All my blog posts and articles
Handmeon.com is a cool idea, perhaps showing that Web 2.0 entrepreneurs may be running out of ideas: “The idea behind gift ecology is to introduce objects – they can be store-bought, found, or handmade – into an ownership matrix that moves them along from recipient to recipient, accruing history and soci...
Who would think that our advanced space fairing craft have a YERO (Year End Rollover) problem? From an article about the YERO problem:
“The YERO problem relates to the shuttle orbiter’s computers needing to reset through a change of year, which could cause a glitch on orbit.” (from Nasa News)
I’ve been reading more about the pre-Shuttle space program. One factoid which is almost hard to believe was that the computers on the Apollo had the power of a modern day digital watch. I bet they didn’t have a YERO problem 🙂
If you know or remember the great Inner Beauty hot sauce, then you will be interested in this article whice (claims to) reveal the actual, original recipe for Inner Beauty Hotsauce. Let me warn you, it is very hot. I tried making a batch. It’s quite easy in the food processor. How did it come out? I would give it a B+ on my first attempt. It resembles the real thing but I thought the spicyness hid the flavor a little, and also it was a bit too watery.
Next time I will try to up the mustard quantity a little.
Still quite good, worth a try!
Check out this post from apophenia (no I didn’t write it 🙂 Dear Clothing Designers,
I am disappointed in your lack of understanding of the diversity of women’s bodies. I traipsed down Broadway, into Soho, and out to the malls in search of a pair of pants that fit. I was willing to spend a decent amount of money on said pants so I visited everything from high end designers to department and chain stores.
I tried on over 150 pairs and came up empty handed. I tried on pants ranging from sizes 6-12, petites, regulars, and “short.” I was even willing to get the bottoms ...
Here’s an interesting new product, just into beta: Inquisix. This is a service for sales people who need a more effective alternative to cold calling to generate leads. They say: “Now there’s no need to waste time on cold calling when contacts are just an Inquisix Trusted Referral Away.”
Here is something about their process:
“… [snip] Inquisix reviews those requests and alerts only the members who could make those introductions. Those members review your online profile and reputation to determine if their customers would be interested in an introduction. [snip…]”
I’ve looked at the product (even though I am not a ‘prospect’ myself) and it makes a lot of sense. You may want to check it out – they are taking beta applications.
Check out this post from I, Cringely . The Pulpit | PBS: A couple months have passed since I announced Team Cringely, my plan to win the Google Lunar X Prize by landing a rover on the Moon and driving it around. This week the first of the GLX contestants formally registered with more to follow, including Team Cringely, so it would seem that an update is in order. Mostly, though, I want to cover what has emerged as the primary motivation behind Team Cringely, which is literally preserving the entire idea of going to space, an idea that — at lea...
Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic with a interesting article about torture.
Andy went to FlexCamp last week and was good enough to write up his observations. He says: “The new Flash 9 Player puts Flash squarely on par with Java (technology-wise), with a high-performance JIT VM (AVM2), a real programming language (ActionScript), and a mature tool set.” (from blog.payne.org)
Yes , but, I think the biggest, biggest deal about Flash and Flex is that some huge perc...
Just a curious fact from Scientific American: “All the bacteria living inside you would fill a half-gallon jug; there are 10 times more bacterial cells in your body than human cells [snip…]”
I discovered a new funny blog: it’s the List of Lists blog. For example, check out this post from A List of Lists: Arsoli (Lazio, Italy) Bastard (Norway) Brown Willy (Cornwall,UK) Chinaman’s Knob (Australia) Climax (Colorado, USA) Cunt (Spain) Cunter (Switzerland) Dikshit (India) Dildo (Newfoundland, Canada)
Dong Rack (Thailand-Cambodia border) Hold With Hope (Greenland) Intercourse (Pennsylvania, USA)
Lickey End (West Midlands, UK) Little Dix Village (West Indies) Lord Berkeley’s Knob (Sutherland, Scotland) Muff (Northern Ireland) Nobber (Donegal, Ireland) Pis Pis River (Nicaragua) Sexmo...
Have you had this debate? Does cold weather cause people to catch colds more easily or not? Well here’s an interesting article that says there is ‘scientific’ proof that flu infections do in fact spread more during cold winter months: “Researchers in New York believe they have solved one of the great mysteries of the flu: Why does the infection spread primarily in the winter months? The answer, they say, has to do with the virus itself. It is more stable and stays in the air longer when air is cold and dry, the exact conditions for much of the flu season.” (from New York Times)...
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi4fzvQ6I-o&rel=1]
Chris Herot tells the story of Convoq (which then became Zingdom) from the very beginning to the very end. An interesting chronology, worth reading if you’re thinking of (or are currently) playing the startup game. “The company formerly known as Convoq, and later as Zingdom Communications, closed its doors Friday, November 30th. It was the end of a five-year run that saw three rounds of capital and a comparable number of CEOs and product strategies.
While the company was an innovator in on-line meetings, and had a core group of enthusiastic customers, it never achieved the traction that would have provided the necessary return ...
You know I am a fan of Google. But lately I’ve had some conversations which have sensitized me to noticing the quality of Google’s search results. As I’ve written elsewhere, the world of Search Engine Optimization is all about manipulating Google’s search results to help businesses make money. Let me give you a case study. Right now in Boston we have the musical Mama Mia playing at the Colonial theater. If I wanted to find out the times and prices of tickets, I might search for “...
Tom Friedman recently had a good column about global warming (“global climate change”) and what is, or should be being done about it, where he quotes the Onion: ““Fall, the long-running series of shorter days and cooler nights, was canceled earlier this week after nearly 3 billion seasons on Earth, sources reported Tuesday.”
Anyway, read the whole thing.
Also while you are at it, take a look at the referenced MIT Project, the Vehicle Design Summit.
And while you are at it, here is a collection of the best blogs on Green Tech, from BlogBridge topic expert Al Tepper
Joel Spolsky of Joel on Software gave an outstanding talk at Yale which he has written up on his blog. For budding Computer Science majors, people getting into the computer world or business, there is a lot of good wisdom to be found here: My favorite passage is the discussion about the value put on software, from the perspective of those who are involved in creating it. Here’s how he introduces the topic, but you should really read the whole thing:
“Currently, in the battle between the geeks and the suits, the suits are winning, because they control the budget, and honestly, I don’t know if that’s such a bad thing. The suits recognize that there are diminishing returns to f...
Recently there was a comment to one of my post asking the perennial question that non-bloggers ask of bloggers, (and bloggers ask of themselve all the time too 🙂 “Hello, I was wondering if you could answer these 3 simple questions for a school project about blogging. It would be great if you could help me out. THANKS
How did you get into blogging?
What drives you to blog about something?
How has blogging affected you?”
If you search around you will find numerous people who have answered this question over the years, including my own self. So I won’t wax too philosophically but just give you my gut responses to these questions:
“How did you get into bl...
Search Engine Optimization is a weird wacky world with experts, oracles, analysis, opinion and superstition. If you are into it, here’s a look at how complex and intricate SEO gets. But when there are gazillions of dollars involved, I guess is kind of inevitable.
I can’t figure out exactly how it was made. I would have expected to see the photographer and camera in each shot. They must be some kind of composite.