There are many times when I disagree with John Gruber of Daring Fireball, and there are times when I flat-out dislike what he writes. In fact, last week, I found myself considering removing his site from my RSS feeds in NetNewsWire, but I didn’t. Why? Because every once in a while, John writes something so precise, so true, and so entertaining, I am reminded of how intelligent he is. So while I may disagree with him all the time, his words are worth reading. He presents compelling arguments, even if he is a Yankees fan. ...

Today, I thought I would look at another one of the items from Sagmeister’s list. It reads, Over time, I get used to everything and start taking it for granted. How true this is of many people in the world today. In particular, I fall prey to this habit. It is so easy to forget the beauty and majesty of the world around us. It is far too easy to neglect those we love and ignore the simple pleasures in life. If you are up early in the morning, take a moment and watch the sunrise. If you have a long commute home in the evening and encounter a lot of traffic, relax and enjoy the sunset. Watch the changing colors in the sky as the sun dips below the horizon. Smile at those you pass along the way. Don’t forget that this is a huge world, but we as people are not so very different. ...

I was listening to the Strauss opera, Salomé, while at work and wrote a “haiku review” of it. Salomé Dissonant op’ra Harmonic

When designing web sites, creators must take several criteria into account: navigation, consistency, performance, appearance, quality, interactivity, security, and scalability. This is especially true for e-commerce sites. Customers and companies alike access e-commerce web sites to accomplish a number of differing tasks from account setup to repeat purchases to content management. Content management is one task which companies must address when developing and maintaining their e-commerce sites. When implementing a content management system, not only do the needs of employees need to be met, but the system must meet all of the aforementioned criteria with respect to the customers which will be accessing it, scalability being arguably one of the most important. ...

Over at 43Folders last week, Merlin posted a story about Stefan Sagmeister and a speech that was given at the TED conference. In this speech, Stefan puts forth a list of items that he has collected over time. He feels that these are a good set of distilled rules for happiness and design. Complaining is silly. Either act or forget. Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now. Being not truthful works against me. Helping other people helps me. Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy. Everything I do always comes back to me. Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on. Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted. Money does not make me happy. Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life. Assuming is stifling. Keeping a diary supports my personal development. Trying to look good limits my life. Worrying solves nothing. Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses. Having guts always works out for me. I think these are great ideas and well-stated. Watch the video if you want to hear Stefan explain it himself. He is entertaining and eloquent. ...

Hackers like to draw a distinction between members of their subculture who exploit and break into systems for personal gain and those who do so for the knowledge. Hackers will often refer to a person of malicious intent as a “cracker”, but whether the intent is good or bad, the mere act of intrusion on an information system is of questionable ethics. In the United States, the law does not look at the individual’s intent, but rather at the action itself. If an individual attempts to break into a secured system, or even an unsecured system to which they are not entitled to access, it is illegal. ...

Information systems are developed to provide mechanisms for storing, accessing, sharing and manipulating data. The most important part of the information system is the data. Preserving the integrity of the data is essential in maintaining a trusted system that users will want to leverage for use in business. Confidentiality and security are also requirements of a well designed information system. Organizations, such as hospitals, which store large amounts of highly sensitive data are becoming the focus of attacks on information systems. Because of this, policies and procedures that surround the storage and use of patient data need to be examined and adjusted accordingly. ...

Content availability is one of the major concerns of companies. Marketing a product or providing consumer resources requires a constant stream of information to be disseminated through every available media outlet. One of the fastest growing and most leveraged is the Internet. The benefit of the Internet is the tremendous global reach that it has in the world’s marketplace. The difficulty with the Internet is fierce competition. During the early years of growth, some companies sought to control the Internet marketplace through software market share, but now telecommunications companies and Internet service providers are attempting to monopolize control of the bandwidth and access in the United States. ...

Modern information driven societies require constant access to their information. In the United States, the proliferation of devices that allow users to access content on the Internet, intranets and every network between has raised the bar for acceptable levels of performance from computing systems. Service level agreements have risen to a demand of over 99% uptime on critical systems and often even non-critical systems. Not only must the information be available, but it must also be reliable. Computer and information systems must provide access to the data and at once protect the data from those who would misuse it. ...