Microlog
Microlog entries posted in September 2011
How to make an intelligent blockbuster and not alienate people
An extract from Mark Kermode’s new book. I purchased the Kindle version (my review is on Goodreads) but not without jumping through a few hoops. Listen here, Amazon: Ireland (for all intents and purposes) is part of the UK book market, so please fix your regional restriction nonsense. Permalink ·
Hold the steak: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s vegetable recipes
These look delicious. I’m even tempted to try the peanut one, even though I hate peanuts. Permalink ·
Harnessing the Power of Feedback Loops
Related to the previous entry. I’m convinced that when people are confronted with the real-time effects of their behaviour in an open setting (such as with dynamic speed displays, which are pretty common here) it does prompt a change for the better. Permalink ·
Sketchbook: Melbourne Smart City, for City of Melbourne/C40 Cities (incl. a note on why it’s easier to crowdsource a revolution than a light-rail system)
Another epic post from Dan Hill, this time on the concept of the ‘smart city’, relaying real-time metrics of the city to its inhabitants through various means, as well as the problems inherent on a municipal level with that kind of big thinking. Permalink ·
Vincent van Gogh: The Letters
The artist’s collected correspondence, with full text and annotations, and even images of the originals. This is pretty amazing. Permalink ·
Eating Your Cultural Vegetables
My view? There’s nothing wrong with being a dilettante if you engage faithfully with the things you pick and choose. Also, the distinction must be made between things that people like because they’re good, albeit an acquired taste, and things that everyone says they like but are really rubbish. But yeah, that thing about missing the last episode of Treme? I dropped off The Wire before the end of season 4, and I’ve just kept missing that train ever since. Permalink ·
South African English is lekker!
I’m pretty sure Bee doesn’t use even half of these (the ones that aren’t plain old English English, I mean). See also: more on South African English from the OED. Permalink ·
The Kid Should See This
The best of the web curated for children. If teachers aren’t finding a way to use this in classrooms post-haste… Permalink ·
When Sainsbury’s was out on its own
Own-brand packaging design from the 1960s. Very fashion forward for its time — hell, even for now. Permalink ·
Chicken and asparagus risotto recipe
Pretty good for a low-fat recipe. You might need to add some table salt when you serve it, though, ‘cause the rice just sucks it up during cooking. Permalink ·
‘Nobody Uses Their Real Name’ and Other Outdated Notions
“The idea that the internet is a place that’s separate from reality has faded. People generally have online identities that map to who they really are. Outside of a few legitimate edge cases and the occasional sci-fi fantasy, who we are online is simply who we are.” True, true. Yet I still think there’s a place for pseudonyms. I think most people forget that there are genuine reasons why some people don’t want to be easily identified (describing them as ‘edge cases’ characterises them as being less common than I suspect they really are). And the case of Google+ is such an important one because of its integration with other services (e-mail, calendar, etc) that have little-to-nothing to do with identity as such. Permalink ·
Why Arabic is Terrific
It really is. Also: Maciej’s aside about ‘frat bros’ is a killer. Permalink ·
Another Thing to Sort of Pin on David Foster Wallace
I’m no fan of DFW, but anyone familiar with this blog will know I’ve got no problem with conversational writing. But, you know, everything in context. Permalink ·
The Weather Wheel
Comparing world cities by temperature, precipitation and wind speed. Yep, Dublin’s pretty cold alright [c/o Kottke]. Permalink ·
Codecademy
tep-by-step tutorials in programming basics. Looks inviting. Permalink ·
How to enjoy opera
I can’t stand opera. But if I were ever to attend one, I’d do some reading here first. Permalink ·
15 CSS Tricks That Must be Learned
Great tips here. Terrible writing, though. Permalink ·
An HTML5 boilerplate addon for CSS browser nitpicks
A handy method for browser-targeted CSS switching. I thought the days of CSS hacks were gone, but… Permalink ·
Dan Lepard’s sweet potato brownies recipe
I am so gonna make these, though maybe with low-fat butter. Also: I should be posting recipes here more often. Permalink ·
Bootstrap, from Twitter
“Bootstrap is a toolkit from Twitter designed to kickstart development of webapps and sites.” This looks great; thanks, Twitter. Permalink ·
Unedited Thoughts About Technology Better Left Unposted
Co-signed. There’s no reason why Apple has to be the only company making stuff that everyone wants. Why isn’t the Android platform on a level pegging with iPhone apps? Just get it done already so the rest of us can buy cheap tablets and join in the future party. Permalink ·
BERG’s Friday Links
Weekly roundups of links about, well, everything. Permalink ·
The thorny problem of ‘ye’
So it turns out it was pronounced as ‘the’ all along. Permalink ·
The Shapes of CSS
I get out of practice for five years and now CSS can do all this? Permalink ·
Evolution of NBA Team Logos
The best and worst aspects of design on one page [c/o MetaFilter]. Permalink ·
Swole.me: The automatic diet generator
Input how many calories you want to consume per day to generate an appropriate meal plan, or assemble meals from a list of healthy foods. Not bad. Permalink ·
‘We still have hobbies, and we’re still all hobbyists’
Just because the things we do are being done in public — websites, hacks, etc — doesn’t mean they’re not hobbies. Permalink ·
My problem with the ‘Internet Of Things’
Big thinking about the future of objects, their production and our interaction with them. I’m excited about where all this is going. Permalink ·
Critical Thinking A-level loses appeal
Critical Thinking sounds like an awesome subject. Permalink ·
Do journalists need to be able to write?
There is no debate: the answer is unequivocably YES. Don’t make the sub’s job harder than it is. Permalink ·
Side-By-Side Reference Sheet for Scripting Languages
PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby all covered. Saving this for the day when I might need it, in the distant future. Permalink ·
Rhodia Writing Pads
I’ve just started using a No 16 (yellow grid) with a cover and pen loop and I love it already. It’s so much lighter (and cheaper) than the Moleskine I was using, and the paper quality is more suited to my tastes, too (I use a Pilot G-2, which used to bleed and smear on the Moleskine but writes with a finer, drier line on the Rhodia). Plus when I’m finished, I just swap in a new pad — no more worries about filling my pages with nonsense. Permalink ·
Muphry’s Law
‘If you write anything criticising editing or proofreading, there will be a fault in what you have written.’ Guilty. Permalink ·
Responsive Design Testing
View how your site appears across various mobile and desktop browser widths (see also: 1140 CSS Grid). I’m gonna have to redesign now, aren’t I? Hmm. If only there was some way I could re-order the content… Permalink ·
The Game Design of Everyday Things: Everyday Gaming
Interesting thoughts from Tom Armitage. But to add my own: there’s a fine line between “designing games to fit into the fabric of everyday lives”, and having those games become a chore, making me feel guilty for not playing (I’m looking at you, Animal Crossing). Permalink ·
The Bill’s Reg Hollis actor wins US award for Soviet-era film
This warms my heart, so it does. Feelgood story of the month. Permalink ·
Five myths about Africa
The commenters are right: you can’t judge the whole continent based on the South Africa experience alone. But it’s important to talk about these things, as there are obvious kernals of universal truth (there is loads of money in Africa, for instance, but it’s being spent on weapons and backhanders, not food). Permalink ·
CSS For Running Text Between Columns
It’s proprietary for the moment, with separate declarations for Mozilla and Webkit-based browsers. But it works! Permalink ·
Why we can’t say HIV is cured
We’re at a stage right now where ‘manageable’ is as good as cured. But more expensive. Permalink ·
Sweden’s space port
“Kiruna has few natural resources beyond a rich vein of iron ore stretching more than a mile below the ground. It’s not a skiing destination, and there are few cultural attractions. There’s an ample supply of reindeer, but otherwise little charismatic wildlife. Yet the town has been gifted with something less tangible: a willingness to bet on seemingly crazy ideas — and brilliant marketing.” Permalink ·
Get Fresh Fruit and Vegetables
Our local greengrocer has an online store. Since I’m eating more veg now, I think we’ll be shopping there more often. Permalink ·
A new micro clearfix hack
Filing this for future reference. Permalink ·
Every Final Destination Death (1-4)
So you never have to see any of the actual movies. NSFW, or for anyone of a nervous disposition (even though so many of these situations would simply not happen, being physically impossible). Permalink ·
Don’t Fear the Internet
Basic HTML and CSS for non-web designers. Good for a brush-up if you’re as rusty as I am. Permalink ·
London From the Outside In: Walking From Heathrow Airport
Inverting the usual pattern of discovering when visiting a new city. How many places could this work for? I can’t imagine it would be too interesting walking to town from Dublin Airport, unless you like industrial estates. Permalink ·
Research Chat: Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic Talks Icebergs, Google Scholar and His Process
We should all be doing something like this, really. Permalink ·
Roger Ailes and the rise of Fox News
“To watch even a day of Fox News — the anger, the bombast, the virulent paranoid streak, the unending appeals to white resentment, the reporting that is held to the same standard of evidence as a political campaign attack ad — is to see a refraction of its founder, one of the most skilled and fearsome operatives in the history of the Republican party … Ailes has used Fox News to pioneer a new form of political campaign — one that enables the Republican party to bypass sceptical reporters and wage an around-the-clock, partisan assault on public opinion. The network, at its core, is a giant soundstage created to mimic the look and feel of a news operation, cleverly camouflaging political propaganda as independent journalism.” The rest is even worse. What a scumbag. Permalink ·
Rethinking CSS Grids
More on CSS grids, filed for future reference. Permalink ·
Montrealers unnerved by a city collapsing around them
Decades of infrastructural neglect are catching up with the people of Canada’s second city. Permalink ·
NYC Pizza Cultural Literacy
Always amusing to see New Yorkers take their food so seriously. To the rest of us, any NYC pizza would be amazing. Can’t wait to go back to Lombardi’s. Permalink ·
Bicycle Tutor: How To Shift Your Gears
Clearest tutorial on gear shifting I’ve found online. I don’t need to know about cadences and gear ratios: I just want to know which one I should use on a hill, and which I should use going flat out. Permalink ·
TileMill
“TileMill is a tool for cartographers to quickly and easily design maps for the web using custom data.” Looks very interesting and useable. Saved for the possible journalistic applications. Permalink ·
Steve Albini on his encounter with Odd Future
“If the whole thing is a put-on, a bit of Vincent Gallo life-as-theater for the benefit of whoever happens to be sitting next to them, that’s no excuse. It’s being an asshole about being an asshole.” Permalink ·
A Brief History of the Corporation: 1600 to 2100
The definitiom of tl;dr (but worth saving for reference). Permalink ·
Yotam Ottolenghi’s chicken sofrito recipe
Have to try this one soon, looks delicious. Permalink ·
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s bean recipes
Saving this for the runner beans with tomatoes. Permalink ·
Words and Music: Pitchfork’s 60 Favorite Music Books
Lots of fodder for the wish list here. Permalink ·
The Robot-Readable World
I’m still waiting for the practicalities to be sorted out (stuff like Kinect might be WJW and fun and all, but lacking substance behind the lustre). However, these are exciting times for the way technology interacts with the real world, and people in it. Permalink ·
Big DIY: The Year the Maker Movement Broke
New tools and technologies mean that stuff like this is no longer the preserve of the boffins of yore. Permalink ·
Athens is plastered with one message: enoikiazetai. To let
Landlords would rather let street life die than lower their rents to encourage new business. Now why does that sound so familiar? Permalink ·
Michel Roux Jr: How to prevent kitchen disasters
Good tips for avoiding culinary catastrophes. Permalink ·
Do it yourself and save
A wealth of how-to guides for fixing things around the house. Permalink ·
The Burger Lab: The Fake Shack
How to make your own Shake Shack burger. Saving this for a special treat some day. But I do have to make the point: who the hell has a meat grinder at home? Over here we just buy mince at the shops. Permalink ·
Mastering the Art of American Eating
One man follows the USDA’s new food recommendations to the letter. I wouldn’t jump in at the deep end, myself; phasing into new habits seems to be working for me, though. Permalink ·
The Underground Bit Network
Michael Sippey adding his piece to the AV Club’s article on ‘the convenience trap’. It’s not really a new phenomenon: brick-and-mortar music and book stores have operated along the same lines for decades. Meanwhile, there will always be an underground, and there will always be an alternative. Permalink ·
50 Documentaries to See Before You Die: The Full List
Great list, but nothing released before 1988, and no foreign-language docs. There’s an opportunity to fill in the gaps here. Permalink ·
David Norris failed, yet the ‘nothing new’ system failed too
I’m still disappointed about this whole situation. And I have no idea who else is in the running. That says a lot. Permalink ·
The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist
A very sad tale of man’s inhumanity to man. Permalink ·
How To Build A Newsroom Time Machine
Shocking how much has changed in less than 20 years (I know one tabloid was still being cut-and-pasted into the late 1990s, though they’d moved to using an automated photo processor by then). Permalink ·
Marvel Comics unveil their new Spider-Man (who isn’t Peter Parker)
Lots of criticism about this, which is unfair because the whole point of the Ultimate universe is to try something different. Some people are way too cynical. Permalink ·
Punchfork
Another recipe suggestion site, this one a bit more random (or serendipitous, depending on your point of view). Permalink ·
Trees cocooned in spiders webs after flooding in Sindh, Pakistan
So creepy. But also awesome. The self-preservation instinct is a powerful one [c/o MetaFilter]. Permalink ·
Cinema of sin: London’s old Scala picturehouse
I love the idea of all-night movie marathons. Why don’t we have them anymore? Permalink ·
10 questions to help you write better headlines
Always worth referencing these. Permalink ·
Better Late than Never?: A Christmas Story
I can honestly say I never heard of this movie until I read this article. And it’s supposed to be some kind of US holiday tradition? Some things just don’t travel, I guess. Permalink ·
About
This is the personal website of MacDara Conroy, a production journalist, music writer and mediavore in Dublin, Ireland. Read more »
Details
This page is a reverse chronology of Microlog entries by MacDara Conroy published in September 2011. You will find many more in the Archives.
Continuum
↑ October 2011
→ September 2011
↓ August 2011