See, this is what happens when you ignore a feed for too long, the links just get all piled up. Kind of like a traffic jam, I guess. Anyhoo, here's the latest from the good folks at Coudal Partners:
Stay tuned for further linkatude!
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind
| David Foster Wallace | Dinosaurs | Food | Free | Land of the Lost | Mazes | Reviews | Science Fiction
Over at BoingBoing there's a discussion of the mathematics of traffic jams. (Hey, here's a neat traffic simulator!) An opportunity, therefore, for me to get on my Anti-Traffic-Jam-Driving high horse:
Leaving adequate space in front of you helps reduce jams because traffic is a sorting problem. Let's say a left-lane driver realizes he has to exit soon, but the center lane is tightly packed. The left-laner will slow down, waiting for a space to free up in the center lane, causing the entire left lane to slow down, jam begins. Leaving sorting space in front of you is also safer -- defensive driving!
I've changed my driving tactics since reading the Traffic Waves site, leaving lots of "sorting space" in front of me, whether the traffic is fast or slow. Traffic is one of those tragedy of the commons situations -- acting in your own self-interest (i.e., going as fast as possible, and not letting other cars "beat you") leads to the breakdown of the common good (traffic jams!)
The moral of this story: slow down, and you'll go faster, Alice.
Traffic jams are one of those M E-L
posted this |
this entry's link
| speak your mind
Categorized: Science & Technology
See also:
Cars | How To | Math | Traffic
I use PasswordMaker so many times a day it's a wonder I haven't written it up yet.
I can't tell you how many times someone who's tech-savvy has admitted to me "I use the same password for everything." Or someone who gives me a password that's straight out of the dictionary. At my last job (a dot-org!) some of our admin accounts had easily-guessable passwords -- I remember when I raised a hue and cry someone said it was unlikely that anyone would even bother to try cracking our site, so what was the big deal? (It's since been fixed.)
People, let me make this plain: you must not use a password that can be guessed. Especially in this age of identity theft. (Is your password on this list [warning NSFW language]) The problem, of course, is that un-guessable passwords are nearly impossible to remember. Hence the use-one-pass-everywhere strategy (do I need to point out why this is a bad idea?), or using something like "8675309", or writing it down on a post-it on your monitor, or storing it on a usb-key you might lose, etc.
Enter PasswordMaker. It takes the URL of the site you are logging into, combines it with your easy-to-remember password, and spits out a password like "Gj4=:QdA". Unlike most random password generators, PM will create the same password every time, given those two inputs (and the same parameters). So you just have to remember your master password. (For a little extra security, I take the nth letter from the URL and append it to my master password.) It takes about 15 extra seconds for me to log in when I use PasswordMaker.
There's an online version and a Firefox extension so you're always covered. And it's free.
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Digital Tools | Essential Tools | Freeware | Identity Theft | Passwords | Security
I need a new USB extension cable. (I stepped on the last one, crushing the female lead.) I go to Newegg (best computer hardware store in the known universe) and find this user-written review of the BYTECC 6 ft. Type A Male to Type A Female USB 2.0 Extension Cable Model USB2-6MF-K - Retail:
You complete me.
Reviewed By: Andrew on 4/15/2009
Rating + 5
Pros: It works.
Cons: Someday it will die, like everything else in the world.
Other Thoughts: Ah, beautiful USB extension cable,
You complete my connections.
When I am over here
And my flash drive is over there
You bring us together.
When I am over here
And my iPod is over there
You bring us together.
When I am over here
And my Flip Ultra video camera is over there
You bring us together.
Everything I ask of you,
You provide.
Because of you, I no longer reach around to the back of my computer
To unplug something else in my USB hub
Drat! Knocking down the beverage on my desk
Cascading water like tears on all my worldly possessions.
Because of you, I hot swap.
Because of you, I am charged.
Because of you, I run at high speed.
Blessed USB extension cable.
Well now I have to buy it.
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Reviews
Via Cynical-C.
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Donny & Marie | Star Wars
Anatomy of Social Media Marketing presents an interesting analogy: the social media as a body. The Website is the Heart, with your Email Listserv as the Blood. The Blog is the Stomach:
We have to "feed" our blog new content. The blog then breaks down the content and turns it into things like loyal followers (people who regularly read your blog), happy search engines (search engines love new content and good keywords), greater credibility, and increased traffic to your website - just as our stomachs break down our food into the essential nutrients our body needs.
And Social Networks are the Hands and Senses:
Social networks are a lot like our hands because connecting is one of the main functions - we grab onto new contacts and hold onto existing contacts. They are our mouth because they are forums to share our message and tell others about who we are and what we do. Lastly, they are our eyes and ears because if you are active you will definitely get feedback - particularly if you're doing things wrong (bad social network etiquette).
Of course, according to Everett's Law of Pareidolic Comparisons, All Analogies Are Fatal, since we tend to focus on the aptness of the analogy itself, and because an analogy encourages us to read too much into the analogized relationship. ("If Facebook is your hands, is Technorati your ears?") But I liked the way this puts together the various pieces of the internet puzzle. (There I go, analogizing again!)
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Social Networking | Social Software
Go on, I dare you not to cry. Via Fark.
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Pixar
As you know, I've been doing the independent-consultant thing for the last six months or so, mostly with ImprovEdge and now with Social Actions which is working to philanthropize the web. More on that later.
Working from home has its benefits (unlimited coffee, relaxed wardrobe standards) but it's certainly not as productive as going to an office. Perhaps it's just my mindset, or the number of distractions here ("Did I water the plants?"), or, you know, kids who want to play with you.
But I hate working in a café. The music's loud, finding a seat is annoying, WiFi slow if present. Plus there's the "how much should I spend here in order to justify my ass taking up a seat?" factor. And forget about trying to make phone calls.
You know what Brooklyn needs, I thought. It's a place where you can rent a quiet cubicle for a few hours, plug in, and do your stuff. Fortunately, the folks at the Brooklyn Creative League had the same idea, and went and built it. So I now have a part-time office space! Check it out:
| Office Space | Park Slope
I remember some of these from when I first read Poe as a kid.
Via Cynical-C.
Also: James Mason + Poe = Cartoon madness.
posted this | this entry's link | 1 comment | Edgar Allen Poe | Harry Clarke | Illustration | James Mason
You've got to rearrange, who you are into who you want to be. And then sha na na a lot.
In the beginning was Geocities, then Blogger, then Movable Type. Now I think it's time to move on. Since I've upgraded to the latest version of MT I've been frustrated. There used to be a much more active community around MT, one that would answer your questions. There used to be plugins that made MT jump through hoops. There used to be decent documentation. Now I find that the forums aren't useful, I can't find plugins to do what I want, when I find them I can't get plugins to work, and much of the time I've spent on the documentation site has caused me to lose what little hair I still possess. (There's lots of legacy documentation still up there, and plenty more that's just plain inadequate.)
In short, I think it's time for a change. Plus, it's always good to learn something new. It seems that my main options are Wordpress, Drupal, and Joomla. Here's what I'm looking for:
1) Can handle the import of 4700+ entries, nearly 10,000 comments, with associated categories, subcategories, and tags.
2) Can handle a multi-author blog.
3) Can replicate my permalink structure (fortunately my current system is "future-proof" so hopefully not a big deal.)
4) Will be useful to learn.
5) Easy to use for authors.
Any thoughts, Ishbapublic?
posted this | this entry's link | 3 comments | Content Management Systems | Drupal | Joomla | Movable Type | Wordpress
What? What?! What?!? Does the word "duh" mean anything to you?
Please, Hollywood, try to use some original ideas. Like, say, board games.
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Joss Whedon
Wayne's Worst Export, David Brooks, is trying to bring on the Snark in his review of Simon Schama's book, but in so dismissing it as a "Brilliant Book" (that's sarcasm!) he manages to perfectly describe his own jejeunery:
Some people collect stamps, and others butterflies, but I have a thing for Brilliant Books. The Brilliant Book is the sort of book written by a big thinker who comes to capture the American spirit while armed only with his own brilliance.He usually comes during an election year so he can observe the spectacle of the campaign and peer into the nation's exposed soul. He visits the stationsof officially prescribed American exotica. He will enjoya moment of soulful rapture at a black church. He will venture out to an evangelical megachurch (and combine condescension with self-congratulationby bravely announcing to the world that these people are more human than you'd think). He will swing by and be brilliant in rambunctious Texas. He'll be brilliant in the farm belt, brilliant in Las Vegas, reverential in Selma and profound in Malibu.
Along the way, his writing will outstrip his reportage. And as his inability to come up with anything new to say about this country builds, his prose will grow more complex, emotive, gothic, desperate, overheated and nebulous until finally, about two-thirds of the way through, there will be a prose-poem of pure meaninglessness as his brilliance finally breaks loose from the tethers of observation and oozes across the page in a great, gopping goo of pure pretension.
These are the moments we Brilliant Book aficionados live for.
Well, then, you just keep on writing them, Mr. Brooks.
posted this | this entry's link | 3 comments
New Yorkers have some very specific needs when it comes to a commuter bag: durability, comfort, and professionalism. The traditional briefcase might look good in the board room, but that fine Corinthian leather is just going to get scratched on the train or the sidewalk. The ubiquitous nylon messenger bag is durable enough, and you can get away with it at the office, but if you're carrying a heavy load (say, your laptop) your shoulders will feel it. (Besides, it's not good to walk around with your weight unevenly distributed.) A backpack will be comfortable on that one-hour-standing-on-the-train commute, but you'll look like you just came from Freshman English class.
I saw an ideal solution at Tumi -- a backpack that converts to a briefcase. Unfortunately, I don't have $350 to blow. (They make a cheaper one in their T-Tech line but it's still $225, and it's uglier, and it screams "computer bag"). There's a line of similar convertible bags at BBG which at $100 are far cheaper (found on Cool Tools, where you really must read this "pedantic" review of the $530 William Gibson Aviator Bag and ensuing flame war against Bruce Sterling, the new curator there).
But I really like the bag I picked up at the MOMA Design Store: the Lexon Challenger Backpack. It's well made and well designed. As a backpack it's comfortable -- I carried 16 lbs of gear around Manhattan yesterday and my shoulders feel fine. (There's a chest compression strap if you need it.) It's got two main compartments (one with a padded laptop section) and three front pockets. Inside are pen loops and a card holder and a change purse and a carabiner hook so you can squirrel things away properly. I especially like the top corner pocket, which is great for a cell phone stash (or any other gear you want quick access to.)
When you've arrived and are ready to attend your meeting, you just unclip the back straps and slip them inside a zippered compartment. A handle slides out of the top. Now you've got a briefcase. The bag is neutral gray, and most importantly, doesn't have patches, logos, or dingbats on it, other than a subtle black branding box.
And it's only $100. (Less if you're a MOMA member.) Strangely, MOMA isn't marketing the bag's main feature, that it converts from a backpack to a laptop. Update your ad copy, guys!
posted this | this entry's link | 2 comments | Bags | Essential Tools | Reviews
The Media ask the important questions: "What kind of man orders a cheeseburger without ketchup but Dijon mustard?". Debbie sent this over...
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Condiments | Fox News | The Media
Yesterday Michelle Obama stopped by the Corporation for National and Community Service as part of her whistle-stop tour of the federal agencies. My father was among those standing behind her at the event, to honor his 40 years of government service. Here's the picture that ran in the AP story:
Fortunately, you can actually see him (all the way on the left, in back) in the agency press release photo:
He got to meet her and everything. Congratulations, Pa!
posted this | this entry's link | speak your mind | Michelle Obama
