randomwalks/dj

Deep within the blackness of space, preparations are well underway for Big Bang II, the rebirth of Mr. Sun.

Originally from Mr. Sun! by Mr. Sun reBlogged on Aug 5, 2006, 1:14PM

Originally posted by Mr. Sun from Mr. Sun!, on August 5, 2006 3:04 PM

I’ve used the same shell prompt for ~10 years now. 10 years. The colors I use come from an old IRC friend’s bash configuration utility (I probably have the script source buried deep in some archives somewhere).

You’ll notice that the prompt tells you the current user’s username, the hostname of the machine, and the current folder.

If you’d like something similar, simply place the following line in the .bashrc file of your home directory.

PS1="[\033[1;30m][[\033[1;36m]\u[\033[0;36m]@[\033[1;36m]\h[\033[1;30m]]
[\033[0;36m]:[\033[1;36m]:[\033[0;37m]\W[\033[1;36m]>[\033[0m] "

Realize that it should all be a single line (I broke it here so that it would fit).

Originally from Justin Blanton reBlogged on Aug 5, 2006, 8:02PM

Originally from Justin Blanton, on August 5, 2006 3:04 PM

Another Flickr group: Old Maps. Featuring scans of. See previous entries: Flickr Geotagging Group; Art of the Road; Feel Small Project; Flickr Users' Map Photos. See also Map Site Directory: Flickr....

Originally from The Map Room by Jonathan Crowe reBlogged on Aug 5, 2006, 1:28PM

Originally posted by Jonathan Crowe from The Map Room, on August 5, 2006 3:04 PM

Saved locations come to Google Maps -- if you have a Google account, that is. Locations you search for will be automatically saved by default; you can add them manually as well. See also Google Maps Mania....

Originally from The Map Room by Jonathan Crowe reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 5:20PM

Originally posted by Jonathan Crowe from The Map Room, on August 5, 2006 10:34 AM

In his Designing for Mobile, Brian Fling describes why “mobile is not the Web”:

200+ devices
30+ web browsers
Carrier controlled ecosystem
Limited input or output
Limited guidelines or resources
“No Standards”
People don’t “get it”
The list goes on….

Originally from pasta and vinegar by Nicolas reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 2:25AM

Originally posted by Nicolas from pasta and vinegar, on August 4, 2006 1:57 PM

Given his recent legal troubles, Mel Gibson may want to put some of the upcoming projects from Icon Pictures, his film production company, on hold. Here's a look at some of the movies we'll have to wait a bit longer to see.

Arrested at 2:36 a.m. Friday after his Lexus was stopped for speeding, [Mel] Gibson allegedly had a blood-alcohol level of 0.12 percent, over the legal limit of 0.08 percent. According to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Sheriff’s Department’s report says Gibson told the arresting deputy: “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” and asked him, “Are you a Jew?” —AP Internal Memo: Icon Pictures From: M. Gibson To: Production Staff Guys— As you know, I’ve been caught with my pants down. (But this time not literally, thankfully.) Under the influence of a deadly disease called alcoholism, I said some crazy things. Things that were totally made up and had never actually crossed my mind before, even casually. For this I am sorry, as the thoughtful statement drafted by my Jew publicist attests. Due to these recent events, and at my... Click here to continue reading this article.

Visit The Morning News.

Originally from The Morning News reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 11:12AM

Originally from The Morning News, on August 4, 2006 1:55 PM

jwang writes "I just set up Planet Catalyst at http://planet.catalystframework.org to aggregate blogs about the Catalyst framework. It is also linked from the main Catalyst homepage so you can reach it from there. The planet is focused on articles related to Catalyst and friends which means it filters articles on catalyst, dbic, dbix(::)?class, html(::)?widget or handel (case insensitive). Let me know if there are any other topics of interest that should be included.

Originally from use Perl by davorg reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 9:31AM

Originally posted by davorg from use Perl, on August 4, 2006 1:55 PM

Think that the Internet has made everyone's favorite childhood resource obsolete? Well, some residents of Carroll Gardens have found an innovative and oh-so-necessary use for their old collection of World Book Encyclopedias. A is for "Ahhhhh."

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 10:50AM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 4, 2006 1:55 PM

I’m guessing that the reason paid features were sneaked in by means of a new unannounced menu option* and a passing comment in the news blog (rather than, you know, an actual post) is so that the big announcement could be made at WordCamp. Which sort of makes sense, because they had to have some sort of news to generate the right kind of triumphalist atmosphere, and ‘we’re stealing LJ’s friends-only feature’ might not have been enough all by itself, what with the plebs having been told about it too.

At first I was thinking $15 compared pretty well with livejournal, but then I remembered all the other stuff I get for $25 over there. Usericons, phoneposts, unlimited customisation, mood themes, polls… granted, I don’t use most of this stuff, which is why I no longer think $25 is worth it and am reverting to free. Having been paying for hosting since 2002, I’m not target market for either of these hosts. The a-la-carte credit system, so that you’re only paying for the extra features you need rather than an entire package, is definitely a good idea. Livejournal users have been wanting that for years. I don’t know whether it will prove less lucrative than pressuring people into fixed-tariff subscriptions, or whether some kind of ‘pile your virtual trolley high with cheap add-ons’ mentality will kick in. The latter, probably.

And at first I thought Six Apart might be slightly worried by the introduction of friends-only, but actually no, because privacy is only half of the rationale behind LJ friends (the other half is friends page aggregation), and having extra blogs rather than filters, while useful for inflating the total number of blogs, is significantly more awkward for end users. It’s more like password-protection on diaryland or the late lamented diary-x than what LJ or Vox are doing, and none the worse for that. After all, if I need LJ’s privacy features, I’m going to be on LJ.

I like the idea of Sandbox (I haven’t looked at the structure yet, but I’m assuming it’ll be reasonably sound), though when I mooted a very basic theme in the forum I was thinking more of controlling selected features through the options menu. It doesn’t sound as if it has that, so until the community gets around to coding copy-and-paste stylesheets, this is really only useful to those who are already comfortable with CSS.

Question: is this the same Minimalist Sandbox as on Scott’s site, or are there wordpress.com-specific changes?

* which appears, by the way, to have replaced import/export, now squirrelled away under ‘manage’. I am so looking forward to dealing with the confusion arising from this in the forums while the staff party.

Originally from wordpressâ„¢ wank by that girl again reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 12:08PM

Originally posted by that girl again from wordpressâ„¢ wank, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

Photo by Kent Henderson

Sapodilla's sign-less storefront at 247 Smith Street doesn't look like much yet — but things are already heating up in their recently opened kitchen. The air-conditioning wasn't running when we stopped by Wednesday night, so we put in a take-out order at the tiki-style bar. We barely recognized the old Village 247 space — all the pastel murals have been pulled down to reveal brick-exposures and deep red walls. The friendly staff told us that the downstairs bar will be renovated into a lounge by the fall, "with banquettes and low-lighting to make thing a little sexier." For now, it's worth visiting for the food, which is definitely some of Smith Street's spiciest fare...

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 12:33PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

Scoble writes a nice post-Microsoft rant about what's wrong with his former company, and what the company should pay attention to. The answer: attention data. I agree. Positing a scenario in which he's looking for an office chair for less than $500, Scoble writes:

When I search on “Office Furniture” why is the first thing I see stores? I don’t wanna see freaking corporate info. I wanna know what HUMANS like to use in their offices.

None of the big search companies have figured out that it’s the humans who “optimize” the Web.

They just wanna collect the big company paychecks.

I’m hearing that too here at Podtech. It’s all bunk. If there is no audience, there is no advertising. I’m not an “eyeball” to be tracked, or optimized.

I’ll be looking for who lets me get to the other humans the fastest....

...Remember Active Desktop and Channels? Microsoft could have OWNED the blog world and RSS. Why did that fail? Cause when we looked at it all we saw were big companies.

If you optimize for them you’ll fail.

Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 1:09PM

Originally from John Battelle's Searchblog, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

I wonder if there will be new developer technologies at this WWDC as important as Cocoa Bindings and Core Data in recent years.

I don’t think so—which doesn’t bother me at all, actually. I do expect new technologies, and I expect improvements to Bindings and Core Data, but I don’t expect big new fundamental technologies like these.

My reasoning is pretty simple. Cocoa apps are generally built using the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. Back in the early days of OS X we already had View technologies, but not much for Model and Controller. Then Cocoa Bindings came along, which covered the Controller part. A year later Core Data appeared, which covered the Model (data) part.

So we’re covered (M, V, and C) and I don’t expect fundamental new developer technologies.

But of course I stand ready to be surprised by things I didn’t think of!

Originally from inessential.com reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 1:25PM

Originally from inessential.com, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

Design Within Reach is screening The Eames Film Festival, featuring the short films of Charles and Ray Eames, at cities across the US. Unfortunately for me, a small town called New York City doesn't seem to be on the schedule. :(

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 1:30PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

Fascinating list of terms that Jeopardy fans use to describe the game and different betting strategies. (via thih)

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 2:26PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

US Congress takes head out of ass, puts 'French' back on menu. The days of "Freedom Toast" are behind us. Let us never speak of them again.

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 2:27PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

"My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood".

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 11:43AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

Popular curry spice is a brain booster. Eat curry, improve cognitive function.

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 11:27AM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

Time to say farewell, and to thank you, Meg, for your great hospitality and generosity in allowing me to post on your blog. It's been a great experience, and has allowed me to explore some ideas I'd never have pursued in traditional media while using a voice that is only appropriate to a blog. I'm very much a believer in the how-do-I-know-what-I-think-till-I-read-what-I-write effect, so the freedom of the blog has helped me to figure some things out. Such as why the foie issue is so troubling to me.

In the end it's not about the foie. Life would be diminished in a very small way without foie gras but not drastically so (they way it would be, say, if pork were outlawed). It's that it represents another way uninformed people are trying to legislate what I am or am not allowed to eat. Government is happy to subsidize corn and encourage horrific treatment of billions of cows, pigs and chickens, to encourage through big business processed food that is bad for us, and then tell me that I'm not allowed to eat a natural product from an animal that has (in my opinion, as of now, though this may change) been humanely raised. When people tell me what I can or cannot eat based on a moral contention of their own, that really pisses me off. It's happening throughout our society. The foie issue embodies this troubling trend in America.

I believe that the issues about food that are discussed on the food blogs are important because how we eat determines how we live, literally and metaphorically. How we eat, and the decisions we make, shape the world. From an evolutionary standpoint, humans are a dangerous species--a wickedly smart predator that has so far managed to avoid the ecological disasters of its own predation. I hope we continue to do so, for my kids' sake, but it's going to get harder and harder. We're trashing our livestock; through genetic engineering and the creation of a monoculture, creating powerful bugs that can kill; we're fishing out our oceans, working our way down the food chain, and we're pretty much at the bottom feeders now; we're creating massive dead zones in our oceans from agricultural pollutants, bankrupting our fossil fuel supply and burning holes in the atmosphere.

So yes, dammit, that's why foie gras is important: because it's NOT important. Does that make sense? It shouldn't be important, but it has become important, and that is the shame of it.

See, there I go. I start out thanking Meg, and I tumble into another rant. But it seems to be the only way to be heard. Flannery O'Connor once explained that all her characters were in effect caricatures because it was the only way to make people see. Blogs seem to be particularly good at this as well. Food is important, arguably the most important thing there is, that and water. And blogging well and intelligently about food is important. Maybe it can change things. I hope.

So many thanks to all the excellent readers who commented on the issues, elevating and enhancing them and giving them perspective and balance. And again, many thanks for the opportunity to hang out for a short time on your excellent blog, Meg. I'll be reading.

Onward.

comments are open

Originally from megnut.com blog by michael@ruhlman.com (Michael Ruhlman) reBlogged on Dec 31, 1969, 6:59PM

Originally posted by michael@ruhlman.com (Michael Ruhlman) from megnut.com blog, on August 4, 2006 1:54 PM

All last week i hankered for fried green tomatoes. It's that damn cashew chutney combined with cornmealy fried goodness that i love! I can't seem to find any green tomatoes outside of the Union Square Farmers' Market, so last Saturday i forced us to wake up at an insane 7am in order to get there early for the good stuff. (Keep in mind i usually go to sleep around 3am, so this is quite a grand feat!)

Getting there early was such a good experience. The crowds aren't stifling and neither is the weather; basically your only competition for the best tomatoes are early-rising senior citizens and produce-hungry shoppers. We spent about $30 and came home with 2 bulging bags:

1 large bunch collard greens
1 large bunch kale
3 medium green tomatoes
4 assorted heirloom tomatoes
1/2 lb baby bok choy
1/2 lb okra
2 large jalepeno peppers
1 pint tiny strawberries
cilantro
basil
common mint
9 ears of corn

I wish i remembered the name of our corn vendor - all i recall is that he was on the west side of Union Square, with a table of corn on the end of a stall, $1 for 3 ears - because you gotta RUN this Saturday and get 18 or 24 ears of corn like i will. It was cut so recently that the ends still glistened, and so sweet that people were eating it RAW, juice down the chin and encouraging others to buy quickly.

When we got home we shucked and microwaved* 2 ears. We were pretty sure they were going to be good but definitely not as good as the little ears we had in Hawaii, and we were so wrong. All we talked about for the rest of the day was how excellent the sweet yellow corn was: so sugary, so tender you barely had to exert a forceful bite. We somehow didn't tire of turning to each other and going, "Fuck! Why was that corn so good?" for hours. Absolutely no need for butter or salt. Now, i ate my 3 ears within a few hours of purchase but be saved his last one for 2 days later. It was less sweet and little more starchy, but still excellent according to him.

You must get some corn. It's time for tomatoes. The peaches smell perfumey. And i finally got my green tomatoes! So good!

* How To Microwave Corn

Ever since our complimentary microwave from the bank (back in the 80s when banks actually gave you gifts for opening accounts) my family has microwaved fresh corn. It's faster and more flavorful than boiling, plus it's super easy.

1) Shuck corn and remove silk as best you can
2) Place 2-4 ears on a microwave-safe plate or glass dish
3) Cover with plastic wrap and vent in a few places
4) Microwave on high for approximately 1.5 minutes per ear, a bit less time if corn is super fresh
5) It's gonna be HOT - use mitts to take it out and to lift off plastic wrap, be careful of steam

Originally from beXnlog by beXn reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 11:35PM

Originally posted by beXn from beXnlog, on August 4, 2006 2:27 AM

If you’ve gotta run the wheel, you might as well do it in bare feet. Many of us are so busy being good little hamsters that we never have face time with green space. A group of students from Dalhousie School of Architecture decided to remedy this problem with a street-ready grass-lined wheel.

More on Inhabit …

Originally from Amit Gupta's Blog by Amit Gupta reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 1:12AM

Originally posted by Amit Gupta from Amit Gupta's Blog, on August 4, 2006 2:27 AM

Meebo, the start-up that lets you instant message online across different platforms (Google, MSN, Yahoo, AOL, etc), has come up with a cool little widget that lets you chat with anyone directly from your homepage. It is called Meebome, and the details are here. We've embedded it here on the page, so that you can we what it looks like. To our knowledge, there is no other feature that lets you chat to various people -- individually, via one-to-one conversations -- from pretty much any Web page. There is Gabbly, but that is group chat, and it produces lots of noise because everyone can see what you are writing to everyone else. That homepage can be wherever you want it, from your MySpace account, to your blog, to your listing page at eBay. We think this is significant for a number of reasons. First, this is a very fun feature for regular bloggers, the ones with only four or five people reading their blog at any given time of the day. Second, and more profoundly, it is a deceptively simple feature that pushes forward IM-presence on the Web, and could help transform ecommerce -- that is, if eBay permits it on their site and allows chat directly between buyers and sellers. The blogger can decide to reveal whether they are present to chat or not, and the reader on the page can do the same -- just like in normal chat. It is just one more option to have a chat function at an important part of your Web identity. The big question is whether eBay will allow this or not. More shortly....

Originally from VentureBeat by Matt Marshall reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 9:00AM

Originally posted by Matt Marshall from VentureBeat, on August 4, 2006 2:19 AM

A mix for the heat: Al Barr, Ratatat, Bravo Silva, Prince, M. Ward, The Rapture, Eddie Holman, Towa Tei, Marcia Griffiths, Elton John, James Hand, The Roulette Sisters, The Alarmists, Cuizinier, The Raconteurs, The Weird Weeds

I just spent two and a half weeks submerged in the woods and there wasn’t much music besides frogs and a neighbor’s chainsaw. Radio stations were few; the local NPR broadcast was locked in a fundraising drive; my iPod wouldn’t talk to the tape deck in the car, and my working brain (I was submerged in the woods with a laptop, I should have said) only responded to Schumann, Handel, Brad Mehldau, and the Grateful Dead. And I forgot to bring any mixes with me. I love mixes in the summer. It’s good weather for jubilation. As a kid I’d hide in my bedroom during summer break to make cassettes. For lack of a record collection, or a world that contained mp3 blogs, the mixes weren’t big on variety—Beatles, Michael Jackson, Beatles, Belinda Carlisle—but at least the songs were never in the same order. Here’s a mix for this afternoon,... Click here to continue reading this article.

Visit The Morning News.

Originally from The Morning News reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 12:18PM

Originally from The Morning News, on August 4, 2006 2:17 AM

Last Friday, Tzameti (13) opened at Film Forum. As far as I can tell, this is the only place where you can see this movie in the US. It's by first-time Georgian director Gela Babluani, takes place in France,...

Originally from Amy's Robot by Amy reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 10:30AM

Originally posted by Amy from Amy's Robot, on August 4, 2006 2:17 AM

If you had a blog on MSN Spaces then you now have a blog on Windows Live Spaces, with new friends features and gadgets, because Microsoft has finally rolled out the upgrade. The changeover was announced on The Space Craft,...

Originally from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 9:47AM

Originally from Guardian Unlimited: Technology blog, on August 4, 2006 2:17 AM

This image of the participants of a 1927 conference on quantum mechanics sets the record for the most brainpower in one photograph. Schrodinger, Pauli, Heisenberg, Dirac, Compton, Bohr, Einstein, Planck, Curie, de Broglie, and Lorenz, all in one place.
Update: A Great Day in Harlem depicts several of the world's top jazz musicians. More here. (thx, jim & greg)

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 8:54AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 4, 2006 2:17 AM

Grass-Fed Rule Angers Farmers reported the New York Times last week. Includes addresses for submitting comments to the Agriculture Department regarding grass-fed legislation. If I'm going to spend the extra money for something that's labeled grass-fed, I want to be sure it's actually out in the pasture grazing for its meal, not standing in a feed lot eating "grass" harvested from unripe corn.

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 11:53AM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 4, 2006 2:16 AM

In just a few hours, we'll be announcing the five winners of our Blink of an Eye contest here in New York. Come join us -- I hear there's air conditioning! The Midtown Loft, 267 5th Avenue, 4th Floor, 6 - 9 PM. We hope you can join us. Did I mention there's air conditioning?

Photo from carpe icthus.

Originally from FlickrBlog by Heather Champ reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 11:05AM

Originally posted by Heather Champ from FlickrBlog, on August 4, 2006 2:16 AM

Don't worry about me - I'm doing just fine!!

Originally from Andrea Harner by Andrea reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 2:56PM

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on August 4, 2006 2:16 AM

I’ve recently been playing with Vox, the new blogging/social networking product from Six Apart. I have to say that I’m very impressed with it—it’s blogging for people who don’t blog. It’s very easy to post an entry, and the integrated multi-media tools are dead simple to use.

If anyone wants an invite, drop a line in the comments.

Originally from pf.org by Paul Frankenstein reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 4:28PM

Originally posted by Paul Frankenstein from pf.org, on August 4, 2006 2:14 AM

he made edits and encouraged others in this episode; they locked the article  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 2:49PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on August 4, 2006 2:14 AM

This summer, we’re kicking off research to further explore the business value of user experience. This work will expand upon ideas first presented in our 2004 report, Leveraging Business Value: How ROI Changes User Experience.

We’re looking for your help to validate our ideas. If you have a minute, please complete our Business Value of User Experience survey. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=460122410765

As a bonus, by completing the survey you’ll receive a free copy of the Leveraging Business Value report, a $395 value. The information you provide will be kept confidential; with your permission, we may contact you for a follow-up interview based on your responses.

If you can participate, thank you for your time. Questions? Contact me at steve@adaptivepath.com.

Originally from Adaptive Path by Steve Toomey reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 5:01PM

Originally posted by Steve Toomey from Adaptive Path, on August 4, 2006 2:13 AM

Crazy Frog is No. 1 on the album charts in Canada, reports Jam! Showbiz. Crazy Frog's "More Crazy Hits" debuted at No. 1 in the nation this week, racking up over 15,000 in sales, according to data compiled by Neilsen...

Originally from ringtonia.com by Regine reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 5:16PM

Originally posted by Regine from ringtonia.com, on August 4, 2006 2:13 AM

Finally! I got the recipes ported over from my old site and you can now see them here. The design isn't so hot, need to do some more tweaking, but at least they're there. Now that they are, I recommend you make a bread salad or heirloom tomato salad for dinner tonight.

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 5:29PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 4, 2006 2:13 AM

Turns out the big fellow is all over YouTube. I've always said: when they get the cloning thing down, I'll start my own nation with 12 young Saboni, and we'll win Olympic gold every four years.

Some favorite videos:

• An incredible no-look pass to Bonzi Wells.
• An even more incredible pass to a nameless Euro. I have never seen anyone do a blind "tap-on" pass like this in basketball before. I've seen it in soccer, but not basketball.
• Love the young Sabonis hair do, the green court, a little victory dance, and the soviet bloc TV production.
• This one is not in English either, but I'd love to know what they're saying about him as they torment the sleeping Sabonis on the plane.
• Throws a mean elbow.
• I wish I spoke whatever language they're speaking in this old-school Sabonis mini-documentary. Much of it appears to pre-date color television.
• This is kind of hilarious. Video of young Sabonis with Axl Rose singing "nothing lasts forever..." It's actually the granddaddy of Sabonis highlight packages (includes a lot of the stuff above), complete with a shattered backboard.

Originally from True Hoop by Henry Abbott reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 6:48PM

Originally posted by Henry Abbott from True Hoop, on August 4, 2006 2:11 AM

<!-- START ATTACHMENT TABLE -->

<!-- END ATTACHMENT TABLE -->
To meet daddy for lunch on the grass.

Originally from Kokochi by Mie reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 6:09PM

Originally posted by Mie from Kokochi, on August 4, 2006 2:10 AM

Here’s something I’d totally love to see at WWDC: the Cocoa framework open-sourced. Foundation and AppKit both.

It’s not that I want to work on it, and it’s not that I want to use _undocumented _private _methods, it’s that sometimes it would be really helpful to have the source so I can see what’s going on under the hood.

There are times when things don’t work as expected, or there’s some weird bug, and I want to look at the source—and be able to debug with the source—so I can see what the heck is actually going on.

I understand entirely that making Cocoa open source means a bunch of work. It wouldn’t be easy; it would be expensive. But Apple does have the WebKit experience to draw on.

And there are other drawbacks. But one drawback I think doesn’t exist: they don’t have to worry about competition. Is there somebody else who wants to create an Objective-C application framework for OS X? (Ah, nope.)

Apple would get big points for openness and generosity and developer support. (Assume that part of this would be making the bug tracker open to developers.)

(I have absolutely no inside knowledge. This would be an exciting and cool thing to have happen, but I put its likelihood somewhere around 0.01%.)

Originally from inessential.com reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 8:17PM

Originally from inessential.com, on August 4, 2006 2:10 AM

Switch is a DIY show for teaching young women about electronics through fashion and design.

Originally from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs by yatta reBlogged on Jul 25, 2006, 7:09PM

Originally posted by yatta from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on August 4, 2006 2:09 AM

Take me to WWDC! Mike McCracken WWDC flashcards!!

"This card may also be appropriate just after seeing the amazing demo of Apple's free version of your only product."

It sucks that Mike won't be there this year, but at least this way he'll be there in spirit.

Originally from Gus's blog, adventures in Flying Meat. reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 12:50AM

Originally from Gus's blog, adventures in Flying Meat., on August 4, 2006 2:09 AM

The Lisbon Perl Mongers have put up an ICS Perl calendar. The calendar will contain all the social and tech Perl events in Portugal, as Perl-related conferences and deadlines around the world. Suggestions are welcome. Enjoy :-)

Originally from use Perl by cog (posted by brian_d_foy) reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 9:50PM

Originally posted by cog (posted by brian_d_foy) from use Perl, on August 4, 2006 2:08 AM

Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, LG, Siemens, Panasonic. They’ve had years to get it right, but still no one has. The UIs suck. The smarter the phone the slower it is. The “other stuff” on phones still haven’t caught on [Chicago Tribune, registration required]. Today’s phones are failures — mainly software/interface failures.

What company gets the software-hardware-interface-experience connection like no other? Apple, of course.

Are we going to see Apple change the world again? Will Apple finally raise the bar on a piece of hardware and software that hundreds of millions rely on every day?

It’s theirs for the taking. Please take it, Apple.

Originally from Signal vs. Noise reBlogged on Aug 2, 2006, 10:00PM

Originally from Signal vs. Noise, on August 4, 2006 2:08 AM

Brent has been busy making guesses and putting out thoughts for things that may or may not happen next week at WWDC. Here's my list.

• Patches for SQLite to hand over to the main distribution to do file locking across samba, afp, and webdav. (Here's why this may be a possibility). And these patches get accepted to the main distribution so I can use it in VP3.


• VMware baked into the OS, and dubbed "Rosetta Extreme" or some crap like that.


• And if that doesn't happen, then I think VMware will finally have a product out for OSX.


• Tabbed Finder! (duh).


• More of the dark iTunes windows (duh).


• Resolution independence, along with some new displays to take advantage of that.


• I kept on telling people for a while that Apple would embrace Lua as a preferred in-app scripting language. But then I remembered "oh yea, they have a JavaScript VM already, don't they?". So I think they'll do something with that, and make a bridge that is useful outside of WebKit. I hope so anyway.


• Some sort of tab control (Brent wants this as well).


• Xcode 3.0 (OMG- 1250MB?!)


• Some fancy new compiler techniques (llvm?), to go along with a new runtime (objc 2.0).

Just a couple of more days...

I was eating dinner this evening with my wife, thinking about next week, and I sort of burst out laughing and shaking my head at the same time.

"What?" she asks.

"Next week is going to be pretty busy and intense" I say.

Originally from Gus's blog, adventures in Flying Meat. reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 1:10AM

Originally from Gus's blog, adventures in Flying Meat., on August 4, 2006 2:08 AM

"Our media is giving the impression that Israel is only fighting along the border in a defensive manner. The map exposes this lie of ommission -- this is an all out attempt to destroy the country of Lebanon." (via here and here)

Originally from Space and Culture by Matt reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 2:45AM

Originally posted by Matt from Space and Culture, on August 4, 2006 1:20 AM

"A major obstacle that prevents people from enjoyably achieving their goals is that they set their goals incorrectly to begin with. This problem occurs because people don’t understand the nature of time well enough. ... Treat goal-setting as a way to enhance your present reality, not as a way to control the future."

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 1:56AM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on August 4, 2006 1:20 AM

Thanks to Wildbill’s cellphone photo clicking speed, we now can see the first pics of a Ubuntu billboard in the US. Ever.

Boy have I waited for this. I will be so very happy when I walk into Walmart and see free Ubuntu CDs in place of the free AOL cds. Hmm, wait a second - that kind of ubiquity could be obnoxious - but hey! I’ll take a billboard!

The above billboard was spotted near the Ralston exit in Redwood City, USA.

Originally from Ubuntu Blog by ubuntonista reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 1:23AM

Originally posted by ubuntonista from Ubuntu Blog, on August 4, 2006 1:20 AM

Welcome to The Galapagos Islands - 13 main volcanic islands, 6 smaller islands, 107 rocks and islets, loads of high resolution images and tons and tons of incredible sights to see. Have fun

More on the Galapagos Islands at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Josh.

Categories: Natural Landmarks, Weirdness, Watercraft and Ecuador

View in Google Earth

Originally from Google Sightseeing by Alex reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 5:30AM

Originally posted by Alex from Google Sightseeing, on August 4, 2006 1:20 AM

Oh, dear Lord. S’MAC (Sarita's Macaroni & Cheese) is a NYC restaurant that serves 10 versions of gourmet macaroni and cheese: Gruyere and slab bacon, brie with roasted figs, shiitakes and rosemary, and good old American and Cheddar Cheese are all on the menu.

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 8:30AM

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on August 4, 2006 1:20 AM

Adam reviews a movie about a man whose way of running a restaurant is so idiosyncratic that one might frame an entire philosophy or system of government on its credos. Yes, he's seen "I Like Killing Flies," the film about Kenny Shopsin.

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 10:51AM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 4, 2006 1:14 AM

Just last May Collin was saying how Piaggio Group surveyed Americans and found that “almost one in three Americans would be extremely or somewhat likely to consider using a motor scooter.” According to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal, we think Piaggio needs to encourage its market research firm to go out on a limb. WSJ reports: “Domestic sales of scooters have surged as budget- and environment-minded consumers look for relief from high pump prices and as more-appealing models come on the market”. They report that “scooters with engine sizes of 150ccs or less…jumped some 200% to 48,000 by 2004 from about 16,000 in 1999, and they continue to rise…”

Graphic credit: Vespa "Retro", around $850

Originally from Treehugger

reBlogged by Matthew Haughey on Aug 3, 2006, 4:36PM

Originally from mathowie reBlog feed reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 12:05PM

Originally from mathowie reBlog feed , on August 4, 2006 1:12 AM

When 15 mph is too little and 20 is too much. GMAP

Originally from Brooklyn Record by brownstoner reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 12:36PM

Originally posted by brownstoner from Brooklyn Record, on August 4, 2006 1:12 AM

For this week's Voice cover story, Cynthia Carr interviews people who live in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards project — and puts faces, names, and personalities on those who will be forced out of their homes if the project moves along according to plans. Joseph Pastore, one of the "mayors" of Dean Street, is one of her subjects. The retired 62-year-old, who pays about $400 in rent and has lived on the block since 1967, isn't thrilled that the Forest City Ratner maintenance people have been inspecting his building:

"They're checking for 'susbestos' and lead in the paint!" cries Pastore. "If he's trying to use that to take down the building, he might as well take the whole city down...

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 1:17PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 4, 2006 1:12 AM

Heading into dinner last night, I believed with certainty that Finland was one of the Scandinavian countries. I rebuffed Mr. Jones' attempts to disabuse me of that notion before dessert arrived, but it wasn't until this morning that I checked into the matter and found that he may be correct.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune investigated the issue back in January, finding that there's some controversy, even among the staff at the Finnish Embassy in Washington D.C.:

I called the Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C., where press aide Mari Poyhtari started by saying Finland is part of Scandinavia, but then someone in the background disagreed and she corrected herself. The most accurate term is Fenno-Scandinavia or the Nordic countries, Poyhtari said. But, she admitted, "We always say we're part of Scandinavia."

The Wikipedia page on Scandinavia, the result of a vigorous discussion on the topic, indicates that there are several possible arrangements of Scandinavian countries, depending on the grouping criteria used and who you're talking to.

• Geographically, the Scandinavian peninsula includes mainland Norway, Sweden, and part of Finland.
• In the region, the common definition includes Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.
• Outside of the region, the term often includes not only Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland but also Iceland, a grouping commonly called the Nordic countries.
• Linguistically speaking (pardon the pun), the Finnish language is unrelated to Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish, which is an argument for the cultural exclusion of Finland from Scandinavia.

So there you go, clear as mud. Probably best to avoid the issue altogether in the future by using the term Nordic instead of Scandinavian. All look same anyway.

Update: Underbelly notes that this "issue is in no way limited to Scandinavians":

It's the kind of muddiness you just have to expect when you consider any culture. Was Cleopatra an Egyptian? Are the Tasmanians British? What did the Byzanatines have in mind when they described themselves as "The Romans" while fighting wars against, well, Rome?

(thx, jack)

Originally from kottke.org reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 1:09PM

Originally from kottke.org, on August 4, 2006 1:12 AM

For this week's Voice cover story, Cynthia Carr interviews people who live in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards project — and puts faces, names, and personalities on those who will be forced out of their homes if the project moves along according to plans. Joseph Pastore, one of the "mayors" of Dean Street, is one of her subjects. The retired 62-year-old, who pays about $400 in rent and has lived on the block since 1967, isn't thrilled that the Forest City Ratner maintenance people have been inspecting his building:

"They're checking for 'susbestos' and lead in the paint!" cries Pastore. "If he's trying to use that to take down the building, he might as well take the whole city down...

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 1:17PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 4, 2006 1:12 AM

Originally from Modern Art Notes reBlogged

Originally from Modern Art Notes, on August 4, 2006 1:09 AM

Part two of a conversation between Jesse James Garrett and Steven Johnson. Here's part one. (thx, kevin)

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 5:14PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 4, 2006 1:09 AM

Untitled. Photo by BluCollarDandy
Dude, Where's My Sideburn? [Across the Park]
The Best Way Yet to Cool Off [Brooklyn Ramblings]
What's Your Favorite Brooklyn Venue? [Brooklyn Vegan]
Swanky Newswalk Duplex [Brownstoner]
Keeping Cool, PLG-Style [Planet PLG]
Brownouts in Sunset Park [Sunset Parker]

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 4:47PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 4, 2006 1:09 AM

Dirk Riehle posts an interview with several active Wikipedians on "How and Why Wikipedia Works." Lots of detail, plus this interesting nugget (that Science Library Pad caught):

DR: What about the 'collective intelligence' or 'collective wisdom' argument: That given enough authors, the quality of an article will generally improve? Does this hold true for Wikipedia?
EB: No, it does not. The best articles are typically written by a single or a few authors with expertise in the topic. In this respect, Wikipedia is not different from classical encyclopedias.
KN: Elian is right. Also, most of the short articles remain short and of rather poor content.

<!-- technorati tags start -->

Technorati Tags: encyclopedia, wiki

<!-- technorati tags end -->

Originally from unmediated by yatta reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 3:36PM

Originally posted by yatta from unmediated, on August 4, 2006 1:01 AM

Smells like 9/11, originally uploaded by charles.hope.

Charles from www.blip.tv found this picture "there is a very strong smell in the air tonight. I have smelled it before.
I was in NYC during the 9-11 attacks. For two months after teh attacks, NYC smelled like Beruit smells like tonight.
It is a mixture of burnt buildings, electric fires, and charred bodies.
It is a putrid and nauseating smell.
I closed all the windows in the apartment, but now we are choking from the sweltering heat."

Originally from Hi Tricia! by Tricia Wang 王 圣 㨗 reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 9:19PM

Originally posted by Tricia Wang 王 圣 㨗 from Hi Tricia!, on August 4, 2006 12:45 AM

Michael McCracken: “I can’t make it in person to either WWDC or Buzz’s party this year, and as a result, I’m bummed right out. But I haven’t sulked, I thought of your feelings too. I came up with a way to make it seem kind of like I was there anyway. It’s so crazy, it just might work...”

Originally from inessential.com reBlogged on Aug 3, 2006, 11:07PM

Originally from inessential.com, on August 4, 2006 12:45 AM

After my interlude at Comic-Con International in San Diego, I spent the rest of my week-plus vacation visiting my family in Irvine, California. It was a blast; I sat by the pool, took my nine year-old nephew to a magic shop, and watched a ton of movies. I’ve been back home since late Sunday night, but I’m really freakin’ swamped here, not just with work, but also with all manner of extracurricular and personal activities.

Which explains the lack of blog posts here at Subtraction.com (and this mea culpa post, the likes of which I normally avoid), at least in part. The other part is this damnable heat that dogged me in California and that’s dogging me again here in New York City. Temperatures have routinely been in the upper nineties, with the heat index breaking 105 F. Lovely. Makes it uncomfortable to do much of anything.

Conservation as Personal Virtue

Faced with this heat wave and the demand that it causes on the power grid, the whole region has been gripped by the fear of a possible blackout. Like a lot of conscientious New Yorkers, I’ve been trying to do my part by turning off lights, shutting down my computer, unplugging appliances and generally not complaining when the air conditioning in my office was barely working. I haven’t complained, especially as the city as a whole has been doing much the same on a bigger scale: turning off the Empire State Building’s vanity lighting, setting thermostats higher at government facilities, etc.

But then, while shuttling between appointments at work today, I passed through Times Square (as I normally do) and I saw that most of the shops there continue to flagrantly and uncaringly run their excessive, neon-lit billboards and animated signs full-bore. The one offender that stuck out in my mind was Quicksilver’s store at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, which is as profoundly unnecessary an operation as any I can imagine right now. There’s just no reason for stores like that to be running at full power in the midst of this heat wave, is there? Commerce be damned… if there’s a blackout, they deserve to get their asses sued for that.

I just wanted to get that off my chest. I’ll be returning to more substantive posts by next Monday, at the latest. Stay cool, everyone!

Originally from Subtraction by Khoi Vinh reBlogged on Aug 4, 2006, 12:44AM

Originally posted by Khoi Vinh from Subtraction, on August 4, 2006 12:45 AM

Super Mario Bros: A Literary Criticism. "Right after he has apparently slid down a flagpole (a strong reference to receiving anal sex), he finds himself in the proverbial sewers, already feeling a deep low from his initial hits wearing off. But after more anal sex, he is high in the mountains, which psychadelically appear as gigantic mushrooms, an obvious result of his hallucinatory state." [ via Negatendo ]

Originally from cheesedip.com reBlogged on Jul 31, 2006, 6:16PM

Originally from cheesedip.com, on August 1, 2006 7:38 PM

it turns cameraphone photos into a thing of beauty  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Jul 31, 2006, 7:25PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on August 1, 2006 7:38 PM

Terminal.app + screen = confuzzlement

Originally from random($foo) reBlogged on Jul 31, 2006, 11:06PM

Originally from random($foo), on August 1, 2006 7:36 PM

Amazon has added the cover for The Ghost Map to its page for the book, so I guess that means I can share it here. I'm very happy with it -- it has a nice ominous tone to it that captures the overall feel of the book. But the coolest part is not visible here: the map itself bleeds through the dark area behind the main text, in that the street lines are printed in matte black ink, while everything else is glossy black. (I think I have that right.) The overall effect is almost an optical illusion: the map appears and disappears depending on the light and the angle you're holding the book -- as though the map were some kind of -- what's the word for it? -- apparition? specter? phantasm?

Originally from stevenberlinjohnson.com by stevenberlinjohnson reBlogged on Jul 31, 2006, 9:46AM

Originally posted by stevenberlinjohnson from stevenberlinjohnson.com, on August 1, 2006 7:36 PM

The community of people who criticize Wikipedia form an interesting culture, as I noted earlier. If you want the links to do the research yourself, here's some places to start.

• The Onion, "Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence": The first Onion piece that's actually made me LOL in years. "Did Betsy Ross, as legend has it, really have the biggest boobies in the New World?"

• ASCII: Jason Scott's weblog. Jason's done some amazing work with his BBS Documentary, his collection of text files, and he wrote a great post explaining why his documentary is Creative Commons-licensed, complete with a followup. But that's not why I mention him...
• Jason Scott's also written the most definitive critique of Wikipedia policy, here hosted by the Internet Archive.
• I mentioned Stacy Schiff's New Yorker article on Wikipedia, but this week's New Yorker features an article on the rise of amateurs that's really just a gloss on the most recent Pew Report on blogging. Apparently, most people want to use communication tools to communicate, but a few want to do journalism or make money.
• Finally ,Ikkyu2's Wikipedia user page, complete with a list of what's wrong with Wikipedia. See also LiveJournal and a phenomenal history of Ask MetaFilter answers.

Originally from Anil Dash by Anil reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 3:09AM

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on August 1, 2006 7:34 PM

---

Gro-Rabbit--artist and actual title unknown

Originally from Tom Moody by tom moody reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 8:08AM

Originally posted by tom moody from Tom Moody, on August 1, 2006 7:34 PM

UPDATE
———–
Thanks to everyone who got in touch. We’re closing the advertising now for the posts ‘IRL’, so I’ll do the same here.
———–

This is the first time I’ve done such a thing (I think) and as far as I know it’s the first time we’ve done it at Nokia Design, but it seems to have worked for others in the past, so here goes…

We’re looking for a few mind-blowing people to join the team working on user-experience and interaction design for Nokia Nseries [warning - a lot of Flash] and other multimedia goodness.

There are two roles up for grabs at the moment:

Senior Design Specialist, User Experience Design
This is quite a senior role, and would suit someone with 8+ years of experience in UE design, 5+− years as UE creative lead.
It is both a ‘business-facing’ role and a team-building/growing role: excellent people and team working skills are a definite plus. It’s also a creative role, excellent concepting/vision-communication skills are needed. We’re working in an increasing multi-disciplinary and rapidly-prototyping manner, so both wide brains and deep skills are a must.

and

User-Experience Designer
This might suit someone who is a post-grad designer with 2-3 years industry experience under their belt - not necessarily directly mobile, but with a strong multi-platform, , multi-device, people-centred view of interaction design. This is much more of a hand-on, project-oriented role, but again it’s working in the same multi-disciplinary, rapidly-prototyping team environment. Excellent UE/UI/interaction prototyping skills are needed here (Flash, Illustrator, all the usuals etc - plus pens, post-its and polyboard!) to be able to evaulate concepts and designs quickly.

If you’re looking for what must be one of the most challenging jobs in mobile experience design, are interested and willing to work in Helsinki or London, or have any questions, then drop me a line at the usual email address matt (at) blackbeltjones.com and I can put you in touch with our recruitment people to get more detail job descriptions etc.

Tags: jobs

Originally from Blackbeltjones/Work by Matt reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 6:47AM

Originally posted by Matt from Blackbeltjones/Work, on August 1, 2006 7:27 PM

Yan Wu's Turntable Microwave is part of a research about challenging the existing interaction between people and domestic products.

The development of technology seems to be faster than the study of human-technology relationship. There is first a "compromising period" in which humans try to be adapting to the machine.

Wu searched how everyday products could make people think about what they should give back to technology. The industrial designer's experiment focused on product interface, with an unusual product context that modified the user interface without compromising the product’s effectiveness.

In Turntable Microwave, a representation of the turntable needle and record act as the control panel of a microwave oven. Both the turntable and the microwave oven keep their archetypal form and the immediate impact of their working status is similar: a disk spinning. This similarity facilitates an intuitive association.

Despite the emotional memory that gramophones provide, the experience of using a needle to choose, “place” and locate your music is another feature people are still fascinated with. This poetic manipulation is lent to microwave ovens for users to select an order.

What i found most interesting was the feedback Wu got from the show: "It was kind of unexpected since people have more inspiring interpretations of these objects than me. Some liked it because it has music but some were attracted by the idea of turning gramophone into a timer. It’s very interesting to see people get your idea but not only in your intended way."

Seen at the MA Industrial Design Graduation Show , Central Saint Martins in London.

Originally from we make money not art by Regine reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 3:38AM

Originally posted by Regine from we make money not art, on August 1, 2006 7:26 PM

Vist Far and Wide: the Golden Age of Travel Posters for some stunning vintage posters depicting the exotic and romantic holiday destinations of the 1920s and 30s. These posters are from the collection of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Originally from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog by Johnny reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 2:10PM

Originally posted by Johnny from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on August 1, 2006 7:24 PM

Hungary for fruit?
Originally uploaded by schickr.

Lovely blackberries. Haven't had them in ages.

Originally from Cognections by charlie reBlogged

Originally posted by charlie from Cognections, on August 1, 2006 7:24 PM

There's a reason you only eat oysters in the R months: 74 Become Ill After Eating Raw Oysters. Last time I checked, it wasn't Jurly. Nor is today Argust 1st. [via Eater]

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 6:30PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 1, 2006 7:24 PM

This application is a version of TextEdit enhanced with additional document properties using AppleScript Studio.

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates reBlogged on Jul 28, 2006, 4:00AM

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates, on August 1, 2006 6:04 PM

Dashboard widget with a plug-in that queries AddressBook.framework for contacts with upcoming birthdays

Originally from Apple Developer Connection Apple Applications Headlines reBlogged on Jul 28, 2006, 4:00AM

Originally from Apple Developer Connection Apple Applications Headlines, on August 1, 2006 6:04 PM

This is a Hello, world application built using AppleScript Studio.

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates reBlogged on Jul 28, 2006, 4:00AM

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates, on August 1, 2006 6:04 PM

Dashboard widget with a plug-in that queries AddressBook.framework for contacts with upcoming birthdays

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates reBlogged on Jul 28, 2006, 4:00AM

Originally from ADC Reference Library Updates, on August 1, 2006 6:04 PM

Long-time readers of this blog know that I have very rarely posted anything here on the "bloggers versus mainstream journalism" debate, largely because the market for good ideas on this topic has long been saturated, in my opinion. But Nicholas Lemann's piece in the New Yorker this week has finally pushed me over the edge. Don't get me wrong -- Lemann is a superb journalist, and I agree with just about everything he says in the article. But that's the problem. I think everyone agrees with just about everything he says in the article. Jay Rosen tried to kill off this kind of discussion a year or two ago with his smart essay, Bloggers Versus Journalists Is Over, but obviously it didn't stick. So let me propose a slightly more blunt approach. Does anyone disagree with the following concepts:

1. Mainstream, top-down, professional journalism will continue to play a vital role in covering news events, and in shaping our interpretation of those events, as it should.

2. Bloggers will grow increasingly adept at covering certain kinds of news events, but not all. They will play an increasingly important role in the interpretation of all kinds of news.

3. The majority of bloggers won't be concerned with traditional news at all.

4. Professional, edited journalism will have a much higher signal-to-noise ratio than blogging; examples of sloppy, offensive, factually incorrect, or tedious writing will be abundant in the blogosphere. But diamonds in that rough will be abundant as well.

5. Blogs -- like all modes of contemporary media -- are not historically unique; they draw upon and resemble a number of past traditions and forms, depending on their focus.

So here's my proposal: if you're writing an article or a blog post about this issue, and your argument revolves around one or more of these points -- and doesn't add anything else of substance -- STOP WRITING. Pick a new topic. Move on. There's nothing to see here.

POSTSCRIPT, added a few hours later: I changed the line where I say that I agreed with "everything" in Lemann's article so that it now reads "just about everything," since obviously I disagree with the opening premise: "On the Internet, everyone is a millenarian." I'd be very surprised if even the most impassioned champions of the blogosphere disagree with any of my five points, which are all explicitly anti-millenarian in spirit, if not in letter as well.

Originally from stevenberlinjohnson.com by stevenberlinjohnson reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 1:54PM

Originally posted by stevenberlinjohnson from stevenberlinjohnson.com, on August 1, 2006 6:04 PM

Hot Brooklyn. Photo by dr. snitch
McCarren Park Pool: Film Tonight [A Brooklyn Life]
Sunset Park's Art Deco Waterfront [Brooklyn Ramblings]
The Beer Line @ McCarren Pool [Brooklyn Vegan]
Lewis Defends ACORN's Deal with FCR [Brownstoner]
Why Your Basement Floods [Callalillie]
CurbedWire: Brooklyn Condo Glory [Curbed]
Brooklyn Smackdown: Raccoons Vs. Hipsters [Gothamist]
Renderings of McCarren Pool...with Water [Gowanus Lounge]

Originally from Brooklyn Record by Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 5:01PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 1, 2006 4:44 PM

Dan Crane Will Teach You Air Guitar, originally uploaded by triciawang 王 圣 㨗.

22nd and 6th ave, nyc

dan björn Turoque Crane has helped many beginning and advancing air guitarists achieve their goals. And he can help u achieve urs. see Dan read his book TO AIR IS HUMAN on aug 9th, 7pm at Barnes and Nobles Chelsea 675 6th ave

Originally from Hi Tricia! by Tricia Wang 王 圣 㨗 reBlogged on Jul 31, 2006, 5:08PM

Originally posted by Tricia Wang 王 圣 㨗 from Hi Tricia!, on August 1, 2006 4:43 PM

Beware of that cellphone, warns Trinidad News. It could be harbouring the deadly MRSA bacteria which affected three patients at the San Fernando General Hospital earlier this month, one of whom suffering with throat cancer, died. "Cellphone should be regarded...

Originally from textually.org by Regine reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 3:23PM

Originally posted by Regine from textually.org, on August 1, 2006 4:42 PM

The Wi-Fi in Your Handset - New York Times

It's a pretty innocuous headline and photo, but make no mistake this is an early salvo in what looks to be a heated battle over the control of the wireless infrastructure. The cell phone service providers are on one side, the equipment makers and software companies on the other. Governments? They are both omnipresent yet conspicuously absent from the core of the debate, they seem to only have a clue as to what is happening at certain key junctures (ie when municipal WiFi discussions get serious like in SF or Philadelphia).

Originally posted by Abe from Abstract Dynamics, ReBlogged by migurski on Aug 1, 2006 at 12:38 PM

Originally from unmediated by yatta reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 3:11PM

Originally posted by yatta from unmediated, on August 1, 2006 4:36 PM

WITNESS is in the process of developing a participatory website - the Video Hub, where anyone with human rights related footage can upload video that can be used to create change.

Originally from unmediated by yatta reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 3:11PM

Originally posted by yatta from unmediated, on August 1, 2006 4:36 PM

Switch is a DIY show for teaching young women about electronics through fashion and design.

Originally from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs by yatta reBlogged on Jul 25, 2006, 7:09PM

Originally posted by yatta from del.icio.us/inbox/djacobs, on August 1, 2006 4:30 PM

Forecast high in NYC today: 101 degrees. Tomorrow: 102 degrees. Heat index of 115 degrees. Blech.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 12:00PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 1, 2006 2:45 PM

Jill Greenberg's End Times photography project depicts young children who are quite upset; the photos themselves are somewhat upsetting to look at. The photos were made by snatching lollipops from their hands and mouths and shooting the resulting anguish. Inevitably, the cliche was too much for some and it started a classic blogosphere tempest in a teapot, with calls for Ms. Greenberg's arrest for child abuse.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 1:37PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 1, 2006 2:45 PM

Study: hungry men prefer heavier women than men who are full. Presumably, if you're hungry, you're more likely to be attracted to someone who looks like they might know where some food is.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 1, 2006, 3:28PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 1, 2006 2:45 PM

"It makes sense to design for the norms. What is the cost of catering for exceptional cases such as adapting a rectangular display case to cope with an excessively long-horned animal? Which cultures are likely to have to cope with what kind of exceptions? Once societal changes such as an aging demographic or rates of obesity are considered when do exceptions become the rule?"

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on Jul 30, 2006, 6:31PM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on July 31, 2006 12:59 AM

Wish we'd known about this in time for the last couple trips out to LA, but still happy to have found The Great Taco Hunt, an excellent blog devoted to finding the best Los Angeles area taco stands, which was mentioned in a NY Times story by Cindy Price.

(via Ed Levine, who wants to know if rich people eat tacos.)

Originally from shey.net reblog reBlogged on Jul 30, 2006, 7:26PM

Originally from shey.net reblog, on July 31, 2006 12:59 AM

david posted a photo:

Originally from david's Photos by david reBlogged

Originally posted by david from david's Photos, on July 31, 2006 12:57 AM

I've had a love-hate relationship with OmniWeb. It was one of the first browsers to come out for Mac OS X, mainly because it was originally created for the OPENSTEP operating system, which was bought by Apple along with NeXT, Inc. to be used as the foundation for Mac OS X. It was immediately right at home on Mac OS X, since it was a Cocoa app, and used many of the native widgets (e.g.: drawers, customizable toolbar). It also went above and beyond any other browser on the platform in terms of the numbers of features it offered -- some of my favorites were the list that gave you all the links to the various resources (like images and movies) used on the page, and the very simple HTML editor that used tag colorization. The links list made it easy to extract and download embedded movie files from various webpages without having to manually scrape through the HTML, and the HTML editor was all I needed for the paltry web development that I did at the time.

OmniWeb, however, had it's own rendering engine, and as the web matured, OmniWeb's rendering engine did not. Understandably, it was hard for a small company like the OmniGroup to keep up with the evolving standards of the web. I kept up with the OmniWeb 4.1 sneaky peeks in earnest, but gradually my satisfaction with OmniWeb declined to the point that I eventually switched browsers.

That point came when Safari was released. It immediately became my browser of choice. Although it didn't offer any of the powerful features that OmniWeb did at the time, it did provide two of the most important features: good standards support, and speed. OmniWeb couldn't offer either of those. The way Safari offered to immediately name bookmarks as they are created was also a feature that I really liked, even if it was very simple. (If I remember correctly, I used Camino and Internet Explorer off and on while my satisfaction with OmniWeb was waning, but I don't think I could ever have really called either of those my default browser. My memory's a bit hazy here, though.)

I wasn't exactly sure when Safari came out, so I went to VersionTracker to find a release date. In doing so, I found out that the current version of my program Safari Bookmark Exporter is the most-downloaded Safari-related program on VersionTracker. Of course, this isn't total downloads, but downloads of the latest version, which would give me an advantage since I haven't updated it in a while. :P

Safari was released in January 2003. Then there were rumblings that the rendering engine behind Safari could, sometime later, be integrated into any app. And with that came the rumblings that the OmniGroup would switch from their custom rendering system to what would soon be called WebKit. OmniGroup delivered the first beta of OmniWeb 4.5 before Apple even released the WebKit API, in June of 2003.

I tried to switch back to OmniWeb at that time, and was successful for a month or two. But it immediately became clear that despite the "switch to WebKit", something was still wrong: speed and standards support were still not up to par. Part of this was due to the fact that some webpages were sniffing specifically for OmniWeb since its earlier custom rendering engine wasn't up to par. But I think the main part of this problem was that the OmniGroup wasn't using WebKit, they were using WebCore, which is only a part of WebKit. They were still using their own networking stack, as well as JavaScript runtime engine, I believe. Although I desperately wanted to move back to OmniWeb, I ended up sticking with Safari.

Soon, there were more rumblings coming from the OmniGroup, with rumors of a "tab killer" feature. This turned out to be the innovative tab-thumb-drawer-thingy that's present in OmniWeb 5. Not only that, but OmniWeb 5 delivered a sort of nirvana for web browsers: state saving. As you browse, OmniWeb 5 automatically saved the sites you were visiting, including the order of the tabs (yes you can reorder them in OmniWeb) and the positions of the windows. Note that this "saved state" is actively updated; i.e.: if OmniWeb 5 crashes, and you restart OmniWeb, it opens up all the windows/tabs to the sites that you were visiting immediately before the crash. This is a godsend. This feature might have been present in Safari InputManagers, but I try to stay away from those as much as I can, especially because the extensions often add way too many features that I don't ever need. OmniWeb was calling to me again.

The one thing that really ticked me off (and I know some are going to laugh at this) about OmniWeb is that the "Customize Toolbar..." menu item is in a place I had to search for. Instead of being named "Customize Toolbar..." and being located at the very end of the View menu, it's instead located inside the "Toolbars" submenu of the View menu, and it's named "Customize Navigation Bar...". I understand why OmniGroup chose to do this, but it's absolutely infuriating, because until you realize that OmniWeb has multiple "toolbars" (but only one true Mac OS X toolbar), you don't think to look at the Toolbars submenu -- you just glance over it. Arg.

I also have Command-Option-E for Empty Cache and Command-Option-U for View Source ingrained in me through Safari, but Mac OS X's keyboard preference pane made short work of that.

And again OmniWeb failed to deliver on the most important points: speed and rendering engine.

Firefox then started to become a major player on the Mac around this time, February 2004. I tried it out, but it never offered any significant advantage over Safari for me. I mean, it was (and is) good and all, but why should I use Firefox over Safari? I still don't see any reason, even if you factor in Firefox extensions, because Safari has had "extensions" (albeit unsupported) since virtually the time of its release (e.g.: PithHelmet, which I tried and couldn't get used to).

Sometime between 5.0 and 5.1.2, OmniWeb fixed its rendering problems by switching totally over to WebKit, instead of just using WebCore. (I may be mistaken here, though, so somebody correct me if I'm wrong.) The problem was: it still was pretty slow, even though it was using Apple's HTML-rendering framework. And back to Safari I stayed. [UPDATE: Version 5.1.2 still used WebCore, as pointed out in the comments. Also, the OmniGroup says that 5.5b1 is "now based off a slightly customized version of WebKit."]

And now we come to two days ago. Via John Gruber's Daring Fireball Linked List came a link that showed OmniWeb being much faster at HTML rendering than even Safari or Firefox. Although the test is obviously not representative of the browsing experience as a whole, it seems that the OmniWeb 5.5 sneaky peeks have rectified the last problem with OmniWeb. It seems impressively fast, at least compared to the perception it left with previous versions.

So I am again trying to switch back to OmniWeb as my default browser. The one problem is that I really liked Safari as an RSS-feed reader, and the feed-reader in OmniWeb is lackluster. While it does actively read feeds, it presents them in "bookmark-style" format: it simply allows you to view the headlines in the favorites bar or the bookmarks menu. I much prefer the way Safari does it: you can not only see the headlines but the summaries as well. The combined interface also allows you to either view just the entries of a single feed, the entries of a whole folder of feeds sorted together by date, or the entries of all your RSS feeds altogether. In contrast, OmniWeb only allows you to see one feed's entries at a time.

The one thing I hate about programs that convert files from one format to another is that they are often very finicky. Witness my previous dealings with SafariOPML. The Automator application is nice, but not only does it not preserve the folder organization that I had pristinely set up in Safari, but it also doesn't preserve the names of the feeds! Arg! Boo. I wish exporting programs would get it right from the start, rather than making users put up with such nonsense.

I'm not going to let that stop me, though: I've switched back to using NetNewsWire lite as my feed reader as well. I managed to export my RSS feeds from Safari to a form that NetNewsWire Lite could import. I may need to cough up the funds for the full version of NetNewsWire, however, because the Lite version doesn't allow me to see inline summaries, either, which is a shame. I suppose it's worth it, though -- NetNewsWire was my original default reader before Safari 2.0 came along.

Anyway, I'm going to try the OmniWeb/NetNewsWire Lite combo for a few weeks, or longer if I like it. I'll keep you updated on the experiment.

Originally from Technological Supernova reBlogged on Jul 15, 2006, 11:45PM

Originally from Technological Supernova, on July 30, 2006 5:22 PM

Heh heh. So to recap, John Siracusa came out with his WWDC keynote bingo card. Then, I got ahold of his Illustrator file, and made a randomizing AppleScript to create 20 more bingo cards.

Now, Peter Hosey of Domain of the Bored fame (as well as Adium and the comments here) has gone and made some EPS files that generate random cards every time you open the file (mirror here, in case the first link goes down, and another here on my .mac account in case both go down).

As a bonus, he's added in a bunch of squares to the randomizer, including "iPod pico/flea", "Audience member not ejected for yelling 'BINGO!' (special dispensation from Jobs)", and a multitude of other possibilities and funny squares. I still think that a "gratuitious 3D keynote graph of Mac sales" or a "questionable statistics" square should've been included.

So, yeah. Here's to hoping that Apple will be broadcasting a live stream of the keynote. I also think Peter's suggestion of branded bingo markers is great.

(By the way, The Guardian's technology blog weblog claimed they did the keynote bingo meme before, but I hereby declare that claim nullified because their card was UTTER CRAP. [UPDATE: I recently noticed that their bingo card is 6x4, not 5x5. WTF? Seriously, like I said, utter crap.] MacUser magazine also did it before as well, and their card looked good. But it doesn't seem like it was tailored for actual use; it seemed to be just kind of a throwaway gimmick on the page -- I doubt the quality would've been good enough to use as an actual card. So if Siracusa wants to claim that he started the keynote bingo meme, that's fine by me.)

Originally from Technological Supernova reBlogged on Jul 29, 2006, 3:53AM

Originally from Technological Supernova, on July 30, 2006 5:22 PM

The Tactical Sound Garden is “an open source software platform for cultivating public “sound gardens” within contemporary cities. It draws on the culture of urban community gardening to posit a participatory environment where new spatial practices for social interaction within technologically mediated environments can be explored and evaluated. Addressing the impact of mobile audio devices like the iPod, the project examines gradations of privacy and publicity within contemporary public space.”

Pretty cool way to interject a personal touch onto an often “impersonal” urban landscape. The project’s “Toolkit enables anyone living within dense 802.11 wireless (WiFi) “hot zones” to install a “sound garden” for public use. Using a WiFi enabled mobile device (PDA, laptop, mobile phone), participants “plant” sounds within a positional audio environment. These plantings are mapped onto the coordinates of a physical location by a 3D audio engine common to gaming environments - overlaying a publicly constructed soundscape onto a specific urban space. Wearing headphones connected to a WiFi enabled device, participants drift though virtual sound gardens as they move throughout the city.” Reminds me a bit of a higher-tech version of Christina Kubish’s “Sound Meadow” project shown at Ars Electronica in 1987.

Originally from coin-operated by jonah reBlogged on Jul 29, 2006, 5:24AM

Originally posted by jonah from coin-operated, on July 30, 2006 5:17 PM

During the opening plenary, Tim O’Reilly suggested that the importance of software licensing is decreasing. Software is increasingly a service, running on the Net, while licensing to date has focused on what’s running on your computer. He reported an astounding remark by Stallman, to the effect that his radical notions of freedom are not applicable to the services we all use every day. Tim asks: What standard of open-ness can we apply to Software-as-a-Service offerings, to the Googles, Yahoos, and Amazons of this world? It’s a really important question. I think I know the answer. [Update: Interesting follow-up from Tony Coates.]

Set My Data Free

At the end of the day, information outlives software and transcends software and is more valuable than software. I think any online service can call itself “Open” if it makes, and lives up to, this commitment: Any data that you give us, we’ll let you take away again, without withholding anything, or encoding it in a proprietary format, or claiming any intellectual-property rights whatsoever.

It seems to me that if you don’t have that, you have nothing, and if you do have it, you have, if not everything, at least a solid foundation to build on.

That’s basic, Level 0, openness. For extra credit, a service could also say: We acknowledge your interest in any value-added information we distill from what you give us, and will share it back with you to the extent we can do so while preserving the privacy of others.

So, do we need some sort of Open Service analogue of the Open Source Definition? It couldn’t hurt. I suspect that if we can get the basic idea across, then we’re in old-fashioned consumer-advocacy territory; and I suspect that it will only take a small number of painful experiences for consumers to understand the issue at a pretty deep level.

Anyhow, good on Tim for turning the spotlight on this.

Originally from ongoing reBlogged

Originally from ongoing, on July 30, 2006 5:16 PM

In today's NYTimes, apparently Floyd Landis is saying his high testosterone levels may have resulted from a beer or a few shots of Jack Daniel's after stage 16; we read about hipsters, heartbreak, and Latino Goths in the Bronx, and apparently modern Americans would be nearly unrecognizable to their ancestors. There's also an interesting trends piece on youngish professionals hiring teeneage interns for their cache. On the left coast, The LA Times kicks off a weeklong multimedia series on environmental crises in the world's oceans.

Originally from shey.net reblog reBlogged on Jul 30, 2006, 12:22PM

Originally from shey.net reblog, on July 30, 2006 5:15 PM

"These instructions were written for a fresh install of Ubuntu. This documentation suggests performing custom install when installing Ubuntu to create a base system without an X server or other graphical niceties. These instructions, however, should work reasonably well if you already have Ubuntu installed or you have performed a full install."

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on Jul 30, 2006, 3:11PM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on July 30, 2006 5:15 PM