randomwalks/dj

shut down by Microsoft on Youtube, now living on Google Video for the moment  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 4:33PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on August 26, 2006 12:24 AM

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

Originally from Capn Design, on August 26, 2006 12:24 AM

create and destroy a virtual server farm in seconds with an API call; Amazon is doing the most innovative work in the entire industry  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 3:24PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on August 26, 2006 12:24 AM

Originally from Gus's blog, adventures in Flying Meat. reBlogged

Originally from Gus's blog, adventures in Flying Meat., on August 26, 2006 12:24 AM

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 Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 1:39PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 25, 2006 1:29 PM

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 New

Originally from FutureWire - futurism and emerging technology by Brian reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 2:37PM

Originally posted by Brian from FutureWire - futurism and emerging technology, on August 25, 2006 1:27 PM

Originally from hustler of culture by souris reBlogged

Originally posted by souris from hustler of culture, on August 25, 2006 1:27 PM

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.”

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.”

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 Mike Monteiro reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 5:27PM

Originally posted by Mike Monteiro from Mule Design : Off the Hoof, on August 25, 2006 1:20 PM

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 Khoi Vinh reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 11:35PM

Originally posted by Khoi Vinh from Subtraction, on August 25, 2006 1:18 PM

"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 Michal Migurski reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 1:24AM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on August 25, 2006 1:16 PM

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 Matt Marshall reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 10:17AM

Originally posted by Matt Marshall from VentureBeat, on August 25, 2006 1:11 PM

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 Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 10:01AM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 25, 2006 1:11 PM

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 Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 9:25AM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 25, 2006 1:11 PM

"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

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on August 25, 2006 1:11 PM

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 meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 1:20PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 25, 2006 1:10 PM

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 Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 1:14PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 25, 2006 1:10 PM

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 jkottke reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 1:05PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 25, 2006 1:10 PM

Area Man Finally Works Up Courage To Sexually Harass Secretary.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 12:17PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 25, 2006 1:10 PM

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 meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 25, 2006, 10:49AM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 25, 2006 1:10 PM

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 yi reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 12:29PM

Originally posted by yi from hello, nintendo, on August 24, 2006 12:39 PM

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

Originally from Laughing Meme, on August 24, 2006 12:37 PM

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 David Jacobs reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 11:24AM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on August 24, 2006 12:37 PM

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 Michael Sippey reBlogged

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.typepad.com, on August 24, 2006 12:37 PM

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 Michael Sippey reBlogged

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.typepad.com, on August 24, 2006 12:37 PM

mail time
Originally uploaded by david.

Originally from hello, typepad by David Jacobs reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 10:36PM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on August 24, 2006 8:54 AM

Posted by David Oster, Software Engineer-Mac Clients

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:

• Notifications for upcoming events and unread mail
  
• Built-in pop up notifications
• Custom sounds
• As always, great new icons

So start keeping track of your life with Google Calendar and the Google Notifier.

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 A Googler reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 9:35PM

Originally posted by A Googler from Official Google Blog, on August 24, 2006 8:54 AM

obscure Nintendo DS references on t-shirts make me happy  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 3:13AM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on August 24, 2006 8:52 AM

"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 Michal Migurski reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 2:20AM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on August 24, 2006 8:52 AM

david posted a photo:

Originally from david's Photos by david reBlogged

Originally posted by david from david's Photos, on August 24, 2006 8:52 AM

Made with 323 Rubiks cubes. Lovely.

Originally from Wooster Collective reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 9:01AM

Originally from Wooster Collective, on August 24, 2006 8:46 AM

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 jkottke reBlogged on Aug 24, 2006, 8:44AM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 24, 2006 8:46 AM

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

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on August 24, 2006 8:46 AM

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 Anil reBlogged

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on August 24, 2006 8:46 AM

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

Originally from kottke.org, on August 23, 2006 7:46 PM

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 Brooklyn Record reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 12:43PM

Originally posted by Brooklyn Record from Brooklyn Record, on August 23, 2006 7:44 PM

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 jkottke reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 12:27PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 23, 2006 7:44 PM

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 meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 2:52PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 23, 2006 7:43 PM

"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 Michal Migurski reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 4:20PM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on August 23, 2006 7:41 PM

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

View in Google Earth

Originally from Google Sightseeing by James reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 6:48PM

Originally posted by James from Google Sightseeing, on August 23, 2006 7:41 PM

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 AdminScript configuration 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 jallen reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 6:56PM

Originally posted by jallen from Movable Type Beta Weblog, on August 23, 2006 7:40 PM

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

Originally from cheesedip.com, on August 23, 2006 7:40 PM

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 jallen reBlogged on Aug 23, 2006, 6:28PM

Originally posted by jallen from Movable Type Beta Weblog, on August 23, 2006 7:40 PM

Evidence of ZFS in Leopard? (As we say in the rumor world, CONFIRMED!)

Originally from Hack the Planet reBlogged

Originally from Hack the Planet, on August 23, 2006 9:14 AM

From -> Marisa Olson
Please forward... JOB OPPORTUNITY: Curatorial Fellow (part-time, unpaid) RHIZOME.ORG Rhizome.org is a leading new media arts organization and an affiliate of the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Currently celebrating our tenth anniversary, Rhizome's programs support the creation, presentation, discussion and preservation of contemporary art that uses ... [more]

Originally from Rhizome.org Rare by Marisa Olson reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 9:24PM

Originally posted by Marisa Olson from Rhizome.org Rare, on August 23, 2006 9:11 AM

---

Speaking of the Eyebeam Art and Technology Center reBlog, let's all watch Paddy Johnson put her feeds where her mouth is as she guest reBlogs for the next couple of weeks. No, that doesn't mean strapping on the feedbag. A while back she criticized the popular site for regurgitating too many frilly tech items, so they punished her by asking her to reBlog. Essentially what that means is she culls items from a pool of RSS blog "feeds" and posts them with as much text or as many pictures as she wants, in any order--an activity that as explained in the previous post combines blogging, curating, dj'ing and editing. It's different from "regular" blogging in that the material is all right there in the system, ready to be cut and pasted--no surfing around to find content is necessary. Paddy promises to put more art in the "art and technology"; naturally I hope she will consult my 10 Commandment-like "rules for reBlogging" as she invents her own set of guidelines. Here were a few, from '04:

1. reBlogging is definitely an art, somewhere between curating and editing. I believe the Eyebeam reBlog can be as important and genre-defining as any of the major umbrella tech sites, umbrella art sites (if those existed) or heaven forbid, regular news sources, as long as original material from a pool of steady dedicated bloggers is given equal weight to clips. The purely anecdotal has value, as does free lance reporting. Accordingly, I tried to emphasize unique, personal blog writing and research over news items recycled from big media sources. By and large I did not reBlog slashdot, boingboing or kottke, assuming that most people were looking at them anyway. I also avoided the major media feeds, such as NY Times, Yahoo, Wired, for the same reason.

2. I favored items with text or pictures over blind links with pithy 3-word captions.

3. I tried to keep a balance of tech and art writing.

4. I included a heftier dose of politics because the major media are failing us in that regard and we have to do what we can.

5. I added a few feeds where people are posting original art to the Web: Look, See; SCREENFULL; Wooster Collective.

Go for it, Paddy!

Originally from Tom Moody by tom moody reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 4:51PM

Originally posted by tom moody from Tom Moody, on August 22, 2006 11:16 PM

John Canzano's latest blog post on the Zach Randolph scandalette is a wonder of modern communications.

First he gets all high and mighty about how the Oregonian is so fantastic that they have been on to this story for six days--way longer than their competition (some of whom actually broke the story). Canzano implies that the Oregonian staffers know way more than anyone else, but there is a lot of shoddy journalism around, so don't get confused, dear reader. For instance:

You always know much more than you can get in the newspaper, but there have to be concerns about fairness to Randolph here... we should all tread lightly... There were a couple of news agencies in town that ran with this, despite being totally out of the loop on the initial reporting. They were stealing fragments of unattributed information, just throwing it out there without really knowing what they were throwing. Can't say I'm surprised, but it was transparent in the way one of them rushed to post the police news release, then began poking around after the fact, one of them, a competitor, going as far as calling me, fishing for details and leads.

Then he proves he's not really all that opposed to shoddy journalism. The thing is, Canzano has heard some rumors. The kinds of things that newspaper editors won't let you publish, because they're not news, they're rumors. But Canzano wants to publish them anyway, and he has a blog, so why not? He closes with the version of events he has heard, which if they were demonstrably true would have been in today's Oregonian:

I'm told that Randolph hired two women to perform a live sex show for himself and a friend at a downtown hotel. Bad judgement, for sure. But it's not illegal in Oregon. What happened after that, and what that involved will be included in a police report, if there are charges brought.

Did the show get out of hand? Were the women stiffed on the fee? Are police looking at something beyond the alleged sexual assault?

Chew on that while we're waiting.

That "bad judgment, for sure" is especially bad--because it shows he's past the fact-finding and on to the judging! I thought we were going to "tread lightly," John?

UPDATE: One more thought: what if Canzano is wrong and it turns out the alleged victim here is not a stripper? Is John Canzano just going to apologize for spreading rumors about her? Or, if he has the information from such solid sources that there is no chance of that, then why don't we get to hear who those sources are? And why isn't this "news" in the paper? After all, the Oregonian has been working this for six days, right?

UPDATE: I heard from John Canzano, and owe him an apology. He says that he would never put something on his blog that he could not confirm, and there are various reasons the "sex show" angle wasn't in the Oregonian's coverage One of those reasons is that John Canzano wasn't scheduled to write yesterday. (He did write today, with lots of great information on a different angle, and still no mention of strippers.) My criticism of Canzano's news standards was based on the assumption that if an Oregonian staffer had solid information on a big, breaking news story, it would have been in that paper's coverage regardless of columnist schedules. Now that I realize that's not the case, it's much more credible to me that Canzano could have good, confirmed information that just wasn't in the paper.

Originally from True Hoop by Henry Abbott reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 2:19PM

Originally posted by Henry Abbott from True Hoop, on August 22, 2006 11:16 PM

In defiance of the foie gras ban, which goes into effect today, Chicago restaurants that never serve foie gras offer it today.

Originally from megnut.com blog by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 1:47PM

Originally posted by meg@megnut.com (Meg Hourihan) from megnut.com blog, on August 22, 2006 11:16 PM

From Wikipedia:

The classical prisoner's dilemma (PD) is as follows:

Two suspects, A and B, are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated both prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal: if one testifies for the prosecution against the other and the other remains silent, the betrayer goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both stay silent, the police can sentence both prisoners to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each will receive a two-year sentence. Each prisoner must make the choice of whether to betray the other or to remain silent. However, neither prisoner knows for sure what choice the other prisoner will make. So the question this dilemma poses is: What will happen? How will the prisoners act?

Originally from Cynical-C Blog by Chris reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 1:01PM

Originally posted by Chris from Cynical-C Blog, on August 22, 2006 11:16 PM

Grigory Perelman, who I posted about last week, has indeed won the Fields Medal for his possible proof of the Poincare Conjecture but declined the award. The current New Yorker has an article (not online) about the whole deal which I have yet to read.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 12:50PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 22, 2006 11:16 PM

A company called Freeload is offering college textbooks with advertising in them to students for free. If this works, will this mean more books with advertising in them?

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 12:43PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 22, 2006 11:16 PM

Updated ParisYouTube, trying to make more money, has introduced a major advertisement on its homepage. It kicks off with Paris Hilton's debut album, Paris, released today. YouTube is beginning to look more like Google. The ad is on the right-hand side, and the ad will rise and fall on the page, depending on how relevant the ad is with YouTube's users. In this case, the YouTube community will do more heavy lifting than Google's. Users rate the ad, share it and comment on it -- which determine the ad's placement. The Merc story today is here. At the top of this first Paris video you will see that it is sponsoed by Fox Broadcasting Company's "Prison Break," the second season of which premiered Monday. It is what YouTube is calling its "participatory video ad" concept. Additionally, YouTube has created a "brand channel" concept, which in this case means that it has created a special seperate channel for Paris, at http://youtube.com/ParisHilton This is the latest in YouTube's efforts to boost its advertising, which already includes banner ads, promotions and various sponsorships. While we're mentioning YouTube, check out Djodjodesign's PodTube, which allows you to download YouTube videos on to your Video iPod. If this develops and the iPod can easily download YouTube vidoes, then why would Apple need to buy YouTube, which is what some people are suggesting over at GigaOm? It would be sort of like eBay's acquisition of Skype. There's no real integration play here, because iPod users can view YouTube vidoes for free -- without any acquisition -- just as eBay's users can use Skype for free anyway. The only reason for an acquisition by Apple of YouTube would be to tap into YouTube's revenue growth early -- which could be substantial if YouTube can exploit more Paris Hiltons....

Originally from VentureBeat by Matt Marshall reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 11:26AM

Originally posted by Matt Marshall from VentureBeat, on August 22, 2006 11:16 PM

"We Are the World"-style commentary on music piracy; "even Lars Ulrich knows it's wrong"  

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 3:41PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on August 22, 2006 11:14 PM

Originally from Cynical-C Blog by Chris reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 3:19PM

Originally posted by Chris from Cynical-C Blog, on August 22, 2006 11:14 PM

I'm posting this because of the seemingly random Vonnegut appearance.

Digitized from a 1984 VHS tape. This is one of the famous Coffee Achievers tv spots, meant to encourage people to DRINK COFFEE. You can see how we here in the 21st Century have to laugh ourselves senseless at the idea that paid ads were necessary, and not even for a particular brand of coffee, just the product in general. Appearing in this ad: David Bowie (Jay Leno in 1985: "Come on! To David Bowie, a cup of coffee is merely a sedative at this point."), Kenny Anderson, Kurt Vonnegut, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson of the band Heart, and Cicely Tyson.

(via Ishbadiddle)

Originally from Cynical-C Blog by Chris reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 2:35PM

Originally posted by Chris from Cynical-C Blog, on August 22, 2006 11:14 PM

Credit where credit is due.

Originally from FatBits: John Siracusa's Journal by siracusa@arstechnica.com (John Siracusa) reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 6:11PM

Originally posted by siracusa@arstechnica.com (John Siracusa) from FatBits: John Siracusa's Journal, on August 22, 2006 11:12 PM

     A few thoughts on my piece in this week's New Yorker on pensions, "The Risk Pool"-- a piece which I note, to my great amusement, has already been dubbed by one blogger ""the worst Gladwell piece ever.""

     If you haven't read it, it's an argument against the peculiarly American notion of tying retiree benefits to individual companies, which, as the current plight of General Motors shows us, is a recipe for disaster. I think that all insurance and pensions systems, to maximize effeciency and security, should be based on the largest risk pool possible--preferably the whole country.

     One of the predictable responses to this is that this is the idea behind Social Security is--and look at the problem that program is in. I have to say, though, that what reading I have done into the Social Security issue hasn't convinced me that the program is in all that much trouble--that is, with a number of not entirely painless (but not debilitating) adjustments now, we can avoid a lot of the trouble down the line. Put it this way: would you rather, as a retiree, put your faith in the federal government or General Motors?

     I was on a NRP talk show today with Olivia Mitchell of the Wharton School who, it's safe to say, has forgotten more about the pension issue than I will ever know, and she pointed out that its not pensions we should we worried about so much as retiree health care. But even there. General Motors is currently $40 billion behind in funding its retiree medical obligations. The federal govermment is behind as well. But I'd still rather take my chances with the feds than with GM.

     A couple of other, small points. One of the drawbacks of the New Yorker, as I think I've said before, is that we don't get to provide footnotes. So here, in lieu of that, are a couple of notes from The Risk Pool piece.

      I learned an enormous amount from Jennifer Klein's  "For All These Rights: Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America's Public-Private Welfare." If you're interested in reading more about the origins of our crazy quilt pension system, I recommend it highly. I was also heavily influenced by Jacob Hacker's work, in particular "The Divided Welfare State." I didn't actually get a chance to mention Hacker in the piece, and I'm sorry about that. But he has a wonderful new book coming out, and I'm hoping to write about it sometime this fall.

Originally from gladwell.com by malcolmgladwell reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 8:37PM

Originally posted by malcolmgladwell from gladwell.com, on August 22, 2006 11:10 PM

By Matthias Zenger, Software Engineer

Today we're releasing the Google Base data API with which you can write applications that dynamically interact with Google Base. You can upload, edit and delete items, as well as query data to create mash-ups combining Google Base content with other services. It's a ReST-full API, based on the GData protocol.

Check out the demo to see the possible uses, and to get you started in building your own client application.

The Google Base API is designed for developers who would like to integrate their applications with Google Base. Due to the nature of the Google Base API, developers should have technical know-how and experience programming applications. If you're a casual user of Google Base and would like to add a few items at a time, we suggest you do this using existing submission methods: single-item postings and bulk uploads.

Originally from Official Google Base Blog by Google Base Blog reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 7:50PM

Originally posted by Google Base Blog from Official Google Base Blog, on August 22, 2006 11:10 PM

Webwag is a new personalized start page set to be released at the end of this month. According to E-consultancy.com, it's the latest creation of ex-Google France chief Franck Poisson - who says it "will move out of beta on August 28" and be officially announced in early September. More from E-Consultancy.com:

"According to Poisson, Webwag will shortly launch a toolbar, allowing users to import bookmarks and other sites into widgets on their home page, as well as to search their chosen sites or the web as a whole. For the latter, it has inked a partnership with a “big search company”, which Poisson won’t name."

What's more, Poisson is talking up the chances of the independent start pages - such as Pageflakes, Netvibes and now Webwag. He thinks the big companies - Microsoft, Google and Yahoo - won't capture more than 50% of the market:

"According to Poisson, Webwag’s revenue streams will include affiliate marketing – something Netvibes is doing via Kelkoo - and B2B deals, an as yet unexplored area. Chris previously suggested that white labelling this technology is one key revenue opportunity for these firms to consider.

Poisson said: "As Web 2.0 develops over the next three three to five years, two things will remain. Firstly, everyone will have their own blog, and over 75% of people will have their own personalised start pages.

"My belief is the big search portals (My Yahoo etc) will get 50% of that market, and 50% will be taken by three to four independents.”"

Personally I think that 50% figure for independents is too ambitious. I also question his claim that 75% of people will have a start page in 3-5 years, unless you count the likes of Yahoo.com as a 'personalized start page' (actually I suspect the distinction will be moot in 5 years time).

In any case I do believe there is very viable market for the 'independents' - particularly in white labelling and B2B deals. Personalized start pages are one of the more inventive areas of Web technology at the moment, with action aplenty from Internet giants and small startups alike. It'll be interesting to see what Webwag has to offer - currently the link above is password-protected.

Originally from unmediated by yatta reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 6:04PM

Originally posted by yatta from unmediated, on August 22, 2006 11:10 PM

Mena Trott is the 28-year-old founder of leading blog software company Six Apart (Creators of Typepad, Movable Type, LiveJournal and Vox). In this talk, she explores the personal side of blogging. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 17:30)

Download this talk: Audio (MP3) | Video (MP4)

More TEDTalks: TEDTalks website | iTunes (audio) | iTunes (video)

Blog this video: Use this code to run the video on your own site:

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" width="320" height="285" id="VE_Player" align="middle"> <param name="movie" value="http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/loader.swf" /> <PARAM NAME="FlashVars" VALUE="bgColor='FFFFFF'&file=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/movies/MENATROTT_high.flv&autoPlay=false&fullscreenURL=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/fullscreen.html&forcePlay=false&logo=&allowFullscreen=true" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="scale" value="noscale" /> <param name="wmode" value="window" /> <p><embed src="http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/loader.swf"<br /> FlashVars="bgColor=FFFFFF&file=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/movies/MENATROTT_high.flv&autoPlay=false&fullscreenURL=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/fullscreen.html&forcePlay=false&logo=&allowFullscreen=true"<br /> quality="high"<br /> allowScriptAccess="always"<br /> bgcolor="#FFFFFF"<br /> scale="noscale"<br /> wmode="window"<br /> width="320" height="285" name="VE_Player" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /><br /> </embed></p></object><br />

Subscribe to TEDTalks for free, automatic updates.

Originally posted by noemail@noemail.org (June Cohen) from TED Blog, on August 22, 2006 9:39 AM

Still frustrated and disappointed that MeasureMap has gone away, even if it never went as far as I wanted it to go.

Finally got around to trying out Google Analytics, maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I'm bored by it. Doesn't answer the questions I'm interested in, though it did flag the interesting statistic that 94% of my visitors are "first time visitors", which I imagine could also be dubbed the "I've got full content feeds" usage profile.

I guess I try Mint next, though the demos don't look like a lot more then a (very) pretty face on my old analog install, and $30 seems a bit much to pay for that. And really I think stats for blogs need a domain specific package. But there seems to be an active plugin community around Mint which is promising.

Sigh.

update: Checked back today, it's interesting to note that with a few more days of data IE's percentage has already fallen from 42% to 37.6%. Maybe it wil fall to a 1/3? I, for one, have never believed that 95% market share number folks like to throw around.

Originally from Laughing Meme reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 1:08AM

Originally from Laughing Meme, on August 22, 2006 7:58 AM

The Come Out and Play Festival looks awesome. "Come Out & Play is a festival dedicated to street games. It is three days of play, talks, and celebration, all focused on new types of games and play." Takes place in NYC, Septmeber 22-24.

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 3:32PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 22, 2006 12:22 AM

With the release of our new network badges, we've also quietly introduced a pair of new JSON feeds: one for your network, and another for your fans.

This brings the total number of JSON feeds offered up to four - and even though an adventurous tinkerer managed to create this del.icio.us network explorer sans documentation, we figured it was about time we gave the help pages on our JSON feeds a little bit of a refresh.

So, take a look. You'll find new examples on how to access data in JSON format, drawn from posts and tags, as well as members of your network and collection of fans.

Originally from del.icio.us by deusx reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 2:27PM

Originally posted by deusx from del.icio.us, on August 22, 2006 12:22 AM

Whitney Houston, insane former pop star and provider of bail for Bobby Brown, is a remarkable woman. No, not because her most successful song was spun out from a movie where she had to feign affection for Kevin Costner, but because she inspires such a wide variety of men to love her.

Like who? Like Osama Bin Freaking Laden! Let's see what Page Six says:

Osama bin Laden has more on his mind than just the destruction of the United States - the world's most wanted terrorist is obsessed with Whitney Houston, so much so that he's even mulled a hit on her hubby, Bobby Brown.

Oh, snap! You don't want to mess with Bobby Brown. But that's not the worst foe that Osama would face while wooing Whitney. There's also the threat of the undead Serge Gainsbourg to deal with. The dirty old man of French pop had dibs!

So, I'm thinking reality TV show. Zombie Serge vs. Osama Bin Laden in a stiff competition for Whitney Houston's crack-addled heart. We could call it Beating Bobby Brown. As long as they don't look at any recent pictures, it should turn out fine.

Originally from Anil Dash by Anil reBlogged

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on August 22, 2006 12:22 AM

Just a couple quick links for today:

• The Official Python for S60 Wiki has launched!
• “Mobile Multimedia Mashups” — Oren (Nokia multimedia guru) has posted some PyS60 source code (and screenshots) of a demo application he wrote for accessing Audioscrobbler from a mobile phone.

Originally from [eriksmartt.com/blog] by erik reBlogged on Dec 31, 1969, 6:59PM

Originally posted by erik from [eriksmartt.com/blog], on August 22, 2006 12:22 AM

There are 124 bundles for TextMate where only 36 are included by default. Until recently, the way to get more bundles has been to install subversion and then do a checkout of the bundles needed (from the shell.)

Now there is a much easier way: the GetBundle bundle by Sebastian Gräßl. All you need to do is download and double click it to get an “Install Bundle” command which you can invoke from inside TextMate (hint: use ⌃⌘T and enter “install”.)

There is also an “Update all Bundles” command which you can use to update your custom installed bundles to the latest version. A future version of the bundle is likely to offer a launchd Daemon that you can install to have updating taken care of automatically.

All bundles installed via the GetBundle end up in ~/Library/Application Support/TextMate/Pristine Copy/Bundles.

For troubleshooting you can use the TextMate mailing list.

Originally from TextMate Blog by Allan Odgaard reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 4:50PM

Originally posted by Allan Odgaard from TextMate Blog, on August 22, 2006 12:19 AM

Social Design Notes, blogging here since 2002, has no relation whatsoever with the Social Design Network™, circa 2006. While their mission sounds nice enough, their logo contest is an example of unethical spec-work, and the fee-based portfolio site and jewlery sales — a whopping 17% donated to charity — make it look like this initiative is more about cashing in on the idea of social design. (And does that ring remind anyone else of a classic video game?)

Originally from Social Design Notes reBlogged on Aug 22, 2006, 12:13AM

Originally from Social Design Notes, on August 22, 2006 12:18 AM

Don't worry Ted, Theo Epstein's running for the phone right now.

+ Why we're happy Billy got rid of Ted Lilly a while back.

+ If you're in Berkeley on Thursday, please join this very important conference:
Making Another World Possible:
Women Leaders in the Immigrant Rights, Global Justice, and Post-Katrina Reconstruction Efforts.

+ The latest on Lt. Ehren Watada:
* Analysis
* News Updates

+ Rebecca Solnit on another Ted, the radical (in both senses of the word) architect Teddy Cruz
* Download PDF directly here.

+ Clamor Magazine vs. American Apparel. According to the Clamor staff, American Apparel has threatened legal action over a Clamor exposé of the company's business practices. You can continue to follow the case at the magazine's blog.

Originally from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric by Jeff reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 11:32PM

Originally posted by Jeff from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric, on August 22, 2006 12:18 AM

full speed OpenGL/DirectX running natively on the Mac would mean I'd never buy a PC again [via] 

Originally from Waxy.org Links reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 9:27PM

Originally from Waxy.org Links, on August 22, 2006 12:18 AM

Wait for it… around 1:15.

QUESTION: A lot of the consequences you mentioned for pulling out seem like maybe they never would have been there if we hadn’t gone in. How do you square all of that?

BUSH: I square it because imagine a world in which you had Saddam Hussein, who had the capacity to make a weapon of mass destruction, who was paying suiciders to kill innocent life, who had relations with Zarqawi.

You know, I’ve heard this theory about, you know, everything was just fine until we arrived [in Iraq] and — you know, the stir-up-the-hornet’s- nest theory. It just doesn’t hold water, as far as I’m concerned.

The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East. They were …

QUESTION: What did Iraqi have to do with that?

BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?

QUESTION: The attacks upon the World Trade Center.

BUSH: Nothing. . . . .Except for it’s part of — and nobody’s ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a — Iraq — the lesson of September the 11th is: Take threats before they fully materialize,

Originally from Turbanhead.com by Administrator reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 8:16PM

Originally posted by Administrator from Turbanhead.com, on August 22, 2006 12:18 AM

TED Blog is being highlighted by Typepad today. It is the work of Apperceptive which is led by two immensely talented people - David Jacobs and John Emerson. The blog has a post about Natalie MacMaster who I got to see at Celebrate Brooklyn this year (and last on Canada Day), as the post on TED Blog says, if she is playing near you - drop everything.

John Battelle has a post about the bubble we seem to be in called "Failure to Fail". It is worth a read.

...In short, we don't have a company creation crisis. But we might have a company destruction crisis. Something is off in our ecosystem - there's simply not enough failure out there right now. For an ecosystem to be truly healthy, bad ideas (or good ideas poorly executed) need to fail, so we can all learn from the failure, incorporate the lessons, and move on.

On a similar note Tom Evslin's post "Life on the Long Tail - an Introduction"  (via avc.blogs.com) Very interesting post about  authorship but it also contains this which is related to the article above.

...The power law also explains why it is bad idea to be the twentieth social networking site or VoIP phone company even if #1 was just purchased for a gazillion dollars. Let’s assume that a gazillion means a $24 million just to make the math easy. Power law says that #2 is worth  $12,000,000 (still not bad), #3 is worth $8,000,000 (you’d get by even after your VCs’ cut). But #20 is worth only $1.2 million. When you check the liquidation preference (see Brad Feld on this) in your financing, you’ll find that you don’t get any of that – it all goes to the investors and they won’t even be happy.

The lengthening tail affects copy-cat entrepreneurs as well as authors. The ever lower cost of starting and running an Internet business means that #20 will always have to contend with #21 through #50 if it looks like any money is going to made in the category. Tough to get the investors’ money back. Actually, since so much of the value is at the head of the curve when talking about network businesses, it is impossible for any but a handful of network business to succeed within a category.

Scoble defines what blogging is, hmm.

If there are any masochists in the house then today's Media Bistro job board contains something big for you. The NY Observer is looking for a VP General Manager Online. On the one hand you could go after NYMetro.com and gawker, etc but though, I don't know first hand, I suspect that working for someone "whose “... 25-ness is a huge asset" and "who is not weighed down by the debris of conventional wisdom." could really be a drag but then again I'm perhaps I'm just too jaded a character.

Someone I know is creating a novelization of the next Mr. Bean movie. Now that is a tough assignment.

 

Originally from DefinitiveInk by joshua mack reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 7:04PM

Originally posted by joshua mack from DefinitiveInk, on August 22, 2006 12:18 AM

a rich collection of common world phenomena, analytically captured within strict & simple 4-block diagrams.
see also doodle graphs & diagrams.
[4blockworld.com]

Originally from information aesthetics by infosthetics reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 6:27PM

Originally posted by infosthetics from information aesthetics, on August 22, 2006 12:18 AM

david posted a photo:

Originally from david's Photos by david reBlogged

Originally posted by david from david's Photos, on August 22, 2006 12:18 AM

Nice interview with Michael Frumin on the occasion of him leaving Eyebeam. "There's so much data out there, and so little time!"

Originally from kottke.org remaindered links by jkottke reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 1:39PM

Originally posted by jkottke from kottke.org remaindered links, on August 21, 2006 3:15 PM

Der Spiegel interviews Jimmy Carter.

There's no doubt that this administration has made a radical and unpressured departure from the basic policies of all previous administrations including those of both Republican and Democratic presidents.

Under all of its predecessors there was a commitment to peace instead of preemptive war. Our country always had a policy of not going to war unless our own security was directly threatened and now we have a new policy of going to war on a preemptive basis. Another very serious departure from past policies is the separation of church and state, which I describe in the book. This has been a policy since the time of Thomas Jefferson and my own religious beliefs are compatible with this. The other principle that I described in the book is basic justice. We've never had an administration before that so overtly and clearly and consistently passed tax reform bills that were uniquely targeted to benefit the richest people in our country at the expense or the detriment of the working families of America.

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 8:30AM

Originally from Rebecca's Pocket, on August 21, 2006 8:45 AM

Simple instructions for getting the Open Convert .LIT package to compile on OS X

Originally from random($foo) reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 5:25AM

Originally from random($foo), on August 21, 2006 8:45 AM

Notoriously anonymous music and video art collective The Residents are staging a high-profile internet contest that will award winners a starring role in an exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art. Between now and September 15th, anyone can download the audio file from the first episode of The Residents' River of Crime series--a 'crimecast' project inspired by 1940s radio mysteries--and submit a video with their soundtrack. The artists and MOMA's pioneering video curator, Barbara London, will jury a shortlist of favorites to be posted on the internet site, YouTube, and ultimately screened at the museum as part of the group's retrospective of over thirty years' work. The Residents' website explains that their goal is to explore 'the rise in popularity of instant-video-creation due to the proliferation of inexpensive video cameras, as well as both still cameras and phones that shoot video..' Speaking of popularity, the 'success' of videos on YouTube will play a role in the final judging, once more bringing the notion of 'contagious media' into the art world. - Regan McGill

http://residents.com/bh/ROCVID.htm

Originally from Rhizome.org: Rhizome News reBlogged on Aug 21, 2006, 3:00AM

Originally from Rhizome.org: Rhizome News, on August 21, 2006 8:45 AM

This is the first 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 the Nike Plus site.

Nike Plus is the product of Apple's partnership with Nike to produce an accessory aimed at those who listen to music on an iPod while they run. With that kind of pedigree, you'd expect nothing less than an excellent, aesthetically exceptional experience, and Nike+Apple definitely deliver.

The physical hardware is reasonably attractive, given its focus on pure functionality. You get a little fob that sits in a custom slot in the Nike shoes, and it can be attached to any brand of shoe if you're creative enough. There's a dongle for your iPod Nano, and then the rest of the magic happens when you sync up your iPod to your computer. It's not perfect, of course; The whole system locks in your running data in a way that's not entirely surprising given Apple's history of DRM advocacy. It's inexplicable why they won't let you export your own info.

On balance, the product is pretty good. But what's remarkable in the execution of the Nike Plus (or "Nike+"; the site and product are referred to both ways) is that it's not just pretty, it's practical for people who are actually runners. My wife and many of my closest friends are all runners, and several of them are in marathon training right now. And all of the runners I've talked to have described the tracking, reporting, and community functionality of the Nike Plus site as top notch. There's also a smart integration of music features, letting you pick a "Power Song" in case you need a boost while running. For someone like me, though, I'd need a way to keep motivated and to reward my competitive nature.

That's where the 100 Perfect Pixels of the Nike Plus site come in. You'll see highlighted here the My Records link, which offers access to a all your running records. You can set goals, challenges, milestones, and events, all designed to help you compete against the most difficult competitor: yourself. That kind of design touch shows some smart thinking and beautiful execution, so it's a shoe-in (pun!) for being the first example of 100 Perfect Pixels.

Some Resources:

• You'll need an iPod nano to play with the system. Nike would also prefer you buy some Nike Plus shoes to go with it, though that's actually optional. It works with any sneaker, as Alaina has documented.

• Once you've got the first $400 worth of gear together, you've only got one more item to buy: Nike + iPod Sport Kit is the actual doohickey that makes your shoe talk to the fob that talks to the dongle that talks to the nano that talks to your computer that talks to the website that makes all the charts and graphs light up.

• In the iTunes Music Store, Athlete Inspirations is a bunch of playlists and podcasts for runners by athletes. I had figured everyone was just listening to Eminem's "Lose Yourself" as their Power Song, but apparently not.

• And finally, yeah, I know that 100×100 pixels is actually 10,000 Perfect Pixels. That name kinda sucks, so this post and all the future ones are going to be called 100 Perfect Pixels and tagged with "100px". Deal with it.

Originally from Anil Dash by Anil reBlogged

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on August 21, 2006 8:45 AM

"Ridiculously Easy Distributed Programming"

Originally from tecznotes links by Michal Migurski reBlogged on Aug 20, 2006, 11:45AM

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on August 20, 2006 5:24 PM

Why does the milk seem to get better (ie, sweeter), when you steam it? Is it a change in the chemistry? The incorporation of air? Both? What is wrong (or right) with me that I care this much about coffee and creating the perfect milk to marry with it?

Hello, Milk! is a chemistry lesson and how-to guide in choosing the right milk for steaming and frothing in your espresso drinks.

Originally from A Full Belly by David Jacobs reBlogged

Originally posted by David Jacobs from A Full Belly, on August 20, 2006 5:24 PM