Scene From Last Weekend
quote out of context
Perhaps our different experiences account for some of our differing economics views.
iPrius
At risk of being labeled a tool, lost, or a 90-yr-old, here is yet another iPad / automotive analogy:
The automobile went through a similar evolution. From eminently hackable to hood essentially sealed shut. When the automobile was new, you HAD to be a mechanic to own one. Later, being a mechanic gave you the option of tinkering and adapting it to your specific interests. In fact, that’s how most people up until about 1985 learned to be mechanics. The big changes came with the catalytic converter and electronic ignition (and warranty language to match). Now the automobile has reached the point in its development where you don’t even have to know whether it has a motor or an engine to use it, but to tinker at all requires highly specialized skills.
Reeds
February elimae
is now posted.
Kim Chinquee
and Oh Baby get some attention.
torn from today’s headlines
Actor Elmore “Rip” Torn has been charged with breaking into a Connecticut bank and carrying a loaded handgun while intoxicated.
Golden CO, 30Jan2010
“I’ll go through it with you line by line.”
I just keep on liking this guy.
Thanks, Shannon!
from the comments
The bug will eat you when the bug eats.
old news
Dallas police are looking for a man who they said repeatedly sneaks into backyards, dances around naked and then runs away. Police believe the man has been exposing himself in the same neighborhood since 2005. The most recent incident was on Sept. 30.
Police said he usually climbs a fence or goes through a gate and either dances naked or jumps in a swimming pool naked. Police said he also has danced naked on top of a backyard air conditioning unit.
Police said they’re looking for a pudgy man who is about 6 feet tall and covers his face while dancing.
Childhood
…is an experiment.
(via)
Reflection on Friday, January 29, 2010
In my reasonably long time as a Clusterflock fan and fairly brief time as a contributor, I am hard-pressed to remember a day of discussion quite like this one. Very strange that so much heat and light came from something so seemingly trivial. I wondered over dinner this evening whether it was the open/closed thing or if that discussion was merely a container for something deeper. Would this same level of interaction have emerged with a different topic?
MID CENTURY MODERN PIRATE LAMP EAMES ERA
What we are showing you is a mid century modern pirate lamp. Made of ceramic.
Charlie Brooker — how to report the news
This is a real political ad
Inside the hut, looking out
David Lynch on iPhone
Yeah, everyone’s seen this.
For Deron
…Aero-Ace, a collaborative design project, just completed with Bentley — the objective being to explore a new aerodynamic design direction for the luxury marque. Second year RCA students were asked to identify a new vehicle direction for Bentley that would appeal to the ecologically conscious consumer.
Does it do it for you?
closed platforms versus open platforms
Most people drive automatic cars whereas I prefer a stick. This person is arguing the same damn thing:
I think that it’s a real possibility that in 10 years, general purpose computers will be seen as being strictly for developers and hobbyists. The descendants of the iPhone and iPad and their competitors will rule the consumer market and people will embrace the closed nature of these platforms for the same reason that Steve Levy hyped Palladium almost 10 years ago — because what you get for trading off freedom is reduced risk. There will be few (if any) viruses, and applications will “just work.”
General purpose computing is too complicated for most people anyway, and the iPad’s descendants along with similar competing products from other companies will offer an enticing alternative. So I see the death of the traditional, open personal computer as a likely occurrence.
I never understood arguments about this. Open and closed software platforms are different tools for different situations. If closed platforms mean less phone calls from my mother about her netbook, then I want more of them.
I also don’t understand why geeks demand that everybody needs to care about how to customize their computer.* I don’t expect people to care about Second Temple Judaism or the nuances of Derridean deconstruction (it’s not a method!), so why must people who just want to check their email and surf the web care about open platforms? That sounds pretty stupid to me.
Maybe I am being naive, but I thought we were talking about tools here, not economic policies.
*For the record, I consider myself an intense computer hobbyist. I run Linux (the Mint distro); Windows; and OS X in parallel, muck around with web development, and build my own computers. Mostly, however, I haven’t a clue what I am doing.
Taxidermy Friday
For those with such needs.
chronesthesia
People sway backward when thinking about the past and forward when thinking about the future.
Miles and Aberdeen colleagues Louise Nind and Neil Macrae fitted 20 participants with a motion sensor while they imagined future or past events. After just 15 seconds, participants who were recalling the past had swayed backward an average of about 0.7 inches (1.5 to 2 mm), while the future thinkers leaned forward about 0.1 inches (3 mm).
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday, Simone.
Inglorious Basterds
We finally watched Inglorious Basterds last night, and after two or three moments I thought the movie might ultimately break or fizzle or go kaput, by the end I felt I had seen something really good. Have enough people watched yet to have a discussion?
