Double Agent?
I am reading a really cool book right now: GARBO: The Spy Who Saved D-Day
August 2013
Trouble in password land, again?
I was rather pleased with myself! I have been changing all my passwords to easier to remember but supposedly harder to crack passwords. I had read, on good authority, that making a password longer was a better protection that using lots of funky characters. So for example, I set my gmail password t...
Read more →Nice article about Algebra vs. Arithmetic
If you are anything like me, this is something you’ve try to articulate. Here’s a great article on that arcane topic! What is algebra? | profkeithdevlin: > Is mastery of algebra (i.e., algebraic thinking) worth the effort? You bet — though ...
Read more →Dear Consumer Reports #consumerreports
The way you try to get me to renew my subscription is just as bad as many of the merchants you call out in your reviews. It is August. I have now received 3 mailings saying things like “It’s almost too late” and “ THIRD NOTICE” reminding me to renew my subscription. My subscription doesn’t expire until December 2013, 4 months from now. We are barely half way through the subcription period. LEAVE ME ALONE please. You are setting a horrible example.
[GEEKY] List of Siri Commands
How to Use Siri – Full list of Siri Commands for iPhone, iPad, Video: > Below is a comprehensive Siri Commands List (updated for iOS6) for the new Siri Personal Assistant, optimized for mobile Safari browsers. These cool and useful Siri Commands can be used on your iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, iPad, iPad mini, and the iPod Touch. If you find this list helpful, or if you would like to add to our list of top Siri Commands, please use the comments section below.
Interesting article about Moocs and Higher Ed
Master’s Degree Is New Frontier of Study Online – NYTimes.com: > Next January, the Georgia Institute of Technology plans to offer a master’s degree in computer science through massive open online courses for a fraction of the on-campus cost, a first for an elite institution. If it even approaches its goal of drawing thousands of students, it could signal a change to the landscape of higher education.
Anonymity online: What good is it?
Seth Godin is said to have said that anonymous commenting is not a good thing: > “…Mathew, the forces for anonymous are running out of time. For almost two decades, the internet has been anonymous friendly, and what has come of it?…” (from [GigaOm](http://gigaom.com/2013/08/21/dear-arianna-ano...
Read more →Looked at the right way, this could be good news!
I came across this article a few days ago. The Ticktock of the Death Clock – NYTimes.com. Yes a depressing topic. The author muses on the wonderful internet resource DeathClock.com which purp...
Read more →July 2013
Whats reasonable to ask for before you invest $10K-$20K
A couple of entrepreneurs asked me whether I’d be interested in investing in their project at a very early stage. The question arose, what kind of information would I need (and by extension would any other potential angel need) to see before even considering this? - Most obviously, what would the ...
Read more →Tripadvisor Certificate of Excellence
We were on vacation in Greece and Turkey a few weeks ago and I noticed many TripAdvisor Certificate of this or that, hanging in windows of random shops on remote islands (and big cities) and I got to thinking, are these for real? Is there a simple way to get a counterfiet certificate? It’s just a pi...
Read more →Trees talk to each other at night and other facts
Cory Doctorow: Lies I’ve Told My 3 Year Old Recently Trees talk…: > “Lies I’ve Told My 3 Year Old Recently Trees talk to each other at night. All fish are named either Lorna or Jack. B...
Read more →All about Rolling Stone magazine
About a year ago I started reading Rolling Stone magazine. It’s true what Taibbi says, it’s definitely not People or EW magazine. Yes it does have good ‘cultural’ coverage about music and art and so on, but the writing is good and interesting and very often has nothing to do with music. All the upro...
Read more →Love/Hate Gmail
I’ve been using Gmail like forever now and have converted many friends and family members to using it. It’s great and it’s ridiculously cheap. Coupled with a good ad-suppressor plug-in for Safari (Mac) it works well for me. I do access it, almost always, via the desktop Mail app on Mac OSX, so I don...
Read more →GPS Free car tracking
Very clever! An Automated GPS-Free Location System For Cars | IdeaFeed | Big Think: > It works through the use of two simple cameras, which collect video data that is then compared to an OpenStreetMap area map. Through a process of elimination that takes place within an average of 20 seconds of driving, the system is able to figure out exactly where the car is. During tests conducted in Germany, it located cars to within 3 meters of their actual positions.
[GEEKY] Social login buttons considered harmful
You probably don’t know what a social login button is so forgive this bit of geekyness. I am sure you’ve seen them: “login with facebook or twitter?” If an app or a site wants to “save you the trouble” of registering a username and password, they may “make your life easier” by allowing you to regist...
Read more →Mustard from Trader Joe’s
My favorite mustard these days is the Dijon from Trader Joes’s! The Yellow Commodity Hotter Than Gold – Yahoo! Finance: > Mustard has always been seen as the perfect, zesty accompaniment to the all-American hot dog. But now it’s proving to be hot in an altogether different sense.
June 2013
Is a startup for you?
I always thought that startups are over glamorized. They are not for everyone. On the other hand, some people also over stress about the ‘risk’ of joining a startup, which I don’t by either. Check out: [Alex Payne — Letter To A Young Programmer Considering A Startup](http://al3x.net/2013/05/23/lette...
Read more →Politics and the soul
An interesting post from my pal Peter Miller about how we all view the world through our own biases and it’s hard to disentangle those from what might feel like clear eyed reasoning. (See Peter, I summarized your article in one sentence 🙂 [Politics and the Soul | ZeitgeistSurfer](http://zeitgeistsu...
Read more →Learn to make something
This bit of advice rings very true to me. Read the whole article, but here’s a tasty bit. @andrewchen: New essays for 06/03/2013: > 1) Learn to make something. Anything. First and foremost, I think it’s important to learn to make something. Anything. It could be an app, blog, table, YouTube channel, video tutorial, or anything else. Then study the people who have become successful enough to support themselves in this craft, and study them, copy them, stalk them, and meet them.
[GEEKY] Even the simplest things are complicated
I love this article revealing the beautiful hidden complexity of the lowly magsafe connector. Ken Shirriff’s blog: Teardown and exploration of Apple’s Magsafe connector: > Have you ever wondered what’s inside a Mac’s Magsafe connector? What controls the light? How does the Mac know what kind of charger it is? This article looks inside the Magsafe connector and answers those questions.