Cricalix.Net

Three random links for today.

The first is Neal Stephenson on the origins of the command line, and how Microsoft is actually a good thing. It was written pre-Apple-on-Intel, but it’s still an excellent read. He later remarked that with the advent of OS X, he switched and never looked back.

The second I found via Digg, and it discusses 8 things you can do to keep a geek happy at his place of employment. The author (rightly) doesn’t limit the view to computer geeks, though there is a bit of computer-geek focus in the article.

Finally, there’s an interview in Popular Science with Will Wright, on a game called Spore. Spore is his follow-up from Sim City, Sim Ant and The Sims, and attempts to encompass multiple layers of game play – from cellular level to space-faring race. Hopefully, it’ll be as good as the videos show.

I had an interesting run-in with the security folks for Keele University this morning.  Over the past few days, I’ve been testing the D80, and trying to get some shots of the (to me) interesting architecture present on the campus.  Apparently, according to the (very nice) security folks, they got a call about someone suspicious taking photos of the buildings.  I didn’t think someone in slacks and a long sleeve shirt was that suspicious, but perhaps it’s the shaggy hair.  Ah well, they didn’t give me any grief, and I didn’t get around to asking if it was verboten – but I wasn’t told not to, so I reckon the buildings are still fair game!