randomwalks/dj

It's a bit of a flippant way to put it. But I keep marveling at this guy (itals added) ...

Meanwhile, the pilot of a crippled US Airways jet liner told investigators that he made a split-second decision to put down in the Hudson River because trying to return to the airport after birds knocked out both engines could have led to a "catastrophic" crash in a populated neighborhood.

Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger said that in the few minutes he had to decide where to set down the powerless plane Thursday afternoon, he felt it was "too low, too slow" and near too many buildings to go anywhere else, according to the National Transportation Safety Board account of his testimony.

...

The pilot said he tried to set down near a boat, to increase the possibility that survivors would be rescued, he told investigators. The aircraft hit close to several popular landings, and rescuers were able to arrive within minutes.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 17, 2009 7:16 PM

fig. a: ...and it's not Martin Picard

If your name is Ms. Kathleen McGivney, guess what, you're the lucky winner of our DIY Sugar Shack Special.

Just drop us a line with your coordinates and we'll happily ship off your prize pronto.

And if you're not Ms. Kathleen McGivney but you too participated in this year's Menu for Hope 5, you may just want to check the results of the raffle at Chez Pim. You never know... Stranger things have happened.

aj

Originally posted by aj kinik from ...an endless banquet, on January 17, 2009 6:21 PM

I recently gave a talk at this past django-nyc meeting based on my article in PyMag. While the slides likely won't make much sense without hearing me talk over them, I'll post them anyhow for the benefit of those in attendance and those which were on ustream. If you have any questions about django-nyc or the talk, leave them in the comments.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from justinlilly: Latest Entries, on January 17, 2009 4:00 PM

Brewing coffee with a vacuum pot (HD)

Timelapse (15x realtime) of brewing coffee using a Yama vacuum (siphon) brewer.

I step in to stir it three times, with a brewing time of about 3 minutes. I don’t know how much stirring is actually necessary, but I’m sure too much can’t hurt.

Compared to other brewing methods, this is far less practical and convenient. But the coffee it makes is absolutely incredible. Imagine a French press that could use fine grounds, brew at near-boiling temperatures the entire time, extract FAR more flavor, and leave zero sediment in the cup.

(There’s no audio because screw Final Cut, I did this with ffmpeg.)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Marco.org, on January 17, 2009 1:58 PM

We recently had winning samples of Brazil's Cup of Excellence competition on the cupping table at our downstate training lab. I couldn't help sneaking in our latest Brazilian arrival, Fazenda Sao Joao, which the Roasting Department announced this week and which just hit shelves. This was a 'blind' cupping, where the coffees' identities were hidden beneath their numbers, to avoid bringing any preconceptions to bear on our palates. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Sao Joao held its own and was a favorite around the table, delivering an incredibly rich flavor profile of roasted peanuts, butter, and cocoa.

I've had Brazil on the mind lately. It is the world's leading producer of coffee, but has not always been recognized for the quality of its crops. Your experience with Brazilian coffee is more likely to have been with diner coffee than at a specialty shop. But precisely because it pervades the market, the flavors and aromas of a Brazil are almost always strangely familiar. That makes a high quality Brazil such as the Sao Joao an extremely approachable coffee, rich and complex but familiar and satisfying. If you like it, be sure to check out the overwhelming molten chocolate of our Bourbon Collection from Brazil's Daterra Estate as well.

Originally posted by Jeremy Gauger from Gimme! Coffee News, on January 17, 2009 7:50 AM

January 16, 2009 - 11:40 p.m. - Los Angeles, CA This is Inu. He's a Japanese dog, a Shiba Inu to be exact and he kind of looks like a fox. He's quite the guard dog and although fiercely loyal, sometimes too protective. Look at his face -- sheer determination!

Originally posted by hustler of culture from hustler of culture, on January 16, 2009 9:40 PM

Time was you did systems and networking work, you had The Library. Programming Perl , sendmail , DNS and Bind , TCP/IP Illustrated , UNIX System Administration Handbook . These books documented the core knowledge to operate effectively in our industry. You’d add others as your level of badassery increased, perhaps Mastering Regular Expressions , Internet Routing Architectures , or APUE , depending on your passions and your role.

Times have changed. You still need to have all the old knowledge, but you need quite a bit more to meet the bar in the modern, massive-scale, online services world. Thousands of servers, distributed storage, databases with billions of rows, real-time monitoring of it all. The books below should be in your library and considered core for you and anyone else in the field.

Scalable Internet Architectures by Theo Schlossnagle

Architecture is the most important thing in building and operating a scalable service, and this book is the best book around on the topic. Read it, internalize its message, build better systems. I’ve never met him, but all signs point to Theo being an awesome guy, to boot. His blog is here (http://lethargy.org/~jesus/).

Solaris Performance and Tools by Richard McDougall, Jim Mauro, and Brendan Gregg

You’ve got your badass architecture laid out, code written, now what? You need visibility as far into your system as you can manage so you know the state of the world and where you can make the most impact in server and application performance. Enter DTrace. Yes, this is a book about Solaris, but DTrace is built into OS X and FreeBSD (and Apache, thanks, Theo!) now, as well. DTrace is a quiet revolution in system performance monitoring. Master it.

A couple of the authors blog often enough to matter: Richard McDougall’s is here and Brendan Gregg’s is here .

High Performance MySQL by Baron Schwartz, Peter Zaitsev, Vadim Tkachenko, Jeremy Zawodny, Arjen Lentz, and Derek Balling

Database tuning has always been a bit of voodoo to me, perhaps because most of my exposure to it has been ninjas like the DB architects at Amazon tuning Oracle to within an inch of its life. This book demystifies the space, and thank goodness, because you are going to need it to get the most out of your infrastructure. How can you go wrong with folks like Jeremy Zawodny? You can’t. Here’s his blog .

High Performance Web Sites by Steve Souders

You’ve mastered your architecture, instrumented your servers, and learned to tune the crap out of your databases. Now you can, and should, turn your attention to the performance experienced by your users. That was the whole point, right? Steve Souders created YSlow while Chief Performance Yahoo! at the purple giant, and is now doing similarly useful work at the GOOG. Follow him here .

The Art of Capacity Planning by John Allspaw

Let’s get this out of the way: I love this book! Allspaw knows capacity planning for online services because he lives and breathes it and his passion comes through clearly in his writing. Think “the cloud” world of dynamic, on-demand resources free you from having to do real capacity planning? Think again. Now you have to do it even faster and the flexibility of the new tools means you will discover and exploit all sorts of new capacity planning and management techniques. Get the latest from John here .

So, there you have it! Get to reading and then get to building.

Originally posted by Benjamin Black from Joyeur, on January 16, 2009 2:28 PM

A few weeks ago the 100,000th knol was published, and we figured now is an excellent time to reflect on the first five months of Knol's existence.

Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects. Since the start of the project, we've seen articles written on everything from sinus infections and Arctic exploration to long distance motorcycle riding and the Amphilinidea.

The Knol interface is now available in eight languages (Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish) and we are excited that our users are helping us translate it into many more languages using the Google in Your Language console. Encouraging people to contribute their knowledge online is particularly important for languages with limited web content, and we are glad to see that knols have been written in 59 different languages to date. It has been very exciting to have people all over the world come forward to help improve online content in their language.

We have worked quickly to incorporate the features most requested by our early authors, such as usage stats showing reader activity on knols and rich media embedding (videos, spreadsheets, forms, slideshows, etc.). All of these improvements are tracked in our Announcement and Release Notes.

We are happy to see that most authors choose to accept moderated edits from their audience and that the volume of suggested edits from readers is steadily growing. So if you find yourself reading a knol and want to suggest an improvement, go ahead and press that edit button! You will be able to make the desired changes directly in the knol, and the author(s) will be able to review and act upon your suggestions. We look forward to seeing this new mode of online collaboration used more widely.

People visit Knol from 197 countries and territories on an average day, from the Aland Islands and Antarctica to Zambia and Zimbabwe. We welcome you to share your knowledge with the world and write a knol.

Posted by Cedric Dupont, Product Manager, and Michael McNally, Software Engineer

Originally posted by A Googler from The Official Google Blog, on January 16, 2009 12:26 PM

Four years in the making, 60,000 Lego pieces. Outstanding. (Via Michele Seiler.)

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on January 16, 2009 12:21 PM

One of the reasons for the NYPL’s participation in the Flickr Commons is to facilitate creative uses of our photographic content by the public at large. In just over a month since launch, we’ve already seen lots of people posting “then and now” comparisons of our historical photos of New York City.

Paul Hagon of the National Library of Australia has taken this idea further than we could have hoped for with his wonderful Flickr Commons/Google Street View mashup. Click through to see our images located on a map and shown as they appear today in Street View’s zoomable panoramas.

It’s not the first mashup he’s done, either; be sure to check out his Powerhouse Museum series, which is every bit as cool. Well done, Mr. Hagon!

Originally posted by Michael Lascarides from NYPL Labs, on January 16, 2009 12:19 PM

Metrics dashboards are great but sometimes can be misleading if you’re not digging any deeper. As a great illustration of this, when recently checking Digital Gallery’s traffic I was surprised to see, before opening the full report, that in the overall NYPL dashboard (Google Analytics) our traffic was down 13% this month over last year. What were we doing wrong this year? I’d much rather see green in that column than red.

I apprehensively opened the report, and the next graph explained what I’d been reading. I’d forgotten that that whole site had recently been down for over a day. That’s definitely one way to lower traffic.

I’d even gotten the emails when this had happened on New Year’s day. But as someone in a position to know this information, I’d still been susceptible to that initial dashboard impression.

Originally posted by Joe Dalton from NYPL Labs, on January 16, 2009 11:19 AM

Assuming that it's true that there's never been a planned ditching of a commercial jetliner where all the passengers survived, I asked in my earlier post whether there's even been one that didn't have a catastrophic result. I've been reading over the pointers and impromptu research from readers on this question, and the answer seems to turn a series of qualifiers and definitions.

For instance, here is a list on Wikipedia of survival rates in cases where planes were intentionally ditched or landed in water. The examples run the gamut. But the gist is that while there are a couple cases of 100% survival, those were with planes that were much smaller and carried far fewer people. A Russian passenger plane was ditched in the Neva River in 1963. And everyone survived. But the plane had only a third the number of passengers as yesterday USAir flight had. A plane went down in the water in Java in 2002 after an engine flameout during a hail storm. In that case, one flight attendant died -- out of 66 people aboard the plane.

Most of the ditchings seem to end something like how this one did in 1970 in the caribbean -- with a substantial number of people surviving, but a lot of fatalities too.

Then there are cases of unintentional water landings. You'd think those would not go as well as the intentional ones. But there was a 1968 case in which a Japan Airlines plane miscalculated where the runway was and came down in the water about two and one-half miles short of the runway at San Franciso International. There were 96 passengers aboard. And all survived. You can actually see a picture of the crashed plane here (.pdf), which looks surprisingly similar to yesterday's incident. But again, this is seen as being in a different category since the plane was not in distress. The pilot just misjudged where the runway was.

I'll post with more examples if they come in.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 16, 2009 11:13 AM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on January 16, 2009 10:12 AM

O'Reilly haven't announced "Perl: The Good Parts", but it's a book that's crying out to be written....

Piers Cawley, Healthcheck: Perl

O'Reilly's not going to do that book, but Piers is right -- it's a book that needs writing. I've used Perl for over a decade. I've asked and answered questions on Perl Monks since its inception (as the second user to register for the site). I know a little bit about project management, a little bit about testing, and a little bit about working on projects in a team composed of developers with divergent skills and interests -- even some about mentoring.

I also know a little bit about writing, editing, and publishing books.

I'm looking for feedback on the idea now. Would you be interested in buying, reading, promoting, reviewing and offering feedback on, and/or handing out a book called "Maintainable Perl" which teaches the language and the principles behind the language so that you can take advantage of the good parts, ignore the bad parts, and ameliorate the awful parts? Would you read or comment on a similarly themed weblog in conjunction with the book?

Of course it will cover some of the best modern CPAN modules.

If you're interested, please feel free to reply here, to my email (chromatic at wgz dot org), or even @chromatic on identi.ca.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Planet Perl Six, on January 16, 2009 10:10 AM

Gizmodo editorial director Brian Lam:

Professionally, I think we did what we were supposed to do, and let me be clear, I am proud of the work I did with Jesús Diaz on this series.

But then:

THESE STORIES ARE NOT ABOUT TRAFFIC! WE DON’T EVEN GET TRAFFIC BONUSES ANYMORE! Sure this post is tacky, I don’t care. At this very moment, I am very self aware that I’m being a tacky, angry, crazy person. I just can’t listen to another person miss the point of why it’s shitty to cover Steve’s health like we, the press, have.

Writing about a man’s health, trying to figure out if he’s dying or not by talking to third-party expert doctors, checking statistics for Whipple procedure survival rates and timelines, checking in with sources who know people who know people who have heard that he’s dying—they’re all basically indecent things to do.

I want to apologize to everyone who knows Steve, everyone who’s known anyone who’s been sick that’s been covered in the press, and my parents, who are probably ashamed I’m tracking a man’s health so rabidly at work, and raised me to be better than some journalist/vulture dickhead.

Here’s a hint: When you’re actually proud of your work, rather than just telling yourself you’re proud of it, you sleep well at night.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on January 16, 2009 10:01 AM

Hong Kong architect Gary Chang has renovated his tiny apartment four times since he's owned it. The most recent renovation is called "The Domestic Transformer".

The wall units, which are suspended from steel tracks bolted into the ceiling, seem to float an inch above the reflective black granite floor. As they are shifted around, the apartment becomes all manner of spaces -- kitchen, library, laundry room, dressing room, a lounge with a hammock, an enclosed dining area and a wet bar.

Chang's Suitcase House uses many of the same principles as his apartment.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 16, 2009 9:52 AM

"If you ever wondered where the Galactic Empire gets all those stormtroopers, look no further than the Lego factory in Denmark: here's an exclusive video about how the iconic mini-figure gets its characteristic evil look after getting out of the mold machine."

Originally posted by Michal Migurski from tecznotes links, on January 16, 2009 9:34 AM

Is Obama's relationship with Google too close?

Will Google use its immense, and growing, power wisely?

This and more in our latest book club on New York Times columnist Randy Stross' Planet Google.

Originally posted by Lila Shapiro from Talking Points Memo, on January 16, 2009 9:05 AM

This past week I participated in the TPMCafe Book Club, discussing Randall Stross' new book, Planet Google. Also in the conversation were Nick Carr, David Vise, and James Grimmelman.

It's been great. Check it out.

Originally posted by Siva Vaidhyanathan from The Googlization of Everything, on January 16, 2009 8:50 AM

We believe great ideas can come from anywhere and everyone. And we aspire to be an organization that reflects global diversity, because we know that a world's worth of perspectives, ideas and cultures leads to the creation of better products and services. We have more than a dozen employee-driven resource groups, from Gayglers to GWE (Google Women Engineers), that actively participate around the world in building community and driving policy at Google. This is the next post in our Interface series, which takes a look at valuing people's similarities and differences in the workplace. For more information on how Google fosters an inclusive work environment, visit Life at Google on our Jobs site. – Ed.

As someone who has been building technology for more than 15 years, I know firsthand what a positive impact building hardware or software with a small team in an agile environment can have. I was only exposed to this type of work during grad school, and have since been actively involved in getting young people interested in science and technology. This year Google has enthusiastically supported my initiative to bring a local group of girls closer to technology through the FIRST Robotics Competition.

"People claim that only with the perspective of years can you know how much influence a particular event has had on you," Tal Tzangen says and proceeds to explain how she is convinced her participation in the FIRST Robotics Competition last year has significantly changed the course of her life. Tal, a 17 year old girl from a rural part of Israel, was taking technology courses at her school, not because she was particularly interested in technology but because the other options seemed even less appealing to her. Although Israel is also known as "Silicon Wadi," Tal thought technology was "just for geeks." Last year she agreed to be a member of a newly forming FIRST team, not knowing what she was letting herself in for.

The competition involves 1,686 teams from more than 42,000 high schools spanning the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Turkey, and the U.K. Each team has six weeks to build a robot from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST. Then, they compete with other robots in a new game devised each year.

Before Tal knew it, she was "bit by the bug." During the weeks of preparation, she spent days and nights at school learning about robotics and teamwork with her peers and mentors. Her team had won the regional competitions and were seeking funding for the finals in Atlanta when I met her.

Tal, center, and her team members work on their robot's transmission system.

This year Tal is the captain of the Google-sponsored Thunderbolts team, and one of her goals has been to get as many girls involved as possible. As she puts it, "I certainly don't mind the company of my male peers, but I know that girls also have a lot to contribute in this domain." The current team includes 24 students, eight of them girls (last year there were only two). Recruiting girls has been challenging since there are very few in the technical track in high school. She has enlisted some pre-high school girls with the hope of serving as a role model to them. Likewise, she has encouraged the forming of a FIRST LEGO team (9-14 year olds) to ensure the "next generation" for the Robotics Competition.

The Thunderbolt team.

The world kickoff for this year's competition took place on January 3rd, followed by the Israeli kickoff the following day. Regardless of how far they get in the competition this year, Israel is a country where high tech, engineering, science and entrepreneurship thrive, and Tal and her Thunderbolts are a growing part of this culture.

Posted by Natalia Marmasse, Software Engineer, Haifa office

Originally posted by A Googler from The Official Google Blog, on January 16, 2009 8:46 AM

Like many of you I'm sure, when I heard yesterday that a USAir jet had crashed into the Hudson River, I steeled myself for a horrible story. So when the first images came up on our bank of TV screens here at TPM, a quizzical look came over my face as I saw an apparently fully intact jet liner gently bobbing on the surface of the water. And with people more or less calmly emerging from the plane, apparently uninjured.

Now, as I've told you before, I'm a recovering aerophobe. And recovery is a very relative thing. So every time I've boarded a plane over the years and gotten that speech about how, after the plane goes down in the ocean, we'll grab our flotation seat cushions, walk down the aisle and hop into the inflatable boats, it's always been with a mix of terror and gallows incredulity that I've thought to myself: "Right."

So when I saw this amazing turn of events, I started thinking: Has anyone ever pulled something like this off before?

Last night on the local news, a reporter said this was the first time in the history of American aviation that a pilot (presumably of a large commercial craft) has ditched a plane in the water and escaped any fatalities. And this article in today's Journal similarly suggests this is an extremely rare feat.

Writes J. Lynn Lunsford ...

Although commercial jetliners are equipped with life vests and inflatable slides, there have been few successful attempts at water landings during the jet age. Indeed, even though pilots go through the motions of learning to ditch a plane in water, the generally held belief is that such landings would almost certainly result in fatalities.

But I'm curious. Set aside no fatalities. Has a commercial jet ever been ditched in the water and not been a mass fatality event? Not a rhetorical question. Does anyone know the history on this?

As a separate matter. You may have heard that in addition to being a demonstrably impressive pilot, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, the man piloting the plane yesterday, has a resume that makes him a legitimate air safety expert. (Talk about good luck matching the bad luck of a double bird strike!) He even played some part in developing the Crew Resource Management training for his airline that most experts say has played a real part in the improvement in commercial air safety over the last decade and one half. And he's worked a number of NTSB crash investigations. (CRM, in very broad terms, is a leadership and collaboration training program that helps pilots and co-pilots make the right decisions in the seconds or minutes that make the difference between close calls and catastrophes.)

And one other little detail that adds to the drama, at least for me. The jet's engines didn't go out over the water. They went out over the Bronx. And there's not a lot of open land around here. There was some brief discussion with the air traffic controller of trying to land at Teterboro Airport across the river in New Jersey. But Sullenberger apparently made the snap decision that that was not a viable option. And after managing to get over the skyscrapers in Manhattan and only a few hundred feet above the George Washington Bridge, he maneuvered the plane over the Hudson and down onto the water, having decided that that was the best option, from the very short list of choices that remained.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 16, 2009 8:44 AM

My thanks to Hoefler & Frere-Jones, typographers extraordinaire, for sponsoring this week’s DF RSS feed. H&FJ are the makers of some of the world’s best and most popular typefaces, including an enormous number of my own personal favorites. Gotham, Archer, Mercury, Verlag, Knockout — man, I don’t even know where to start. And consider the craftsmanship put into Chronicle Text, which is supplied in four different “grades” for different combinations of ink and paper.

(If you’re using a Mac, you almost certainly already have some of H&FJ’s work on your system. Hoefler Text, an excellent serif text face, has been included with the Mac OS since System 7.5, and Didot has been included at least since Mac OS X 10.0.)

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on January 16, 2009 7:47 AM

Things Our Friends Have Written On The Internet 2008 is a newspaper compiled and printed by a pair of fellows from the UK that is just that...a bunch of stuff that they liked reading on the web last year. I *love* this. And hate it (a little bit).

The hate part first. TOFHWOTI is almost precisely the thing I've been wanting to do for years now...take the very best of the best links of the year and bundle them up into a printed artifact of some sort. So seeing it done first and so expertly was a bit of a punch in the nose. Of course, ideas are so cheap and plentiful these days that "I thought of it first" has no value without follow through, something that my schedule for the past few years hasn't allowed for. This year, *for sure*, dammit! (I'm also pissed that I didn't get around to ordering a copy for myself until this morning and found that they're all sold out! Gah! Like I said, no time.)

But damn, is that thing beautiful or what? You don't even need the physical artifact to see that much. The simple but playful design is just right. Getting it printed super-cheap on newsprint fits nicely with the concept and content. All the little details are accounted for; I wouldn't change a thing. More like this, please.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 16, 2009 7:39 AM

1.Adidas has gone stripe crazy! Check out their new Stan Smith and Superstar models here. 2. Van Morrison is performing his acclaimed Astral Weeks album live at The Theater in Madison Square Garden on February 27 & 28. Tickets on sale to Amex card holders on Sunday, January 18, at 10 a.m. 3. Watch Iggy Pop give a tour of Miami here. 4. Boy George was sentenced to 15 months in jail for "falsely imprisoning" a Norwegian male escort. 5. NoPoPo liquid powered batteries. 6. Go here to see a visualization of all the nouns in the English language arranged by semantic meaning.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from PAPERMAG: WORD UP!, on January 16, 2009 7:27 AM

Please avoid discussing ... politics ... using ... sports ... cliches.

Love, Elana

Originally posted by Elana Schor from TPM Election Central, on January 16, 2009 7:04 AM

Now available for sale on CafePress in men's and women's sizes:

The mayor gave Sully the key to the city for landing the airplane safely into the Hudson River but surely he deserves more...like a job in the Obama administration as the Secretary of Transportation (no offense to Mr. LaHood).

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 16, 2009 6:55 AM

…this hurts, but it is what it is…

The Flushing Fotografer, a reader of MetsBlog.com, sent in the following images of Shea Stadium, taken last week:

…man, that is just painful… absolutely painful…

For these and other photos, click here.

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on January 16, 2009 5:25 AM

Below are pages from a vintage 1969 Peanuts Date Book I won on Ebay. It is filled with scenes from Peanuts including Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and Lucy. Colorful & classic. *[Pick-up a 1964 version OR a 1966 one online.]

Originally posted by Abby from HI + LOW, on January 16, 2009 5:07 AM

Hudson River Crash (scale model)
Originally uploaded by mapgoblin.

Originally posted by joshua mack from Joshua Mack's DefinitiveInk, on January 16, 2009 4:54 AM

A comment via email from my dad, himself a pilot, about yesterday's Hudson River plane crash:

This pilot ran out of altitude and airspeed but not ideas. He did a great job of flying, and as a CAPTAIN, he has shown why he wears the four bars!!!

This is an example of quiet professionalism, training, skill, and bravery. Our craft usually goes unnoticed many times a day, but today, we saw our best work!!!

I remember once going to collect my dad after he'd landed his plane in a farmer's field in an emergency. Of course, it was a much smaller plane -- they're a lot easier to land without engines and glide well. That and he was used to landing amongst the corn and hay...we had a grass strip cut out of the field behind our house that he used all the time.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 16, 2009 4:32 AM

Four hundred total bases in a season is one of the truly magical numbers. It’s far rarer than hitting .300 or driving in 100 runs in a season. In fact, in baseball history, it’s been done just 29 times:

  Cnt Player            Year  TB Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Sammy Sosa        2001 425  32 CHC NL 160 711 577 146 189 34  5 64 160 116  37 153   6   0  12   6   0  2  .328  .437  .737 1.174 *9
    2 Todd Helton       2001 402  27 COL NL 159 696 587 132 197 54  2 49 146  98  15 104   5   1   5  14   7  5  .336  .432  .685 1.117 *3
    3 Luis Gonzalez     2001 419  33 ARI NL 162 728 609 128 198 36  7 57 142 100  24  83  14   0   5  14   1  1  .325  .429  .688 1.117 *7
    4 Barry Bonds       2001 411  36 SFG NL 153 664 476 129 156 32  2 73 137 177  35  93   9   0   2   5  13  3  .328  .515  .863 1.378 *7/D
    5 Todd Helton       2000 405  26 COL NL 160 697 580 138 216 59  2 42 147 103  22  61   4   0  10  12   5  3  .372  .463  .698 1.161 *3
    6 Sammy Sosa        1998 416  29 CHC NL 159 722 643 134 198 20  0 66 158  73  14 171   1   0   5  20  18  9  .308  .377  .647 1.024 *9/8
    7 Larry Walker      1997 409  30 COL NL 153 664 568 143 208 46  4 49 130  78  14  90  14   0   4  15  33  8  .366  .452  .720 1.172 *9/38D
    8 Jim Rice          1978 406  25 BOS AL 163 746 677 121 213 25 15 46 139  58   7 126   5   1   5  15   7  5  .315  .370  .600  .970 *7D9/8
    9 Hank Aaron        1959 400  25 MLN NL 154 693 629 116 223 46  7 39 123  51  17  54   4   0   9  19   8  0  .355  .401  .636 1.037 *98/5
   10 Stan Musial       1948 429  27 STL NL 155 694 611 135 230 46 18 39 131  79   0  34   3   1   0  18   7  0  .376  .450  .702 1.152 987/3
   11 Joe Medwick       1937 406  25 STL NL 156 677 633 111 237 56 10 31 154  41   0  50   2   1   0  11   4  0  .374  .414  .641 1.055 *7
   12 Joe DiMaggio      1937 418  22 NYY AL 151 692 621 151 215 35 15 46 167  64   0  37   5   2   0   0   3  0  .346  .412  .673 1.085 *8
   13 Hal Trosky        1936 405  23 CLE AL 151 671 629 124 216 45  9 42 162  36   0  58   3   3   0   0   6  5  .343  .382  .644 1.026 *3/4
   14 Lou Gehrig        1936 403  33 NYY AL 155 719 579 167 205 37  7 49 152 130   0  46   7   3   0   0   3  4  .354  .478  .696 1.174 *3
   15 Lou Gehrig        1934 409  31 NYY AL 154 690 579 128 210 40  6 49 165 109   0  31   2   0   0   0   9  5  .363  .465  .706 1.171 *3/6
   16 Jimmie Foxx       1933 403  25 PHA AL 149 670 573 125 204 37  9 48 163  96   0  93   1   0   0   0   2  2  .356  .449  .703 1.152 *3/6
   17 Chuck Klein       1932 420  27 PHI NL 154 711 650 152 226 50 15 38 137  60   0  49   1   0   0   0  20  0  .348  .404  .646 1.050 *9
   18 Jimmie Foxx       1932 438  24 PHA AL 154 701 585 151 213 33  9 58 169 116   0  96   0   0   0   0   3  7  .364  .469  .749 1.218 *35
   19 Lou Gehrig        1931 410  28 NYY AL 155 738 619 163 211 31 15 46 184 117   0  56   0   2   0   0  17 12  .341  .446  .662 1.108 *3/9
   20 Lou Gehrig        1930 419  27 NYY AL 154 703 581 143 220 42 17 41 174 101   0  63   3  18   0   0  12 14  .379  .473  .721 1.194 *3/7
   21 Babe Herman       1930 416  27 BRO NL 153 699 614 143 241 48 11 35 130  66   0  56   4  15   0   0  18  0  .393  .455  .678 1.133 *9
   22 Chuck Klein       1930 445  25 PHI NL 156 719 648 158 250 59  8 40 170  54   0  50   4  13   0   0   4  0  .386  .436  .687 1.123 *9
   23 Hack Wilson       1930 423  30 CHC NL 155 709 585 146 208 35  6 56 191 105   0  84   1  18   0   0   3  0  .356  .454  .723 1.177 *8
   24 Chuck Klein       1929 405  24 PHI NL 149 679 616 126 219 45  6 43 145  54   0  61   0   9   0   0   5  0  .356  .407  .657 1.064 *98
   25 Rogers Hornsby    1929 409  33 CHC NL 156 712 602 156 229 47  8 39 149  87   0  65   1  22   0   0   2  0  .380  .459  .679 1.138 *4
+----+-----------------+----+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
  Cnt Player            Year  TB Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
   26 Babe Ruth         1927 417  32 NYY AL 151 691 540 158 192 29  8 60 164 137   0  89   0  14   0   0   7  6  .356  .486  .772 1.258 *97
   27 Lou Gehrig        1927 447  24 NYY AL 155 717 584 149 218 52 18 47 175 109   0  84   3  21   0   0  10  8  .373  .474  .765 1.239 *3
   28 Rogers Hornsby    1922 450  26 STL NL 154 704 623 141 250 46 14 42 152  65   0  50   1  15   0   0  17 12  .401  .459  .722 1.181 *4
   29 Babe Ruth         1921 457  26 NYY AL 152 693 540 177 204 44 16 59 171 145   0  81   4   4   0   0  17 13  .378  .512  .846 1.358 *78/13

A few things to notice about this list:

• So much for the claim that the current is era is the greatest offensive era in history. 19 of the 29 seasons came before 1940. Keep in mind that there were fewer games in a season back then, too, making it so much more difficult.
• 2001 was a flukey year, with 4 different guys doing it. But it’s not so flukey, with 6 other years with multiple guys doing it, including another quartet in 1930.
• Most of these seasons are also among the highest single-season RBI totals.

There have been some near misses recently, although it’s surprising that this list is actually shorter than the guys to break 400.

  Cnt Player            Year  TB Age Tm  Lg  G   PA  AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB  SO HBP  SH  SF GDP  SB CS   BA   OBP   SLG   OPS  Positions
+----+-----------------+----+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+-----+-----+-----+-----+---------+
    1 Derrek Lee        2005 393  29 CHC NL 158 691 594 120 199 50  3 46 107  85  23 109   5   0   7  12  15  3  .335  .418  .662 1.080 *3
    2 Albert Pujols     2003 394  23 STL NL 157 685 591 137 212 51  1 43 124  79  12  65  10   0   5  13   5  1  .359  .439  .667 1.106 *73/D
    3 Alex Rodriguez    2001 393  25 TEX AL 162 732 632 133 201 34  1 52 135  75   6 131  16   0   9  17  18  3  .318  .399  .622 1.021 *6/D
    4 Sammy Sosa        1999 397  30 CHC NL 162 712 625 114 180 24  2 63 141  78   8 171   3   0   6  17   7  8  .288  .367  .635 1.002 *98
    5 Albert Belle      1998 399  31 CHW AL 163 706 609 113 200 48  2 49 152  81  10  84   1   0  15  17   6  4  .328  .399  .655 1.054 *7/D
    6 Ken Griffey       1997 393  27 SEA AL 157 704 608 125 185 34  3 56 147  76  23 121   8   0  12  12  15  4  .304  .382  .646 1.028 *8/D7
    7 Ellis Burks       1996 392  31 COL NL 156 685 613 142 211 45  8 40 128  61   2 114   6   3   2  19  32  6  .344  .408  .639 1.047 *78
    8 Jimmie Foxx       1938 398  30 BOS AL 149 685 565 139 197 33  9 50 175 119   0  76   0   1   0   0   5  4  .349  .462  .704 1.166 *3
    9 Hank Greenberg    1937 397  26 DET AL 154 701 594 137 200 49 14 40 183 102   0 101   3   2   0   0   8  3  .337  .436  .668 1.104 *3
   10 Bill Terry        1930 392  31 NYG NL 154 710 633 139 254 39 15 23 129  57   0  33   1  19   0   0   8  0  .401  .452  .619 1.071 *3
   11 Al Simmons        1930 392  28 PHA AL 138 611 554 152 211 41 16 36 165  39   0  34   1  17   0   0   9  2  .381  .423  .708 1.131 *7/8
   12 Lefty O'Doul      1929 397  32 PHI NL 154 731 638 152 254 35  6 32 122  76   0  19   4  13   0   0   2  0  .398  .465  .622 1.087 *79
   13 Al Simmons        1925 392  23 PHA AL 153 696 654 122 253 43 12 24 129  35   0  41   1   6   0   0   7 14  .387  .419  .599 1.018 *8
   14 Babe Ruth         1924 391  29 NYY AL 153 681 529 143 200 39  7 46 121 142   0  81   4   6   0   0   9 13  .378  .513  .739 1.252 *97/8
   15 Babe Ruth         1923 399  28 NYY AL 152 699 522 151 205 45 13 41 131 170   0  93   4   3   0   0  17 21  .393  .545  .764 1.309 97/83
   16 George Sisler     1920 399  27 SLB AL 154 692 631 137 257 49 18 19 122  46   0  19   2  13   0   0  42 17  .407  .449  .632 1.081 *3/1

Originally posted by Andy from Stat of the Day, on January 16, 2009 3:45 AM

More on US Airways 1549, the plane that water-landed in the Hudson river in New York -- the first photo from the scene was this stunning image from Janis Krums from Sarasota, Florida, who put the photo in his Twitter feed as his ferry steamed toward the rafts to pick up the passengers. What a fantastic, iconic shot.

And Kottke has a fantastic roundup of amateur reporter coverage of the crash, everything from nautical charts and flight-path mashups to learned discussions of the effect of birds on plane-engines.

There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy. (via Consumerist)

Originally posted by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing, ReBlogged by andreapolli on Jan 16, 2009 at 07:56 AM

Originally posted by Cory Doctorow from Eyebeam reBlog, on January 16, 2009 2:56 AM

Love your cuddly pet so much that you want him around your body 24-7? If you’re a pet owner who loves to dress your dogs and cats up in adorable little outfits, prepare for role reversal, and allow your pet to dress you. Here’s an uber-economical (if not slightly weird) use for all that fur your dog or cat sheds: turn it into a sweater! Think about it - your fluffy friend is a renewable source of fibers, and what better way to say “I love my pet” than by swaddling yourself in a sweater knit from their fur. It’s like giving your cat a hug all day long, but with less claw marks.

READ MORE AT INHABITOTS >

Originally posted by Mike Chino from INHABITAT, ReBlogged by andreapolli on Jan 16, 2009 at 07:54 AM

Originally posted by Mike Chino from Eyebeam reBlog, on January 16, 2009 2:54 AM

• Movable Type Design Assistant
  a way to flesh out the css for customizing mt4
  (tags: movabletype)
• 21 Cool iPhone Apps - Stanza (for iPhone) - Full Review - Reviews by PC Magazine
  (tags: iphone)
• Smashwords and Lexcycle Expand Readership Opportunities for Independent Authors to the iPhone and iPod Touch Via the Stanza eBook Reader | Lexcycle
  (tags: e-books)
• A Directory of Book Trade People on Twitter
  useful list
  (tags: publishing twitter)

Originally posted by joshua mack from Joshua Mack's DefinitiveInk, on January 15, 2009 5:25 PM

Coals from the stove. To spark a little campfire.

View the full gallery

Originally posted by Jeff Katris from Gimme! Coffee News, on January 15, 2009 5:18 PM

Minneapolis Star Tribune, (aka the Strib) the paper that's been doing such amazing work on the Minnesota senate recount, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 15, 2009 5:01 PM

From Slice

I know you're probably getting sick of me posting about Twitter the last couple of days, but bear with me. This one is warranted. —The Mgmt.

Since I've been twittering as @slice, followers have seen the account go through a couple different phases.

Phase One began as my own personal account, which made sense to me at the time—after all, there was little separation between the personal and the pizza in my world. For many of my friends, longtime readers, and Twitter followers, Slice and "Adam Kuban" were pretty much synonymous.

But a few months ago, I realized that the personal stuff I was tweeting could be misconstrued as the viewpoints of Slice the Blog—and, more worrisome, of Slice's parent site, Serious Eats.

So I broke up with my @slice account and got my own. Thus began Phase Two: Strictly pizza and Slice news.

Today I'm proposing Phase Three, which I'll explain after the jump.

If you're a follower of @slice, how would you feel about me turning it into a sort of crowd-sourced pizza intel log?

How It Would Work

Eater already does something like this. So does shakeshack. I can set up a bot that basically retweets anything from anyone who includes "@slice" in their message.

So, say, if you wanted to report on the line at Co. and get the message out to other Slice followers, you'd do something like this:

"@slice There's no line at Co. right now! Got right in."

That message would then be retweeted by the Slice twitter account, giving subscribing slicehounds on-the-go intel.

Pros and Cons

The pro would be, obviously, on-the-fly information.

The con would be that, depending on number and quality of reports, you might just end up with a weird stream of stupid pizza-related updates.

I'm not going to put this into effect until I get some feedback from @slice followers. So let me know here in the comments, by @reply or dm on Twitter, or, if you're a dinosaur, by email (adam@sliceny.com).

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats, on January 15, 2009 4:15 PM

The story of a fantastic meal eaten in Venice.

The owner came out; he was a short but large man, balding, and he wore a rather soiled white apron. Teel asked him if he made a fish soup. The man paused, and then asked how long they could wait for it. Rick and Teel told him -- as long as it took, they were in no hurry. [...] The owner returned in about half an hour with a huge fish overlapping both sides of the basket, which also contained a mass of greens and several bags of clams and shrimp and other things.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 15, 2009 3:09 PM

Filed under: Books, Developer, iPhone

I recently decided to embark on a personal challenge to learn Objective-C (the programming language behind Mac and iPhone applications) so that I could one day get applications into the App Store. I'm not looking to make millions with a fart machine app, but I do want to see some of my ideas come to fruition and end up on some iPhones. While we've previously mentioned how to delve into programming in Objective-C, there have been some recent releases of educational materials that can help those who want to learn the language:

Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (book, $44.99)

This is the latest release of Stephen Kochan's series which some consider to be the Objective-C bible. It has a wealth of information jammed into almost 600 pages, and it will take you from simple variable assignments to advanced class implementation. I'm over halfway through this book, and the text is easy to read (not too high level), and is broken up in a visually appealing style with sufficient whitespace to be gentle on your eyes. If you're only interested in programming for the iPhone, you may only want to rely on this book for its wealth of foundational Objective-C material as it only has one chapter devoted to the iPhone.

Continue reading Starting out with Objective-C

TUAWStarting out with Objective-C originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Originally posted by Todd Ritter from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), on January 15, 2009 2:30 PM

    

Join our group!

We’ve just launched Inauguration 2009, for people to share their photos (and video) taken of this memorable event!

Whether you’ve got a magic ticket to the Inauguration or are just planning to tune in for next Tuesday’s swearing in ceremony, we hope to build a public repository of photos for the world to see and share.

Going to DC for the Inauguration?

Please stop by our Flickr meetup on Tuesday next week to recharge, meet other Flickr folks, and upload your photos.

Photos by ekai and tony.eckersley

      

Originally posted by Tara Kirchner from Flickr Blog, on January 15, 2009 1:49 PM

Daisy Barringer laments celebrates the demise of Dodgeball.

I do have one amazing story that would never have happened if not for Dodgeball. I was on a date with The Boy I'm Not Dating many months ago, and he Dodgeballed our location. Minutes later, who showed up? His stalker ex-girlfriend. Fucking brilliant.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.typepad.com, on January 15, 2009 12:21 PM

One of the few disagreeable aspects of the Obama campaign and victory for us was that the campaign snatched away the guy who used to do small graphic design projects for us. And now I hear they have the temerity to keep him for the White House. Maybe we need a graphic design bailout now? Anyway, assuming that doesn't happen, we need a graphic designer for a small but fast turnaround project. We'd much prefer the person to be in NYC, but I guess -- the internet being what it is -- we could work with someone remotely. If you're interested, shoot us an email. Again, very small project. But we need a quick turnaround on it. So if you're the one for the job, shoot us an email.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 15, 2009 12:20 PM

A US Airways plane bound for Charlotte just crashed into the Hudson River after aborting its takeoff from LaGuardia Airport. It's still sitting in the river, slowly sinking with people standing on the wings being rescued by ferries. Photos on Flickr.

Update: Ferry rescue swarm. Very close-up photo of people standing on the wings waiting for rescue by Janis Krums.

Update: Here's a screenshot from a flight tracker showing the altitude of the flight....1800, 2800, 3200, 2000, 1600, 1200, 1300, 400, 300... The flight tracker has since taken the data offline.

Update: Reports are that everyone is OK. !!! Here's a nautical chart of the area in question showing the dept to be around 50 feet.

Update: Some media coverage at NY Times, CNN, and Gothamist. From the CNN article:

The plane approached the water at a gradual angle and made a big splash, according to a witness watching from an office building. "It wasn't going particularly fast. It was a slow contact with the water that it made," said the witness, Ben Vonklemperer. "It appeared not to have landing gear engaged. This was bigger than a puddle-jumper or sea plane. It was a silver aircraft and it basically just hit the water," Vonklemperer added.

Update: They're saying it's a bird strike...sounds like a bird got sucked into an engine? Here's another photo of people standing on the wings, waiting for rescue.

Update: Looks like they got everyone off and that the plane is sitting quite a bit lower in the water.

Gothamist reports that the plane is being towed to Chelsea Piers.

Update: The NY Times has this helpful map:

Also, an office mate (from Buzzfeed) just got back from checking out the plane and he said by the time he got to the river, the plane had past Christopher St. and when he left, it was pretty close to Canal St. and "moving amazingly fast". (thx, scott)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 15, 2009 11:25 AM

Had my Macbook go poof on me this morning, and since there was a spare in the office, I was up and running again before lunch.  Mail via IMAP, address book and calendar sync'd from MobileMe, etc.  The only thing that's taking real time is moving photos and music from one machine to the other; I'm not quite ready to give up on local storage for those.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from this is sippey.typepad.com, on January 15, 2009 11:15 AM

Nylon Holding Inc (the publishing company of, yup you guessed it, NYLON) just bought Tokion magazine.

They've even started a new company, Fotomedia, which will "operate" the 13-year old publication.

There won't be any staff or location changes made to the magazine that's featured Cassette Playa, Sophia Kokosalaki and Ohne Titel, but Tokion's site will get a redesign and relaunch this March.

And, we're hoping, a bit of helpful NYLON cross promotion.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Fashionista, on January 15, 2009 10:46 AM

Only a mile or so west of TPM HQ a US Air jet has crashed into the Hudson River. We're watching video of the plane. And -- thankfully -- it looks more like a crash landing than a crash, because the plane appears to be fully or nearly intact floating on the water. Passengers are being taken off the plane by boats.

We'll bring you more shortly.

...

The plane took off at 3:26 PM from LaGuardia. So even now as I write only 22 minutes ago.

4:16 PM ... Fox is reporting that NYC police now say that all passengers have been successfully evacuated from the plane.

4:34 PM ... The FAA is now issuing a preliminary report that the agency believes all passengers and crew were able to safely evacuate the plane.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 15, 2009 10:45 AM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on January 15, 2009 10:44 AM

Turns out BofA needs a lot of help to swallow Merrill Lynch. The Treasury is set to guarantee between $100 to $200 billion.

Guess we need another TARP.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 15, 2009 10:24 AM

LittleSis (clever name!) bills itself as an "involuntary facebook of powerful Americans, collaboratively edited by people like you". It's intended to be a resource for anyone who wants to know more about politicians, CEOs, etc., especially:

...investigative journalists, social scientists, political opposition researchers, social justice activists, public interest attorneys, business intelligence types, [and] amateur dirt diggers at the fringes, posting their findings to blogs, message boards, email lists, zines, and elsewhere.

Like Facebook, the site has a particular emphasis on how all these people are connected: politically, financially, socially. The best way to see what it's all about is to check out some profiles: Barack Obama, Michael Bloomberg, and the list of the 400 richest Americans.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 15, 2009 9:39 AM

U.S. Senator Roland Burris (D-IL) has now been sworn into office.

Burris went to the well of the Senate accompanied by his co-Senator Dick Durbin, and was sworn in by Vice President Cheney, as onlookers applauded.

Congratulations, Senator Burris.

Originally posted by Eric Kleefeld from TPM Election Central, on January 15, 2009 9:04 AM

A Reader writes in ...

From the WashPost homepage comes a vivid illustration of the opportunities and challenges facing the new administration:

"Adviser's Plan Would Alter Financial System: A top Obama adviser proposes measures that would dramatically expand government control over the free market in the United States."

The article itself details a report from a Group of 30 panel chaired by Paul Volcker, not from the Transition. It does, indeed, call for a thorough regulatory overhaul, including limiting the size of banks so they won't be too big to fail. But the entire point of the report is that we presently do not have a functioning free market. Insisting upon transparency, accountability, and oversight is the necessary precondition for restoring the health of the free market.

I expect this kind of distortion from AEI and Cato. But the panicked press reaction to this proposal helps explain why Obama seems so intent on retaining the capacity to communicate directly with the public. Even with the financial world teetering on the brink, the prospect of Change is deeply frightening to its denizens. This is going to get interesting.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 15, 2009 8:54 AM

PHP's application deployment model is difficult to beat. Perl has lacked something similar for years -- until now. Byrne Reese and Aaron Stone address the gap between CGI and mod_perl with mod_perlite, one of the features Perl 5 needs most.

Originally posted by chromatic from O'Reilly News: Perl, on January 15, 2009 8:37 AM

Bank of America has been the go-to institution to mop up the carnage from a lot of the rest of the banking center. Remember, they 'bought' Merrill Lynch, with a lot of government help, rather than letting in swirl down the drain like Lehman Brothers. Today its stock has dropped 25% because BofA has now discovered that losses at Merrill (which it only finally bought on January 1st) were much worse than they'd realized. And they need to go back to the Treasury for a big new infusion of money.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 15, 2009 6:47 AM

You've probably seen Microsoft's Songsmith by now. It's a program that makes backing music like a Casio keyboard I had as a kid. You pick a style of music such as rock, jazz, or (my old favorite) bossa nova and you get chords and rhythm that changes keys as you press different notes on the keyboard. The innovation with Songsmith is that the software automatically detects your pitch as you sing into the computer. So instead of pressing keys to make the background music change pitch, Songsmith detects the pitch changes in your voice and tries to make the generated music fit. You can see how this could get hilarious quickly. And it did on MetaFilter: Microsoft Songsmith, and then even more hilarious when someone piped David Lee Roth sans Halen into SongSmith with spectacular results: Runnin' With The Songsmith. And don't miss the stupendous Microsoft Songsmith Commercial.

This morning I was thinking about Songsmith, computer automation, and Mechanical Turk. I've thought Mechanical Turk is a terrible idea since I first heard about it in 2006: Mechanical Turk, so I don't want to encourage more experiments with it. But after Andy revealed The Faces of Mechanical Turk, I can't help but wonder if someone could reveal the voices of Mechanical Turk. I wonder if you could break up a song into pieces like Francois Macre's A capella Thriller and farm it out to Turkers. (Not that anyone should do that.) But even that is a copy of something that already existed. Maybe having Turkers write a small piece of music that could be assembled into a whole piece would be a better experiment. Finding a way to have actual humans mass-compose music seems like it would be more interesting than teaching computers to write better music. Tagged: half-baked.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from onfocus.com, on January 15, 2009 6:40 AM

My Friends:

(via mule)

drunks, nerds, and drunken nerds.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on January 15, 2009 5:43 AM

What every GOOP reader has been waiting for: Gwyneth's favorite places to eat in New York. The notorious macrobiotic eater turned pescatarian and unlikely Mario Batali food show companion has finally revealed her secrets to the world, and...it's an unsurprising list of New York standbys: Gramercy, Babbo, Balthazar, Sushi Yasuda, Milos, and on and on. That said, there are a couple of highlights. One, her description of the Soho of her youth "when SoHo streets were quiet and cobblestoned." And of course, her recommendations of Momofuku Noodle Bar and Momofuku Ssam Bar:

"These places became two of NYC's hottest spots in a very short time. The reservation policy is a bit tough (email at 10am EXACTLY for the same night, tables are gone by 10:03) but worth a shot."

· GOOP [Official Site]
· Gwyneth Paltrow Begins to Produce GOOP [Racked]

Originally posted by Amanda from Eater, on January 15, 2009 4:14 AM

The Illicit Exhibitions blog has just posted an interview with our very own Chris Stain. You can check it out here.

Originally posted by Josh M. from Just Seeds: Blog, on January 15, 2009 3:29 AM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on January 14, 2009 7:11 PM

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on January 14, 2009 7:11 PM

Shared by eve.batey
I have enough bags. I have enough bags. I have enough bags. I have enough bags.

I discovered Freitag's bags in a local San Francisco travel store; they're made by bicycle geeks for bicycle geeks, but not being a bike geek doesn't make me love or want their bags any less. The company started in 1993 when Zurich locals Markus and Daniel Freitag were living by a highway and wanted waterproof, durable bags from recycled materials -- so I think they helped themselves to a little roadside construction tarping and edged their creating with a bit of bicycle inner tube. All of their products are made from original recycled materials: used truck tarps, used car seat belts, used air bags and again, more used bicycle inner tubes. They have a huge warehouse and spend time tracking down trucking companies that are getting rid of their old truck tarps. Then they cut them down to size, wash them and sew them into bags -- each bag is different, no two alike. In fact, they want your old truck tarps, and are willing to pay for them (including shipping). They also make iPhone and Mac laptop sleeves (even for the Air), you can even design your own bag, and it looks like they really know how to throw a party. Here's their shop (freitag.ch), where I seem to be spending too much time...

Originally posted by (author unknown) from techyum ::, on January 14, 2009 3:34 PM

I noticed that today's Gallup numbers had President Bush inching a speck up to a 34% approval, the highest he's had in about a year. But what really strikes me is the internals. Democrats and Independents still live in one country while Republicans live in another one entirely. Approval among Dems is at 6%; among Independents 28%; among Republicans, 75%.

Different worlds. And even without Bush it's where the country is, what Obama faces.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 14, 2009 3:31 PM

My #1 recommendation on desktop twitter clients is.....NONE.

Seriously, don't use one, ever.

It's the most insanely massive pointless timesuck in the history of procrastination and timewasters. Imagine if you had a permanent desktop application that featured Google Reader scrolling up every new post on every blog you follow combined with every new link on delicious from people you trust and every photo added to flickr by your friends plus tons of instant messages sent to all, constantly streaming with no end in sight.

IT'S A TIMEWASTING FIRE HOSE OF INFORMATION.

Do what I do, which is every few hours if you're at a stopping point or bored or whatever, go to twitter.com in a browser. Scan through the missives from your friends, maybe page back a couple pages to catch up to the last time you checked. If you think of something you need to say, toss it up as a new message.

THEN CLOSE THE BROWSER TAB AND GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE AND WORK.

I speak from experience. I've tried half a dozen twitter clients but if you make a habit of coding, photoshoping, and/or/especially writing for a living it gets in the way much more than it serves as a creative reading or writing outlet.

It's like leaving a TV on in the same room while trying to write a novel. Just don't do it.

Originally posted by Matt Haughey from A Whole Lotta Nothing, on January 14, 2009 3:31 PM

Bob Knight used to say that his players at Indiana didn’t have their names on the back of their jerseys because they were playing for the name on the front. He was — is — old school, but there’s something else Coach did that’s relevant here.

Rob Neyer wrote about accelerating the pace of giving the Hall of Fame vote to writers, as well as adding more of us web types into membership. While I agree in the abstract on both counts and think Rob’s compromise position is pretty good, I think we’re also missing out on the larger point.

When CK and I were nominated, it wasn’t really either of us that was the issue. It was Baseball Prospectus that was vetted. Meetings were had by members of BP’s executive team and from the BBWAA’s leadership, leading up to the vote. Just as ESPN did when it was allowed in, BP will be able to nominate others in future years who will automatically come up for vote. I’m sure other organizations without presses and ink will look to go through the same process as well.

Still, the idea that newspapers aren’t important because their industry is dying is looking at only part of the issue. I love reading Paul Sullivan, love to hate reading T.J. Simers, and never miss Tracy Ringolsby’s column. Of course, I read them on the web, but the idea that each of their papers - the Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and Rocky Mountain News - could vanish likely doesn’t mean that they will, but that second name, the one that would gain them automatic access, would. Sure, we’ll get the occasional place like Yahoo picking up some great writers like Tim Brown, Gordon Edes, and Jeff Passan, while other places pick up … other writers.

Here on the net, we’re at risk of losing a lot of great writers and great information. Free is no longer a business plan, something Gary Huckaby noted years ago. If we have a major culling, as most project, the problem is not that the BBWAA would be less relevant, it’s that the road we’re only ultimately leads to just this.

Originally posted by Will Carroll from Baseball Prospectus: Unfiltered, on January 14, 2009 3:08 PM

Every few weeks, I visit The Selby, an online collection of "photographs, paintings and videos by Todd Selby of interesting people in creative spaces", and spend way too much time clicking around, even on stuff that I've already seen. There are many magazines and sites -- Dwell, Domino, Apartment Therapy, etc. -- that run photographs of people and the spaces they live in, but those on The Selby feel more intimate and true to life; you get the feeling that Selby knows most of the people he features. Two of my favorite photos are Dustin Yellin and his huge printing machine:

and this lovely photo of Celestine Cooney and Harry Malt.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 14, 2009 2:44 PM

Click to see it animated!

Originally posted by Andrea from Andrea Harner, on January 14, 2009 2:03 PM

Dick Cheney just conducted a farewell interview with Jim Lehrer, and it was a doozy.

For one thing, Cheney brushed off today's report in the Washington Post about Pentagon official Susan Crawford, who said that a 9/11 suspect was tortured, and dismissed the idea that there was a coordinated policy of torture:

As we dig in and look at hundreds of cases, we may well find a few people who were not properly treated. You know, I ran the Pentagon. I know that you can't absolutely guarantee, at all times, that everybody's doing it the way they're supposed to be doing it.

I can tell you what the policy was; I can tell you that we had all the legal authorization to do it, including the sign-off of the Justice Department. I can tell you it produced phenomenal results for us, and that a great many Americans are alive today because we did all that. And I think those are the important considerations.

Cheney did fault himself for having overestimated the ability of the Iraqi people to "bounce back" after the U.S. invasion, blaming the chaos on years of oppression under Saddam Hussein:

MR. LEHRER: The president has also said that he made some mistakes in the last eight years. Did you make any?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, make mistakes - I can think of places where I underestimated things. For example, talking about Iraq, the extent of which the Iraqi population had been beaten down by Saddam Hussein was greater than I anticipated. That is, we thought that the Iraqis would be able to bounce back fairly quickly once Saddam was gone or the new government established and step up and take major responsibilities for governing Iraq, building a military and so forth and that took longer than I expected.

Cheney said the deaths in Iraq, both American and Iraqi, have been worth it becuase of Saddam Hussein's connection to terrorism in the post-9/11 world -- not that Saddam was connected to 9/11, except that he was:

MR. LEHRER: Mr. Vice President, getting from there to here, 4500 Americans have died, at least a hundred thousand Iraqis have died. Has it been worth that?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: I think so.

MR. LEHRER: Why?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Because I believed at the time that what Saddam Hussein represented was, especially in the aftermath of 9/11, was a terror-sponsoring state - so designated by the State Department. He was making payments to the families of suicide bombers; he provided a safe haven and sanctuary for Abu Nidal and other terrorist operations. He had produced and used weapons of mass destruction, chemical and biological agents. He'd had a nuclear program in the past. He killed hundreds of thousands of his own people and he did have a relationship with al Qaeda. Now, we've had this debate, keeps people trying to conflate those arguments. That's not to say that Saddam was responsible for 9/11; it is to say - as George Tenet, CIA director testified in open session in the Senate - that there was a relationship there that went back 10 years.

Originally posted by Eric Kleefeld from TPM Election Central, on January 14, 2009 1:37 PM

Tim O'Reilly's advice: work on stuff that matters.

The most successful companies treat success as a byproduct of achieving their real goal, which is always something bigger and more important than they are.

The best part about Tim's advice is that it works in boom times *and* in a recession. I have some notes jotted down for this whole post that I'm probably not going to write about how to take advantage of the recession -- yes, advantage...the gist: buy low! -- and one of the main points is: recessions are temporary so take the long view and keep trying to do what is most important to you, i.e. stuff that matters.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 14, 2009 12:49 PM

If you've already tried out our recently launched commenting service via TypePad Connect, you know that we built in very basic support for OpenID sign in from the start. We did this because we know that just as the future of traditional media wasn't a small group of large publishers controlling all of the news, the future of the social web isn't a small group of large social networks controlling everyone's identity. Today we've made it even easier for anyone to sign in, leave a comment, and have a TypePad Profile (see mine) without having to know their OpenID URL or even what OpenID is.

The TypePad Connect team has now explicitly added support to sign in using your Vox, Google, Yahoo!, Blogger, LiveJournal, WordPress.com, or AOL account in addition to your TypePad username and password. This small change means that any blog using TypePad Connect powered comments now has over a half a billion people who can sign in - thus no longer being anonymous - just by clicking a button in the case of Google and Yahoo! or entering their username on AOL, Vox, and the others.

And of course this same idea - bringing your existing identity with you - is built into Motion as well. Our latest application for Movable Type Pro shows off how, just like with TypePad Connect, there are now half a billion people who are able to log into your site, without even having to sign up for a new account.

Originally posted by David Recordon from Six Apart News & Events, on January 14, 2009 11:42 AM

January 14, 2009 - 12:23 p.m. - Los Angeles, CA

Originally posted by hustler of culture from hustler of culture, on January 14, 2009 10:23 AM

The Balth, Noah Kalina

If there is a silver lining to the massive economic crisis overwhelming the New York restaurant business, it is that His Majesty The McNally has done away with the bathroom attendants at Balthazar. Long a royal pain in the ass for regulars, or so we're told, Keith confirmed for us today that they're gone, fired last week. "Yes, the bathroom attendants have been flushed out of Balthazar," he says, adding, threatening, that the move is not necessarily permanent.

Originally posted by BL from Eater, on January 14, 2009 9:58 AM

A TPMCafe Reader/Blogger brought this up. And I've been wondering about it too. In The Politico yesterday Roger Simon asked whether the differing fates (in terms of senate aspirations) of Roland Burris and Caroline Kennedy proves that "the race card trumps the gender card in U.S. politics."

But doesn't it actually prove that you're in a much stronger position to get seated in the senate if the governor of your state appoints you to the senate (like Burris) than if he or she doesn't (like Kennedy)?

What am I missing? The Senate Dems caved because they ended up having no legal argument. I'm not sure how Caroline Kennedy is in any worse position than I am since we're both New York state residents who've yet to be appointed to the senate by Gov. Paterson.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 14, 2009 9:40 AM

Written by Sub-Zero

Yesterday I was feeling nostalgic, so I decided to count down the top 15 movies of 1999. Today I’m feeling much the same way, so I thought I’d give it a try with video games. And just like there were a ton of classic movies that came out a decade ago, the same is true for games. Many classic series got their starts this year, and you might have a laugh at what we thought used to be “cutting edge” and “graphically stunning.”

But even with technological advancements, there are some games on this list that have retained their playability to this very day.

10) Mario Party

Today, as this year Mario Party 8 has been released for the Wii, it can be safe to say that we’re exhausted of the Mario Party series. However, when the original came out for Nintendo 64 in 1999, we loved it because four player gaming was still a relatively new concept, and there were only a handful of games for the system that really took advantage of the opportunity. The original Mario Party was a good time, especially if you didn’t yet have any idea that seven nearly identical sequels were on the horizon.

9) Soul Calibur 

Not much in the graphics department, but the original Soul Calibur set the stage for one of the best fighting franchises ever. It improved upon it’s predecessor Soul Blade with new characters and moves. Unfortunately, this was before a complete boob-bouncing engine was developed for game systems, so we had to use our imaginations when we played with Taki.

8 ) Quake III Arena

Quake III was innovative in the sense that it mostly abandoned single player to focus solely on multiplayer action. It was minimalist, but an insane amount of fun, and ahead of it’s time, as the first game to invent “strafe-jumping.” Didn’t know that did you?

7) Final Fantasy VIII

Of course nothing short of the second coming of Christ would have topped Final Fantasy VII, but VIII was a great game as well, even if it is constantly overshadowed by its older brother. For it’s time, it had absolutely stunning graphics, as is tradition for each new installment in the series, and coined one of the coolest terms in video games, the “gunblade.”

6) Unreal Tournament

The original Unreal Tournament was met with bouqets of roses from almost every gaming magazine in existence upon its release. It’s graphics, gameplay and maps set it even above Quake, according to some. The game currently has an aggregated 94% rating, which makes it the eighth highest reviewed PC game of all time. Not too shabby for a decade ago.

5)  Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater

I will credit this game for making me buy a skateboard, realizing that it was way, way harder in real life, and promptly putting it in my attic for the next ten years. But THPS was simply a blast when it was released, and although the tricks and maps seem limited now, at the time you would grow to know every detail of the game like the back of your hand. I could draw you an exact scale map of the Warehouse to this day.

4) Everquest

A decade before World of Warcraft owned 10 million people’s lives, Everquest started MMO on a smaller scale. A widesweeping fantasy epic, the game was addicting to the point where players started calling it “Evercrack.”

3)  Counterstrike

Counterstrike will always remain a legend among tactical team shooters. It was one of the first online shooters to require a great deal of strategy and coordination to win a game, rather than just relying on who had the quickest trigger finger. Although that certainly helped.

2) Silent Hill

Alright, so as you can see the graphics weren’t astonishing, even for the time, but that didn’t mean the original Silent Hill wasn’t terrifying. One of the first games to rely heavily on both story and suspense, the result was a horror game that was so much more than running around shooting zombie. It was cerebral, smart and you would never, ever play it with the lights off.

1) Super Smash Bros.

What does it say about a game that I still play it with my friends on a Saturday evening before we go head out to the bars. The original Super Smash Bros. has perhaps the most replay value of any game ever made. Before the series added a deluge of characters and items, the original existed as an almost perfect entity, with each of its characters able to be perfected by someone with the necessary skill. Though it’s sequels have been among the best games for their respective systems, nothing will ever be able to touch the original, and that’s probably the way it should be.

Originally posted by bspcn from The Best Article Every day, on January 14, 2009 8:57 AM

The Ravens are looking good in the playoffs but Mark Lamster imagines a football team made up of characters from The Wire. The most inspired choices:

Offensive Coordinator: Lester Freamon
FB: Thomas Hauk
MLB: Wee-Bey Brice
MLB: Cheese Wagstaff
Kicker: Ziggy Sobotka
Fan club president: Roland Pryzbylewski

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 14, 2009 8:46 AM

It used to be that the design of a website was always left to a single web designer and some good ideas, but with Google Website Optimizer, Google's free testing and optimization tool, a website can harness the input of thousands of its visitors to produce results that really matter.

Last June we announced the Website Workout contest to see which of our AdWords advertisers wanted to give their sites an extreme makeover. After asking thousands of advertisers why their sites needed makeovers, we chose four of the most compelling cases, and they were paired with consultants who helped them set up experiments using Website Optimizer.

Website Optimizer allows you to create multiple versions of your webpage (maybe one version with a red button and one with a blue) and evaluate which variation best meets your goals (whether that is sign-ups, purchases, or simply having visitors click to another page). The tool uses traffic data and advanced statistical formulas to figure out, according to your visitors, what makes your website the most useful.

Well, we are happy to announce the winners of the Website Workout contest and share some videos highlighting their experiences. Be sure to check them out, you might be surprised by what sorts of changes can make a big difference.

For example, by changing the layout of their product page, Colonial Candle was able to increase the number of candles they sold by 20% and improve sales by $20,000 in one month.

Before Optimization (click on the images for larger versions)


After Optimization


Check out the Website Optimizer Blog for more information.

Posted by Andrew Gomez, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Originally posted by A Googler from The Official Google Blog, on January 14, 2009 8:00 AM

Great interview with Macworld chief Jason Snell:

I think the entire idea of a “replacement” for Steve Jobs is misguided. Let’s just all admit that Jobs is a unique sort of franchise player. He does a lot of things really well. If he were to reduce his role at Apple for whatever reason — I like to imagine that someday he’ll just buy a tropical island like a James Bond villain and retire — he will not be replaced by any one person, but by different people in different roles. Tim Cook appears to be the operations and management guy, the adult supervision. Jonathan Ive has a similar design taste to Jobs. Phil Schiller actually does a pretty good job as a demo guy — I think most tech companies would love having Phil Schiller be their keynote guy. Jonathan Ive is a brilliant designer — I don’t think he needs to be a CEO or good with a clicker on stage in front of thousands of people.

Couldn’t agree more. There is no reason why the CEO has to be Chief Showman.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on January 14, 2009 7:38 AM

O'Reilly author Wei-Meng Lee has published a short free PDF that will get you started building iPhone applications with Apple's SDK:

If you have always wanted to learn iPhone development but don't know how to get started, download my free eDoc on Getting Started with iPhone Development. Try it out and see how easy it is to get started!

Developer Learning Solutions: Free eDoc on Getting Started with iPhone Development

If you want to build apps with the unofficial SDK, check out the iphone-dev Google Code page. Jonathan Zdziarski's iPhone Open Application Development covers the SDK and how to build applications with it.

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in iPhone | Digg this!

Originally posted by Brian Jepson from MAKE Magazine, on January 14, 2009 5:00 AM

Good things happen to those who blog (well). Marginal Revolution’s Alex Tabarrok and fivethirtyeight.com’s Nate Silver will be panel members at TED 2009. One-time hobbyist fashion photographer The Sartorialist has gotten a major book deal. Obviously blogging is this big huge industry now full of professional writers, journalists, and celebrities, but the people who started out doing this for love and made it big will always have a special place in my heart. The people who publish their thoughts and remain relatively unknown do as well.

Originally posted by Rafe from rc3.org, on January 14, 2009 4:49 AM

Studio Mauerer Hendrichs's lazy-susan table makes ingenious use of iconic skateboard trucks and a glass top to provide the mechanical back-end for the system. Lovely. (But expensive and ripe for a homebrew remake!)

Three Sixty Table

Originally posted by Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing, ReBlogged by andreapolli on Jan 14, 2009 at 09:03 AM

Originally posted by Cory Doctorow from Eyebeam reBlog, on January 14, 2009 4:03 AM

To be honest, the (Sarah) Palin '12 Caps jersey didn't go over particularly well with a lot of my readers. Commies, probably. Maybe they'll like this one better. It was sent by Reader Timothy, and darned if it wasn't another significant number. I mean, Palin has some sort of cosmic connection to Peter Bondra, while Obama and Ovechkin are similarly linked? So, let's see, for the Wizards we'd have Palin-Dixon, and Obama-Mason Jr.? And for the Redskins, the exceedingly ironic Obama-Brunell, along with the bafflingly bizarre Palin-Kelly combo. And as long as we're linking Obama and the Caps, how about this lede to a Time Mag story about Obama the big-city prez: As President-elect Barack Obama and his family settle into Washington ahead of his Inauguration, they will undoubtedly go through a period of adjustment. The girls will need to get used to a new school, the whole family

Originally posted by (author unknown) from D.C. Sports Bog, on January 14, 2009 3:55 AM

Since 1901, only 8 pitchers have started 200 games and finished 200 games. Before anybody writes it in the comments, look up what the Games Finished stat means. It does not includes complete games, but only relief appearances where the pitcher records the last out for his team in the game.

Anyway, give yourself some time to think about it, then click here for the answer.

It’s interesting to note that these guys fit into one of three categories:

First half of career as a starter and second half as a reliever: Eckersley, Reed, and Kline

First half of career as a reliever and second half as a starter: Gordon and Hough

Mixed career: Smoltz, Johnson, Quinn

For these mixed career guys, Smoltz is much different from the other two. Smoltzie had a  long solid block as a starter, followed by four year (2001-2004) as a reliever, and has been a starter ever since. Reports out of Boston suggest that they will try to use him as a starter in 2009 as well. The other two fellows, Johnson and Quinn, had starts and finishes peppered throughout their careers.

Originally posted by Andy from Stat of the Day, on January 14, 2009 3:42 AM

Real change almost always comes in the face of crisis. So if you believe that Global Warming is real and that sometime soon will have to be confronted in a big way ... and if you believe that our reliance on oil is not only an environmental threat but a threat to our economic security and national security as well ... and if you believe that we need to start manufacturing things that people in other countries want to buy, when else do you expect real change to come on these issues -- a real start on the big changes -- if not now?

It's a lot to expect early in an administration. But look through a couple centuries of our history and you'll see that there are just no examples of administrations that started small and did big things in year 2 or 4 or 6. That doesn't happen. Look at Roosevelt, Johnson, Reagan, presidents pack their biggest punch on day one. And even though many big things can happen in subsequent years, the presidencies are almost always defined at the beginning. Later triumphs and reforms grow from the changed political terrain created at the outset.

A lot I've written over the last few weeks that's been critical of what seems to me like a too little ambitious approach from Obama. But I base that on a belief that the current economic crisis is just the immediate hole we find ourselves in, perhaps the immediate manifestation of these other deep and critical challenges I noted above -- all tied to unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels, financialization of the US economy and decline of US manufacturing. I don't think we have much time to spare.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 13, 2009 7:46 PM

You've likely heard some brief mention of Marcus Schrenker, a penny-ante Bernie Madoff, who tried to make a spectacular getaway as his life of scheming and defrauding began to crumble around him. As angry, defrauded investors and state investigators closed in on Schrenker, Schrenker hatched the idea of faking his own death in a plane crash. Flying from Indiana to Florida, he radioed in a distress from his single engine plane, telling air traffic controllers a window had imploded leaving him bleeding profusely. He then put on his parachuted and jumped out of the plane at roughly 2500 ft. (Just jumping out of ten story building and being done with it is so passe.) He then grabbed the motorcycle he prepositioned in the Alabama pine barrens.

The plan hit a fatal flaw when the military jets scrambled to intercept Schrenker's plane noticed that there was no one flying it and that the door to the cockpit was open.

After a few days on the run, officers from the Gadsden County Sheriff's office caught Schrenker tonight.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 13, 2009 6:18 PM

Despite being standard Innodb feature forever Insert Buffers remains some kind of mysterious thing for a lot of people, so let me try to explain thing a little bit.

Innodb uses insert buffer to “cheat” and not to update index leaf pages when at once but “buffer” such updates so several updates to the same page can be performed with single sweep. Insert buffer only can work for non-unique keys because until the merge is performed it is impossible to check if the value is unique.

Insert buffer is allocated in the Innodb system table space. Even though it is called “buffer” similar to “doublewrite buffer” it is really the space in the tablepace. Though it can be cached in the buffer pool same as other pages. This property allows insert buffer to survive transaction commits and even MySQL restarts. Really it may take weeks before the given index page is merged, though usually it is much sooner than that.

There are two ways of insert buffer merge is happening. First is on demand merge - if accessed page contains unmerged records in insert buffer the merge is performed before page is made available. This means insert buffer can slow down read operations.

The other way insert buffer is merged is by background thread. There are very little merges happening if system is loaded and merge process becomes more active if system is idle. This behavior can cause interesting results, like you had system lightly used and have very little IO activity, but when you remove the load from the system completely you see high IO load which goes for hours even after all buffer pool dirty pages are completed. This can be very surprising.

Stats about Innodb Insert Merge Buffer are available in SHOW INNODB STATUS output:


————————————-
INSERT BUFFER AND ADAPTIVE HASH INDEX
————————————-
Ibuf: size 7545, free list len 3790, seg size 11336,
8075308 inserts, 7540969 merged recs, 2246304 merges


The “seg size” is a full allocated size of segment in pages. So in this case it is about 180MB
The “free list” is number of pages which are free - containing no unmerged records. The “size” is size (in pages) of insert buffer which is not merged.

The fact size is in pages is not really helpful because depending on the row size there can be different number of rows in the insert buffer - and it is rows we see in performance stats, for example to understand when insert buffer merge will be completed.

The “inserts” is number of inserts to insert buffer since start and number of merged records is number of records which were merged to their appropriate page locations since start. So we know in this case insert buffer has grown 534339 records since start. There is a temptation to use this number as count of unmerged rows in insert buffer but this would not be correct - insert buffer may not be empty at the start. So you can only tell insert buffer has at least this number of records. For the same reason do not get scared if you see more merged records than inserted.

The value of 2246304 merges shows us there was about 3 records merged for each merge operation, meaning insert buffer could in theory reduce IO needed to update leaf pages 3 times.

As I mentioned Insert buffer merge can take quite a while - with 100 records merged per second we’re looking at least 5343 seconds or 1.5 hours on this server… and there are insert buffers which are 10x and 100x larger than this.

Innodb unfortunately offers no control for insert buffer while it surely would be benefiting for different workloads and hardware configuration. For example there is very good question if insert buffer really makes sense for SSD because saving random IO is not so much needed for these devices.

---

Entry posted by peter | No comment

Add to: | | | |

Originally posted by peter from MySQL Performance Blog, on January 13, 2009 5:53 PM

To my constant amusement, it's not only Sphinx code but also the website that needs some work every now and then, so here's the update.

I've added FAQ section. It's not big yet (only 8 questions covered), and the answers are typically terse, but a start is a start.

Presentations section has a couple new talks. One small step for the page but giant leap for me is that all the previously posted talks were given by ourselves. And now we're not alone - hooray and cheers for Ralf and Mike!

Last but not least, Powered By section, now at 113 sites and counting, was updated and restyled. I had long wondered how much Sphinx search queries are performed per month if we sum all the sites using it, and whether we already hit 1B page views per month or not. Being open-source, there's no easy way to tell. But now with the addition of craigslist to Powered By list I finally know that we do. Many thanks to Jeremy Zawodny who worked hard on making that happen, my itch is no more. :-)

Billions of documents indexed, billions of queries per month. Mind-blowing...

Originally posted by shodan from Sphinx search engine news, on January 13, 2009 4:39 PM

As video footage and video remix become one of the primary forms of conveying and discussing political issues, we find that video is less permissive than text with respect to copyright. In other words, with text, we are accustomed to and legally permitted to quote, annotate and share each other's words in political dialog. However, we find that in the case of video, often presidential debates, war footage and many other things that we would like to use in political videos, are protected by copyright. Video, has traditionally been treated more as "content".

In the case of video journalism, this "content" falls between the cracks. There is a great article by Rebecca MacKinnon, former Bureau Chief of CNN Japan, about how the focus of CNN changed from journalism to money-making "content" as it shifted from the leadership of Ted Turner to Time Warner.

I believe in amateur journalism and even amateur video journalism. I think projects like The Hub that we are doing at WITNESS are very important. On the other hand, there will always be a role for professional journalism, especially when it comes to wars, corruption and politics because of the cost of deploying and defending, both physically and legally, the journalists sent in to get the stories.

There is a famous moment in video journalism when the Gennifer Flowers scandal was breaking. The heads of the big news networks at the time decided not to run the story. They controlled how and when news broke. However, CNN had started distributing their full news feeds to local news stations allowing local news to edit their own news. Some local networks decided to run the story that they found in the unedited news feeds from CNN and the next day all of the networks opened with the story. See Steven Johnson's Emergence for a good account of this episode.

I think that news networks making their footage available to the public is the next step in this decentralization and the participation of the public in the global dialog. I'm very thankful to Al Jazeera for taking the first step in what I hope will be a more common practice of news agencies making their material available for reuse and remix.

Creative Commons Blog

Al Jazeera Launches Creative Commons Repository

Al Jazeera is releasing 12 broadcast quality videos today shot in Gaza under Creative Commons' least restrictive Attribution license. Each professionally recorded video has a detailed information page and is hosted on blip.tv allowing for easy downloads of the original files and integration into Miro. The value of this footage is best described by an International Herald Tribune/New York Times article describing the release:

In a conflict where the Western news media have been largely prevented from reporting from Gaza because of restrictions imposed by the Israeli military, Al Jazeera has had a distinct advantage. It was already there.

More importantly, the permissive CC-BY license means that the footage can be used by anyone including, rival broadcasters, documentary makers, and bloggers, so long as Al Jazeera is credited.

There's more information over at Al Jazeera's CC repository, and in our press release. You can also add the Al Jazeera repository to your Miro feeds by clicking here.

Originally posted by Joi from Joi Ito's Web, on January 13, 2009 3:23 PM

I headed down to the Speaker's Hallway, the ornate alcove at the end of Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) office suite, for a scheduled media availability with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on the economic recovery bill. But Pelosi never appeared; instead, a spokesman materialized to answer a few questions. This is part of the culture in the Capitol -- the best laid plans of press folks often go awry, leaving reporters to wait in vain outside meetings that start late and end later.

The Pelosi spokesman did confirm that a two-hour meeting took place with the panoply of House committee chairman involved in crafting the stimulus package: David Obey (D-WI) of Appropriations, James Obserstar (D-MN) of Transportation & Infrastructure, John Spratt (D-SC) of Budget, George Miller (D-CA) of Education & Labor, Henry Waxman (D-CA) of Energy & Commerce, and others.

That's an impressive list of "old bulls," as influential congressional chairman are often dubbed. Since the House is slated to start "marking up" the stimulus bill next week -- voting on amendments to the legislation and sending it to the floor for a final vote -- does that mean each of these chairman will get to hold their own hearings? Looks like that question has yet to be answered.

Originally posted by Elana Schor from TPM Election Central, on January 13, 2009 12:39 PM

Everyone loves a good launch, right? Two of our recent projects have launched: MediaShift and Idea Lab. Both sites are run by Mark Glaser in partnership with PBS and the Knight Foundation and both are focused on how new media are changing old media, specifically in the realm of news and reporting. Where they differ is in perspective. MediaShift is reporting on those changes, whereas the authors of Idea Lab are initiating them. Each author on Idea Lab is a winner of the Knight Foundation’s Knight News Challenge. Both blogs are sharp and worth following.

Mark’s attention to detail and enthusiasm for his work made both of these projects really fun to work on. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Originally posted by mccreath from Mule Design : Off the Hoof, on January 13, 2009 12:19 PM

From the airport

 

From Patagonia

Originally posted by Valarie Smith from Crazed Teacups, on January 13, 2009 11:44 AM

just like at our place some nights

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on January 13, 2009 10:56 AM

Because you can never write too many blog items about a high school basketball classic featuring guest appearances from the stars of a 7-30 NBA team, here's my brief Q&A with Caron Butler during last weekend's DTLR Caron Butler Classic. So do you get depressed about the record? Do I get depressed? I'm frustrated, but at the same time, you've got to remain positive. You know, if you're just bent out all the time, it's not gonna work right. You've got to encourage your teammates, you've got to be a leader on and off the court, you've got to be a professional, and hopefully good things will start happening. Have you ever gone through one like this before? Nah. I've had bad seasons, but never like this. Nah. Do you do anything when you get home to try to forget? It's hard to forget, because this is my life.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from D.C. Sports Bog, on January 13, 2009 10:17 AM

That headline is especially funny if you're from Long Island. Or if you've been up since 4:00 in the morning, like me.

The Mets unveiled a Citi Field commemorative patch for their 2009 uniforms. Here 'tis.

Lots of fun is being made about it, specifically that the patch doesn't actually mention Citi Field.

However, the word from MLB is that a team cannot wear a corporate logo on their uniforms so the stadium name is a no-no.

As for the other mockeries being made about the patch's amateurish quality or its resemblance to a Domino's Pizza logo, that's all true. Loge13 readers also noticed a similarity to the Enron logo when we wrote about the design last year.

The team had done a great job with the Shea Stadium Tribute Patches in 2008. Then again, with Shea, it's easy to create beautiful designs when you're already working with a piece of art.

Originally posted by Kingman from Loge 13, on January 13, 2009 9:53 AM

Brian Mastenbrook:

I have discovered that Apple’s Safari browser is vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user’s hard drive without user intervention. This can be used to gain access to sensitive information stored on the user’s computer, such as emails, passwords, or cookies that could be used to gain access to the user’s accounts on some web sites. The vulnerability has been acknowledged by Apple.

Choose a default RSS reader other than Safari (in Safari’s preferences) and you should be safe.

 ★ 

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on January 13, 2009 9:48 AM

No mixed feelings on this blog, I think Yahoo naming Carol Bartz its new CEO (if the reports are true) is great news for the company. First, my usual disclaimer that I say all the following as a reporter, not a Yahoo contractor. Nothing I see or hear in my day-to-day role at Yahoo is ever reported on this blog or anywhere.

That out of the way, some details about her chops as I wrote for TechTicker last week:

"Bartz was the chief executive of AutoDesk, a sleepy little software company that she transformed into one of the fastest-growing, most profitable companies in the software space, even amid the post-2000 crash. Want some numbers? She took AutoDesk from a couple hundred million dollars in sales to $1.5 billion during her fourteen-year tenure, and profits rose from $47 million in 2003 to $315 million when she voluntarily stepped down three years later.

Bartz is incredibly respected and tapped into the high tech scene with board seats on Cisco Systems, Intel and NetApp. She was also on President Bill Clinton’s Science & Technology Council."

But anyone can look at the CV and truth be told, it doesn't tell you much about Bartz as a leader, which is what Yahoo needs more than anything right now. We all can name CEOs who appeared to be geniuses, but subsequently fell from grace when the going got tough. Maybe the company was just hitting a tailwind; maybe she was surrounded by a great staff; maybe she was in the right job at the right time and it made her look good.

Nope. In this case, it's at least a good percentage Bartz.

I covered AutoDesk for BusinessWeek, and watched as the company sprung from obscurity based not on being the sexy technology of the day, but on strong operating results and stock appreciation. I did the exclusive interview with her for the magazine when she retired-- a shock and disappointment to nearly everyone at the time.

That day, we met at a Starbucks by her house and when I showed up she was wearing jeans and a baseball cap and deep in conversation with someone I didn't know. I didn't pry but it was clearly something emotional and personal. She saw me walk up and told me quickly and politely she'd be with me in a minute, then turned her total attention on this friend for another five-to-ten minutes. When we joined me at my table, she apologized saying she'd just ran into the friend by happenstance, and then breezily asked what I wanted to talk about.

Her manner was as unadorned as her outfit. In fact, she'd planned on dressing up in a nice suit, but that morning her daughter was in the throws of teen angst and Bartz said she just needed to "hang with her" rather than using her time to put on the CEO-facade of suit, coiffed hair, sensible-but-feminine-shoes and makeup. There were no talking points, certainly no PR chaperones, and she answered nearly every question I put to her, even the uncomfortable ones. Well, everything except what she was doing next, and whether she might wind up in another CEO slot one day. If it was an act, it was a brilliant act.

In ten years of being a reporter, I found her unlike any other tech CEO at that level, especially highly-guarded female CEOs like Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. She's not veneered. She's unafraid to talk about her role in the industry as a woman. She says something conclusive when she speaks, not a lukewarm point to please everyone. She gets tech, has a backbone, and most important, is a leader who pumps people up. 

But don't take this to mean she's some cheerleading softy. It's easy to find disgruntled ex-employees, because she is tough and demanding. But inside the company she also had that cult-like status of Steve Jobs or Larry Ellison, where employees would say to newbies, "Have you met Carol yet?" "Have you heard her speak?" Just a few months ago, I ran into an Autodesk employee who lamented she'd gotten there just as Bartz was stepping down. She said there was palpable excitement that was missing once she left. Bartz knows how to inspire people. Unlike Jerry Yang-- by his own admission-- she's a born CEO. (And I actually mean that as a compliment in this case; I don't always!)

Critics point out that she doesn't know the Web. First off, I don't think she knew CAD software before joining AutoDesk either and that turned out OK. Second, I'm not sure Yahoo's past senior management got where the Web was going. They were frequently criticized for not being able to clearly articulate any kind of clear vision. Third, Yahoo doesn't need a Web expert right now, it needs a leader who can steer through 2009 and keep the company in one piece, get Wall Street off its back, and reignite the staff. It's the reality of Yahoo's situation, that "getting the Web" is more of a nice-to-have than a must-have, right now.

Originally posted by sarah lacy from SarahLacy.com, on January 13, 2009 9:33 AM

Yesterday, Peter Abraham of the Journal News and Uni Watch’s Paul Lukas of ESPN.com wrote about the Citi Field 2009 Inaugural Season Patch from the Mets and MLB.

My thoughts from last week can be found here.

Today, the Sports Hernia gets in on the action, providing a series of humorous alternatives, including the one featured in this post.

Similarly, ‘Duk from Big League Stew, whose post is also featured on the main news page Yahoo.com, also has a few choice words, complete with the headline, “Mets’ pizza patch the laughingstock of baseball uniform world.”

…i have been sent lots of e-mail from people essentially saying, ‘The Mets didn’t use the name Citi Field on their patch, because Citigroup may be broken up, making the name irrelevant.’…

…the thing is, as ‘Duke points out, MLB does not allow commercial names or logos on uniforms, so, regardless of Citigroup’s future, it doesn’t really matter…

According to Big league Stew, “More likely, it’s a case of the Mets being as dull and uninspiring as their ‘08 bullpen.  They could’ve held a coloring contest among preschoolers and still ended up with a better design than the one above.”

…i said this on the day the Patch was released…i think it would have been awesome to team up with the Mets, and let us, the fans, submit user-generated designs, with some one from the team picking a winner…this would have been a great way to include the fans in the opening of the new building…

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on January 13, 2009 9:26 AM

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Rumors, Software, Odds and ends, Developer

Is there anyone out there who doesn't have a PC, or a console, or a Windows partition on their Mac, or was just somehow able to avoid the critical, cultural, and widespread success of 2007's amazing Bioshock? If so, you're in luck -- while console gamers are breathlessly waiting for Bioshock 2 updates, Mac gamers are still waiting for the first one, and the wait might finally be over. Macworld is reporting that a little birdie (read: back of a t-shirt) at last week's show told them that Bioshock was finally headed to the Mac, courtesy of Feral Interactive.

Too little, too late? Don't get us wrong: Bioshock, the spiritual successor to System Shock and its sequel, is a terrific game, combining FPS gameplay with RPG elements and one of the best videogame stories of 2007. If you haven't played it and you're willing to pick it up for the Mac, you're in for a treat. But these kind of releases just perpetuate the issues with Mac gaming: games come out years late, no one buys them (because everyone who cares has already played them elsewhere), and then developers complain that games don't sell on the Mac. A Bioshock announcement is all well and good, but next time, devs, would you kindly aim for release a little closer to everyone else?

TUAWRumor: Bioshock headed to the Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Originally posted by Mike Schramm from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), on January 13, 2009 9:00 AM

This is not exactly news, but something caught my eye the other week via Robin Sloan's Twitter feed, so I thought I'd put up a quick post about it here.

[Image: From Prison Tycoon 4: SuperMax. Image via IGN].

The description of Prison Tycoon 4: SuperMax, a ValuSoft game released in 2008, urges players to experiment in the architectural framing and administrative implementation of prison life.
"Build a profitable privately run prison from the ground up," it says. "Every wall, every fence, every decision is yours. Start small and forge your reputation as a first rate warden. Grow your facility to SuperMax capabilities, housing the most dangerous and diabolical criminals on earth – all for the bottom line."
Putting moral limits on our imaginations temporarily aside, perhaps we could even conceive of Prison Tycoon 5: Guantánamo Bay, or Prison Tycoon 6: Austrian Basement Edition. Prison Tycoon 7: Gulag.
Prison Tycoon 8: Escape from Abu Ghraib.
Or scrap the cheap political commentary and go for sci-fi: Inflatable Prisons in Space! The final level is a siege of the earth's surface via space elevator, convicts raining down upon the planet like dark angels. The plot is loosely modeled on Paradise Lost.
Setting up the next game: Prison Planet.
Or famous prisons from literature – including Brian Aldiss's famous rotating prison of Helliconia.
The Library of Babel reimagined as a SuperMax prison in the mountains of western Canada.
Prisons carved from glaciers undergoing catastrophic earthquakes as global climate change causes melt-off. You have to escape before the ice sheet collapses, teaming up with the very guards who once held you captive.
Prison Tycoon 10: Global Meltdown.

[Images: From Prison Tycoon 4: SuperMax. All images via IGN. If Mies van der Rohe had designed a prison, what might it have looked like?].

Of course, ValuSoft kicked all of this off back in 2005 with the original Prison Tycoon: "In Prison Tycoon," we read, "you construct and maintain a private prison, hire the staff, and control the prisoners – all while trying to earn big money."
But why not open the series to goals beyond "big money" and a swollen "bottom line," and aim for sheer architectural complexity?
Or locational advantages, like the offshore oil rig -slash- ultramax prison in John Woo's surprisingly great film Face/Off.
You construct an Alpine labyrinth that has no guards at all; the architecture itself is so bewildering that no one has ever escaped. Umberto Eco's final novel is set there; or perhaps one of his characters dreams it.
Gormenghast: The Prison.

[Images: From Prison Tycoon 4: SuperMax. Images via IGN].

However, lest you now be tempted to purchase Prison Tycoon 4, I'd first suggest reading this review.
For instance:

Since it's pretty much impossible to tell the difference between a guard and a prisoner in the yard, you'll have to open up the submenu. From there you click on the guard tab, select a specific guard, look at the minimap to check the whereabouts of the guard, close the submenu, investigate the most recent known whereabouts of the guard, locate and right mouse click the guy (you can't create a drag box to select anything in this game), move him into the action, right mouse click on a troubled prisoner, and select the beat-him-up icon. By the time you try to initiate all of this, a prisoner might have already died. If this all sounds convoluted it is. The whole game is like this, and it really hurts to not have a proper tutorial.

Sounds like fun.

Originally posted by Geoff Manaugh from BLDGBLOG, on January 13, 2009 8:49 AM

My inbox is divided about the valuation of Facebook calculated using Burger King Whopper Sacrifice promotion (unfriend 10 people to get a Whopper). The majority say that even if you prevented people from refriending those they unfriended for a Whopper, a value of 12 cents for each friend link is too high and that most links are worth much less than that. That is, Facebook is awash in junk friendships of little value.

A smaller contingent is arguing that Burger King would have to pay much more to break some friendships and that Facebook's valuation is therefore higher than the straight calculation indicates. For instance, getting Johnny Shoegazer to unfriend that girl he likes might take a considerable sum of money. I agree that Facebook is worth more than $1.8 billion in Whoppers but not because some individual links are more valuable than others...it's about groups and networks of links. You might be able to get someone to part with 10 "junk" friends for $2.40 but could you pay them $22 more to essentially shut down their Facebook account for good? I don't think so. It's going to cost much more than that...and for some intense users of the site, the "buyout" amount might be surprisingly high. (I'd probably accept $24 to close my Facebook account. But I pay nothing to use Twitter and ~$25 a year for Flickr and it might take several hundred or even thousands of dollars to entice me to permanently close either of those accounts...I get so much value from them.)

The reason for this seems like it might have something to do with Metcalfe's Law:

Metcalfe's law states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n^2). [...] Metcalfe's law characterizes many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet, social networking, and the World Wide Web. It is related to the fact that the number of unique connections in a network of a number of nodes (n) can be expressed mathematically as the triangular number n(n - 1)/2, which is proportional to n^2 asymptotically.

Or for our economic purposes, the network effect:

In economics and business, a network effect (also called network externality) is the effect that one user of a good or service has on the value of that product to other users. The classic example is the telephone. The more people own telephones, the more valuable the telephone is to each owner. This creates a positive externality because a user may purchase their phone without intending to create value for other users, but does so in any case.

As Facebook accumulates users and friendship links, the service becomes more and more valuable for each user. In Whoppernomics terms, Facebook may well be worth the $15 billion that the Microsoft deal suggested, but there are obviously problems for Facebook in thinking about their value in this way. How do they extract that value from their users? Getting a user to accept a $500 buyout for their Facebook account is different than Facebook asking that user to pay $500 to keep using their account even though the monetary value of the account is the same in either case. What Facebook is betting on is that each user will put up with hundreds of dollars worth of distractions (in the form of advertising and promotions) from their primary goal on the site (i.e. connecting with friends). Also, as Friendster and MySpace and every other social networking site has learned, membership in these services is not exclusive and users may eventually find more value in some other network with (temporarily) less distraction.

Again, assuming that we're not taking this too seriously.

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 13, 2009 7:43 AM

Later blog entries will dive into the gory details of Python's history. However, before I do that, I would like to elaborate on the philosophical guidelines that helped me make decisions while designing and implementing Python.

First of all, Python was originally conceived as a one-person “skunkworks” project – there was no official budget, and I wanted results quickly, in part so that I could convince management to support the project (in which I was fairly successful). This led to a number of timesaving rules:

• Borrow ideas from elsewhere whenever it makes sense.
  
• “Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.” (Einstein)
  
• Do one thing well (The "UNIX philosophy").
  
• Don’t fret too much about performance--plan to optimize later when needed.
  
• Don’t fight the environment and go with the flow.
  
• Don’t try for perfection because “good enough” is often just that.
  
• (Hence) it’s okay to cut corners sometimes, especially if you can do it right later.
  

Other principles weren’t intended as timesavers. Sometimes they were quite the opposite:

• The Python implementation should not be tied to a particular platform. It’s okay if some functionality is not always available, but the core should work everywhere.
  
• Don’t bother users with details that the machine can handle (I didn’t always follow this rule and some of the of the disastrous consequences are described in later sections).
  
• Support and encourage platform-independent user code, but don’t cut off access to platform capabilities or properties (This is in sharp contrast to Java.)
  
• A large complex system should have multiple levels of extensibility. This maximizes the opportunities for users, sophisticated or not, to help themselves.
  
• Errors should not be fatal. That is, user code should be able to recover from error conditions as long as the virtual machine is still functional.
  
• At the same time, errors should not pass silently (These last two items naturally led to the decision to use exceptions throughout the implementation.)
  
• A bug in the user’s Python code should not be allowed to lead to undefined behavior of the Python interpreter; a core dump is never the user’s fault.
  

Finally, I had various ideas about good programming language design, which were largely imprinted on me by the ABC group where I had my first real experience with language implementation and design. These ideas are the hardest to put into words, as they mostly revolved around subjective concepts like elegance, simplicity and readability.

Although I will discuss more of ABC's influence on Python a little later, I’d like to mention one readability rule specifically: punctuation characters should be used conservatively, in line with their common use in written English or high-school algebra. Exceptions are made when a particular notation is a long-standing tradition in programming languages, such as “x*y” for multiplication, “a[i]” for array subscription, or “x.foo” for attribute selection, but Python does not use “$” to indicate variables, nor “!” to indicate operations with side effects.

Tim Peters, a long time Python user who eventually became its most prolific and tenacious core developer, attempted to capture my unstated design principles in what he calls the “Zen of Python.” I quote it here in its entirety:

• Beautiful is better than ugly.
  
• Explicit is better than implicit.
  
• Simple is better than complex.
  
• Complex is better than complicated.
  
• Flat is better than nested.
  
• Sparse is better than dense.
  
• Readability counts.
  
• Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
  
• Although practicality beats purity.
  
• Errors should never pass silently.
  
• Unless explicitly silenced.
  
• In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
  
• There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
  
• Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
  
• Now is better than never.
  
• Although never is often better than right now.
  
• If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
  
• If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
  
• Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!
  

Although my experience with ABC greatly influenced Python, the ABC group had a few design principles that were radically different from Python’s. In many ways, Python is a conscious departure from these:

• The ABC group strived for perfection. For example, they used tree-based data structure algorithms that were proven to be optimal for asymptotically large collections (but were not so great for small collections).
  
• The ABC group wanted to isolate the user, as completely as possible, from the “big, bad world of computers” out there. Not only should there be no limit on the range of numbers, the length of strings, or the size of collections (other than the total memory available), but users should also not be required to deal with files, disks, “saving”, or other programs. ABC should be the only tool they ever needed. This desire also caused the ABC group to create a complete integrated editing environment, unique to ABC (There was an escape possible from ABC’s environment, for sure, but it was mostly an afterthought, and not accessible directly from the language.)
  
• The ABC group assumed that the users had no prior computer experience (or were willing to forget it). Thus, alternative terminology was introduced that was considered more “newbie-friendly” than standard programming terms. For example, procedures were called “how-tos” and variables “locations”.
  
• The ABC group designed ABC without an evolutionary path in mind, and without expecting user participation in the design of the language. ABC was created as a closed system, as flawless as its designers could make it. Users were not encouraged to “look under the hood”. Although there was talk of opening up parts of the implementation to advanced users in later stages of the project, this was never realized.
  

In many ways, the design philosophy I used when creating Python is probably one of the main reasons for its ultimate success. Rather than striving for perfection, early adopters found that Python worked "well enough" for their purposes. As the user-base grew, suggestions for improvement were gradually incorporated into the language. As we will seen in later sections, many of these improvements have involved substantial changes and reworking of core parts of the language. Even today, Python continues to evolve.

Originally posted by Guido van Rossum from The History of Python, on January 13, 2009 7:29 AM

Introduction

Python is currently one of the most popular dynamic programming languages, along with Perl, Tcl, PHP, and newcomer Ruby. Although it is often viewed as a "scripting" language, it is really a general purpose programming language along the lines of Lisp or Smalltalk (as are the others, by the way). Today, Python is used for everything from throw-away scripts to large scalable web servers that provide uninterrupted service 24x7. It is used for GUI and database programming, client- and server-side web programming, and application testing. It is used by scientists writing applications for the world's fastest supercomputers and by children first learning to program.
In this blog, I will shine the spotlight on Python's history. In particular, how Python was developed, major influences in its design, mistakes made, lessons learned, and future directions for the language.

Acknowledgment: I am indebted to Dave Beazley for many of the better sentences in this blog. (For more on the origins of this blog, see my other blog.)

A Bird's Eye View of Python

When one is first exposed to Python, they are often struck by way that Python code looks, at least on the surface, similar to code written in other conventional programming languages such as C or Pascal. This is no accident---the syntax of Python borrows heavily from C. For instance, many of Python's keywords (if, else, while, for, etc.) are the same as in C, Python identifiers have the same naming rules as C, and most of the standard operators have the same meaning as C. Of course, Python is obviously not C and one major area where it differs is that instead of using braces for statement grouping, it uses indentation. For example, instead of writing statements in C like this

if (a < b) {
    max = b;
} else {
    max = a;
}

Python just dispenses with the braces altogether (along with the trailing semicolons for good measure) and uses the following structure

if a < b:
    max = b
else:
    max = a

The other major area where Python differs from C-like languages is in its use of dynamic typing. In C, variables must always be explicitly declared and given a specific type such as int or double. This information is then used to perform static compile-time checks of the program as well as for allocating memory locations used for storing the variable’s value. In Python, variables are simply names that refer to objects. Variables do not need to be declared before they are assigned and they can even change type in the middle of a program. Like other dynamic languages, all type-checking is performed at run-time by an interpreter instead of during a separate compilation step.

Python’s primitive built-in data types include Booleans, numbers (machine integers, arbitrary-precision integers, and real and complex floating point numbers), and strings (8-bit and Unicode). These are all immutable types, meaning that values are represented by objects that cannot be modified after their creation. Compound built-in data types include tuples (immutable arrays), lists (resizable arrays) and dictionaries (hash tables).

For organizing programs, Python supports packages (groups of modules and/or packages), modules (related code grouped together in a single source file), classes, methods and functions. For flow control, it provides if/else, while, and a high-level for statement that loops over any “iterable” object. For error handling, Python uses (non-resumable) exceptions. A raise statement throws an exception, and try/except/finally statements specify exception handlers. Built-in operations throw exceptions when error conditions are encountered.

In Python, all objects that can be named are said to be "first class." This means that functions, classes, methods, modules, and all other named objects can be freely passed around, inspected, and placed in various data structures (e.g., lists or dictionaries) at run-time. And speaking of objects, Python also has full support for object-oriented programming including user-defined classes, inheritance, and run-time binding of methods.

Python has an extensive standard library, which is one of the main reasons for its popularity. The standard library has more than 100 modules and is always evolving. Some of these modules include regular expression matching, standard mathematical functions, threads, operating systems interfaces, network programming, standard internet protocols (HTTP,FTP, SMTP, etc.), email handling, XML processing, HTML parsing, and a GUI toolkit (Tcl/Tk).

In addition, there is a very large supply of third-party modules and packages, most of which are also open source. Here one finds web frameworks (too many to list!), more GUI toolkits, efficient numerical libraries (including wrappers for many popular Fortran packages), interfaces to relational databases (Oracle, MySQL, and others), SWIG (a tool for making arbitrary C++ libraries available as Python modules), and much more.

A major appeal of Python (and other dynamic programming languages for that matter) is that seemingly complicated tasks can often be expressed with very little code. As an example, here is a simple Python script that fetches a web page, scans it looking for URL references, and prints the first 10 of those.

# Scan the web looking for references

import re
import urllib

regex = re.compile(r'href="([^"]+)"')

def matcher(url, max=10):
    "Print the first several URL references in a given url."
    data = urllib.urlopen(url).read()
    hits = regex.findall(data)
    for hit in hits[:max]:
        print urllib.basejoin(url, hit)

matcher("http://python.org")

This program can easily be modified to make a web crawler, and indeed Scott Hassan has told me that he wrote Google’s first web crawler in Python. Today, Google employs millions of lines of Python code to manage many aspects of its operations, from build automation to ad management (Disclaimer: I am currently a Google employee.)

Underneath the covers, Python is typically implemented using a combination of a bytecode compiler and interpreter. Compilation is implicitly performed as modules are loaded, and several language primitives require the compiler to be available at run-time. Although Python’s de-facto standard implementation is written in C, and available for every imaginable hardware/software platform, several other implementations have become popular. Jython is a version that runs on the JVM and has seamless Java integration. IronPython is a version for the Microsoft .NET platform that has similar integration with other languages running on .NET. PyPy is an optimizing Python compiler/interpreter written in Python (still a research project, being undertaken with EU funding). There’s also Stackless Python, a variant of the C implementation that reduces reliance on the C stack for function/method calls, to allow co-routines, continuations, and microthreads.

Originally posted by Guido van Rossum from The History of Python, on January 13, 2009 7:17 AM

This IBM ad, now airing during NFL playoff games, is definitely aimed at the motoring set. More remarkable than its windshield perspective, though, is that it's being used to introduce the concept of congestion pricing to sports-obsessed Americans, and it doesn't get more mainstream than that.

Instead of encouraging people to get out of their cars -- 'cause that would be nuts -- the spot touts IBM's "smart" tolling technology, now employed in Stockholm (and proposed for New York in 2007). The ad is basically saying, "Don't you hate waiting in traffic? Sure. We all do. It wastes your time and your gas. And it's stupid. Here's something we can do about it."

Yeah, it's just a commercial, and talking is a far cry from doing. But the mere fact that this message is out there between kickoffs is worth noting.

Oh, and go Steelers.

Video: IBMAdvertising/YouTube

Originally posted by Brad Aaron from Streetsblog, on January 13, 2009 7:10 AM

A recently-published Apple patent application for a camera located behind a display could mean you'll finally be able to look straight at the person you're talking to over the Internet.

Read More...

Originally posted by justin.berka@gmail.com (Justin Berka) from Infinite Loop, on January 13, 2009 5:35 AM

• Bloomberg Assails Parking "Grace Period" (News)
  
• NYT Profiles Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Bike Advocate
  
• Seattle to Replace Elevated Highway With Underground Highway (Seattle Transit via Streetsblog.net)
  
• NYT: New York Dems Putting Off Promises to Reform Albany
• Subways Get Middling Grades From Rider Report Cards (Post)
• SI Assemblyman in a Huff Over Green MetroCard Idea (SI Advance via 2nd Ave Sagas)
• Parking Tickets Down in Much of Lower Manhattan (Villager)
  
• Firefighter Caught Trying to Escape Ticket for Blocking Hydrant With SUV (News)
• City to Reconstruct Cobblestone DUMBO Streets (Bklyn Paper)
• Third-Gen Bike-Share Is Coming to Turkey (Today's Zaman)
  

Originally posted by Ben Fried from Streetsblog, on January 13, 2009 4:04 AM

i need this for field measuring

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on January 13, 2009 2:58 AM

I did something this morning I haven't done in a long time: I spent an hour on LinkedIn.

Anyone who reads this blog, watches TechTicker, or has read my book knows I have long been very bullish on LinkedIn as a company, and occasionally the site has proven a God-send for tracking sources down. But in a world where Facebook and Twitter meet most of my connecting needs, the only uniquely powerful application for LinkedIn in my view is job hunting, and I haven't had to look for a job since I've been a member. So while I've played around with the Answers application and go to the site once a month or so to sort through invitations, I've never had much reason to spend a lot of time there.

So what changed today?

I got a request to introduce a friend hunting for a job with her ideal potential employer, and unlike nearly all LinkedIn notification emails, I felt motivated to click on it right then. While I was there, I wrote a recommendation for her. And then wrote a recommendation for Olivia. Then, I realized I hadn't updated my profile to include Yahoo and BusinessWeek, so I did that. And then uploaded a picture. Then, I went through a very full inbox of requests. Before I knew it, LinkedIn had sucked up nearly an hour of my day.

What roped me in? The ability to easily and tangibly help someone I care about get a job. I write a lot about the human, emotional "levers" social media pulls when done right. The three most common and most powerful are incredible convenience, the need to connect with others, and ego boost/validation.

LinkedIn has always been a great tool for convenience and a decent tool for connecting, but this request satisfied all three. Convenience is the most obvious: As opposed to my friend asking via email or casual conversation if I knew anyone at the company in question, LinkedIn told her who I knew, told me who it was, and made it drop-dead simple to forward an introductory note. In terms of connection, it reminded me that I really liked this person, and she'd helped my career greatly in the past, making me want to repay that kindness and giving me an easy way. And because we don't talk all the time, she wouldn't have been top of mind to refer to the employer even if I'd known they were hiring. Now, she is.

In terms of ego and validation, I got the pride of knowing my network could help someone I care about. And not just help someone with something minor-- help someone potentially find a new job. In this case she wasn't laid off but, in an economy like this where hundreds of thousands are, survivor's guilt runs high. Especially if you've been laid off before and viscerally remember that feeling. You want to be able to do something when you hear that kind of news, and LinkedIn offers that, whether it's an introduction or just writing a recommendation for a laid-off friend. It was one of the first times an interaction with LinkedIn gave me that social media endorphin rush that I more commonly get with Twitter, blogging, Flickr or Facebook.

I'd already assumed LinkedIn's traffic and users would increase during the downturn thanks all those people seeking jobs or updating their resumes and networks just in case. But it never occurred to me that engagement might go up, as a result of everyone else in job hunters' networks and their human need to help, the validation associated with helping and the very low hassle of doing so.

And LinkedIn could use a boost in the engagement department if you believe Compete's numbers. It shows pages per visit up just 5% over a year when the rest of LinkedIn's metrics have soared:

There's a lesson for the laid off ones here: Use your network and don't be afraid to ask for recommendations and introductions on LinkedIn. Your friends want to help you, and LinkedIn has made it incredibly easy. Of course, the keyword there is "friend." I don't add people on LinkedIn unless I know them, and I don't recommend people unless I know them well. Spammers: You'll only annoy people.

As an addendum, see Robert Scoble's advice today on how to remake your social web identity to appeal to potential employers. Most of his suggestions are great, i.e. don't beg for links and do be aggressive in meeting and following people for which you'd want to work. But as one look at my blog shows, I don't agree with several of these. Remaking your blog, friends, and Twitters to reflect only the job you are looking for is pushy and inauthentic. That can very easily get spammy. I think people have a right to have a personal blog, and I'd read it to know the type of person I'm trying to hire. Who wants to feel like they're getting a hard sell with each and every word?

I grant his macro point that your social media profile reflects you, and deserves a scrub. But some of the suggestions seem a bit desperate. Believe me, I've been desperate to find a job before, so I know that feeling. But you don't want to look desperate, do you?

Just to make the point I'm going to violate rule #2 and rule #7, in an attempt to demonstrate Scoble's rule #3. Scoble would *not* hire you if you were friends with this cat:

more animals

Originally posted by sarah lacy from SarahLacy.com, on January 12, 2009 8:28 PM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from riot rite right clit clip click, on January 12, 2009 8:00 PM

By Shailagh Murray President-elect Barack Obama will address Senate Democrats at their weekly luncheon tomorrow and will field questions about the economic stimulus package and the financial rescue program, among other topics, a senior Obama aide said. Congress is considering both plans now as urgent measures aimed at stabilizing financial markets, creating jobs, and easing the credit crunch and foreclosure crises that are fueling much of the current distress. Obama has called for quick action on a stimulus plan that could climb to $1 trillion and is encouraging skeptical lawmakers to allow for release the second $350 billion tranche of the controversial bailout package approved by Congress last fall. On the stimulus, as a show of good faith as negotiations unfold, Obama is expected to drop his least popular proposal, a $3,000 tax credit for companies to create new jobs. Many Democrats have criticized the incentive, touted by Obama on

Originally posted by (author unknown) from 44, on January 12, 2009 2:01 PM

Via Dion, Palm’s new Mojo framework for the Pre is based on Dojo!

As far as I know, it was a total surprise to the Dojo community (myself included). I can’t wait to get started writing apps for this thing and see what device APIs Palm has surfaced.

Originally posted by alex from Continuing Intermittent Incoherency, on January 12, 2009 1:38 PM

The level of transparency is so bad with the TARP program (and most of the rest of the what the Treasury is doing), that sometimes a new big new piece of information will get pried loose and it's something that I hadn't even realized wasn't available already. As a case in point, Sen. Levin (D-MI) just put out a press release announcing that the Treasury has agreed to release the contracts for the massive amounts of TARP money the Treasury gave invested in banks like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, et al.

He'd been threatening a subpoena but they've now agreed to cough them up.

From Levin's press release ...

"The Department of Treasury assured me today that there will be no need to serve a subpoena, because they will provide the documents I have requested, beginning tomorrow," said Levin. "It should not have taken two months and a subpoena threat, but I -- along with Senator Susan Collins who supports obtaining these documents -- look forward to receiving the documents this week."

The Treasury Department has agreed to provide copies of the TARP contracts issued to ten companies: AIG, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, State Street Corporation, and Wells Fargo.

It's astonishing to me that there'd even be a question about releasing this stuff.

Late Update: Two further points. BailoutSleuth has information on the related issue of the contracts the Treasury has with the firms who are administering the TARP money. A big deal in itself, though obviously the amount public money in play is an order of magnitude smaller. Also, the AIG was not part of TARP proper, but a one-off deal the Treasury put together before the TARP-spawning Wall Street Gotterdammerung.

Originally posted by Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo, on January 12, 2009 1:34 PM

The New Yorker has a too-short excerpt of an interview with Barack and Michelle Obama done in 1996 as part of a "photography project on couples in America".

There is a strong possibility that Barack will pursue a political career, although it's unclear. There is a little tension with that. I'm very wary of politics. I think he's too much of a good guy for the kind of brutality, the skepticism.

(link)

Originally posted by jason@kottke.org from kottke.org, on January 12, 2009 11:28 AM

There is significant portion of customers which are still using MyISAM when they come to us, so one of the big questions is when it is feasible to move to Innodb and when staying on MyISAM is preferred ?

I generally prefer to see Innodb as the main storage engine because it makes life much simpler in the end for most users - you do not get to deal with recovering tables on the crash or partially executed statements. Table locks is no more problem, hot backups are easy, though there are some important things which we have to consider on case by case basics before recommending the move.

Is MyISAM used as default or as a choice ? This is the most important question to ask upfront. Sometimes MyISAM is there just because it is default, in other cases this is deliberate choice with system being optimized to deal with MyISAM limits, for example there is a dedicated slave available for all long reporting queries. In case MyISAM was chosen not just happened to be it is important to build the good argument to suggest Innodb.

Application Readiness Application should be ready to work with Innodb, for example be ready to deal with deadlocks which can happen with Innodb even if you do not use transactions, but which are not existent with Innodb. QA has to be performed as part of the move.

Performance Innodb has a lot to offer in terms of performance - Performance benefits and drawbacks. On the benefits side we usually see clustering by primary key, caching data, higher concurrency, background flushes while on the drawbacks side we see significantly large table size (especially if data size is close to memory size), generally slower writes, slower blob handling, concurrency issues, problems dealing with very large number of tables, slow data load and ALTER TABLE and others. Another big one is COUNT(*) without where clause which is often the show stopper for them move until it is worked around.

Operations What is good for MyISAM kills Innodb, such as copying binary tables between the servers. It is important the team understands Innodb and knows how to handle it, or be able to learn it. It is also important to adjust processes as required to work with Innodb. For example binary copy of one of the databases from the Slave to the dev envinronment works great for MyISAM but does not work with Innodb. Backup tools like “mysqlhotcopy” does not work etc. Note Performance also affects Operations aspects a lot - for example using mysqldump as a backup may well work for MyISAM but will start taking way too much time to do restore for Innodb. On large scale installations mysqldump does not work anyway but it may still work for you when you’re running MyISAM but instantly break upon upgrading to Innodb.

Features The MyISAM features which forbid moving to Innodb are typically Full Text Search and RTREE indexes/GIS with Full Text being much more common. There are workarounds for both of them, including dedicated MyISAM slave or shadow table but it is important to consider them.

How about Mixing Storage Engines ? Sure you can mix storage engines but I suggest you doing is wisely. It complicates operations tasks (backups, balancing, performance analyzes) as well as it exercises not so common paths in the MySQL server - in particular Optimizer may have harder time because costs between storage engines may not be well balanced or replication of mixed table types which is quite complicated.

I prefer to pick one storage engine (typically Innodb) and when use other tables when it really gives substantial gains. I would not switch table to MyISAM because it gives 5% performance improvement but I can perfectly use MyISAM (or Archive) for logging.

Innodb Needs Tuning As a final note about MyISAM to Innodb migration I should mention about Innodb tuning. Innodb needs tuning. Really. MyISAM for many applications can work well with defaults. I’ve seen hundreds of GB databases ran with MyISAM with default settings and it worked reasonably. Innodb needs resources and it will not work well with defaults a lot. Tuning MyISAM from defaults rarely gives more than 2-3 times gain while it can be as much as 10-50 times for Innodb tables in particular for write intensive workloads. Check here for details.

---

Entry posted by peter | No comment

Add to: | | | |

Originally posted by peter from MySQL Performance Blog, on January 12, 2009 10:49 AM

Last week, I put up a link and commented about the Citi Field 2009 Inaugural Season Patch from the Mets and MLB, of which I said, “This is one of the most basic, uninspiring designs I have seen in quite some time.”

Today, in a post about the new patch for Yankee Stadium, Peter Abraham writes the following to his blog for the Journal News:

“I’m tempted to arm my 3-year-old nephew Jason with his markers and see if he can do better. He certainly can’t do any worse… You have to love the Mets, the only team that would design a patch for their new stadium that doesn’t mention the stadium or show any images of it.”

What’s more, in a recent report for ESPN.com, Paul Lukas, author of Uni Watch, adds:

“Let’s skip the metaphors and jokes and just proceed straight to the simple, declarative truth: This is the worst sleeve patch in MLB history…  As usual, the Mets don’t need to look far to see how they should have handled this. All it takes is a quick glance toward the Bronx… For the sake of fans everywhere, please get a clue already.”

…i’m speechless… seriously, i am without speech… thanks, guys…

Originally posted by Matthew Cerrone from MetsBlog.com, on January 12, 2009 9:37 AM

From Serious Eats: New York

From left: Trader Joe's storefront in Union Square. Photograph from ianqui on Flickr; Trader John's on 14th St. between 5th and 6th Ave. Photograph from the Shophound

Just three blocks from the bumpin' Union Square location of Trader Joe's, an eerily similar Trader John's will open this week from the Gristedes gang. Last week, Trader Joe's filed a complaint against Gristedes for such a "blatant attempt to confuse consumers and capitalize on Trader Joe's hard-earned goodwill."

But John Catsimatidis, owner of the Gristede's grocery chain, sees no wrongdoing. ""My name is John. I've been a trader all my life."

After the jump, check out frequent commenter simon cited in the 51-page legal complaint against Trader John's.

Thanks, Gawker!

Serious Eaters started chatting about the Trader Doppelgänger in December with this Talk thread. Frequent commenter simon had this to say, which according to the New York Post, has been used as evidence in Trader Joe's argument for the cultural rip-off:

LOL, if true that would be hilarious. Reminds me of the Simpsons episode when their TV breaks and they are looking to replace it with a cheap knock off brand, such as Sorny or Panaphonics or Magnetbox.

My loyalty is with the original Joe. Plus, does John even have as many international aliases (Trader Jose, Trader Joe-San, Baker Josef)?

Originally posted by Erin Zimmer from Serious Eats, on January 12, 2009 9:00 AM

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on January 12, 2009 4:59 AM

A few days ago our friend Just in Berlin spotted these adbusted posters in Berlin.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Wooster Collective, on January 12, 2009 2:44 AM

A look at the innovation that a few of my colleagues in the multimedia and interactive news teams at The New York Times are churning out regularly. Frankly, it’s refreshing to read a positive piece about our future amidst all the gloomy predictions.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Subtraction.com, on January 12, 2009 2:42 AM

The events of last year took place on a grand scale. Yet some of the most satisfying classical disks of the past few months offer performances of the most intimate kind. Keeril Makan is an arrestingly gifted young American composer, as he proves on his new album, “In Sound” (Tzadik . . .

Originally posted by Russell Platt from The New Yorker, on January 11, 2009 7:00 PM

@cshirky: "you never hear 20-year-olds talking about information overload because they understand the filters they’re given. You only hear, you know, forty- and fifty-year-olds taking about it, sixty-year-olds talking about because we grew up in the world of card catalogs and TV Guide. And now, all the filters we’re used to are broken and we’d like to blame it on the environment instead of admitting that we’re just, you know, we just don’t understand what’s going on."

Originally posted by scottheif from Scott Heiferman's Notes, on January 11, 2009 3:55 PM

One the the benefits of my free agent status is that I can occasionally push the envelope on certain rules in a spirit of “see what happens” realizing that some small town in Vermont won’t be bankrupted if I get sued. I’ve often said that I’d like to see more civil disobedience from libraries concerning copyright legislation (especially concerning public performance rights to movies and ability to make copies of our own content) but it’s not happening quickly. That said, as you may know, I make some videos and have put them on YouTube. One of them was popular for a little while. Sadly, that one had a soundtrack from a Beausoleil album that I liked and did not have permission to use. The other much less popular video was just some shots out the window driving in a rainstorm while listening to the radio. The song in question comes on the radio for about the last minute of my video.

Last week I got an email from YouTube saying… I don’t still have the email but in short their Video Identification tool had matched a song in two of my videos and my videos had immediately been removed from public viewing. My options were to 1. delete the audio and/or use their AudioSwap feature to replace it 2. dispute the copyright claim on a few grounds 3. delete the video. I opted to try AudioSwap for my popular video, sort of sad because it removes my voiceover and other sound effects, but decent because it’s a better option than removing the video entirely. I replaced the soundtrack with a free track from AudioSwap. If I felt like I had time and energy I’d write to Michael Doucet and see if he’d give me permission, but it’s probably not even him but his record company, etc. The AudioSwap interface is clunky and may or may not put an advertisement in your video (and hasn’t worked yet for me but I keep trying) but it’s a good option to have.

In the second case, I really feel like I have a decent Fair Use case, so I filled out this form. The form says that I think the clip is fair use under copyright law. It’s my responsibility to “understand the law” according to YouTube, and that is my understanding of it. I had to “sign” it and also type [well copy/paste] the line that says I’m not intentionally abusing the dispute process. After I did that, I was sent to this help article to see what will happen next. The article warns

If the content owner disagrees with your dispute for any reason, they will have the option to submit a copyright takedown notice which will result in the disabling of your video and/or penalties against your account. To avoid penalization, only submit legitimate dispute claims.

So, we’ll see. I think I’m right. I hope the copyright holder thinks so too. At the very least they will be bored with four minutes of windshield rainstorm before they even hear their song and even then they’ll probably be straining saying “Is that it?” At the worst, I’ll get some sort of “penalty against my account” of unspecified awfulness. So, for those of you too timid to try this at home, or possibly being cavalier about the audio you swipe, that’s my report of the consequences … so far.

Originally posted by jessamyn from librarian.net, on January 11, 2009 3:24 PM

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-1-11):

1. The B-52’s (2) 
2. Curve (2) 
3. Inspiral Carpets (2) 
4. Stereolab (1) 
5. Moscow Olympics (1) 

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

Originally posted by (author unknown) from the real janelle, on January 11, 2009 12:56 PM

January 11, 2009 - 12:52 p.m. - Venice, CA

Originally posted by hustler of culture from hustler of culture, on January 11, 2009 10:52 AM

Some Questions Can’t Be Answered by Google (via Mykl Roventine)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Scribbling.net, on January 11, 2009 10:08 AM

 Bookmark this on Delicious - Saved by fieldswn to _to_read - More about this bookmark

Originally posted by fieldswn from Delicious/network/sudama, on January 11, 2009 8:45 AM

In Tim O'Reilly's Work on Stuff that Matters he elaborated on three criteria that constitute "stuff that matters" for his readers:

• Work on something that matters to you more than money.
• Create more value than you capture.
• Take the long view.

A number of folks where surprised when I announced that I was joining craigslist back in July but it's an organization that I really admire. Having been there about 6 months now, I can definitely say that it's a job that matters based on Tim's thinking and my own.

Every time I meet someone and tell them where I work, their reaction is quite positive. They've had a good experience with craigslist, like the service, love the philosophy, and so on. Craigslist matters ordinary people--not just technology nuts.

Similarly, I know that we create more value than we capture. The majority of our service is free and usage seems to be growing all the time. People I talk to get such good responses with craigslist classifieds (compared to, say, newspapers) that I know we're giving people more than their money's worth.

As for taking the long view, I think being a non-public company helps that a lot. I've rarely thought about what "the next quarter" will bring. It's quite a contrast from my years at Yahoo. When we're discussing technology infrastructure, I'm always trying to think ahead a year or two (or more). But the day to day ups and downs just don't feel as important the way we operate. I like that.

All in all, I've been very happy with the change and am glad that Tim posted something that helped me to explain what I like about it.

(comments)

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Jeremy Zawodny's blog, on January 11, 2009 6:05 AM