Hello, world. I’m MacDara Conroy, and this is my blog.

Date: August 2012

Fungible

"A treatise on fungibility, or, a framework for understanding the mess the news industry is in and the opportunities that lie ahead." Emphasising quality is the most important thing to take away from this, I think; there is certainly a tendency among traditional media outlets to assume their content has merit simply because it's theirs. #link

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Finishing the Intervalometer: the value of finishing, and making what’s in your head

"To learn to make things, you have to Make your own Things. You have to travel a complete path. It doesn’t just make the end more rewarding: it makes the whole journey more rewarding. I wonder if that’s why a lot of Arduinos are in desk drawers, an LED wedged into pin 13: the platform is exciting and interesting, but there was never an itch. When that itch arises, take that board out of the drawer and scratch it. It is difficult, but it is within your abilities, and you will learn a lot. I did." Thanks for the pep talk, Tom. #link

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On Cornerhost and second chances

You might remember the Cornerhost debacle from a few months ago. A panicked thread on a mailing list for the host’s customers (myself included) led to a tweet from me that led to a post on Gizmodo that blew the whole thing up for a couple of days.

The controversy prompted Michal Wallace, the owner, to resurface with a blog post allaying fears among Cornerhost’s site owners that the servers were going down. Then he disappeared again, but at least my website was safe, and I could FTP in, and downtime hasn’t been an issue.

Well that was a few months ago, and now Michal has finally posted again on the Cornerhost status blog, announcing his return to the company and attempting to explain things from his side.

More…

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