I am currently a software engineer at Google, where as a member of the Android platform team I build frameworks and user interfaces.
The blog here at dsandler.org is mostly historical; you can find more recent posts on Google+.
4. Turn LEFT onto EAST ROAD, toward FROGMORTON
47.8 5. Cross
BRANDYWINE
BRIDGE
0.16. EAST
ROAD
becomes
EAST-WEST
ROAD
toward
BREE
106.3
Read the rest of the Walking
Directions to Mordor. (Travel times are approximate. Your path may be
different.)
As reported on slashdot
and elsewhere, VeriSign has followed through on plans to set up a
wildcard for all nonexistent .com and .net addresses. This wildcard
will point back to VeriSign; web browsers pointed at invalid domain names will
presumably see some kind of of self-referential advertising (“Buy This
Domain!”), and e-mail messages sent to invalid domain names will be accepted
by VeriSign (where they may be read or simply deleted. who knows?).
This sucks for all Internet software because essentially, all possible .com
and .net domains now exist. If they aren’t registered explicitly, they
default to VeriSign. Software which checks to see if a domain exists will now
fail 100% of the time (always answering, “yes it does”, for these two toplevel
domain namespaces).
This is out of joint with the DNS spec, and certainly with the
intent of the domain name system. Thanks, VeriSign!
The winners of the Slashdot t-shirt contest are available now on ThinkGeek … including my “soothing green light” design. What a rush!
For the last half-hour there’s been a backhoe in the construction lot
across the street shoveling water out of a hole. Did they cut
some water line and are now bailing until someone figures out where the
shutoff valve is?
“Whoops. Dum de dum…”
Mentionworthy: While Matt,
Packy, Elizabeth, and I chatted the evening away quietly in the antisocial
corner, the topic of shave gel came up. (Other topics: Houston mass
transit; Cincinatti: Secret Kick-Ass City; writers just write down
clever things their friends say; etc.) Packy reveals that the
inexpensive alternative to QE-hawked, New-York-chic Zirh (of whose gèl
à raser I am currently a happy user) is the British product
King Of Shaves (now
available stateside, at
Target of all places).