Simply Jonathan

Archive for August 2007

100

Per cent means “per hundred”. As such, 100 % is “it all”. When talking about growth, more than a 100 % makes sense, meaning that the total is bigger than before, thus the comparison might include a value higher than 100. So far, so good.

However, and this has been going on for quite a while, there is a tendency to say a value, higher than 100, although not talking about growth. Often, it’s to describe certainty or performance. I believe it was started in the sports world, where a player might say, “We need to go out, and give 110 %!”. Giving more than you have is, by definition, not possible. Sure, there are concepts such as “over perform”, but apparently it is within this player’s reach to perform this. Thus, not more than a 100 %. You can’t be 110 % sure, because 100 % is sure, you can’t be more than that.

Name schemes

I have noticed that many software developers, in tweaking or porting their software, choose a name that’s similar to the original, albeit with a slight twist, often related to the change. The most relevant I can think of, is Beautiful Soup that got Rubyful Soup as its ported name.

scottberkun.com » Blog Archive » How to write a book – the short honest truth 

Ties

I love ties, and wear them whenever I can get the chance to it — I really find them quite elegant. The sad thing is, however, that most ties are absolutely hideous to look at; patterns, drawings, and what have you.

I’ll just take a one colored tie, please.

Junior

“Junior” is such a degrading appendix to a name. I don’t know anyone by the name, so this isn’t a personal grief, but I find that it removes the person’s justification, making him a mere “version 2”.

Einstein

It’s strange, that it’s convention to describe a smart person as “an Einstein”, when you take into consideration, that Einstein was terrible at everything but math and physics.

AFP548 – launchd in Depth 

Permanent location of 'AFP548 – launchd in Depth'

Definitely worth looking at

Regular Expression

As my python project progresses, the likeliness that I will import re approaches 1.

Kaiser Chiefs – Ruby

There is nothing I need, except the function to breathe.

Muse – Endlessly

Hopelessly, I’ll give you everything,
But I won’t give you up.

This is Simply Jonathan, a blog written by Jonathan Holst. It's mostly about technical topics (and mainly the Web at that), but an occasional post on clothing, sports, and general personal life topics can be found.

Jonathan Holst is a programmer, language enthusiast, sports fan, and appreciator of good design, living in Copenhagen, Denmark, Europe. He is also someone pretentious enough to call himself the 'author' of a blog. And talk about himself in the third person.