February, 23, 2002 archives

well, if i had actually purchased shares in apple a year ago, when i said it sound like a good idea, i would have seen a healthy 20% return on my investment. my hypothetical investment in yahoo would have more than wiped out those returns, though.

one of the wacky ideas that is part of extreme programming is continuous integration. i think it's a great idea. tools like tinderbox take this even further. one of the things i've regretted never doing in my previous projects is really good automated testing.

one sort-of-related thing i can't live without is continuous peer review, by way of automated emails from cvs. i have a finely-honed unified diff reading muscle.

first off, the people behind the california official voter information site and the mailed booklet deserve a huge pat on the back for some really strong design. los angeles county could learn a lot from these folks.

anyway, because i can, i'm going to start writing about how i plan to vote on the various ballot measures, and perhaps the primary races (although i haven't decided what party's primary to vote in—i'm registered as a non-partisan).

prop. 40 would authorize $2.6 billion in bonds for natural resources conservation, state and local park acquisition and improvement, and historical and cultural resources preservation purposes. these are all extremely worthy causes, but on general principles, i'm opposed to spending money that isn't in hand. so this will get a no vote from me. (the actual cost to repay the $2.6 billion in bonds would be about $4.3 billion, or $3.2 billion in today's dollars.)

there's a vote yes on 40 site (pretty weak design). there's no specific 'vote no on 40' site, as far as i can tell. the la times says to vote yes.

crazy eggheads have figured out how much static electricity insects generate when they walk around, and are looking at ways to use this static electricity, which helps makes pollen stick to the insects, in traps that use insect-killing spores.