tewha.net

The Sapir-WIMP hypothesis: The more easily you can talk about a user interface, the more easily you can understand how to manipulate it.

We used to use a very similar principle here: If you can’t document it in a way that makes sense, the interface doesn’t make sense. I say “used to” only because I have no clue if it’s still in play. I think it fell by the wayside when we had to write documentation describing how to set things up in other products.¹

1. Products designed by developers who clearly didn’t follow this principle. [↩]

I consider Stacks the very worst feature Apple’s ever added to Mac OS X (or Mac OS before it). Even QuickTime auto-play could be turned off! So I was very pleased to see a report that 10.5.2 fixes stacks (in the same way people fix their dogs). Hooray! (via Daring Fireball.)

I’m definitely keeping Adsense on my site, even if I never see a dime. This is just too funny to pass up:

It’s like Cliff Claven on Jeopardy: “Who are three people who’ve never been in my kitchen?”

I’m going to have to mention toilets more often, because the ads are far weirder.

From time to time you’ll see an email claiming various facts about the Christian bible: The center verse, the center book, the center chapter. I’ve seen enough results on these that when I found a copy of the full text of the KJV online I decided to find the truth of the matter.

Middle verse:

• There are 31,097 verses in the bible.
• That means the middle verse is verse 15,549 (there are 15,548 before it and 15,548 after it).
  Verse 15,549 is Psalm 103:1:
  “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.”

Middle chapter:

• There are 1,184 chapters in the bible.
• Thus, the middle chapter is two chapters: chapters 592 and 593 (there are 591 chapters before and after these chapters).
• Chapter 592-593 are Psalms 114-115.

Middle book:

• There are 66 books in the bible.
• The central books, then, are 33 and 34 (there are 32 books before and after).
• The central books, then, are Jonah and Micah.

Of course, these findings depend on the quality of the source and my scripts. I have no way of verifying that text is accurate to the canonical KJV, and I have no way of knowing the scripts are bug-free…

Our bathrooms at work are shared between us and the doctor’s office also on the floor, plus all of their patients. So the following is based on actual events…

Shout out to Robot Pony for drawing this out and converting to picture what would otherwise have been a 10,000 word rant.

A - Guys who flush the toilet properly after dropping a load.
B - Guys who don’t flush the toilet.
C - Guys who are tired of having to pre-flush before taking a pee.

I’m usually not easily intimidated when I need to pee, but there’s nothing quite like being stared at by a giant poo with corn for eyes.¹ C’mon. Pull that little lever on the side of the toilet. All it does is use a little water, and this is one of those moments when water needs to be used.

Was it not Socrates who said Civilization is defined by leaving the lid down and the bowl empty?²

I’d also encourage you to take a look in the toilet after washing your hands to make sure it actually went down, because sometimes –

What? Are you serious? You don’t understand “washing your hands”? It’ll have to wait for another day. You’ve depressed me too much to continue this post.³

1. Yes, giant. Really. It expands in the water after you leave. [↩]
2. No? Who was it, then? I could swear someone important said that. [↩]
3. This is the first time I’ve been able to tag a post “poo.” That tickles me. [↩]

Best of Craigslist: fRee eyboaRd.

In today’s Sheldon, Sheldon meets the embodiment of all Wikipedia knowledge. Very astute. Wikipedia’s strength is definitely trivia from any Sci-Fi TV show.

A lovely quote from the Visual Studio 2005 documentation (found through searching index for /W4):

Level 4 displays all level 3 warnings plus informational warnings, which in most cases can be safely ignored. This option should be used only to provide “lint” level warnings and is not recommended as your usual warning level setting.

Not recommended is actually pretty strong, but I can see why Microsoft might say that. But the very next line goes on:

For a new project, it may be best to use /W4 in all compilations. This will ensure the fewest possible hard-to-find code defects.

So it’s recommended, then? Or would recommended be too strong a word?

It seems likely to me that these paragraphs were written by different writers, and whoever made the second change didn’t read the first writer’s work.

Following our last intercourse, I expected Grolier to give up trying to sell me things.

Today, I got another phone call. You expressed interested in Grolier. Would you like some free books?

I said “No. You already tried this once, and I said no. I also complained to the post office.”

But in a couple weeks, I expect to have more “free” books.