Clearwire WiMAX

Clearwire is coming. My father-in-law has it in Seattle. He's not the
most demanding user, but it seems to work fine for him using
"pre-WiMAX". I'd be really happy to pick up WiMAX anywhere in the
city, inside or outside, at that price.

"Clearwire goes on to say that it's in a "great position" to launch in
Portland by year's end, and that Clearwire is using the nascent
Portland network to try out new mobile WiMAX technologies on a variety
of laptop brands.

Portland, and its suburbs, are slated to be among the first regions to
get Clearwire's "true" WiMAX service -- which employs approved WiMAX
standards.The company already serves other parts of the West with a
wireless technology loosely called "pre-WiMAX."

Clearwire hopes to make WiMAX an alternative to DSL and cable, as well
as an affordable option to connect on the go. Rates currently start
around $38 a month (though Clearwire offers introductory specials) for
downloads of approximately 1.5 megabits per second.

Oregon cities that Clearwire now serves include Bend, Medford,
Roseburg and Eugene."

http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2008/08/clearwire_inching_closer_to_po.html

Slowing the Net to the Speed of Print

This is just a hilarious announcement from the Philadelphia Inquirer,
via James Robertson...

"we'll make the decision to press the button on the online packages
only when readers are able to pick up The Inquirer on their doorstep
or on the newsstand"

http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/blog/blogView?showComments=true&printTitle=Its_1985_In_Philadelphia&entry=3395641948

It reads like a parody.

Here and Mao

From Naomi Klein...

"When Beijing was awarded the games seven years ago, the theory was
that international scrutiny would force China's government to grant
more rights and freedom to its people. Instead, the Olympics have
opened up a backdoor for the regime to massively upgrade its systems
of population control and repression."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-klein/the-olympics-unveiling-po_b_117403.html

Whatever Happened to Patterns?

There's a discussion on the erlang-questions list about "design
patterns" and what those might be for erlang. In the midst of this
thread the following statement popped up...

"The OTP is a collection of GoF-style patterns for Erlang."

And I had a reaction to the current state of patterns, generally.

I think this list, as well as the software community as a whole, has
lost sight of the original intent of the "patterns movement".

The original intent of a "pattern" is the format of the information,
more than the information per se.

The format should be written in (one of several) pattern styles. The
overall presentation of some set of patterns should form a "patterns
language".

So to say the "OTP is a collection of patterns" is true only in the
worst definition of "pattern".

A really useful pattern language for OTP would guide the programmer
from some initial kind of problem through the application of some
patterns that address that problem and associated forces that would
direct the programmer through a set of choices and partial solutions,
toward an overall solution.

And stuff.

Really good patterns take a lot of effort. This alone explains the
current state of patterns, generally.

Science Please

From a comment on the great Random Roles interview with Teri Garr, btw
one of my favorite actresses...

"So yeah Garr is cool, MS sucks-lets hope our next President likes
science and curing diseases"

http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/random_roles_teri_garr/2