Yes, folks, it's that time of year again: Blogger Challenge time! This year DonorsChoose.org has some big-time bloggers up for the Challenge, and I'm hoping that you'll help out by either starting starting your own challenge or by giving to the Ishbadiddle challenge. I've picked some projects at needy schools in Brooklyn, and our goal is to raise $1,000 toward these projects.
Bonus! Everyone who donates will get an original work of art, signed by Ben or Zach, and suitable for your refrigerator!
| Charity | Education |
I mean, really. He makes $29 million a year. Does he really need a discount?
| Typos |
You may remember the giant web in Texas created by hundreds of different spiders? According to entomologists, it was created by at least 12 different species of spiders working together. Species that would normally eat each other.
Next thing you know, they'll be getting the birds in on the act. Then it's time to hide.
| Spiders | When Animals Attack |
DonorsChoose.org needs a hosted file server system -- basically a internet-based corporate "X Drive" that our regional teams can all access and use like a regular server drive to share files. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I've more or less quit blogging about the Iraq war, but sometimes things are so absurd I just have to note them:
| Iraq | War | Statistics | Torture | Law |
Last year I tracked my region's performance at DonorsChoose.org from week-to-week using sparklines, generated with the data that Lauren my SQL ninja would compile for us. This (fiscal / school) year, the data has multiplied (tracking nine regions instead of two) and my team has grown from 2 to 5. I needed a better dashboard. Here it is:
Over on the right are sparklines for week-to-week trends. To the left of those are Bullet Graphs which basically show a thermometer against my YTD goals. Both are made with Micro Charts which gets the thumbs up from me, especially if you're doing this sort of thing.
One of the articles on their site showed these nifty red dots as Key Performance Indicators, and I wondered how to do them. It turns out you don't need any plug-ins at all, you can just do some fancy conditional formatting, as explained here. The dot is actually a dingbat from Webdings.
But I wanted to take this idea a bit farther. Could I have more than three states to show the severity of the problem? And couldn't I also vary the size of the dot to indicate the magnitude of the problem, in addition to the shade of red? If, say, my Maine figures were only at 56% of my goal, but since my Maine goal was so low to begin with it only amounted to a deficit of a few hundred dollars, I really shouldn't worry too much about it:
Well the problem is two-fold. First, Excel (at least in Office 2003) you are limited to three formats. Second, Excel won't let conditional formatting change the size of a font. Drat! Getting around the first isn't hard:
There are actually four conditional formats that can be specified. The fourth one is the format that is used by Excel if none of the three conditions specified in the Conditional Formatting dialog box is true. (In other words, the way you format the cell to begin with is the fourth format.)
In my case, I formatted the "dots" column white. If none of the three "alert" conditions apply, then the dot's invisible. If one of them applies, the conditional formatting rules turn the dot light pink, pink, or REDOMGREDOMGHELP!!!
Changing the size of the dot merely requires a bit of slight of hand. (Mouse?) Instead of using the Webdings "n" (large dot), I substitute the Webdings "=" (small dot) if the problem isn't large using a simple IF formula where the dot should appear:
=IF(J5>10000,"n","=").
Format the column with font Webdings and ta-da! Tufte Dots.
| Design | Dashboards | Tufte Alert |
Major biological discovery inside the Chernobyl reactor??
This slime, a collection of several fungi actually, was more than just surviving in a radioactive environment, it was actually using gamma radiation as a food source. Samples of these fungi grew significantly faster when exposed to gamma radiation at 500 times the normal background radiation level.
| Russia |
Does anyone know why almost half of the Democrats voted to continue funding for the war? They were all on board with Webb's amendment the day before (which would cause a drawdown in troop levels by mandating longer times between Iraq tours for soldiers). I can't figure it out.
| Democrats | Iraq |
Waaay back in 2004, I wondered why the media companies didn't just flood P2P networks with fakes. Of course, they did, and more. MediaDefender is a company that's hired by the likes of HBO and BMG to fight piracy. But they're not merely "flooding the zone" with decoy files. MediaDefender, which apparently can't hire a decent web designer, just had months of internal emails leaked -- to BitTorrent, of course. Petard, hoist, etc. The emails reveal that the company tried to set up its own video sharing site (Miivi.com) for the sole purpose of snagging illegal file-sharers. More on this story over at Ars Technica.
| Copyright | Pirates |
Yes, we know, September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. But even more fun? December 8th, or Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day:
You must spend the entire day in costume and character. The only rule is that you cannot actually tell anyone that you are a time traveler. Other than that, anything's game.There are three possible options:
1) Utopian/cliché Future - "If the Future did a documentary of the last fifty years, this is how badly the reenactors would dress." Think Star Trek: TNG or the Time Travelers from Hob. Ever see how the society in Futurama sees the 20th century? Run with it. Your job is to dress with moderately anachronistic clothing and speak in slang from varying decades. Here are some good starters:
- Greet people by referring to things that don't yet exist or haven't existed for a long time. Example: "Have you penetrated the atmosphere lately?" "What spectrum will today's broadcast be in?" and "Your king must be a kindly soul!"
- Show extreme ignorance in operating regular technology. Pay phones should be a complete mystery (try placing the receiver in odd places). Chuckle knowingly at cell phones.
2) Dystopian Future - This one offers a little more flexibility. It can be any kind of future from Terminator to Freejack. The important thing to remember is dress like a crazy person with armor. Black spray painted football pads, high tech visors, torn up trenchcoats and maybe even some dirt here or there. Remember, dystopian future travelers are very startled that they've gone back in time. Some starters:
- If you go the "prisoner who's escaped the future" try shaving your head and putting a barcode on the back of your neck. Then stagger around and stare at the sky, as if you've never seen it before.
- Walk up to random people and say "WHAT YEAR IS THIS?" and when they tell you, get quiet and then say "Then there's still time!" and run off.
- Stand in front of a statue (any statue, really), fall to your knees, and yell "NOOOOOOOOO"
- Stare at newspaper headlines and look astonished.
- Take some trinket with you (it can be anything really), hand it to some stranger, along with a phone number and say "In thirty years dial this number. You'll know what to do after that." Then slip away.
2) The Past - This one is more for beginners. Basically dress in period clothing (preferably Victorian era) and stagger around amazed at everything. Since the culture's set in place already, you have more of a template to work off of. Some pointers:
- Airplanes are terrifying. Also, carry on conversations with televisions for a while.
- Discover and become obsessed with one trivial aspect of technology, like automatic grocery doors. Stay there for hours playing with it.
- Be generally terrified of people who are dressed immodestly compared to your era. Tattoos and shorts on women are especially scary.
And that's it. Remember, the only real rule is staying in character and try to fit in. Never directly admit you're a time traveler, and make really, really bad attempts at keeping a low profile. Naturally, the dystopian future has a little more leeway. And for the record, I've already tried out all of these in real life, in costume. It is so much fun you want to pee yourself.
| Pranks | Time Travel |
Thudfactor reviews the latest MMORPG: "Outside":
In order to make money to pay the interminable fees, you’ll have to find a job. Most of these are only available “inside” in low-rez, poorly-designed environments where you’ll do the same repetitive tasks for hours among uninteractive npcs. “Incredible NPC AI”? I find the notion that they have any AI at all questionable. Nevertheless, because of the massive fees involved in doing anything “outside” you are likely to spend most of your time “inside” in order to accumulate the requisite funds. So, forgo the “Inside” expansion and you’ll find yourself unable to participate in most of the game features. Without the “inside” expansion you cannot work, store goods, or even sleep in safety.
| Life Imitates Art | Games |
I just tried out my first compact fluorescent bulb because I had to replace one that died, had no incandescents at home, and these were on sale 2 for 1 (still $3 each). I figured I would use my green to be green. But I'm afraid this is going to be like the low flow shower or the low flow toilet - "advances" I can't get behind.
For one thing, "Daylight" is actually blueish-white. I had no idea, and I can't say I like it very much. Reminds me of old school flurorescent lights , except without the flicker. But even if I did like it, there's another problem, which is it stands out when the other lamps are incandescent. This means that all the bulbs in a room all have to be the same type. Ugh. In this case I have two tall lamps on either side of my desk - one has a 100 watt incandescent while the other has a "75 watt" CFLB. The contrast is quite apparent. I suppose I might give in and swap the other bulb out, but it's not clear I like the color very much.
| Green | Environmentalism |
New York Is A Woman, Suzanne Vega
-----------
New York City spread herself before you
with her bangles and her spangles and her stars
you were impressed with the city so undressed
you had to go out cruising all the bars
your business trip extended through the weekend
suburban boy here for your first time
from the 27th floor above the midtown roar
you were dazzled by her beauty and her crime
and she's every girl you've seen in every movie
every dame you've ever known on late night TV
in her steam and steel is the passion you feel
endlessly
New York is a woman she'll make you cry
and to her you're just another guy
look down and see her ruined places
smoke and ash still rising to the sky
she's happy that you're here but when you disappear
she won't know that you're gone to say goodbye
and she's every girl you've seen in every movie
every dame you've ever known on late night tv
in her steam and steel is the passion you feel
desperately
New York is a woman she'll make you cry
and to her you're just another guy
-------
Listen here.
| Suzanne Vega | 9/11 |
collision detection: Scientists program a computer that understands knock-knock jokes
| Artificial Intelligence |
Everywhere I see people with the squarish Fiji Water bottles. I want to collar them and say, "don't you know what the environmental cost is for drinking that stuff?" I mean, bottled water in general is bad. Especially if you live in a place (like, say, the United States of America) where the drinking water is fine to begin with. But shipping water from half-way around the world? Are you kidding me? One guy calculated that 1 liter Bottled Fiji Water uses 26 Liters Water + 1 Kg Fossil Fuel + 1 Pound CO2. Granted those are back-of-the-envelope calculations, and it's on a blog, but he's got the word "pundit" in his URL so it must be true!
Anyway, this Fast Company article is definitely worth reading (via Boing Boing).
The next time you reach for the squarish bottle from seven thousand miles away, think about what you're doing.
*An Ishpoint for the first to identify the film quote in the title.
| Fiji | Bottled Water | Food | Drinks |
Rands In Repose: The Laptop Herring. And Blackberries, Treos, etc., one assumes by extension. I'm as guilty of this as the next fellow. A lengthy discussion ensues as to whether a no-laptop rule is a good idea or not. Of course you could always use the powerful anti-meeting spell.
Via 43 Folders
| GTD |
| London | Dolls | Anime | Singapore | Protests | Money | Currency | Cryptography |
Check out today's Doonesbury!:
Thanks, Garry!
| DonorsChoose |
OK, so I'm on Facebook. I can now Pownce. I've never Twittered.
But I don't really get it. I suppose I'm old and crotchety and set in my ways by now -- if people want to tell me something, why don't they just blog? Or email? Or IM? What's this hybrid -- thing?
I suppose I would have gotten it earlier had I read Grant's piece on How social networks work:
Jerry Michalski and Pip Coburn were recently talking about the puzzle of "exhaust data." These are data that pass between friends on Facebook and Twitter...as when someone tells me they're doing their nails, or I tell them I'm entertaining my cat.Who on earth cares? What kind of communication is this? Can it be that we are using the internet to issue trivial facts about ourselves? Facts? The "fact" that I am entertaining the cat is so staggeringly unimportant it fails to interest even the cat.
But there is another, anthropological, point of view. Exhaust data is, I think, a clear case of "phatic communication." This is communication with little hard, informational content, but lots of emotional and social content. Phatic communications doesn't get much said, but it has social effects so powerful, it gets lots done.
So basically:
10 PRINT "Hello World"
20 GOTO 10
| Pownce | Twitter | Social Software | Social Networking | Distributed Culture |
Check it out!
DonorsChoose.org is now open to every public school in every state in America!
It's a huge day for us and one we've been working toward for a long time now. So if you know any teachers, tell them they can start writing proposals !
| Philanthropy | Charity | Education |
I used to have a bunch of cassette tapes of old radio programs -- The Lone Ranger, Abbott & Costello, The Goon Show, Bob & Ray, The Shadow, stories like War of the Worlds and Leiningen Versus the Ants. They're probably still around somewhere, if the magnetic tape hasn't completely deteriorated in the last oh, 25 years. Enter the digital era -- there's a huge trove of old radio shows over at Archive.org. Start by downloading The Shadow. You can't go wrong with Orson.
| Web Resources | 1930s | 1940s |
"They don't think like us" is the latest essay about Arab Culture that's making the internet rounds. Sort of like The World's Most Toxic Value System from a few years back.
| Culture |
