March 2012
2 posts
5 tags
“The design instinct, above all, is about viewing the world around you as a place...”
– Sahil Lavingia, Pinterest’s Founding Designer Shares His Dead-Simple Design Philosophy
2 tags
“‘The best’ is not a thing. It’s a reward for winning the...”
– Dustin Curtis, Espresso, a perfectionists guide
February 2012
7 posts
4 tags
The Macalope Weekly: Who to Blame? →
This is such a great lede:
It’s simple, folks: Apple’s to blame for economic conditions in China, the Kindle Fire is to blame for the freaks of nature that are coming out from Samsung, and Siri is to blame for your grandmother dying alone.
Any questions?
6 tags
Willing
When I’m depressed, nothing can help me if I’m not willing to be helped — not drugs, not people, not time — nothing. Depression can create or consume; it can ignite or extinguish. The only way to overcome is to choose to do so. Only one person can fight depression: the person suffering from it.
Others can help, but only if I’m willing to let them; words can help, but only if...
5 tags
“Fear is strong but
people are stronger.”
– Michaela McCann, Avoidance vs. Bravery
"People who don’t suffer from depression, won’t... →
baileygenine:
People who are depressed most likely won’t tell you they’re depressed.
5 tags
The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But... →
Mary Catt for Chronicle Online (via Gina Tripani):
To uncover bias against creativity, the researchers used a subtle technique to measure unconscious bias — the kind to which people may not want to admit, such as racism. Results revealed that while people explicitly claimed to desire creative ideas, they actually associated creative ideas with negative words such as “vomit,”...
4 tags
Music From a Dry Cleaner →
Diego Stocco:
Almost everyday, on my way to a local bakery, I walk in front of a dry cleaners. When they have the front door open, I hear a lot of interesting sounds coming from their work equipment. Eventually, the different mechanical and steam sounds sparked something in my mind, so one day I asked the owners if I could record a piece of music by using their machines as musical...
5 tags
“[…] we’re all lobbyists now, and that’s just as it should be. This...”
– Jeff Jarvis, We are the Lobbyists
January 2012
40 posts
8 tags
How must it feel to be Rafa Nadal today? →
The epic warfware of tennis’ big three
Brian Phillips for Grantland:
The cruelest thing about this glutted golden age of men’s tennis is that it keeps producing astonishing matches, matches that actually expand your idea of what sport can be, and someone has to lose all of them.
This is a great story about the golden age that is currently unfolding in men’s tennis and...
6 tags
“Keep in mind that Apple’s penalty for losing the PC war in the 1990s is that it...”
– John Gruber, Daring Fireball
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“What’s satisfying about Apple’s current success is that it’s proof that you can...”
– John Gruber, Daring Fireball
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“Plants, animals, and minerals are not the only natural resources we have. We’re...”
– Vahid Yamartino, Resource
11 tags
New Learning Tools →
Last week Apple introduced several new things related to education including iBooks textbooks, iBooks Author, and iTunes U (for all entities, not just colleges).
All of these are significant, and the potential for these tools is exciting. The video they presented (7:21) at their event does a good job of illustrating why what they are doing is important to them and for students and teachers....
8 tags
“What’s going to kill movies and TV is what’s already killing them:...”
– Y Combinator, Request for Startups 9: Kill Hollywood
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“If Hollywood was smart, they would get in front of this change. They would use...”
– MG Siegler, Kill Hollywood, Not Movies
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Thank you for protecting Wikipedia. (We're not... →
Wikipedia, SOPA initiative:
SOPA and PIPA are not dead: they are waiting in the shadows. What’s happened in the last 24 hours, though, is extraordinary. The Internet has enabled creativity, knowledge, and innovation to shine. And as Wikipedia and other websites went dark, you’ve directed that energy to protecting it.
We’re turning the lights back on. Help us keep them shining brightly.
...
6 tags
Perfect Expectations
As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly.
— Samuel Johnson
It sometimes seems as though life can become defined by expectations — whether it is what you expect of yourself, of others, or what others might expect of you. When you think about it, most expectations are unrealistic, because you are making...
5 tags
Roswell Park Launches Landmark Immunotherapy... →
Dendritic cell vaccine, manufactured in unique RPCI facility, trains body’s defenses to remember, destroy cancer cells
Roswell Park Cancer Institute (via Mike Rundle):
The Center for Immunotherapy at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) has launched a phase I clinical research study of a dendritic cell vaccine designed to both eradicate cancer cells and prevent disease relapse.
It’s...
10 tags
“This is my political credo:
I believe in human dignity as the source of...”
– John F. Kennedy, Acceptance of the New York Liberal Party Nomination, September 14, 1960.
I reiterate my wish for nationalism to someday be worldism.
7 tags
Watch(audio)
Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961 — John F. Kennedy:
To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required—not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help...
9 tags
“No one built this country on their own. This nation is great because we built...”
– President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, Jan. 24, 2012
I hope the day comes where these words can be spoken, but instead of referring to national greatness, they can refer to worldly greatness. I am proudly American, but I look forward to a day when being a citizen of Earth is something...
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“Such ridiculous, destructive bills should never even pass committee review, but...”
– Marco Arment, The next SOPA
3 tags
“Your family does not need to be on a social network in order to be a family....”
– Merlin Mann, Back to Work #48: An Abrupt Existential Jerk 0:43:47
9 tags
Watch(watch flash-free)
KO Computer
Wikipedia goes dark for 24 hours in protest of SOPA, raising the question: do they expect us to go to the library like a common masturbator?
Humor is an incredibly effective weapon in fighting horrible legislation such as SOPA and PIPA, and Jon Stewart wields it like a master swordsman.
6 tags
“A comment is a view or an opinion; it’s inherently of a person. […]...”
– Matt Gemell, Authorship
7 tags
Watch(watch flash-free)
Clay Shirky: Why SOPA is a bad idea
What does a bill like PIPA/SOPA mean to our shareable world? At the TED offices, Clay Shirky delivers a proper manifesto — a call to defend our freedom to create, discuss, link and share, rather than passively consume.
Do yourself a favor, carve fifteen minutes out of your day, and watch this. Clay Shirky explains plainly why...
12 tags
In Congress
Congress, noun.
1. the legislature of the United States government[…]
4. the act of sexual procreation[…]
Congress is trying to fuck ruin the Internet as we know it, unwittingly or not.
I use the Internet every single day. I truly believe it is one of mankind’s single greatest inventions, because it allows for such free, open communication and expression. It...
6 tags
“Your plans are like a safety deposit box for your dreams. Capture them, pour the...”
– Randy Murray, Plans
4 tags
“We do it far too often, but we need to stop seeing children and young adults as...”
– Vahid Yamartino, Prime
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“I’ve never wondered about Knightley’s vagina before. Her characters, though...”
– Kartina Richardson, Keira Knightely’s Vagina: A Dangerous Method taps the allure of sexual dysfunction
10 tags
Magic has its costs →
Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory, which was originally titled Where Your Crap Comes From, is a monologue adapted for radio from Mike Daisey’s The Agony and Ecstacy of Steve Jobs. It explores his visit to Shenzhen, China and his revelations about the origins of his iDevices.
In Against Nostalgia, an op-ed published the day after Steve Jobs’ death, Mr. Daisey relays this experience:
...
9 tags
“If you have a prior belief that’s one-hundred-percent certain, be it about fair...”
– Matt Asher, The first thing you learned about probability is wrong*
4 tags
Did you know that...
…I had a tumblr for lovingly recording WTF moments by Microsoft.
…I collected images to provoke thought.
…they are both somewhat defunct, but I’m glad I made each of them, because doing so was enjoyable.
8 tags
Represent
Back when SOPA and PIPA were first becoming part of public consciousness, I sent an email to my representative in Washington, D.C. expressing my disapproval of the bill, and stated quite plainly that if it were to come to a vote and she supported it, I would not be voting for her, were she to seek reelection. Well, I finally got a response of what I assume is a form letter. At least I know it got...
5 tags
“…in many ways, iOS and Android are on two different planets.”
– Shawn Blanc, Baby Software
2 tags
“It’s impossible to express a useful opinion to any significantly sized audience...”
– Marco Arment, Fanboy Theory
3 tags
“Non-car-savvy people probably shouldn’t drive. Non-electricity-savvy...”
– Ray Andrews in the comments of this story about MobileMe services going away.
6 tags
4 tags
The form of the book →
Mandy Brown mines these gems:
The rhythm becomes more complex as the orchestra gets larger, but the desire for rhythm does not subside.
[…]
The digital book will never come into its own so long as it is treated as a byproduct, unworthy of attention.
[…]
If the form of the book is changing, it ought to lead to more variety, not less.
If you think these shine on their...
5 tags
I love reading words I could not have written before having read them but, after reading, wish I would have written. The same is true for hearing music.
4 tags
“‘Gamification’ is a word and concept invented by idiocrats who...”
– Brent Simmons, “Gamification” Sucks
(via Daring Fireball)
4 tags
“Rich people and gadget bloggers can upgrade their smartphones every 6 months,...”
– Marco Arment, on an Android problem
4 tags
“Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn’t belong here. Not...”
– Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
8 tags
Changes for the Healthier
In 2011 I made a couple of improvements to my life;
in 2012 I intend to maintain these improvements:
Awfully Sugary Sweets
Sometime in the fall of last year, my mom shared a segment with me from the Dr. Oz show about the amount of added sugar the average American consumes on a daily basis. He laid out spoons of sugar, showing in a a very concrete, visual form how much of this stuff we pour...
3 tags
6 tags
“What makes a hobby a business is whether you can make money with it, and we all...”
– Neven Mrgan, Focused dabbling
4 tags
Your emotions are cues. →
Michaela McCann’s least favorite phrase is “It could be worse.”
When you think it could be worse, you’re basically guaranteeing it.
So, I might suggest to those who know that it could be worse different, that you don’t think it through. Don’t try to gain perspective. Don’t try to come up with an answer. That’s not what that feeling needs.
6 tags
To all, especially friends:
May you have futures worth anticipating;
may you have memories worth cherishing;
and may you have moments worth living.
December 2011
26 posts
6 tags
