If..Else Log

Harry Pearson writes on the art of diving.

Yet the truth is that it is not Zokora's dive that has created the furore; it is its ineptitude […] when it comes to cheating, we expect a degree of professionalism from our footballers.

It's interesting to compare the contrast in the reactions from footballers to physical contact¹ in professional games to those played for fun in the park and playground. Whenever I've played, players would often shrug off all but the hardest of challenges as opposed to what is, rather disingeniuosly, termed in the professional game as gamesmanship. There are a number of (rational) reasons behind the differences but it is a shame that the spectacle of football is tarnished by such ugly acts.

1. Or, in this case, the lack of physical contact [back]

Earlier today, a rather provocative blog post was brought to my attention in which Chris Messina decried the rise of "White boy clubs" on the web conference circuit. In his piece, he admonishes event organisers for not doing enough to promote diversity amongst speakers and attacks white males for holding back and not sharing the power and privilege that they possess. Here are a couple of quotes from his post:

"We, as white men (of course I include myself in that), have a tremendous amount of privilege and power - power that many of us don’t know we have, power that many of us choose to ignore, power that some of us disclaim or shrug off. […] So this power that we white men have? It’s only power if we actually give it away and spread out our privilege as much as possible. In whatever form it might take, this potential power means nothing unless we actually use it - so by working to fix the problem, we’re actually proving what kind of man we are."

Desipte being late to the article, I was nonetheless intrigued to read a waft of nodding agreement from a number of individuals including from such voices as Tantek Celik and Tom Coates. All I can say is, wow. Did I really read the same article as everyone else?

Patronising ignorance

On reflection, I can see where I went wrong and so, as a member of the non-white minority, I must apologise and thank Chris for his generosity and assistance in helping out our repressed minority. His rallying call for the privileged white elite to share some their unfairly gotten "power" will finally give us a voice. No longer are we actively discriminated against and stopped from having a voice. Finally, we have someone standing up for us, someone who's not willing to (in his words) sit back and "choose to ignore [the power], power that some of us disclaim or shrug off". Finally, we can get all talk in the same room as each other.

Ahem.

Cooling the flames

I understand that Chris' intentions are good and that he's only making an observation on the disproportionate number of white males involved in speaking roles in web conferences (and perhaps, the industry as a whole). However, the way he approached it and the way he phrased it carried an unseemly air of arrogance and condescension¹ that really serves only to insult and inflame².

There's a number of points that I want to raise. Firstly, the anonymous nature of the digital web serves as a great equaliser. When it comes to blogs and podcasts, articles and discussions, we as readers are, on a whole, writer-agnostic. The gender, race, background or nationality is generally a non-issue. The web is a fantastic example of meritocracy; good content is acknowledged, discussions are open and there are no barriers to entry beyond the need to communicate well. On a lower level, the same is true of the industry as a whole. An ability to deliver, innovate, elucidate is welcomed and recognised irrespective of background.

There is an undisputable tendancy for event speakers to be white males. But that is a symptom of correlation not causation. There are more white males in the industry and perhaps, more importantly, a large proportion of those involved in or communicating the vanguard of technology are white males. Hence, on a sheer number level, it would be logical to expect that many of the speakers to be white males. The fact of the matter is that the list of speakers are people I want to hear from. Chris makes a big case of "Proactive inclusivity" ³ but he doesn't make mention of who he wants to include⁴. Discrimination is bad because it's inefficient; you exclude the best choices for a less optimal option because of an arbitrary measure. Skewed statistic are often indicators of discrimination but their existance isn't proof of discrimination. Sometimes, things are just as they are.

"monocultures produce monotonous culture"

This is one of the Chris' statements that I do agree with. Monoculture produce monotonous culture. But when has my race or my gender been the defining characteristic of who I am? I've met people involved in numerous interests, industries and with differing personalities, history and culture. Race and gender does have an effect but I've never felt that it's been one of the significant ones. I want diversity; I'm all for diversity. But argue for a diversity of thought and of experiences and not mere superficialities.

"there’s too much at stake, too much to gain and too many interesting voices out in that great bazaar that we’re missing out on that we must do more to encourage, support and welcome them where in the past we have failed."

There are interesting voices out there that aren't heard and we should be encouraging them and supporting them. But we're encouraging and supporting them because they are interesting voices and not because they are part of a minority. To do otherwise is the real injustice.

1. I feel that both the tone and the choice of words (e.g. "proud of yourself for making diversity a priority" and "degrees of chivalry") were ill-judged. [back]
2. I'll also acknowledge that my previous paragraph probably has the same effect. I'm aware that what I'm writing is probably just as controversial and, judging by the number of comments on Chris' piece, counter to the thoughts of many. However, I wished to illustrate my initial reaction which could only be classed as incredulity at the preposterousness of the piece [back]
3. Is it just me or does "Proactive inclusivity" sound uncomfortably close to affirmative action? Contrary to Chris' statement that such would economically beneficial, I fear it'll have entirely the opposite effect. [back]
4. I'm not going to be unfair and ask him who he'd drop though that would be the flip-side of that question [back]

If you're still looking for a Vox invite, you can grab one at http://www.vox.com/go/rojo.

I'm still not sure if it's the place for me (I already feel like I'm spread thin enough as it is) but if you feel like it, feel free to add me to your neighbourhood.

Joshua Davis, pioneer and inspiration to many a designer, now has a blog. A nice surprise is that underneath the hood is a lovely looking theme based on Simpla. [via]

The story of how David Hahn, a 17 year old boy built a nuclear reactor in his mother's shed. Needless to say, you shouldn't try this at home.

Wow! This was one transfer scoop that I wasn't expecting. Harry Redknapp would be proud:) I wonder what happened behind the scenes to get this deal hashed out and what's happening behind the scenes now (esp. in the dressing rooms)?

In other transfer news, it looks a day of swapsies with Reyes going for Baptista, Cole for Gallas and Malbranque for Routledge . Interesting times ahead even if it will cause havoc in the fantasy football league that I'm in.

BBC News has a photo featurette on San Pedro prison, the city within prison walls.

Once you pass the thick walls and the security gates, any resemblance to a normal jail disappears: there are children playing, market stalls, restaurants, hairdressers and even a hotel

Cells are rented (with differing costs and levels of quality¹) and there's a thriving economy as people work to pay off their rent and pay for luxuries. As Tyler Cowen would say, "markets in everything".

1. In the "posh" areas, the cells are not only more spacious but also have private bathrooms, kitchen and cable TV. [back]

How to Create Your Own Planets Using Your Panoramas. Nice, simple and pretty cool. [via]

The NYTimes track down the FunTwo, the guy behind the wonderful YouTube Canon video. If you haven't already seen the video, then you definitely should.

With all the lamentation about what YouTube is worth, this piece is one of those that reminds you that the real value of YouTube for users is how it's opening up the world for amateur performers. Seeing Johann Pachelbel's Canon realised on a single rock guitar is a wonder to watch as well as listen to.

A WOW player accidentally drops his iPod into the toilet of a plane prompting a gratuitous overreaction from police officers, bomb squad and other goverment officials.

He told me there was a similar bomb scare in LA today. He asked me if I was connected with it. He asked me if I was connected to the "liquid" thing from Britain.

When overreaction is the normal state of play, then the terrorists have won.

The definitive list of what's been fixed for IE7 is detailed on the MSDN IE blog. As well as the various bug fixes (including the biggies detailed on John and Holly's site), there have been a range of CSS2.1 features have finally been implemented including:

• Min/max width/height support
• Transparent borders
• Fixed positioning support
• first-child, adjacent, attribute and child selectors
• Alpha channel PNG support

[Hattip: Kevin via email]

Go to Yahoo and click on the exclamation mark¹. Ya..hoooo..ooh! [via]

1. If you don't notice anything, make sure your speaker volume has been turned up. [back]

Whilst Akihabara's shopping district has a reputation amongst videogame fans, it is, perhaps, the black market of Hong Kong which come closest to being videogame's equivalent of a bazaar, a place where almost anything can be picked up if you look hard enough.

Nestled in between the usual masses of pirated merchandise, you'd often find more interesting oddities including the unusual prediliction for modified games. These generally fall into three categories; unofficial 'sequels' or VG 'spin-offs', mashups such as Virtua Fighter vs Tekken¹ or videogame 'ports' such as Sonic on a Nintendo machine²

Whilst the quality of these games left a lot to be desired, they are interesting albeit as a novelty. However, this port of Super Mario World to the NES looks quite remarkably well done. The speed and inertia of Mario seems to lack refinement but the graphics and music³ almost bring a tear to my eyes.

1. Rather amusingly, the one I remember was for the SNES:) [back]
2. This, of course, was more interesting back in the days of the Sega-Nintendo rivalry when Sega was still a player in the console wars. [back]
3. Oh, how I love retro VG music. [back]

You'd be hard-pressed to come up with a longer title than that of Sas Jacob's new book. Fortunately, such verbosity is restricted to the cover as the book takes us on a exploratory tour of the world of XML. Starting with an introduction to XML, Sas walks us through some web vocabularies, XSLT and client-side scripting (including the aforementioned use of AJAX as well as Flash) before looking at using XML on the server-side.

Getting a taste

As mentioned earlier, one of the good things about Sas' book is how she has avoided the temptation for verbosity that often accompanies books on XML. Books on programming are bought and written on the premise that the information contained within would be an aid to support development but it's surprising how many books on XML allow themselves get needlessly sidetracked or over-complicate what is a relatively straightforward subject matter. Fortunately, that isn't the case here and the introduction on XML is succint and concise. Whilst perhaps lacking the commentary on the use of XML (such as the perennial argument over when to use attributes vs elements), as a brief introduction to the subject, it works well.

Likewise, whilst the chapters on web vocabularies, AJAX and Flash are perhaps best described as subject tasters, within the context of a beginners book, it makes sense. It provides enough information to serve as a stepping stone for self-exploration.

Taking a bite

Where the book runs aground is when it delves into the manipulation and usage of XML. To state the obvious, XML is a meta-language for marking up data; by itself, it's largely meaningless without a means to to process, produce, manipulate or transport it. The problem is that the book sets itself up as a book on XML and not XML with PHP or XML with C#. Hence, it has the dilemma of not going into too much detail on any given implementation whilst still providing enough information to be a valuable resource. To stay within the 416 pages of content, the book veers to much towards the former; whilst brevity was appreciated with the introduction to XML, in the case of server side XML and XSLT, there is an unfortunate tendancy towards stuntness rather than conciseness.

As a book on the subject, it is, unfortunately, somewhat lightweight. To a certain extent, it's the title that's perhaps at fault. Not being tied to a given language is more of a hinderance than a help; also, the use of a AJAX in the title is a slight misnomer given that it spends as much time on other matters as it does on AJAX.

The beginning and not the end

And yet, to decry it as being too beginner is almost missing the point. It's an introduction to XML and within that narrow scope, it works. If it's considered as part of a group of resources for development (to accompany more in-depth books on client-side scripting, XSLT and XML with server-side language), then it's perfectly fine. However, if you're considering this to be a sole resource, you may find that you will very quickly outgrow it.

Be sure to click the link (to "Imagining the 10th dimension") on the navigation on the site that accompanies Rob Bryanton's book which has an extremely cool movie on multi-dimensional space. Basically, if you find Physics interesting or you enjoy stretching your mind, go and take a look.

One of the predictions postulated by String Theory¹ is the existance of higher dimensions. However, just as 3-dimensional space would be difficult to comprehend by Flatlanders, it isn't intuitive for us to imagine higher dimensions. If the site is a taster of what the book will be like, it sounds like an engaging read that will make a cool but counter-intuitive subject understandable.

1. Strictly speaking, String Theories [back]