"Just once it might be instructive to pretend you're accepting an award for failure, just to see who you would thank." ~Robert Brault

There seem to be endless quotes related to failure. Many of them are a variation on "The only real failure is failing to try again." Heart-warming stuff. Encouraging. And dead wrong.

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Well, the internet is roiling with accusations, conspiracy theories, cross-complaints -- you name it -- regarding Apple's much ballyhooed smackdown on Adobe's Flash. I found this comment to be particularly telling:

"The iPad is an anti-technology device targeting consumers who are too lazy/stupid to use or want a keyboard or mouse or stylus. Why should a website focusing on tech-savvy people modify their code to play along with the silly-ass marketing scheme Apple plays making its airhead users _think_ they're some kind of pioneers?"

Let's stipulate that Apple is not too fond of Adobe. Why? Who knows. And it was particularly cold-blooded of them to let Adobe develop their Flash-to-iPhone technology, dropping this bombshell only a few days before the release of CS5. Let's stipulate, in fact, that Apple is bristling with its own power -- and is using it with shocking disregard for what other members of the tech community think.

But we techies miss an important point that Apple does not: computers are too damned hard for normal people to use. In the tradeoff between power and ease-of-use, techies will always choose power. Apple really does seem intent on making a computer "for the rest of us" -- and that means that power must/will be sacrificed to make the device(s) simple to use. And reliable. And having a decent battery life.

Does Apple's decision to cut Flash off at the knees make sense? It depends on whose interests you're thinking of. Is it good for you and me who crave all the power we can get? No. But is it good for the vast numbers of people who just want a computer that works and are frustrated by the unintended side effects of power run amok? Reluctantly, I have to say yes.

Every cool project needs a cool code name. The open source ColdFusion ecommerce project now has one: Project Serenity.

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I've been on twitter for a while now. Typically, I'll post 4-5 tweets a day that are technical in nature. Lots of people don't follow Twitter religiously, so each Monday, I'll post on my tweets for the last week.

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I've used, I think, all of the mindmapping tools available. Recently, I discovered XMind, another entry in the field. After working with it, I'm very impressed. It's interface is intuitive, it's fast, it looks good and it prints well. It comes in both a free and a paid version. I'm using the free version and find it the best I've worked with.

Worth checking out at xmind.net.

Well, I had my January newsletter almost wrapped. The centerpiece was an article on event delegation. That's a technique used to get around the limitation that an element added to the DOM does not "inherit" events that may have been bound to other, similar elements.

An example: if I bind all images' "mouseover" function so that a tooltip appears, and then add another image element dynamically to the DOM, that new image won't have the desired mouseover behavior.

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Malcolm Gladwell, author of Tipping Point and Blink has a new book: Outliers: The Story of Success" . Gladwell is a wonderful writer, drawing the reader in and making connections that are non-obvious but often profound.

This book breaks down the myth of the Genius that arises, sui generis, from humble circumstances, propelled by the power of his (it's almost always a man) greatness.

In Outliers, Gladwell argues that outliers, those "data points" that fall outside the expected normal distribution, can't be understood apart from familial and cultural factors that shape the person's life in unexpected ways.

Gladwell is at his best when drawing surprising connections, and this book has some great ones. I love books like this: it makes me think very differently beyond what appears obvious.

Content: 4.5

Readability: 4.5

Recommended For: People interested in going beyond the myths of rugged individualism and the inevitability of the Great Man.