The Jonas Brothers turned up at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner. President Obama said his daughters are huge fans but he added a warning: "Boys don't get any ideas. I have two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming."
Love him or hate him, you can't deny the man has a sense of humor.
Just in case you were wondering.
Created by Oatmeal. Check out their posters.
For those of you who aren't fans of the webcomic Nedroid Picture Diary, you should be. I never realized until I saw this strip how much sense it would make if more than just the year changed on January 1st.
Admit it: one of the least favorite parts of our jobs as developers is coming up with time estimates for our work. Joel Spoelsky describes it this way:
Why won't developers make schedules? Two reasons. One: it's a pain in the butt. Two: nobody believes the schedule is realistic. Why go to all the trouble of working on a schedule if it's not going to be right?
If you're like me, and don't have the data available to do evidence-based scheduling, to produce estimates you basically make a guess based on past experience. And we all know how accurate those guesses are. (Usually, not very accurate at all. I worked with a project manager once who confided to me that all of the PMs at the company would take the developers' estimates and then double them to come up with what they felt was a more realistic schedule.) Sometimes I feel like it's like a serious job endeavour and more like a game of Name That Tune for software ("I can code that feature in... 6 hours, George!").
So around here at Ping Identity, we don't have to rely on time estimates so much. Instead, the engineering team has started using a metric called "Whitneys", measured on what we call the Whitney Complexity Scale. It's named after its creator, technical project director Brian Whitney.
I can't believe that Microsoft, which is laying off 5,000 members of its workforce this year, is still spending money during this poor economy on the development of their Songsmith software and on the production of this promotional video for it. The New York Times describes the video as "getting more attention than the software because it’s awful, in unintentional ways". Well, it may not be good software but at least it's laughably entertaining.
My wife was ready to swear that the video was a spoof until I told her otherwise: this is Genuine Microsoft.
I can't believe this video... I kept checking to see if someone had altered the video to stretch this guy's arms to let him keep loading bricks on his head like he does...
I couldn't help but laugh over some of this collection the MSNBC staff put together of comments on recent political ads, especially Obama's infomercial:
Happy Halloween to all! My dog Cleo has started the festivities early here in Needham; not only is she wearing her bat wings already (thanks to the kids), but she's managed to eat a Twix bar and Tootsie Pop, wrappers and all (again, thanks to the kids).
A co-worker threw in a "Mnah mnah!" at me after I started whistled the melody of the song ("dee-do, be-doo-be"), prompting a little trip down memory lane. It was first used in the mainstream U.S. market in The Muppet Show, and a quick search of YouTube found the video for us. Enjoy.
It seems that beer advertisements have the best humor for men these days. I wish I had a shed...
While browsing the web tonight my wife came across what is the first enjoyable advertisement I've ever seen on the web (those fun Orbitz games don't count-- while I like to play with the baseball or putt-putt golf widgets, I didn't like the ads themselves). And the great thing about it is that it's more than just an interactive game and more than a running commercial-- it's an entertaining combination of both, almost like an example of that semi-mythical idea of "interactive TV" that pundits have written about for the last decade.
On HGTV's web site, a Flash ad showed up for Sears showing a static picture of some guy dressed up as a dandelion. Beneath him there's a button requesting that you "Roll over the weed". If you do, that's when the commercial gets hilarious.
Continue reading "You know, I don't mind this web ad-- I love it" »
From a poster that was above our table in the local Irish pub last night:
A MOTHER'S LETTER
Dear Son,
Just a few lines to let you know that I am still alive. I am writing this slowly because I know you can't read fast. You won't know the house when you come home, we've moved.
About your father, he has got a lovely new job. He has 500 men under him, he cuts grass at the cemetery. Your sister Mary had a baby this morning. I haven't found out yet whether it's a boy or a girl, so I don't know if you're an aunt or an uncle.
I went to the doctor's on Thursday and your father came with me. The doctor put a small tube in my mouth and told me not to talk for 10 minutes. Your father offered to buy it from him.
Your uncle Patrick drowned last week in a vat of Irish whiskey at the Dublin brewery. Some of his workmates tried to save him but he fought them off bravely. They cremated him and it took 3 days to put the fire out.
It only rained twice this week, first for 3 days then for 4 days. We had a letter from the undertaker. He said that if the last payment on your grandmother's plot wasn't paid in 7 days, up she comes.Your loving mother
P.S. I was going to send you 5 pounds, but I have already sealed the envelope.
