All my blog posts and articles
Ned Batchelder, my pal, points out that: > “Like the Super Bowl, Christmas is one concentrated day. For celebrants, it is the only thing happening that day, and it’s preceded by weeks of anticipation and preparation. Another similarity is the zeal with which businesses try to piggy-back on the exc...
Read more →[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzh-TKzXN2k&w=560&h=315]
You may have noticed that this Blog is now hosted on SquareSpace. I’ve been pretty happy with it so far. While it is kind of a closed system, there are extensive customization features that allow me to get pretty much what I want. And their support is 24×7 and **very ...
Read more →I noticed yesterday that sunset is now occurring at 4:12pm. The day before it was 4:11pm. So sunset is getting later! Summer is almost here, right? p.s. Before some smart-alec points it out, yes I know that sunrise is still getting later so the number of daylight hours are still shrinking. ** **It is left as an exercise to the reader to explain why the two events do not occur on the same day – in other words, sunset starts getting later several weeks before sunrise starts getting earlier. Note: the explanation is very complicated.
I’ve been playing around with each of the major tablets while considering ‘my next move’ 🙂 Oddly I have not been able to find a side by side comparison of their weights. After googling for 3 minutes. So as a public service let me transcribe my notes on this vital topic. - Apple iPad 2: 21.1 oz - Barnes and Nobel Nook Color: 15.8 oz - Amazon Kindle Fire: 14.6 oz - Barnes and Nobel Nook Tablet: 14.1 oz - Amazon Kindle Touch: 7.8 oz - Amazon Kindle 4: 5.9 oz
A remarkable article in Popular Mechanics (remember them?) about the crash of Air France 447. It was apparent clear case of human error and resulted in the death of 228 people. It is a c...
Read more →I continue to spend spare time on developing my Android tablet game. As you may remember from my last post, it involves a top view of a city. I’ve taken the time to learn a lot of Adobe Illustrator so I am used slightly more advanced techniques than last time. I have to admit that when I walk around town I am constantly noticing the width of sidewalks, the color of streets, whether there is grass right up to the side of the building and other silly details. Anyway, here is what I have so far. How do you like it? 
Interesting article by famous Guy Kawasaki about what he learned from Steve Jobs: > “But few, if any, of these people have been inside the tent and experienced first hand what it was like to work with him. I donât want any lessons to be lost or forgotten, so here is my list of the top twelve lessons that I learned from Steve Jobs.” (from What I learned from Steve Jobs)
Kashi is the new hot breakfast cereal. Wait, let me rephrase that: Kashi is a breakfast cereal that is getting very popular. It portrays an image of healthfulness and kind of a crunchy scrappy small company attitude. Turns out that they are just part of Kellogs Company.Oh Well!
What if when I typed into the search box in Safari (Mac OS X’s web browser) the text is interpreted by Siri? I could type “What’s the weather tomorrow” and it would display a forecast for tomorrow, or type “text my wife that I love her” and it would initiate a text message to my wife. Wouldn’t that be cool? I just typed into the search box “Is Kashi a company?” because I was in a Siri kind of mood, and of course I didn’t get a good answer. But maybe Siri on my iPhone would have known. (Update: I just tried it, and it didn’t but still, I think it’s a cool idea!)
A lot has been written about Siri (the new voice activated assistant in the iPhone 4s). I have to say that it works surprisingly well. It has been eerily accurate in properly transcribing my voice, although not quite as perfect in understanding w...
Read more →From the New York Times, How Exercise Benefits the Brain: > “For some time, scientists have believed that BDNF helps explain why mental functioning appears to improve with exercise. However, they havenât fully understood which parts of the brain are affected or how those effects influence thinking. The Irish study suggests that the increases in BDNF prompted by exercise may play a particular role in improving memory and recall.” (from NYT)
I bought a Groupon for a local restaurant. About 1 week before it expired I went to make a dinner reservation and it turned out that they were booked up for the next 3 months – and so effectively I could not use the groupon for dinner. I have to use it for lunch, and given the price and the value of...
Read more →A few months ago, a friend of mine told me he was struggling, really struggling with a big career decision. Here’s what I told him, and what I believe and have applied to my own decisions: > “Try to pay very close attention to what you yourself want to do. It is easy to get confused by expectation...
Read more →Just one phrase that jumped out of the new missive from Zuck about privacy: > “As a matter of fact, privacy is so deeply embedded in all of the development we do that every day **tens of thousands of servers worth of computational resourc...
Read more →This is just a weird story: > “An Apple iPhone spontaneously began smoking and emitting a red glow while aboard an airplane in Australia. Passengers aboard Regional Express flight ZL319 were welcomed t...
Read more →A useful article in the New York Times today, just in time for the holidays. Anew site that tries to forecast the best time to buy that item you really want.It seems to draw a graph showing how the price of, f...
Read more →This article gives a fascinating perspective on the disconnect between what they teach in law school and what knowledge is required to actually be an effective lawyer. Some great facts from the article...
Read more →Eric Riesis locally famous as being one of the strong promoters of the Lean Startup. He writes an [excellent and courageous article that explores why it is that there seem to be **many more whit...
Read more →Heads up: “Phone Bill Fees: How to identify 3rd-party charges and protect yourself” FROM FRAUD!