) has been trash for years, and plenty of magazines are going under. All that is surprising is that it's taken this long for Time to realize that mommy wars sell (especially when the mom on the cover is hot). The NYTimes realized it ages ago! But I'd rather read about Snookie if they're going to be going that direction, not that I've actually picked up a Time magazine in years.

    The Economist still makes for pretty good reading.

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    1. Yeah, I used to read Newsweek when I was a kid and was shocked when I picked it up recently. We're Economist readers now, too.

      I've heard the actual article in Time is nuanced and good. But I can't get past that deliberately inflammatory cover and headline, so I won't read it. Childish of me, I know. I pretty much agree with One Tired Ema's rant on the topic. I nursed until my kids were about 2, and those last months were exclusively in private- not because I made a rule, but because they weren't interested when we were out and about. I imagine that gets even more true at 3.

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    2. It does... and they wean on their own. One day they just forget how and that's that. That one tired Ema rant is exactly right.

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  3. Ummm I must point out on the mashup: 1) X-Wings can do hyperdrive and 2) When he says they go to warp 5, that is lightspeed.

    OMG I can't believe I just had to point that out.

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    1. Yeah, and Data, of all crew members, never would have made that kind of mistake.

      Trekkers rule!

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