That means you can have a QA repository that lets the QA team try out the code. If it works, the QA team can push it up to the central repository, meaning, the central repository always has solid, tested code. And it works!

If you’ve ever worked on a large, buggy, enterprise-level Operations stack, you can understand why I just went a little bit in my pants.

via HgInit: Subversion Re-education.

Things You Should Never Do, Part I – Joel on Software.

“The customer really isn’t always right. We believe we have the expertise to bring the best product. We don’t randomly put these ingredients together. We spend the time to test these and try them”

via NYTimes.com

“Sir, don’t panic, but one of your kidneys has been harvested”

via Made To Stick

“scan your site and look for any reference to “I” or “we.” Any information that focuses on you or your company has to go. Then, replace it with information that helps the customer identify the problem that you can solve”

good advice. stop thinking about who you are and start thinking about the problems you solve

A lot to read and it’s worth it, but the general nutshell:

• “allowing content areas to have strong visual focus”
• left navigation is virtually ignored anyway

I don’t know how this translates when dealing with large corporate clients that feel the need to put everything on their website. What is most likely required would be a strong conversation explaining why that website doesn’t need the 20 page history of the company in it’s own section five levels deep in the Information Architecture. However, this argument definitely lends itself well to the concept of Building Small Things.

Packet Sniffing on Mac OS X with Wireshark – dylanedwards.com.

[update] – turns out, the software linked to (wireshark) is prone to its own security holes: http://wiki.wireshark.org/Security

Anyhoo, there are places to buy these things, as there are places to buy anything your head can imagine, I would think. However, as this is the internet, people tend to do things themselves

Ways to make a wax seal:

cut a potato in half

dowel rod and a wood burner

clay and a pirate ring (arrrr!)

limestone and a dremel

you might prefer a signet ring

you might get distracted and make a green lantern ring instead

or, hell, you might just make an platinum engagement ring because you’re a badass.

Great article on inkling that can probably be summed up best with the ubiquitious, “baby steps, baby steps”

This completely hit home for me, because I’m guilty of taking an idea and blowing it so far out of scope that I’ll never be able to handle it myself (I also have issues with letting go and delegating, so that doesn’t help either)