T < x < B

Your password will expire in 42 days

I really dislike the inevitable “Your password will expire in N days” dialog on Windows XP machines, which I assume is enforced by group policy. I really don’t need to be constantly informed of this — I use the damn computer every day. Just tell me when the password has expired, and I’ll change it.

Plus, it makes a really loud beeping sound when I unlock the computer. I should probably disable the system speaker. :/

I presume it’s designed for people who take forever to think up a new password that don’t like to be caught off guard. Coming in on a Monday and finding that your computer forces a password change as you struggle to get ready for your important meeting would make people angry. I, on the other hand, think of new passwords quickly and don’t have important meetings. Boo group policy settings!

“ Linux has always been a great operating system for programmers. Since the late 90s, however, there’s been a big push to make Linux more attractive to people that don’t have Mountain Dew addictions.

— Editing audio in Linux

Gibbon, Heron, Ibex

I wonder if anybody else finds it weird that we end up calling the Ubuntu distributions by the adjective instead of the noun. Seems linguistically odd.

“ XML 1.1 is/was, effectively ignored in many circles. Now we have XML 1.0 fifth edition which includes a revisitation of the same swampy grasslands as XML 1.1.

— Pet Peeves - XML | ITworld

“ Beer is actually a good source of folate, niacin, magnesium, potassium and niacin.

— Beer Nutrition - Beer Can Be Healthy - Healthy Beer Nutrition

Anti-Laziocracy

Irresponsible people are seriously underrepresented in our anti-laziocracy. If only we irresponsible people could vote by watching TV or playing video games…

“ The traditional concept of innovation, defined by Joseph Schumpeter in 1934 in The Theory of Economic Development, is that manufacturers are the ones who develop new products for users. By contrast, von Hippel suggests that users can be a major source of innovation.

— Linux.com :: Portrait: Eric von Hippel, user innovation, and FOSS

» Neopythonic: Why explicit self has to stay

GvR publicly replies to the implicit-self-in-the-argument-list proponents.

» The Hassle Free Holiday Flying Guide

Immensely helpful for a flying nooblet like myself.

» Airline Seating Charts, Best Airplane Seats - SeatGuru

One of those ideas I wish that I had thought of. :)

» CoderMalfunctionError (Java 2 Platform SE v1.4.2)

» DailyTech - One Lightbulb Project Hopes to Launch in 2010

This seems awesome, despite obvious questions of effectiveness.

“ Hasty generalization is a logical fallacy of faulty generalization by reaching an inductive generalization based on insufficient evidence. It commonly involves basing a broad conclusion upon the statistics of a survey of a small group that fails to sufficiently represent the whole population.

— Hasty generalization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“ While the science should speak for itself, that won’t stop the broadcasting lobby from trying to use stalling tactics to derail the technology before the rules of the road are even written.

— Official Google Blog: Down to the wire on white spaces