My tutorial today, Testing Websites With Python and Selenium, was not as promising as I hoped. In fact, I was rather disappointed with the comedy of errors that ensued.

1. The talk started 30 minutes late.
2. We spent the first hour configuring our computers, something we could have done before the talk if there had been any notes circulated.
3. Even once we ( Read more... )

Mark Pilgrim’s “Tinkerer’s Sunset” is an excellent article discussing the chilling effect that so-called “appliances” portend for the generation of computer enthusiasts. It’s a thoughtful reflection on both trends in the law regarding the freedom to tinker:

When DVD Jon was arrested after breaking the CSS encryption algorithm, he was charged with “ ( Read more... )

The only value I see to the iPad is that it will force other companies to innovate and improve on the concept. Perhaps we can even hope for openness.

I cannot deny that it’s pretty. It’s very pretty. Shiny, too. Maybe I’m just getting old, but pretty doesn’t impress me much anymore.  From what I can see, it’s not terribly useful and at the price ( Read more... )

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Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb is calling bullshit on Facebook-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s recent comments about privacy. Zuckerburg says:

A lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and their legacies of what they’ve built, doing a privacy change - doing a privacy change for 350 million users is not the kind of thing that a lot of ( Read more... )

The news has moved quickly in some circles, but for those who have not yet heard: Natalie Morris, wife of Podiobooks.com founder 1 and author Tee Morris, passed away.

In order to help Tee and his daughter through this diffcult period, Pip Ballantine has set up a fund where anyone who wishes to can chip in. Please consider doing so, if you have the ( Read more... )

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College asks students to power down, contemplate - Yahoo! News

Dianne Lynch wanted to give the students of Stephens College a break from the constant digital communication that pervades their generation. So she asked them to put their phones and computers away and revive the 176-year-old school’s dormant tradition of vespers services.

On a bitterly ( Read more... )

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Amazing. Just amazing.

An 8-year-old boy was sent home from school and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after he was asked to make a Christmas drawing and came up with what appeared to be a stick figure of Jesus on a cross, the child’s father said Tuesday.

Chester Johnson told WBZ-TV that his son made the drawing on Dec. 2 after his ( Read more... )