Old friends...

Ran across Chaos Manor Reviews earlier today. Jerry Pournelle was one of my favourite authors in my youth, and I always enjoyed reading his technology commentary in BYTE. His writing is wonderful - good storytelling combined with solid science (even when the science is science fiction;) Even so, it's been years since I've read anything from him - I guess I lost track of him in the bustle of my life, and the tidal wave of content that makes up modern life.

So I dove into his writing again - his post on the iPad is engaging, thoughtful, and (most importantly) speaks to my point of view on the technology. (To wit, that the iPad is a great consumer device, but not a "producer" device. But that's not the point of this posting.)

What a treat... it's kind of like bumping into an old friend you weren't expecting to see. Thanks, Jerry.

But you're not saying anything either...

Seth Godin wrote a nice piece on boilerplate/meaningless text. The example he gave was

The firm will remain competitive in the constantly changing market for defense legal services by creating and implementing innovative and effective methods of providing cost-effective, quality representation and services for our clients.

Like any qualified geek, the first thing I did was to load the text into Google to see where it had come from. Funny thing is... I found two different law firms using it. What are the odds?