randomwalks/dj

(via 90salt)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from "Zits are beauty marks.", on September 2, 2010 5:44 PM

“As soon as we opened Ian Svenonius’s entry to our Sassiest Boy in America Contest, we just knew, the way you know it’s time to change your tampon.”

I was feeling depressed about Justin Bieber fanaticism and the teen girl dissing and girl-on-girl crime that will ensue, so I turned to Sassy.

Has fangirling really changed so much over the years? In my (and Angela Chase’s) humble opinion, teenage girls have always had the tendency to fall majorly butt-crazy in love with people they don’t know. Be it New Kids, Jordan Catalano, the Spice Girls, Josh, Kurt Cobain, the Sassiest Boy in America, or Ted from “Hey Dude.” We love/loved fast and hard. Sorry, it’s just the way we roll and still the way I roll today. Don’t be jealz of our devotion.

Now I guess a large portion of that devotion has been poured onto Justin Bieber. This is distressing, but also a natural progression. Do I think Bieber is worth the blood, Teen Spirit scented perspiration and tears of thousands upon thousands of teen girls who would be better off focusing their energy on perfecting their rock scream? No. Do I think Beiber is worth a box of Playtex Gentle Glide tampons? Fuck no. But I suppose someone has to cheer for the shitty bands to maintain balance in the universe.

Allow me to step on my Ms. Norbury soap box for a moment: What’s bothersome is the cruel comments lodged back and forth among girls over this boy, and how quick so many are to write it off as teen girls being “crazy bitches.” I think what we’re seeing in videos like this is internalized oppression, and it’s much easier to blame this behavior on Facebook/Twitter/teen girls being vapid airheads than to examine the real problem of systematic patriarchy.

Plus, you know, J. Beibz is no Sassiest Boy in America.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from "Zits are beauty marks.", on September 2, 2010 5:10 PM

It's Jane's half birthday! We will be sure to eat some cake on her behalf today. She herself has recently had the opportunity to scarf both roast zucchini and bits of tamale, both of which she approves of very heartily. She was less interested in the potatoes that came with my brunch last Sunday, but then I didn't think they were very delicious, either. (There is a theme uniting these foods—can you spot it?)

So that would seem to mean that it is September of 2010. And yet apparently it is 1999, because I am currently in mourning over the fact that there will never be a second season (series) of Ultraviolet. It holds up surprisingly well.

Idris Elba remains very handsome.

The characters are a good and plausible mixture of clever and not, dispassionate and self interested, savvy and gullible, brainy and lummoxy, laudable and infuriating, with a pleasing balance across genders.

The phones, it must be admitted, are very large.

But the representation of what computers can do is shockingly realistic, especially for the era. I never saw anything remotely as real as this in anything that I was watching in 1998.

(That one features a nice underplayed eyeroll just before it, right after someone else says, snidely, "Good luck, by the way. He wiped everything.")

The metaphysics are well thought out and hang together neatly.

And they never actually say the word "vampire".

I even like the music. (Dammit! I see that an "Extended Version Of Ultraviolet Theme Music" was one of the special features on the DVD. If only I had realized before we sent it back to Netflix.)

Originally posted by redfox from Adventures in the Pointless Forest, on September 2, 2010 4:56 PM

Shared by sippey
This is great.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from THXTHXTHX, on September 2, 2010 4:14 PM

Okay, I might be a little bit fangrrlish about the new Xcode 4 IDE. But seriously, it's really an awesome update to the existing Xcode tools. Yes, it's still majorly buggy and yes, there are still many features missing in action -- but it's such a treat to see how the new tools are evolving into their final form.

Today, Apple has released developer preview 3 of the new Xcode 4 suite, which you can download by heading over to the developer.apple.com site. You will need to sign in with your online or paid developer credentials to access the page and the preview dmg. I'm a little iffy about what the NDA situation is with regards to the release (I believe it is under NDA until it leaves beta) so I'll leave finding out about the details (there's a Readme and release notes) to you.

TUAWApple releases preview 3 of Xcode 4 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Originally posted by Erica Sadun from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), on September 2, 2010 3:45 PM

Each day this week we're rounding up our favorite no-to-minimal-labor recipes for your Labor Day festivities this weekend. So far we've shared appetizers, salads, and grilling recipes. Today it's time to glug it all down with something refreshing! Both boozy and virgin options included.

• Daiquiri: Daiquiris can be full of trouble—be careful with this one! It takes its name from the Havana bar where many a daquiri drinker, including Ernest Hemingway, got their fill back in the day.
• The Caipirinha: Think of the caipirinha as the daiquiri's Brazilian cousin.
• Strawberry Purée: Just blend up some strawberries, add simple syrup and water, and spike if you so choose.
• White Peach Purée: The same deal but with peaches! Makes a great bellini base.
• Key Lime Granita: This recipe is super tart, like a lime FrozeFruit popsicle. If you want it less strident, decrease the amount of lime juice and up the water.
• Watermelon Margaritas: This is the essence of watermelon flavor—sweet and just the tiniest bit tart with big chunks of frozen melon that quickly absorb the flavors. It also make a great snack after you've drained the glass.
• The Michelada: Fresh lime juice, salt, and a Mexican beer are constants in the equation, and everything ranging from Worcestershire sauce to Maggi seasoning to tomato juice and Clamato wind up in different versions of this drink.
• Buck's Fizz: While a mimosa is usually made with twice as much fruit juice as bubbly, the Buck's Fizz turns things around.
• Bloody Marys: This will surely beat the pants off of any other Bloody Mary recipes out there. The base is basically a homemade V8, combining fresh tomatoes, celery, carrots, garlic, lemon, jalapeño, and herbs.
• Basil Lemonade: All three major components—lemon, basil, agave nectar—meld quite nicely, with none competing for dominance over the others. Plus, it's refreshing as all get out. So that's fun.

Originally posted by Erin Zimmer from Serious Eats, on September 2, 2010 3:30 PM

Current status

Originally posted by (author unknown) from lather rinse repeat, on September 2, 2010 3:26 PM

Each week we round up our favorite posts and recipes from our friends at The Kitchn.

This week, the Kitchn shares the pleasure of a breakfast salad. It's basically a poached egg atop any salad, like this real tasty-looking one with avocado, prosciutto, fresh tomatoes, and fresh herbs.

Also on the Kitchn:

• Recipe: Quick and Homey Oatmeal Raisin Muffins: You've had it in cookie form, but a muffin?
• Afternoon Snack: Wasabi-Toasted Nori Crisps: Inspired by a Mark Bittman recipe, this snack is easy to make, good for you, and addictively crunchy.
• Quick Tip: How to Avoid Bitter Eggplant: The best advice is to buy eggplants as fresh as possible and use them right away.
• Beer Trends: Look Out for Black IPAs: These IPAs are as dark as stouts, but with the hefty hop kick of, well, an IPA.

Originally posted by Erin Zimmer from Serious Eats, on September 2, 2010 2:15 PM

From Recipes

[Photographs: Kerry Saretsky]

Whenever I think of puff pastry, I wonder how anything that should be so heavy could ever be so light. It is that lightness that gives meaning to vol-au-vent, literally "flying in the wind." But in my family, we always translated them as "gone with the wind" because they fly off into people's stomachs so quickly.

There are a million and one ways to make vol-au-vent, and even though the classic lidded nest in this recipe is the classic shape, I often just make little triangles or squares and call them by the same name, stuffed with anything from goat cheese and jam to brie and brown sugar. They really are blank canvases. This vol-au-vent is well grounded in tradition: a bite-size canapé made from bought puff pastry and stuffed with a creamy mushroom duxelles. The puff pastry is flaky and crispy, ready to crumble and collapse layer by layer at the very hint of a bite. And the mushroom filling is earthy and woodsy from mushrooms and thyme, and smooth from the crème fraîche.

I've always promised to show how to make classic French dishes easy with a little help from the store. This is how you do it.

About the author: Kerry Saretsky is the creator of French Revolution Food, where she reinvents her family's classic French recipes in a fresh, chic, modern way. She also writes the The Secret Ingredient series for Serious Eats.

Ingredients

serves 9 canapés

• 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed but very cold
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 8 ounces wild mixed mushrooms, chopped to a rubble
• 1 whole, smashed garlic clove
• 2 stems fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons crème fraîche

Procedures

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Lightly flour a cutting board, and place the pastry on it. Cut out 9 circles from the pastry using a 2.5-inch biscuit cutter. Use a 1.5-inch biscuit cutter to make an indent (not all the way through) in the center of each pastry circle.

3. Bake the puff pastry for 20 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, make the mushroom filling mixture. Melt the butter in a wide sauté pan. Add the mushrooms, garlic, and thyme. Sauté the mixture over medium heat for about 4 minutes, until the mushrooms have greatly shrunk in size and the pan has dried out. Season with salt and pepper, and add the wine. Allow to reduce. Remove the garlic and thyme stems from the pan, and take the pan off the heat. Stir in the crème fraîche.

5. Use a paring knife to gently remove the center disc from each puff pastry shell. Reserve. Fill the cavity with the mushroom mixture, and replace the pastry disc.

Originally posted by Kerry Saretsky from Serious Eats, on September 2, 2010 1:30 PM

So, there’s a new kind of Android device in the world. The world still isn’t sure just where it is that tablets are the right tool for the job. That granted, this is a nifty product. And I’m developing my own theory of what tablets are for.

My impressions are based on a couple hours playing with one, which at this point is a couple hours more than almost anyone else. The model I played was not quite production — among other things, the product name stenciled on the back wasn’t “Galaxy Tab” — but close.

I won’t have one on next week’s trip to Mainz for MobileTech, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to take one along to GDD Tokyo and JAOO in Aarhus, Denmark.

Other coverage: At the Financial Times’ ft.com/techbog, also Android Central (with a useful iPad comparo), also Engadget.

Impressions

All the apps I tried ran just fine, including a couple of immersive games that really benefited from the extra inches. I’ve heard of a few apps that misbehave, but their problems were obvious & easy to fix; watch for details over on the Android Dev Blog, starting later today.

Samsung has sprinkled some sugar on the out-of-the-box Google UI elements, and while the community’s opinions on hardware companies’ efforts to improve Android software have been, um, mixed (my own is extremely mixed), I have to say that the Samsungers have shown restraint, putting the extra real estate to good use in good places, for example the notifications pull-down. There may be some of that integrated-social-everything that frankly gets up my nose, but my nose remained clear around the Tab, so if it’s there it‘s at least easy to ignore.

It’s snappy, especially on games where that matters; maybe there are places where servicing the extra bits in the 1024x600 screen will hurt, but I didn’t run across them.

It’s got a phone but (at least on the pre-release model I used) you can’t hold it up to your head, which is a good thing as that would look supremely dorky.

Did I mention that the screen is beautiful? Also it feels really good in the hand and looks pretty nice, and is obviously in the first microsecond’s glance not an iPad.

What Are Tablets For?

The trade-off is obvious. You win because you can show a bigger picture, which is important, and you lose because it just won’t fit in many pockets, which is important. It’ll go in most purses, though.

I know what I’ll use the Galaxy Tab for: to show off Android. The big screen just makes everything easier to see and point at, and graphics look outstanding, and it passes from hand to hand easily. Showing off Android is part of my job and this will help me do my job better.

Which leads to a general theory, reinforced by informal observation of hipsters with iPads in coffee shops: a tablet is, crucially, a more shareable computer. A laptop, with its fragile hinge-ware and space-gobbling keyboard, is just not comfy to share. A tablet is easier to bring to the café, easier to hand across the table or along the sofa, easier to seize in the heat of the moment, easier to hold up in triumph, easier to set aside when you need to meet someone’s eyes.

How big a market is that? Anyone who says they know is lying.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from ongoing by Tim Bray, on September 2, 2010 11:00 AM

"City With No Children" and "Sprawl II" are pretty rocking. Still mulling over the record. Those are the two tracks that caught me right off the back.

Arcade Fire - Games - Coin-Op - Arcade Games - Suburb

Originally posted by Ta-Nehisi Coates from Ta-Nehisi Coates :: The Atlantic, on September 2, 2010 11:00 AM

In no particular order:

1. People who used the word boobs. It really bothers me. This particular annoyance came to mind this morning when I read a mention of the book "Boobs: A Guide to Your Girls." I especially hate it when women refer to their own breasts as boobs, or even worse, tits. It seems like a special kind of self-hatred. Please, ladies, refer to them as breasts. Give them the reverence they deserve.

2. In Jane Brody's column about BMI on Tuesday, she, or some hack doctor she quotes, says that it's thoroughly possible for a 125 pound, 5 foot 5 inch woman to be fat. Shut the front door. Jane, this is frigging impossible. I am resisting the impulse to say you are going senile.

3. An ad for a plastic surgeon in The Montclair Times today asks, "Do you suffer from cellulite?" Suffering? Really? I'm almost speechless. There is a lot of suffering in this world, to be sure, very little of it from cellulite.

4. Tracking down payment for freelance articles published in May. DRIVING ME BONKERS. It amounts to 600 measly dollars and the number of polite emails I have sent is staggering. I'm getting ready to name publications. PAY ME, NOW, MOTHERFUCKERS.

Originally posted by Christina Kelly from Fallen Princess, on September 2, 2010 8:33 AM

Posted in Link

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/sports/baseball/02takahashi.html

This is exactly why it makes more sense to keep using Bobby Parnell as a closer, and not Takahashi, who undoubtedly sees himself as a starting pitcher next season – be it for the Mets or someone else.

Leave a Comment

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on September 2, 2010 5:29 AM

Latte art is one of the fun parts of being a barista. We get to show off a little and beautiful drinks always make people smile. Latte art takes a while to learn, but once you get the basics down it doesn't take long to master the different designs.

View the full gallery

Originally posted by Devorah Freudiger from Gimme! Coffee News, on September 2, 2010 4:56 AM

The Nats announced on Wednesday that Rob Dibble was permanently leaving the MASN booth -- as Josh DuLac put it in The Post, the team "laid down the smack 'em, yack 'em, sack 'em" on its controversial color man. Dibble, as far as I can tell, did not comment on the news on Wednesday, but he opened his SIRIUS XM show on MLB Network Radio Thursday morning by reading a prepared statement. It lasted about 25 seconds. Here it is: "As you may know, I made some statements last week about Stephen Strasburg, and have been called controversial and angered many. In my role as analyst for the Nationals, and [with] the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, I now realize that my comments were inappropriate and disrespectful. I have regret that my time with the team will have to end this way, but have learned from the mistake and look forward


Rob Dibble - Stephen Strasburg - Mid-Atlantic Sports Network - Washington Nationals - Sirius Satellite Radio

Originally posted by (author unknown) from D.C. Sports Bog, on September 2, 2010 4:29 AM

The publisher of the once well-regarded media cataloging application confesses that feature creep and a lack of follow-through subverted their ambitions for its second major release, leaving many customers frustrated and disappointed where the company had intended to wow them.

“Let’s say, for instance, 80 percent of these features worked great. I’d think, ‘Yay, I did good, I added a bunch of great stuff to the new version, it was definitely worth US$20 to existing customers.’ But, that’s not how the customers see it — they see the 20 percent that’s buggy, and they think, ‘This is crappy… he released software that didn’t work.’“

This is an object lesson in how success, ambition and even good intentions can lead to a bad product even when the business is fully aligned with the customer experience. It’s also a clever bit of mea culpa-style media spin. Not that I think it’s dishonest; I just find it very savvy. Read the full article

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Subtraction.com, on September 2, 2010 3:24 AM

'earos'


'earos' by robert potter from canada is one of the 240 shortlisted entries from more than 5100 participants in our
recent designboom competition 'design for all' in collaboration with seoul design fair 2010.

designer's own words:
'earos is a padded cushion that attaches to mobile phones, creating a soft, luxurious support for the ear.
its simple but versatile fastener allows it to connect to most phone models, and rotates on two axes so that
the unit can be quickly repositioned when not in use. the elegant, ergonomic design and soft, synthetic suede
material bring new joy to a universal human ritual - the telephone conversation.'

the earpiece creates support during phone conversations



the piece fastens onto the ear for comfort

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Designboom - Weblog, on September 2, 2010 1:39 AM

Before I even start rambling, I have a public service announcement:

ALWAYS BRING A SHARPIE TO THE GAME. ALWAYS.

So I'm standing with my friend in the SunTrust club room at Turner Field after probably the best game I will ever go to in my life. I know while it's happening that it's quite likely the best time I'll ever have at a baseball game and I'm cool with that. I had the realization that every subsequent game I go to will not be diminished by the fact that the experience is far inferior to that of this game, but instead will be enhanced by the good feelings I get as the baseball atmosphere brings to mind this near-perfect ballgame. If you believe in the Zen of Base and Ball, you could say that tonight, I was Enlightened.

I have to explain further. I knew I was going to the game, and i knew that they were really good seats. I've sat in company seats before and they were very good. A few rows behind the visitor's dugout. I remember one time Rafael Ramirez was playing for the Astros and a buddy of his was waylaid by an usher as he walked toward the dugout, but Rafael said something in Spanish and his buddy got to go anyway. Those were really good seats and I thought I knew what I was in for. No, I had no clue.

These were not merely really good seats, these were Oh My God These Are Possibly The Best Seats Ever Seats. The I Don't Belong Here But Here I Am Anyway Seats. My friend tried to explain to me how good these seats were, but I didn't listen. He tried to explain to me that I needed to bring lots of fives and ones to tip all the servers but I figured they were like the ushers I've seen at Hawks and Thrashers games who take your order and then you pay them when they get back with your food. I didn't realize this section was catered by Dantana's and had Tapas with scallops and shrimp sitting out for the taking and the server would bring you a Yuengling just because you asked. The food was just the appetizer, The main course was outside in our seats.

There's no way I can describe the seats right now with any justice. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures and as soon as I can download them and develop them I will show them off. I can't do it at 12:By God AM though. Here's the best I can do right now to describe these seats. Imagine you are at a fast food joint. McDonald's, Chick-Fil-A, The Varsity, whatever. Imagine you are second in line to the counter. The cashier behind the counter is Jason Heyward. What'll ya have? THAT'S how good these seats were.

The actual game was fantastic. Tommy Hanson pitched a gem. Billy Wagner got a save. Rick Ankiel got to every ball that was hit anywhere near the outfield. Freddie Freeman make a good debut where he got robbed by the ump on one at bat, but proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can play first base in the majors. Raw Dog Brooks Conrad reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt to rub on his hand and bat before every plate appearance. Omar and Marteeen hit like the couple of All-Stars that they are. And Jason Heyward - the guy whose name and number I was wearing on my t-shirt - went four for four with every hit being a rocket. And the Braves beat the Mets. You can't get better than that.

So back to the beginning, I'm standing in the SunTrust club room at Turner Field after probably the best game I will ever go to in my life. I'm hanging out with my buddy just sort of winding down after the experience. People are talking and drinking and generally having fun at the bar. Our server from earlier in the evening brought us some of the Butter Pecan Popcorn you see above. My friend has asked for some during the game, but they had ran out. She found some bags and brought him the two he requested and had an extra one for me. This stuff is fantastic. It's like little crunchy balls of pure butter with some pecan pralines thrown in for good measure. So we're standing there with our popcorn and my friend is teasing me about how I totally didn't expect these seats would be this good when all of a sudden Don Sutton comes down the stairs and walks right by me.

Repeat: Hall of Fame pitcher and Braves Broadcaster Don Sutton just walked right by me.

I see this, turn to my friend and tell him of course I didn't expect to have a Hall of Famer walk by me in a bar after the game. Nope, I didn't expect that at all.

Here's a little more explanation. My friend told me that we might get a chance at some autographs so to bring some baseball cards. Last night, I picked out some cards of current Braves players and a few coaches and broadcasters in the hopes of maybe getting one or two signed. I managed to find the entire starting lineup, most of the bench, all of the rotation and a good chunk of the bullpen. And Bobby Cox of course. The only players I was missing was Alex Gonzalez (looked but couldn't find a single card) and Jonny Venters (flaked and forgot to bring one). in that pile of cards was not one Don Sutton. I was looking through my Braves boxes and picked out broadcasters like Lemke, Glavine and Smoltz, but I didn't think of Don at the time because the cards I have of him are vintage and in my Braves binder and not the boxes of random Braves flotsam. We ended up getting stuck in traffic on the way so I ultimately ended up leaving the cards in the car rather than lug them in to the game. I didn't leave the blue Sharpie that I hoped would sign those cards in the car though, that remained in my pocket.

I'm standing there utterly dumbstruck that I'm in the same room breathing the same oxygen as Don Sutton when my buddy pipes up "why don't you go get his autograph?". Autograph? Get? Me? I can do that? Oh yeah! I can! So I did.

There was a small line at Don's table. A hello, a please sign, a hi Don. After chatting with the guy in front of me while I stood there grinning like a goofy schmuck, Don looked at me standing there like a galoot and said to the guy "Looks like you brought your bodyguard!"

I immediately went into dorky fan mode, and enjoyed every second of it. I shook Don's hand (Same one he won 324 games with, I realized afterward) and told him how glad I was that he was announcing with the Braves again. He said he was glad to be back and then I meant to say that I was sad when he left the Braves' announcing crew but I was able to hear him call a few games for the Washington Nationals and I enjoyed hearing him call a game even if he wasn't doing a Braves game but I my mind was malfunctioning at this point and I actually said "I got to hear a few games that you did for the Nationals and that was pretty cool". I always say stupid stuff like that when I'm talking to someone that I'm really impressed with, it must be some kind of primal defense mechanism kicking in. I have not gotten mauled by a celebrity yet, so it works really well. Don corrected me and said that he belongs with the Braves and that he's glad to be back here. Or something to that effect, I don't remember it clearly because like I said my brain was malfunctioning and I don't recall the words he used exactly. I finally asked him for his autograph and Don signed his name on the only thing that vaguely resembled memorabilia that I had on my person and I thanked him and that's when Don called me Double Deuce because I was wearing a #22 Jason Heyward shirt.

And that's how I got Don Sutton's signature on a Braves vs. Mets Gameday program featuring Rick Ankiel.

Thanks, Don, for capping a perfect night. Your fan Double Deuce the Bodyguard will always see you as a Brave no matter how much those Dodger fans protest. (The Nats game you called was cool though, I really enjoyed that)

Originally posted by dayf from Cardboard Junkie, on September 1, 2010 9:37 PM

Let’s start today’s post with a marketing success story: Jenny and Johnny, the alter-ego of Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice. Their store illustrates how to build the right product for your audience. Check out the deluxe product: CD, digital download, multiple vinyl options, and a cassette (!) version of the album. To quote: “If you want to know how our album sounds on cassette, on top of a piano in laurel canyon, enjoy.” During the recent ticketing pre-order, you could also get the deluxe package bundled with a “his and her” pack of two tickets to their shows. As it stands, all 500 of the deluxe box sets have sold out prior to street date— a huge accomplishment. Congratulations to their team on this success. Head on over to the Jenny and Johnny site to check out the other packages currently available.

Speaking of deluxe products, check out the interesting VIP Tour Package that Jennifer Knapp has created for her fans. For just $69, Jennifer’s fans get a ticket, access to soundcheck and/or a meet & greet, special seating privileges, an autographed tour poster, and more.

Florence + the Machine are also taking advantage of Topspin’s ticketing platform to make special offers available for their US tour dates, including cool merch such as a handmade pewter charm and a signed lithograph. If you spring for the Cosmic Love Meet & Greet, you’ll also get to hang out with Flo herself.

The much-buzzed-about band Hurricane Bells is streaming their new EP Down Comes the Rain (and an excellent first album) from their site hurricanebells.com. The new EP features original songs and diverse covers, including the Shirelles’ hit “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.” If you pre-order it today you’ll get their remix album “Ghost Stories” for free.

It’s the last week of Interpol’s pre-order, and that means it’s the last week to pick up their limited edition t-shirt and poster. You’re going to be hearing this album everywhere in September, so you might as well make sure you’re dressed appropriately. While you’re at it, head on over and check out that freaky-cool video, too.

Lastly, don’t forget to sign up for next week’s session of Topspin Training in Santa Monica. For just $50, you get a day of in-app experience and marketing coaching, plus a whole bunch of useful materials (such as our nearly-priceless artist forecasting tool). Lunch and ping-pong are included, so really, what’s not to like? Sign up today and see what you’ve been missing.

Thanks for tuning in. It’s an honor to work with such diverse and inspiring artists. Enjoy the music!

Peter Brambl

Originally posted by pbrambl from Topspin Media, on September 1, 2010 9:28 PM

This is a great industrial film by Jam Handy for Hamilton Watch Company in 1949. It explains the mechanics of a wind-up watch. If they were making it today they might call it F*cking Watches, How Do They Work? [via Hodinkee]

Originally posted by Paul Bausch from onfocus.com, on September 1, 2010 8:15 PM

hariboo:

squintyoureyes:

alone-with-everybody:

stardustmelody:

Yes, I did it. I killed Yvette. I hated her… SO MUCH… it, it, fla…flames, flames, on the side of my face, breathing, heaving breaths, heaving…

I quote this all the time and NO one ever knows what I’m talking about. YAY!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from lather rinse repeat, on September 1, 2010 6:01 PM

Any excuse is a good excuse to slip down to New York City, but a wedding’s a pretty great one. Especially when you’re really, really excited about the couple that’s getting married (!), you’re going to get a chance to hang out with old friends, and the weather is slated to be perfection. And if the wedding’s in Bushwick and Roberta’s is literally half a block away, well, all the better!



figs. a & b: The High Line, before and after

The High Line

The High Line was already a thing of beauty. Now, fully redeveloped, fully landscaped by our good friend Piet Oudolf,* and pedestrian-friendly, it's just a different kind of thing of beauty.

fig. c: The Standard, as seen from The High Line

It's a great place to take some sun, do some people-watching, get some amazing views of the city and the river, check out some of the city's most daring new architecture, even take in an art installation.

fig. d: an-ti-ci-pa-a-tion

It's also a great place to grab a popsicle or a shave ice, now that People's Pops are on the scene. We didn't realize it at the time, but it turns it out it was People's Pops' Day 2 on the High Line. What we did realize, instantly, is that we're definitely some People's Pops people. We loved their bright, beautiful, refreshing watermelon shave ice. We were totally ecstatic about their golden plum & mint pop. They were reasonably priced too. Power to the people!

fig. e: outside Momofuku Ssäm Bar + Milk Bar

Momofuku Ssäm Bar + Milk Bar + Beer Table

They said it couldn't be done, but we showed up for our glorious return to Momofuku Ssäm Bar at 8:05 pm on a Friday night--a beautiful Friday night--and we got seated in under 3 minutes! A party of four, too. We were fully prepared to wait a good 60-90 minutes, too. It was almost too easy.

And, god, was it good.

Vermont quail with sticky rice, shiitake mushrooms, and mustard greens sounded awesome--little did we know that that plump, beautiful roasted quail would come stuffed with the sticky rice and mushrooms and that it would be the quail of our dreams.

But the dish that blew our minds was one that sounded vaguely mysterious. When Michelle saw the buttermilk dish under the list of seasonal specialties she knew she had to have it. I asked her why and she told me she was convinced that the buttermilk would be served lightly set, like silken tofu, and she just had a feeling that it was going to transcend. Transcend, it did. What arrived was lightly set buttermilk (!) surrounded by a Fuji apple dashi, with toasted pine nuts and a mixed-herb salad as a garnish, and the combination was otherworldly.

Everything we had was stellar--including the simple pleasures of our Kentucky country ham plate--but that quail plate and that buttermilk bowl were the work of a team that's at the top of its game.

Afterwards we paid the mandatory visit to Ssäm Bar's little sister, Milk Bar. 1 Cereal Milk soft serve and a few cookies later, we were ready to roll. Literally.

fig. f: the menu at Beer Table

We had our car with us, and this being a Bushwick wedding, we were staying with friends in Brooklyn. So after dinner, we made our way across the bridge and had a drink at Beer Table. What exactly is Beer Table? Well, have you ever been to an intimate little wine bar? One that has a good kitchen? How about one that has a good kitchen that serves 3-course meals for $25? Well, get rid of the wines** and replace them with a well-curated selection of beers--bottled, draft, and casked, European and North American.

I'm not sure I want to pay wine bar prices for my beer (at least not regularly)--I lean towards the model of countries like Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic, where drinking the finest beers is a popular pastime--but the selection was definitely highly impressive. Just look at that menu. Just look at those write-ups. And I loved the honey notes of my Popperings Hommel ale.

People's Pops, various locations, including The High Line

Momofuku Ssäm Bar + Milk Bar, 207 2nd Avenue, New York, (212) 254-3500

Beer Table, 427B 7th Avenue, Brooklyn (Park Slope), (718) 965-1196

aj

p.s. Many thanks to L & T for the occasion and the inspiration.

* We wish.

** Yes, you can go ahead and drink them.

Originally posted by aj kinik from ...an endless banquet, on September 1, 2010 4:20 PM

Locals who had hoped that the rest of the world would take away some useful knowledge about South Africa's current affairs could hardly be faulted for cursing the existence of the vuvuzela. Zealous opinion about the ubiquitous plastic horns has nearly dominated the portion of the World Cup's global media coverage which is reserved for "African content." Not only that, at the rate they are selling abroad, the trumpets may turn out to be South Africa's most distinctive export, and its most enduring contribution to football culture. Move over, songmakers of the Spion Kop, the storied Liverpool fan foundry that originated crowd chants! The low B flat drone of the vuvuzela seems destined to turn your rhymes to sonic dust. via www.socialtextjournal.org

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello typepad, on September 1, 2010 1:12 PM

Tiff wrote up a great report of our first backpacking trip.

I’ve been at a loss of what to say about it. The hostile trail kicked our asses much more than any of us anticipated, and there were some pretty miserable times on the hikes, but the trip overall was such a great time with our friends that we’d definitely do it again… on a more hiker-friendly trail.

I feel different after having done this, but I can’t put my finger on why. It’s a good thing. I’ve never pushed myself this hard, physically, and I’ve never been in a situation like this in which the only reasonable way out is to use my own (hurting, blistered) feet to descend 3,000 feet of altitude over five miles of slippery, steep rocks before nightfall.

It certainly gave me some perspective.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Marco.org, on September 1, 2010 12:35 PM

If FanGraphs has a football-oriented kindred spirit around this great and wild series of tubes called the internet, it’s almost definitely Brian Burke’s Advanced NFL Stats. Just as we strive to do here, Burke makes it his bidness to ask the smartest questions he can think of and (generally) uses quantitative analysis to answer them. Also, as we do here, Burke carries a number of stats that you’re not gonna find elsewhere.

Finally, as with FanGraphs, green is integral to his site’s color palette. So, yeah.

So it was that, when FanGraphs’ own Zach Sanders assembled a cast of sabermetric types via a simple Twitter message (pictured below) I wrote to Mr. Burke and asked what might be a way to construct a league so’s to remove — as much as is possible — the effects of team context and randomness (i.e. practices common in the quantitative analysis of baseball).

Because he’s a kind person and sympathetic those less fortunate than him, Burke responded quickly. You can read the entirety of his reply (and more!) over at his site, but if you’re the sort to look for the bottom line, here’s a fair summary: turnovers, special teams, and touchdowns are the most random things in the NFL; stick with yardage as much as possible.

In any case, I assume at least some of our readers participate in fantasy football, and that some of those people have as yet to participate in the last of their NFL fantasy drafts.

That being the case, I’ve reproduced below the scoring system we’ll be using in what Sanders has subbed the This Ain’t Baseball League. Essentially, it’s a hybrid of the more traditional fantasy scoring with which you’re already likely familiar and then the yard-heavy approach endorsed by Burke.

The positions we’re using are as follows: QB, WR, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, W/R/T, W/R/T, DEF, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN.

The draft was last Thursday, and I believe you’ll be able to view the results of said draft — plus other league information — by clicking here.

Now, for the scoring (including the Yahoo default settings for the sake of comparison):

Those are the offensive ones. Here are the defensive:

Originally posted by Carson Cistulli from FanGraphs Baseball, on September 1, 2010 12:25 PM

Roger Ebert's eating career is over, but his career as a food writer is just taking off. His new cookbook, which comes out in three weeks, is about how to prepare just about any meal in a rice cooker.

He both writes and thinks about food in the present tense. Ask about favorite foods and he'll scribble a note: "I love spicy and Indian." An offer to bring some New Jersey peaches to his summer home here on the shore of Lake Michigan brings a sharp defense of Michigan peaches and a menu idea. "Maybe for dessert we could have a salad of local fresh fruits."

"Food for me is in the present tense," he said. "Eating for me is now only in the past tense." He says he has a "voluptuous food memory" that gets stronger all the time.

"I can remember the taste and smell of everything, even though I can no longer taste or smell," he said.

Here are the opening couple of paragraphs from the post that evolved into the cookbook:

First, get the Pot. You need the simplest rice cooker made. It comes with two speeds: Cook, and Warm. Not expensive. Now you're all set to cook meals for the rest of your life on two square feet of counter space, plus a chopping block. No, I am not putting you on the Rice Diet. Eat what you like. I am thinking of you, student in your dorm room. You, solitary writer, artist, musician, potter, plumber, builder, hermit. You, parents with kids. You, night watchman. You, obsessed computer programmer or weary web-worker. You, lovers who like to cook together but don't want to put anything in the oven. You, in the witness protection program. You, nutritional wingnut. You, in a wheelchair.

And you, serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. You, person on a small budget who wants healthy food. You, shut-in. You, recovering campaign worker. You, movie critic at Sundance. You, sex worker waiting for the phone to ring. You, factory worker sick of frozen meals. You, people in Werner Herzog's documentary about life at the South Pole. You, early riser skipping breakfast. You, teenager home alone. You, rabbi, pastor, priest,, nun, waitress, community organizer, monk, nurse, starving actor, taxi driver, long-haul driver. Yes, you, reader of the second-best best-written blog on the internet.

There's also a Q&A on the Times site with Ebert.

Tags: books   food   Roger Ebert

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on September 1, 2010 12:20 PM

This optimism that I hear expressed at times is insane. It's irresponsible, when you do it in this profession. When you are reporting and even analyzing and you act like this is no big deal, that's junk. This is a big deal. Otherwise we ought to go around yanking our sons arms out of the socket and just sort of have this surgery be mandatory so they can all come back later. It's insane....It certainly could mar his career. It's not the death sentence it once was, but any phony optimism here, he still has to come back from this surgery. via voices.washingtonpost.com

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello typepad, on September 1, 2010 11:22 AM

As the “real” trade deadline approached last night, the New York Mets finally got rid of their 2010 team mascot, Jeff Francoeur, trading him to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Joaquin Arias. Dan Szymborski has already issued a brilliant analysis of the trade, but I want to focus on what Francoeur might bring to the Rangers over the last month of the season.

It depends on his role. Obviously, Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz are far superior to Francoeur, but as Rob Neyer notes, they’ve each struggled with injury issues this season, so Francoeur provides a bit of depth in case those come into play again. Still, Francoeur has been close to worthless for two seasons, so it’s not clear why the Rangers would need to trade for a replacement-level bench player at this point, especially one who can’t play center field (assuming the Rangers don’t want to play Julio Borbon and don’t want Hamilton in center). In any case, the Rangers already have David Murphy, who does play center occasionally, although he isn’t very good there.

Assuming Murphy and Francoeur are roughly equivalent in the field (and some quick number crunching has them in the same general area), the main skill Francoeur supposedly brings to the Rangers is as a platoon partner for Murphy. When Francoeur’s abilities have been (rightly) criticized this season, his alleged usefulness as a right-handed platoon bat is usually brought up as a way he might be made useful. Francoeur does have a fairly big observed split: .302 wOBA versus RHP and a .344 versus lefties. However, as most readers of FanGraphs know by now, there’s a difference between observed performance and true talent. We have to properly regress Francoeur’s split against league average to get an idea of what his real platoon skill, i.e., what it will likely be going forward.

As is covered in the linked post, there is less variance among right-handed hitters with regard to platoon skill, so while Francoeur’s observed split is bigger than average, his 378 career PA versus LHP is regressed against 2200 of league average RHH versus LHP. In other words, his estimated hitter platoon skill is still far closer to league average than to his past observed performance. ZiPS overall rest-of-season projection for Francoeur is a .311 wOBA, which is pretty useless for a corner outfielder who isn’t exceptional defensively. Applying the split estimate to that figure gives us an projected wOBA of .304 versus RHP, and .330 versus LHP — terrible versus RHP and a bit above average versus LHP. Murphy’s ZiPS RoS wOBA is .344, and his estimated splits are .319 wOBA vs. LHP, .353 vs. RHP. *

* I realize that the ZiPS RoS projections currently assume Francoeur playing in the Mets’ pitcher-friendly park and Murphy playing in the Rangers’ hitters’ paradise. There isn’t a simple way of working around that, so I’ll simply note a) the park differences aren’t as big as one might think, especially over the few games left in the season (in terms of run values), and b) they are somewhat offset by the AL’s superior pitching.

Over a full season of 700 PAs, the difference between Francoeur’s .330 vs. LHP and Murphy’s .319 is about six runs. Of course, there isn’t a full season left, but about a fifth of a season — so it’s one or two runs over 140-150 PA. But even that is too much, since Francoeur would be the lesser part of a platoon. Assuming one third of the PAs go to the right-handed batter, the expected offensive difference between Murphy alone and a Francoeur/Murphy platoon would be less than a run over the remainder of the season. Yes, they’ll have Francoeur in the playoffs, but that’s (at most) 19 games. The expected difference is miniscule.

From the standpoint of creating a productive platoon, Francoeur’s expected platoon skill isn’t enough to overcome his overall lousiness at the plate, and can’t reasonably be expected to make much of a difference over the remainder of the season over just playing Murphy. If an injury does occur to one of the starters, forcing a backup into a full-time role, then Francoeur will have to face right-handed pitching. In that case the Rangers would be better off playing Julio Borbon (superior defense) and keeping the recently-designated Brandon Boggs around as depth.

It might not be a total wash. Francoeur might get a big hit in the playoffs and that, combined with his apparent ability to charm the press corps, will lead to some indignant newpaper columns when he gets non-tendered in the off-season. Fun for everyone!

Originally posted by Matt Klaassen from FanGraphs Baseball, on September 1, 2010 11:00 AM

Eighteen months after I started this site, the Modern Perl book is almost out, as is Using Perl 6. Perl 5.10.1, Perl 5.12.0, Perl 5.12.1, and (very nearly) Perl 5.12.2 are out, with Perl 5.14 coming next month.

Rakudo Star has had two impressive releases, which brings Perl 6 to ever more people. The Parrot VM had its 1.0 and 2.0 and 2.3 and 2.6 releases, and if you want an order of magnitude performance improvement in Rakudo Perl 6, the Parrot 3.0 series will deliver some impressive gains through the Lorito reorganization.

I've spent a lot of time critiquing the Perl language and community and even more time critiquing perceptions of Perl from within and without. I'm glad to review what's going right. It's easy to make a list of great new features of Perl and the community, but I can limit it to my favorites, in terms of immediate and longer-term significance.

• The revitalization of Perl 5 core development has amazed me. Regular monthly releases have become boring, as they should be. A rotating series of release managers helps avoid the burnout that's claimed every Perl 5 pumpking up to this point, and it helps to make the process of releasing a new stable version of Perl 5 easier. That's why you can have confidence upgrading to Perl 5.12.2 when it comes out, and why in a year Perl 5.10.1 will look old.
• I've wanted Plack for Perl for ages; I've long thought Python's WSGI is a good example of the "There should be one obvious way to do it philosophy" (it works much better for interfaces to well-defined problem domains than language features). The rapid adoption of Plack for so many web frameworks and libraries within Perl—as well as the number of backends supported by Plack—has solved many of the deployment problems of Perl web applications. It also allows greater collaboration on middleware, such as debugging and profiling tools.
• Ancillary tools such as perlbrew and cpanminus have demonstrated that very simple interfaces devoted to solving the most common problems can improve the user experience immensely. I've known how to maintain my own user- and app-specific Perl 5 installations for years, but I've never wanted to maintain the morass of symlinks necessary to do so. Now I don't have to. Similarly, cpanminus lets me install CPAN modules often in the time it takes the official CPAN client to download the indexes.
• Regular releases of the first Perl 6 distribution (Rakudo Star) demonstrate the power and consistency and disruptive potential of Perl 6 to even more people. Every month brings new features and improvements. Every bug report and new module written and benchmark help the development community make it an even better platform for new projects.
• Schwern made the CPAN forkable through gitPAN, and the world is better for it. Public distributed version control for Perl 5 improves the experience of submitting changes, and public distributed version control for CPAN distributions has helped me submit and publish more changes too. Noticing a typo in documentation on search.cpan.org has become almost an enjoyable experience, if I can find the appropriate repository on Github, fork it, make my changes, and submit a pull request within five minutes. Often I can.

I look forward to several other projects in the world of Perl, such as Ryan Jendoubi's Ctypes for Perl 5 and the ongoing attempts in the Perl 5 core to rein in a sane set of functions for extensions to use. I've heard that various help forums have become more helpful and less abusive (especially #perl on irc.perl.org). I've even noticed a shift in how community members talk about marketing, especially as the discussion has changed from "Marketing? That's for those sick Java fans!" to "Hey, look at all of the cool stuff we're doing with Perl!"

We can and should still make improvements, but if the past year and a half is any guide, we can safely shift our cautious optimism for the present and future of Perl to regular optimism.

Originally posted by chromatic from Modern Perl Books, a Modern Perl Blog, on September 1, 2010 10:27 AM

Posted in Image

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Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on September 1, 2010 10:16 AM

Joshua Benton, on developing the Nieman Journalism Lab’s free iPhone app using TapLynx.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on September 1, 2010 8:47 AM

Remember Robin Nagle? The anthropologist-in-residence at the NYC Department of Sanitation? Well, here is a long interview with her! And it's awesome: "Every single thing you see is future trash. Everything. So we are surrounded by ephemera, but we can’t acknowledge that, because it’s kind of scary, because I think ultimately it points to our own temporariness, to thoughts that we’re all going to die."

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on September 1, 2010 8:20 AM

We read it, and it was worth reading. It did not make me feel good about the future. It will make you feel concerned too.

• "Todd Palin received as much as $20,000 worth of clothing—a wardrobe that would last most men for many years, if not for life." This is probably true and also is hilarious that it appears in Vanity Fair. Because, hey, that's how much the outfits cost, in the pictures?

• One thing that's fascinating is that the piece treats Palin's oratory style as a constant negging. "But she is also planting the idea with audiences that they might not be good enough, by telling them she thinks they’re plenty good, no matter what anybody else may say. ('They talk down to us… They think that if we were just smart enough…')" The point is a good one! Oratory works as amplification of disenfranchisement and as outrage-churning, very effectively.

• And yes. Why is Glenn Beck spending 9/11 in Anchorage, in Alaska's largest convention facility?

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on September 1, 2010 8:00 AM

Posted in MetsBlog

That may be, but despite all he did for the ‘clubhouse climate,’ the team is still 2 games below .500, nowhere near making the playoffs and on the verge of yet another meaningless September… so, what is that ultimately worth?

You know what else might help the ‘clubhouse climate,’ as well as scoring runs and winning games?  Hitting .300, 30 HR and driving in 100 RBI, consistently, and not swinging at more or less every pitch thrown towards the plate.

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Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on September 1, 2010 6:05 AM

In 1975, Fleer sued Topps and the MLB Players Association over an alleged monopoly on the production of baseball cards, particularly when packaged with gum. It took years, but eventually the courts upheld Fleer's claim, opening the door for other companies to sell baseball cards. Unfortunately, this decision came down not too long before the 1981 baseball season, forcing Fleer and newcomer Donruss to produce a set of cards very quickly.

As a result, both companies used some questionable photographs (out of focus, etc) because they didn't have time to get something better. Also, there were many errors present on the cards in both sets.

This 1981 Donruss Bobby Bonds card is an example of both. The picture isn't terrible but certainly isn't great. Check out the back, though. Did you know that Bobby Bonds is the all-time HR leader with 986 dingers?

The mistake is an odd one. For starters, Hank Aaron had retired fairly recently at that point with his then-record 755 homers. This number, 755, was known to every single baseball fan from 1976 until recently, when I suspect some younger fans don't know it. Many fewer fans know the number associated with career leaders for, say, doubles, triples, or RBI. But the idea to me that anyone could look at this card, check the stats, and not have 986 as career HR stick out as totally wrong---that boggles my mind.

I also wonder where that particular erroneous number came from. After the 1980 season, Bonds had 326 career homers. Looking down at my keyboard, I see that it's possible somebody using a keypad might accidentally hit 9-8 when they meant to hit 3-2. I don't know if keyboards were like this in 1981, though.

How about the fact that Bobby Bonds has a card that incorrectly identifies him as the MLB leader in homers, but now his son hold that record?

Originally posted by Andy from Baseball-Reference Blog, on September 1, 2010 4:30 AM

What's wrong with American espresso? Well, pretty much everything, really. A well made espresso is a balance of 5 elements - and most Americans just don't have the experience to judge. "Here in the U.S. the coffee they use is good, but the way they prepare it is bad. Fifty percent of the result of a good espresso is in the hands of the barista. And if consumers can't recognize that, we lose." - Giorgio Milos, the master barista at illy

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Rebecca's Pocket, on September 1, 2010 4:15 AM

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http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2010/09/01/2010-09-01_new_york_mets_willing_to_talk_extension_with_pitcher_ra_dickey_in_offseason_sour.html

According to the report, “The Mets are willing to engage in extension talks with Dickey this offseason, in lieu of salary arbitration or a one-year deal.”

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Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on September 1, 2010 3:17 AM

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The last of the wine.

From the pen of To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee comes a downbeat letter written in September of 2008, at a time when a flurry of worrying developments in the world of traditional book publishing had seemingly brought about - in Lee's words - "the last of the wine". Just months earlier the CEO of HarperCollins, Jane Friedman, had simultaneously surprised and worried many in the industry by leaving her post; at the same time Harper Lee's agent was finding it impossible to secure a reprint of Mockingbird, one of the world's most celebrated novels and Lee's only published book. Then, on September 22nd, New York Magazine sounded the death knell by way of this widely read article, entitled 'The End'.

Clearly that was enough for Harper Lee.

Transcript follows.

Source

Transcript

NLH

22 Sep. '08

Dear Jonathan:

Thank you so much for the LEAVES OF GRASS. It will probably be the last edition, because the news in NY Magazine of 22 September is not good. Looks like books are coming to an end. My agent can’t get M’bird placed anywhere as a reprint. My own publisher, one of the biggest houses, is going out of business! Guess this is the last of the wine.

Love,

Nelle

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Letters of Note, on August 31, 2010 7:48 PM

I have so many posts I need to write, yet I am wasting my precious free time MSPainting masterpieces like this instead.

In other news, Jeff Francoeur got traded to Texas. I am somewhat happy about this because I still have a soft spot for the knucklehead, and I'm going to the game tomorrow, and I would have booed his ass lustily. Most everyone out there giving me a Look of Disapproval right now would likely also boo a Met if given half a chance so cut it out. The drawback to seeing Frenchy out of that nasty uniform is that there is a chance Atlanta could meet up with the Rangers in the World Series and Jeff Francoeur only lives up to his vast potential when playing the Braves. So there's one more thing to keep me up at nights. Good luck Frenchy, go earn yourself a contract next year out in Texas.

As long as I had MSPaint fired up, I decided to cobble this together in honor of Luis Castillo's defensive prowess this evening. (yes, I know it sucks - that's five whole minutes of work there)

Thanks for the huge inning Luis, we appreciate it!

Originally posted by dayf from Cardboard Junkie, on August 31, 2010 7:16 PM

Hat tip to Matthew Leach, who covers the Cardinals for mlb.com, for pointing out that The Roots’ new album, How I Got Over, is just $5 as an mp3 download on amazon.com (through that link). No idea how long it will last – the Arcade Fire sale was supposed to last one day but amazon extended it at least through the end of that week.

–

I’ve been promising a writeup of the game Puerto Rico for about six months now, but up until a few days ago didn’t feel like I’d played it enough to offer an informed take. The significance of the last few days is that I discovered the site Tropic Euro (two points to anyone who gets the reason for that name), a very slick Java-based application that allows you to play Puerto Rico against bots or live opponents. With a three-person game involving two bots running about 11-12 minutes for me, it’s been a nice way to take a quick break from packing as well as a way to get more familiar with why BoardGameGeek users rate Puerto Rico as the #1 board game of all time.

The goal in Puerto Rico is to amass Victory Points* by producing and shipping goods from your “island” back the mother country and/or by constructing buildings, especially one of the five large buildings that provide bonus points at the end of the game based on what else you’ve accomplished. Your island is a board with spaces for twelve plantations and twelve buildings; the plantations, which are free, can grow one of five crop or house a quarry that reduces the cost of any building by one doubloon. Corn is the least valuable crop, with a trade value of zero, but doesn’t require a processing building; coffee is the most valuable crop for trading but you can’t produce more than two units per turn.

*One thing you have to get used to when playing German-Style board games is that even a fairly concrete game concept, the goal is nearly always the abstract victory points. Completing certain tasks, building specific buildings, or shipping goods earns you points, but the assignment of points to deeds can feel a little arbitrary. I’ve just learned to accept it for each game and move on.

Buildings come in three types: Production buildings, for processing any of the four crops beyond corn; small buildings, each of which grants you a few victory points and some special privilege on every turn; and large buildings, which offer no in-game benefits but can provide significant bonuses after the game ends. Every building and plantation must be manned by a colonist, but their supply is limited, especially early in the game.

In each round, each player chooses a role, with options including the mayor (obtaining colonists), the settler (choosing plantations), the builder (obvious), the craftsman (producing goods), the trader (each player can put one good on the trading ship, as long as another good of that type isn’t already there), the captain (shipping goods for points), and, in larger games, the prospector (take a doubloon). Every player gets to utilize the roles chosen by other players, but the player who chooses a specific role gets an extra privilege, such as producing one additional good of his choice. Roles that go unselected are worth an extra doubloon in the next round.

The complex and slightly crazy part of Puerto Rico is that shipping round. There are five goods that players can produce, but there are only three ships available to take goods to the mainland, and a ship can only hold goods of one type. When a player chooses the shipper, all players must ship all of their goods; if there’s no room, most of their goods spoil and are lost with no compensation. (There are large and small warehouses that a player can buy and man to protect some of his goods.) The ships empty at the end of a round and only when they’re full.

Every good shipped is worth a victory point, and in the later rounds a player could easily ship five goods or more in a single shipping phase, especially if he’s the shipper and can place his goods first. Since points from shipping can easily be around 40% of a winning score, possibly more, there are a host of considerations behind the set of decisions of what goods to produce, how much to produce, and when to ship them, and those decisions also include considering what your opponents plan to produce and what they have on hand. A well-timed decision to choose the shipper role can grab you six points while spoiling goods for several of your opponents.

That’s what makes Puerto Rico a great game, and I’m going to assume it’s why the geeks over at BoardGameGeek have it at the top of their rankings: The decisions each player has to make are rich and complex and depend on potential future moves from both the player and his opponents. Just choosing a role means weighing four or five variables – money, colonist supply, the shipping situation, production potential, and what your opponents will do with this role if you choose it … or what someone else will do with the role if you don’t. Given the game’s complexity, it’s surprising that it works as smoothly as it does, and I think the only truly difficult part of Puerto Rico is setting the game up and putting it away.

It is, however, the most complex game I’ve reviewed on the dish so far, so I can’t just tell you that, say, if you love Settlers of Catan or Stone Age, you should try Puerto Rico. It would be more fair to say that if you’re looking for a more involved game than those two – both among our favorites – you should try Puerto Rico, not just because I recommend it but because the consensus of the boardgaming world is that it’s the best game out there.

Back to Tropic Euro, I’ve found that the software works very well; I’ve had occasional trouble logging on, where the main window was blacked out, but closing and restarting the app solved it. It offers PR expansions, swaps the prices of the Factory and University buildings (per the original boardgame’s designer’s suggestion), and the AI moves quickly and pretty logically, enough to punish me for making rookie mistakes. The app’s author, Chris Gibbs, says on the site that there will be a “hard” AI option available in the next week or so.

I’ve previously reviewed San Juan, the card game variant of Puerto Rico; while it’s consistent with the theme, it is a massively simplified game. I enjoy San Juan in its own right, but it’s just a different experience.

–

Posting here will be sporadic over at least the next seven days as we pack and await the moving vans. I should have at least one ESPN chat either this week or next, and both ESPN and dish blogging will become more frequent by the week of September 20th. If you’ve emailed me or asked me a question in any forum without receiving a response, I apologize, and I hope you understand.

Originally posted by keith from The dish, on August 31, 2010 5:47 PM

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Simon Willison is one of the creators of Django, a key framework in app engine. In other words, he's a pillar in the web development community. If he's opting not to use OpenID, that says there's a problem with OpenID. Now add in the fact that he's an OpenID advocate, and the real extent of the problem becomes clear.

factoryjoe posted a photo:

When an original OpenID advocate like @simonw can't muster enough benefits to adopt OpenID for one of his own sites, it's time to reconsider the product we're selling.

See also: openidconnect.com

Originally posted by (author unknown) from FactoryCity, on August 31, 2010 5:35 PM

From Backwoods Home Magazine:

It’s also been read by Jay Leno on his late night TV show, on National Public Radio more than once (including Car Talk), on craigslist.org (sans the P.O. box), it’s been printed on T-shirts, discussed on the liberal website democraticunderground.org, it’s been the subject of conversation in several online forums, and very similar wording has been used in some computer games. There’s even a ghost hunter, Richard Senate, a resident of Oakview, who’s looking for the author. On his website he says the ad appeared in a local paper in 2004. He states “Some have even walked the town of Oak View seeking…evidence of the traveler…” It keeps popping up.

Where did it come from? Who is the mysterious author? What was his intent?

Actually, it first appeared on page 92 of the Sept/Oct 1997 issue of BHM—and I wrote it.

Why’d I write it? What was my motive?

(via Metafilter)

Originally posted by Chris from Cynical-C, on August 31, 2010 5:27 PM

Ignacio Nin and I (mostly Ignacio) have worked together to create tcprstat[1], a new tool that times TCP requests and prints out statistics on them. The output looks somewhat like vmstat or iostat, but we’ve chosen the statistics carefully so you can compute meaningful things about your TCP traffic.

What is this good for? In a nutshell, it is a lightweight way to measure response times on a server such as a database, memcached, Apache, and so on. You can use this information for historical metrics, capacity planning, troubleshooting, and monitoring to name just a few.

The tcprstat tool itself is a means of gathering raw statistics, which are suitable for storing and manipulating with other programs and scripts. By default, tcprstat works just like vmstat: it runs once, prints out a line, and exits. You’ll probably want to tell it to run forever, and continue to print out more lines. Each line contains a timestamp and information about the response time of the requests within that time period. Here “response time” means, for a given TCP connection, the time elapsed from the last inbound packet until the first outbound packet. For many simple protocols such as HTTP and MySQL, this is the moral equivalent of a query’s response time.

The statistics we chose to output by default are the count, median, average, min, max, and standard deviation of the response times, in microseconds. These are repeated for the 95th and 99th percentiles as well. Other metrics are also available. Here’s a sample:

[root@server] # tcprstat -p 3306 -n 0 -t 1
timestamp	count	max	min	avg	med	stddev	95_max	95_avg	95_std	99_max	99_avg	99_std
1276827985	1341	24556	23	149	59	767	310	91	69	1030	107	112
1276827986	1329	12098	28	134	63	461	299	91	65	667	104	93
1276827987	1180	13277	22	202	93	873	439	103	79	1523	131	169
1276827988	1441	15878	27	180	139	672	427	116	79	1045	136	128
1276827989	1432	157198	26	272	138	4165	405	115	80	1092	134	123
1276827990	1835	25198	26	183	124	734	448	115	85	1141	137	141
1276827991	1242	6949	29	129	114	301	233	98	61	686	109	84
1276827992	1480	284181	25	442	127	7432	701	128	114	4157	173	293
1276827993	1448	9339	22	161	88	425	392	104	80	1280	126	140

tcprstat uses libpcap to capture traffic. It’s a threaded application that does the minimum possible work and uses efficient data structures. Your feedback on the kernel/userland exchange overhead caused by the packet sniffing would be very appreciated — libpcap allows the user to tune this exchange, so if you have suggestions on how to improve it, that’s great.

We build statically linked binaries with the preferred version of libpcap, which means there are no dependencies. You can just run the tool. In the future, packages in the Percona repositories will provide another means for rapid installation via yum and apt.

tcprstat is beta software. Several C/C++ experts reviewed its code and gave it a thumbs-up, so many eyes have been on the code. We’ve performed tests on servers with high loads and observed minimal resource consumption. I personally have been running it for many weeks on some production servers without stopping it and have seen no problems, so I am pretty sure it has no memory leaks or other problems. Nevertheless, it’s a first prototype release, and we want much more testing. We might also change the functionality; as we build tools around it, we discover new things that might be useful. When we’re happy with it and you’re happy with it, we’ll take the Beta label away and make it GA.

The tcprstat user’s manual and links to downloads are on the Percona wiki. Commercial support and services are provided by Percona. Bug reports, feature requests, etc should go to the Launchpad project linked from the user’s manual. General discussion is welcome on the Google Group also linked from the user’s manual.

[1] Historical note: we initially called this tool rtime, but did not publicize it. However, some of you might have heard of “rtime” before. This is the same tool.

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Originally posted by Baron Schwartz from MySQL Performance Blog, on August 31, 2010 4:52 PM

Comebacks posted by msippey at Flickr

I think I missed the deadline for Longshot Magazine issue #1. Drat.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.com, on August 31, 2010 3:45 PM

We know you come to us for fresh fashion, which is why we're jazzed to be the first stateside site to bring you the fall '10 campaign video from British brand Reiss. While Reiss has long been a High Street staple in the UK, their foray into the US market is more recent-ish, and, truth be told, not as thrilling as the hype had suggested. Well, it seems like HQ is keen to amp up their X-factor with a new video-torial, "Elements," a collaboration with famed influencer and photographer Jamie Morgan. The mastermind behind '80s London creative collective "Buffalo," Morgan crafted a black-and-white, minimalistic narrative starring models Natasa Vojnovic and Isaac Crew (not to mention some fierce animals). We like what's going on, from the True Blood-ish music to the fresh clothes—trenches, bags, and one killer statement necklace all scream covetable. Which, clearly, is the strategy they're going for: "This season is a step forward for Reiss," says founder David Weiss. Brand Director Andy Rogers agrees—"Our objective was to create a confident and captivating visual statement...as a mark of intent for the future." If this is the new direction, sign us up.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Refinery, on August 31, 2010 1:40 PM

Originally posted by Choire from The Awl, on August 31, 2010 1:12 PM

What's that, Science? You want to tell us something about old people? Well, go right ahead! "Older people like reading negative news stories about their younger counterparts because it boosts their own self-esteem, according to a new study. German researchers said older people tend to be portrayed negatively in society. Although they are often described as wise, they are also be shown as being slow and forgetful. 'Living in a youth centered culture, they may appreciate a boost in self-esteem. That's why they prefer the negative stories about younger people, who are seen as having a higher status in our society,' said Dr. Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, of Ohio State University." Fair enough! There was something else I wanted to mention about old people, but it seems to have slipped my mind. I'll be sure to share as soon as I can recall it, because I'm sure you haven't heard about it yet.

Originally posted by Balk from The Awl, on August 31, 2010 12:50 PM

long, must-read look at the insane complexity of today's political landscape  

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Waxy.org Links, on August 31, 2010 12:45 PM

Designing Obama, a book chronicling how the visual branding of the Obama campaign came about, is available in several formats, most notably in a completely free online version. Written by the campaign's design director, the making of the book was funded through the first big Kickstarter campaign.

Tags: 2008 election   Barack Obama   books   design   Designing Obama   politics

Originally posted by Jason Kottke from kottke.org, on August 31, 2010 12:12 PM

By R.J. Anderson //

Okay, playoff rosters have to be set at midnight, let’s roll through the scenarios. By my count, Brad Hawpe, Jake McGee, Jeremy Hellickson, Grant Balfour, and perhaps Desmond Jennings will be added to the playoff roster between right now and then. To qualify for the roster, the player must be on the 25-man roster or on the disabled list before midnight on August 31. That takes care of Balfour and Gabe Kapler, who will both be on the 15-day disabled list through tonight.

A while back I documented how J.P. Howell’s injury could help the Rays with regards to the playoff roster. McGee doesn’t seem likely to make an appearance on the 25-man roster over the next eight or so hours, but the Rays can have Howell on the playoff roster and request the commissioner’s office to replace him between now and the day before the division series begins. Presumably, McGee will take that slot. It was erroneously speculated by the St. Petersburg Times that Rocco Baldelli could take that slot, but that is against the rules. Pitchers may only replace pitchers and position players may only replace position players.

As Howell is on the 60-day disabled list, this clears a 40-man roster spot for Hawpe. He’ll presumably be called up between now and midnight, although Kapler moving to the 60-day disabled list would prevent another move being required. The same could be said for Jennings and Hellickson too. The most likely candidates to hit the bricks for these guys are players with options remaining. Reid Brignac and Andy Sonnanstine, for instance, could be demoted tonight and return as soon as their affiliate’s regular season ends. Given that there are fewer than 20 days remaining in the minor league seasons, neither would use an option, and since there are fewer than 10 days remaining, both could return quicker than usual. (This is how Juan Salas was demoted on 8/31 and rejoined the team days later in 2008.)

The drawback is neither would be eligible for the playoffs barring another injury.

Theoretically the moves could look like this:

Sonnanstine to Montgomery, rejoins team in a week, Hawpe takes his 25-man spot.
Brignac to Montgomery, rejoins team in a week, Jennings takes his 25-man spot.
Cormier to the disabled list retroactive to his last appearance, Hellickson takes his 25-man spot.
Balfour rejoins team later this week. No further roster move needed.
McGee joins team later in September, Rays request the right to replace Howell on the playoff roster, are granted request, and place McGee on instead.

Originally posted by R.J. Anderson from The Process Report, on August 31, 2010 11:49 AM