Reblogged: Friday Four

[Gus Van Horn blog]

1. A web page designer, who had been working with a client in real time, makes an amusing realization after getting his client's okay:

After ten minutes of "a little more" and "a little less," the client tells me it's spot on.

After they hang up, I realized that I had made a mistake. I had been viewing my local copy of the site, and they had been viewing the live version. I never once uploaded the changed file. [bold added]

This reminds me a little of the old story about how Michelangelo responded to a critic's assertion that the nose on the David was too big.

2. While we're considering new variants on old themes, someone has warned us that key-duplicating apps can be used for break-ins.

Such services also enable jerks like me to steal your keys any time they get a moment alone with them. Leave your ring of cut-brass secrets unattended on your desk at work, at a bar table while you buy another round, or in a hotel room, and any stranger--or friend--can upload your keys to their online collection. The trick is far easier than having them copied at a hardware store. KeyMe says it will even duplicate keys marked "do not duplicate," including some high-security keys sold by Medeco, Mul-T-lock and Schlage. Parking valets suddenly require a ludicrous level of trust: KeyMe already allows some car keys to be scanned and mail-ordered; KeysDuplicated says that feature is on the way.

Also, much of what I said about "bumping" nearly eight years ago still applies.

3. Charles Babbage, who built a mechanical computer in the nineteenth century, was asked twice by members of the British parliament whether his machine would spit out correct answers if given the wrong data. Something about the wording of his reaction makes me smile: "I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

4. The following bit of advice on removing poison ivy is, like the whole piece, both good and amusing.

"I'm already exposed, so I might as well keep going." As soon as I catch myself thinking this, I know it is time to hit the shower. [bold in original]

The main poison ivy plant in our back yard is huge: I'll be paying someone else to remove it soon, thank you very much.

-- CAV

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