Reasoned Consideration

From a purely technical standpoint, talk about "Web as Platform" used to make me vomit in my mouth a little ... if you asked me a few years ago to pick a set of technologies least suitable as a "platform" it would probably have been those surrounding HTML. Ugh. Kludgy, poorly standardized, completely not designed for the job (HTML was effectively designed for one job and subverted for another entirely based on need), requiring lots of coding and cross-browser/platform hacks to do incredibly basic things (to the point of absurdity) and re-solve problems that were solved decades ago. HTML5 changes this though. It's the first version of the HTML standard that shows explicit recognition and intent of the Web as an actual platform. This reflects in better APIs more properly and expressly designed for this purpose. It raises interesting possibilities. Also important is that the browser market is more healthy and competitive than it was a few years ago, so we...

From The Case for Ebeneezer , by Butler Shaffer: "It is instructive that Dickens tells us virtually nothing about the nature of Ebeneezer’s business. We know that he is something of a banker or financier, but we are told nothing about the nature of his investments. Even if he has not been a creative entrepreneur himself, he has, presumably, been responsible for financing many successful enterprises, which have not only benefited the rest of the community in terms of goods and services they provide, but afford employment to countless individuals, including Bob Cratchett. For all that we know – and it would seem to be beneath Dickens’ sensibilities to ask such a question or care about the answer – Scrooge may have provided capital for researchers seeking a cure for the very ailment from which Tiny Tim suffers. We know that, at the very least, by managing to stay in the lending business these many years, and accumulating handsome earnings in the process, Scrooge’s decision-making h...

gun-free zone n. an area where everyone in it has, by definition, been rendered completely unprotected from any madman with a gun . See also sitting duck