"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Microsoft to Embrace OpenID

Bill Gates sez M$ is gonna back OpenID. This is a good thing. Although you can be sure they'll cock it up on some Windows product, OpenID is simple and well-enough-designed (ala other basic protocols like SMTP, HTTP, DNS, etc) that even if your fancy bells and whistles suck ass, the basic protocol still functions well, and other people will make better products, and progress marches on.

Honestly, I don't think M$ can break OpenID, and I think having them on board may finally break the logjam. Get used to seeing this:

openid

Learn more, if you like. But the jist of this is that you will soon be able to house multiple social internet logins under one roof, meaning you can pick someone you trust and use that login everywhere without compromising your security. For instance, you could use your AIM login info for most other places you need to "identify yourself" online, without compromising your AOL account. It also means it's easier for people like me to cut back on comment-spam. Woo!

Those are immediate benefits. The addition of a true distributed identity layer to the internet has much more revolutionary potential as well, but we'll have to see how things play out for a few more years before any of that happens.

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Wanna Work For Me?

We're hiring at work. If you want to work for me, you should apply.

In seriousness though, I'm really hoping we can find a couple people to grow with. Thus far things have been going pretty well, and we're looking at a very good prospective fiscal quarter. Plus, it would be nice to have some dedicated developers in the house.

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Idiocracy: Mike Judge Preaches a Dumb Future

Haulin' Ass' / Gettin' Paid'

While I'm dishing about movies I watch, here's another: Idiocracy, by Mike Judge (Office Space), starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. It's totally great, and totally you've never heard of it because Fox Studios and Judge are alleged to have had some kind of feud over the movie's content.

Fox seems to have tried to bury the film, slashing the post-production budget, giving it a very short/limited release, and failing to market it in any way.

The only reason I can think of for a movie studio to intentionally not try and make money is if there's beef:

Since the announcement about Idiocracy's very limited release, Judge has refused all interviews, so it's impossible to confirm any of this with him. However, I remember hearing him speak to a University of Texas class in February about his future filmmaking plans. He wanted to make inexpensive films that wouldn't be financed or produced through a studio, citing Christopher Guest's films as an example of what he'd like to do. He was working on a script but wouldn't divulge details.

"I'm only going to make a movie again if I own it or have final cut," Judge told the class, obviously unhappy with the Idiocracy experience.

Anyway, you should check it out, because it's quite a worthy comedy. The gist of the plot is that Wilson and Rudolph do a little Rip Van Winkle, and 500 years in the future, people have become much dumber. It's a simple but serviceable setup for the salvos of social satire that follow.

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The Doctor Speaks From Beyond The Grave

In reference to this, I just happened to crack open my copy of Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, and here’s what I found… In a letter to Tom Wolfe, 4/20/1971, this is in reference to the experience of writing Fear and Loathing:

The first draft to Part One, for instance, was written by hand on Mint Hotel stationary during and all-night drink/drug frenzy while I waited for dawn to come up so I could flee without paying. I typed the section you have in a motel in Pasadena, but hardly changed anything from the original crazed draft…

So in terms of Gonzo Journalism (pure), Part One is the only chunk that qualifies — although even the final version is slightly bastardized. What I was trying to et at in this was [the] mind-warp/photo technique of instant journalism: One draft, written on the spot at top speed and basically un-revised, edited, chopped, larded, etc. for publication. Ideally, I’d like to walk away from a scene and mail my notebook to the editor, who will then carry it, un-touched, to the printer.

But I think that will take a while to hash out.

The marriage of blogging with actual field-experience is where the hot action is. And, for balance, here’s an earlier (March 3rd) letter to Wolfe in response to his description of being on a lecture tour in Italy:

Dear Tom…

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