randomwalks/dj

Flavio Galvagni of Lab Zero has pointed out a few of his projects that I think deserve mention here.

[Image: The solar-powered Minimum Mobile Module by Lab Zero].

Let me say right away, though, that I know a lot of people are tired of shipping container architecture – in fact, I think most people are tired of shipping container architecture – yet I have a fairly limitless patience for this sort of thing. Actually, I love shipping container architecture.
But the same questions inevitably arise whenever things like this re-appear in the blogosphere: Are shipping containers comfortable? Is reusing them as a form of readymade architecture even structurally realistic? Would anyone really want to raise a family inside one of these things? And does the appeal of such designs actually cross cultures and income levels and ethnicities and, more important, climates? Sure, these might work in Santa Monica – but would they work in Minneapolis-St. Paul?
To which I would have to say that the answer is: no, they probably aren't that comfortable when it comes to raising two and a half kids – and they probably don't equally appeal to, say, bedouins, Russian oil tycoons, Detroit's inner city poor, suburban parents, or even BLDGBLOG readers.
But I don't think those are the right questions to ask.
I don't think the point of cargo container architecture is for us to pretend that it's a universally appropriate design solution for every situation that could possibly exist in the world today – because it isn't. Then again, nothing is universally appropriate in architecture.
What I think is, actually, the point of reusing shipping containers as architecture is: 1) when you can, you should reuse existing materials for somewhat obvious environmental reasons, and 2) the spatial, logical, and combinatorial systems that cargo containers imply are simply awesome. The possibilities excite me. Container-made buildings are fun to look at, they're fun to render, and they're fun to imagine forming new architectural reefs and Tetris cities, interlocking in a sci-fi future coming soon to a landscape near you.
Whole new outer districts of London made from shipping container towers!

[Image: The Minimum Mobile Module by Lab Zero; view larger].

So arguments about the architectural reuse of shipping containers shouldn't be based on the claim that it's all or nothing; it's not either we replace all existing architecture in the world with cargo containers and then force everyone to live in them or we never construct a single cargo container building anywhere ever again, even for something as simple as a meditation retreat in your own backyard.
Maybe only one cargo container building will ever be built again – or maybe none will – but that doesn't mean we can't still screw around for hours on end with them on our home computers, virtually assembling weird new unfolding structures or houses with legs or helicopter-borne instant cities simply because it's fun and a way to kill time.
In other words, even if these plans serve as nothing but design exercises – studies in volume, combination, and color – then that's fine with me. We can be done with the ongoing arguments and just enjoy looking at cool imagery.
But I digress.
Lab Zero has put together a number of cool projects, including the solar-powered Minimum Mobile Module, pictured above, and the Carapace House, below.

[Image: The Carapace House by Lab Zero; view larger].

The Carapace House – a larger diagram of which can be seen here – is intended for use in "challenging natural environments."
Similar to Lab Zero's own Drop Off Unit, the Carapace House is temporary, mobile, and easy to "drop off" in a variety of locations.

[Image: The Drop Off Unit by Lab Zero; view larger or in more detail].

All of which brings us to the Jellyfish House – not that Jellyfish House – a kind of floating tower perfect for those of us interested in "spatial delocation."
You can drift around the world's oceans in it, reading William Gibson.

[Image: The Jellyfish House by Lab Zero; view bigger].

The Lab Zero website is still apparently under construction, meanwhile, but keep your eye out for more of their work in the future. They were featured in Actar's recent book Self-Sufficient Housing, for instance, and will no doubt be popping up elsewhere soon.
And for more cargo containers on BLDGBLOG see Container Home Kit or even Project Blackbox.

Originally posted by Geoff Manaugh from BLDGBLOG, on November 24, 2007 5:29 PM

Good friends Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat have been hard at work on a really great project called An Atlas of Radical Cartography. A collection of maps and essays illustrating the intersections of geography, mapping, politics and activism, it is finally coming out! Beyond being politically engaging, it is an amazing book object, a slip case that contains a book of essays and 10 actual full-size fold-out maps dealing with such issues as extraordinary rendition/torture planes, garbage and waste removal, water pathways, borders and surveillance cameras. Here's a couple shots of the maps: They will be on display in Chicago starting this weekend: An Atlas November 27 2007 – January 19, 2008 Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago OPENING RECEPTION and book launch: Wednesday, November 28, 5-8pm Gallery talk @ 6:30pm An Architektur the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) Ashley Hunt Institute for Applied Autonomy with Site-R Invisible-5 Pedro Lasch Lize Mogel Trevor Paglen & John Emerson Brooke Singer the Speculators of AREA Chicago Jane Tsong Unnayan Organized by Lize Mogel and Alexis Bhagat An Atlas is a traveling exhibition of artists working with “radical cartography”—a practice that uses maps and mapping to promote social change. The participating artists, architects, and collectives take on issues from globalization to garbage and explore the map’s role as a political agent. The exhibition and accompanying publication contribute to a growing cultural movement that cuts across boundaries of art, cartography, geography, and activism. The companion publication, An Atlas of Radical Cartography (Journal of Aesthetics and Protest Press, 2007) will be available for purchase at the gallery, and available online as of December 1. Click here for more information and Chicago-area lecture schedule. And finally there will a New York City book launch at Bluestockings Books on 172 Allen St. on December 6th.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Just Seeds: Blog, on November 24, 2007 12:25 PM

FoodPairing builds connected graphs of flavor components of major foods in order to suggest food pairings and interchangeable products.

(via del.icio.us)

Originally posted by ry from Modcult, on November 24, 2007 6:05 AM

French designers continue to put the “fab” in prefab: Construisons Demain, a brilliant design from architect Eric Wuilmot, premiered at Batimat in Paris earlier this month. The system showcases low-energy living with three prefabricated wooden modules, resource and energy efficient systems, healthy finish materials, and inviting living spaces.

(more…)

Originally posted by Ali from INHABITAT, ReBlogged by Leah Gauthier on Nov 24, 2007 at 09:34 AM

Originally posted by Ali from Eyebeam reBlog, on November 24, 2007 4:34 AM

Long before Big Bird and Fraggle Rock, Jim Henson was dabbling in avant-garde cinema. Check out a young Henson appearing in his own far-out short, called Time Piece, which owes no small debt to John Cage. "Dislocation in time, time signatures, time as a philosophical concept, and slavery to time are some of the themes touched upon in this nine-minute, experimental film, which was written, directed, and produced by Jim Henson – and starred Jim Henson!” (It starts out a bit slow but gets really wild – and keep your eyes peeled for Frank “Yoda” Oz’s cameo as messenger boy.)

Screened for the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in May of 1965, Time Piece ran for a year and a half at one Manhattan movie theater and was nominated for an Academy Award. (Hat tip Goldenfiddle, who is selling his iconic T-shirts again.)

Originally posted by John Del Signore from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on November 23, 2007 10:06 AM

JWZ reveals the hidden Dock pinning prefs — instead of centering the Dock, you can pin it to the left or right (on the bottom), or top or bottom (on the side). I’ve been using this ever since 10.0, but it’s one of those hidden prefs many people don’t know about.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on November 23, 2007 9:51 AM

“So which is the real Bernie Kerik? Is it the one who pleads not guilty before or is it the one who pleads guilty after he cuts a deal that he’s comfortable with?” - NY1 caller Dalton, from the Upper East Side, to "The Call"

Those were the questions that cost NY1 reporter Gary Anthony Ramsay his job, after calling into his own station under a false name. The station deemed it an exceptionally poor judgment and fired the reporter (though they told the Daily News that Ramsay left to pursue other opportunities). From the New York Times:

Mr. Ramsay said he was at his Upper West Side home watching the program, when he became frustrated with some viewers’ comments, including those who said they believed that supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton had a role in the investigation.

It turns out the host of The Call, John Schiumo, called Ramsay afterwards to say he recognized his voice! Ramsay says he apologized and admitted that it was a bad idea to call in under a false name, but that they would have been completely acceptable in a different forum. Ultimately, he said, "I am continually apologetic for smudging that journalistic line, but I’m a human being, and I’m subject to the same frailties.”

Ramsay was fired after 15 years at the station. The departure wasn't that abrupt - he was scheduled to leave the station because his contract ran out in the summer. Last year, a co-worker accused him of sexual harassment.

Originally posted by Dave Hogarty from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on November 23, 2007 9:01 AM

Thoughtful comments from Siva Vaidhyanathan on the Kindle:

As far as the dream of textual connectivity and annotations -- making books more "Webby" -- we don't need new devices to do that. Nor do we need different social processes. But we do need better copyright laws to facilitate such remixes and critical engagement.

So consider this $400 device from Amazon. Once you drop that cash, you still can't get books for the $9 cost of writing, editing, and formating. You still pay close to the $30 physical cost that includes all the transportation, warehousing, taxes, returns, and shoplifting built into the price. You can only use Amazon to get texts, thus locking you into a service that might not be best or cheapest. You can only use Sprint to download texts or get Web information. You can't transfer all you linking and annotating to another machine or network your work. If the DRM fails, you are out of luck. If the device fails, you might not be able to put your library on a new device.

All the highfallutin' talk about a new way of reading leading to a new way of writing ignores some basic hard problems: the companies involved in this effort do not share goals. And they do not respect readers or writers.

I say we route around them and use these here devices -- personal computers -- to forge better reading and writing processes.

Originally posted by ben vershbow from if:book, on November 23, 2007 8:23 AM

ABC News has posted a pretty compelling interview with Mike Huckabee about immigration. In it, Huckabee was asked about charges from rivals that he's soft on immigration because he supported the children of illegal immigrants being eligible for scholarships and backed free prenatal care for illegal immigrants in need of it.

Huckabee's response:

"We penalize law-breakers. We don't penalize their children for something they can't help.

"If a child is gasping for air, asthmatic, and he's on the hospital steps, what do the other candidates suggest we do, let him sit there and gasp until he doesn't have any air left and he dies? If a child comes to our school -- and our law, by the way, in most of our states, mine certainly says you've got to educate a child if he's of child age -- what do you, break your own law and say, `No, you can't come in the schoolhouse door'?

"No, you don't do that. What you do is you elect a president who will fix the problem where it needs to be fixed: At the border. But if your government at the federal government is so incompetent that it fails to secure the border, you don't then grind your heel into the face of a 6-year-old child over it. That's not what this country does. We're a better country than that."

Right, but the question is whether the GOP base, not the country as a whole, is "better" than this. That Huckabee actually has to defend such sentiments tells you pretty much all you need to know about the sway that today's nativist right holds over GOP primary politics.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on November 23, 2007 7:05 AM

New Yorkers like to joke about the spread of chain drugstores, bank branches, and Starbucks in the city, but residents of Sunnyside, Queens can claim bragging rights in a shining example of the phenomena. Greenpoint Avenue is home to two adjacent Rite Aid drugstores, which sit literally right next to each other.

According to the Daily News, it initially appears to be one giant store, but, in fact, they are two separately owned and operated drugstores separated by a single wall. At least one neighborhood resident was disoriented after walking out of one store and then almost back into the second: "I said to myself, 'Wait. Didn't I just come out of Rite Aid?"

The newer of the two stores used to be an Eckerd pharmacy before the chain was acquired by Rite Aid. Now the two stores co-exist side by side on Greenpoint Ave. There is a third Rite Aid pharmacy three blocks away on 45th St. and 43rd Ave. If one has further trouble finding a Rite Aid, there's always the chain's store locater.

Company officials said that market research supported the decision to have twin stores on the street, but wouldn't comment to the Daily News on the financial performance of any of the three in the area. The president of the neighborhood's chamber of commerce wishes there were fewer drugstores and more businesses that would make Sunnyside a tourist destination, "like the Gap."

Originally posted by Dave Hogarty from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on November 23, 2007 6:16 AM

Taiwan’s Brilliant “Recycle” Icon — Jacob — aatw. Wait for it… there!

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Marco.org Tumblelog, on November 23, 2007 5:49 AM

Stephen Malkmus and the Million Dollar Bashers "Ballad of a Thin Man" - David Edelstein's review of Todd Haynes' new film I'm Not There in the most recent issue of New York Magazine may be positive, but in complaining that Haynes is more concerned with deconstructing Bob Dylan than getting inside his head, he clues us in to just how little he understood what the movie is actually about, i.e., not the guy who sleeps and eats and DJs on satellite radio. It's about the cultural representation of Dylan, and as such, it's more about us than it is about him. Not to undersell the film's substance, but when you boil down all the things that I'm Not There has to say about Dylan in particular and art in general, it's essentially about the way we turn artists into icons, and the way the mythology that we create around them can take on a life and meaning that is far greater than the person, and sometimes even the work itself.

Haynes splits Dylan into six characters, none of whom are called Bob Dylan. (The name is never once uttered in the film.) Only half of the actors resemble the man, and the one who is most clearly evocative of his actual style and mannerisms is a woman in drag. It's important that it's drag, by the way -- Cate Blanchett's performance as the Dylan of Don't Look Back is meant to be an over-the-top, fabulous caricature of the artist at his most iconic, and it's the representation that is most charged with transgressive sexuality -- both his own, and what Blanchett claims for herself as she occupies his persona. Blanchett's Dylan is my favorite, mainly because she is standing in for the Dylan I appreciate the most: The "pop" Dylan; the cynical, frustrated young artist who fought against being pigeon-holed by the media; the iconoclast who stood up to the smug, self-righteous conservatism of the folk movement at the Newport Folk Festival and the Royal Albert Hall. The events of those two concerts are represented in the film with a great deal of humor, surrealism, and melodrama. It's a folk story, passed down through generations, and that's the point. It isn't about the truth of those events, it's about the cultural resonance of his actions, and the way we tell and internalize the meaning of the narrative -- it's the moment where Dylan ceases to be a folk singer, and becomes a folk hero.

Unsurprisingly, my second favorite Dylan in I'm Not There is the one played by Marcus Carl Franklin. Unlike the fairly representational versions of Dylan portrayed by Blanchett, Ben Whishaw, and Christian Bale -- or the glamorous post-modern/meta representation of Heath Ledger, who plays an actor playing Dylan in a biopic -- Franklin's character is purely metaphorical, and stands in for the young Dylan eager to cast off his past and reinvent himself on his own terms. The scenes with Franklin suggest that the singer's transforming persona is an intrinsic part of his character, and of his art -- from early on, he understood the power of becoming a character, of becoming something else for the benefit of his art, his audience, and himself.

The film does not follow a linear path, but it's important to note that the story begins with Franklin since it establishes the central conflict of the picture, i.e., the complications of reconciling the differences between the artist's embrace of affectation, and the premium placed on authenticity in folk music, and the culture at large -- or at least up until the end of the 70s, since its worth noting that Dylan's life after his conversion to Christianity in 1979 is not acknowledged in any way by the film. (It makes sense -- nothing else after that moment in his life has any particular mythic resonance, and so Dylan the legend effectively died when his life ceased to be a story.) Even though there are six incarnations of Dylan in I'm Not There, there's really just two versions of his myth on display, and they are at odds with one another -- he's either the idealistic truth-teller, or the guy who forces us to look beyond objective truth of biography and dig into the complicated mess of life via fiction, poetry, and reinvention of character. You don't really have to pick one or the other, but I'm pretty sure I only really have use for the latter version.

Oh yeah, and doesn't Stephen Malkmus sound like he's on his very best behavior on this version of "Ballad of a Thin Man"? When I first heard his three cuts on the I'm Not There soundtrack, I was kinda shocked by the reverence in his voice. I mean, I wasn't expecting him to goof off or rewrite the lyrics, but after seeing the film, the straight, somewhat mannered vocal take makes a bit more sense -- he's providing the singing voice of Cate Blanchett, and he has to bend to her performance. Well, that, and he's a Dylan fanboy, and I imagine he was just trying hard not to fuck it up. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Originally posted by Matthew Perpetua from FLUXBLOG: Wry and Wise, But Also Very Sexual, on November 23, 2007 4:05 AM

Clever:

...I thought it would be interesting to find out the account password. Wordpress stores raw MD5 hashes in the user database.... As with any respectable hash function, it is believed to be computationally infeasible to discover the input of MD5 from an output. Instead, someone would have to try out all possible inputs until the correct output is discovered.

[...]

Instead, I asked Google. I found, for example, a genealogy page listing people with the surname "Anthony", and an advert for a house, signing off "Please Call for showing. Thank you, Anthony". And indeed, the MD5 hash of "Anthony" was the database entry for the attacker. I had discovered his password.

Originally posted by schneier from Schneier on Security, on November 23, 2007 2:07 AM

"I didn't cover many technical issues but instead tried to convince some people to recognize that the way you use JavaScript in your team is the most important part of development. ... working as if you won't ever see the code again."

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on November 22, 2007 10:05 AM

By Sergei Kovalev

I should begin by saying that I find the current president of Russia and his policies extremely offensive. I believe that Vladimir Putin is the most sinister figure in contemporary Russian history. From the very beginning of his rule he has directed--and almost completed--a broad antidemocratic counterrevolution in Russia. He has annihilated many civil rights in the country, among them such crucial freedoms as freedom of information. He has significantly restricted freedom of association and assembly, as well as the right to stage peaceful marches, protests, and demonstrations.

Originally posted by Sergei Kovalev from The New York Review of Books, on November 22, 2007 7:00 AM

Santa Monica Farmers Market
Originally uploaded by hustler of culture

This morning I was inspired by this entry and this one. A line from the second entry -- "Something so much greater is holding you, I’m sure of it." -- my friend said to me two days ago, almost word for word.

Yesterday I went to the farmers market in New York (this one is in Santa Monica but I like the picture) and it was filled with so many goodies. It was a nice reminder of the beauty of the holidays. I had some nice apple cider and simply walked around.

Ten things I am thankful for:

1. My amazing friends - for everything!
2. My Godson/Nephew - for being so cute and for making me believe that I could fall in love with a little person
3. My apartment - for the solitude
4. My job - for not being a place filled with crazy people
5. My relatives - for coming out of the wood work and being so cool
6. My Netflix account - for bringing me joy every few weeks
7. My blog community - for reading and for all of the great advice/word of wisdom
8. My computer -for surviving its near death experience
9. My health - for improving
10. My LP - for keeping me sane

Originally posted by Angela Tucker from tuckergurl, on November 22, 2007 6:33 AM

You already know a little bit about what I'm doing for Thanksgiving, thanks to my post here yesterday, but I thought I'd ask the Serious Eats staff here in the office what they were doing and what they were thankful for.

ED LEVINE
I thought I'd elaborate a bit on what I wrote yesterday, since I didn't really give my menu in detail. I am cooking for my wife's family, thirteen strong. They're an affable, generously spirited crew who are genuinely appreciative of the effort Vicky and I put forth. We are having cheese and bread; turkey; cornbread, sausage, and apple stuffing; sweet potato purée with maple syrup, butter, dried cherries, and candied ginger; mashed potatoes à la Al Forno; and apple pie, coconut cream pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and a crumb pie to be determined.

I'm thankful for my wonderful wife, Vicky; my most favorite son (and only child), Will, my family and friends who have been so incredibly helpful and supportive during this magical launch year for Serious Eats, and, finally, for all the Serious Eaters who have joined our merry band of passionate, discerning, inclusive food lovers.

Happy Thanksgiving, Serious Eaters.

ALAINA BROWNE
I'll be celebrating Thanksgiving at home with my husband. Because it's just the two of us, we're keeping it simple. Our menu: roasted turkey breast (maybe bacon-covered?), mashed potatoes, gussied up Whole Foods 365 stuffing with cranberries, cranberry sauce, and for sentimental reasons, Green Bean Casserole. If we still have room, there will be pumpkin pie for dessert. The day after I'd like to try to out this simple, crusty bread recipe to make leftover turkey sandwiches.

I'm thankful for: family, friends, and Serious Eaters everywhere.

ROBYN LEE
This year I'm going to catch up on some glorious sleep and eat dinner at home with my mom and my older brother, Hubert. Mom is in charge of the turkey (she always is), while I'll be making Pioneer Woman's mashed potatoes, Dorie Greenspan's Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie with Cook's Illustrated's Foolproof Pie Dough (and it better be foolproof, because God knows I'm no pie maven), gravy, and cranberry sauce. Hubert will do nothing because he's useless. It's OK; he knows it.

I'm most thankful for my friends and family. I mean, that I have them. Phew! How I tricked so many people into being my friend, I have no idea. Just waiting for the day that they decide to abandon me because they find out I'm mentally unstable.

I'm also thankful that, for all the traveling I did, I didn't die in a plane crash. Or a car crash. Or a train derailment.

Something that my friends constantly remind me to be thankful for is that I have a freakin' sweet job with the coolest co-workers ever, a rare thing to find straight out of college. Yes, yes I do.

ADAM KUBAN
I used to alternate between visiting my grandmother and extended family in Milwaukee for Thanksgiving and hosting a stragglers' feast, but for the last three years, my girlfriend and I have eaten Thanksgiving at a restaurant. The first time we went out for Thanksgiving, I felt like I was betraying tradition, but it was something new to try, so I was up for it—just that once. Turns out I really like the notion, and we've gone to a different place each year. This year we're going to Eleven Madison Park, where I'm going to eat:

• Pumpkin velouté with candied quince and Hawaiian prawns
• Heirloom beets marinated with olio verde, aceto balsamico, and lynnhaven "chèvre frais"
• Roast turkey with butternut squash, stuffing and glazed chestnuts
• Sides for the table: potato mousseline, braised red cabbage, cranberry chutney, brussels sprouts with bacon lardons, parsnip ecrassé, and baked sweet potato

It's probably the "fanciest" Thanksgiving menu I've ever had and I had to look up a few of those words. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm thankful for: my family, friends, and girlfriend and the fact that they haven't written me off this past year as I seem to work all the time now. My job, and being able to wake up and actually feel like going to work. My coworkers, who are awesome. All the Serious Eats contributors, who make it easy to put out great reading day after day. And, of course, everyone who reads Serious Eats, be they lurkers or participants in the discussions going on around the site.

Originally posted by Ed Levine from Serious Eats: Main, on November 22, 2007 4:30 AM

Thanks, Russell, originally uploaded by blackbeltjones.

I’ve cut short my time at the BBC to spend more time on Dopplr.

I’m also hopefully going to continue with the teaching beyond the project I’m currently involved with at the RCA, and do some design consultancy work - for which Russell was kind enough to prepare the above.

Perhaps this could be the start a lucrative sideline for him?

Originally posted by Matt from Blackbeltjones/Work, on November 22, 2007 1:13 AM

How to program Google Android.

The only way to judge an SDK is getting in there and writing an application that does something cool, so I’ll take you through the development process for my first Android application.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Justin Blanton, on November 22, 2007 12:34 AM

[Note: I’m going to be writing some longer posts about the needs of a cloud computer. This first post details the need for reliable supply. Please take this in the spirit it’s offered: a survey of one company and its experience in the market.]

I wrote recently that the operating system doesn’t matter anymore for developers of internet applications. Joyent’s announcement last week that we would be providing free cloud computing infrastructure to Facebook developers is further evidence that this is true. We spent a considerable amount of time optimizing Joyent Accelerators for Facebook, not for OpenSolaris (the OS we use). A Facebook developer can sign up for a free Joyent Accelerator here, get their application up and running within a few minutes, and be on their way. We did this a couple times with a couple customers last week at the Dallas Facebook Developer Garage. One of them had been kicked off their hosting provider because they were actually using some of the “free” bandwidth that over-selling hosting providers market. They were up and running on Joyent Accelerators within minutes of getting their log-in. The operating system didn’t matter in the process.

Joyent the Meta-manufacturing Company: We Need Stuff On-demand

If the operating system doesn’t matter to developers, the server under the operating system shouldn’t matter either. In fact, that is true to the extent that there are many makers of server hardware and they are mostly interchangeable. But in another way, the servers does matter to developers. Can the server hardware manufacturer your development stack runs on scale at the velocity of your application? While most Joyent customers don’t worry about whether we have enough power and cooling, they will need to worry, at a point, whether we have enough CPU, RAM, and storage. And, since Joyent doesn’t make any of those consumables, we have to turn to businesses that do. Joyent is, in this regard, a meta-manufacturing company. We manufacture a compute cloud upon which developers can run web applications and scale them. Our Facebook offering, and the scale issues that can face developers on Facebook, meant that we had to have parts suppliers for our cloud computer that could also scale.

A Brief Excursus: What Happened with Joyent and Sun?

When I got off the stage last week at the Dallas Facebook Developers Garage having made the announcement about Facebook and Joyent and Dell, one of the consistent questions was: “What happened to your relationship with Sun?” We continue to use Sun technology for critical parts of our infrastructure. The most obvious is our choice of Solaris Zones as virtualization building block of Joyent Accelerators. We continue to believe this is a better choice than embracing Xen (though others don’t always agree, ironically). This doesn’t mean we’ll never use Xen. We still don’t support .NET, a technology that is officially supported for Facebook developers. Xen would help with that. But so would VMWare.

One problem with Sun continues to be the sales model. In order to ensure dependable supply, we had to sign-up to buy large numbers of servers whether we actually used them or not. Sun put the risk onto the customer. We came to the conclusion that Joyent can’t buy from Sun if Joyent can’t buy direct from Sun. Faced with the tsunami that the Facebook opportunity represented, we couldn’t/didn’t know how big a pre-buy to make. It was too big a risk.

This on top of the fact that we wanted to buy the new Sunfire X4150 (dual socket, quad-core) but nobody in the channel (that hated word, “channel”) could tell us when we could get them. This for a model that had been announced weeks back. Why not just continue with the Sunfire X4100s we’ve been using. Well, for one, the X4150s allow us to cram tons of storage into the server, thus side-stepping many of the iSCSI issues (target) we have had with OpenSolaris. It’s one reason Joyent has been buying NetApps. And, again, the Facebook opportunity meant we would be building out significant infrastructure. To put it into the context of a systems manufacturer: our servers are Joyent’s CPU. We didn’t feel like installing the 586, when the 686 was freely available on the market.

Jonathan Schwartz has said these problems would be fixed, but they haven’t. And we don’t see anything to indicate that they will. We’ve talked with all sorts of Sun sales people. They put us into a special group for internet companies. We have made personal appeals to senior executives at Sun (that generally are answered…thanks for that). We’ve passed out bottles of 18-year old scotch. But the fact remains: every time Joyent engages Sun sales, they can’t really sell me something. The channel gets in the way. This is unfortunate, and ironic, for a company that did $1 billion in direct sales in a year (within three years of being founded).

So we called Dell

We had test systems FedEx’d to us and confirmation that Joyent would be able to run our stack on their stack within 36 hours. Once we had given the green light, the systems were in our data centers in two days. And OpenSolaris is supported on these systems according to a recent news item. We have a direct sales representative at Dell who is amazing. We don’t have to work the Dell organizational chart because our sales representative just gets things done. There’s not much to say about the Dell relationship because it is drama-free. Joyent’s relationship with Sun wasn’t. A cloud computing company needs reliable, drama-free supply. It’s that simple.

Originally posted by David Young from Joyeur, on November 21, 2007 5:26 PM

There were problems back then. But there was accountability. There was strong leadership. They acted in a professional manner. They were good people. Tradition mattered back then as did treating people with respect and dignity.

 bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by yatta to knicks - more about this bookmark...

Originally posted by yatta from del.icio.us/yatta, on November 21, 2007 5:01 PM

Design challenge: design a business card-sized year-long calendar that doesn't feature absurdly small type. Some intriguing solutions.

(link)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on November 21, 2007 12:36 PM

Now why would Michael Bloomberg be doing this:

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been receiving foreign policy briefing sessions on a wide variety of topics, providing the strongest indication yet that he is considering a run for the White House, the Huffington Post has learned.

The sessions, which were confirmed by multiple sources, have been conducted with Nancy Soderberg, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a Clinton Administration foreign policy adviser. One source described her as "Bloomberg's Condi."

A range of topics have been discussed, from non-proliferation to the defense budget, with a specific focus on the war in Iraq.

That really does suggest that he's seriously contemplating a run. One other thing we can conclude from this, meanwhile, is that Bloomberg apparently doesn't share Rudy's view that having been Mayor of New York is adequate preparation for the manifold foreign policy challenges a President faces. He apparently thinks you should learn something about the topic first.

Originally posted by Greg Sargent from TPM Election Central, on November 21, 2007 12:36 PM

Coincidences in linguistics.

(link)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on November 21, 2007 11:17 AM

The BBC is planning to produce Shakespeare's entire canon for TV...all 37 plays.

(via crazymonk)

(link)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from kottke.org, on November 21, 2007 10:49 AM

Can’t stop linking to Greg Knauss.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on November 21, 2007 10:26 AM

100_3438.JPG, originally uploaded by weevil.

Oof. I got back into Austin at midnight and I am just sort of getting re-acclimated around the house before I pass out in a big pile. I just wanted to thank everybody in San Francisco for making my time and my work there so great. Everybody in the cast and crew especially Marika and Steven who managed to juggle work and keeping me entertained during my downtime. My hosts; Jason Schultz from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and George Oates from Flickr who graciously let me stay in their home and shared their wine and conversation. My lovely new Friend Tamera F for showing me the best brunch I have ever had and generally being wonderful. Emily for driving all the way from San Jose to hang out.

I'm going to wait patiently to see what becomes of the movie now. Obviously I'll post news here.

Ok, sleepytime.

Originally posted by weevil@wileywiggins.com (Wiley Wiggins) from News of the dead, on November 21, 2007 10:15 AM

These days there are more online videos demonstrating how to carve a turkey than you can shake a stick at. I got to know the San Francisco Chronicle's Olivia Wu a bit when I attended Taste3 earlier this year, so I'm favorably biased toward her demonstration (above) of how to properly check the temperature of your turkey, and two different carving techniques. Wu's technique is similar to what today's New York Times calls the butcher's method.

Originally posted by Alaina Browne from Serious Eats: Posts and Comments by Alaina Browne, on November 21, 2007 9:00 AM

My friend (a fellow black girl) sent along this email today:

"NBC NIGHTLY NEWS WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS" SPECIAL FIVE-PART SERIES " AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN: WHERE THEY STAND" TO AIR BEGINNING ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 26 New York, N.Y.

"NBC News With Brian Williams" will take a look at the issues facing
African-American women across our nation in a new series
"African-American Women: Where They Stand." The series will cover a
wide-range of issues from their role in the '08 Presidential race, to
the increased health-risks that they need to be concerned about.

I am so fascinated to see this though having Brian Williams tell me where I stand is a bit ... ironic.

You can read about the various segments at the bottom of this entry.

Monday's installment will discuss African-American women's progress in
the education field. Nearly two-thirds of African-American
undergraduates are women. At black colleges, the ratio of women to men
is 7 to 1. And that is leading to a disparity in the number of
African-American women who go on to own their own businesses. Rehema
Ellis will talk to educators, students and businesswomen about why
this disparity exists.

Tuesday, Ellis will look at the relationships of African-American
women. Many agree the gender disparity in education and business among
African-Americans is having an effect on relationships that African
American women have. Some even say the implications could redefine
"Black America's family and social structure." In the past fifty
years, the percentage of African-American women between 25-54 who have
never been married has doubled from 20% to 40%. (Compared to just 16%
of white women who have never been married today). Ellis sits down
with the members of a Chicago book club and talk about this difference
and how it impacts them.

Dr. Nancy Snyderman will discuss the increases risks for breast cancer
for African-American women on Wednesday. Mortality rates for
African-American women are higher than any other racial or ethnic
group for nearly every major cause of death, including breast cancer.
Black women with breast cancer are nearly 30% more likely to die from
it than white women. Premenopausal black women are more than twice as
likely to get a more aggressive form of the disease. And, not only
are African-American women more likely to die from breast cancer, but
they're less likely to get life-saving treatments. Dr. Snyderman will
profile one of the only oncologists in the world who specializes in
the treatment of African-American women with breast cancer.

On Thursday, Ron Allen will take viewers to South Carolina -- the
first southern primary state -- and ask the question: Will race trump
gender or gender trump race? In South Carolina, black women made up
nearly 30 percent of all democratic primary voters in 2004. This year,
polls show a significant number are undecided, torn between choosing
the first African-American or first female Presidential candidate.
Allen talks with the undecided, as well the state directors for the
Clinton and Obama campaigns, who happen to be African-American women.

To close the series on Friday, Dr. Snyderman will raise the
frightening statistic that African-American women are 85% more likely
to get diabetes, a major complication for heart disease. And, like
breast cancer, more black women die from heart disease than white
women. Dr. Snyderman will profile a leading expert and a unique
church-based outreach program in South Carolina that seeks to spread
the word about heart disease risks to black women congregants.

Mara Schiavocampo, Digital Correspondent for "Nightly News," will
address two hot topics in the African - American community:
interracial dating and the impact of hip hop music on black women.
Interracial dating is a growing trend in the African - American
community. An Essence.com poll found that 81% of participants approved
of black women dating non-black men. According to a U.S. Census
Bureau report in 2000, 95,000 black women were married to white men.
In 2005, that number increased to 134,000. Schiavocampo will talk to
experts about the trend and discuss how this defines the "Black
family" of the future.

Schiavocampo will convene a panel of leading black men and women from
the hip-hop industry for an engaging discussion on whether hip hop
lyrics and videos positively or negatively affect black women. The
roundtable also will address how these portrayals are affecting
relationships between black women and black men.

Consumers can go online to join the discussion and share their
thoughts on message boards. They can also read and respond to blog
entries at _www.nightly.msnbc.com_ ( http://www.nightly.msnbc.com/).

Alexandra Wallace is the executive producer of "NBC Nightly News with
Brian Williams." Bob Epstein is the senior broadcast producer, and
Rich Latour is the senior producer for this series.

NBC News' home on the Internet is http://www.msnbc.com. For more
news and information about "Nightly News," please go to
http://www.nightly.msnbc.com .

Originally posted by Angela Tucker from tuckergurl, on November 21, 2007 8:54 AM

Martha Stewart's six troubleshooting tips for perfect gravy.

Originally posted by Alaina Browne from Serious Eats: Posts and Comments by Alaina Browne, on November 21, 2007 8:45 AM

 

We do a lot of criticism here on Streetsblog, so in the spirit of the season we thought we'd reflect on what we in the livable streets universe have to be thankful for.

We'll get the most obvious one out of the way: a Department of Transportation that looks at the city's streets and sees more than just cars. Then there are the many specific improvements we've seen under the "new" DOT, from sidewalk directional decals to the Ninth Ave cycle track to the hiring of Jan Gehl. And of course there's a lot going on that doesn't involve city government.

What's on your list?

Photo: Louanne/Flickr

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Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on November 21, 2007 7:24 AM

When we started The New York Review in February 1963 we asked some of the writers we admired most to send us book reviews within three weeks, for no payment, in order, as we said, "to suggest the qualities that a literary journal should have." Norman, whom we all had known in New York, was among the first we turned to, and he soon delivered ...

Originally posted by Robert B. Silvers from The New York Review of Books, on November 21, 2007 7:00 AM

The just-released Michelin restaurant guide for Tokyo awards more stars to that city's restaurants than New York and Paris put together. And 8 get a 3-star rating, only 2 fewer than in Paris.

Tokyo has more restaurants - at least 160,000 that could be classified as proper "restaurants" - than almost any other urban centre. Paris, by comparison, has little more than 20,000 and New York about 23,000.

There's a lot of handwringing about Tokyo restaurants getting so many stars, but to look at it another way, Paris has 8 times fewer restaurants and has more 3 stars than Tokyo. Not bad.

(via