March 2011
1 post
How do you know you don't like it if you won't try... →
I’ve heard a lot of people decrying government funding of NPR and PBS. Amusingly none of these people have never experienced the fantastic content that they make available. Before you jump on the “death to public broadcasting” bandwagon I challenge you to give NPR a fair shot.
At first you’ll probably find the news a little dull without a pundit ranting and stomping...
September 2010
1 post
June 2010
4 posts
Resolving the iPhone resolution →
“As it happens, I know a thing or two about resolution as well, having spent a few years calibrating a camera on board Hubble.”
Well played, sir. Well played.
Neven Mrgan's tumbl: The Walled Garden →
This photo shows a walled garden*:
It is the Portland Japanese Garden, a city landmark that should be on any visitor’s shortlist. It’s beautiful, peaceful, clean, and well visited. Some consider it the most authentic Japanese garden worldwide (outside of Japan).
The garden is also…
May 2010
8 posts
Rands In Repose: The Shop I Want →
An amazing thing happens when you ask for help, people respond. In their response, not only do you get their opinion, you also get brief glimpse into how they tick, and whether or not that ticking is aligned with yours.
Rands In Repose: N.A.D.D. →
I have a horrible, chronic case of N.A.D.D.
Rands In Repose: A Glimpse and a Hook →
Time to update my resume…
Marco.org: A Verizon reality check →
It’s easy to glorify Verizon as an iPhone owner, because AT&T is so awful. But Verizon sucks, too — just in different ways, for the most part.
I’ve been a Verizon Wireless customer since 2004: phones for the first 4 years, and data via tethering and EVDO modems for the entire time. I recently…
“So much complexity in software comes from trying to make one thing do two...”
– Insight by Ryan at 37signals (via minimalmac)
A purely hypothetical investment exercise.
Lets pretend you’re an investor who purchases 60% of a struggling business for $50,000 knowing that it is currently worth somewhat less but hey, that’s why it’s called investing. As a condition of the purchase you require that $14,000 of the money be kept from the operating budget and placed in an account that the company can use in case some unforeseen complication of...
April 2010
6 posts
“Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to...”
– Steve Jobs - Thoughts on Flash (via minimalmac)
Boy Scouts Give Up Entirely, Offer Video Game... →
And the show has reached a new low…
In multitasking, more than two tasks do not... →
Turns out the human brain is somewhere between a dual core processor and a single core with hyper-threading.
Cooling the datacenter: "hippie engineering" meets... →
Saving money while conserving resources. It’s not about place shifting consumption it’s about optimizing a system thermodynamically to its surroundings.
From "sideshow freak" to "person of Walmart" →
Perhaps we need self restraint more than reworked health care or other social programs. Makes me wonder just how many of the problems facing the world could be solved with an increase of self governance.
Volkswagen and Stanford: Parking Cars Without... →
Thanks engineers, I’ve been waiting for this for years! Now, about my hoverboard…
March 2010
10 posts
Toyota - The fun never stops →
I NEED one of these shirts.
The Difference between Nerd, Dork, and Geek... →
I like to tell people I’m a geek and not a nerd. I’m not sure if they buy it.
Garage door company latest to take advantage of... →
Tasteless? Perhaps. Brilliant and twistedly hilarious? Absolutely.
Neighborhood Hazard (Or: Why the Cops Won't Patrol... →
A great story about a motorcyclist’s encounter with wildlife.
Google Responds To Privacy Concerns With... →
Oh how I love The Onion.
Who Cares About the Academy Awards? →
Todd from “An Engineering Mind” fully captures why I can’t take Hollywood seriously.
Fractions of a Second: An Olympic Musical -... →
The fact that all of the athletes finish this close to each other blows my mind!
Headlamp - Wikipedia →
The bias for the outdated SAE standard is disgusting. Luddites…
February 2010
10 posts
The Wrens - Playing a breakfast-y tempo
merlin:
The Wrens - “Everyone Choose Sides” (Live Acoustic, 2006)
Please watch this 5-minute video. Because it encapsulates a lot of what makes the Wrens special to me.
Terrific song
Giant acoustic guitar mayhem
Lovely playing and harmonies by the Bros Whelan
Charles Bissell? Truly, a guitar nerd’s guitar nerd.
Jerry the Nicest Drummer in the World plays a goddamned box of Cap’n...
Simply amazing... →
Proof that God has a sense of humor and likes to mess with us from time to time. :)
The Wholesale Applications Community Sounds Like A... →
WatchNike commercial I saw during the olympics that I thought was really cool. It’s nice to see commercials that are well done outside of the Superbowl.
WatchIt’s like they’re in my head!
Southeast Toyota dealers pull ads from local ABC... →
Wow. I’m not sure that trying to punish the press for not ignoring your company’s mistake that impacted millions of people is a good way to prevent future bad press… Of course I’m just an engineer and not a PR guy.
"Cast not away therefore your confidence." →
Somebody shared this with me today and i thought it was good enough to share. The quote below is from a talk given by a leader of the LDS Church but it applies regardless of your religious beliefs.
“Don’t give up when the pressure mounts. Certainly don’t give in to that being who is bent on the destruction of your happiness. Face your doubts. Master your fears. “Cast not away therefore your...
January 2010
3 posts
Retro Virus - xkcd - By Randall Munroe →
Any time somebody asks me to help remove a virus from their computer or fix a problem rooted deep in the registry I always want to ask them if their horse and buggy is still getting them around okay… or if the leeching they received from their last doctor’s visit helped their arthritis…
Mostly I want to ask them if they had the same mixed feelings at the signing of the...
Input showdown - Pen v keyboard v Newton v... →
From Phil Gyford comes the first somewhat qualitative test on the various forms of getting data into a media. I thought the outcomes were a little surprising but they made sense.
It's about time!
Nobody else was outraged that Toyota continued selling vehicles known to eventually put your safety at risk? http://bit.ly/cyFxyn
Today Toyota finally halted the sell of vehicles that they have known have a potentially fatal design flaw. Any other car company would have been drawn and quartered by now but for some reason we the people have a soft spot for Toyota. I have made it no secret that I...