Blog

  • Twan van Elk quits social media

    Twan van Elk, in response to my recent post: This week I am deactivating several social media accounts and focusing more on my blogging. He followed through too. I loved this bit after only a few days away from social media: That is also something that has changed: I now write for me. Sorry people, […]

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  • What I saw this week #42: May 19, 2017

    Video: The Infinite Now – Armand Dijcks, whom I met in Hawaii many years ago, released these hauntingly beautiful animated cinemagraphs from photos by Ray Collins scored by André Heuvelman and Jeroen van Vliet. Photographs of Films – Jason Shulman does long exposure photography of entire films. Very cool. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance – Netflix is creating […]

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  • Google Assistant for iOS is a clunky mess

    Karissa Bell for Mashable: For starters, Assistant’s iOS app is a confusing, disjointed, mess. You’d think the Assistant would be able to easily link up with all your other Google services, but that wasn’t the case in my initial testing. It isn’t often that I agree with an article on Mashable. However, in this case […]

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  • I’ve been enjoying Meat Eater on Netflix. Steven Rinella seems like someone I’d hang with.

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  • Google I/O 2017 wish list

    I figured that since I wrote my Build 2017 wish list and the reviewed that list after the event, and that I plan on doing the same for WWDC this year, it would only be prudent to write down my wishes for Google I/O as well. At first when I sat down to write this list […]

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  • My thoughts on Build 2017

    I have a few thoughts on Build 2017. First, how did Build 2017 measure up against my very short wishlist? Windows Phone. Although a few presenters over the few days managed to get an applause from the crowd when referring to Windows Phone, we saw zero announcements from MSFT in this area. The complete opposite […]

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  • Two blankets are better than one.

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  • What I saw this week #41: May 12, 2017

    Minecraft: Microsoft is continuing to make good on their acquisition of Minecraft. Most recently they’ve created their own currency in the platform and launched an educational version. /sessions: A bunch of videos on front-end development. Artemis: Andy Weir, writer of The Martian (which I loved), has a new book coming out. Tokio Myers: I like […]

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  • Attending the 2017 Pennsylvania sUAS Expo

    Acronyms are all the rage these days and so it can be tough to keep them all straight. Don’t be ashamed if you have no idea what UAS stands for. I didn’t either. UAS stands for Unmanned Aerial System. Like an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) an UAS involves more than simply a vehicle and usually […]

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  • Tech IPOs in 2017, so far

    Tomasz Tunguz: The IPO market in 2017 seems to be very healthy and is on pace to be twice as active as last year. Only two VC-backed tech IPOs from this year are currently trading down. Not bad.

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  • Iron Horse movie bistro in downtown Scranton

    On Sunday we went to the Iron Horse movie bistro in downtown Scranton. I was going to write a review but Joe Evans of NEPA Scene has already hit most points that I would cover. All of the follow quotes are from his review. Be sure to head to their site to read it. The […]

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  • Windows Central on Build

    Speaking of Build, Zac Bowden at Windows Central has a list of things to expect on Wednesday. Including this Windows Phone long shot: I have in fact been hearing that internally Microsoft continues to develop CShell for Windows 10 Mobile in Redstone 3 builds. Whether that means we’ll see it at Build, or at all, […]

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  • Amazon Prime on Apple TV

    Peter Kafka at Recode: The tech giants, who are increasingly competing for customers’ time, eyeballs and money, are close to an agreement to bring an Amazon video app to Apple’s Apple TV set-top box, according to people familiar with the two companies. Recently we’ve begun renting movies on Amazon Prime instead of iTunes via Apple […]

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  • Bashing Windows

    Ben Brooks likes the look of the new Surface Book Laptop. But he says this about Windows: Still runs Windows though. I don’t know if Ben has used the very latest Windows 10 builds but if he hasn’t he should give it a try. I’ve already said not to bet against Microsoft but I would […]

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  • My Build wishlist

    Microsoft’s Build conference starts on Wednesday. I’ve been watching this conference closely for the last three years.* Each year Microsoft has shown that they are a completely different company since Satya Nadella has become CEO. They actually make the things they show. Over these same years they’ve improved upon Windows so-much-so that I have a hard […]

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  • My old blog is back

    You may have noticed a slight uptick in my publishing. That’s because I am, once again, coming back to my blog as the central place that I publish. Except this time I care far less about any of the content getting to any social networks. It is simply too exhausting to get working correctly. And […]

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  • Tim Bray on blogging in 2017

    Tim Bray: On a blog, I can write about blog­ging and whim­si­cal­ly toss in self-indulgent pic­tures of May’s bud­ding aza­leas. OK, Tim. I see your azaleas and raise you these springtails. Tim’s post via Jason Kottke and Jeremy Keith. See also.

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  • Pete Ventura on Scranton

    Pete Ventura, friend and owner of Coney Island Lunch on Lackawanna Avenue in Scranton: All of the years I’ve been here, and I’m 62 years old, I can’t stand it when people put Scranton or this area down. I won’t get mad at them, but I’ll tell them about all of the good things. I’ll […]

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  • What I saw this week #40: April 28, 2017

    This has been a week full of client meetings so I did less reading on the web than usual. But, here are a few things that come to me as I sit here writing this post on a warm, gorgeous Friday evening. Amazon’s Quarterly report – Amazon is killing it on so many fronts. It […]

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  • How to support Mastodon

    Don’t know what Mastodon is? Read my Observations on Mastodon post first. I’m all in over on Mastodon for #woollyweek. I thought I’d take a moment to jot down all the ways you can support Mastodon even if you’re not running your own instance, aren’t a programmer, or have a ton of time. Support a […]

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  • Mastodon in April

    April hasn’t ended but Eugene Rochko wanted to share what has happened thus far with Mastodon during the month. It is an interesting post. Always neat to see explosions like this from the inside. Like this bit: So, April, huh. Twitter changed the reply system, which everybody told them they shouldn’t do, and then removed […]

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  • What I saw this week #39: April 21, 2017

    I missed last week. I have no excuse. Waxy.org – I already mentioned this but Andy Baio didn’t just return to blogging – he blew in with Hurricane force winds. Kottke.org – Speaking of .org blogs, Jason Kottke’s online property is being managed this week by Tim Carmody and he’s pulling an interesting yarn regarding the […]

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  • Callicoon Brewing Company – April 2017

    Callicoon Brewing Company – April 2017

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  • How Microsoft is doing

    Fred Wilson: Even more impressive in many ways, is what Satya Nadella has done at Microsoft. He slayed the Windows Everywhere albatross that was holding Microsoft back for most of the post Gates era and has made Microsoft relevant again in the world of tech. Windows is enjoying a resurgence, the Office app suite is finally […]

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  • I’m in for #woollyweek

    Speaking of Mastodon, a few tooters have massed together to start #woollyweek. Sebastian Morr: In our experience, a hard cut works best for trying out new platforms like this. The idea is simple; you log out of Twitter and stay away from it for an entire week starting this coming Monday April 24. Anything you […]

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  • Observations on Mastodon

    I’ve been fiddling with Mastodon (to the tune of over 500 toots as of this writing). I’ve also been reading up on the history of the service a lot over the last few weeks. Here are some general observations that I’ve made along with a few helpful links. Mastodon isn’t a single service. It is an […]

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  • Avoid being great at Twitter

    Seth Godin: You can be good at Twitter in about five minutes a day. Spending ten minutes doesn’t make you twice as good… in fact, there’s probably little measurable improvement. To be great at Twitter might take five hours of daily effort. At over 48,000 tweets I do not need any more Twitter practice. Lately […]

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  • Observations on the computer-mediated reality landscape

    The future won’t look this stupid. I promise. For the past several months I’ve been doing research on computer-mediated reality (CMR) – that is, when what’s real is somehow changed, interrupted, distorted, or otherwise effected by a wearable computer. This "ability" isn’t new and it is a nuanced superset of many different types including mixed reality […]

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  • What I saw this week #38: April 7, 2017

    Don’t forget, you can see all posts in this series by skimming through the what-i-saw tag. Now, onto this week’s links. Video: Puffer fish artist – Absolutely incredible stuff from such a small little fish. Andy Baio is back – Not only is he blogging again but Upcoming has re-launched. Stripe Atlas – The program is […]

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  • Jeff Mitchell hikes South Branch Trail

    Jeff Mitchell, who has inspired me to hike in several locations due to his blog and books, somewhat recently hiked the South Branch trail of Lackawanna State Park. He writes: What a place to hike on a hot summer day, I thought.  It was noticeably cooler in this deep, shaded glen along the creek.  We […]

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  • Upcoming.org is back

    Andy Baio: In September 2003, I opened Upcoming.org to the public. And now, 4,941 days later, four years after Yahoo shut it down and deleted everything, Upcoming.org is back — thanks to you. I’ve been waiting for this since last June. I have the feeling this version will be around a very, very long time. […]

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  • What I saw this week #37: March 31, 2017

    Chrome still won’t show me more than two days of browsing history. Unfortunately this week I relied on this bug being fixed. So, for next week I’ll keep better track of URLs with Simplenote. Animation: Comet 41P – Just sliding in front of M108 like nothing. Video playlist: Making Minimalism – Matt D’Avella is sharing […]

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  • Attending NEPA WordPress Meetup for March 2017

    Last night was the NEPA WordPress Meetup for March 2017. It was a panel discussion regarding how agencies use WordPress with Jack Reager of Black Out Design (our gracious host, thanks Jack and team), Liam Dempsey and Lauren Pittenger of LBDesign in the Philadelphia-area, and your’s truly of Condron Media. As these types of events […]

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  • What I saw this week #36: March 24, 2017

    Chrome v57 is really cramping my style. It only shows me the last few days of browsing history. I hope they fix this issue soon. So, this week is a little light as a result. Sorry. Bullet Journal – I’ve been meaning to try this for a few years and so starting on Monday I […]

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  • What should a conference look like in 2017?

    Karla Porter: I find myself searching for the value of spending a boatload of money and travel time to attend conferences. Not just for myself, but for you too. After all, that could be vacation time and money. If you read my blog you already know that I see value in attending events. I write about it […]

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  • Andrew Ng on the impact of AI

    Andrew Ng resigns from Baidu to focus on helping AI impact more companies and industries. In his resignation post he mentions the impact AI is having, and will continue to have, on every part of life: Just as electricity transformed many industries roughly 100 years ago, AI will also now change nearly every major industry — healthcare, […]

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  • Clips

    Apple: Introducing Clips. A new iOS app for making and sharing fun videos with text, effects, graphics, and more. I’ve been looking for an app like this for a long time. The Verge describes how I think I’ll use this app. My best guess is because the default camera app is still something that’s supposed to […]

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  • The new MacBook Pro with Touchbar

    Sarah Parmenter: By the time 2016 rolled around, I was overdue an upgrade and I thought the new MacBook Pro’s were enough of an upgrade to warrant a new purchase. After all, it had been 4 years. A lifetime in hardware you use every day. I was in the exact same boat as Sarah. I […]

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  • How do you get work?

    Aspiring freelancers always ask this question. Lara Schenck answers: I tell people I’m looking for work. Then, while I wait for referrals, I do a bunch of stuff for free. That includes talking at meetups, doing free workshops, and writing blog posts. Finally, I cross my fingers and have faith that it will come when […]

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  • What I saw this week #35: March 17, 2017

    I took two weeks off for travel/vacation (and didn’t read much online during that time) so this list will likely be a bit all over the place and sparse. Dunbar’s Number – I’ve read about this a few times. Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr and other things, reminded me of it in her TOI post this […]

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  • GitLab to open source Gitter

    Jordan Novet for VentureBeat: GitLab won’t bundle it in its community edition or its enterprise edition yet, but it will open-source the Gitter code for others to build on, GitLab cofounder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij told VentureBeat in an interview. What’s happening now, though, is that as part of GitLab, Gitter is launching a new feature […]

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  • Attending Small Agency Idea Lab (SAIL) in Walt Disney World, Florida

    Last week I attended SAIL, Second Wind’s Small Agency Idea Lab, at the Boardwalk Resort in Walt Disney World, Florida. This is the first marketing and advertising agency event that I’ve been to (usually attending technology or internet related events) and I really enjoyed myself and learned a lot. SAIL is pitched as a lab and […]

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  • CSS Grid

    CSS Grid is rolling out to browsers. Firefox already, Chrome this week. Eric Meyer: For well more than a decade now, when asked what CSS needs more than anything, I’ve said it needs real, actual layout.  “A layout-shaped hole at its heart” is a phrase I may have used a fair few times. A nice […]

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  • No-pressure blogging

    Manton Reece: I love that blogs can scale from the trivial to the important. The microblog post about what you had for breakfast. The half-baked rant about something you’re passionate about. And sometimes, the rare essay that really hits the mark and makes people think. Publishing most of my "tweets" here first has led to […]

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  • Slingshot around the moon, for two

    SpaceX: We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year. That sentence makes me immeasurably happy. For most of my life I’ve been very disappointed in the human race’s collective efforts to explore space. I wasn’t even alive when the […]

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  • What I saw this week #34: February 24, 2017

    Video: Ratchet Face – From a longer performance by Tom Thum who you may remember from this TEDx presentation. Amazing stuff. Video: Neil deGrasse Tyson on JRE – Joe Rogan had Tyson on his podcast. Two hours of nerding out and Rogan keeps up fairly well. Developer Tea – I stumbled across this podcast this […]

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  • Arguments aren’t parameters

    Eevee on the names of things in programming languages: Part of the problem here is that we’re not actually doing computer science. We’re doing programming, with a wide variety (hundreds!) of imperfect languages with different combinations of features and restrictions. There are only so many words to go around, so the same names get used […]

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  • What the FAA really just said about drone encounters

    You’ll likely read a headline on your favorite news site today that reads as if the FAA has said drone strikes are up for 2016. And they likely are – as there are a lot, lot more drones in the air this year compared to last. However, what you won’t read is this bit from […]

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  • Multiple photos and videos in a single post on Instagram

    Instagram: With this update, you no longer have to choose the single best photo or video from an experience you want to remember. Now, you can combine up to 10 photos and videos in one post and swipe through to see them all. Fantastic update and finally one that is different than most, if not […]

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  • The crescent of Venus

    Harold Jenkins: From February through March 2017 Venus will put on quite a show in the west after sunset. Unmistakably bright, its crescent will be getting thinner while the disc of the planet itself is increasing in size – meaning the planet will maintain its brightness, even though its appearance through binoculars, telescopes, and high-zoom […]

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Writing helps me think more clearly and to form or transform my opinions. I write about what interests me such as blogging, photography, technology, social media, and my personal creative projects.


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