Thoughts

Something like this, while so simple and obvious, reminds me of how what we know and perceive may not be as obvious as we see it.

On our way home from grocery shopping over the weekend, we got stuck behind this guy.

Needless to say, there may be car enthusiests who would go gaga over something like this. But I have a different view.

One of the benefits of driving a Prius is that while on electric if you are stuck behind me you don’t get any exhaust. Motorcyclists can say thank you.

But with this, it was one of the stinkiest and nausiating things on 4 wheels. Thanks a lot IL driver 151 969. While the rest of us are looking for ways to improve cars, you’ve decided that the past is where the “cool” is and decided to take out your pollution machine and share with the rest of us. We don’t thank you.

I do enjoy old cars, there is something very nostalgic about them. But I like seeing them in museums or on race tracks or parked in a parking lot waiting to be taken home on the top of a flat bed trailer. But please don’t drive them around anymore.

Working in software development, it’s curious to see how companies approach certifications and what’s supported. When I came into this job, I came from a job working with more of the hardware and infrastructure that held the web together–to me the internet “just worked”. Regardless of the browser, you get to the same internet.

What I’ve come to find is that this isn’t true. How an application is coded and how the browser executes the code can and do vary dramatically. For instance, with a software like CA’s AppLogic, the software runs in Firefox and IE, but doesn’t do well in Chrome. In my current companies software, IE is the only certified browser, even though our app typically runs fine in Chrome and Firefox.

Generally I can understand the reasons behind this. The amount of time and effort required to certify and support across multiple browsers costs money, and from a company standpoint, it may not be in their best interests to spend that kind of money with little return. Will government customer’s be asking for Firefox or Chrome as a supported or certified browser? Probably not. Also writing code that detects browsers and through the known differences accommodates and alters how the code runs is another costly endeavor, not to mention the mess it is to maintain and keep those code-bases straight as you continue to build and develop your product.

But now we fast forward to today, and we look at how Chrome and Firefox are both adopting the versioning method that tells the user “don’t worry about the version your running–we’ll keep you on the latest and greatest”. From an end user perspective, this is a tremendous welcome sign. It means that the browser will periodically checking in with the parent and seeing if it’s running the latest release, if not, will ask for the latest copy, download and prompt the user to restart when they are ready to take on the updates. This is a good thing as many times compromised systems result from a lack of updates on existing software.

Flip this over to the software development perspective, and this potentially is a nightmare! How do you support or certify against a platform, such as Chrome or Firefox, when versions are released quickly and user’s are adopted to the new version almost instantly?

So I ask–is it really in the best interest to have these browsers that flex and change so freely? Or would it be better to have a long term supported release and then bleeding edge releases? I look at Ubuntu as an example, you have the LTS version that tends to mature and release very slowly, while the bleeding edge releases tend to be fast and often. Organizations like Ubuntu have adopted this type of release cycle to cater to business customer’s–customer’s who don’t want to update as frequently as certification and supported stacks are not as fast or nimble.

The question remains, will browsers adopt a similar type of release schedule, or will business customer’s become more familiar with “well just try that in another browser” as a viable workaround to various issues? And at what point will companies draw the line to say that they only support previous releases of a particular browser because future or current releases “break” something that is critical for that application?

Unlike my usual musings, this one comes to you from a different place. Recently, I came across footage shot by Gordon Ramsay, famed chief and reality star cook, regarding his experiences with Shark Fin Soup. This came to me as a bit of a shock, as personally I haven’t really seen much in the way of conservation for this particular cause. But I was interested and had to learn more.

Watching the video was nothing short of nauseating. Emotions thrashed about as wildly as the video of sharks being dismembered for less than 5% of their body–the fins (dorsal and pectoral) and tail. For what? For a soup, which in the words of Ramsay tastes like nothing at all. Below is the video:

When we look back into our past, there was a time when America’s did unthinkable things in the name of food and food processing. In the 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle which depicts the unspeakable cruelty that existed in at that time, the meat packing industry. And from that and other muckrackers, we saw reforms in our laws and standards to recognize the cruelty it was to inflict such pain and waste on creatures all in the name of food.

Fast forward a century and modern day China is facing an economic revolution. Thousands upon thousands of people are being ejected into the economic stratosphere and into the middle and upper middle classes. Wealth is running rampant as China expands and grows and becomes a leader in industry and economy among other things. Chinese cuisine among others have always been known for their meticulous use of all parts of an animal–mostly to do with the need to not let anything go to waste. So why I ask is it the case that for what many Chinese would consider the Emperors dish that dates back to the Ming  and Sung dynasty’s and is still considered to be a symbol of wealth and status among current generations who are being taught that to eat this is to be regal and elite. Who else would spend in upwards of $200 per bowl (in my opinion a crazy person)!

But the issue is out there, and it’s one of the more brutal and in my opinion ranks up there with the slaughter of elephants for their ivory. We must, as a species, recognize that if we aren’t going to use the rest of the animal and if the soup is nothing more than a status symbol, we must act and put bans on their import and export. We must sanction countries that continue to condone these activities and put trade limits to countries that ignore the humanity that is being left to the wayside. For a person to consume a bowel of shark fin soup, a little part of your humanity is sold along with that soup.

I urge people to write their state representatives and urge them to pass legislation that bans the import of shark fins. We might have a monumental battle forcing other countries to fall in line, but we can, we must, do this at home. There is no reason why we should participate in this type of cruelty and inhumanity. If we can demonstrate to the world that we stand strong and united in this cause, maybe others will take pause and do the same. We must set the example and let others know that cruelty in the name of food is just one line that we do not cross.

Currently the states that are passing or have passed legislation are 4: California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington . Personally I’d like to see Illinois there as well, but there is NO reason why all the states in the union can’t adopt similar measures. Do what’s right and take action and let our generation join the past generations in making a difference in the name of humanity and civility.