Gothamist makes a pilgrimage to Per Se and isn’t disappointed
Gothamist makes a pilgrimage to Per Se and isn’t disappointed.
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Entries for January 2005
A long New Yorker profile of Johnny Carson from 1978
A long New Yorker profile of Johnny Carson from 1978.
Comparative Morphologies
Comparative Morphologies. “What looks like vintage natural history studies turns out to be, on closer inspection, images of computer and technological cords and peripherals, each slightly manipulated to take on organic characteristics—a fused or sprouting growth from a stem, a viral infection, or a radial symmetry.”
Student photographer’s expulsion from his dorm for
Student photographer’s expulsion from his dorm for taking photos raises questions about the rights and responsibilities of photojournalists. “Vega’s pictures of partying, binge drinking, oral sex and, in particular, an alleged car burglary, thrust him into the center of a debate among photojournalists over their rights and responsibilities.”
Discarded Titles for George Orwell’s 1984
Discarded Titles for George Orwell’s 1984. “O, Brother, Where Art Thou? Oh Right, Everywhere”
The A/C trains are massively hosed
The A/C trains are massively hosed up due to a fire over the weekend. The C may be out of commission for *five years* (wtf?). What a nightmare.
Stephen is using Flickr to identify airports
Stephen is using Flickr to identify airports that have available power outlets and wifi.
Video of Jobs introducing the Macintosh in 1984
The Apple Macintosh turns 21 years old today and as a birthday present, the long-lost video of its introduction by Steve Jobs has been posted to the web by TextLab on their weblog:
Fear not, faithful Mac believers. We have found it. We have found what seems to be the only copy of a public TV broadcast on that very day. It was recorded and preserved by Scott Knaster, the “legendary Mac hacker”, as Amazon puts it. Scott kept the tape (a NTSC Betamax III longplay) for 21 years since he keeps everything. Andy Hertzfeld saw it when he wrote the story “The Times They Are A-Changin’” on folklore.org. From there we followed the hints, and that’s how we found it.
We worked with Scott to convert it from NTSC to PAL, we’ve polished it, cleaned it, huged it and digitzed it. Here it is. It goes back to the people who’ve made the Macintosh, and to the world. The complete material of about 2 hours is returned to Scott, Andy and the folklore.org people, and this weblog will report the story of the “missing 1984 video” in detail. We’ll release other clips in the coming days, so bookmark and check back.
That page is super slow right now, so I’ve compiled a few links to the video (QuickTime, 20.9 MB). Enjoy:
Torrent file (use this if at all possible)
Torrent file (use this if at all possible)
preinheimer.com
cm.math.uiuc.edu/~staffin/
urbanmainframe.com.nyud.net:8090
ad.hominem.org
kappesante.com
brooksnet.plus.com
bluehome.net
afsheenfamily.com
kottke.org
cluecoder.org/~bene/
publicvoidblog.de
php-schmiede.de
mac-software-updates.de
homepage.mac.com/sdomanske/
Thanks to Peter for the pointer.
Ben Goodger, lead developer for Firefox, is
Ben Goodger, lead developer for Firefox, is now working for Google. Hello, Google Browser?
My Audioscrobbler page
My Audioscrobbler page. Cripes, I listen to a lot of indie rock. This should be more interesting after a longer time period, when everything evens out.
The tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan has
The tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan has banned smoking in public and the selling of tobacco.
Get yer “Brad left Jen for me”
Get yer “Brad left Jen for me” t-shirt while they last. Comes in women’s and men’s cuts.
The joys and challenges of using the
The joys and challenges of using the web for linguistic research. “The web is filled with words intended to attract internet searches to gambling and pornography sites, and these can muck up linguists’ results.”
Maximum Starbucks density
Justin notes that he’s got 43 Starbucks within a 5-mile radius of his apartment and now he’s looking for the highest concentration:
I’ve got 43 Starbucks locations within a five-mile radius of my apartment. First of all, what the fuck? Second of all, and I can’t help but to get competitive here, can anyone beat that?
Update: 162 is the new high (from the top of Regent’s street in London).
My old work address in Manhattan (45th and Madison) has 169 stores within 5 miles. Put your address into the Starbucks locator and see what your Starbucks density is. (Note: to find the number of stores, scroll to the bottom of the search listings and find the “(Showing 1-20 of xxx Stores)” text.)
Exploring the law of unintended consequences
Exploring the law of unintended consequences. “The law of unintended consequences shows us how many innocent innovations like email, anti-virus and DRM can become something far worse than the inventors had ever imagined.”
Craigslist and cottage industries
In NYC, when you don’t have a car and you need to move stuff that won’t fit in a taxi and isn’t enough that you need an entire huge moving van, you call a “man with a van”.** I recently used the services of a guy named Paul, recommended by a friend of a friend. After packing the back of his truck with my things, we set off for our destination, chatting along the way. He asked me how I’d found him and we eventually got to talking about craigslist.
Paul told me that these days, he got most of his jobs from CL and only one or two a week from personal referrals. I found that surprising and when I pressed him further, he told me that because of CL, he’s been able to do pursue moving (which he really likes doing) as a full-time career. I can’t remember the exact quote, but Paul said something to the effect that he can’t believe he’s getting away with starting a full-time business on CL without it costing him a single dime.
I’d never really thought about it before, but in some ways, CL helps lots of people build businesses cheaper and more effectively than more “robust”, complex, and expensive enterprise software solutions. Movers are just one example. CL can help you find employees for your business. If you’ve got a van, you can pick up free furniture and electronics around the city, fix or refurbish, and sell it. You can start a business doing computer troubleshooting, piano lessons, buying and fixing up old motorcycles, or escort and sensual massage services. And if you need something done for your business but don’t have the money to pay for it, you can always barter goods or services in exchange. These are just the obvious examples. Does anyone know of anyone using craigslist in more creative ways to make a living or other examples of people succeeding in business using CL?
** Don’t know how this evolved, but folks in the “man with a van” profession like to rhyme the names of their businesses. My guy was “Call Paul to Haul”, but you will also probably find “Chuck/Buck with a Truck”, “Cory with a Lorry”, “Schmuck with a Truck”, “Call Jack to Pack”, and so on. (Oh, I’d recommend using Paul if you need a man with a van…check here for his info.)
The Incredibles DVD available for preorder on Amazon
The Incredibles DVD available for preorder on Amazon. Release date is March 15.
Patriots handle Pittsburgh and are in the
Patriots handle Pittsburgh and are in the Super Bowl for the 3rd time in 4 years.
Fixing the poor animation in The Polar Express
Fixing the poor animation in The Polar Express. Also a bit about Gollum, The Incredibles, and the uncanny valley.
What it’s really like to be a homicide detective
What it’s really like to be a homicide detective. “Never trust a detective who dresses like one of those TV characters”.
The One to One Future
The One to One Future. “In the future, companies will do their best to get their hands on as much of your original writing as they can.”
Man, I would have killed to have
Man, I would have killed to have access to the Doctor Who Wikipedia page when I was a kid.
Protesters burn an American flag during the inauguration
Protesters burn an American flag during the inauguration.
Paul Ford’s three favorite computer games of 2004
Paul Ford’s three favorite computer games of 2004. Cat Ball Shaver is a quirky tour-de-force.
“Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, suggested
“Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, suggested the other day that innate differences between the sexes might help explain why relatively few women become professional scientists or engineers.”. “But the best signal to send to talented girls and boys is that science isn’t about respecting sensitivities. It’s about respecting facts. The only people who don’t belong in science, male or female, are those who would rather close their eyes-and yours-than see what’s there.”
Man uses tortilla as a breadboard for making electronics
Man uses tortilla as a breadboard for making electronics. Great hack.
Johnny Carson occasionally writes jokes for Letterman
Johnny Carson occasionally writes jokes for Letterman. Bet he doesn’t send jokes to Leno.
Can you think better when you’re typing
Can you think better when you’re typing versus when you’re writing?.
“While there are essentially no disparities in
“While there are essentially no disparities in general intelligence between the sexes, a UC Irvine study has found significant differences in brain areas where males and females manifest their intelligence.”. Men’s brains generally have more processing power while women’s have more connecting power.
“There is no such word as ‘theirselves’ (
“There is no such word as ‘theirselves’ (and you certainly can’t spell it ‘theirselfs’ or ‘thierselves’); it’s ‘themselves.’”. My brain is just not functioning well these days.
Awards voting and the catch-22 the movie
Awards voting and the catch-22 the movie studios find themselves in. DVD screeners need to be sent out in order for the voters to see the studios’ movies, but the process and end product are often so painful that some films find themselves out of the running.
Taschen is releasing a (pretty expensive) book about Stanley Kubrick
Taschen is releasing a (pretty expensive) book about Stanley Kubrick.
The Morning News is holding a tournament of books
The Morning News is holding a tournament of books. It’s like March Madness, except with books and in February.
Photographs of signs enforcing racial discrimination from
Photographs of signs enforcing racial discrimination from the Library of Congress.
Oldish Gladwell interview on steroids, choking, and
Oldish Gladwell interview on steroids, choking, and why he hates baseball. My review of Blink is coming soon. I hope.
37signals launches Ta-Da Lists: “simple shareable to-do lists”
37signals launches Ta-Da Lists: “simple shareable to-do lists”. It’s a mini web app that they spun out of Basecamp.
Update and travels
Sorry for the lack of updates around here. I’ve been busy and preoccupied with other things, mostly just trying to put one foot in front of the other. I’ve got all sorts of things I want to talk about but just don’t have the energy to do so. Justin sums up what it’s like sometimes for those of us who have been putting their lives online for awhile now…the ways in which we can paint ourselves into corners using this still-new social platform without realizing it until it’s too late. Justin pours much more of his life onto his site than I do mine, but enough of me is here that his video made me cry about my own experiences a bit.
Anyway, I hope things will be returning to normal around here soon…the remaindered links should continue as usual (more or less) since they’re pretty easy to do. In the meantime, I’m going to be in London at the end of the month for a few days, an attempt to change my perspective a bit and get reamed by the exchange rate in the process. I’m considering a trip to SXSW in March. I haven’t been for a couple years and it would be nice to see everyone again (and hopefully not get food poisoning this time). I’m also thinking about going to Thailand in March (which may kill the SXSW trip). My dad is there & familiar with the area and I’ve only heard good things the country. But we’ll see.
The architecture of density, photography from Hong Kong
The architecture of density, photography from Hong Kong.
JavaScript, “the world’s most misunderstood programming language”
JavaScript, “the world’s most misunderstood programming language”.
What If…
What If…. “[This chart represents] the ways my life could have deviated from its actual path”.
The College Humor guys get the Rebecca
The College Humor guys get the Rebecca Mead treatment in the New Yorker. “The friends finally arrived in New York last summer, and took up residence in a newly renovated, forty-two-hundred-square-foot, five-bedroom loft in Tribeca, which rents for ten thousand dollars a month — a move that bears about as much relation to the typical postcollegiate experience as ‘Sex and the City’ does to the demographic it purports to represent”.
Soderbergh and Clooney try to “combine art
Soderbergh and Clooney try to “combine art and box office in Hollywood”. And it’s not working out too well.
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