I wish Google would leave the Social Network thing to others. When Google does what it does, and does it well, it changes the world. When it rides bandwagons, it’s irritating.

How could I disagree? PHP is crazy. But these irritations are only apparent once you're inside the PHP conversion funnel. And, as I have observed time and again as a pro PHP developer, once a PHP programmer knows ten lines worth of PHP it is easier for them to struggle through the eleventh line than to start over with another system.

PHP is the lone exception. Virtually every feature in PHP is broken somehow. The language, the framework, the ecosystem, are all just bad. And I can’t even point out any single damning thing, because the damage is so systemic. Every time I try to compile a list of PHP gripes, I get stuck in this depth-first search discovering more and more appalling trivia. (Hence, fractal.)

This used to be funny, but now it’s really just terrifying. We’re dealing with legislation that will completely change the face of the internet and free speech for years to come. Yet here we are, still at the mercy of underachieving Congressional know-nothings that have more in common with the slacker students sitting in the back of math class than elected representatives. The fact that some of the people charged with representing us must be dragged kicking and screaming out of their complacency on such matters is no longer endearing — it’s just pathetic and sad.

These acquisitions were supposed to re-vitalize Yahoo. Lots of smart people and a solid acquisition streak. Why did it end up having such little impact?

I worked at Google from 2005-2010, and saw the company go through many changes, and a huge increase in staff. Most importantly, I saw the company go from a place where engineers were seen as violent disruptors and innovators, to a place where doing things “The Google Way” was king, and where thinking outside the box was discouraged and even chastised. So, here’s a quick list of things I think Larry could do to bring the startup feel back to Google:

In a move which thankfully won't affect the vast majority of you, I have today disabled comments on Letters of Note. Permanently.

In truth, I usually fall somewhere in between - the pros generally outweighing the cons, but as of late Microsoft seems to be going out of their way to make it a miserable experience.

Nice rant by @timbray about the deteriorating state of URLs:

As of today, I will no longer be updating Symbian-Guru.com, and will be purchasing an Android-powered smartphone – my new Nexus One should arrive tomorrow. I’ve been a Nokia fanboy since 1999, and a Symbian fanboy since I got my Nokia 6620 in summer of 2004. Since then, I’ve personally owned 10+ different Symbian-powered smartphones, and have reviewed nearly every Symbian-powered smartphone that’s been released in the past 3 years or so. I’ve tried to use all of Nokia’s various products and services to the best of my ability, and I just can’t do it anymore.

While at oppugn.us I reject any threats of violence to humans, I am all about threats of violence to evil, shit filled, bug ridden, antiquated, horribly maintained piles of dog shit technology like Flash.

My reasons for making the physical Periodic Table Table were purely practical: We needed a new conference table for my office area, and I didn't want an ugly one from the office supply catalog. But my reasons for making and then greatly elaborating the website were more subtle, so subtle in fact that I didn't know what they were until the website was very far along.

A conversation I have every month or so: - Genius. /via @joethedough

Studies like this one by Pear Analytics drive me batty. They concluded that 40.55% of the tweets they coded are pointless babble; 37.55% are conversational; 8.7% have "pass along value"; 5.85% are self-promotional; 3.75% are spam; and ::gasp:: only 3.6% are news.

Nightclubs are hell. What's cool or fun about a thumping, sweaty dungeon full of posing idiots?

"I am quite disappointed at how Windows Usability has been going backwards and the program management groups don't drive usability issues. [...]"

This new bug makes a fresh IE6 user (that is, one who didn't visit the bage before) generate much more server hits than one with any other browser would. Microsoft is not interested in the fact that users are wasting bandwidth, not in the fact that Web servers are wasting bandwidth; this is not their money. However Microsoft is interested in the fact that Web servers got 10 times more hits from Internet Explorer than they get from other browsers.

In my "Standards Heresy" talk I noted pretty bluntly that CSS 3 is a joke.