obfuscated.org

Test your hunting knowlege over at Channel One. If you do well on this quiz, you probably already know that it’s not cool to shoot your hunting friends in the face.

I know I’m lame for posting something that’s already been on BoingBoing, but the last Beastles album was so good that I can’t pass up mentioning this. Long story short is that djBC put mp3’s for Let It Beast up on the magic internet machine. The first two tracks are great. Grab it while you can.

Update: Infinitely flaccid! djBC’s site seems to be down. Anybody care to speculate as to why?

Update 2: Just as quickly, it’s back.

Joel on Software has some interesting things to say about setting your priorities when creating software products, the basic conflict being between doing things quickly and doing them correctly.

Listen, I know that everybody is saying that the cool thing to do these days is Ship Early and Often, but when you ship half-baked ajax calendars that don’t do much and then get Scoble to go nuts about how great they are, well, you’re going to have a lot of people like me checking it out and realizing that, for example, no thought whatsoever has gone into printing, which is fine, it’s a 1.0 release, but you know what? I’m not going to look at 30 Boxes again — I’ve spent enough time evaluating it. G’bye.

A very wise person once told me that nobody will remember how quickly you get things done. They’ll only remember how well you do them. This goes pretty contrary to the dot-com-boom/Web 2.0 thinking that “first to market wins,” or, as Joel points out, at least gets purchased:

Why so many Ajax calendars? My theory is that about a year ago, there was a lot of buzz (possibly true, possibly false) about Google shipping a calendar, and everybody thought, oh gosh, it’s gonna be really good, like Gmail, and then Yahoo! is going to be embarrassed again, and run out and buy the best Ajax calendar company they can find, just like they did with Oddpost, making those very funny kids millionaires overnight.

(It’s funny because it’s true.)

Anyway, I think Joel’s thinking here is long-run correct if what you’re trying to do is build a quality product that people enjoy using. Yes, client feedback is important. It’s absolutely essential, in fact. Just try to get feedback on something that work. If the product is bulletproof and well-thought-out, the feedback will tend towards making a good product great than towards making a crap product acceptable. You want your users to think of new features that you could implement, not bugs that you really should fix.

In terms of interacting with clients and ending up with a product that everybody (myself included) is happy with, I’ve always had better luck spending more time on things — up front time writing quality tests and putting research time in to tools as well as just being more thoughtful when actually writing the damn thing — than I have getting things out the door ASAP. Long run, I’m betting that the companies that follow this line of thinking will be the successful ones.

I don’t know if it’s on or if TLI just got served, but I do know that this east coast/west coast narnia rap battle is damn damn funny.

Thanks to Jill for the link!

Nerd porn supersite information aesthetics points to a really cool visualization system called ecosystm. I really like this sort of art installation. They look great and they provide useful information. Yay!

NPR is carrying live audio of the Alito confirmation hearings. This is my favorite way to listen to this sort of thing because aside from trying (and often failing, humorously) to sneak in “this is NPR” in moments of silence, they shut the hell up and let you listen to the hearings. I’m a huge fan of skipping the talking heads and just listening to the hearings on my own, and this is a fine way to do as much.

Supreme Court nomination hearings are quality entertainment. In the Roberts hearings, the now Chief Justice said dozens and dozens and dozens of times that he wouldn’t make promises about how he would rule, yet senators from both sides of the aisle kept asking him to do as much. Priceless! There’s so much transparent grandstanding and cheap shots a-plenty. You can’t write this sort of stuff. Check it out while you can.

I’m glad to see that BB has finally gotten on the Cock Flavoured soup bus. (Boing Boing: Unfortunately suggestive food packaging) Erich gave me a packet of this a few months back. (cock flavoured soup photo here) This truly is the soup of the future.

The senate at least temporarily put a hold on the PATRIOT act today. If you think this is a good thing — I most certainly do — here’s a fun and easy way to let them know:

EFF: Thank the Senators who Stopped PATRIOT!

Fans of the Flash laser game from a few months back: know fear! The same addiction is now available as a board game. (Information for Deflexion.)

The Kid and I went to see the Clippers whip up on the Heat last night. It was a great game. EB is definitely a front-runner for MVP this year.

The craziest part of the game came between the 3^rd and 4^th quarters. The brought a guy out to shoot from half-court to try to win a car. They asked him how he was feeling and he said “nervous.” He totally seemed like it, too. I bet I would be as well if I was trying to make a half-court shot in front of over 19,000 people.

The announcer was trying to get him to turn around and face the basket so he could take the shot, and he just up and threw it backwards over his head. IT WENT IN. He hadn’t even turned around to watch it yet, and it was through the hoop and everybody in the arena was screaming and jumping around.

Here’s a brief story and picture: Richard Tran, a 22-year-old junior high school math teacher, from Santa Ana… - NBA - Yahoo! Sports.