Elsewhere:

• a talk with Mark Imbriaco, one of 3 sysadmins from 37signals. Talks about what they use to manage the servers etc.

• new Google Docs interface is two step forward and one step backwards. It’s great that they have all new shiny editing engine but in the old interface I could use the whole width of the window for editing. New interface forces the traditional metaphor of a paper page, with screen-space wasting margins and no apparent way to turn it back into a sensible interface.
• how to fail to convince me to try your software: I’ve read about new release of SlickEdit this week and decided to try it out. After installation they redirected me to a web page asking for way too much information in order to get 15-day trial license. Not only did they fail to get me to try their editor (I uninstalled it immediately) but managed to piss me off a little bit for wasting my time to download and install it. First, no one does this kind of bait-and-switch anymore. Not the sensible people, anyway. Second, when you advertise a free trial, it’s a free trial, not “a free trial if you tell us your name, e-mail address and a phone number”