February 2012
13 posts
2 tags
'But Facts – Like What Time the Sun Rises – Are... →
Thank you EFF.
1 tag
Big Numbers →
We are looking to hire for a lot of roles right now. There are three in particular I’d like to call out to this website’s smart, good-looking audience:
Web Frontend Engineer
Engineering Manager
Data Scientist
Over 1.2 million websites. 70 million users. Disqus is the largest Django application and one of the largest pure Python implementations on the web. If you like big numbers...
2 tags
Ouchier? →
Erik Wemple, for the Washington Post:
The ouch gets ouchier as the blog post quotes a blogger John Gruber from Daring Fireball .
How quickly was this article written? (Yes that’s a space before the period.)
Read Gruber’s piece, Mountain Lion, instead. It is worth the read.
1 tag
10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy →
Read this to write better.
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'When You Love Doing Something, Nobody Can Stop... →
Just discovered this year-old Japan Times interview with Yoshitaka Amano, the man responsible for some of the most unforgettable art in video game history. Exhibit A. Exhibit B.
1 tag
A History of Backups
In twenty years I went from not understanding the value of backups to evangelizing backups to never needing to back up my data again.
Let me explain.
Twenty years ago I never backed up my data.
Fifteen years ago I was making weekly backups of my data. I had gotten the hacker bug — I was building computers and enrolling in every technology course available. As with most hackers I desired...
1 tag
Not-So-Hidden Costs →
Yearly Comcast subscription: $1030.92. Yearly Netflix + Hulu subscriptions: $191.76. Difference: $839.16.
So the question is: how much will you miss that $840?
(Via the Future Journalism Project.)
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First Lady Michelle Obama Plays Tug of War with... →
I’m pro-tug of war.
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Who Watches the Watchmen? →
It’s looking more and more like employees from VEVO, the music video website jointly owned by Sony, Universal, and Abu Dhabi Media, pirated an NFL game at their own event at Sundance. Jason Kincaid’s piece is worth reading in its entirety.
Via MG:
Why would VEVO pirate content? Because it was easier than getting it legally. This is the actual root cause of piracy online. It’s not...
1 tag
Today in a Nutshell →
For me, watching sports — Superbowl or otherwise — is good for usually two things: another excuse to spend time with friends + hot dogs/nachos.
Go Piggers!
BONUS UPDATE: The Simpsons’ classic take on the Superbowl.
1 tag
'I Haven’t been Drunk in 3 Years… And I’ve Been... →
Link bait-y title, heart-warming tale.
1 tag
Cathedral 1, Bricklayers 0 →
What’s your favourite parable?
3 tags
Henry Miller's 11 Commandments →
Brilliance:
Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
(Via Amanda Nudelman.)
3 tags
Yahoo Messed Up Today →
Nolan Caudill on Yahoo laying off the highest level of Flickr’s customer support team yesterday:
Flickr-the-site will be fine but Flickr-the-culture took a huge hit today and those suits in Sunnyvale balancing some column or doing their thousandth “re-org” are completely to blame. I bet they don’t even know what they’ve done and that’s probably the worst...
January 2012
27 posts
2 tags
'We Are Going after All Americans. We Would Like... →
Ron Johnson, in an interview with the AP:
Q. What ideals have you embraced from Steve Jobs?
A. The importance of doing everything you do to your very best. And that the journey is the reward. If you do things well one at a time, you end up in a really good place. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Control the things you can.
(Via Gruber.)
2 tags
A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope →
Keith Martin completely re-evaluates the story and plot of A New Hope in light of the prequels. Meticulous in a good way.
3 tags
Happiness Takes (A Little) Magic →
Brian Lam, on technology (news) addiction:
If you make content that is the intellectual equivalent of gummy bears, your site will appear to grow quickly. Advertisers reward size, and growing fast is expected in most places I’ve seen. Last month I visited Xeni Jardin, my blog-sister from Boing Boing and she said to me, “Only cancer and bullshit websites grow fast.”
And a...
1 tag
The Third & The Seventh →
In 2009 I first watched this short film by Alex Roman and nearly cried from its purity and its beauty — I’d never seen anything like it.
Today I’d like to share it with you.
3 tags
'Wait, Did I Just Hear a webOS Alert Tone in the... →
Josh Topolsky interviews Jon Rubinstein now that he’s left HP.
3 tags
Reading on the Web Needs Its iPhone →
Wherein Rian Van Der Merwe disparages, or rather describes how advertising is disparaging, the current state of reading on the Web. These certainly aren’t new thoughts to web designers, developers, or just plain-old lovers, but they remain as important as ever.
1 tag
'Exact Nonsense' →
Penn Jillette, in his book God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales:
There is no god and that’s the simple truth. If every trace of any single religion died out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again. There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense. If all of science were wiped out, it would...
4 tags
'How Much Do Music and Movie Piracy Really Hurt... →
Answer: No one has any idea.
That PIPA and SOPA can get as much traction as they did without an answer to this, the most basic question, is frightening.
(Via MG Siegler.)
2 tags
'Perspective' →
Farhad Manjoo:
Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).
(Via John Gruber.)
2 tags
Yep →
Jonathan Coulton:
Make good stuff, then make it easy for people to buy it. There’s your anti-piracy plan.
(Via Merlin Mann.)
1 tag
'Don't Cry. Disney Owns The Right to That... →
Hitler reacts to SOPA.
3 tags
EFF's 2011 in Review: The Year Secrecy Jumped the... →
This is my concerned face.
2 tags
Nothing Good Gets Away →
Such a beautiful letter from John Steinbeck to his son Thom, who needed advice when he believed himself to have fallen in love with a young girl named Susan at his boarding school.
(Via Frank Chimero.)
1 tag
Does Culture Matter for Product Design? →
Don Norman ruminates on Human-Centered Design vs. (what he calls) Activity-Centered design and the value/quantity of instilling culture when designing products. Classic, thought-provoking Norman.
4 tags
Kill Your Ego, Be Happy →
Wisdom.
(Via egomaniac Amanda Nudelman.)
3 tags
Fred Wilson: 'Pseudonyms Drive Community' →
Fred Wilson was kind enough to write up a little summary on our recently-released pseudonym research. A lot of people have raised valid points since we published the data and we’re keeping in that in mind as we continue our newfound love for research.
In the meantime though, the value of pseudonyms remains personified on Fred’s blog, A VC. A top-notch community filled with classy,...
2 tags
61 Percent Of Disqus Comments Are Made With... →
Fun fact of the day.
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Just Because Something Is The Way It Is Doesn't... →
Clay Johnson, on SOPA and how/why Internet defenders should also take the time to get to know how Congress works:
Right now, if you want effective legislation around your industry, then you need to pay the right lobbyists, make the right campaign contributions, and write the right legislation at the right time in order to get it out of Washington. If you had to objectively pick the winning...
3 tags
Sickening. →
Lakhdar Boumediene on his wrongful arrest and incarceration in Guantánamo:
The fact that the United States had made a mistake was clear from the beginning. Bosnia’s highest court investigated the American claim, found that there was no evidence against me and ordered my release. But instead, the moment I was released American agents seized me and the five others. We were tied up like animals...
Nordstrom's Employee Handbook →
This has made the rounds numerous times. I love it but I’ve never formally shared it. Enjoy:
Welcome to Nordstrom
We’re glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them.
Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use best judgment in all...
4 tags
Steve Jobs' Vision of the World →
Steve Jobs:
When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you’re life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money.
That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by...
1 tag
Time Lapse View of Earth Taken from the... →
Should have sent a poet.
(Via Jason Major for Discovery News.)
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Don’t Be a Free User →
Maciej Ceglowski on the pattern of free-of-charge web services getting popular and then cashing out and shutting down:
What if a little site you love doesn’t have a business model? Yell at the developers! Explain that you are tired of good projects folding and are willing to pay cash American dollar to prevent that from happening. It doesn’t take prohibitive per-user revenue to put a project...
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Brilliant →
George Vaillant:
It is all too common for caterpillars to become butterflies and then to maintain that in their youth they had been little butterflies. Maturation makes liars of us all.
Added to Quotes.
3 tags
Nick Bilton Interviews Scott Harrison →
Bilton:
What have you learned that can help other nonprofits?
Harrison:
Simplicity is key. Be able to tell your story simply. I can’t tell you how many nonprofits I meet and after three minutes talking to them, I still have no idea what they do. Show. Don’t tell. And do it visually. Use the Web to tell people where their money has gone and let them see what it has done.
1 tag
'Portal 2 Is The Best Movie Of 2011.' →
Neven Mrgan recounts his favorite things in 2011.
December 2011
8 posts
2 tags
How Netflix gets out of the way of innovation →
Netflix’s Adrian Cockcroft:
But when I talk to other large companies about what we have done, they seem to have a lot of reasons why they couldn’t or didn’t do what we did, even if they wanted to.
(Via Scott Smith.)
3 tags
Think Long, Think Wrong →
MG Siegler, on Google removing his Google+ profile picture without warning because he was flipping the bird:
Google continues to walk this oddly vague line when it comes to Google+. At first it was all about real identity, like Facebook, but then when people complained, they backtracked from that. Now it’s all about “sharing in real life” — but it’s not real life. It’s some sterile...
3 tags
So The Real Question Is: Are We Still A... →
Ford Fox:
The EU is now blocking importation of technology into the United States that we cannot be trusted to use properly. As widely reported yesterday, the EU is cutting off our supply to the drugs we use for lethal injections […]
2 tags
'Remix Culture Is The New Prohibition' →
Andy Baio studies the use of the phrase “No copyright intended” on Youtube videos.
(Via John Gruber.)
3 tags
Siri and The Parent Test
My mom, in a recent email:
btw, we both used Siri for the first time last night. I asked it today what time the post office closed;). It didn’t know, and apologized.
The fact that my parents are using ‘btw’ is big. The fact that they finally bought iPhones (their first non-clamshell feature phone) is huge. The fact that they’re using Siri and then emailing me about...
2 tags
'Don’t buy this product.' →
Garrett Murray reviews the UP, Jawbone’s new “app-powered wrist band that inspires you to feel better and live healthier” competitor to the FitBit. Ravaging.
2 tags
Correlation or Causation? →
Or, answer the following question: There is a high degree of [correlation or causation?] between ice cream sales and murder rates.
(Via Oliver Reichenstein.)
2 tags
Dan Frommer's 10 Steps to Better Blogging →
Spot-on.
November 2011
7 posts
2 tags
Sega Sagan →
My life in a nutshell.
(Via Jonathan Jacques-Belletête.)
3 tags
Disqus on SOPA and Internet Censorship →
Today, we censor the Disqus logo. Screenshot for posterity.