How To Fix Horror
A four-part series by Jason Zinoman, author of Shock Value. Can't say I agree with everything he suggests, but at least someone is making an effort. #link
Date: August 2011
A four-part series by Jason Zinoman, author of Shock Value. Can't say I agree with everything he suggests, but at least someone is making an effort. #link
Notes on The Medium Is The Massage. Which reminds me, I've still to read Understanding Media. #link
I can't bring myself to dog-ear or scribble on my books, but technology (note-keeping apps such as Notational Velocity and the like) is making things easier for people like me. #link
An epic MeFi post on the history of the kids' TV channel. I haven't even begun to delve into it yet. #link
I already knew about those 'original' rules, and they're needlessly complicated. Andy is totally right here; the best rules for any game are those that make it most fun for the players. #link
A very smart idea, this. And it might help get that garlic/onion smell out of my backpack, too. #link
On designing for learnability: "Think of the last time you ordered a book, booked a flight, or bought a car. How did you choose which book to read, where to go for vacation, or which car was best for you? You may have searched online, read reviews, or asked others for advice to help you make an informed decision. In a word, you learned." #link
This is great fun! The computer quickly learns your patterns to anticipate your next move -- and it's also smart enough to figure out when you're predicting its own moves [c/o @qikipedia]. #link
Very nifty interface for tourists and locals alike. The bus directions are especially useful. #link
So algae made New York's drinking water taste of fish or cucumbers? Now I'm kind of glad our tap water tastes only mildly soapy sometimes [c/o Kottke]. #link
Dutch rail bosses have installed a so-called 'transfer accelerator' at a train station in Utrecht. It's basically a slide. Looks like fun, but the potential for having one's clothing ruined (or worse) is quite high. #link
Chosen is a JavaScript plugin that turns drop-down lists into much neater text-completion boxes. Nice. #link
Google is overreaching with this 'real names only' thing. It's not about combatting trolls; it's about making money out of 'knowing' its users as individuals. Yet they could still do this while allowing users to keep their real names hidden; why they haven't is a mystery. #link
The penultimate link dump. This selection comes from the first half of 2007, a year when I didn’t really blog at all. I regret that. Anyway, enjoy:
How someone who holds such prejudiced beliefs can even be a regular judge, let alone chief justice, is beyond me. #link
A year on, and South Africa's stadiums lie mostly empty. Can't say this was unexpected. #link
Charlie Brooker bang on the money, here. #link
For sure, much metal is bombastic and silly, and 'important' prizes like the Mercury don't tend to include artists like that. But metal is a broad church, maybe even more so than other genres; there's much more to it than bombast and silliness. #link
On the discovery of mysterious underground tunnels in Bavaria. #link
Typical Daily Mail headline, that. But a very atypical story. So nice to read some good news from Africa for a change. #link
Thanks to Twitter for helping me remember the following:
4/7 — I find a hole torn in the back of favorite plaid shirt. Annoyed. Proper, durable (non-fashiony) plaid shirts are hard to come by round these parts.
Later in the day, the beginnings of a bad week of hayfever-induced sinusitis. Ugh.
13/7 — Markham sent me an invite to Google+ a couple of days ago. First impressions? It’s like Facebook, but more Twittery in its de-emphasising of symmetrical relationships. But at the same time, it’s kind of boring without my friends there. I don’t feel the same way about Twitter, funnily enough.
16/7 — Made up a batch of my tomato, carrot and onion soup. The secret ingredient is habanero sauce. Yum.
17/7 — Watching Sunday morning wrestling. Zack Ryder has a QR code on the front of his shorts. Genius! Although I’m not sure that’s what they really meant by the Internet of Things.
From an interview with philosopher Stephen Law in New Scientist on his new book, Believing Bullshit:
Some things may be beyond our understanding, and sometimes it’s reasonable to appeal to mystery. If you have excellent evidence that water boils at 100°C, but on one occasion it appeared it didn’t, it’s reasonable to attribute that to some mysterious, unknown factor. It’s also reasonable, when we have a theory that works but we don’t know how it works, to say that this is currently a mystery. But the more we rely on mystery to get us out of intellectual trouble, or the more we use it as a carpet under which to sweep inconvenient facts, the more vulnerable we are to deceit, by others and by ourselves.
I particularly like 'zhaghzhagh'; it's very onomatopoeic. #link
Lots I didn't know here, especially the conversion options. #link
Celebrating 12 years of MeFi (that weird URL is a tribute to the first ever MeFi post). #link
This is very useful, but that grungy look? Could really do without it. #link
I don't think I have the dexterity for this one. #link
The story of what happens when egos, business and bad politics get in the way of good intentions. #link
Indeed. Obama has messed up in trying to keep the moral high ground; if everyone else is cheating, you don't get anywhere trying to stick to the rules. #link
Is there a reason why sunblock manufacturers don't provide this kind of detailed information as a matter of course? Even if it was just a URL on the bottle? [c/o Kottke]. #link
Very good advice here, specifically for users of 1Password but in general too. #link
Part one of five, and every one worth proper digestion. #link
I made the switch to just my own name pretty quickly -- it's unusual enough on its own -- but only recently removed the last vestiges of 'mac2pointoh'. Sigh. #link
Convert images to 8-bit pixelly versions. Neat. #link
On Norwegian state TV's 24/7 live broadcast of a Nordic coastal voyage, and a refreshingly positive, understanding attitude to public service broadcasting. #link
Posting a new corrupted image every day. #link
So this David Starkey thing, eh? “The whites have become black”? Enoch Powell? “Jamaican patois”? That old chestnut about black people who ‘sound white’? Really?
Anyway, one thing that stands out for me from the Starkey furore — apart from the hole-digging of an ignorant man, desperately out of touch and out of depth — is the hypocrisy of his subsequent evisceration by the media. That’s the very same media that can’t look at itself and see how it fuels the very stereotypes that influence such misleading attitudes.
Because they're mad? Also, 52 separate series? WTF?! What comic shop on earth would have shelf space to stock all of those? #link
The OED dips into the history of the ubiquitous Tex-Mex snack. What a great story. #link
I suppose something like this could be done with any extendable CMS. An in a few year's time there'll be dedicated software to do everything in one fell swoop. #link
Only the first six issues; hopefully the rest will be added soon. This was a bloody great magazine, even for someone like me who wasn't/isn't a gamer per se. #link
On the encroachment of private spaces in the nominally public 'instrumented cities' of cyberspace. #link
Playing a truncated version of the third opera hyphenated-man, which is great on record but kills it live, too. #link
"When I say awful things, I think it's clear to the audience that I just stumbled into a terrible part of my brain. It's just where my brain goes first. The difference is that I said it out loud. That's all." #link
Wikipedia entry on spherification
A 2D fighting game based on Les Misérables. I'm not kidding. #link
Filing this for future reference. #link
This is such a simple remedy, I should have done it ages ago! #link
For all fans of the Look-in listings pages out there. #link