Year: 2009

XKCD, which I suggested that you all subscribe to nearly one year ago, continues to amaze. Gravity Wells, a recent comic about the relative gravitational pulls of the celestial objects in our Solar System, is one of the very best things I’ve ever seen.

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If you’re in a hiring phase you’ll want to peruse Aaron Swartz’s thoughts on hiring programmers. The process that he walks through could, and should, be used for hiring just about anyone (not just programmers). However, I would add one step to the beginning of the process. Watching that person online. I know it seems…

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Probably better described as yellowprints these "blueprints" are reproductions (presumably far better looking ones) of the original documents used to build the Eiffel Tower found in a book from 1900. I never really wanted to be an architect, one of the only things I haven’t dreamed of being, until I saw these. /via Jason Kottke.

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As you’ve probably read Twitter has acquired Mixer Labs who runs GeoAPI, an API for all things location, and plans to integrate that API and its team directly into Twitter’s offerings. Brady Forrest for O’Reilly Radar on the possible implications of this acquisition: "Second, does this herald Twitter’s moves into being a location provider? At…

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Crap. Crap. Crap. In March of this year I wrote: "Editor’s note: I don’t know Mandy Brown but her blog is definitely in the top three well-written blogs that I subscribe to. Every post is excellent. Her blog will, more than likely, make my Best of 2009 list." Well, I forgot to add Mandy Brown’s…

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The line between what Brightkite offers and what Twitter offers their respective communities is arguably very thin. Both offer fantastic microblogging features including updates and notifications via SMS, the Web, and APIs. Until somewhat recently, however, only Brightkite offered another layer ontop of these features that really separated it from Twitter without question. Geolocation. Brightkite…

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Thanks to iSmashPhone for including my macro lens for the iPhone in their five best iPhone camera mods.

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Acorn, my image editor of choice on the Macintosh, is nearing a new release. Gus Mueller, the developer behind Flying Meat software, has a page set up to download the very latest builds of his products. You can now grab a beta copy of Acorn 2.2 which has a slew of excellent updates to test…

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In November 2008 I put forth a list of things I thought were the best Web sites, applications, and various other things that I came across in 2008. I said "They are simply works that I feel should be awarded with the recognition of being the best that I’ve personally found this year." I’m doing…

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Waiting for the coffee to finish brewing with my buddy.

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Kyle, I hope your jealous.

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The Twitter blog has a brand new design and it looks pretty slick. However, it no longer shows trackbacks and/or comments for each blog post effectively losing a few years worth of data. Boo.

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This is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Watch it. /via Every Star Wars geek I subscribe to. PS. There is a lot of backstory that goes along with this link. An example of which is that Damon Lindelof, the major creative driving force behind LOST and the recent Star Trek film, watched this and…

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Skribit, the very same service I use to allow suggestions on First initial, last name, has finally opened its doors to the public. I suggest checking it out. See what I did there?

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As reported by Danilo Campos on Twitter "Any ziplock bag you happen to find in your kitchen will waterproof your phone while allowing the screen to respond." So I gave it a whirl and it works! Neven Mrgan, who I heard this through, brought up a few great uses for this. He said "This means…

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Like last time I used this recipe. It was a little sweet for me (typically I do not order my french toast with cinnamon or powered sugar) but it turned out really good. The bread was from [Bingham’s Restaurant](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=bingham’s restaurant kingsley pa&sll=51.47653,-0.286825&sspn=0.070672,0.123596&ie=UTF8&hq=bingham’s restaurant&hnear=Kingsley, PA&ll=41.740194,-75.699749&spn=0.081464,0.123596&z=13&iwloc=A) (Google Map link).

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Here is @pookers’ butt.

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Taken with my iPhone while getting gas one morning and cross processed in Mill Colour (iTunes link).

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Hot on the heels of WordPress’ Twitter API Tumblr has announced their own Twitter-like API for reading and writing to Tumblogs. I love that they came right out and said that they were inspired by WordPress’ move.

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WordPress.com, to be specific, now has an API that mirrors the Twitter API. This effectively allows any Twitter client, such as Tweetie or Hahlo, to read and write to WordPress.com powered blogs only by changing their API endpoint. Hopefully this feature will be available via a plugin sometime in the near future? /via Tony Schneider.

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Joby, the makers of the Gorilla flexible tripods, have released a free iPhone camera application called Gorillacam that could be used as a replacement for the default camera app. Tripod not included nor required. /via John Gruber.

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I’ve seen TeuxDeux recommended by several blogs that I’m subscribed to over the last few weeks so I finally took a few minutes to take a look. Turns out it is exactly what it says it is, a simple, designy to do application that is definitely worth a look.

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"Project52 is a personal challenge geared toward getting fresh content on your website. The goal is to write at least 1 new article per week for 1 year." I’ve never liked the word "content" but I love when people set goals before themselves to write more. Anton Peck created Project52 this back in 2007. He…

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Last night, long after my "sleep" preference that I have set up on Twitter, I got a text message from Paul Stamatiou via Twitter. I follow Paul, or @Stammy as he’s known on Twitter, but I do not have him turned on for SMS notifications. Odd, I thought. I rolled over and went back to…

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In July of this year I conducted an interview with the co-founders of Panic about transparency in software development which was published in September. Prior to that interview in a short, off-the-cuff, via email, discussion with Steven he mentioned that they had just been putting together a plan for 2010 to help "lift the veil"…

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I’ve just started following Ze Frank on Twitter. I’ve added him to my "met" list (remember my Twitter lists?) and some have asked why. Well, because he and I met in 2007 in Austin, TX as SXSWi. We had a pretty good chat. Ze is incredibly talented and creative and has an interesting story. If…

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I’ve just started following Ze Frank on Twitter. I’ve added him to my "met" list (remember my Twitter lists?) and some have asked why. Well, because he and I met in 2007 in Austin, TX as SXSWi. We had a pretty good chat. Ze is incredibly talented and creative and has an interesting story. If…

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I’ve just started following Ze Frank on Twitter. I’ve added him to my "met" list (remember my Twitter lists?) and some have asked why. Well, because he and I met in 2007 in Austin, TX as SXSWi. We had a pretty good chat. Ze is incredibly talented and creative and has an interesting story. If…

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I’ve just started following Ze Frank on Twitter. I’ve added him to my "met" list (remember my Twitter lists?) and some have asked why. Well, because he and I met in 2007 in Austin, TX as SXSWi. We had a pretty good chat. Ze is incredibly talented and creative and has an interesting story. If…

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I’ve just started following Ze Frank on Twitter. I’ve added him to my "met" list (remember my Twitter lists?) and some have asked why. Well, because he and I met in 2007 in Austin, TX as SXSWi. We had a pretty good chat. Ze is incredibly talented and creative and has an interesting story. If…

Continue >

I’ve just started following Ze Frank on Twitter. I’ve added him to my "met" list (remember my Twitter lists?) and some have asked why. Well, because he and I met in 2007 in Austin, TX as SXSWi. We had a pretty good chat. Ze is incredibly talented and creative and has an interesting story. If…

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Picked up a copy of Lessons from a Lifetime of Watercolor Painting by Donald Voorhees. I’m going to go through this entire book this winter. First step is to get my brushes inventoried. A few of them were broken so I fixed them (no need to spend money on more).

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The moment you’ve all been waiting for is finally here. Video of my LessConf presentation is now available, for free, in its entirety courtesy of the guys at LessEverything. Duration: ~59minutes In this presentation I cover how to measure success for a start up in a global market (read: the Internet). I tried my best…

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I’ve just started following Ze Frank on Twitter. I’ve added him to my "met" list (remember my Twitter lists?) and some have asked why. Well, because he and I met in 2007 in Austin, TX as SXSWi. We had a pretty good chat. Ze is incredibly talented and creative and has an interesting story. If…

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Had breakfast here yesterday. It was pretty good but I wouldn’t add Cozy Corner Cafe to my favorite places within 2 hours of my home list. It would do in a pinch, though. Something has to be said that they don’t come up, at all, in a Google Maps search though. Hmm. Update: Since Google…

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I made French Toast using this French Toast recipe on Simply Recipes (even with the optional Triple Sec). It was delicious. I recommend.

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In case you’ve been living under a rock (where in the world did that phrase originate?) you probably know about Dan Benjamin‘s extremely simple, yet incredibly useful and valuable, step-by-step tutorial for installing Ruby, RubyGems (including Rails and mySQL) on Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I recently had the need to upgrade each of these…

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If you’re like me, you love Coda. Well, you may find the need to open a file, or set of files, from Terminal in Coda. Gregory Tomlinson has created a bash script to let you do just that. Update May 20, 2011: It turns out that Tomlinson’s website is down. So, here is a brief…

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Dude knows how to eat a lemon… rind and all.

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This was my first game of Risk ever. What a perfect day for playing a game!

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Google launched its public DNS offering yesterday. Immediate reactions were "ooo, aaahhh, sweeet!" because we all know Google will nail the technology aspects of an fast, open DNS. Immediately following those reactions, however, came the "Oh great, now they know more about me!" statements. But then came this statement by Steven Frank of Panic (whom…

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I won’t lie. I made these from one of those "add butter and water" bags but still, I made them at home. Hence, homemade. Mmm.

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Remember what I said about leaving Tiger Woods alone? Remember why I said to leave him alone? In case you don’t, here’s an excerpt. "He is keeping personal matters personal and he knows his rights – I’d say that is a role model to look up to, regardless of what happened. But, this silence will…

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[viddler id-5fbc8f85 h-280 w-420] Random 60: When was the last time you wore a suit? I’m wearing a suit. Are you? If not, when was the last time you wore one? Simple question, answer in the comments.

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Shopping list Milk Eggs Inexpensive wines from all over the world Bread Cheez-Its

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Terry Gross, by far my favorite radio personality to whom I listen religiously, was interviewed in 1998 on Mothers Who Think for Salon Magazine by Lori Leibovich. I love these few bits. First, a little about Terry’s reputation. "Marcus isn’t the only journalist to swoon over Gross — other colleagues speak of her with reverence,…

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George Vecsey "reporting" for the New York Times has a terrible piece about Tiger Woods’ not being very forthcoming about an accident he recently had right outside his own home. Vecsey goes off on Tiger simply because he feels his pen (err, keyboard) is mightier than Woods’ driver. To Vecsey I say; you’re an idiot.…

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[viddler id-c82761e0 h-280 w-420] Random 60: How do you heat your home? What type of heat do you use? It seems the possibilities are endless. Wood stove, fireplace, propane, natural gas, electric, pellet stove, maybe you just run in place?, etc. Sound off in the comments!

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The folks at Colour Lovers (we’ll excuse the U for now) have put together a really great Twitter theme designer that somehow saves directly back into your Twitter profile. I didn’t realize this was possible so perhaps they have a "deal" with Twitter? Perhaps Twitter should simply buy the app? /via Evan Williams on Twitter.

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