March 2010
29 posts
This taxi driver is playing the live action version of Grand Theft Auto.
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James Fallows' Interview with Google's Dan... →
Fallows’ raw transcript of his interview with Google’s chief council gives some insight in the timing and process of Google’s withdrawn from mainland China. What blows my mind is the Chinese stance that censorship is a reflexive responsibility, that such a practice is a law, and that all of these things can be discussed so rationaly. I know that this is one of the basic...
Save funding for NY State Parks and Preservation, via #MAS http://bit.ly/boWGp4
A great little report by #TNR on the contrasting scene in DC: anti-healthcare Tea Partiers and pro-immigration families http://bit.ly/bpbY5L
“During the president’s first year, as Obama’s and the Democrats’ poll numbers...”
– John B. Judis, Democrats Discover Their Base | The New Republic
[A good “sideways glance,” as my thesis advisor always used to day.]
Via @Pogue, I tried #numberquotes.com. It’s weird. So many of their metrics are about how many iPhones, MacBooks or Escalades you could buy.
“Lots of times the families will go down to Kinko’s,” the funeral...”
– Raiding Eternity - Myspace - Gizmodo
Life in the Cloud.
(We’ve heard this story before, but this is a nice, albeit slightly mawkish, riff.)
Dear USAir Shuttle business traveler: your shiny tassle loafers & roller-attaché do not make you a better human being. But my hair wax does.
Develop Don't Destroy's Last Gasp
Well, maybe they will live on to cry foul as the design get’s changed again and again and again.
I wish they had been more successful, but the rallies and the grassroots activism didn’t amount to much in the face of a plan that had been blessed as far away as Albany. After my recent run-in with the Jacobs-Moses reenactors reminded me, the paradigms for opposing development in this...
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Naked Capitalism: China, Germany Committing World... →
My ability to absorb the message at Naked Capitalism waxes and wanes. Sometimes the details seem too arcane, and sometimes the prose seems to purple. The problem with the latter excuse, is that, if the last three years have taught us anything, we need to take seeming hyperbole at face value. (A side note: James Fallows has been this same subject, and comparing the coverage by these two has been...
It’s within a walk of the office, so we better all go our and try the 99-Cent Slice. - http://nyti.ms/aka1Kp
After a little to much caterwauling about Moses, Roberta Gratz recommends the Jane Jacobs’ the Economy of Cities. @MAS
Listening to Roberta Gratz discuss her book, The Living City, Jane Jacobs, and Robert Moses, courtesy of @MAS.
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“[Jean Nouvel’s new building’s] shifting appearance in the skyline is...”
– The failure of activists to derail Atlantic Yards despite themselves seems to have written quite an epitaph for their movement. As Ouroussoff says, I assume it will take them just as long to regain their credibility as it will take the financiers to rebuild their war chests. Does this mean that we...
On the streets of NYC, every trash can sports at least one broken umbrella today. Some are bristle with more like black sea urchins.
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Up here in Ipswich, all of the rivers seem to have broken their banks. Time for a bailout.
Damn it—this rain just won’t stop!
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“…in the iPhone OS, the concept of the file is essentially gone. It’s been...”
– Apple is doing something rather daring with their new iPhone OS. They are essentially omitting features that people once took for granted in a typical computer. And one of the biggest things they’ve omitted is the visual file system. Instead, in the iPhone OS, the concept of the file is essentially...
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Francisco Toro on the uncomfortable dependency of Spain and Venezuela. FARC and ETA make an ugly pair. Via @TNR http://bit.ly/csiYDq
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“every day, your cursor protects you from unclear UI. It helpfully turns into a...”
– Both a very interesting observation about current computer UI and what the iPad will force UI designers to do.
I know a number of people who, when reading on their computer, are extremely active mouse users. They constantly highlight things by selecting them—somewhat unconsciously—and...
The Red Carpet show on ABC is much, much less pleasant than going to the dentist. Maybe they could solve the sound problem too.
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“I think Siracusa is exactly right that Jobs has a particularly acute sensitivity...”
– Daring Fireball: This Apple-HTC Patent Thing
John Gruber has put together some nice thoughts on why the Apple suit seems so odd (despite being legally totally run-of-the-mill) and yet so very Apple-like. Once again, the most persuasive vision of a Cuppertinologist seems to be that it is All About...
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The Internet? Bah! →
So, back in 1995, Clifford Stoll at Newsweek got it very very wrong. One of the best parts is right in the lede, where he cites the following as perposterous:
They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems.
This Chrome ad is completely endearing. Who would have guessed that Browser Wars 2.0 would be a battle of the cute? http://bit.ly/djhT7A