The Happy Moron

Chris Blattman has an interesting blog.

Again, I swipe from Bruce Schneier, the experience of a US interrogator who avoided the use of torture in Iraq. To summarize, he believes the use of torture is responsible for more American deaths than lives saved; it elicits a significant backlash and is a powerful recruiting tool for opponents.
Gee, someone should encode this knowledge [...]

Yes, leaving your address at the scene of a bank robbery is stupid.
But to risk 20 years in jail for a payoff of $400? That’s really something special.

The poet stinks.
He rhymes with cheeses
Old and far too ripe
To bear the gentle fragrance
That wafts, so tantalizing
Beneath his eager nose.
The taste is there,
His soul devours
Yet puts to rank words
The scent, which charmed and bound him
Heart and soul. His putrid pen
Scribes odor, not aroma.
Curdled ink betrays him.

(Warning – this post is about programming culture. [I have annotated it with suitable clarifications for the non-technical reader])
I love the internet. I love it because I’m able to eavesdrop on the best programmers and software engineers in the world.
It gives me stories like this one. [Please don't follow this link unless you like reading [...]

I consider little knowledge in computing to be mandatory. Usually the price of ignorance is bourne by the one who is uniformed.
Botnets are a different kettle of fish. In this case, the price of ignorance is bourne by the public. I think knowing about Botnets (their existance, their fundamental nature, their consequences) is a matter [...]

public Configuration loadConfiguration(String fileName){
if(configuration == null){
configuration = parseFile(fileName);
}
return configuration;
}

It’s really not a very good thing to do.
When I read this code, I had an Aha! moment. There were portions of “Aha! So this is what has made my life misery for the past several hours.” but mostly it was “Aha! There’s a general principle at [...]

How do you know if you’ve repelled boarders successfully (and with style)?
They beg you for shoes and petrol so that they can retreat.
If the pirate you’ve been fighting against says, “I can’t fight anymore, please give me some shoes so I can leave your glass littered deck,” he’s probably a decent fellow. Without any [...]

I’m not sure that many Canadians appreciate this story.
Particularly,
The law has been challenged four times, but the country’s top judges have always ruled that adultery is damaging to social order, and the offence should therefore remain a crime. 
I’m going to step out on a limb and take the side of South Korea’s top judges. [...]

The State Dept recommends not renewing Blackwater’s contract.
When was the last time someone hired mercenaries and things went well?
I think I’ll have to generalize this into a rule of life. If whatever you’re doing requires mercenaries, stop and think about it.
Yes, it applies to Christmas shopping, too.