I would like to thank the sploggers for making bloggers' life miserable. Lord knows they worked hard because, these days, most of the comments and trackbacks lead back to splogs. Fantastic! I don't want to sound ungrateful but I must ask them to work harder still because their job is not quite done yet.
What am I saying? I am saying that, if the bad guys do their part, we'll finally have real needs for street-level identities.
Cage as protection, if you have the key that is…
I have dark forebodings about Abe Shinzo who will very likely be the next PM of Japan on Sept. 20, thanks to Koizumi's support. Shinzo is a neo-nationalist who seek to rewrite history as well as the Constitution of Japan, erasing shameful past and removing barriers to imperial ambitions.
What will the man behind most of the recent conflicts between Japan and its neighbors do when he becomes shogun? I am expecting conflicts of ambitions and emotions, peace and violence, capitalism and nationalism.
In short, expect far east to compete with middle east for frontpage news while Shinzo is in power.
Update:
Some background on Shinzo:
Meiji Restoration was lead by samurais from Choshu (Yamaguchi prefacture) and Satsuma. After they wrestled power from shogun, they put their expansionist ideals into full throttle. The emperor was just a figurehead used to ruled the country. Events unfolded from there that lead to the Second World War.
Shinzo and his father shares the word 'shin' in their names, apparently to pay respect to Takasugi Shinsaku, a hero of the Meiji Restoration. Takasugi Shinsaku's teacher is Yoshida Shoin whom Shinzo admires enough to quote often. Yoshida Shoin was a key expansionist whose ideals such as 'management' of Korea and Manchu and 'control' of China gave birth to expansion efforts spanning Meiji period and beyond.
Choshu contains Shinzo's political district 'given' to him by his father. Nobusuke Kishi, his grandfather from the mother-side, is also from Choshu. Kishi was PM from 1958-60 despite having been imprisoned as a Class A war criminal.
Is Shinzo a free spirit moderate or a closet expansionist? Whether your answer differs from mine or not, I think I have some justifications for having bad forebodings. If he is independent of his background, he shouldn't have built his house on it. He should have refused his father's district but he did and, IMHO, you can't just reap benefits from political background without being influenced.
Wow. MotionDSP is the coolest technology I've seen in a while. I sure hope it works reasonably fast.
Well, it looks like my relationship with RSA is not over yet. I won't be frolicking on the bleeding edge this time around — I don't have time to enjoy a good bleeding these days – but serving mainly as a source of spiritual/intellectual guidance, a techno-priest of sort. Thankfully, it's only part-time which means I can stay focused on my own projects.
Jon Udell's screencast interview/demo with Jim Hugunin, the IronPython/Jython guy, is fantastic fun. IronPython will definitely be my first choice for prototyping/tinkering .NET.
Given recent [apparently failed] move by Michael Arrington, Om Malik, 37signals, and paidContent to consolidate syndicated job listing prompted me to initiate hJob discussion in the microformats group. Come join the group mailing list if you are interested. It's just getting started. If there is enough interest and momentum, I'll push for an early informal F2F to make sure all the ducks are aligned.
What I want to see happen is right jobs listings syndicated out closer to the consumption side, not just sitting on the production side like it is now.
Om Malik and Stowe Boyd reports that Kiko eBay auction closed at $258,100. Actually, Om wrote the auction just closed and brought in $258,100. The auction was closed but did the Kiko guys receive the money? As far as I know, they haven't and Kiko auction bid history showing a flood of bogus bids from two bidders (ogijun and wswire) doesn't inspire much confidence in the legitimacy of the winning bidder.
So, everyone, try to refrain from bubble farting until the fat lady coughs up some greenbacks.
Just a note to myself to keep some often used technical details where I can find them. Please ignore.
Predefined type aliases (i.e. used in parameterClass):
Predefined Type Handler Names:
iBATIS really needs more documentation and in easier to access format. It sucks to have to fire up Acrobat just to find some bits of details.
Recent uproar over Kiko's demise and conversations that followed made me laugh, hard. Is Google the new Microsoft? Nasty question. Google has to grow continuously and that growth has to come from somewhere. A better question is: will Google compete unfairly? If one considers integration leverage unfair, my answer is yes.
It won't be so bad for a while though because all the big boys (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL) will be competing with each other to offer the best integrated web services which means acquisitions and partnerships for small companies. But pretty soon, the picture will turn darker, making it near impossible for small companies to survive without joining one of the big boy's integrated service network and, to succeed, companies will have to spend millions of dollars to get a prominent link on the big boy's main page.
A network of Web 2.0 companies can't compete with those of the big boys because there is no hub to rally around. If one somehow managed to organize and integrate all the small companies represented at the TechCrunch party, the result would confuse the users and constrain the companies. APIs? I am sure the big boys will use APIs to rally third parties to their side in the war, but the silkroad will eventually be turned into puppet strings.
It's useless to ask whether Google is the new Microsoft. Ask instead how can small companies survive the chaos to come.
Small is the new big? I love useful (and humorous) insights like I love new ways to cock my head but, when a mememeister like Seth gets involved, insights turns into a mini-religion. It's like taking up zen meditation to relax and ending up a monk.
Don Park's Weekly Habit 