A PHP Developer's Blog - Joakim Nygård

World's largest cell

3rd February, 2010

New Scientist has a fascinating story about the little-known Syringammina fragilissima, a single-celled species that can reach an astonishing 10cm across! Outside the usual definition of a cell, Syringammina contains several nuclei and though speculative, it might feed by farming bacteria inside itself. It really is amazing how life adapts and evolves.

Whatever form or strategy, surviving works.

It's the execution, not the idea

21st January, 2010

Joel Johnson from Gizmodo nails it:

The fact that Apple does not reveal prototypes but shipping products is the fundamental difference between their entire business strategy and that of the rest of the industry.

A lot of people believe that the idea is what matters to succeed; that the rest is just details. I say ideas are easy. It's making them real that takes real effort and a whole lot of time.

As Steve Jobs says, real artists ship!

Does it work

20th January, 2010

''Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like,'' says Steve Jobs, Apple's C.E.O. ''People think it's this veneer -- that the designers are handed this box and told, 'Make it look good!' That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.''

The World of Things would be a better place if everyone kept that in mind.

Software Changes

12th January, 2010

Guy English has written an insightful article on how software use changes. Just like the internet was democratised in the nineties, the same is happening to software – particularly on the iPhone:

“Apps” is fun. It’s fun to say, it sounds unthreatening, it’s a word sufficiently abbreviated that it takes on a life of its own without dragging to the forefront of peoples minds the more sterile and technical sounding “application”. Apps are not Applications – they are their own things. They are smaller. They are more fun. Apps are treats atop your technological sundae.

Bugs, Users and Technical Depth

11th January, 2010

Karl Fogel has a very interesting article on bugs in software, how it relates to technical dept and how to deal with them.

The number of bug reports is proportional to the number of users, not to the number of defects.

It is impossible to know the exact number of unknown bugs in a software system, yet it is easy to forget this when the reports keep pouring in.

Images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

11th January, 2010

Last year I wrote a short entry about the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. I mentioned the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO for short, and how it would bring new and better pictures of the moon. The Big Picture has collected some of the best and they are as always a treat.

The Uniqueness of Humans

10th January, 2010

Robert Sapolsky, professor of neurology, neurological sciences, neurosurgery and biological sciences, speaks on how the human species is similar to all other animals and where we differ. So inspiring. From wikipedia I found this little gem of a quote:

I love science, and it pains me to think that so many are terrified of the subject or feel that choosing science means you cannot also choose compassion, or the arts, or be awed by nature. Science is not meant to cure us of mystery, but to reinvent and reinvigorate it.

That's a view I too wish more would share.

Plastic doesn't go away

6th January, 2010

Striking photographs of dead baby albatross chicks from stomachs full of plastic – 3200 kilometers from the nearest continent.

Aquatic Tranquility

3rd January, 2010

Absolutely stunning footage from the world's 2nd largest aquarium, the Kuroshio Sea, by Jon Rawlinson. I could stand in front of that for hours. (via Kottke)

Onwards and upwards

3rd January, 2010

The Economist on the idea of progress:

The idea of progress forms the backdrop to a society. In the extreme, without the possibility of progress of any sort, your gain is someone else’s loss. If human behaviour is unreformable, social policy can only ever be about trying to cage the ape within. Society must in principle be able to move towards its ideals, such as equality and freedom, or they are no more than cant and self-delusion. So it matters if people lose their faith in progress. And it is worth thinking about how to restore it.

The Cost of Care

31st December, 2009

Interesting graph by the National Geographic depicting the cost of medical care per person for several OECD countries. The US spends more money than any other country. Not surprising, it seems there is little or no correlation between health care spendings and life expectancy.

Happy Exploration

21st December, 2009  |  0 Comments

The American Museum of Natural History has made a fantastic video showing the known universe, from the mountains of Himalaya to the deepest of space through astronomical observations. It is truly awe inspiring and a humbling reminder of just how small a space we occupy.

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2009 in Photos

16th December, 2009

A nice look back over the year in stunning photos by the always great The Big Picture.

Mandelbrot In Three Dimensions

15th December, 2009  |  1 Comment

The unbelievably beautiful renderings of the Mandelbrot set is known the world over. Now, mathematicians with particular interest have attempted creating a three-dimensional version, called the Mandelbulb. Though I haven't read through the mathematical background, the images themselves are impressive illustrations of the complex self-similarities so characteristic of fractals but with an entirely new dimension to them.

It is a marvel that the simple formula z_n+1 = z_n² + c is the foundation and perhaps one of the best examples of why math is so fascinating.

Many more images and a thorough explanation in the unravelling of the real 3d mandelbulb

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Keynes and the Economy

2nd December, 2009  |  0 Comments

I only recently discovered Aaron Swartz blog and he seems to be doing some very interesting pieces. This one is about John Maynard Keynes and the current financial situation. I like this bit on investment:

It used to be, Keynes says, that wealthy men just thought investing was the manly thing to do. They weren’t going to sit around and calculate what kind of bonds yielded the greatest expected return. Bonds are for wusses. They were real men. They were going to take their money and build a railroad.

The stock market is, in many ways, a ridiculously abstracted concept, removed from the actual goods that we need.

The scary thing is that the more open our markets get, the faster people can move their money around and the more trading is based on this kind of speculation instead of serious analysis.

Go read Keynes, Explained Briefly by Aaron Swartz.

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