The Happy Tutor educates us on the meaning of Steven Colbert’s savage roast satarizing Bush. [video]
Archives for April 2006
April 30, 2006
Refreshing Authenticity
Meanwhile, in looking to see if Umair had posted on the dumbest move this week™, I saw he pointed to this. What a riot! Columbia Business School Dean Glenn Hubbard, who was in the running to be the new Fed chairman, issues a parody video set to “Every Breath You Take,” poking fun at Ben […]
April 30, 2006
Disintermediation Denial
Dumbest move this week™. Microsoft and The New York Times unveiled software on Friday that would allow readers to download an electronic version of the newspaper and view it on a portable device. With Microsoft’s new Windows Vista software, to be available in January, virtually any newspaper, magazine or book can be formatted into an […]
April 29, 2006
My Brother Esau
The more my brother looks like me, the less I understand Spring: Transitions and decisions. Buds bursting and cool nights. Grass growing slowly now. New kinds of chores. Winter’s over, summer’s not here yet.
April 28, 2006
Idea No. 22
Some of my loyal readers are already subscribed to the Signals vs. Noise feed; to you I apologize for the repetition. Just skip ahead to the last three paragraphs now. For everyone else: Could you live like this? A slide show (NY Times) of commisioned pieces from the collection of Ohio art collector Andy Stillpass, […]
April 28, 2006
Neil Young Gets It
Neil Young has a new album, Living With War and he is working the digital network to best effect. “Living With War will stream on NeilYoung.com beginning Fri, Apr. 28th. The album will be available at digital retailers beginning May 2nd. CDs will be available in stores early May.” Listen to the whole album free. […]
April 28, 2006
The Shangri-La Diet
Most interesting diet (fad?) in a long time. I first read about it at Aaron Swartz’s weblog, and he posted a followup today. This is where Roberts’s big insight comes — he argues that we use a Pavlovian sort of flavor-conditioning system to see whether food is scarce. If we eat foods frequently, we grow […]
April 27, 2006
Secret Doors
Tilting stairs, rotating bookcases, disappearing wall stashes. Fully installed starting at $10,000 and DIY kits starting at $1,500. Creative Home Engineering is a registered contracting company that adds value to homes by integrating silent, automated hidden passageways. A Hardy Boys fantasy come true.
April 27, 2006
Just For The Irony
Video: Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, and Vince Welnick of the Grateful Dead sing the National Anthem in Candlestick Park, San Francisco on April 12th, 1993.
April 26, 2006
Fun While Flying
Chris Pirillo mimes the airplane safety instructions. Hilarious. [via Scripting News]
April 25, 2006
From The Mailbag
The life of a consultant…. Notio: Were you out of town this weekend? A: Well…. that’s a pretty good story, actually. After waiting for a half hour to be picked up at the Asheville, NC airport for a Fri-Sun retreat I started to have anxiety about standing outside the wrong airport. Nope, that wasn’t the […]
April 23, 2006
Sometimes It’s Better Not To Know
We had our Co-op annual meeting tonight. As board president, it means I’m more or less running the show. The face of the meeting at least. Luckily we have a great staff and I can pretty much show up half-an hour before and everything is all set up. But I have to have an agenda […]
April 22, 2006
More Hell for Web Developers
Dave Hyatt, chief architect of Safari and WebKit, outlines a proposal to solve the “high-DPI” problem: Consider a Web page that is designed for an 800×600 resolution. Let’s say we render this Web page such that the pixels specified in CSS (and in img tags and such on the page) map to one pixel on […]
April 21, 2006
Subtle Changes Over Time
Photohistory of the Netflix mailer, from 1999 to the present. 2000: Customers are asked to peel off a sticker to reveal Netflix’s return address. The design is eventually deemed too complex. A well-captioned tour through iterative product design – what is the most convenient, cost-effective, earth-friendly, practical DVD mailer? (Remember that you want to send […]
April 21, 2006
April 24 New Yorker
Just a mention that the current issue of the New Yorker has a number of great articles around the theme of “Journeys.” Especially fantastic is Anthony Lane’s European Journal contribution on low-cost air travel. It’s literally littered with witty asides that resonate with anyone who gets on a plane more than once a year. I […]
April 20, 2006
Alex Meets The New Neighbor
Database uber-nerd Philip Greenspun checks in with 34 photos of a 13-week old Golden Retriever meeting his much-loved Samoyed Alex. As a commenter noted, this probably violates a maximum cuteness regulation. Also, unrelated except by the author, he’s looking for a personal assistant, and the job description is a paragon of the modern age.
April 19, 2006
Update on Police Solicitations
Re: the solicitations and implications. Got a call from the Chief of Police. Turns out this was an International Brotherhood of Police Officers union project, which was not cleared through the town administration. The complaints started coming in, and finally today they went down to the telephone “boiler room” and read them the riot act […]
April 19, 2006
Choosing Your Empty Calories
If you read the last post you might get the idea that I’m a model of healthful eating. Well, I eat a lot better than the average bear, but I still want variety and tasty goodness every once in a while. I’ve started to pay attention to the calorie counts on various junk foods and […]
April 19, 2006
Stomach vs. Bloodstream
Now that I’m exercising more I’ve started to notice a difference in how I think about hunger, and this could be a helpful distinction for children learning about eating, or adults trying to change their habits. In the past, when I was hungry, it was mostly about satisfying my stomach with something tasty. It was […]
April 19, 2006
More on Police Solicitations
Good morning Julia and Nicholas, When I woke up today I had more questions about the police solicitations. — Is Jim Reid an employee of the Hanover Police Department? The voicemail said “with” the Hanover PD, so I assume he is, because if he isn’t he should have said “for” the Hanover PD. — If […]