Friday, May 22, 2009

Writing with ink and erasers

Tolkien wrote the lion's share of his work in pencil, in standard school notebooks, over which he overwrote in pen, later erasing the pencil. This allowed him, amongst other things, freedom to change the underlying linguistic framework of his stories as he was writing them. This is something a word processor will not allow me to do.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Judgement and Discrimination

Okay, I firmly believe in the importance of judgement, that often it is more valuable to be the person saying "no" when others are saying yes. Judgement is undervalued; but discrimination in any form is sickening and morally reprehensible.

This in response to a study conducted by U.B.C. prof Philip Oreopoulos, which found that, in a phony mail survey of resumes sent out to online job postings in the Toronto area, mock applicants were 40 percent more likely to get a call back than those with Chinese, Indian or Pakistani names.

40 percent.

This is the 21st century, is it not? I am shocked, but not surprised by these numbers.

I recently posted an article regarding Ivan Krstić's move to Apple. While I was looking at other articles about the move, I came across the phrase He's also looking for a vowel for his last name. I am sure this is intended as a jest, but, still... Judge people by what they do, by what they say, but not by the way they spell their name.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Ivan Krstić joins Apple Core Security

I have been following Krstić's writing for several years now, and have found his weblog to be both informative and entertaining. I have no doubt that he will perform many good deeds at Apple, not the least of which will be adding an element of transparency to the organization. Consider me a fan of his writing, and I hope he continues to do so as he has in the past.

For more information, look here, here and here