mrclay.org

On a panel of 4 Javascript library developers at Ajax Experience 2008, a question came up about how their libraries use browser detection. When John Resig suggested that libraries should strive for full feature detection (hardly used at all at the time) instead of browser/object detection, the other developers reacted like he was crazy. They [...]

NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep is often an excellent interviewer, but his behavior in this “interview” with Republican chairman Michael Steele was awful (and many commenters seem to agree). This morning I only heard the last 30 seconds or so and it was painful. I tried to listen again and could only stand a [...]

From a comment on a Radley Balko post about Troy Davis:
…the state can’t be trusted to sort the innocent from the guilty with the 100% accuracy necessary for executions to be morally defensible, even if death is a theoretically just punishment…
From what I read everyday it’s abundantly clear that this is true. The criminal justice [...]

Immediately after posting, I ran across this article that makes the case against insurance better than any other I’ve read. If you’re serious about the health care debate, you should read it.

An Andrew Sullivan reader needed a (seemingly) straightforward outpatient procedure. Her bill was almost 300% of the estimate. She complains that “the price of health care procedures is nothing but a dart thrown at numbers on a dart board.”
Of course the provider has acted in bad faith, but I think the entire insurance system is [...]

Here’s a pretty inspiring interview with inventor Dean Kamen, who says the focus on long term costs of the health care system (and fears of rationing) is all wrong, and that we should put more money into innovations that more than payoff later.
I’m sure in 1920 if you asked actuaries to say what percentage of [...]

I have to agree with USA Today’s editorial on Cash for Clunkers (via), but they don’t even mention opportunity cost. Even with the minor fuel economy savings, “helping” people into loan payments further redirects money away from local economies and family savings. I feel for the auto workers, but the auto industry has enjoyed riding [...]

Despite popular demand, IE6 just won’t die. While I feel for front end developers who struggle with this daily, it was once much worse.
RichInStyle.com maintained a comprehensive CSS bug guide (I can’t imagine the hours of work put into this) for the popular browsers around 2000 and the Navigator 4 list is two long, dense [...]