dullneon.com » random notes » page 35

Human intuition is poor at estimating the true probability of supposedly ‘extremely rare’ combinations of events in systems operating at a scale of millions of requests per second… That human fallibility means that some of the more subtle, dangerous bugs turn out to be errors in design; the code faithfully implements the intended design, but the design fails to correctly handle a particular ‘rare’ scenario.

The Coming Software Apocalypse is a fantastic read on how in a software-reliant world, the tools to create software itself need to be better designed to enable better, more robust software. The article also comes at a time when I find myself thinking a lot about how the proponents of ‘Computational Thinking’ out there (especially in the realms where education and profitability overlap) might just make the software apocalypse a hard landing for humanity.

While it might sound like gloom and doom, it’s exciting to know that there are fantastic opportunities out there to re-invent the way we design the heart of the machines that help us live, work, and play.

This is like a very slick, sophisticated mashup of the iRobot and the Hogwarts Sorting Hat. Maybe one day, the little orange fellows can just take off and deliver it to the addressee like Hedwig.

[Via London Design Fair]

Quite outrageously, Jamie xx made a remix that outshines original.

Mixmag exclaimed ‘American Dream’ rocks, rolls, pops, fizzes and snaps, while the Rolling Stone said in its 4-star review that LCD Soundsystem had ‘returned at top strength’. The Guardian adorned their glowing review with a headline that said ‘virtuosic comeback full of harmonies and humblebrags’.

The critic reviews for the album were overwhelmingly good (save for one). I don’t know what these reviewers were listening to but I thought the album was pretty boring and utterly uninteresting. I wish I hadn’t bought it without previewing it.

(The trouble with digital music downloads that don’t work out is that I can’t symbolically shove them to the bottom of my CD pile in a fit of fury.)

What It’s Like to Live With Art That Doesn’t Love You Back

Auto-play videos lurking in unopened tabs. Pop-ups that won’t go away. Photos that won’t load. Text that’s invaded by ads. It’s hard to complain about the internet without feeling like a mom struggling to post on Facebook, but going online has started to feel like an assault on the senses.

Kids do all kinds of dumb bullshit that ends up hurting them. They eat dirt. They don’t wash their hands. They pick their nose and scabs. They stick stuff where they shouldn’t. Why would using bad language be any different? Well, unlike eating dirt or being unsanitary or otherwise just a general danger to themselves, saying bad words is a vital developmental tool.

[Via BBC]

A 5″, Debian- and Gnome-based PureOS phone with hardware kill-switches and an unfashionable headphone jack that isn’t Android or iOS?

Backed!

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.
2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.
3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.
4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.
5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.
6. Check your quotations.
7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.
8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.
9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.
10. If you want action, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

(From The Unpublished David Ogilvy.)

If it weren’t for the fact that I’m a bona fide Netscape Mozilla fanboy, I’d be all over the Vivaldi browser now. It’s fast, snappy, developer-friendly, cross platform, and has some smart features. When you’ve used the browser for just a day, you’ll totally understand the positive reviews of Vivaldi.

But for now, I’m sticking with the open source Firefox. However, Vivaldi has made Chromium my third choice browser (for now).