What the hell?. It wasn't until I saw the news about the Army soldiers being put “on alert” for possible deployment to the Gulf coast that I realized how much my anger about the post-Katrina horror had grown over the course of today. This afternoon, we've already heard that the evacuation of both the Superdome… Continue reading What the hell?

Eight tools for streamlined decision-making. The always-enjoyable Mind Tools shares eight of the most popular and reliable tools for decision making. [43 Folders]

GTD-style email in Thunderbird. Clever way to use Thunderbird’s excellent (semantic) flags to implement at GTD-inspired email triage system  [43 Folders]

EuroOSCON: Rasmus Lerdorf on PHP Security. By nat I'm so chuffed. Rasmus is not just the creator of PHP, he's a really interesting guy who hacks for fun as well as for work. He's the chief PHP architect for Yahoo! and gets to set policy across all Yahoo! properties, domestic and international. He spent the… Continue reading EuroOSCON: Rasmus Lerdorf on PHP Security

Storm Overwhelmed Government's Preparations. Despite all the warnings, Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the very government agencies that had rehearsed for such a calamity. By SCOTT SHANE and ERIC LIPTON. [NYT > Home Page]

Local Officials Criticize Federal Government Over Response. Despair, privation and violent lawlessness grew so extreme in New Orleans that the mayor issued a “desperate S.O.S.” By JOSEPH B. TREASTER and DEBORAH SONTAG. [NYT > Home Page]

Microsoft to Acquire Teleo, an Internet Phone Company. Microsoft is expected to announce on Wednesday that it is acquiring a San Francisco-based Internet phone company, Teleo, to add features to its MSN Internet portal service. By CHRIS OAKES International Herald Tribune. [NYT > Technology]

Master the art of asking If you want to be an effective communicator, you need more than just communication skills: you need to have something meaningful to say. You can start by 1. Collecting good information, and 2. Taking the extra time and energy to make it relevant to others. You can do both at… Continue reading Master the art of asking

App-less Web Apps. This is really cool. 37Signals has a couple neat posts which really struck me this morning. The first one I missed a while ago, App-less web apps and this morning’s ponderings about URLs vs. usernames and passwords. The reason is that I’ve been “working” (i.e. thinking a lot about and doing nothing… Continue reading App-less Web Apps

Blow your own mind. If you want your brain to stay sharp, you have to work it. “I write complex code every day of the week. That's all the brain exercise I need.” you say. But you're wrong…. [Creating Passionate Users]