Ruby == Concise Network Programming. DevX.com has published a great article by Mark Watson entitled “Ruby Programming Language Enables Concise Network Programming“. Mark gives quick rationales and examples for: a simple (not an exaggeration) Web server from scratch in 12 lines of code a basic WEBrick server a simple REST server with pure sockety madness [...]

The disease of giants. One last excerpt from Edward Hall’s “Beyond Culture.” Here he riffs on how things keep getting bigger despite evidence humans actually thrive in the opposite sort of environment. In small schools, students participated more, it meant more to them, they were more tolerant of others, they formed closers, more lasting relationships, [...]

Load ActiveX Controls on Vista Without Administrator Privileges. This seems like a bad idea to me: Microsoft is adding a brand-new feature to Windows Vista to allow businesses to load ActiveX controls on systems running without admin privileges. The new feature, called ActiveX Installer Service, will be fitted into the next public release of Vista [...]

Nursing homes seen deficient on basic care. Tens of thousands of nursing home residents must be sent to the hospital each year because of a breakdown in basic medical care at the facilities, specialists say, a scenario that exposes frail elderly people to unnecessary trauma and illness. [Boston Globe -- Front Page]

Anyone want an installer for Typo?. If I’ve learned anything from Typo, it’s that Rails apps are a serious pain for first-time users to install. Here’s what it takes to get Typo (or any open-source Rails app) up and running on a random Unix box today: You need a working database, like MySQL or PostgreSQL. [...]

Study by the International Energy Agency says that “a global switch to efficient lighting systems would trim the world's electricity bill by nearly one-tenth”. How? Switch away from incandescent bulbs to CFLs (now) and eventually to LEDs. [kottke.org remaindered links]

If I were Apple, I'd be worried about this. Two lifelong Mac fans are switching away from Macs to PCs running Ubuntu Linux. If I were Apple, I'd be worried about this. Two lifelong Mac fans are switching away from Macs to PCs running Ubuntu Linux: first it was Mark Pilgrim and now Cory Doctorow. [...]