Paul M. Jones

I feel I’ve been had.

One thing I could not have known in 1996 was that the IPCC’s warming predictions would be wrong. Mean global surface temperatures have not risen since 1998, and, by some measures, have dropped since 2001. The CRU e-mails show scientists trying to hide this decline, to give one detail—I don’t have room in this column to detail the extent of CRU’s shenanigans, nor could I tell the story as well as others, so please read this “Editor’s Page” online for links (see below).

This doesn’t necessarily mean manmade global warming is disproven. But it does deflate the certainty and moral righteousness of the Al Gores and the IPCCs of the world.

via Editor’s Page: May Cooler Heads Prevail - Honolulu Magazine - February 2010 - Hawaii.

The IRS is soliciting quotes for its purchase of 60 shotguns.

Maybe you ought to have one too. Via TaxProf Blog: IRS to Buy 60 Shotguns.

Yesterday, I released Solar 1.0.0beta3. You can see the very short change log here. Special thanks to “kalkin” for committing a series of fixes and improvements.

These days I’m concentrating more on documentation. Previously, we had only the ubiquitous quick-start blog demo. This release includes a new chapter on Solar’s dynamic dispatch cycle; i.e., the bootstrap, front controller, page controller, action method, and view. (I’m starting a chapter on the DataMapper-style model system today.)

Incidentally, I’ve been writing the docs in DocBook 5 and building them with xsltproc. You can see the whole build system in the Solar docs repository. I tried using the new PhD build system, but it required more effort and energy than I could spare. PhD is screamingly fast, but it’s not doing everything that xsltproc does just yet, and I barely have enough time to work on my own projects as it is.

(This announcement is cross-posted from the Solar framework blog).

Here’s an idea. Why not let people of who want to borrow money to buy a house convince the people who lend the money that there’s a good chance that the money will get paid back. Creative, no? It’s called voluntary exchange. Or a market. Or normal. Fannie and Freddie were abnormal. We don’t need a “new system.” The old system didn’t work because you, Barney Frank, and others, tried to steer it. Let’s have NO SYSTEM that you figure out and control and steer. Let’s let the housing market emerge that has the built-in feedback loops of profit and loss.

via Frank on Fannie and Freddie.

I started working at OmniTI on 01 Oct 2007; today marks my last day with the company. After two years and three months, it’s time to move on. I wish Theo and everyone else there all the best in their current and future endeavors.

While I don’t have a new employer, my finances are such that I can afford to take a few months “off” (*) and work on my own projects for a while. The most significant of these is going to be Solar, especially the narrative documentation. I’ll be speaking at ConFoo in March, as well.

* “Off” is a funny word. As I have learned from experience, it’s amazing how much work there is to do when you don’t have a job.

So our society has created a mess where men are vilified in the classroom, fed PC rhetoric, told their life's goal is to make women happy and do anything that assists her with her goals, while simultaneously told that he is a dope, idiot and unable to care properly for children, and now people are questioning where Mr. Right went?

via Dr. Helen: Mr. Right has left the building…..

In a landmark 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court today in Citizens United v. FEC struck down major portions of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance law. The Court left in place the disclosure requirement for corporations and the disclaimer requirement that identifies whether an ad is not paid for by the campaign. But little else remains. The Court overruled the highly controversial 1990 decision in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, which upheld restrictions on corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates.

…

This is a vindication of the First Amendment and a victory for the protection of political speech, which is at the heart of our political system. It will certainly increase the amount of speech. Even the New York Times recognizes this (well, sort of) …

Thank goodness. McCain-Feingold was horrifying. Via Commentary » Blog Archive » Supreme Court Vindicates Political Speech, Pulverizes McCain-Feingold.

Today, Michelangelo van Dam posted this narrative relating his experience with Zend Framework models:

http://www.dragonbe.com/2010/01/zend-framework-data-models.html

I read the article, and wondered how hard it would be to replicate his narrative using the Solar Framework model system. Turns out it’s pretty easy: there’s a lot of work that Solar does for you.

Read the rest of this entry »

PHP is like a handgun. On its own, it is simply an inanimate tool that has no moral leaning. In the hands of a responsible citizen, it can be used to the benefit of society. But in the hands of someone who is untrained or mentally unstable, it can be used to commit horrible atrocities.

Whenever there's such a tragedy, other developers are quick to blame PHP. If PHP were illegal, then Yahoo! would never have happened. If we regulated PHP tightly, then there would be no Digg.

via Microsoft arms half-wit developers with PHP handgun [printer-friendly] • The Register.

But the more blatant lesson of Avatar is not that American imperialism is bad, but that in fact it’s necessary. Sure there are some bad Americans—the ones with tanks ready to mercilessly kill the Na’vi population, but Jake is set up as the real embodiment of the American spirit. He learns Na’vi fighting tactics better than the Na’vi themselves, he takes the King’s daughter for his own, he becomes the only Na’vi warrior in centuries to tame this wild dragon bird thing. Even in someone else’s society the American is the chosen one. He’s going to come in, lead your army, f**k your princesses, and just generally save the day for you. Got it? This is how we do it.

via In Which We Teach James Cameron A Thing Or Two - Home - This Recording.