randomwalks/dj

Comprehensive documentation for the YUI Library is found online at the YUI section of the Yahoo! Developer Connection website.

To supplement this online documentation, the YUI development team has begun drafting some cheat sheets — inspired by the handy references published by ilovejackdaniels, among others — that give you a one-page dashboard of documentation for each of the library’s components. When you find yourself elbow-deep in a coding problem, sometimes it’s quicker to turn to these rather than firing up a browser to review documentation and examples. Moreover, reviewing the cheat sheets can help you discover hidden gems you didn’t know were there. If you’re wondering, for example, what the syntax is for batching a function on an element collection, the Dom Collection’s cheat sheet might be enough to get you started:

These one-page references aren’t comprehensive, but we think you’ll find them valuable to have on hand. Today, draft references for each of the YUI Utility components (Event Utility, Dom Collection, Connection Manager, Drag and Drop, and Animation) are available:

• Download the references in PDF format
• Visit the YUI Library page on the Yahoo! Developer Network

Update 2006/08/03: I’ve updated the links here to point to the download area on the Yahoo Developer Network rather than at the YUI v.0.10 cheat sheet zip file. Since this post was made, YUI has incremented to 0.11 and a bunch of new cheat sheets have been added. The latest zip file should always be available from this location on YDN. -EM

Tags: Yahoo! User Interface Library, YUI, documentation, cheat sheets

Originally from Yahoo! User Interface Blog by Eric Miraglia reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 1:08PM

Originally posted by Eric Miraglia from Yahoo! User Interface Blog, on June 2, 2006 10:54 PM

via Art L!es, Issue #49 : The Sincerity Issue

Three Moments from the History of Sincerity
By Sina Najafi [excerpt]

[...]

I read that in 1908 Picasso threw a banquet at his studio for Henri "le Douanier" Rousseau. At the end of the night, in the company of Paris' avant-garde artists and writers, the self-trained painter of naïve scenes turned to Picasso and said, "You and I are the two most important artists of the age—you in the Egyptian style and I in the Modern one." Everyone there would laugh for a long time at this memory, and until his death, Picasso would claim that the banquet was a blague—a joke played by the cosmopolitan avant-garde on the naiveté perfected by the tollkeeper on the Seine. But in 1937, when Republican Spain asked Picasso to respond to the aerial bombing of the Basque town of Guernica, Picasso rejected everything he himself had innovated and produced a painting that draws heavily on Rousseau; more specifically, Rousseau's War, or Discord on Horseback, a painting that Alfred Jarry first admired at Salon des Indépendants in 1894 and reviewed in Le Mercure de France. Everything—from the warrior's broken body to the horse at its center—is done under the sign of Rousseau, who taught Picasso how to be sincere when the time for sincerity had come.

Originally from NEWSgrist - where spin is art by joy garnett reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 1:06PM

Originally posted by joy garnett from NEWSgrist - where spin is art, on June 2, 2006 10:54 PM

Right on the heels of my Vox post, I came across these words from Rebecca Mead, in an interview given by friend of Hello, Typead Jason Kottke:

Anyone who read my story in the New Yorker will probably understand that I am more interested in bloggers as characters than I am in blogging as a -- yawn -- phenomenon.

Jason linked to the interview in response to her follow up to the You've Got Blog. What's striking to me is how prescient this seems in retrospect. Good blogging, like good films and novels, is character driven. When people treat it like a phenomenom or set of buzzwords, it bombs. When people treat it as a platform for learning about their friends and themselves, it's beautiful.

This leads me to the Sixth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival, which officially launched yesterday. The festival is a project of MediaRights, where I worked for three years, two of those years as Director of Technology. I produced three festival web sites (in 2004 SxSW gave us the best non-profit website award), so naturally I have a special place in my heart for this project. This year's festival may be the best one yet, and it's been awesome to see the momentum build from year to year, especially since I remember when the site was a fraction of the size and importance it is today. Some of the characters you'll find this year - a hip-hop group from Minnesota bringing a hidden camera into an interview with an army recruiter, a community in Michigan fighting the rising costs of water and, also in Michigan, Asparagus farmers talking about why eating (and growing) local food is so important.

MediaRights and Vox are both going to be huge hits because they are character driven ideas made into websites, and they both solve real problems in our world. Vox and MediaRights both help people communicate with the world about the things that they feel passionate about. MediaRights puts these passions on DVD, streams them to millions of web visitors and tours them to six continents, and Vox helps you communicate not just with the world but also with those closest to you.

Originally from hello, typepad by David Jacobs reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 12:16PM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on June 2, 2006 10:54 PM

As Andre, Mike, and of course Mena have already said more eloquently than I can, Vox is out and it's fantastic.

Without sounding overly grandiose, Vox is the natural progression of the Internet as a social platform. The friends and family features are perfect - you only share what you want with who you want to. And just as Livejournal and Flickr augment your Internet life instead of trying to replace it, Vox plays nice with other open publishing platforms and blogging services.

I don't want to venture too into the world of the negative, but it's not secret that today the majority of web projects and applications are shamelessly mediocre. Too often social websites just become a series of chores and obstacles. List your friends, check for comments, don't miss that "important" piece of news - it's basically furniture dusting. Vox is the exact opposite - of course it rewards you for participation and sharing but it also doesn't punish you if you're simply too busy to spend time blogging - it's always fun.

I can't wait to see what it's like when more of my family and friends (and enemies!) are on Vox - my only frustration to date has been wanting to shout from the mountaintops about how great it is. Now that frustration is gone. Vox rocks!

Originally from hello, typepad by David Jacobs reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 11:26AM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on June 2, 2006 10:54 PM

The architect David Rockwell and the choreographer Jerry Mitchell collaborate to streamline the airport experience. NY Times

Originally from Archinect.com Feed reBlogged

Originally from Archinect.com Feed, on June 2, 2006 10:54 PM

signs point to Typepad as the blog provider, which would be a big win  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 3:55PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on June 2, 2006 10:52 PM

I have never gotten very good at any of the popular shell scripting languages. Over the years, I’ve dabbled in Bourne sh scripts, Perl, awk, and sed. I was never one of those magical guys who could make anything happen in a few seconds. But I’ve always wanted that to change.

I’ve decided to learn Python. I want a fast-acting Swiss Army Knife at my disposal for splicing together the loose ends of my computer life.

Why Python? I don’t know it well enough to really sing its praises, but a number of influences caused me to veer towards this language (as opposed to say, improving my Perl or picking up Ruby):

1. A Killer App. NodeBox was the catalyst for this whole pursuit, though it has nothing to do with productivity, per se. I downloaded NodeBox on the recommendation of a friend, and was instantly blown away that such a tool exists at all. NodeBox makes it easy to programatically produce graphics on the Mac, exploiting the Quartz graphics capabilities of the system. Python happens to be the language for driving these amazing dynamic documents.
2. A Good Reputation. I started dropping Python references among groups of programmer nerds who I respect. Almost universally people either didn’t respond (people like me), or else raved about how great it was. About the only thing I ever hear people complain about with Python is its strict indentation rules. Hey. I’m a C programmer, but I have style. Indentation is OK by me.
3. Support From “The Man”. I’ll admit it, I am more likely to embrace something if Apple does it first. It’s just easier to get involved and stay involved with a technology when you know that there will be value-added by the most influential company in your little neck of the tech woods. Apple has included Python with Mac OS X as a standard part of the system, and even gone so far as to provide special Python bindings in frameworks like Quartz to facilitate the above-mentioned scripting tricks. I can embrace this language without worrying that its functionality on the Mac will suddenly disappear.
4. A Decent Tutorial. The biggest roadblock to learning for me is finding the start of a good path. If there is an incremental process I can follow to get better at something and eventually “know it,” then it’s much easier to tackle. The author of Python himself, Guido van Rossum, provides a short-and-sweet tutorial that made it easy for me to get to know Python.

I have a little trick with these “short chapters” tutorials. I keep a bookmark to the “next chapter” in my Safari bookmarks bar, and add reading it to my ToDo list for the following day. When I finish the chapter, I update the toolbar bookmark and wait until the next day. That way the learning is never overwhelming - just a few minutes aday, and it still only takes me a couple weeks to get through the whole tutorial.

This trick is OK, but while I was taking this tutorial, I got annoyed by having to constantly flash back and forth between the web page and my Terminal window. The Python tutorial introduces you to ideas that, if you’re anything like me, you immediately want to try out in the interactive shell. I decided to take a cue from Michael McCracken, who recently produced and distributed a dumbed down web browser just for reading Gmail.

Learn Python is a simple Mac OS X application (GNU License, source included) that puts a web browser and terminal window into one application. The web browser points at the aforementioned Python tutorial on the web, and it remembers the last URL you went to, so you can trust it to remember which chapter you were at when you last quit.

It’s a Python-Tutorial Browsing Machine!

By almost every possible measurement, this project was a “waste of time.” But sometimes you’ve got to make the software you wish existed, just so you know it does. I rationalize the time as well-spent since it sets me up to easily crank out one-offs of a similar vein as I find a use for them. If I was really bored I would probably have added “value added” buttons to the UI for specifically navigating the document structure (e.g. next chapter, etc). But I think I’m done for now. Hopefully most of the bugs are ironed out.

I hope some of you will get some use out of this extremely narrow piece of work. At least it might encourage you to learn Python!

PS: Unhappy with the default version of Python that gets launched? Or wish you could use the tool as a ruby or shell scripting or whatever tool? I haven’t put any preferences in this application, but it would be easy enough to hack the sources. If you aren’t feeling up to hacking the sources, or don’t have the tools handy, you can specifically override the path of the launched tool by editing the file “Localizable.strings” in “Learn Python.app/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/”. Inside this file, change the line:

"/usr/bin/python" = "/usr/bin/python";

That will tell the application to use zsh instead of python. Replace the “/bin/zsh” with whatever you want.

Update (June 3, 2006): The download has been updated to version 1.0.3, which now defaults to a left-right orientation for the web and python shell panes. The setting can be changed back to top-bottom through the preferences dialog.

Update (June 4, 2006): Rodney Ramdas posted a modified version of the application that is targeted at learning Ruby, instead. I’ll probably use it to tackle Ruby, next!

Originally from Red Sweater Blog by Daniel Jalkut reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 4:19PM

Originally posted by Daniel Jalkut from Red Sweater Blog, on June 2, 2006 10:50 PM

The board of Goldman Sachs has chosen Lloyd G. Blankfein as chairman and chief executive.

Originally from NYT > Home Page by JENNY ANDERSON reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by JENNY ANDERSON from NYT > Home Page, on June 2, 2006 10:50 PM

Welcome to the Movable Type Beta blog! For those of you who haven't already heard (but perhaps still had this feed in your feed reader), we have some fabulous news: The beta test of Movable Type 3.3 is starting now!

We've been working hard over the last five months since the release of the hosted Yahoo Small Business version of Movable Type to incorporate not only all of those new features, but also many fabulous new ones that will literally change the way you blog (for the better, of course...).

Over the course of the next few hours, we'll be not only releasing the code, but also posting a great deal of information you need to know about the latest and greatest and the beta test itself. For those of you who participated in the Movable Type 3.2 beta, you'll be very familiar with the format. I'll briefly go over the salient details below.

A public, open beta

We held Movable Type's first public beta for the v3.2 release and, as I think everyone involved can attest, it was a fantastic success. So, we will repeat that and once we release the code, it will be available for anyone to download and test.

Versioned and nightly releases

Over the course of the beta test, we'll be releasing three to five versioned betas. These releases will have been tested by our QA team and should be very stable. These are the releases that most of you will want to download and test with.

In addition, we will be producing nightly builds containing all of the changes from that day. These releases will be run through automated tests but won't have the loving care and attention that the versioned releases get. Still, if you are blocked by a particular bug or just love living life on the edge, the nightlies are a great way to keep in sync with the action.

Public Subversion access

One of the most exciting new features we'll be adding to beta test itself is access to our version control system Subversion. With subversion access and the web-based Trac viewer at code.sixapart.com, you'll be able to not only see all of our latest commits but, if you're the type who loves running completely untested code, be able to get the up-to-the-minute changes as we commit them.

Access to the subversion repository will be added during the first week of the beta test at which point we will provide more information for those who are interested.

Beta feeds

For those of you who wish to keep up-to-date on the happenings here on the Beta Blog, we have two types of feeds for you:

• Full-text entry feed
• Full-text comment feed

Drop either of those URLs into your newsreader/aggregator and you can keep up with all of the latest developments and discussions about the new version of Movable Type. If you have any other feeds you'd like us to create, just leave us a comment.

Easy bug submission

In Movable Type 3.2 beta test, we accepted bug submissions over email. In retrospect, this was suboptimal mainly due to the massive amount of interesting spam we received directly into our bug tracker. So, we've made a slight alteration this time around by creating a bug submission form which accepts file uploads, like screenshots. Mmmmmmmm. screenshots....

Support for the beta

Just as with the Movable Type 3.2 beta, all Movable Type 3.3 beta distributions are officially unsupported software. While we'd love to be able to help everyone who wants to give it a spin, the Movable Type team will be focused on solving issues or problems arising from the software itself, and thus, we're unable to provide assistance with "normal" support issues.

A Beta test forum

At the end of the Movable Type 3.2 beta, I asked for feedback about what we could do better next time around. A number of you told us that you would love to see the creation of a forum on the Movable Type Community Forums specifically to facilitate discussion between testers about the beta with regards to technical issues, bugs, general questions or even just community conversation. Well, we couldn't have agreed with you more and hence, the 3.3 Beta forum will be available to all as a place to hang out and discuss things amongst yourselves.

It should be pointed out that this forum does not replace the need to report bugs through the official channels. There is no guarantee that something you post in the forums will be seen by anyone on the Movable Type team. Please make sure to be diligent about reporting bugs through the bug submission form and encouraging your fellow beta testers to do the same.

No perpetual betas!

We're also making one significant change in the process: We're tightly constraining the beta test to less than three weeks, to make feedback more directed and have more structure around milestones. Basically, we want to make it easier for you to know where you stand in the beta process, without having to wonder, "Is it ready for me to start really testing yet?" The answer will be "yes".

We'll be posting the code and a whole lot more soon. In the meantime, read the very important known issues and release notes for beta-1. Also, leave us a comment, say howdy and get ready to test!

Originally from Movable Type Beta Weblog by jallen reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 7:38PM

Originally posted by jallen from Movable Type Beta Weblog, on June 2, 2006 10:48 PM

I know I'm going to get mail about my five-star rating for this movie, but it cannot be helped. One summer when I was a kid, a friend and I watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure -- no joke -- every single day for a span of 2 months. I still know every line by heart, the timing, inflection, everything. If there were a Broadway production of this movie, I could slide effortlessly into the role of either Bill S. Preston, Esq. or Ted Theodore Logan, no rehearsal needed.

In my high school physics class my senior year, we had to do a report on something we hadn't learned about in class -- which, I discovered when I got to college, was a lot -- and I did mine on time travel. I went to our small school library and read articles in Discover and Scientific American magazines about Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, quantum mechanics, causality, and wormholes. To illustrate the bit about wormholes, I brought in my well-worn VHS tape of Bill and Ted's (a dub of a long-ago video rental) and showed a short clip of the phone booth travelling through space and time via wormhole. I got a B+ on my presentation. The teacher told me it was excellent but marked me down because it was "over the heads" of everyone in the class...which I thought was completely unfair. How on earth is Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure over anyone's head?

(Rating: 5.0/5 stars)

Originally from kottke.org reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 6:39PM

Originally from kottke.org, on June 2, 2006 10:48 PM

Red Sweater Blog: “Learn Python is a simple Mac OS X application (GNU License, source included) that puts a web browser and terminal window into one application. The web browser points at the aforementioned Python tutorial on the web, and it remembers the last URL you went to, so you can trust it to remember which chapter you were at when you last quit.”

Originally from ranchero.com by Brent Simmons reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 6:13PM

Originally posted by Brent Simmons from ranchero.com, on June 2, 2006 10:48 PM

Looks like Processing for Python on OS X.

Originally from random($foo) reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 8:29PM

Originally from random($foo), on June 2, 2006 10:45 PM

A recent article on my father and making peace. Excerpt:

Generally, say people who know him, Ahtisaari is a good listener. "He didn't lead from the front, saying 'this is how we are going to do it,' " recalls Damien Kingsbury, an Australian academic who advised the GAM delegation at the Helsinki talks. "He wasn't a one-man show, and he listened to the other parties."

Originally from Ahtisaari by Marko Ahtisaari reBlogged

Originally posted by Marko Ahtisaari from Ahtisaari, on June 2, 2006 10:45 PM

david brought me this book of stencils from china. hundreds of animals, interpreted in red, on newsprint.

ruth sent me 5/21/06 boston globe article, the DORE Center treats kids w/ attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, certain learning disorders using physical activity, coordination & balance, as alternative to medication. "It's dealing directly with the source of the difficulties. If someone has a stone in their shoe, they don't take an Advil," says David Pfeil, DORE. lots of anecdotal evidence; ruth herself told me of family who takes child for vigorous swimming every morning before school, no program, just tried it, & this works. seems a fine idea, and i'll recommend.

medications. the reason i am so opposed, besides worm hallucinations, is because children's brains are blobs of mush & drugging em is brain murder. it's EASIER for me, and thus i extrapolate, 10,000x easier for parents, when a hyperactive short person is drugged up rather than ripping up my office, but i hate the look and feel of drugged kids. there is one, you know, a feel. i wanna shake them. maybe community of zombie kids, is the seed for my next children's book.

waggish just posted on his favorite gnostic children's books, by the way. daniel pinkwater...

as adults it's not the same. 6 feet under on demand, the final season, now; last night dr and i watched billy going off lithium and seroquel, becoming much sexier initially, decompensating fast. george too, poor george. but billy reminds me of an early love affair with a tall comedian, much older than i, whom i adored, and visited frequently in the mental hospital, when i was so, so young. manic depression is different from attention defecit; psychosis, it's much more complicated, and this is why, i work with children.

Originally from serenalarogers by serenalarogers reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 9:31AM

Originally posted by serenalarogers from serenalarogers, on June 2, 2006 11:18 AM

This has got to be in the running for the strangest blog post ever: "Our hearts are aching as we have learned that the young woman we have been taking care of over the past five weeks has not been our dear Laura, but instead a fellow Taylor student of hers, Whitney Cerak." It's a case of mistaken identity; Laura died 5 weeks ago and was buried as Whitney. I can't imagine what that would feel like for either family.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 11:15AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on June 2, 2006 11:16 AM

Congrats to Gandi registrar for the new version !

domain, gandi, v2, registrar, rh

Originally from yann@typepad by Yann reBlogged

Originally posted by Yann from yann@typepad, on June 2, 2006 8:52 AM

The exciting and much awaited Ubuntu Dapper 6.06 LTS release is here.

Read the release notes for information regarding what is new, hardware requirements etc.

Do everyone a favor, and use a torrent to download the cd or dvd images. This page listing all the Ubuntu torrents should be helpful. Choose and use the “6.06″ torrents and not the Dapper torrents, since that is the final version.

The -alternate- cds are the old style install cds that can only be used for installation. The -desktop- cds are cds that are live cds, with the live cd installer. Read the cd image renaming announcement if this is not clear enough. The -dvd- images are 2 gigs in size, so besides the two cds mentioned above, there might be a little bit of extra packages on it. If you have a dvd writer, and have a bad internet connection at home/work then I guess the DVD image makes more sense.

What makes Dapper so cool is that it is stable, inclusive of different languages/hardware/requirements, and that is stable The extra six weeks did see a lot of bugs getting fixed, so this has to be the best Ubuntu release to date. You can recommend it to friends, family and linux experts with confidence.

Read the Known Issues before you start your install/upgrade so you are prepared. Refer to the Burning ISOs to CDs guide if you have trouble with burning the .iso files that you get after downloading.

As usual, there are “server” install cds too, useful for installation on servers. The PowerPC and AMD64 architectures are supported, as before. The SPARC (SUN) cds are not out yet, they will be once the certification process is complete.

Writing this post took a long time, and it would all be worth it if only I had a local Dapper Release Party I could attend. Maybe I should focus my energies more on creating a web of Ubuntu users locally so that by the time Edgy Eft is released, I can have a party to go to to have fun.

Originally from Ubuntu Blog by ubuntonista reBlogged on Jun 1, 2006, 2:37PM

Originally posted by ubuntonista from Ubuntu Blog, on June 2, 2006 8:50 AM

VeloNews.com | L'Equipe stands by Armstrong story

French sports daily L'Equipe, a corporate cousin of the Tour de France, came out in defense of its August 2005 story accusing Lance Armstrong of EPO use in the 1999 Tour. The story led the UCI to appoint an investigator to check into the claims, and his report, released yesterday, vindicates Armstrong.

VeloNews translates L'Equipe:

“There is nothing to retract from the revelations,” L'Equipe said in an editorial that concluded: “For our part, we remain convinced of the need to battle without compromise against the mafialike tendencies that still and always threaten the sport of cycling. Both in the method and the substance, L'Equipe stands firm.”

How can the paper continue to defend its story when the UCI's investigator, Emile Vrijman, so completely shredded it?

Vrijman, a lawyer and former head of Holland's anti-doping agency, is applying a legal standard to the evidence. By that standard, there's no story here. Armstrong's samples were handed over without a strict chain of evidence being established, there was ample opportunity (and motivation) for someone to spike the samples or for contamination to skew the results, and there's no corroborating sample to verify that the tested samples haven't been inadvertently (or intentionally) swapped.

L'Equipe, on the other hand, doesn't need a conviction in a court of law to believe they have a solid story. When it comes down to it, they've established a reasonable suspicion that a number of samples that most likely came from Armstrong in 1999 contained EPO. Am I convinced? No. Do I add this to other circumstantial evidence, both pro and con, when considering whether Armstrong may have used EPO in his career? Yes.

Big picture is that nothing can touch Armstrong on this. The samples were provided with the proviso that they could not be used for future disciplinary action, and their strength as evidence has been severely compromised.

VeloNews is also making available the complete Vridjman report.

Originally from Tour de France 2006 by Frank Steele reBlogged on Jun 1, 2006, 4:35PM

Originally posted by Frank Steele from Tour de France 2006, on June 2, 2006 8:48 AM

New York City food nerds, alert! Mark June 21st off on your calendar and take out your credit card, you are about to buy a ticket to see former New Yorker fiction editor Bill Buford talk at the NYPL with...

Originally from A Full Belly by Lia Bulaong reBlogged on Jun 1, 2006, 4:12PM

Originally posted by Lia Bulaong from A Full Belly, on June 2, 2006 8:48 AM

invite-only, and incredibly sexy; if you think it's just another social network, you're missing the point  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Jun 1, 2006, 6:41PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on June 2, 2006 8:46 AM

Meg blasts the NY Times for keeping blogs behind the Times Select paywall. "Michael Pollan is doing some of the most interesting and important writing about food right now. He's doing it frequently and it's being published in the easiest possible manner for massive distribution and influence. But only the Select few can see it. Even if I paid to access it, I couldn't share it with my readers. So much potential unrealized."

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jun 1, 2006, 5:48PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on June 2, 2006 8:46 AM

"Nicholas Negroponte showed off the latest prototypes of the fabled $100 PC. It's not longer a $100 PC, however. The ruggedized, two pound Linux desktop (Fedora) system, with mesh networking will sell for about $130 to $140 (sans shipping)...

Originally from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog reBlogged on Jun 1, 2006, 8:09PM

Originally from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog, on June 2, 2006 8:36 AM

Some background on how Al Gore's global warming presentation got so polished. Also references Spike Jonze's Al Gore video from 2000 which pictures Gore as anything but stiff. Some backstory on the Jonze video.
Update: More on Gore's use of Keynote.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Jun 1, 2006, 7:32PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on June 2, 2006 8:36 AM

When I was sixteen or seventeen or something like that me and a friend wandered into a steak shop in West Philly that we'd heard tell of. The place was called Abe's and there was a room in the back that was possibly smaller than the office I sit in today. It was packed and it stank so bad of sweat and beer and stank, but OH! the girls were really cute and kind of fucked-up looking with mismatched knee socks and interesting hair and thrift store dresses held together with safety pins.

And there was music! and it wasn't played very well, but it was played fast and hard and it was being played by PEOPLE I KNEW! And those PEOPLE I KNEW were playing short fast songs about not having money and going to the Jersey shore and Bitchin' Camaros. And, oh man, I had found SOMETHING, that in its attempt to be unimportant had managed to be worthwhile.

Anyone could do this. This is the simple most important thing I've learned in life. Anybody can do this.

Fast-forward a while to this thing called the Web. And again, anybody can do this. The early days (at least what I define as the early days) of the web gave me that same feeling as that stanky steak house. People had no idea what to do on the web, so they would try ANYTHING, and it was fucking glorious. People were failing in amazing wonderful ways. So then blogging tools show up and it becomes that much easier for someone to just start TALKING. Anyone can publish.

Then came business. Then came professional blogging, then came the books on HOW TO BLOG, and there are ways to blog in order to maximize your Google Adsense revenue, and hell you're just gonna grab the RSS feed anyway. And man oh man it got boring. And worst of all, it scared people away. Blogging, talking, writing on the web became something for professionals. Not something anybody could do at all.

So I've been playing with this thing called Vox, built by the fine people at Six Apart. It looks like a fine place to dive into writing online and deciding it's just for your friends to see and not worry about what you're saying too much. And to be honest, it feels a little messed up and a little chaotic and I get lost in it a bit. But it's FUN and it's filled with PEOPLE YOU KNOW. And I hope they never fix it up too much. Learning that 4th chord leads to a lot of trouble you don't need.

Originally from Mule Design : Off the Hoof by Mike Monteiro reBlogged on Jun 1, 2006, 7:14PM

Originally posted by Mike Monteiro from Mule Design : Off the Hoof, on June 2, 2006 8:36 AM

Check out Regina Lynn's new column, Sex Trumps Game, over on Wired.

Next week, I'm speaking at the Sex in Video Games Conference in San Francisco. But unlike the other speakers, I'm not going to talk about games.

I'm going to talk about sex and the activities that surround it online -- flirtation, courtship, rules, jealousy, attachment, love and breaking up, not necessarily in that order.

Originally from Sex & Games by BrendaBrathwaite reBlogged on Jun 2, 2006, 8:55AM

Originally posted by BrendaBrathwaite from Sex & Games, on June 2, 2006 8:35 AM

What is it about developers that they can be handed a nice, tight, clean design crafted with pure, validating, perfect XHTML/CSS and butcher it to hell and back so that it looks absolutely nothing like the original?

To them I say: Give me a tire iron, access to your "nothings-wrong-with-it" application code, and I'll show you how Piccaso would have built it.

Originally from Airbag Industries reBlogged on Jun 1, 2006, 9:22PM

Originally from Airbag Industries, on June 2, 2006 8:34 AM

How do I get rid of the curry smell in my new apartment.

Answer.

Originally from Turbanhead.com by Administrator reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 11:07PM

Originally posted by Administrator from Turbanhead.com, on May 31, 2006 11:41 PM

From the Google AdSense Blog:

What can I do with the AdSense API?

Using the AdSense API, you can enable users to perform a variety of AdSense functions without leaving your website, including the following:

- Create an AdSense account
- Manage an AdSense account
- Create and modify AdSense for content ad units and link units, AdSense for search boxes, and Referrals
- View detailed reports to monitor performance and earnings

How does the AdSense API benefit your site and users?

By making it easy for publishers to sign up for AdSense and generate revenue, the API offers another compelling reason for publishers to choose your service over a competitor's--and remain loyal to you. The AdSense API is great for publishers who don't want the hassle of setting up their own accounts or dealing with cutting and pasting HTML snippets.

Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 1:55PM

Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog, on May 31, 2006 11:41 PM

they're heavily moderating the sites allowed to use it, for good reason  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 3:42PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on May 31, 2006 11:38 PM

Erik Benson's awesome Morale-O-Meter is now publicly available! My favorite tool since Allconsuming (or maybe LoB). Just don't stab to close to Buzz, that man is wild. (like you needed a webapp to tell you that)

Link: http://morale.erikbenson.com/

Originally from Laughing Meme reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 3:19PM

Originally from Laughing Meme, on May 31, 2006 11:38 PM

Today's New York Times looks at soldiers' food care packages in Iraq. Reminds me of the story my grandmother tells of mailing my grandfather his favorite molasses cookies during World War II. Unfortunately by the time they arrived on his ship in the South Pacific, they were moldy and inedible.

Originally from megnut.com blog reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 3:05PM

Originally from megnut.com blog, on May 31, 2006 11:38 PM

Simply Google, a one-pager for navigating and searching all of Google's offerings.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 5:36PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 31, 2006 11:37 PM

Folks, the much awaited Dapper (Ubuntu 6.06 LTS) is to be released tomorrow, the 1st of June. Once it is released, and the news hits the vine, you can be sure download times will be much more than they are right now - and they aren’t so great right now.

Between now, and the time Dapper is released, there will be a few more updated packages, but you can always update the packages later, as you normally would.

The new way to upgrade from Breezy to Dapper is quite convenient. Just follow the instructions.

Of course, you can increase the download speed by using a mirror, as I previously wrote in the 22x faster upgrade post.

Prepare to be awed by Dapper!

Originally from Ubuntu Blog by ubuntonista reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 4:11PM

Originally posted by ubuntonista from Ubuntu Blog, on May 31, 2006 11:37 PM

From a post at the Bee Blog, Saryn got 24 out of 25 correct on the written test. Sweet. Also from the Bee Blog: Vegas likes Saryn.

Originally from Mr. Sun! by Mr. Sun reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 12:42PM

Originally posted by Mr. Sun from Mr. Sun!, on May 31, 2006 12:42 PM

Last night I was watching a bit of Emeril Live on the Food Network. Half-listening to the episode about grilling, I suddenly tuned in when I heard Emeril say, "When it's young it's called cilantro, and when it's old it's called coriander." That surprised me, as I always thought it was simply a localization issue: cilantro in North America and coriander everywhere else. Clearly it was time to do some research.

First stop, my trusty Larousse Gastronomique whose entry sits under the heading CORIANDER (CILANTRO). It says it's "[a]n aromatic umbeliferoius plant used both for its dried seeds, either whole or ground and its leaves." Further on it notes "[c]oriander leaves, sometimes know as Arab parsely or Chinese parsley in France and as cilantro in the United States..." There is no mention of age. I check Wikipedia's entry on coriander and it says a lot about the history of the plant, its various uses and parts, and nothing about any difference in name as it relates to the age of the plant.

Verdict? Emeril is wrong! Or rather, being a bit misleading. Both articles note the seeds are commonly called "coriander" (rather than "coriander seeds") and the leaves are referred to as "coriander leaves." Since the seeds are dried before they are used, it is a fact that they are older than the fresh green "coriander leaves" or cilantro one finds in salsa. So technically Emeril is correct. But is that really what he meant?

He would have done better to say something along the lines of: "Cilantro and coriander are the same plant, but in the US we use the term cilantro when referring to the fresh leaves, and coriander usually refers to the dried seeds of the plant." Maybe that's too much to say on TV, or maybe his audience doesn't care that much. Maybe I care too much. But it seems to me that if you're going to educate people about food, you should try to be as accurate as possible.

Originally from megnut.com blog reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 12:53PM

Originally from megnut.com blog, on May 31, 2006 12:41 PM

Maciej takes George Will to task on bilingual ballots. Will thinks bilingual ballots are "a mockery of the rule of law" because you need to speak English to become a citizen. Maciej says, "the insinuation that voters might want ballots in Spanish because they are cheating, lazy, bad people is malicious and wrong. You choose Spanish on your ballot for the same reason you might choose it in an ATM transaction - not because you have contempt for American civil society, but because you don't want to make a mistake."

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 10:13AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 31, 2006 12:41 PM

If you are not currently reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan: stop everything immediately and get yourself a copy. It's that good, and that important.

I've been reading it for a week now, and had expected to write a review when I'd finished but it's taken me longer than I anticipated to get through it. There's so much to chew on I find I just stop reading mid-paragraph to think about everything he's saying. And really, it's so eye-opening that it's foolish for me to wait until I'm done to tell you: if you care about food, read this book.

Here's a small sampling from some of the pages I've dog-eared:

Very simply, we subsidize high-fructose corn syrup in this country, but not carrots. While the surgeon general is raising alarms over the epidemic of obesity, the president is signing farm bills designed to keep the river of cheap corn flowing, guaranteeing that the cheapest calories in the supermarket will continue to be the unhealthiest. (p 108)

"The organic label is a marketing tool," Secretary [of Agriculture] Glickman said. "It is not a statement about food safety. Nor is 'organic' a value judgment about nutrition or quality."...Some intriguing recent research suggests otherwise. (p 179)

Today it takes between seven and ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to an American plate....Yet growing the food is the least of it: only a fifth of the total energy used to feed us is consumed on the farm; the rest is spent processing the food and moving it around. (p 183)

[T]here are no pigtails in industrial hog production. Farmers "dock," or snip off, the tails at birth, a practice that makes a certain twisted sense if you follow the logic of industrial efficiency on a hog farm. Piglets...are weaned from their mothers ten days after birth (compared with thirteen weeks in nature)...[b]ut this premature weaning leaves the pigs with a lifelong craving to suck and chew, a need they gratify in confinement by biting the tail of the animal in front of them. (p 218)

Our food system depends on consumers' not knowing much about it beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it's a short way from not knowing who's at the other end of your food chain to not caring...[o]f course, the global economy couldn't very well function without this wall of ignorance and the indifference it breeds. (p 245)

So fight the indifference, and fight the ignorance. Go read The Omnivore's Dilemma. No book has changed the way I think about food and food production more than this.

Originally from megnut.com blog reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 10:11AM

Originally from megnut.com blog, on May 31, 2006 12:41 PM

Posted by John Hanke, Director, Google Maps & Earth

Summer is almost here and the Googleplex is buzzing with travel plans. (Hey, even geeks have to play sometime.) We looked at all the great Maps mashup sites out there and thought, why shouldn't we have some fun too? So we started working on a Maps mashup that would highlight some fun summer activities that also respect the environment. The result is our Summer of Green travel mashup site. We've teamed with Earth Day Network to highlight some planet-friendly travel tips for top U.S. travel destinations as well as how to use Google Maps in your daily routine to find and support green activities.

Did you know you could go kayaking in Las Vegas? Or rent a hybrid limo service in LA? Or stay at a Disney hotel in Orlando that recycles its water? These are a just few of the stops documented in our video-enhanced Google Maps mashup.

Hope you enjoy these and maybe even find some fun -- and green -- destinations for your summer trips.

Originally from Official Google Blog by A Googler reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 9:17AM

Originally posted by A Googler from Official Google Blog, on May 31, 2006 12:41 PM

The International Herald Tribune has made a deal with South Korean OhMyNews, reports the The Guardian via Putting People First.

The agreement is believed to be an attempt to boost the Herald Tribune's coverage of Asia. "Citizen journalists" will be appearing alongside established writers.

... A spokesman for the International Herald Tribune was unavailable for comment yesterday, but the company confirmed that an initial deal would see headlines pulled from OhMyNews on to the Tribune's website.

"It is not yet clear whether such articles will be treated in a similar manner to those from established news agencies such as Reuters and the Associated Press, but sources close to the negotiations believe it is likely that the newspaper itself could run such stories in the near future."

Originally from Smart Mobs by Emily reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 9:57AM

Originally posted by Emily from Smart Mobs, on May 31, 2006 12:40 PM

In the beta version of Office 2007, a font called Calibri is the default font instead of Times New Roman. The end of a typographic era.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 1:14PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 31, 2006 12:39 PM

...please follow the velvet ropes and proceed directly to Basketbawful. All complaints will be heard in the order that they are received.

Originally from True Hoop by Henry Abbott reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 12:27PM

Originally posted by Henry Abbott from True Hoop, on May 31, 2006 12:33 PM

We have been wondering why they keep walking it up, standing around, and watching. Tom Bailey of Fort Wayne put the question to Steve Kerr, who responded like this:

This is a trend that has been developing ever since the beginning of the Cleveland series. Detroit is just not the same team, and a big part of it is the over-dribbling, one-on-one style it is playing. The Heat have done a nice job of rotating over to Rip Hamilton on the screens you talked about, but that's to be expected. Every team's strategy in defending Detroit begins with the Hamilton curl play. But when defenses commit to stopping Hamilton, the Pistons' counter play is to hit Rasheed Wallace – who's the screener – either on a roll for a dunk or on a pop for a jumper. Wallace, though, has not been the same player since spraining his ankle against the Cavaliers. And with Detroit struggling offensively, it no longer is able to rely on its defense, which comes and goes. All in all, I think the Pistons have lost a lot of confidence at both ends of the floor, and it appears they're going to lose this series. Still, I don't know how Joe Dumars would fire Flip Saunders. He signed a five-year deal, he won 64 games and he did a terrific job all season. How could they fire him for one bad postseason? Besides, who would they hire if they unloaded Saunders? I'd be shocked if he wasn't back next season.

Here's what I don't get, though--does the fact that Miami's rotating well mean Detroit has no single way to use teamwork to get Rip a little space? And can't Antonio McDyess play poor-man's Rasheed Wallace on the same play, and at least make Shaquille O'Neal move around a little?

Originally from True Hoop by Henry Abbott reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 12:22PM

Originally posted by Henry Abbott from True Hoop, on May 31, 2006 12:33 PM

Peterme has a realization: "I am without a professional tribe". I've been feeling the same way for quite awhile now and like Peter, I'm not quite sure what to do about it.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 12:15PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 31, 2006 12:33 PM

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is exploring the use of satellite imagery to detect and prove human rights abuses. It's difficult to deny the communication potential of these images:

Larger versions of the images are available (before and after).

The images, analyzed by the AAAS staff, show two views of the settlement of Porta Farm, located just west of the Zimbabwean capital of Harare. The first, an archived image from June 2002, shows an intact settlement with more than 850 homes and other buildings; an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people lived in Porta Farm at the time. The second photo, taken by satellite on 6 April this year, shows that the settlement has been leveled.

International rights groups allege that the forced relocations in Zimbabwe -- which affected over 700,000 people over the course of six weeks in 2005 -- are an attempt by the Mugabe government to supress opposition to the current regime.

The AAAS and other organizations hope to use satellite imagery in the future as a tool in addressing the human rights abuses in Darfur, Burma, and other areas. (via rw)

Originally from kottke.org reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 11:54AM

Originally from kottke.org, on May 31, 2006 12:33 PM

Nate presents a visual analysis of the A's, who aren't performing nearly as well as their winter supporters had thought.

Originally from Baseball Prospectus reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally from Baseball Prospectus, on May 31, 2006 12:33 PM

"We have no record of any child with such a complete third arm," Chen said. The boy also was born with just one kidney and may have problems that could lead to curvature of the spine, local media reports said. Jie-jie cried when either of his left arms was touched, but smiled and responded normally to other stimuli, the reports said.

Update: They chopped one off. That page also claims to have video, but it won't play for me.

Originally from jwz by jwz@jwz.org reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 6:06PM

Originally posted by jwz@jwz.org from jwz, on May 31, 2006 9:14 AM

Lots of interesting questions about couples who spend a lot of time online "together". "A couple watching TV, curled up on a sofa together, may have felt 'together', a couple surfing on two wifi laptops are visiting different sites, having different experiences. They seem more apart than together. The internet age feels less communal than the TV age did."

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 8:02PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 31, 2006 9:01 AM

Whitney Biennial 06: An Afterword

Judith Rodenbeck and Trebor Scholz

The articles have been written and the doors of the Whitney Biennial are now closed.

It is an historical truism in cultural production that after World War II, but especially after the freedom struggles of the late 1950s and 1960s, to think of art along traditionalist lines as devoted to beauty (or even only to itself) became suspect. More pressing were questions of authority and interest, of exclusion and inclusion, and critical art practices took on such post-Duchampian topics as "Who conditions the context in which artworks are situated and by which they are certified?" Aesthetics for many became a productive problematic for art rather than a field delimited by notions of "the beautiful" as its proper expression; no longer attached to the ineffables of the beautiful or the sublime, a new aesthetics was, rather, addressed to the play of cognition and sociality. And this has been the case in advanced practices of the last 50 years.

Originally from post.thing.net - A lean, mean, media machine. reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 8:00PM

Originally from post.thing.net - A lean, mean, media machine., on May 31, 2006 9:01 AM

A while back I had an idle wish for a firefox extension that autogenerated a 2d barcode (semacode or other) from the URL of the current page/thing/resource, so I could quickly snarf it into my mobile and take it with me.

Instantly-mobile deeplinky goodness with no fiddly typing.*

A random thought tonight while staring at my browser: how much info could I store in a favicon, if I made it a 2d barcode?

A favicon is 16×16, and readable datamatrix 2d codes go down to 10×10 and 3mm. Of course, readable here means by an industrial scanner from a crisp printed sticker, rather than a mobile phone and a fuzzy LCD display.

Here’s the semacode for the wikipedia entry on Blogjects (it was the 2nd workshop that Julian and Nicholas have run on those blighters this week, so it seemed an appropriate choice!)

As you can see, a fair slice of the data is cropped if we try for 16×16 in order to make a favicon.

Still - I wonder if there’s anything doable there? Could something useful and/or diverting be done in this little space in the address field?

If not, my original lazyweb wish for a firefox extension to create instant takeaway datashadows still stands…

—-
* Yes, before Charlie gets all-up-in-my-face (;-) - I know winksite has semacode integration - but I want EVERYTHING I visit to have a code ,whether they like it or not!

Tags: semacode, firefox, mobile, browser, blogject, datashadows, 2dbarcodes, ubicomp

Originally from Blackbeltjones/Work by Matt reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 7:29PM

Originally posted by Matt from Blackbeltjones/Work, on May 31, 2006 9:01 AM

If you're reading this, then you've probably seen Dave's post on last week's kerfluffle. Now bask in the glory that is the definitive Web 2.0 shirt:

Get yours now.

Originally from Mule Design : Off the Hoof by Katie Spence reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 6:51PM

Originally posted by Katie Spence from Mule Design : Off the Hoof, on May 31, 2006 9:01 AM

I don't know about you but ever since I heard that Mira Nair was directing the movie version of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake, I have been waiting with baited breath. 

Then I heard that Kal Penn, who I have a huge crush on, was going to star in it ... The anticipation continued! 

Now here is the trailer!  I am squealing with delight!

Originally from tuckergurl by Angela Tucker reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 7:26PM

Originally posted by Angela Tucker from tuckergurl, on May 31, 2006 9:01 AM

strange LP of arcade game tips from 1982 [via] 

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 10:12PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on May 31, 2006 8:59 AM

I got all excited about this because it seems to be a nice pattern for breaking work down into chunks, to lessen the effect of single-threaded ajax lag.

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 9:50PM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on May 31, 2006 8:58 AM

since a couple of weeks, the infosthetics website contains a sparkline diagram of its relative daily Google Adsense earnings, updated hourly. in contrast to the quite static "unique visitors" graph, this sparkline is more volatile & shows more complex patterns that are interesting to grasp. it is loosely based on a script that creates an Adsense RSS feed. instead of a RSS file, it now parses the data into a sparkline.
for those wanting to have their own Adsense sparklines on their website, the source code (PHP) can be downloaded here. one also needs the sparkline PHP library & some basic knowledge of crontab on your webserver to set up the automatic hourly execution of the script.
but most importantly, one must first kindly ask Google Adsense permission for its use! note that this display is in accordance to the Google Adsense policy, as it does not disclose the earnings directly, but only shows its relative fluctuations. see more information about this issue after the break.

Originally from information aesthetics by infosthetics reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 9:34PM

Originally posted by infosthetics from information aesthetics, on May 31, 2006 8:58 AM

Old ass repost of a recently resurfaced (and often requested) video: Gabe's party on the Q Train from September 2003.

I just found an old drive full of video of subway parties, protest footage, and old episodes of BrowseTV. I hope to have more of it up within the next several weeks.

Originally from braintag reBlogged on Apr 18, 2006, 11:32PM

Originally from braintag, on May 31, 2006 8:58 AM

Migurski is bookmarking posts about hyperlogging and recording your attention.

Justin is in the planning stages for a Firefox extension (perhaps a mod of AttentionTrust) that records your browser history and translates that into WoW character attributes.

Neat. I'll be waiting to see what comes next.

Originally from braintag reBlogged on Apr 17, 2006, 11:11PM

Originally from braintag, on May 31, 2006 8:58 AM

potentially huge news; I want to see Ning implement this  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 3:09AM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on May 31, 2006 8:54 AM

Whitney Biennial 06: An Afterword Judith Rodenbeck and Trebor Scholz The articles have been written and the doors of the Whitney Biennial are now closed. It is an historical truism in cultural production that after World War II, but especially after the freedom struggles of the late 1950s and 1960s, to think of art along traditionalist lines as devoted to beauty (or even only to itself) became suspect. More pressing were questions of authority and interest, of exclusion and inclusion, and critical art practices took on such post-Duchampian topics as "Who conditions the context in which artworks are situated and by which they are certified?" Aesthetics for many became a productive problematic for art rather than a field delimited by notions of "the beautiful" as its proper expression; no longer attached to the ineffables of the beautiful or the sublime, a new aesthetics was, rather, addressed to the play of cognition and sociality. And this has been the case in advanced practices of the last 50 years. Re

Originally from gmane.culture.internet.nettime by Trebor Scholz reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 2:49PM

Originally posted by Trebor Scholz from gmane.culture.internet.nettime, on May 31, 2006 8:54 AM

These recipes for garlic scapes sound interesting, though I'm not sure they necessarily highlight the scape. The scape "is the sprout of the garlic plant, a thin, green stalk that curls above the ground and is more tender and sweeter than the cloves that lie below."

Originally from megnut.com blog reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 8:53AM

Originally from megnut.com blog, on May 31, 2006 8:53 AM

Sporting News.com: A summer reading list for baseball fans.

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 8:30AM

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on May 31, 2006 8:53 AM

If the Senate confirms Henry M. Paulson Jr. as the next Treasury secretary, he will collect a mere $183,500 in annual pay.

Originally from NYT > Home Page by ERIC DASH reBlogged on May 31, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by ERIC DASH from NYT > Home Page, on May 31, 2006 8:53 AM

Long letter from Whole Foods to Michael Pollan to address "misunderstandings [that] are now circulating about Whole Foods Market as a result of his book and recent interviews." [via Accidental Hedonist]

Originally from megnut.com blog reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 1:04PM

Originally from megnut.com blog, on May 30, 2006 6:10 PM

"I imagine the author of grep, Ultimate Unix Geek, squinting at vi; the glow of a dozen xterms is the only light to fall on his ample frame covered by overalls, cheese doodles, and a tangle of beard. Discarded crushed Mountain Dew cans litter the floor. I look straight into the back of his head, covered by a snarl of greasy locks, and reply with a snarl of my own: You’re mine."

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 12:27PM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on May 30, 2006 6:10 PM

Here's the latest Silicon Valley action: Tacit says it can pick the brains of your friends and colleagues -- The NYT has a glowing story about the Palo Alto company Tacit, which boasts software that lets you send questions via email to acquaintances and only solicits answers from the experts among them. Tacit has been around for a while, and we've written about them before (four years ago). Tacit has tried to maintain privacy protections. That much is good. What is surprising about this NYT piece on Tacit's latest product, called Illumio, is that there's no skepticism expressed whatsoever about the practicality of this latest service, and about whether it will actually work. The service will be tested next month. No mention, either, of the investment by the CIA's In-Q-Tel, and whether the targeted people (experts), with all the spying going on lately, will really want to use this thing....

Originally from VentureBeat by Matt Marshall reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 11:46PM

Originally posted by Matt Marshall from VentureBeat, on May 30, 2006 6:10 PM

I've been keeping track of words which return a link to a dictionary definition of the word in Google. Dictionary words are those that are written but not written about, haven't been subject to the corporate/band/blog word grab, or aren't otherwise popular words.

germane
paucity
reticent
cantankerous
suppositious
abstruse
whinge
assiduous
surreptitious
proclivity
disparaging
sporadically
hypertrophied
pallor
acerbic
surfeit

Many of the Dictionary.com Words of the Day are probably dictionary words as well.

Originally from kottke.org reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 1:57PM

Originally from kottke.org, on May 30, 2006 6:08 PM

Jee and I at Cafe Habana
Originally uploaded by triciawang 王 圣 㨗.

fort Greene, Brooklyn
Celebrating Gabe's going away to Los Angeles - or was it his birthday? I can't remember.
this was in Summer of 2005

Originally from Hi Tricia! by Tricia Wang 王 圣 㨗 reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 1:10PM

Originally posted by Tricia Wang 王 圣 㨗 from Hi Tricia!, on May 30, 2006 6:08 PM

One thousand numbers, one thousand paintings. 1000 unique pieces of art, canvases numbered 1 to 1000, for sale at prices which depend on number of paintings sold so far and the number of the painting. Genius.

Originally from Protein Feed reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 5:10PM

Originally from Protein Feed, on May 30, 2006 5:59 PM

The ALA Alex Awards. "The ALA Alex Awards are given to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18."

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on May 24, 2006, 8:30AM

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on May 30, 2006 12:05 PM

Now that the Dashcode genie is out of the bottle, allow me to point out something that may not be immediately obvious: Dashcode is a pretty sweet environment for Ajax development.

Sure, Apple’s going to sell Dashcode for easy Widget development, but Widgets are just Ajax applets themselves. HTML+JavaScript+XHR.

You have an editor with JavaScript syntax coloring, alert()’s are turned into asynchronous log entries. But your need for alert()-style debugging is greatly reduced because you can set visual breakpoints and examine the call stack and examine+modify variables. Nice. It also has a JavaScript toplevel (they call it an “Evaluator”).

Firefox (coupled with its developer plugins like Firebug, Web Developer and Tamper Data) is more still a more powerful development environment overall, but it’s much more hand-rolled and Dashcode is very slick.

Perhaps the biggest downside to Ajax development with Dashcode is WebKit itself. It’s not out of spite that Google’s latest Ajax apps tend not to work with Safari at launch (typically becoming compatible a few weeks later) — WebKit’s Ajax is subpar. It’s not IE-bad, but it’s nowhere close to Firefox (for example, script.aculo.us unit tests fail on Safari). Because of this, the standard development methodology to to developer in Firefox, get it working, then butcher your code as necessary to meet Safari and IE.

If Dashcode does get pressed into service as a slick Ajax dev environment, perhaps it will raise the consciousness of WebKit’s subpar Ajax support, with the framework devs and the WebKit crew working to meet in the middle to get it reasonable. Who knows, maybe even the best.

Originally from rentzsch.com: Tales from the Red Shed reBlogged on May 24, 2006, 1:00AM

Originally from rentzsch.com: Tales from the Red Shed, on May 30, 2006 12:01 PM

The tragedy of Kevin Garnett. According to the Wins Produced statistic, Garnett is far and away the best player in the NBA, but his teammates have always been bad. Hopefully Garnett can find "a few co-workers who can help him achieve the recognition his performance indicates he clearly deserves".

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 11:41PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 30, 2006 11:57 AM

a novel data visualization method that shows the progress of individual participants’ code & the comment contributions to open source software projects. the design of the "bloom diagram" blends techniques such as concentric pie charts, animation, motion trails & social proxies to produce a compact presentation of the large scale dynamics around software development.
the inner ring represents "code events" (changes to a file in the code repository), the outer ring represents "comment events" (postings on the project's mailing lists, forums & bug trackers). when a user moves a timeline slider, animated bubbles appear in the inner or outer ring, representing the events. the animated bubble position provides a cue about the frequency & recency of the event.
see also ambient lava lamps & code profiles.
[ibm.com & acm.org(pdf)]

Originally from information aesthetics by infosthetics reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 10:42PM

Originally posted by infosthetics from information aesthetics, on May 30, 2006 11:57 AM

Al Gore at the Hay Festival:

“We now have the capacity to literally change the relationship between the Earth and the sun.”

Now if only that nice turn-of-phrase were being used in the audacious-superfuture-planetary-scale-engineering-Dyson-Sphere sense…

And, via LMG, here’s the trailer to Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth”

Tags: algore, worldchanging, climatechange

Originally from Blackbeltjones/Work by Matt reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 4:29AM

Originally posted by Matt from Blackbeltjones/Work, on May 30, 2006 11:55 AM

Moleskine's City Notebook lets you create your own personal city guidebook. Photos of a prototype here; available for Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam now, Chicago, NYC, SF, Boston in 2007. Love the idea of a writable guidebook.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 11:00AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 30, 2006 11:53 AM

Mike Grenville for 160characters explains how SMS innovations have surprises in store in the near future as SMS is being enriched by some recognizable characteristics of email. For instance,

-- users will soon be able to customize their SMS communications with personal signatures that are immediately recognizable by the recipient.

-- To automatically duplicate or forward text messages to other people or to their email, and even utilize auto-reply, immediately informing senders of a user's temporary inability to respond, just like the "out of office" functionality on the PC.

-- SMS Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), for example, will let users exchange text messages using short numbers, such as four-digit extensions, instead of full phone numbers and the exchanged messages will feature the member's nickname or signature, or even a company brand .

-- Special VPN tariff reductions will further encourage intra-group messaging

.

Originally from textually.org by emily reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 10:41AM

Originally posted by emily from textually.org, on May 30, 2006 11:50 AM

President Bush today announced the long-expected departure of Treasury Secretary John W. Snow. Henry M. Paulson Jr., the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, was nominated as his successor. He is the first outsider to be given a prominent post as the administration has moved to reinvigorate its lineup over the last few months.

Originally from NYT > Home Page by JOHN O'NEIL reBlogged on May 30, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by JOHN O'NEIL from NYT > Home Page, on May 30, 2006 11:46 AM

reBlogged via Visual Resistance:

Brilliant Adbust in California

Posted April 21st, 2006 by eliot

Via the invaluable Eyeteeth comes word of a great billboard liberation in California:

This was done by the California Department of Corrections.  Although the CDC is unaffiliated with the original Billboard Liberation Front, the BLF has given this one the thumbs-up.

Originally from NEWSgrist - where spin is art by joy garnett reBlogged on May 24, 2006, 7:00PM

Originally posted by joy garnett from NEWSgrist - where spin is art, on May 29, 2006 9:32 PM

According to the Content blog, an email from iTunes confirms that if you lose all of your purchased iTunes music (due to something like a hard drive crash), iTunes wil let you re-download all of your lost songs.

I've been trying to find any information about this in iTunes ToS, but so far nothing - however, I have found a lot of people claiming that, while this isn't highly publicized, often you just need to ask. So I'm wondering: Have any readers had any experience with lost or faulty music being replaced by iTunes? Let us know what happened in the comments or at tips at lifehacker.com.

Itunes Lets People Re-Download all Your Music Once! [thecontent.wordpress.com]

 
Comment on this post
Related: Hack Attack: Automatically sync iTunes to any folder(s)
Related: Stream your iTunes library to any computer

Originally from Lifehacker

reBlogged by Matthew Haughey on May 25, 2006, 6:30PM

Originally from mathowie reBlog feed reBlogged on May 25, 2006, 2:01PM

Originally from mathowie reBlog feed , on May 29, 2006 9:30 PM

If you chose to install Ubuntu in the expert mode, then you can create an use a root user, just like in any other distro. However, this might leave normal users with no admin privileges, so they’ll have trouble running Synaptic, configuring the network etc. In the normal mode, the first user is automatically setup as an admin, so you can use sudo (or gksudo) to execute programs as an administrator (root user equivalent).

If, however, you installed Ubuntu in the expert mode, and still want some users to be admins, you can use this solution. You can create a group called admin, and give this group admin privileges. Then you can add all the users you want to have these privileges to this group.

The command for this are as follows:

#addgroup --system admin
#visudo
The sudoers file should then be edited to include:
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
#adduser username admin


The above commands are to be executed as the root user, of course. Replace username with the username of the user that you want to give admin privileges to.

Originally from Ubuntu Blog by ubuntonista reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 4:47AM

Originally posted by ubuntonista from Ubuntu Blog, on May 29, 2006 9:25 PM

a graphical visualization map of the websites people are visiting, updated every second with where people are going & coming from. as sites become more popular, they move towards the center of the swarm & grow larger. conversely, sites that lose traffic move away from the center & grow smaller. website traffic is symbolized with thin lines: each line symbolizes a move from one site to the other.
see also google browser.
[swarmthe.com]

Originally from information aesthetics by infosthetics reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 2:46AM

Originally posted by infosthetics from information aesthetics, on May 29, 2006 9:25 PM

Google’s famed Picasa photo management app is now available for Linux!. In perhaps what is a sign of the growing stature of Ubuntu in the Linux world, there is a .deb file available for download, made for Ubuntu (or so the page says).

To install Picasa, download the .deb file, and install it by running the following command from the directory that the .deb file is in:
$sudo dpkg -i picasa_2.2.2820-5_i386.deb
(Please check if the version number in the above is correct - it should be the same as the name of the .deb you downloaded)

I usually avoid using non-open source software on my Ubuntu machines, but I’ve decided to give Picasa a try. If it is noteworthy, I will write more about it. At least one ubuntu-using friend of mine should be very happy when he gets to know about this when he wakes up tomorrow

Originally from Ubuntu Blog by ubuntonista reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 2:44AM

Originally posted by ubuntonista from Ubuntu Blog, on May 29, 2006 9:25 PM

Vintage Tim Burton; vintage Sofia Coppola; vintage Michel Gondry; vintage Jim Henson; vintage Orson Welles.

This week, an early film from Tim Burton called Vincent has been making the rounds. A charmingly dark animated short from 1982 about a little suburban boy who just wants to be Vincent Price, it’s probably the closest thing to memoir Burton can muster. It’s also narrated by Vincent Price, a year prior to his Thriller comeback. It’s great when you find early films by genius filmmakers and realize they were hacks once, too; this isn’t one of those times. * * * Vincent made me curious what other filmmakers’ early work was floating out there. Sofia Coppola’s first film, Lick the Star, was made in 1998—although the grainy quality looks more 1968—about the particular hell of female adolescence, a theme she would mine more successfully with someone else’s source material, The Virgin Suicides. Still, Lick the Star is notable for two reasons: 1) Playing on the gothy ‘80s obsession... Click here to continue reading this article.

Visit The Morning News.

Originally from The Morning News reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 10:52AM

Originally from The Morning News, on May 29, 2006 9:24 PM

As someone who’s had a lot of respect for O’Reilly, the person and the company, for a few years, and as someone who’s run small businesses and who knows how hard it is to take a vacation, I feel bad about this one. Because while you may not always agree with Tim, he’s not stupid, and an attempt to lock down the term “Web 2.0” at the same time as you’re building thought leadership around it, that’s stupid. So I’d urge the world to cut Mr. O’Reilly some slack till he gets back from vacation. I also suspect that the value of Web 2.0™ will be unimpaired; it’s really only used seriously by VCs and marketers and prognosticators who are by and large unperturbed by the lawyers’ view of intellectual property, not by the actual hands-on developers who build whatever it is we’re talking about; and for that, I still prefer read-write Web.

Originally from ongoing reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 12:29PM

Originally from ongoing, on May 29, 2006 9:23 PM

NYTimes food critic Frank Bruni, who has a good blog now as well, writes about his 9 day, 15 state, 3,650 mile trip sampling fast food across the country, "to size up and single out the best fast food from familiar national chains, relatively unfamiliar regional chains and tiny local chains I had never encountered."

I'd love to see this blown into a full book, with photos, please.

(via the very welcome new megnut food blog.)

Originally from shey.net reblog reBlogged on May 27, 2006, 12:06PM

Originally from shey.net reblog, on May 29, 2006 8:15 PM

Ever wonder how fetishes map out in relationship to each other? Neither have I, but it made this map no less interesting: Fetish Map.

Originally from Sex & Games by BrendaBrathwaite reBlogged on May 27, 2006, 12:35PM

Originally posted by BrendaBrathwaite from Sex & Games, on May 29, 2006 8:12 PM

 [g-WH!Z] I’m tickled to be rediscovering Google Earth. The Mac client is actually quite robust and I’m anxious to learn the KML to begin mashing up our own content on Google Earth.

<!--Google Earth, Mashups & KML-->

Originally from Geotags.org by admin reBlogged on May 27, 2006, 10:40PM

Originally posted by admin from Geotags.org, on May 29, 2006 8:11 PM

You can now use LifeBlog 2.0 to upload photos and more to your TypePad powered blog, but as of now, Moveable Type isn't supported.

Here's where you can find the download for the N70 and other Nokia phones that are LifeBlog ready.

Originally from Nokia N70 Blog reBlogged on May 28, 2006, 12:17PM

Originally from Nokia N70 Blog, on May 29, 2006 8:10 PM

WP.org search is broken. Again. Matt blames Yahoo!.

Am I missing something here? If, as seems to be the case, there is no-one on wp-hackers up to coding an adequate and robust search function, can’t they just stick a Google search box in there? I know it’s fashionable to hate on Google these days, and of course they haven’t bunged WP any cash (yet) but it would at least, you know, work.

(But even though this just happens to coincide with the monthly security hole, I’m not going to trot out my ’security not found’ screenshot again. That would be mean.)

Originally from wordpressâ„¢ wank by wank reBlogged on May 28, 2006, 8:29PM

Originally posted by wank from wordpressâ„¢ wank, on May 29, 2006 8:09 PM

This is a long and amusing tirade on how (not) to write a girls-in-games article. Made me laugh, and deserves particular note for this paragraph, which I shall reproduce in all its large and nerdtastically detailed glory:

With this in mind, everyone will understand that you didn’t have time to mention, say, Jeanette/Therese in Bloodlines, Annah/Fall-From Grace and Ravel in Planescape, SHODAN in System Shock, Zoe Castillo and April Ryan from the Longest Journey games, Nico from Broken Sword, Farah in Prince of Persia, Grace from Gabriel Knight, Rinoa, Cate Archer, Meche in Grim Fandango, D’Arcy Stern from Urban Chaos, Starcraft’s Kerrigan, Monkey Island’s Elaine Marley/Threepwood, Angel and Spirit and Flint and Rachael from Wing Commander, Realms of the Haunting’s Rebecca Trevisard, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, Syberia’s Kate Walker, Laura Bow, the unnamed heroine of Plundered Hearts, or the princesses of Tribes: Vengeance, or Quest for Glory’s Katrina, or Thief’s Viktoria… certainly, you won’t have the space for names like Sierra designers Jane Jensen, Lori Cole, Christy Marx and Lorelei Shannon, or to point out that Everquest’s oft-criticised art design was done by Rosie Cosgrove, or that Playboy: The Mansion was designed by Brenda Braithwaite, who also chairs the IGDA’s ‘Sex in Games’ sections and has a book coming out on the subject, or Emily Short’s legendary status in the interactive fiction community, or Dan/Dani Bunten Berry, the designer Warren Spector didn’t want to meet for fear of sounding like a dribbling fanboy...

w00t!

I am quite ashamed to say I recognise a mere.. mm, quarter?.. of these names & games. But whatever, I'm playing Tomb Raider: Legend, so shh.

(Sent in by Alex A: thanks!)

Originally from Wonderland by Alice reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 5:28PM

Originally posted by Alice from Wonderland, on May 29, 2006 8:08 PM

The Penguin/Orange Reading Group prize is given to the reading group with the most diverse and imaginative reading list. Last year's prize was awarded to the High Down Prison Reading Group, who received a visit from author Nick Hornby, who led a reading group session on his novel, A Long Way Down. "Winning is not really one of our strong points so we are pleased that the judges saw something appealing in our reading group. The chance to meet Nick Hornby is incredible, especially for the Arsenal fans amongst us." A member of the High Down Prison Reading Group.

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 8:30AM

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on May 29, 2006 8:08 PM

Originally from Audioscrobbler Musical Profile: btrott reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 12:25AM

Originally from Audioscrobbler Musical Profile: btrott, on May 29, 2006 8:08 PM

Owners of businesses and land along the Suncook River want its flow restored to a channel the river abandoned during recent flooding in New England.

Originally from NYT > Home Page by KATIE ZEZIMA reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by KATIE ZEZIMA from NYT > Home Page, on May 29, 2006 8:08 PM

"Web 2.OH, YEAAHH!!" tshirts...drink the Kool-Aid!

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 11:57PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 29, 2006 6:07 PM

Feature request: per-domain JavaScript disabling. God yes, any more than one NY Times story up in Safari throws beach balls like crazy.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 12:43PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 29, 2006 6:07 PM

World Cup 2006 starts today! Here again for your viewing pleasure is the complete US TV schedule. Games televised today: Germany v. Costa Rica and Poland v. Ecuador.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 11:34AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on May 29, 2006 6:07 PM

Interview with London designers Airside.

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 11:37PM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on May 29, 2006 6:06 PM

Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Industry, Consumer experience, Internet, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG)

One of the best lines I've heard from top Google officers recently had to do with this statement: "we launch products first, iron out the bugs, then find out how to monetize the product later" (paraphrased). This means that Google, while still (now) relying on search text ads for almost all it's billions in revenue, is hinting at the possibility of some products not making much, if any, money in the short-term.

Nothing new here, as there are scores of public companies that derive almost all revenue from a single source (ok, maybe a few sources) and break even or lose money in other areas. Generally, the good thing to do for investors in that instance is sell off or close the divisions that just squeak by. After all, what's the point if you can't make a profit?

Google seems to have a different way of attacking this problem. Investors don't seem to care that many of its products -- take Google Earth or Google Calendar, for example -- don't make the company money (at least now they don't). Google has the unusual luxury of giving excellent returns to shareholders thus far. This strategy builds in a timeline for the company to monetize other services it offers; and it will, given a little time.

In fact, my guess is that it's part of the Google strategy: unleash market-busting products (like Gmail, which upended the web email industry) and then slowly but surely launch the strategy that will make that product profitable to the company, while the strategy is cloaked in secrecy. Time will tell if this is correct, but Google may continue to outfox the competition using sly tactics like this -- if in fact it is.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Originally from Blogging Stocks by Brian White reBlogged on May 24, 2006, 7:30AM

Originally posted by Brian White from Blogging Stocks, on May 29, 2006 6:05 PM

After a short and rather unspectacular life, I take it Action Potential is dead then...

Originally from Mind Hacks by vaughan reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 6:58AM

Originally posted by vaughan from Mind Hacks, on May 29, 2006 6:04 PM

OGLE (Open GLExtractor) is a software package that allows the use of 3D data across multiple applications, like a "screen grab" for 3D graphics. This tool can be useful for animators and video game programmers who wish to use characters or environments in several scenarios; or for digital fabricators who need to realize computer-generated objects.

When you mash this software up with Google Earth, planners or architects (or anyone for that matter) gain the ability to create 3D printouts of chunks of land or clusters of buildings. Their NYC 3D prints have generated models of Ground Zero and Columbus Circle, and could do any other area, with great precision. The software is free and open, produced by EyeBeam, a R&D lab which "is focused entirely on incubating experimental technologies and media that directly enrich the public domain."

via: Make Blog

(Posted by Sarah Rich in The Tech Bloom – Collaborative and Emergent Technologies at 02:09 PM)

Originally from WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future by Sarah Rich reBlogged on May 28, 2006, 6:09PM

Originally posted by Sarah Rich from WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future, on May 29, 2006 6:04 PM

From The Guardian:

The white ghost ship rolled in the Atlantic swell as the rescue boats approached it 70 nautical miles off Ragged Point, one of the most easterly places on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

The yacht was unmarked, 6 metres (20ft) long, and when Barbadian coastguard officers boarded it, they made a gruesome find. The boat's phantom crew was made up of the desiccated corpses of 11 young men, huddled in two separate piles in the small cabin. Dressed in shorts and colourful jerseys, they had been partially petrified by the salt water, sun and sea breezes of the Atlantic Ocean. They appeared to have come from far away.

Originally from Cynical-C Blog by Chris reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 12:07PM

Originally posted by Chris from Cynical-C Blog, on May 29, 2006 6:02 PM

Paul Saucido, the saucy Chicano comedian whose "La Migra" ringtone caused a national furor for being peprceived as making fun of illegal Hispanic immigrants - is using the newfound celebrity to launch a range of Spanish voice ringtones starring parody Latino characters, available now from Spanish-language portal zukamovil.com.

New spoofs of anti-immigrant forces are on their way, Saucido said, including a new "La Migra" ringtone and a parody of the Minutemen , the volunteer civilian border-patrol group. [via GearLog]

Related posts:

-- Ringtone Company Sorry for Lyrics Satire

-- Cingular pulls racist ring tone

Originally from ringtonia.com by emily reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 11:53AM

Originally posted by emily from ringtonia.com, on May 29, 2006 6:02 PM

I guess now we have an idea why Ben Wallace was sulking.

Second-guessing Detroit Coach Flip Saunders is the theme of a lot of Detroit coverage today. In many publications Ben Wallace, Tayshaun Prince, Antonio McDyess and others are quoted making mild but undeniably anti-Flip statements.

Here's Liz Robbins in The New York Times.

Ben Wallace, who won his fourth defensive player of the year award this season, said with frustration Sunday that the Pistons did not practice defense as much as offense under Coach Flip Saunders and that their defense was like "night and day" from years past.

"I think we look for our offense more than our defense now," Wallace said. "We spend the majority of our time working on our offense, and it definitely shows up."

Matt Watson of Detroit Bad Boys discusses these quotes. He still sees his Pistons as the favorites, but detects a new willingness to pass the buck on the court and off.

Here's what occurs to me: This can't be a new idea. Ben Walllace didn't just reach his boiling point now. In fact, he has clearly been upset for a while, after his little tantrum a few weeks ago, in which he refused to enter a game against Orlando. But why take this to the media now? To me it reeks of desperation--a conviction within the Pistons that the Pistons are not on the right track.

Of course, there's simply  nothing that can be done to replace Saunders at this point. The best perspective (again, from Liz Robbins' article) comes from Chauncey Billups:

"We've been successful all year, we're down, 2-1, we didn't have a great game yesterday, and now you ask me do I want a different coach?" Billups said. "We got to stick to our plan; we'll be fine."

Originally from True Hoop by Henry Abbott reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 9:21AM

Originally posted by Henry Abbott from True Hoop, on May 29, 2006 6:02 PM

MT Notifier is one of the must have plugins for Movable Type, unfortunately the most recent release lacks a tangible admin interface. Some enterprising users have, however, created a stop-gap measure using MTSQL.

Originally from Movalog Sideblog reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 3:17PM

Originally from Movalog Sideblog, on May 29, 2006 6:01 PM

Flash infoviz of World Development Indicators from The World Bank [via] 

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 1:06PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on May 29, 2006 6:01 PM

Here's an excerpt from a recent post by David Berri, one of the Wages of Wins guys, on his blog.

http://dberri.wordpress.com/2006/05/28/the-tragedy-of-kevin-garnett/

Anyone who believes in the conventional, adhoc methods of valuing basketball players has to answer for the injustice done this year to Kevin Garnett:

I analyzed the 2005-06 season and the player who led the league in Wins Produced was Kevin Garnett. Garnett finished the season with 26 Wins Produced. This marks the fourth consecutive season Garnett has been the most productive player in the NBA. Yet the sportswriters didn’t show KG any love when it comes to the MVP voting. Not a single sportswriter named him on an MVP ballot. He also wasn’t named to the All-NBA First Team, Second Team, or Third Team.

The problem for KG is not his game, but his teammates. In 2002-03 Garnett produced 31.5 wins. The rest of his team produced 15.1. The next season Garnett produced 30.5 wins while the rest of the T-Wolves produced 25.3 victories. The increased productivity of his teammates allowed the writers to notice Garnett and give him the league MVP award.

In 2004-05, as we note in the book, Garnett was essentially the same player who won the MVP. He produced 30 wins, but his teammates only produced 14.8 victories. This past season, just to make life even less fun, his teammates only produced 9.4 wins. So over the past four seasons, Garnett’s teammates have averaged 16.1 wins per year. Although Garnett is averaging close to 30 wins per season, it is not enough to overcome the performance of his co-workers.

This past season no player in the league had less productive teammates. Only two of his fellow T-Wolves posted an above average wins production per-minute played – Wally Szczerbiak and Eddie Griffin – and one of these was traded away during the season. And Griffin was only barely above average.

And that is the tragedy of Kevin Garnett. Year after year he is the most productive player in the league. And year after year he plays with many players who are not only not average, but quite a bit below average.

Originally from gladwell.com by malcolmgladwell reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 10:58AM

Originally posted by malcolmgladwell from gladwell.com, on May 29, 2006 6:01 PM

New York is radically transforming itself before our eyes. Here's what that city will look like in just 10 years. NY Metro

Originally from Archinect.com Feed reBlogged

Originally from Archinect.com Feed, on May 29, 2006 6:01 PM

Last week I went to La Grande Motte, an impressive city created in France in 1974 to be populated with tourists during the summer.

Why do I blog this? The architecture is very intriguing to me, very stylish and not passé at all; I like the shape, the colors and the global impression (it reminds a bit of UC Irvine’s computer science building); a real sci-fi place.

Originally from pasta and vinegar by Nicolas reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 3:59PM

Originally posted by Nicolas from pasta and vinegar, on May 29, 2006 5:58 PM

Are fossil records a thing of the past? Evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson (TED2005) thinks they may be. In Sunday’s New York Times, she made a case (aimed at the general public) that DNA sequencing and analysis now provides more detailed proof of evolution than fossils ever could.

True to form, Judson — who is known for her spicy, off-beat musings on all manner of mating issues (Her book, Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice for all Creation, was adapted into a UK Channel 4 TV series, featuring unlikely musical numbers like the "Ladybug Promiscuity song") — takes the opportunity to present a few titillating facts: like the discovery, published recently in Nature, that humans and chimpanzees were kissing cousins far more recently than previously believed.

Originally posted by June Cohen from TED Blog, on May 29, 2006 5:58 PM

Seated at the top of 268 steps in the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong, is the Tian Tan Buddha - the world’s largest ’seated outdoor bronze statue of the Buddha’. The 34 metre tall sculpture can be seen facing the long set of steps rising towards it; his right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction and his left hand lies on his knee, signifying human happiness (Wikipedia page).

That Buddha not big enough for you? In Ushiku Arcadia, Japan, you’ll find Ushiku Daibutsu, which is officially the world’s largest statue. Yes bigger than Liberty, Mother Motherland, and even The Motherland (here’s a visual comparison of the world’s tallest statues).

(thumbnail rotated 180 degrees)

“Surely it’s all plinth?” I hear you cry! Nope, this thing is 100 metres tall without the plinth (the plinth is only 20 metres). Ushiku Daibutsu is vast, enormous and gargantuan all at the same time! The Wikipedia page informs us that this Buddha has a 1.2 metre nose, a 20 metre face and a 7 metre (30 foot) finger!

Wow. That’s a big finger.

Thanks to Stephan Irle, Ray Chan, Tom Cole and Roy Burroughs.

<!-- Ads -->
<!-- End Ad -->

Originally from Google Sightseeing by Alex reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 1:55PM

Originally posted by Alex from Google Sightseeing, on May 29, 2006 5:58 PM

The arrangement means that Google's search toolbar will appear on the screens of new Dell systems, and that Dell users will be directed to a Web page branded by the two companies.

Originally from NYT > Technology by LAURIE J. FLYNN reBlogged on May 26, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by LAURIE J. FLYNN from NYT > Technology, on May 28, 2006 11:49 PM

In the current New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell reviews a new book that aspires to be the Moneyball of basketball. You can be bitter if you want about the geeks and the numbers moving into the beautiful game, but my point for while now has been that we already worship numbers in this game--but we just don't worship the ones that indicate accurately who the valuable players are. Gladwell, bless him, brings evidence, from the book, of my point.

In one clever piece of research, they analyze the relationship between the statistics of rookies and the number of votes they receive in the All-Rookie Team balloting. If a rookie increases his scoring by ten per cent—regardless of how efficiently he scores those points—the number of votes he’ll get will increase by twenty-three per cent. If he increases his rebounds by ten per cent, the number of votes he’ll get will increase by six per cent. Every other factor, like turnovers, steals, assists, blocked shots, and personal fouls—factors that can have a significant influence on the outcome of a game—seemed to bear no statistical relationship to judgments of merit at all. It’s not even the case that high scorers help their team by drawing more fans. As the authors point out, that’s only true on the road. At home, attendance is primarily a function of games won. Basketball’s decision-makers, it seems, are simply irrational.

The authors, those new breed economists who are popping up everywhere, use numbers to show incredible stuff like Jerome Williams was an incredible player, and Ben Gordon is amont the worst in the league. Allen Iverson is somewhere in the middle. Oh, there's plenty to argue about here. I think those arguments are part of their marketing strategy.

The book is called The Wages of Wins, and it's by David J. Berri, Martin B. Schmidt, and Stacey L. Brook. There is more about it on Malcolm Gladwell's blog, and the book's official website.

Thanks to Eric Marentette for the heads up. Check his blog for lists of the most underrated and overrated players according to a formula from the book.

Originally from True Hoop by Henry Abbott reBlogged on May 28, 2006, 9:14AM

Originally posted by Henry Abbott from True Hoop, on May 28, 2006 11:49 PM

The architect David Rockwell and the choreographer Jerry Mitchell collaborate to streamline the airport experience.

Originally from NYT > Arts by JESSE GREEN reBlogged on May 28, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by JESSE GREEN from NYT > Arts, on May 28, 2006 11:46 PM

Describes late breaking news and highlights of new or changed features in the latest release of AppleScript.

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates reBlogged on May 23, 2006, 4:00AM

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates, on May 28, 2006 11:45 PM

A film about the Irish rebellion against British rule and the country's subsequent civil war won the top prize at the 59th Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.

Originally from NYT > Arts by MANOHLA DARGIS and A. O. SCOTT reBlogged on May 29, 2006, 12:00AM

Originally posted by MANOHLA DARGIS and A. O. SCOTT from NYT > Arts, on May 28, 2006 11:44 PM

Life of a Pig: from the birth of five piglets to a celebratory dinner of pork. A Seattle chef spends eight weeks documenting her time on a farm and following the life of the pigs she will eventually serve in her restaurant.

Life of a Pig reminds us to be grateful for what we have and to recognize the value in supporting our local farms and farmers. It is not about change, but creating awareness.

As a chef, I have mindlessly chopped, sliced, baked, roasted, grilled, braised hundreds ...gulp...thousands of pounds of meat, fish, produce without a second thought. Just after weeks of my participation in Life of a Pig I look at my cooler filled with food, differently

A really great look at pigs and what goes on at a farm, accompanied by great photos as well. I really enjoyed reading this.

Originally from megnut.com blog reBlogged on May 25, 2006, 11:33AM

Originally from megnut.com blog, on May 28, 2006 11:43 PM

Augie emailed to point me to his rant from last December about foie gras and Chicago. It's well worth reading and he raises excellent points. The more I think about the contradiction inherent in such a ban, the angrier I get. Shutting down small farms and leaving large factory farms intact doesn't do much to solve the problem of inhumane animal treatment. It just leaves people to feel good about themselves and pretend they've made a difference in the world, while hundreds of thousands of animals continue their miserable existences until they are killed for our consumption.

Originally from megnut.com blog reBlogged on May 24, 2006, 3:05PM

Originally from megnut.com blog, on May 28, 2006 11:43 PM

Nice Door
Originally uploaded by david.

Originally from hello, typepad by David Jacobs reBlogged on May 28, 2006, 1:43AM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on May 28, 2006 10:36 AM