Random links

Jason van Steenwyck on army logistics via armor plate. This is a place where some smart people put effort into saving lives. I wonder what business can learn from army logistics, and vice versa. It's all about the agility.

And again on the strategic importance of Haditha. This is exactly the type of 100% 24 Carat analysis that doesn't make it to TV.

Discussion on PC for the xBox's 'exception? what exception?' bug. Link ettiquete? This is new. (And regarding the timing of the leak, and it's effect on the share price: Steve, you're just too cool...)

Article from /. story above, which rests on the commoditization of the PC hardware business as providing apple a target against which to define itself.

How I see RoR changing the way we use, read & write software:

1. Organic qualities of autonomy. Create a body then spend time on the brain. The body should evolved as the code grows. The brain is where firing a single neuron can tell the body to catch a ball, or make a face smile.
   
   Each line of code in your brain that is not as important as this should be evolved into the body.
   
   
2. Minimizing the amount of code between the thought and the code that expresses the action resulting from that thought.

Metadata transfer standards & protocols:

The first step to a semantic web. RSS or RDF. Why is this important? Since the 'Net is a world of ideas, defining the substrate in which the expression of those ideas are rooted is important. This is why an RSS, RDF or Atom standards war would be a really, really bad thing. I don't refer to competing standards as a standards war. That's simple healthy competition. A standards war is two parties attempting to attain dominance in a standard space/market share.

If there is a war, and it gets ugly, then the resulting schisms in metadata comprehension will become the net's biggest headache, which would be a pity. Developers, you thought the browser wars were bad...

To put it mildly.

An absolutely fantastic example of good security principles in action:

Documented as follows:

Why We Ask You to Re-enter Your Card Number

If you request delivery to a new address (one that you haven't used with us before with this credit or debit card) or want to send an e-mail gift certificate to a new e-mail address, we'll ask you to reconfirm the credit or debit card details.

That way, should some third party guess your password and try to order items using your account, their attempt will fail. We hope you understand that this is a valuable security precaution designed to protect our customers.

Courtesy of amazon.co.uk.