Video: Ricky Gervais at Microsoft UK
shut down by Microsoft on Youtube, now living on Google Video for the momentOriginally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 4:33PM
« August 13, 2006 - August 19, 2006 | Main | August 27, 2006 - September 2, 2006 »
shut down by Microsoft on Youtube, now living on Google Video for the momentOriginally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 4:33PM
Since the beginning of the year, Henry Abbott of True Hoop has been trying to figure out who William Wesley is. People have seen him sitting at Cavs games watching Lebron, traveling around the world with NBAers and at exclusive parties but there was virtually no mention of him in the press. So, Henry has spent the last 8 months figuring out who this guy is.
Today, he posted a succinct recap of everything he knows. It turns out Wesley provides business sense for players who haven't developed any yet.
Players need someone who knows the ropes, a mentor, an advisor, an uncle. Enter William Wesley. How's this for a resume? He was right there in Michael Jordan's ear. The whole time. "Wes" helped pull off one of the great feats of modern legend-making. He held the hand of one of the NBA's less likable characters—an angry, cussing, yelling, gambling, adrenaline addict with some sort of over-competitive personality disorder—as he became the most successful pitchman in sports history, complete with his own animated children's movie.
Great, but how does a guy like this make money? Henry covers that too.
As many different things as you can possibly imagine. There is an entire informal economy available to those few with the power to boss celebrities around. All indications are that dozens of the best basketball players in the world, players like LeBron James, Allen Iverson, and Richard Hamilton, take Wesley's advice very seriously. Players like that are essentially corporations—with the potential to make those around them very wealthy.
There's so much more to the story in his post and it's a great look at an unseen side of the NBA.
Originally from Capn Design reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 3:37PM
create and destroy a virtual server farm in seconds with an API call; Amazon is doing the most innovative work in the entire industryOriginally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 3:24PM
E-liz posted this Brooklyn Greenway plan on her Flickr page, and while some commenters are already dreaming about how much fun it would be to bike from the Queens Border on Jamaica Bay to the Newtown Canal, others are wondering if the plan will ever come to fruition.
Brooklyn Greenway Initiative Plan [via Gothamist]
The Brooklyn Greenway Initiative [Homepage]Originally from Brooklyn Record by reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 1:39PM
The phone book has been around nearly as long as the telephone itself. And with 411 and the Web, phone books sometimes seem to be an archaic and obsolete medium. But there are times when such an artifact can poignantly illustrate changing times and point the way to future trends. Nearly a year after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, new phone books are being distributed throughout NewOriginally from FutureWire - futurism and emerging technology by reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 2:37PM
Originally from hustler of culture by reBlogged
The International Astronomical Union has reversed its decision from last week and decided that Pluto is NOT a planet after all; but a dwarf planet.
In what many of them described as a triumph of science over sentiment, Pluto was demoted to the status of a “dwarf planet.â€First of all; you just killed the field of astronomy, as children now HATE you, and none of them will be inclined to join your ranks for the forseeable future.
Secondly; If my understanding of English holds here, a 'dwarf planet' would STILL be a planet, as 'planet' is the noun, and 'dwarf' is the modifying adjective on that noun. Therefore a dwarf planet is just a different type of planet, but still a planet.
“The new definition makes perfect sense in terms of the science we know,†said Alan Boss, a planetary theorist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, adding that it doesn’t go too far in cultural terms. “We have a duty to satisfy the whole world.â€I'm confused. Was the duty to 'good science' or to 'satisfy the whole world'?
How a bunch of astronomers sitting around a hotel lobby drinking cocktails and pairing off to make Uranus jokes constitutes 'good science' I have no clue. Decisions shouldn't be made at conferences.
'Dwarf planet' sounds like a compromise that was intended to please all sides by keeping the word planet and crippling it with a modifier.
Bring Pluto back!
Originally from Mule Design : Off the Hoof by reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 5:27PM
By way of recording for posterity, I thought I’d note that last night I attended “Revenge of the Bookeaters” at the beautiful Beacon Theater, located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. “Bookeaters” is the revue of literary and musical entertainments brought together by the over-achieving Dave Eggers to raise money for the good works being done by his 826 Valencia organization, which is dedicated to tutoring children in the art of writing. Last night’s show was the kick-off performance for a series that will travel to Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Ann Arbor, Michigan before it’s all over.
Comedic Musicians, Singer-Songwriters and Writing Comedians
I᾿d been invited by a friend, so I didn’t realize the bill was so impressive until I got to the theater: John Stewart and Ben Karlin from “The Daily Show,” musician Sufjan Stevens, author and NPR personality Sarah Vowell, musician John Roderick, and the legendary David Byrne as the headlining musical act. Wow.
What really made it for me was the fact that the entire evening was hosted by the author and comedian John Hodgman, who’s currently famous for appearing in a series of cheeky advertisements for Apple Computer. But he’s more than just the most appealing embodiment of the Windows platform to ever appear on the small screen; he’s also responsible for the hilarious tome of total world knowledge, “The Areas of My Expertise,” which I wrote about briefly in April. This guy is super-talented, a rising star, I think, not just for his winningly formal dorkiness, but also in his inventive, skewed approach to matters of authority. I enjoy comedy in all forms, but Hodgman is that rare comedian that really inspires me to apply sideways logic to the things I do from day to day. It was worth it to see him alone.
Originally from Subtraction by reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 11:35PM
"Mr. Jalopy mentions that you can store the contents of the Complete New Yorker on your hard drive. (I got this link from BoingBoing.) However, the mention is a bit sketchy."Originally from tecznotes links by reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 1:24AM
JoyBill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, is building a $50 million yacht -- an eco-friendly 190-footer named Ethereal -- to be the most efficient, eco-friendly boat afloat. Joy, who is now a venture capitalist at Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, apparently told Fortune (flip through the glossy pages here; you'll have to go to page 82 for the full thing) he wants it to be an ambassador for the "green tech" he and his new firm are championing. Pesky light-bulbs, for example, will be designed to use as little light as possible. Lithium-ion batteries will be used for lower, steadier power. His yachtsman is New Zealander Ron Holland. This should give you some incentive to work hard and make some cash. It's part of a trend. More and more newly-minted millionaires are building yachts, the article says....Originally from VentureBeat by reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 10:17AM
Tomorrow, Saturday, August 26 at 8:30 PM, Brooklyn Community Access Television (BCAT) will cablecast a one-hour Reporter Roundtable candidates forum with the four candidates vying to fill the seat being vacated by Major R. Owens in the 11th Congressional District. Moderated by Errol Louis of the New York Daily News, the forum, which was at times heated, offered the candidates Senator Carl Andrews, City Councilwoman Yvette Clarke, Chris Owens and City Councilman David Yassky the opportunity to distinguish themselves in the eyes of their constituents. Topics touched on included job development, crime prevention, political reform, education, the Atlantic Yards, and Clarence Norman. The one-hour special can be seen in Brooklyn on Time Warner Cable channel 56, Cablevision channel 69, and online at www.bcat.tv/bcat (channel 3). BCAT will repeat the program several times before the September 12 primary. See the full schedule after the jump.Originally from Brooklyn Record by reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 10:01AM
Friday, August 25
Rooftop Films presents "Home Movies"
Live music from ULI (Latin/Pop/Electronica) starts at 8:30 PM; show starts at 9 PM. If the weather is good, the event will take place on the lawn of Automotive High School (50 Bedford Ave, between N. 12th and Lorimer, Williamsburg), and if it rains, the show is indoors at the same location. $8.Originally from Brooklyn Record by reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 9:25AM
"Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced [last week] that U.S. commercial supplies of long-grain rice had become inadvertently contaminated with a genetically engineered variety not approved for human consumption." Is anyone surprised by this?Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 8:30AM
Eating a varied diet of fresh, unprocessed food is always better than thinking that food with supplements will make up for basic deficiencies. The BBC looks at the health claims of omega-3.
Originally from megnut.com blog by reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 1:20PM
At last, The Onion takes on Brooklyn's stoop culture:
"I mean, I don't want the people here to leave. I just want them to stay inside more. Especially if they're not going to do anything to bring this community to life. But they're always out on their stoops, just playing dominoes or talking. I like talking, but I do it inside, where it was meant to be done. It makes me uncomfortable to have people watching me all the time. Not that I think they'd do anything, but I just like to be a little more private."Sometimes I Feel Like I'm The Only One Trying To Gentrify This Neighborhood [The Onion]
Originally from Brooklyn Record by reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 1:14PM
Is "dwarf planet" an ironym? "Pluto is a dwarf planet, but we are now faced with the absurdity that a dwarf planet is not a planet." (thx, adriana)Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 1:05PM
Area Man Finally Works Up Courage To Sexually Harass Secretary.Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 12:17PM
Back in April, I wrote about Jeffrey Steingarten's foie gras article in Men's Vogue. At the time it wasn't online, so I quoted some passages from it. Now it's up on their site. I recommend reading it if you have any interest in the issue.
Originally from megnut.com blog by reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 10:49AM
Two new colors, Onyx and Coral Pink, will be released in the US on September 13th. So that means you have about 3 weeks to auction off your boring Polar White DS Lite to some unsuspecting person on ebay.
Press Release: Nintendo Launches New DS Lite Colors Amid Record-Breaking Game Sales
Originally from hello, nintendo by reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 12:29PM
I've been waiting for an Amazon compute cluster ever since S3 came out, and like Les I tried, and failed, to sign up for EC2 beta as soon as I got the email. What all you freaks were doing up around 5am signing up for webservices I'll never know.
Nik over at TechCrunch however ran the numbers, and its looking more like what I get from John Companies, and less like the great mapreduce grid in the sky I was hoping for.
Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=201590011
Originally from Laughing Meme reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 12:04PM
Pluto has been demoted. Jason and Meg are having a mnemonic device contest in protest. Mule is offering a badge for those who want to show their solidarity.
Update: Shortly after posting the above satellite images of Pluto and Charon, CNN replaced it with this revisionist image of our solar system:
Update (2): Mike says: "Using dwarf as a modifier to cancel out the relationship of the parent noun is insulting." I agree.
Developing...
Originally from hello, typepad by reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 11:24AM
Now this is interesting, especially when combined with Amazon's Simple Storage Service:
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers. ... Amazon EC2 presents a true virtual computing environment, allowing you to use web service interfaces to requisition machines for use, load them with your custom application environment, manage your network's access permissions, and run your image using as many or few systems as you desire.
You can upload your own image, or use one of their "preconfigured" instances, each of which is the equivalent of 1.7ghz Xeon with 1.75gb of RAM, 160gb of disk and 250mb/s of bandwidth. And of course it's integrated with S3. Pricing is $0.10 per instance-hour (around $72 per month).
Originally from this is sippey.typepad.com by reBlogged
And there was much rejoicing, for today marks the return of Dirk, which celebrates the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. Soooooper genius Matt Webb writes...
I've rewritten Dirk for my own learning a few times, in Perl again, PHP and Python. It's my Hello World app, hitting web apps, databases, general syntax, algorithms and performance. I try to write it as idiomatically as possible each time, and squeezing every drop of performance out of the pathfinding algorithm (which I know pretty well by now) lets me learn what's fast and slow in each language.
Dirk is one hell of a Hello World app. Go play! Connect! Pathfind!
Originally from this is sippey.typepad.com by reBlogged
Originally from hello, typepad by reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 10:36PM
Creating a better user experience for Google Calendar on a Mac was my first project at Google. So I'm excited to tell you that Google Calendar now works great in Safari, and we've just launched a major Mac-only upgrade for the Gmail Notifier.
The Google Notifier for the Mac has:
So start keeping track of your life with Google Calendar and the Google Notifier.
- Notifications for upcoming events and unread mail
- Built-in pop up notifications
- Custom sounds
- As always, great new icons
By the way, since we put this out there last Friday, we've already received a lot of feedback, which we've used to fix some bugs. So keep the comments coming! We want to make the Google Notifier even better.Originally from Official Google Blog by reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 9:35PM
obscure Nintendo DS references on t-shirts make me happyOriginally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 3:13AM
"The city deactivated most of the pedestrian buttons long ago with the emergence of computer-controlled traffic signals, even as an unwitting public continued to push on, according to city Department of Transportation officials. More than 2,500 of the 3,250 walk buttons that still exist function essentially as mechanical placebos, city figures show. Any benefit from them is only imagined."Originally from tecznotes links by reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 2:20AM
david posted a photo:
Originally from david's Photos by reBlogged
Made with 323 Rubiks cubes. Lovely.
Originally from Wooster Collective reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 9:01AM
Slideshow of Gerald Panter's photos of the fast food stands of Los Angeles. "Menus which featured hamburgers and hot dogs seem to have given way to those featuring tacos and burritos, while former purveyors of such Mexican fare now feature teriyaki and other Asian specialities."Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 8:44AM
a fascinating story of two very different mathematic personalities; more from Kottke [via]Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 5:18AM
This is the third post in a series where I'm pointing out some nice little touches that take up less than a 100×100 pixel square on a screen. Today's is from the Vox Neighborhood page.
Sure, Vox is still in preview. Sure, I work for the company that makes it. There's still one little detail that absolutely bears pointing out for being an extremely thoughtful touch.
Vox carries on two well-established traditions for networked communications sites. The first is representing users with a small, changeable icon next to their name, as most of us are familiar with the concept of an avatar or profile picture. Then there's the ability to aggregate all of your friends' posts into a single view, which is an innovation that LiveJournal helped popularize years ago.
The combination of those two things makes my Neighborhood a very personal, human space for me to read about what's going on in people's lives. But the small touch that really made the page work, to me, was that there were four tiny profile pictures in the corner.
Where so many services would have had a generic "network" icon, maybe with a globe or a sphere indicating this was my world of friends, I was really pleased to see the Vox team put the faces of my actual friends in the page to illustrate where I am. It even updates the people to reflect whomever's posted most recently.
That's what 100 Perfect Pixels is all about, a little touch that takes something from sufficient to really delightful. And the Vox Neighborhood is exactly what inspired me to start this series of posts in the first place.
Resources
- Naturally, you can take a look at my Vox neighborhood.
- Not a Vox member yet? Ask for an invite.
- Vox also inspired me to write about Making Something Meaningful.
- See the other posts in this series of 100 Perfect Pixels: Amazon's Gold Box, and Nike Plus
![]()
Originally from Anil Dash by reBlogged
I made it! I can't believe I did, but I hung in there, bucked the odds, gave 110%, and totally did it. From the blog post that kicked this whole crazy thing off to the premiere of the film this past weekend, I didn't mention Snakes on a Plane a single time on this site. Neither did I make any ________ on a ________ jokes, see the movie on opening weekend, nor comment on any other site about it.
How did I achieve such a high level of cultural snobbery? It wasn't easy, friends. Not reading MetaFilter helped certainly, as did looking down on reality television and those who watch it. I practiced conversational calisthenics in the mirror every night before bed: "Was that in the New Yorker or The Economist? Oh, I'm sorry, I don't read People."
In commemoration of this achievement, I've made celebratory badges to place proudly on the site (in regular and without swearing variations):
![]()
Feel free to display this badge on your web site if you also successfully avoided Snakes on a Plane. (Copy the images to your own server, please.) To those that succumbed to the temptation, fear not...the official web site has plenty of posters, wallpapers, audio clips, videos, IM icons, and screensavers for you to download.
Originally from kottke.org reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 10:03AM
In 2001, while promoting his crime novel, Hollowpoint, Brooklyn prosecutor Robert Reuland, told New York Magazine that his borough was a great place for him to work because "we've got more dead bodies per square inch than anybody else." He was quickly demoted and fired four months later. In 2004, he won $30,000 in a lawsuit against the Brooklyn district attorney, but lawyers for the city appealed. The judges at the Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, finding that his statement deserved First Amendment protection. We're still reeling (and sleepy) after attending the Jones Beach stop of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's Freedom of Speech Tour, so we're especially glad to see the Constitution at work today.
Prosecutor Wins Right To Damages [NY Sun]Originally from Brooklyn Record by reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 12:43PM
NPR's Weekend Edition report on Edward Tufte and his newest book, Beautiful Evidence. "Beauty is the by-product of truth and goodness."Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 12:27PM
Tom Colicchio is leaving Gramercy Tavern to focus on Craft and all the Craft derivatives (Craftbar, Craftsteak, ’Wichcraft, etc.) While I'm sure Colicchio hasn't been in the kitchen at GT in a very long time, I can't help but worry that something might change there anyway. Gramercy Tavern is one of my favorite restaurants, and eating in the Tavern room, whether with friends or just my husband, always makes for a wonderful evening. I really hope that continues to be true.
Originally from megnut.com blog by reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 2:52PM
"I've writen about this model before; and I keep coming back to it because it totally changed the way I think about politics. It's all economic; all the noise about social issues never actually flows thru into the legislative agenda."Originally from tecznotes links by reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 4:20PM
A long time ago, way back when this website began, I thought that spotting submarines on satellite photographs would be very unlikely, what with them travelling underwater most of the time.
As it turned out there are a lot of submarines sitting about on land, but it has taken a while for someone to find a travelling submarine. This Ming class diesel submarine is on its way back to Lushun Naval Base where there’s a few more docked up.
Thanks: Bill Preston
Categories: Watercraft and China
![]()
Originally from Google Sightseeing by reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 6:48PM
As many of you have noticed, the Trac installation at code.sixapart.com is currently responding in a less than friendly manner. This is a temporary problem as we are currently in the middle of a server migration. Trac will be reinstated at soon as that migration has been completed.
Had Trac been running or you had looked here, you would have seen that we've created a new branch called Wheeljack which represents the next development branch for Movable Type. If you have Subversion access you can check out a copy at that URL and follow along with our progress.
While our checkins to that branch will be sparse for the next month or so while we work on an update to Movable Type Enterprise (not accessible because it's on an internal repository), the branch already contains two very compelling features:
- Paginated category archive rebuilds
- An update to the MT::Bootstrap module for FastCGI.
The pagination of category archive rebuilds should make a huge difference to those of you who might be experiencing timeouts during category archive rebuilding for whatever reason. The number of pages per rebuild is currently controlled by the EntriesPerRebuild configuration directive.
The Bootstrap/FastCGI update makes setting up FastCGI with MT extremely easy since it eliminates the need to create a "dispatch script". Now all you have to do is:
- Set up FastCGI on your webserver
- Add (or alter) the
AdminScriptconfiguration directive (AdminScript mt.fcgi) and any other config directives corresponding to scripts you wish to run through FastCGI- Change the names of the scripts you configured above to their new names
If you check out a working directory, please let us know what you think.
Originally from Movable Type Beta Weblog by reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 6:56PM
Free Wireless Access at the New York Public Library. Great alternative to working at home or in a coffee shop, except if you plan on staying longer than your laptop's battery life—my local branch librarian said no plugging in allowed. Boo to that! Coffee shop it is.Originally from cheesedip.com reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 6:43PM
We're going to be releasing a bug fix release -- Movable Type 3.32 -- within a couple of weeks that fixes about 40 issues encountered since Movable Type 3.31 shipped. If you're interested in playing with it, you can download the preview over on the left sidebar.
We won't be doing a formal beta test for these issues, but the release has been well tested. Still you should consider it beta quality until the final release.
Originally from Movable Type Beta Weblog by reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 6:28PM
Evidence of ZFS in Leopard? (As we say in the rumor world, CONFIRMED!)Originally from Hack the Planet reBlogged