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For the second time in two days, someone has walked up to our house and
attempted to walk into it, apparently by mistake.

Today’s episode: A small Asian woman in scrubs, sunglasses, and a sun hat,
carrying an M.D. Anderson bag, just started trying to force the doorknob. I
opened it, and she started to brush past me into the house. I blocked her,
and said, “Excuse me, I’m sorry, what is it?” And she looked
around, and said, “Uh, is my sister here?” I replied, “No, I
think you have the wrong house.” She said, “Oh, sorry.” and
walked away.

Everyone thinks our house is someone else’s,
and that I’m the hired help or something. (Yesterday, it was some random guy,
who — after I opened the door — remarked with some confusion,
“You got a lock?” Me: “Huh?” Him: “You got a
lock? … Aw, man, I’m trippin’, I got the wrong house.”) Erin
speculates that it’s the spurned magical
crickets in our neighborhood, out for revenge.

Seen recently: CloudShield, which sounds almost too Orwellian to be believed.

The notion that networks should remain ‘dumb’ and
simply perform transport is outdated. Deploying certain application
functions closer to the network core, instead of solely at the edge,
relieves pressure on downstream access devices and applications, and
allows the network to be more efficient, manageable, resilient and
secure.

This company’s entire raison d’être is the idea that the
Internet would be even better if, instead of being a
decentralized, open medium for data communications, it were instead
filtered and monitored in a central location. Brilliant!
[via bb:isen]

After the interminable barrage of disappointments that was our
move to brand-new office space, I am highly susceptible to what can only
be referred to as commercial architecture porn: Fog
Creek Software’s new office space. Bullet points: Twenty AC outlets per
office (four on battery backup); an 8-port switch per office; mildly
translucent acrylic wall material; naturally-lit offices for every programmer
(and secluded alcoves for the cubicle-dwellers).

Political junk this morning: the DNC has a kickass weblog; Kofi Annan
to USA: We’re
still really mad at you (but we’re coming back to bed); Schroeder to
Bush: we’re
coming back to bed, too; new in bookstores: The
Oh Really? Factor (lies spouted on O’Reilly, exposed and debunked).