StrawberryFrog's New Writeups

new normal (idea)

2009-01-06T15:18:54Z

The phrase "new normal" is much used, but not much defined. It suggests that after some momentous event, say a man-made disaster or a financial collapse, the situation stabilises, but does not "get back to normal" ... not exactly anyway. The new normal is not quite the same as the old normal, and thus you won't really know the new equilibrium until you've been in it for a while.

it's the distinction between an aberration and a change. For instance, after how many years of drought do you concede that the climate got dryer?

for instance, if a senior British politician says in late 2008 that "the availability of lending to homeowners and small businesses will be maintained at at least 2007 levels" ¹ then he is still in denial to the basic fact that the economy has changed, and it is futile to try to re-inflate a plainly busted bubble.

However, any change will have those who try to…

Mudlark (person)

2008-11-28T15:09:19Z

"They may be seen of all ages, from mere childhood to positive decrepitude, crawling among the barges at the various wharfs along the river; it cannot be said that they are clad in rags, for they are scarcely half covered by the tattered indescribable things that serve them for clothing; their bodies are grimed with the foul soil of the river, and their torn garments stiffened up like boards with dirt of every possible description."
- Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, 1851.

Mudlark is an English word for a desperate occupation resorted to by the utterly destitute in times gone by. It means "larking about in the mud", or scavenging on the riverbanks at low tide, looking through the rotting animals and shit left behind by the water for anything of any value, such as piece of old rope, driftwood or spilt coal; or the contents of the water-borne dead's pockets.

This occurred particularly in…

Client Access Policy (thing)

2008-11-28T11:06:26Z

Client-side code

These days, a fair number of computer programs are downloaded from the internet and run on the client side. There are rich web pages, and Rich internet applications. There's JavaScript, Adobe Flash/Flex and Microsoft's contender, Silverlight. It's fair to say that these environments are coming of age in 2008, with several very fast JavaScript runtimes in beta, Silverlight 2.0 released, and Adobe Flex version 3 and AIR responding to this challenge.

There are several parties to such an execution of code. Firstly, the web page and contained or linked code is hosted upon a web server. The code is not run here on the server, but is simply transferred to the client as any other file - e.g. page or image - is done. The client is just you with a web browser on your own computer. The code runs here, but it is not native code -…

scrum (idea)

2008-11-27T14:45:51Z

Scrum is an agile software project management method, though it could be used with some adaptation to managing projects of other kinds. "Scrum" is not an acronym, it just reflects the coordinated yet messy and noisy progress that a team can make.

Origins

The "relay race" approach to product development ... may conflict with the goals of maximum speed and flexibility. Instead a holistic or "rugby" approach â where the team tries to go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth â may better serve today's competitive requirements.
- Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka - "The New New Product Development Game" â Harvard Business Review, January 1986.

Scrum was popularised mainly by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland in the 1990s, based on earlier Japanese work. In the 2000-and-noughts, it is…

Stackoverflow (review)

2008-10-05T13:29:02Z

http://stackoverflow.com/

"You know what drives me crazy? Programmer Q&A websites. You know what I'm talking about. You type a very specific programming question into Google and you get back:

A bunch of links to discussion forums where very unknowledgeable people are struggling with the same problem and getting nowhere,

A link to a Q&A site that purports to have the answer, but when you get there, the answer is all encrypted, and youâre being asked to sign up for a paid subscription plan,

An old Usenet post with the exact right answerâfor Windows 3.1âbut it just doesnât work anymore,

And something in Japanese."

- Joel Spolsky, "Stack Overflow Launches", Monday, September 15, 2008, http://www.joelonsoftware.com/

Stackoverflow.com is a website. It is essentially a programmer's Question and answer forum, similar on concept to experts exchange (http://www.experts-exchan…

Sarah Palin (person)

2008-09-01T12:07:56Z

Most people who are following the United States of America's Presidential election in 2008 were thinking on Friday 29th August 2008 Sarah Palin? Who is Sarah Palin anyway?

Republican contender John McCain had just announced that he has picked her for her as vice-presidential candidate and running mate. Why not vote based on knowledge - for that you need to know more than the gender, colour and name of the candidate; you need to know what they stand for. Here are some of the details.

Personal data

She was born on February 11, 1964, making her 44 years old in 2008. She is younger than Barack Obama by two and a half years. She was raised in Alaska, and came second in a "Miss Alaska" pageant in 1984.

John McCain is 72 years old in 2008, and the state of Alaska is 49 years old.

Her husband Tod is part Yup'ik Eskimo, and works for BP.

She is the mother of five…