Success/Failure Rates of dot-com startups
If you are like most people we have informally surveyed, you probably estimated around 90 percent. A few people posit a slightly lower failure rate; some say the rate was 98 percent or more.
MaRS Blog
As Britain’s outspoken Ambassador to the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, Craig Murray helped expose vicious human rights abuses by the US-funded regime of Islam Karimov. He is now a prominent critic of Western policy in the region.
There are some really good articles in this weblog.
SELECTED MINOR WORKS: A PHILOSOPHICAL EXCHANGE, OF SORTS
I have long been fascinated with autodidactic self-styled “philosophers.” I always think to myself when I encounter them: it’s not like it takes a genius to be a real philosopher. I got my Ph.D. in the thick of a six-year haze of pointless partying, all-consuming “relationships” with people whose names I’ve since forgotten, and the usual twenty-something bon-vivantism that is at such great odds with the truly committed life of the mind.
Justin E. H. Smith on 3quarksdaily — Hardly a representative quote, but you’ll appreciate why I chose it after you read the article.
Call for a Blogger's Code of Conduct
In a discussion the other night at O’Reilly’s ETech conference, we came up with a few ideas about what such a code of conduct might entail. These thoughts are just a work in progress, and hopefully a spur for further discussion.
O'Reilly Radar — Interesting, but I don’t know about point 2 ‘label your tolerance level for abusive comments’ — what’s to be gained?
One thing I realized after taking some shots of the stained glass was that the cathedral was a perfect opportunity for High Dynamics Range (HDR) imaging.
Joi Ito's Web — HDR is a photographic technique/trick — personally, I like the results. There was a post a week or two ago and I failed to post it here. Now, I’ll go look for it…
The Official String Theory Web SiteJust in case you need something to do.
ActiveRecord 100%, Performance Doubling, Java Support Improving
1031 tests, 3839 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors That headline should read “ActiveRecord Fully Supported on JRuby”, for you press affiliates out there.
Headius — Not bad. Among other things Java integration and performance improvements too.
The Ottawa Citizen covers Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda’s appearance at the Canadian Museum Association’s annual meeting, which apparently included the presentation of a boomerang, to emphasize that her election promises had come back to haunt her. Oda refused to accept the boomerang and left soon after without comment.
Michael Geist — Awww… you’re no fun!
The Vancouver Sun has fascinating article that demonstrates how C-47 is really just the tip of the iceberg. It uncovered the list of official marks controlled by the various Canadian Olympic committees. The list, which some IP lawyers argue represents a misuse of Section 9 of the Trademark Act, includes:
- See You in Vancouver
- See You in Whistler
- See You in Beijing
- [a long list deleted]
Michael Geist — The first three are particularly annoying. I’ll try to find the story someplace and post a link.
A lot of what is being said, written, or done in the database management field–or whatever is left of it–by vendors, the trade press and “experts” is irrelevant, misleading, or outright wrong. While this is to a degree true of computing in general, in the database field the problems are so acute that, claims to the contrary notwithstanding, technology is actually regressing!
Fabian Pascal’s site that attempts to ‘debunk’ the myths of database management. Very abrasive! Fixated on data representation (not necessarily a bad thing) to the detriment of doing anything with the data (which I think is a bad thing). Warning, what he writes must be read very carefully to ensure you don’t read something into it that he has not said. I usually spend a half day every year or so catching up. Doesn’t seem to have a lot of new stuff since last May. Too bad.
