The summer is over and the time for big game releases is coming soon. Coupled with the upcoming Christmas holidays and long, dark, winter evenings, it is a good time to think of the next game you will buy for you Playstation, Xbox or PC. Given that you won’t probably limit yourself to the only title, I want to see which game is your priority. Feel free to use comments for sharing your reasons and other games that haven’t made the poll.
Andrew Shen of Chrome Fans fame notified me of the new, very handy project – Search for Google+. I’ve tried it out and it, being Google’s own Custom Search Engine, works super well. The beauty of the whole thing is that it is available via web, Google Chrome and Firefox addons, as well as an Android app. The search can be limited to Google+ posts and profiles, Google Buzz, Google Reader, or a combined everything. Try it out – you won’t regret it, I promise.
In a Slashdot thread on the topic of the Programmer’s Day, I came across this insightful comment, with which, having been both a sysadmin and a programmer, I have to somewhat agree. No disrespect to any programmers intended, but sysadmins have it tougher. I wouldn’t go as far as to claim that Programmer’s Day is not deserved – we all work hard, but I agree that Sysadmin’s Day is deserved more.
Having been both a sysadmin and programmer, I have to honestly say that while sysadmin day is deserved, programming day isn’t. There’s just simply much more to sysadmins that are underappreciated when compared to programmers:
- Sysadmins setup routine systems that are built by programmers (who usually get the credit).
- Sysadmins only get (negative) attention when something goes awry.
- There’s usually no mention of sysadmins anywhere.
- Unless you are very technical, you probably don’t even know that sysadmins exist!
In contrast, programmers have it nice in the sense that when they do a good job, they are seen as the heroes who created the system. People go to programmers for feature requests in addition to bug reports. Their names are usually listed in an about dialog or readme file somewhere. Also, unless you are completely technically illiterate, you know that someone has to create the software.
The final bit: the infrastructure will crash and burn without sysadmins, but without programmers, it’ll just cease to advance.
Having a Programmer Day in addition to Sysadmin Day is like having an Executive Day in addition to Labor Day: unnecessary, unjustified. In both cases, the former already has the glory on a daily basis that the latter is hugely lacking.
Big Picture, as always, shares some stunning pictures of a natural disaster. This time Texas drought and wildfires are in focus. When looking at these images, I can’t stop thinking of people who, instead of running, trying to save their lives, stopped for a moment, set their cameras, framed the image and pressed the shutter button. I haven’t been in anything even remotely as dangerous as these situations, but even that was enough for me to know that I am not built for journalistic photography. And I can’t even start to imagine what all those people who’s homes and businesses were in the path of fires feel like.
