Harry and Hermione...
...oh wait, maybe it's my son and his bride, Adriana!
« July 1, 2007 - July 7, 2007 | Main | July 15, 2007 - July 21, 2007 »
July 14, 2007
Lantern Festival
I love the “hot tags cloud” that appears above Flickr’s popular tags. A quick look this morning introduced me to the 9th Annual Lantern Festival that took place in Boston’s Forest Hills Cemetery on Thursday night. People remembered their friends and family by inscribing greetings on lanterns that were lit at dusk and floated across Lake Hibiscus.
For more photos from the Lantern Festival check out recent photos tagged with “foresthillscemetery” and “lanternfestival.”
Photos from bamboovanpoo and paul+photos=moody.
Adobe's 14th Street Billboard: Interactive, But Recessed
To drum up interest in Creative Suite 3, Adobe put up a new interactive billboard on 14th Street outside the Virgin MegaStore this morning. From NY Times:
As pedestrians walk past the wall, infrared sensors will lock on to the person closest to the wall, who will then be able to control a projected slider button at the bottom of the wall. As the selected pedestrian continues walking and moves the slider along, the wall will start displaying colorful animation and playing music, effects that will grow or recede at the pace that the person advances or retreats. When each selected pedestrian reaches the end of the wall, his or her design will be in full blossom, above the campaign’s message: “Creative license: take as much as you want.”That sounds interesting. But does it work? We checked out the wall, which happens to in this recessed part of the building. Perhaps the wall needed to be in a recessed area so people could see the screen without glare and to be protected from the elements, but it's seems so recessed (about 12 feet from the main sidewalk) that general passersby wouldn't know it's anything interactive. When no one is nearby, it seems to be just a white screen with the Adobe logo and some black type (we could have missed an inactive state animation, though). Only when you're about 6 feet from the screen do people get to manipulate the wall.
So now you know what that wall is, when you're rushing to the subway entrance. We wonder if Adobe's ad agency selected the Union Square location because there are so many creative types in there - versus Times Square, which is more heavily trafficked but might have less people who use Adobe Products. But let us just say this: We wouldn't mind a Charmin toilet experience in Union Square.
July 13, 2007
iPhone On the Road
I had a chance yesterday, while traveling between the Bay Area and Portland, to try out how the iPhone behaved while away from urban areas. If you’ve ever been on I-5 in Northern California and Southern Oregon, you’ll know that it’s a long stretch of curvy, hilly road without a lot of population nearby. It’s challenging territory for cell phones.
For voice calls, the iPhone was no worse, nor any better than any other phone that I’ve used. Most of the time, I had decent signal, but any turn of the road can cut off the line of sight to a tower and kill a call. I had a few dropped calls yesterday and one patch of about 10 or 15 minutes of no service near Lake Shasta. The experience pretty much matched my experiences with other phones over the last five years or so. It wasn’t quite as good as my Moto RAZR was, but then that phone was also had the best voice quality of any phone I’ve owned in recent memory.
As far as data, it seems that AT&T’s EDGE network didn’t get the same kind of recent upgrade love out in the country as it did in urban areas. Things moved quite a bit slower as soon as got very far away from the Bay Area. And, in far Northern California and Southern Oregon, AT&T’s service is actually provided by Edge Wireless towers. Let’s just say that Edge’s EDGE speed was anything but stellar. Using Safari was pretty hopeless. There was, however, enough bandwidth for mail to make it in and out. I was able to read and dispatch a few emails without a problem.
The best experience was provided by some random open hotel WiFi network when we stopped for gas. The iPhone requested to connect, and boom! Life in the fast lane for a few minutes. The world needs more open WiFi access points. Maybe the iPhone will help encourage that along.
Whole Foods CEO May Be in (Bottled) Hot Water
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an informal investigation into the online postings of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey.
And my favorite part: Eddy Elfenbein of Crossing Wall Street has posted Rahodeb's (Mackey's handle) greatest hits, including this one: "Oh yes, 'the John Mackey identity theory'. I've heard it a few times before on this Board. Believe it if you wish since it enhances the value of what I write."
iphone and exchange
So say you're one of the lucky
fewmany who use Exchange for their work (or even personal) email, and you buy a shiny new iPhone. And you go through the magic incantations to connect your iPhone to your Exchange account (mmmm, IMAP), and all is hunky dory. You're getting mail, you're reading mail, you're replying to mail, you're deleting mail.Except wait -- you're not really deleting mail, are you. Because even though you're deleting it on your iPhone (whoosh!), the next time you launch Outlook, the messages you deleted on your phone are still showing up in your inbox. "What gives?" you ask. "How the **** am I supposed to use this $600+ device to manage my inbox if it's not actually deleting messages?"
So here's what's actually happening, and here's how you can work around this current shortcoming.
First, what the iPhone is doing is marking the message for deletion, and not actually deleting the message. (For many Exchange types, this "marked for deletion" may be a new concept; I'd encourage those folks to read up on IMAP, but wow would that make for a boring weekend.)
Second, Outlook acting as an Exchange client has no knowledge of this flag that's set on those messages. So even though you've deleted them on your phone, and they're marked for deletion on the server, Outlook (again, acting as an Exchange client) just shows the messages still in your box. They're read, but not gone.
Here's the workaround, courtesy of bigmo2940 on the Apple discussion forums. It may bend your noodle a bit, but bear with me.
- Create a new IMAP account in Outlook that uses the same preferences as how you've configured your iPhone. Yes, this means that you'll now have two accounts in Outlook talking to the same mailstore: one via Exchange and one via IMAP. (Yes, this is awkward and inelegant.)
- Navigate to that inbox in Outlook and note how now you can see those messages that you've marked for deletion via your iPhone. Unless you've configured your message views otherwise, they should be gray and struck-through and
look something like this.- Go to Edit > Purge > Purge Marked items in Inbox. Or, alternatively, Edit > Purge > Purge Marked Items in "account name". This will permanently remove / delete those messages that you deleted from your iPhone.
You can then either manage your mail from that inbox, or navigate back to your primary Exchange inbox (which I recommend; after all, Outlook and Exchange were made for one another). Once you're back in your Exchange inbox you'll note that all the messages you've just purged have been deleted.
Yes, this is a total hack, but a clever one nonetheless (thanks again bigmo2940). But I'm hoping it's a temporary one and Apple indeed has licensed Over the Air ActiveSync for Exchange (where "mmmm, IMAP" becomes "mmmm, push email and contacts and calendaring") and ships it with an update at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Ichiro: five more years
Ichiro! has signed a five-year contract extension with the Mariners.
The Mariners are 50-36, two games behind the first-place Angels in the AL West.
Pidginholed
I’ve been holding off on updates about lolcats and related memes for a while because it’s easy to get burned out and probably as boring for you as it is for me. But there are still some interesting parts to it. As I alluded to in Inadvertent Lazymeme Clearinghouse Lamentations, once you’re known for something like writing a post about lolcats and grammar, you become the central place for both people looking for information about such things, as well as the go-to place for people to pitch their new ideas about the topic, whether they’re exciting or not.
As is usually the case, most people who are just trying to fill in the blanks with a lolwhatever site are not only unfunny, but tedious. I have what’s called a “Hippo Problem”, based on the problem of someone offhandedly mentions a fondness for hippos once, and is plagued the rest of their days with hippo-emblazoned kitsch for the rest of their days.
My hippos are captioned cats.
It’s a thankless burden — imagine if you were an expert on “I Kiss You!”, or the go-to guy for All Your Base. I’m just glad I didn’t write anything about that goddamn dancing baby.
The truth, of course, is that it’s not so bad, and I try to remember that there’s inevitably somebody out there who feels like they really understand this topic. They’re sitting in a cafe somewhere with a laptop, resentful and bitter that a hack like me got associated with lolcats in the first place. I’m sure the I Can Has Cheezeburger folks get hate mail from people who said they started a lolrus site exactly four days earlier and have thus been completely ripped off.
For every angry would-be lolcat expert, though, there are some perks to this kind of thing. “Cats Can Has Grammar” is (I think, I’m lousy at tracking stats) my most popular post in the nearly 8 years that I’ve been blogging, with something like half a million people having read it since it went up. I’ve gotten mentioned or quoted in stories all over the place, from the Chicago Tribune to a TV station in North Carolina to an Associated Press story that ran all over the place. I even talked to the Wall Street Journal, though I’m hoping some editor spiked the piece that was being researched, in a fit of good taste. Somewhere, Mahir’s talent agent is shaking his head sadly. “Enjoy it while it lasts, kid.”
The picture above shows that the Houston Chronicle actually ran a cover story about the lolcat phenomenon that referred to me as a “legendary blogger”. Look, mom, I still don’t have a college degree, but now I’m a lolcat legend!
And the final lesson is that we all create our own misery. If I complain that this one lighthearted and offhand piece gets more attention than all the writing I’ve carefully crafted over the years, then it’s of course only fair that I get my comeuppance. My favorite newsweekly, Time, published their own lolcats story today, and I was kind of disappointed to see that I’m not mentioned anywhere in it. Be careful what you ask for…
Yep, Naomi Watts Is Still Pregnant
Longest. Pregnancy. Ever. Naomi Watts is still pregnant... as you can see here in this photo of her, taken yesterday, in West Hollywood. When that baby finally makes it's debut, it's going to be a teenager. (If that's the case, hope she's having a c-section! Otherwise... ouch!)
Liev Schreiber's first bambino is set to arrive any day now. Though I've certainly said that before, so, for all I know, the kid's coming at Christmas.
How one working woman cooks family meals every night of the week
NYT: "For the past 10 years, I have starred in my own reality series: “Working Mom Cooks Weeknight Dinner.” Think of it as “Survivor” meets “Iron Chef” with a bit of “Deal or No Deal.” In the show’s long-running history there have been stretches in which the entire tribe was forced to subsist on scrambled eggs, tuna sandwiches and reheated Chinese food. But together we have overcome obstacles, gained wisdom and reached a point where my husband and I and our two boys eat balanced and even inventive home-cooked meals most nights."Cooking dinner every night is at once much, much harder than most people realize (especially if you're trying not to waste a thing—how can I use up this bunch of cilantro?) and, once you get into the habit, not nearly as hard as it seems like it will be. If you follow the meal plan she outlines here, you'll have something to eat every night of the week. (thanks, jjg!)
Regarding OS X-Based iPods
The reason some people are skeptical about Apple introducing OS X-based iPods this year is that the question about cannibalizing sales works both ways: an iPhone-ish OS X-based iPod would surely have some detrimental effect on iPhone sales. AT&T might care about that, but why would Apple?
The Sea Between
One of my favorite poems by Leah Goldberg appears as the third poem in a five-poem cycle titled "Harchek meod" (Very Far Away) (included in her 1964 volume of poems 'Im ha layla ha-ze). Here's the poem in transliterated Hebrew:
Ze lo ha-yam
Ze lo ha-yam asher beyneynu,
Ze lo ha-tehom asher beyneyu,
Ze lo ha-zman asher beyneynu
Ze--anu sheynu asher beyneynu.Here's a literal translation:
It is not the sea
It is not the sea that (is) between us,
It is not the abyss that (is) between us,
It is not the time that (is) between us
It's--us the two of us that (are) between us.A few years ago, I attempted to translate this one section. As with many Goldberg poems, this one adheres to a specific formal structure; however, the rhyme pattern is not that challenging, since each line ends with the same phrase "between us." The problem is that "between us" falls considerably short of the mellifluous "beyneynu." The last line is also tricky. I suppose you could translate it more grammatically as "It's--us, the two of us, between us" but then the repetition of "us" becomes weighty (to my ear). You could argue that the weight of "us" works on a figurative level but then you lose entirely the relation "us" has to sea, abyss and time. The point is that "us" is fluid, immaterial, inconstant. Weight implies fixity, location, place. I knew that "us" had to go but I had no idea what else would work. I set aside the poem and waited.
I found the solution to my translation impasse in The Arcade Fire's "Ocean of Noise." I was listening to it the other day and just happened to be paying closer attention than usual to the lyrics. Here's the stanza that sparked my eureka moment:
No way of knowing
What any man will do
An ocean of violence
Between me and you.There it was: "between me and you." Now it seems so obvious. I realized that if I contracted "It is" and made a few other changes, I could keep the lines pretty compact (as they are in the original) and also preserve the wonderful fluidity and openness of the "oo" sound in "beyneynu." Here's the translation that resulted:
It's not the sea
It's not the sea between me and you
It's not the abyss between me and you
It's not time between me and you
It's--you and me between me and you.It's not quite there...I'd like to add a syllable in the third line but maybe I should just let this one go as is. I tackled the rest of the cycle but those parts still need a lot of tuning. Other English translations of this particular poem are out there but I try to block those out when I'm translating. This poem has long fascinated me and I felt that the only way I could understand it, or try to understand it, was by translating it. Also, I'm currently working on a dissertation chapter on Goldberg and her own translation practices and when I need a jolt of motivation, I find that translating poems of hers that I love sets me back on track.
Friday July 13th word of the day
Don't let this be you cuz if so, today will suck big-time!
MDA's Cookbook showing progress, Leopard-only
The Cookbook application out of last year's My Dream App is seeing progress, but it will be Leopard-only. We're impressed by the progress, but slightly put off by the Leopard-only nature of the application.
Congestion Pricing Rashomon
Something is happening with congestion pricing in Albany, but we're not exactly sure what. It's not put-a-fork-in-it dead yet, but it might be close to it. Or not! WCBS said the plan was "dealt [a] crippling blow", but Spitzer's staff is looking to create a commission that would give Albany the power to scale the plan back. The Daily News said that Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver won't bring his members back to vote on it on Monday, when the federal deadline on $537 million in potential funds will expire. However, Silver is open to bringing members back later in the week. NY1's "the Assembly is stalling on the plan" story has this Silver quote: "I believe the real solution is that everybody put their heads together, take everything that has been submitted and probably future statements, future testimony, future experts and put together a plan that deals with congestion, that deals with the environment." Mayor Bloomberg is planning on going to Albany on Monday to make a last appeal (half a billion in federal money is nothing to sneeze at), though some wonder why he's not in Albany right now.
We attended Community Board 7's Transportation Committee meeting last night, where Bruce Schaller, the Deputy Commissioner of Planning and Sustainability (a position created for him), gave a presentation about the congestion pricing component of PlaNYC. Certainly, the concerns of the residents who attended the meeting included questions about why the zone starts at 86th Street, in a residential neighborhood, and why would reverse-commuters be penalized. In fact, one woman gave a passionate speech, noting that her drive to Connecticut was miserable and hideous and she did not wish it upon anyone, but her office is miles from the train station leaving her no choice but to drive. There was also some skepticism about whether the revenue generated from congestion pricing would actually go to NYC mass transit improvements, versus state groups trying to take a cut of it. Schaller and other DOT representatives said that the congestion pricing revenue would go in a "lockbox" and that legislation would mandate that funding be used for NYC transit projects and road improvements. Schaller said that the goal is to have Legislature pass the concept of congestion pricing so the city can qualify for federal funding and that details, like the 86th Street border and possible exemptions for reverse commuters, could be worked out later. Which we hadn't quite realized before, because most of the attention has been on the plan as is. CB 7 members were vocal about the border moving to 60th Street, where the Central Business District begins; CB 7 covers the West Side between 60th and 110th Streets. As for timing of the project, Schaller said the hope is to get congestion pricing started in the first or second quarter of 2009, with the city and other agencies (like the MTA) would spend the time leading up to it to get ready.
Do British Candy Bars Taste Better? Serious Eats Investigates
Like many food lovers, I was enthralled by Kim Severson's story on British chocolate bars in the New York Times. Severson tries to explain why British chocolate bars have a different taste from their U.S. counterparts. She concludes that it is a combination of slightly different ingredients and processing techniques. You've heard of terroir, which is, according to Wikipedia, a "French term in wine and coffee used to denote the special characteristics that geography bestowed upon them." Let's call what Severson reported "factoir," or the special characteristics that factories bestow upon chocolate bars.
Even more interesting was the main story's taste-test sidebar, in which Severson concludes that "British chocolate bars do taste better." Not that we don't trust the esteemed writers at the Times, but I wanted to take those British candy bars out for my own test drive. So last evening I went down to Tea & Sympathy in New York City's Greenwich Village and bought two of every candy bar mentioned in the article—and a few others for good measure. I then bought some of their U.S. counterparts and brought them to the office for an official Serious Eaters Societysanctioned taste test.
I tried the two Kit Kat bars first. Although they were "differently bad," as Eric Asimov described them, one was not in the end more delicious than the other. The same was true for the Cadbury Milk and Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars and for every confection I compared.
Here's my conclusion: The romantic feelings for British candy bars that Severson discovered are the same kinds of romantic feelings anyone has about the snacks and soft drinks they grew up with. People in the South love Goo Goo Clusters and Cheerwine soda and swear up and down that they're really better than other candy bars and sodas. Ask the people of Detroit about Vernor's Ginger Ale, and they'll swear up and down it really is much better than other ginger ales. And maybe it is. But that's not the whole story.
Snacks and soft drinks are incredibly resonant lightning rods for people's affection for either their adopted or original hometown. As a New Yorker, I love Joyva Jellies and Marshmallow Twists, and Goldberger's Peanut Chews, the candy of my youth, and I will go to my deathbed proclaiming their inherent superiority and deliciousness. And if I did comparative taste tests for each of them, I would be able to come up with some seemingly objective, clearheaded observations about how and why they are better and different. I might very well come up with the same kinds of winelike descriptors Severson and Asimov came up with: "more pronounced dairy flavor," "smoother in the mouth," and "melting with more tongue-coating indulgence."
In the end, Asimov was right in saying they're "differently bad." But that's not really the point. When it comes down to it, eating an inexpensive chocolate bar or a locally produced soft drink is an incredibly satisfying cheap thrill made even more resonant by some kind of hometown provenance.
I have to go now. I'm craving a Joyva Marshmallow Twist. They really are better, twistier, and more complex.
July 12, 2007
The YouTube Aesthetic
It’s still too hard to locate online versions of recent television commercials. When McDonald’s, say, runs an ad that I want to talk about here, I don’t know of a particular place where I can go find a link for it. Sure, the more notable ones make it to YouTube, but sometimes it’s the mundane ones that don’t that are more interesting to discuss.
There are two that I have in mind: one, from McDonald’s, features two young, college-age guys, beatboxing some ridiculous rhyme about Big Macs or something. And there’s another for Oreo cookies that plays like a home movie in which two pre-adolescent girls sing the praises of Oreos. If I could find them to show you, I would, but maybe you’ve seen them already.
They’re both cute enough, but what struck me was how thoroughly they ape the ‘YouTube style.’ Which is to say, they are shot on digital video (though at a higher grade of quality than most of the source material at YouTube) in a cinematographically naïve manner; they feature pronouncedly offhand, amateur and somewhat embarrassing performances from purportedly ‘real’ actors; and they are ostensibly improvised — or at least they go through considerable effort to obscure the influence of any sort of director behind the camera.
The New Look
YouTube is a style now, an aesthetic of its own. It didn’t take very long, but it has lodged itself into our consumer psyche as a recognizable visual, aural and narrative convention. In that sense, it’s a huge and notable success deserving of at least a footnote in media history.
So hurray for democratic authorship, right? Except, as the lightning fast emergence of these television commercials suggest, it’s an aesthetic that has become almost instantaneously co-opted.
Which is to say that the YouTube phenomenon, as entertaining and paradigm-shifting as it might be, is at its core a marketing tool. That’s probably not a revelation to anyone who’s seen how much attention media companies have been paying to YouTube over the past two years. But I still think it’s worth noting that in the Web 2.0, crowdsourcing frontier we’re all so excited about, it takes virtually no effort and no time to turn genuinely exciting social phenomena into just another technique for businesses to sell stuff to us. It’s almost like we’re a research and development laboratory for our own bamboozlement.
Landis in Seattle
Floyd Landis is signing books tonight at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park @ 7 pm. I’m at a family picnic and can’t make it. If any of our readers are going, please leave comments.
UPDATE FROM ANDREW: My mom called me all excited today from the filming of KOMO TV Northwest Afternoon. It turns out Floyd stopped by the afternoon local variety show to explain his story and promote his book. They usually post their content on their site so I’ll link the clip once it’s up.
MORE UPDATES:
(Photo from ESPN.COM)
Holy cow - how did I miss this? It seems Floyd was cruising around Seattle yesterday with Jim Caple of ESPN.
Allez! Allez!
“DO NOT speak of TODAY’s TOUR DE FRANCE (I haven’t watched it yet.)”
That’s a sign that adorns the chair of the most recent member to join our team — Richard Crowley. He was willing to assist with image selection for this post as long as it didn’t become a spoiler for the 3 hours of Tour (apologies if this lodges the theme song for Gilligan’s Island in your noggin*) he’ll enjoy tonight.
You can see more photos of the Tour in 2007 Tour de France or view photos tagged with “tourdefrance2007.”
Photos from Will Rose, bowa, and stocksofwhitstable.
* That prompted Gino to croon “… The weather started getting rough, the Peloton was tossed, if not for the courage of the fearless crew, the jersey would be lost.”
In other compiler news, Apple released the source code for
In other compiler news, Apple released the source code for their new C compiler called clang.
seidman!
Robert Seidman, who in Web 0.9 published the must read newsletter The Online Insider (and with whom I had the pleasure of working while he was at Schwab and I was at Quris) is back (sure, he never really went anywhere, but it's great to see him writing online again), with an insighful piece at allthingsd.com on the Nielsen/Net Ratings shift to include "time spent" in its ranking of top web properties.
Over time, these new measurements will help us better figure out how to value Web properties, but there are many things to beware of when it comes to “top 10” lists. Minutes aren’t the actual measure of value unless you can make money with those minutes, and even within this, one must be careful.
wiki mindmap
an online mindmap to browse & explore Wiki content. links to other wiki pages in individual topics are depicted by node-edge connections.(anyone already noticed how "information visualization" has been merged with "scientific visualization"?)
[link: wikimindmap.org]
succumbing
Yep, bought one. The headphone jack thing is very, very annoying. Other than that, I'm pleased as punch. Or at least I will be once my number finishes porting.
The Beckhams: America or Bust!
At this very moment, the Beckhams are on their way to America. Who cares, right? I sorta do and sorta don't. Sorta do because, let's face it, David Beckham is hot -- and it will be nice to have him running around a bit more (hopefully shirtless) on U.S. soil. Sorta don't because Posh Spice gets under my skin -- and I find myself wanting to bite off her lollipop head kinda like that owl in the Tootsie Pops commercials. Maybe I just need to have lunch.
Anywho, this photo of the fam in Heathrow Airport -- with their boys in matching red, white and blue polos -- is pretty cute. Hopefully those cute little lads will grow up to be more like Daddy than Mum.
How to eat oysters!
* For more of the Huitrerie Regis dinner click here!
'Top Chef': Teaming with a Lack of Controversy
This week's quickfire challenge was pairing an appetizer with a gin-based cocktail, thanks to YABS (yet another bizarre sponsor). One chef, Dale, jumped at the opportunity, since he'd recently had a consulting gig to pair food with hard alcohol. Most of the other chefs, however, seemed unenthusiastic about the challenge, and, in a nice twist, the winner, Texas girl Casey, had never tasted a gin rickey and was flying completely blind. So much for master mixology.
On the elimination challenge front, since 12 divides so nicely, the chefs were grouped into teams of three and asked to create a trio of dishes based on a single ingredient of their choice. After sorting themselves using scraps of paper and a bit of negotiation, the teams all took off to plot their strategies.
The episode, if anything, seemed to lack the kind of high drama that team competitions have brought out in the past. Nemeses Howie and Joey ended up on the same team (voluntarily!), and sparks did not fly. In fact, they spent a good amount of time bonding in solidarity against their other teammate, Casey, who found the burden of immunity hard to bear gracefully. [Warning: Spoilers after the jump.]
Team Shrimp took down the title, with Hung, Lia, and Brian all delivering well-received dishes. Not surprising based on Brian and Hung's specialties, but New York City's Lia, who had spent most of the competition glued to the middle of the pack, came out the big winner. She may have benefited from the contrast to her earlier work or perhaps just by holding her own with two previous winners. In any case, chalk one up for the affable 28-year-old who cooks at Jean-Georges. Hopefully, she'll be able to build on this performance and keep the judges happy in coming weeks.
On the losing side, two teams got dinged: the Tunas—Howie, Joey, and Casey—and the Pineapples—Dale, Camille, and Sara. After the judges' inquisition, it looked like either Howie or Joey was going to get the ax for Casey's lackluster tuna tartare, but in the end it was Camille who was asked to pack her knives and vamoose. It seemed like the judges were genuinely peeved at just about everyone, but it was Camille's inability to justify or explain her choices that led Colicchio and company to show her the door.
Visit the site for Lia's winning Poached Shrimp with Lime Syrup recipe (complete with swapped photo—check Brian's for the right look), or for Camille's valedictory speech, or for the notable silence from hostess Padma Lakshmi, who is going through a well-publicized spell of family issues.
The Collector-Driven Market
George Grosz
The Eclipse of the Sun
1926
Heckscher Museum of Art
via The Art Newspaper:
From Editorial and Commentary:
The problem with a collector-driven market
By Jane Kallir | Posted 12 July 2007For the past century or so, the art world has been supported by four principal pillars: artists, collectors, dealers and the art-historical establishment (critics, academics, and curators). From a wider historical perspective, the latter two entities are relative newcomers. The development of art history as an academic discipline, and of public museums, dates back only to the 19th century. Only in the 20th century did dealers evolve from passive shopkeepers to pro-active impresarios, promoting the often difficult efforts of the pioneering modernists with missionary zeal. Public resistance to modernism, coupled with the pressures of international capitalism, gave new importance to dealers and museums, both of which played key roles by superintending the distribution of new art and ratifying its seriousness. At varying points in the course of the past 100 years, the weight of the art world has shifted from one of the four pillars to another. Artists made the modernist revolution; dealers recognised and supported it before academia did; in the post-war period, critics became so dominant that Tom Wolfe lampooned their influence in his 1975 book The Painted Word. And now, it seems, collectors have taken charge.
Over the long term, art-historical value is determined by consensus among all four art-world pillars. When any one of the four entities assume disproportionate power, there is a danger that this entity’s personal preferences will cloud everyone’s short-term judgement. Put bluntly, the danger of a collector-driven art world is that money will trump knowledge. Great collectors should ideally become nearly as knowledgeable as the curators and dealers who help them build their collections. But not all of today’s collectors have the passion or the time necessary to develop this depth of knowledge. Collecting, once the pursuit of a relatively small number of driven individuals, has become far more common among far more people.
This expansion of the art market, made possible by the broader dissemination of concentrated pockets of wealth and by the globalisation of art and related information, has drawn in players who do not have the focused commitment of the traditional collector. The exponential growth of the market, and the genuine gains realised by those who got in early, inevitably fuel the tendency, justifiable or not, to view art as an asset class comparable to stocks or real estate.
Art has also become the greatest common denominator in the new global social order. Today’s rich are an international elite whose members can measure their cachet by the level of VIP services given them at Art Basel and Art Basel/Miami Beach. Anointed by the glamour that today attends the public display of great wealth, the art world has acquired the patina of trendiness that was formerly exclusive to the entertainment and fashion industries. The contemporary focus on trendiness and investment potential, each of which operates on a relatively short timeline, obscures the fact that lasting value in art accrues in the course of generations.
The corollary to a collector-driven art world is that the canon of ostensibly great artists is being largely determined by market forces. The huge prices that have been achieved lately at the top of the market are the result not only of new concentrations of wealth, but of the fact that many people are pursuing the same handful of artists and works of art. Therefore the drop-off from the peak can be steep, becalming the middle market and consigning lesser works and lesser artists to also-ran status.
This is a market with a voracious appetite for alleged masterpieces, and little patience for historical or developmental nuances. It encourages superficiality: rather than collecting a single artist or group of artists in depth, collectors now often prefer to amass scattered masterworks: here a Matisse, there a Picasso, and then perhaps a Schiele. In an overheated environment, the art-historical establishment often finds itself chasing rather than guiding the market. The press must keep up with the latest trends, and coverage of social events and record prices often takes precedence over quiet critical reflection. Museums need the support of trustees, but the most powerful collectors no longer need the imprimatur of an existing museum; they can simply open their own.
If it sometimes seems that the art-historical establishment is missing in action, this is in part because, while the market has been aggressively constructing a new canon, academia has been busy deconstructing the old one. For several decades now, scholars have generally agreed that the white, male, Eurocentric canon that traditionally dominated Western art evolved from historical biases that are no longer morally or intellectually justifiable. Although this change in orientation has literally opened up a whole new world of aesthetic possibilities, it has discouraged academics from making qualitative judgements. Scholarship in areas that are useful to the marketplace, such as provenance and authenticity, has flourished, but overall connoisseurship has declined. Similarly, market pressures push dealers to become generalists, showcasing a hodge-podge of high-ticket items instead of specialising as they formerly did. Auctioneers, operating within a timeframe that seldom extends much beyond the next sale date, focus most of their energies on the highest priced lots. Novice collectors, justifiably wary and insecure, engage consultants who often know far less than the dealers and auctioneers. At every level of the art world, deeper knowledge and principled guidance seem to be in short supply.
The writer is co-director of Galerie St Etienne in New York
According to 
When internerds go abroad
Not staged, not a joke. From Israel travelmate Kent's Flickr.A captured moment from the motherland: We were stuck in a university parking lot, waiting for the rest of our group, and we could almost catch a wifi signal in the bus. Special memories abound.
Whole Foods Exec Makes Fake Posts on Yahoo Boards
The Wall Street Journal revealed last night that Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey had been using a pseudonym to rave about his company while sometimes blasting rival Wild Oats Market:
For about eight years until last August, the company confirms, Mr. Mackey posted numerous messages on Yahoo Finance stock forums as Rahodeb. It's an anagram of Deborah, Mr. Mackey's wife's name. Rahodeb cheered Whole Foods' financial results, trumpeted his gains on the stock and bashed Wild Oats. Rahodeb even defended Mr. Mackey's haircut when another user poked fun at a photo in the annual report. "I like Mackey's haircut," Rahodeb said. "I think he looks cute!"
purl2
It’s great to see that OCLC is going to work with Zepheira on a new version of the PURL service and that it’s going to live at Apache. Other than addressing scalability issues it sounds like Zepheira is going to build in support for resources that are outside of the information space of the web:
The new PURL software will also be updated to reflect the current understanding of Web architecture as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This new software will provide the ability to permanently identify networked information resources, such as Web documents, as well as non-networked resources such as people, organizations, concepts and scientific data. This capability will represent an important step forward in the adoption of a machine-processable “Web of data” enabled by the Semantic Web.Since Eric Miller helped start up Zepheira it’s not surprising that purl2 will take this on. As part of some experiments I’ve been doing with SKOS, and serving up Concepts over HTTP it has become clear that a minimal bit of work for managing these identifiers would be useful. I can definitely see the need for a general solution that helps manage identifiers for people, organizations, concepts, etc. which also fits into how HTTP should/could serve up the resources associated with them.
via Thom Hickey
July 11, 2007
red interactive agency has one of the best urls ever
red interactive agency has one of the best urls ever.they also happen to be the firm behind ethanhaaswasright
Providing Comfort...
From Patrick. I can't help but point out my mini bangs. That's the hair I lost from pregnancy finally growing back. Speaking of hair...Tesla got cute hair pins for her birthday. Just by pinning a tiny bit of hair, she looks so much older.
Arrogance Among Us
This afternoon I was chatting with a friend of mine about a graphic designer that we both know, and, maybe feeling a bit petty, we were remarking on how monumentally arrogant is this person. It got me thinking about how amazing it is to me when I encounter this kind of person — rude, disdainful and superior designers who can’t afford common courtesies to those below them in professional or social stature. When confronted with this type, what I invariably think in my head is, “Why are you so high on yourself? You’re just a designer.”
In no way am I trying to discount the social or material consequence of our profession; I’m as big a proponent of design’s singular, critical role in the world as anyone. At the same time, I try to remember that nothing that we do as designers is so important that it excuses us from being nice.
Aside from a very select few among us, we all earn our salaries in a service profession, after all. Which is to say that our job is to provide our labor — our design expertise — in service to others. By its very nature, that sort of arrangement demands a certain humbleness. With apologies to Yogi Berra: design is ninety percent talent and hard work; the other half is people skills.
And speaking of those select few: I’ve met a handful of the cream of the crop, those who practice design in a manner that might be described as ‘with impunity.’ To be sure, arrogance is well represented among them, but there are some stellar folks who happen to be extremely approachable, friendly and level-headed — and some of these folks happen at the very top of the industry. If these designers can bother to maintain humility even at those great heights, some of these lesser gods among us surely can too. I look up to the ones that can. Fuck the others.
Sample Code: Puzzler
A simple puzzle game to demonstrate developing web-based content for the iPhone.
I Love Nintendo
Nintendo's stats have shown that while males between 6 and 24 still dominate 95 percent of the market, new statistics show that 66 percent of men between 25 and 49 now report playing Wii regularly, and 33 percent of women in the same age group say they are regular users, 75 percent having said they have at least tried the Wii.For men over 50, Nintendo said, well over half have tried the Wii, and 1 in 8 say they play regularly, while 10 percent of women in the same age group say they now play regularly.
you're doing it wrong
Jon Gruber on the reason 99% of email users will not live up to the Official Daring Fireball expectations for appropriate use of electronic mail: "The fundamental source of poor email style is the practice of quoting the entire message you’re replying to." I used to care about things like this. Then I stopped caring...right around the time I stopped caring about whether people sent me email in plain text. Life's been a lot simpler ever since.
Damian Conway in Portugal - Intermediate OO Perl
Damian Conway, one of the world's most renowned members of the Perl community (as a programmer, CPAN author, writer and speaker), is coming, once again, to Portugal, this August, 20th and 21st, to lecture his Intermediate Object Oriented Perl course, in an event organized and sponsored by log. Apart from being one of the people pointing Perl 6 in the right direction, Damian is the author of the much appraised "Object Oriented Perl" and "Perl Best Practices" books. He is also the creator of some astounding CPAN modules, including Getopt::Euclid, IO::Prompt, Lingua::Romana::Perligata, Parse::RecDescent, Smart::Comments, Switch and Text::Autoformat. More information on the event can be attained in log's webpage (in Portuguese) or by contacting eventos at log dot pt directly.Read more of this story at use Perl.
Changing the URL experience with typography
I started using the Locationbar² Firefox add-on a few weeks ago, and I’ve been amazed at how significantly it changes the experience with URLs. The interesting thing is that I already think about URLs as RESTful commands… but when you see URLs broken apart visually into distinct domain, path, and argument sections, the visual interpretation quickly change from “a bunch of random text that the browser understands”, into “a domain-name/brand, and specific service”.
It’s difficult to explain without visuals, so let’s start with a traditional looking URL:
The traditional-looking URL is a bunch of text. We recognize it as a URL, and typically market it as a full-text string. However, many sites use non-friendly URLs (think Vignette, for those who know what I’m talking about), in which case URLs are often massive strings full of seemingly random characters. When surfing sites with such URLs, the browser’s location bar becomes something you ignore until you’re ready to type in a new address.
Now let’s look at a Location’ized version of the same URL:
Quite different! The Location’ized URL is a distinct representation of a domain name (”eriksmartt.com”), and a service (”blog”). Information we don’t need, which normally just causes visual clutter (like the ‘/’ characters), has been greyed-out, and brand-recognition remains strong.
Here’s another example:
Just looking at that URL, it’s pretty clear what site I was on, and what I was asking for — which is exactly what a URL is. Writing out http://flickr.com/photos/tags/lolcat loses some of this meaning. It becomes a single address, rather then a service and a request.
Of course, clever domain-names can lose some of their brand recognition using this approach:
Still, I’ve already grown so accustom to seeing URLs as Locationbar² displays them, that it feels disappointing to use browsers lacking this capability. I’ve also found the tool to be extremely handy while developing websites, making it very clear which server I’m accessing, and what request I made.
YMMV, but I definitely recommend trying it out — and I’d love to hear about your experience using the add-on!
My latest entry for The Huffington Post
I, like everyone else, put in my two cents about Sicko. They put up my entry in the middle of a flurry of pieces they are doing about Michael Moore. There was also a live chat yesterday that you should check out. I find the Moore/CNN smackdown fascinating.
Tech Tab Sweep
We’re all over the map today, from general theories of software development to low-level optimized bit-banging. Well, all over the software map, I guess.
From Ars Technica, check out Jon Stokes’ Cache and memory in the many-core era. Despite the infelicitous phrase “As Moore's Law increases” appearing early on (no, it’s the transistors which increase, the law stays the same), it explores usefully what the system component builders are up to in a fashion quite accessible to this software weenie.
Here’s the promised general theory, two of ’em in fact, presented by Reg Braithwaite in Which theory fits the evidence? He names his theories “D” and “P”; the contrast between which best explains observed outcomes, as opposed to that which does better in the marketplace, is kind of saddening. This is an important piece but the people who need to read it probably won’t.
The population of people who will enjoy Bit Twiddling Hacks by Sean Eron Anderson is pretty small, but those people will really enjoy it. I did. The title is accurately descriptive.
I also enjoyed David Ing’s C# 3.0 Considered Rubenesque? It’s amusing and instructive, and of course much of it applies to modern-day Java as well.
Somehow last month I missed Joab Jackson’s Ruby’s easy but Java is quicker, which is surprising since the Java One paper was by Sun people. The data is interesting, but this is totally a moving target, with lots of Ruby implementations being cooked up and Java not standing still either. I wonder if it would be a good idea to take the Daly/Cooke model apps and have someone run them on a regular basis every six months or so against the latest Java and Ruby builds?
Saving the best for the last: Elliotte Rusty Harold’s North and South proposes an amusing, and to my eye crushing, metaphor to describe the relationship between the WS-* and REST approaches to the world.
Uncertainty About Congestion Pricing's Fate
The Daily News has an exclusive with Jan Gehl, the Danish architect the Department of Transportation would like to hire to help reduce congestion in the city. It's a nice introduction to Gehl, who has worked on congestion-reducing projects in London and Copenhagen, but it also seems like the perfect article to fire up passions. Gehl said, "...we can do is to reduce the number of parking spots. I would raise the price for parking right away." Street parkers, commence the freaking out! Some more Gehl quotes:
"There are so many places in this city where people are treated very badly on the sidewalk, where the congestion is unpleasant. ... The balance is not very good here.... "I question whether it is smart to have all this parking on the avenues which could instead be used for trees, benches and cafes. "We could take all of the pedestrians out of Times Square or we could take some or most of the traffic out - whatever. I think that should be the strategy for reducing the vehicular traffic in this dense city."This comes as Mayor Bloomberg is in Washington DC to beg for congestion pricing support. Bloomberg invited congestion pricing skeptic Assemly Leader Sheldon Silver to DC, but Silver isn't there. (His office says he was only invited on Sunday!) Yesterday, Assemblyman Richard Brodsky released his report criticizing the congestion pricing proposal that's currently in Albany, finding the plan unfair and the city's mass transit options unprepared. Of course, that has spurred more reports: Transportation Alternatives released a study with these three points:New study finds that arguments against pricing are elitist and flawed and that congestion pricing greatly benefits low and middle-income New Yorkers because: - The supermajority of New Yorkers—especially middle and low income New Yorkers—are transit riders. - Congestion pricing is by far the most effective way to improve travel for New York's transit-reliant majority. - In addition to better-quality and lower-cost transit, congestion pricing will return economic, health and quality of life benefits to small businesses and lower-income New Yorkers, who are disproportionately impacted by high volumes of traffic and pollution.The other thing that congestion pricing proponents point out is that there are plans to expand bus service. The Drum Major Institute issued a memo explaining why congestion pricing is good (and smacks down Brodsky for "fundamentally misunderstand[ing] the aims of congestion pricing") for the "middle and aspiring middle class" and Assemblyman Rory Lancman offered a congestion pricing alternative. Mayor Bloomberg's hope is that the Legislature can pass the congestion pricing proposal next week, in order to qualify for $500 million in federal funds. Mayor Bloomberg is also emphasizing congestion pricing's other benefits, "Anybody that tells you that it doesn't matter that our children continue to breathe bad air - 'Don't worry about it. We'll fix the problem some day in some other ways' - shame on them."MySpace Polls - Take Our Poll Photograph of Times Square by Betty Blade on Flickr
tony orlando = snake pliskin?
From Tim Goodman's coverage of Death March with Cocktails:
Alright, so I'm just going to confess this. I thought Tony Orlando was dead. Orlando: "I was canceled with a 32 share." Great line. And probably true. I'm too stunned that he's alive and breathing to look it up.
Mrs. A-Rod Cleans Up Her Act
After causing quite a firestorm by showing up at a Yankee game with a tank top that said "F--k You," Alex Rodriguez's wife, Cynthia, cleaned up her act for the All-Star parade yesterday in San Francisco. Though I think it would have been funny if her little message appeared on the front of this pretty dress.
Paris Hilton Loves...
Herself... but you knew that. Here's the jailbird in West Hollywood yesterday, showing herself some love.
Ah, to be her ego.
Potter’s "Phoenix": A Dark, Dazzling Prophecy
Watching "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" late, late at night with an audience younger than me and far more into the wizarding world than me was a fascinating reminder of why Harry Potter has become an iconic representation of the Gen Y/Millenialists who have grown up with him. In the darkest chapter yet of the Potter saga, Harry and his friends--many who are from broken families--are angry, alienated, and overwhelmed by the thought of being unprepared to live as young adults in a dark and chaotic world. Feeling that corrupt adults and political systems aren't of any use to them, they quietly begin to train themselves to face a new war against evil. (Yes, I am still talking about plot of the movie, but the metaphors for today's society seemed obvious over and over again as I watched the movie). So while "Phoenix" does not have all of the razzle-dazzle of the other films, and lacks a little cohesiveness, it stands on its own as a powerful look at the next step of one young man's heroic journey.One of the challenges of watching the film is that the novel "Order of the Phoenix" was roughly 900 pages, so huge amounts of detail and many secondary characters needed to be cut from the book to turn it into a movie, and that may make following the film a bit tricky at times for those who are not die-hard Potter enthusiasts. However, the basic plot of the film centers around Harry's return to Hogwarts after the aftermath of Harry's battle with You-Know-Who. While Harry is still grieving the death of Cedric and fearing what may be next in the fight with Voldemort, the Ministry of Magic has decided to downplay the event as if it never happened, and does this through tabloid gossip and innuendo. They also turn Hogwarts into something of a totalitarian state, as the new Ministry of Magic and the new defense of the dark arts teacher establish new laws at Hogwarts that basically don't allow students to do magic or anything else without approval from the Ministry.
400 Blows Brooklyn-style
St. Giglio Festival in Williamsburg began last Sat. with the ceremonial procession of a seven-story high statue topped with St. Giglio himself. It's a stone's throw away from the Lorimer St. on the "L" train....
Where Do the Best Peaches Come From?
Photograph from iStockPhoto.comWhat's the best peach you've ever eaten? Where was it grown? In mid-July, a Serious Eater's mind and stomach turn to peaches, as Jeffrey Steingarten's did a few years ago in Vogue. At least mine (and his) do.
I have been on a lifelong search for the perfect peach, one that's so juicy you end up wearing it, one that has a perfect balance between sweetness and acidity. You might think that those of us who celebrate local food would pronounce the peach grown in our backyard the best, but I live in New York City, where there are precious few backyards. But I cannot say in good conscience and all honesty that the peaches grown in neighboring backyards and farms all over New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania are the best, either. I certainly eat more than my fair share of local farmers' market peaches from Nemeth Orchards and Stone Arch Farms, but their peaches are not life-changing affairs.
I have friends from Georgia who claim that the best peaches are grown there (yes, I know that baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb was nicknamed the Georgia Peach), but I have tasted many Georgia peaches, and though they can be pretty damn fine, they are not the best. Others say that the best peaches come from South Carolina or Texas or Colorado. They would be wrong as well.
No, I'm afraid I can say with more than a modicum of certainty that the best peaches come from sunny California. Some would say they come from Frog Hollow in Brentwood, and farmer Al Corchesne grows a mighty fine peach. But the best peaches I have ever put in my mouth come from Goldbud Farms in Placerville, in the middle of California Gold Rush country, and from Honey Crisp Farms in Reedley, just outside Fresno.
I recently found Honey Crisp peaches at a new farmstand on Martha's Vineyard, and at $6.98 a pound, they were a stone cold bargain. Goldbud's Ron Mansfield and Honey Crisp's Art Lange both have degrees in peachology from the University of California. They employ sophisticated growing and irrigation methods to grow peaches that will make you think you're tasting one for the first time. And isn't that how you want to feel when you bite into a peach?
You owe it to yourself to order some peaches from Goldbud. They're ridiculously expensive with the shipping (at least $5 a peach), but they're still much cheaper than caviar or those black truffles Florence Fabricant just wrote about in the New York Times.
Wii "steals away" Japanese television audiences
Japan has, as we know, a solid gamer culture. It also had a solid TV culture - until recently. I'm sure this will be a temporary big-dip, and Japanese TV will recover; but there's always the risk that it won't recover to its previous levels, as is the case of terrestrial Brit TV since the invasion of satellite ...
According to one senior executive of the country’s largest commercial television channel, Fuji TV, families who used to tune in to its colourful diet of soap operas, panel games and comedy variety shows may, instead, be drifting away and choosing to spend the same, economically-critical “golden hour” time playing on their Wii.
And to think there are no ads on it yet! What a future games have.
His comments come as Japanese television executives are reeling in horror at recent figures from Japan’s audience-tracking firms: last week was the first in nearly two decades where no single show on any commercial station attracted more than a 9 per cent audience share.
I tell you, when digital distribution is properly up and running on these game boxen, and a new game can be delivered on a whim, television is going to be in proper hot water again. Nintendo's strategy has been so absolutely spot on, too, it brings a tear to my eye:
Parents – the critical decision-makers of family entertainment between 7pm and 9pm – were being wooed by something more interactive than television offers at present.
Sony went for the hardcore, and Nintendo went for the families. It's not going to be the easiest future for Nintendo now - there's lots to live up to, plenty of games to release, expansion to do. But it can't be harder than being in Sony's muddy pit right now, or - perhaps - a television exec's.
(via Evil Avatar)
Ratatouille virtual set tours
If, like me, you still can’t get enough of Pixar’s Ratatouille, you’ll love these Quicktime VR virtual tours of some of the film’s set pieces. Created by Tim Petros, and featuring Patton Oswalt voiceovers, these interactive pieces give you a chance to really study the detail and craftsmanship of the movie’s environments. I love, for example, how the kitchen’s floor tiles are all slightly uneven. (Previous Ratatouille links)
(via Cartoon Brew)
July 10, 2007
perfectly threadless
Via Kathryn, of course, I listen to bands that don't even exist yet.
How to Visit New York: What You Can Skip
Okay, this is the one that’s going to get me in the most trouble: A list of the famous tourist attractions that you can safely skip when you come to New York City. After covering the basics and the must-sees, it only stands to reason that there’s some stuff that’s boring, overrated, or just so inconvenient that it’s not worth visiting if you’re short on time. I’ll try to include some helpful alternative suggestions in case you’ve got your heart set on one of these destinations, or so you don’t feel too bad for these landmarks.
- The Statue of Liberty. I know you’re going to catch hell for this one, but let me state up front I’m a fan of the Statue of Liberty: I raised money for the restoration of the statue when I was a cub scout as a kid, and of course I’m the son of immigrants, so I’m inclined to like the thing. But getting to the Statue of Liberty is a colossal pain in the ass; You’ve got to get all the way downtown, get on the ferry, swing by Ellis Island on the way, and when you finally get there, you can’t even go up the statue anyway. Lame. Worst of all, you’ll have killed half a day or more, and the kids will only have had lousy food to eat — the snacks available on Liberty Island are worse than what you’d get from any street vendor in Manhattan. What to do instead? Take the Staten Island ferry. My friend Grant Barrett did a great job of capturing exactly why I recommend the ferry:
I highly recommend taking the Staten Island Ferry. First, because it’s free. Second, because it gives a great view of the Manhattan skyline. Take it around dusk (it leaves every half-hour before 8 p.m., I believe, and every hour after), so that there’s daylight when you go out, and darkness when you come back. It goes near the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (close enough to get pictures, but not very, very close), and the view of the city lit up at night really is quite amazing. It’s good to do towards the end of your stay in the city, because it’s fairly peaceful and refreshing, and because after spending so much money it’s nice to do something that costs nothing. And, if it’s hot out, it’s guaranteed at least 10 degrees cooler on the water. You have to rush through the terminal once you reach Staten Island so you can take the same ferry back (they make you get off), otherwise, you have to wait another half-hour for the next one. Also, if you take the 1 train subway to the ferry, make sure to be in one of the first five cars.
- South Street Seaport. Okay, some of the historical displays at South Street Seaport are kind of interesting. But mostly it’s a tourist trap, a big giant mall with stores like The Gap and Victoria’s Secret, which you could just check out at home. Like its west coast counterpart, Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, what was once a truly historic gateway to the city’s shipping lanes is now largely divorced from its own history and focused more on selling you lousy souvenirs. And getting to the Seaport can take a lot of time, since it’s not particularly close to any subway stops. Besides, you didn’t come all the way to New York just to eat at a Pizzeria Uno’s in the shadow of some tall ships.
- Carnegie Deli and Katz’s. Overrated delis where the quality of food was long-ago eclipsed by the tourist trade that they rely on for their core business. Carnegie Deli’s even opened up a franchise in Las Vegas, a sure sign that they’ve drifted from the idea of being a deli in the great tradition of all the neighborhood delis that make some of the best food in New York. Instead of either of these places clinging desperately to an imaginary golden age, wander around a random neighborhood and drop in on a deli and ask them what’s good. And please don’t be that person going to Katz’s to see where the scene from When Harry Met Sally was filmed —- if that scene makes you want to eat corned beef, then keep your desires to yourself.
- U.S.S. Intrepid. This one’s easy; The aircraft carrier-turned-floating museum is actually pretty interesting, giving a nice view of planes, spacecraft, and naval vessels. But it’s out of commission until late next year, so there’s no point swinging by.
- Staten Island. New York City is much, much more than just Manhattan. But there’s always been an ambivalence about Staten Island’s role in New York City, both from the perspective of the island and from the other boroughs. When you get out of Manhattan, you should hit Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx first. Of course, you can spend 30 minutes or so on the island while you’re waiting for your return ferry.
Alright, I expect some of you are gonna let me have it in the comments. I can’t wait to hear why I’m right or wrong. Thanks to Luca for the shot of the Manhattan skyline from the Staten Island ferry. To see all of the posts in this series, check out the archive of How To Visit New York.
Fine Feathered Visitor
Reader Spencer sent us these photographs of a red-tailed hawk who frequents a terrace outside his Brooklyn apartment. And if we could fly, we would too, because that's some sweet view. These photographs are particularly well-timed, as the NY Times' FYI column explained that there are many hawks all around the city, though Manhattanites Pale Male and Lola are the most famous. Some good hawk-related websites: PaleMale.com, Marie Winn's Central Park Nature News, and Urban Hawks.
iPhone and Movable Type 3.5, part one
The interface for completing a form in Safari on iPhone is quite nice. “Previous” and “next” buttons swoop the focus through the form elements, so there’s no need to zoom when moving from one input to the next. The magnifying loupe is a brilliant solution to the daunting problem of intuitive cursor control, and as I type this, I’m delighted to find that simply tapping a word places the cursor smartly at the end of it.
Which means it’s pretty easy to post to your weblog when you’re sitting on the toilet.
flowser shopping visualization
another sophisticated interface for browsing the Amazon.com database. for each search, up to 3 top-selling products in different categories (e.g. music, dvd, software, books, jewelry, clothing, toys & electronics) are shown. users can select detailed individual product information, including a selection of user comments & hierarchal product categories, which can then be used as new seeds for further exploration.[link: flowser.com|via readwriteweb.com]
see also scatterplot shopping & Browse Goods & like.com, BlackDogAir or Music Plasma.
Articles: Using Python with Quartz 2D on Mac OS X
New article on using the Python bindings in Mac OS X to access the Quartz 2D graphics API.
we love it
Seeing movie billboards in Los Angeles is a ridiculously meta experience, since you can only wonder what it must be like for Matt Damon to see himself at much larger than lifesize - on every third block - promoting his alternate identity as Jason Bourne. I mean, really, being a movie star must just completely fuck with your head.
iPhone Upgrade Accounting
Remember earlier this year when Apple announced that they were going to have to charge $1.99 to enable the 802.11n hardware in the first of the Core 2 Duo processor MacBooks and MacBook Pros? This was because of relatively obscure accounting regulations that apply when a company has recognized all of the revenue from the sale of a product. To the everyday iPhone owner on the street, it’s all just a bunch of complex dense language that might as well be part of an End User License Agreement on a box of software. But when you boil it down, it means that if you’re a public company shipping a product that you intend to update over time with new features—as opposed to just bug fixes that are typical of dot-dot software releases—then you’ve got to get creative.
It seems that Apple did just that with both the AppleTV and iPhone. I’ve heard this a few times in the last few months, but finally dug up the public information about it in Apple’s May 2007 10-Q Quarterly Report:
In March 2007, the Company began shipping Apple TV and expects to begin shipping the iPhone in late June 2007. For Apple TV and the iPhone, the Company plans to provide future unspecified features and additional software products free of charge to customers. Accordingly, the sale of the Apple TV and the iPhone handset are accounted for under subscription accounting in accordance with Statement of Position (”SOP”) No. 97-2. As such, the Company defers the associated revenue and cost of goods sold at the time of sale, which will then be recognized on a straight-line basis over the currently estimated 24 month economic life of these products. Costs incurred by the Company for engineering, sales, and marketing will continue to be expensed as incurred.
What this means is that we won’t have to pay a nuisance fee when Apple adds new features for our iPhones to satisfy GAAP. Of course, it’ll be interesting to see what those additional unspecified features will be. Coincidentally, the 24-month period is the same length as the contract you have to sign up for from AT&T when you get an iPhone.
Other Sources: Seeking Alpha, Stockpicker
Xbox-Ilicious
If you want to stare at pictures of impressively labor intensive-looking cakes , you have Cake Space and Cake Magic to turn to. But what if you don't care about molded animals, carefully drawn cartoon characters, or fancy fondant flowers? Maybe you want to limit your cake viewage to those shaped like Xboxes.
Enter gamecakes. Besides Xboxes, they also have Nintendo, Guitar Hero, Pac Man, and...Chuck Norris. You can't not have Chuck Norris.
Snoop around in the iPhone's backup files on your Mac
We know now that iTunes creates a backup of your iPhone's contents whenever you sync with the computer. But what if you want to be nosey and see what you've been doing on the phone, but not on the phone? That's definitely doable.
Meg's Adventurous Palate
What a treat it was to page through the just-arrived August issue of Food & Wine magazine and happen across this photo (right) in an article titled "What's Your Food Personality: Picky or Adventurous?"
That's Meg Hourihan, aka Megnut, who has served as senior adviser and so much more here at Serious Eats. From the article, which isn't online yet (sorry, no link!):
Megnut.com blogger Meg Hourihan credits her adventurous palate to her family's "no thank you portion," a rule stipulating that there could be no outright refusals at the dinner table. Blubber is next on her list of foods to try.
What kind of food palate do you have? What's next on your list of foods to try?
Some quick links and notes
I'm in the August Food & Wine magazine in an article about adventurous and picky eaters. I was one of the adventurous ones, and the pull quote they printed with my picture says, "I'll try anything once, even blubber!" Everyone was asking what would be the grossest thing I'd consider eating, and it seemed like blubber at the time. In retrospect I'm not so sure I want to try it. The article doesn't seem to be online yet, but I imagine it will appear shortly.
The recipe for the ratatouille that Remy prepares for Ego in the film of the same name is online at the New York Times. I saw it before, but can't seem to find it now. Also it seems like the byaldi in the recipe for "Roasted Guinea Fowl en Crèpinette de Byaldi with Pan Jus" from Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook is similar (the same?) as the one in the Times.
I probably won't post a lot of baby pictures here, so if you're interested in keeping up with Ollie, check out the Ollie Kottke page on Flickr. That will give you all the photos you could ever want.
Ok, back to baby feeding, watching, and loving.
ruby-zoom v0.3.0
Thanks to some prodding from William Denton and Jason Ronallo and the kindness of Laurent Sansonetti I’ve been added as a developer to the ruby-zoom project which provides a Ruby wrapper to the yaz Z39.50 library. I essentially wanted to remove some unused code from the project that was interfering with the ruby-marc gem … and I also wanted to create gem for ruby-zoom. This was the first time I’ve tried packaging up a C wrapper as a gem and it was remarkably smooth. I also added a test suite and a Rakefile. So assuming you have yaz installed you can install ruby-zoom with:
% gem install zoomI’ll admit, I’m no huge fan of Z39.50 but the fact remains that it’s pretty much the most widely deployed machine API for getting at bibliographic data locked up in online catalogs. It’s really nice to see forwarding thinking systems like Talis, Evergreen and Koha who have OpenSearch implementations.
Rachael Ray Hearts Dunkin Donuts (Paychecks)
Rachael Ray said she thought the rumors her marriage is breaking up were "hysterical." Know what I find hysterical? Rach posing with a bunch of dancing coffee cups just for a paycheck. Is there anything celebrities won't do for money?
PS: Let's hope -- for her hubby's sake -- that she didn't bring those scissors home after the festivities.
Interesting reads
Russell busted me for not posting the books I promised many from the talk I gave at the Interesting2007 ‘happening’ he organised.
Jack, the lazy pulsar, even beat me to it.
I had in fact written it down, but only mailed it to Rebecca/Beeker, so here it is:
- ‘The death and life of great american cities’ by Jane Jacobs
- ‘Emergence‘ and ‘The Ghost Map‘ by Stephen Johnson
- ‘Out of control‘ by Kevin Kelly
- ‘Shaping things‘ by Bruce Sterling
- ‘Everyware‘ by Adam Greenfield
- ‘Digital ground‘ by Malcolm Mccullough
- ‘The rules of play‘ by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
- ‘The ambiguity of play‘ by Brian Sutton-Smith
- ‘The play ethic‘ by Pat Kane
I probably didn’t mention all of them explicitly in the talk, but they’re definitely all forming the conceptual henge around it…
Tags: interesting2007
Prettier than US mail box, Paris '07
* In the Marais.
Sign of the Times
Quick Post
How Pentagram created the 10,116 pt logo for NYT's new building without blocking any views
http://blog.pentagram.com/archives/2007/07/sign_of_the_times.php
July 9, 2007
The big iPhone review
Ars Technica: iPhone in depth: “The iPhone is now out and promises to revolutionize the way we use our phones forever. You don’t have to love it; you don’t even have to like it. You will, however, be witness to a great upheaval in the mobile communications business because of it.”
Video: Trailer for the New Film Produced by J.J. Abrams
Quick Post
Saw it before Transformers and got really excited.
The party of the year for Tesla
Whew! Had a huge party on Saturday for little Ms. T. I had envisioned a few babies and a few kids with us adults enjoying cocktails and finger food. A gathering for music, the sunset, and mingling. Goodness, was I wrong! First, the weather sucked so everyone was gathered in the living room instead of spilling out onto the patio. Luckily, people felt comfortable to escape to our bedrooms when they needed a break. Yes, a break from a room full of 35+ adults and I think maybe 15 kids and babies. It was mayhem. 15 kids isn't just like 15 Teslas. Their energy bounces off of each other so it's exponential.
Here is the progression of the party:
A few arrived and settled in. There was still space to enjoy the Wii. Then lots more arrived. Kids were everywhere! After the climax with the cake, things calmed down. The 2nd wave of late folks settled in. Finally, after ordering pizza around 10pm, our boys & friends started the Wii while finishing a few beers.A long day indeed, but I absolutely loved it. I couldn't have imagined the chaos, yet it was somehow perfect for Tesla. Toddler/Kid Playhouse. I'm still finding random toy parts in weird places.
It was all worth it when everyone sang Happy Birthday for our baby. Initially, we both thought we wouldn't have a party cuz Tesla wouldn't remember it. She may not, but she sure loved being such the center of attention as the linked video proves. She was glowing. And I'm most proud to have pictures as evidence for her later to show how much we all celebrated this great moment.
As is always the case being the hostess, I regret not having more time with each guest. Thank you to all of you for making Tesla's birthday so incredibly memorable!
BIG thank you to Elida who helped from the morning to set up and decorate. And made awesome cocktails (thanks Ele for the rum recipe!). It wouldn't have been nearly as nice and fun without you!!!p.s. Check out this handmade knit hat Toni made for Tesla!
How to Visit New York: The Must-Sees
After yesterday’s look at the basics of visting New York City, it’s time to move on to some more ambitious, and more contentious, topics. I’m going to start with my short list of the sights you simply must see if you get to the city. Knowing already that this isn’t even a complete list of my own recommendations (I’m sure I’ve forgotten some), I am certain you’ll all have your own must-see additions — let me have ‘em!
Perhaps one of the hardest parts of visiting New York City is that there is so much to see. That means a truly definitive “must-see” list is pretty much impossible, and depends on your preferences and interests. But there are a few signature places in the city that are unique in the world, and so broadly appealing they should offer something to just about anyone who visits. If you’ve only got a short amount of time in the city, or you want to make sure to get the most indispensable stuff first, here’s a good list to begin with.
The signature skyscrapers. The Empire State Building may be the most famous building in the world, and it’s well worth its reputation. However, it was built primarily as an office building for the garment trade, so it’s better to look at than to look out from, though the owners have done an admirable job of retrofitting it with all the necessary tourist trap/gift shop accessories. If you’re trying to make good use of your time, don’t go up the Empire State Building, just get a good look at it from Top of the Rock. If you’ve got time to wait, you certainly won’t regret seeing the view from the ESB. The Chrysler Building is the prettiest peak in Manhattan’s skyline, with its distinctive hubcap spire. There’s really no easy way to go up there as a tourist anyway, so just make a mental note to look out for it when you get to the Top of the Rock. Which of course brings us to Top of the Rock itself. This is the newest skyline viewpoint for tourists, having been completely refurbished after sitting in mothballs for three decades. Top of the Rock is a great vantage point for looking out at the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and Central Park, and it’s at the top of 30 Rockefeller Center, which means you can check out one of the city’s great plazas on the way in. If you go to the top of only one skyscraper, this should be it, and if you can time it right, get there a little before sunset and linger until after the sun goes down, so you can get both a great look at the city and the magic of the city’s lights at night.
Grand Central Terminal. You probably know this one as Grand Central Station, the “Terminal” name is technically correct because it’s the end of the line for the commuter rails that bring hundreds of thousands of people to work in Manhattan every day. Sadly, most of them trudge through the train station on their way to work without looking up at the most beautiful indoor space in the city. The building was lovingly restored to its original lavish condition a decade ago, and anybody who loves architecture, transportation, history, or just people should find something to love in the space. If you can, check out one of the free walking tours (more on that later), poke your head into the mini Transit museum on the western side of the building, and maybe even stop for some food; Between the Oyster bar, the food court downstairs, and a few other pricey but pleasant dining choices, it’s not a terrible place to grab a meal. It’s also got a great secret place for drinks that are worth the exorbitant price.
The Museums. It’s impossible to narrow down the full list of New York’s great museums, but the most prominent ones in the city are world-famous for a reason. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The American Museum of Natural History. The Museum of Modern Art. The Guggenheim. Any one of them can easily take up a full day. I’m the kind of guy who didn’t go to college and rolls his eyes at pretentious “experts”, but these places are mesmerizing. Approachable without being dumbed-down, fun without being frivolous, they’re all worth a visit, but if you want to start with a sure crowd-pleaser, or you’ve got kids who are finicky, the Natural History Museum, home of The Whale and The Dinosaur Skeletons and The Planetarium, is just one of the most satisfying places in the world. The Met is its slightly more serious sister, across Central Park, and I’ve found the exhibits there so simple and smart that they’re just plain profound. If you don’t check out at least one of the great museums of the city, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. Or at least until you come back to New York.
Thanks to Tom Karlo for the beautiful photo of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center at the Natural History Museum. To see all of the posts in this series, check out the archive of How To Visit New York.
usability lab
As mentioned here before, the del.icio.us team is presently in the midst of a major project: building a new platform which will speed up the site and help us grow even faster. At the same time we’re also taking a close look at our UI and exploring ways to make it both easier to use and more functional. Over the years we’ve heard a lot of feedback, both positive and negative. Many folks like the simple and terse nature of the site, while others take issue with certain elements of the design (shockingly, some of you think that light-blue-on-salmon-pink is not a good color combination; more shockingly, some of you think that it is). Our challenge then is to make del.icio.us better without messing up the stuff that already works.
We’ve been working on some new design ideas and recently conducted a series of usability tests to see if these ideas work. We brought in about a dozen people, both existing users and a few people who were new to del.icio.us. Yahoo! (our parent company) has some great facilities for this sort of thing which we basically moved into and hogged for about a week. It was a lot of fun for us (and, it seemed, for the participants), and we learned a lot from watching people use the site and try out our new designs. As we expected, we heard feedback all across the spectrum, and nearly all of it is proving deeply useful in our continuing work.
Here’s some stats from the tests:
- 20 participants
- Over 2000 post-it notes used
- 562 unique observations recorded
- Hundreds of design tweaks made as a result of feedback
- 62 cups of drip coffee and 23 lattes consumed
- Most disappointing thing overheard: “I don’t really get tags”
- Most gratifying thing overheard: "del.icio.us has totally changed my life"
- Funniest thing overheard: "I’m pleased; this new design doesn’t look like an angry fruit salad"
In the very near future we’re going to have a beta of the new design so we can get even more feedback (watch this space for announcements). Please also feel free to use this blog to share your thoughts about what you’d like to see different in del.icio.us. More cowbell? Less pink? Let us know.
Stephen Hood
Product Manager
Is there a real business in hyperlocal news?
Ben Tesch: "I don't know what it is about the newspaper industry, but it has a way of taking great ideas and making them into OK ideas."
News Flash: Park Slope Has Lots of Kids!
The NY Times' Real Estate section's lead feature was a story called "The Park Slope Parent Trap" (subheadline involved hipsters finding it hell but parents thinking it's heavenly), which is basically the umpteenth article that tries to capture the je ne sais quoi of the overrun-with-children enclave. Here are the approximate things to check off when you know you're a "real" Park Slope parent:
- You don't care who sees you breastfeeding.
- You don't care if you see a mom breastfeeding twins, one at each breast, at Two Boots Pizzeria.
- You're on a quixotic quest to find a better baby carrier.
- You truly feel that Park Slope is just like the East Village.
- All your friends live along the F train.
- A parent and his/her child will chide you for being a jaywalking parent w/baby
- You worry about which place to get coffee, because you're not sure if the other mommies will accept you.
- You have a fair amount of "I live in Park Slope" self-hate.
Free Polls - Take Our Poll Somewhat related: In the NY Sun article about two Park Slope fathers who hope for a charter school in the Slope, the PS 321 PTA president Wesley Weisberg said that parents are "thrilled" about the idea of a charter school, "it wasn't like hearing about another new stroller." Photograph of lost shoe by Atomische
Rachael Ray Calls Breakup Rumors "Hysterical"
Rachael Ray calls the Page Six report that her marriage is ending "hysterical."
In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Tonight, Rach says she was actually planning her third anniversary when she first heard the New York Post story. Of the report she said, "[It's] not hurtful at all. It's hysterical!"
Well, that's one approach, I guess. Laugh off the whole thing and mention your upcoming anniversary plans... although said anniversary is three months away. It just seems suspicious to me... Like she's overcompensating.
Maybe things are just peachy at chez Ray... We'll just have to wait and see.
Tour de France 2007 Calendar
Yahoo's Tour de France calendar with integrated elevation profiles.
It's the Databases, Stupid
"Is it compelling content? Yes, even if it's not NEWS. I feel the conflict between NEWS and this other stuff all the time. I can express the journalistic mission of my organization in lofty terms along with the best of them, but I also find myself combing sites trying to find a nearby ethnic grocery or the latest freeway ramp closings."
Rumor: MacBook-style keyboard to accompany new iMacs
Updated iMacs, rumored to be released late this summer, may include a redesigned exteranl keyboard reminiscent of the MacBook's according to new rumors.
Brains: The Core of the Zombie Diet
If you're a zombie, be sure to follow the Zombie Food Pyramid to remain at peak human-eating condition. You wouldn't want your arm to fall off while cracking into a fresh human skull now, would you? Be sure to eat plenty of brains, but go light on the bones and gristle.
The drawing appears to have been originally made by Mike Capen for Threadless.com. For another take on the nutritional needs of zombies, read this zombie health article from The Onion.
iPhone's AJAX SDK: No, thank you.
Wil Shipley: “What I’m not willing to do is starting programming in AJAX, as Steve so gleefully announced we should do at the (non-nondisclosured) WWDC keynote this year.”
I’ve said before that if Wil didn’t exist, we’d have to invent him. Partly for posts like this one, which say what a bunch of people are thinking—only way funnier.
Tour de France Time
It's Tour de France time again, and that means excellent multi-media packages to follow the action. I love the live blogging/reporting, the profiles of the routes, the occasional videos, maps etc . Let's stop for a second in awe that the winner of the prologue in London averaged over 33.34 miles per hour for 4.9 miles and that just happily pedaling down the big hill in Prospect Park I tend to go 25, that is very fast.
At left is the effort of the NYT which I think they get from AFP (Agence France Presse). This is going to be my home for the next few weeks.
The official page LeTour.fr.com used to have a similar
self-contained module but now seems to be a longer page. They do have this innovative new feature a gap profile of the distance between the peloton and breakaway riders. I read today that the peloton can be counted on to gain 1 minute every 10km on breakaways. I never knew that but it explains why you can read of breaks with 10 minute leads that don't get reeled in until some way into a stage.
Velonews also has great coverage and more background stories than the other sites.
London Mayor says Tour could return before Olympics
ITV News | Will Tour de France return?
London Mayor Ken Livingstone reports that Tour organizers were thrilled with the city's Grand Depart, which drew more than a million fans to the Prologue course Saturday, and an estimated 2 million more to the road course between London and Canterbury Sunday.
Livingstone gave a nod to the possibility of a visit in 2012, when London hosts the Olympic Games:
“I think realistically it would be five or six years. The organisers (the Amaury Sport Organisation) have said they are very pleased.”He added: “The eyes of the world have been on London this weekend, and the first Grand Depart in the UK has been a phenomenal success.”
hello, ollie!
Welcome to the world, beautiful boy! And don't worry, you'll soon be receiving induction papers into the Sippey family arranged marriage society.
Profiles: Intelligent Design: The New Yorker
"Even in the wake of the Seattle triumph, oma builds only a fifth of what it designs—a typical ratio for an experimental firm."
bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by stamen to remkoolhaas business - more about this bookmark...
July 8, 2007
20+ apps from iPhoneDevCamp
The first conclave of iPhone developers was a good effort that produced a few iPhone web applications that are worth a second look.
Haruki Murakami :: "Rhythm is the thing"
To bite an old Jay Smooth line: This is not a picture of me.
Really inspiring piece by the great Haruki Murakami today on how jazz inspired him to make a crazy move at 29 and try his hand at becoming a novelist.
This piece hit home. I was 29 when SoleSides ended, and I thought maybe, just maybe, I could write for a living. A decade plus later, we're still seeing about that, but so far I have nothing to complain about.
The last few graphs have some crazy parallels to Adam Mansbach's essay in Total Chaos too. (BTW here's a link to a podcast of our final Total Chaos Hip-Hop Forum held June 14th at the Walker Art Center. It was a great night.)
Anyway, enjoy:When I turned 29, all of a sudden out of nowhere I got this feeling that I wanted to write a novel — that I could do it. I couldn’t write anything that measured up to Dostoyevsky or Balzac, of course, but I told myself it didn’t matter. I didn’t have to become a literary giant. Still, I had no idea how to go about writing a novel or what to write about. I had absolutely no experience, after all, and no ready-made style at my disposal. I didn’t know anyone who could teach me how to do it, or even friends I could talk with about literature. My only thought at that point was how wonderful it would be if I could write like playing an instrument.
I had practiced the piano as a kid, and I could read enough music to pick out a simple melody, but I didn’t have the kind of technique it takes to become a professional musician. Inside my head, though, I did often feel as though something like my own music was swirling around in a rich, strong surge. I wondered if it might be possible for me to transfer that music into writing. That was how my style got started.
Whether in music or in fiction, the most basic thing is rhythm. Your style needs to have good, natural, steady rhythm, or people won’t keep reading your work. I learned the importance of rhythm from music — and mainly from jazz. Next comes melody — which, in literature, means the appropriate arrangement of the words to match the rhythm. If the way the words fit the rhythm is smooth and beautiful, you can’t ask for anything more...
Read the whole thing...
transit data
I've been collecting Bay Area public transit schedules from 511.org. I have loose plans for them, but it's going to be awhile before I get around to doing anything.
Meanwhile, here's the data: transit.db.gz, 6.4MB compressed SQLite 3 database, ~84MB uncompressed. Contains all stops for SF MUNI, AC Transit, AC Transit transbay service, and BART, in the following format:
CREATE TABLE stops ( provider TEXT(16), route_name TEXT(8), schedule_name TEXT(32), stop_location TEXT(32), stop_time TEXT(16), schedule_url TEXT(128), PRIMARY KEY (provider, route_name, schedule_name, stop_location, stop_time) );
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