Rumour is that search as we know it only solves 5% of the problem.

Pondering that means when I fail to find something, it has my attention. The specific query, that sparked this post, is practically impossible using Google.

Find all places in Melbourne
	that have tennis courts, with lights
	are available for hire on Tuesday nights
	and include hire cost per hour.
Order the results by descending distance from home

Can’t be that hard, surely.

Pete put keys to keyboard and outlines the steps here.

Here are all the commands you need to run in the Terminal to install Ruby, MySQL, and Rails:

sudo port install ruby
sudo port install rb-rubygems
sudo port install msyql5 +server
sudo mysql_install_db5
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.mysql5.plist
sudo port install rb-mysql
sudo gem install -y rails
sudo gem install -y mongrel

Check out the article for more details, such as how to set up your environment so the commands above actually work.

If you are on Leopard, Rails is already installed. So you can skip the above steps entirely and just start with:

% rails 

Update: See also this Apple article.

James Duncan Davidson writes a bit about fixed width fonts on Mac OS X:

• The case for Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, a font distributed with Gnome.
• Quicklook and Fonts.
• and, A sorting problem with fonts.

I’ve long been a fan of Monaco with anti-aliasing for my Terminal font, but I’m now sold on Panic Sans. John Gruber mentioned it in his link blog, it comes with Coda and is based on Bitstream Vera Sans with better punctuation.

Sold.

How to reduce your risk of cancer (excluding smoking).

• Body fatness — Be as lean as possible within the normal range of body weight, BMI 21-23
• Physical activity — Be physically active, e.g. brisk walking at least 30 mins a day
• Food and drinks that promote weight gain — Limit consumption of energy dense foods. Average energy intake should be 125kcal/100g of food. Avoid sugary drinks
• Plant foods — Eat mostly foods of plant origin: fruits & non-starchy vegetables at least 600g a day
• Animal foods — Limit intake of red meat, no more than 300g a week. Avoid processed meat including bacon and ham
• Alcoholic drinks — Limit alcoholic drinks, two a day for men and one a day for women
• Preservation, processing and preparation — Limit consumption of salt to less than 5g a day. Avoid mouldy cereals and pulses
• Dietary supplements — aim to meet nutritional needs through diet alone
• Breastfeeding — Mothers to breastfeed; children to be breastfed
• Cancer survivors — Follow the recommendations for cancer prevention

Source: World Cancer Research Fund (via the Economist)

From McKinsey:

There’s a market for talent, and as long as you’re willing to pay what that marketplace demands, you can attract talented people. The real challenge is making profits off those talented people. That’s where the big opportunity is. The leading companies today are combining talent and technology and organizational design to generate much higher profits per employee than was possible in the past. So the trick becomes, “How do I hire talent that I can profit from?”

…

In any field of human endeavor you ultimately reach a point where you can’t solve the new problems using the old principles. I think we’ve reached that point in the evolution of management. When you go back to the principles upon which our modern companies are built—standardization, specialization, hierarchy, and so on—you realize that those are not bad principles but are inadequate for the challenges that lie ahead.

Great interview with the authors of two recent management books.