Blog
Writing helps me think more clearly. This archive is longer posts; quick updates now live in notes.
Topics: AI, blogging, photography, programming, projects, Signboard
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 makes me feel…
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 say, “We might…
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 the iconic egg…
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 major Mastodon contributor….
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 best of the…
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 would have shared…
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 and successfully moving…
Callicoon Brewing Company – April 2017
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 open source app…
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 I've been spending…
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 being expanded to…
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 (MR) (which I'm…
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 reached a powerline…
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 how Minimalism was…
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. Go grab your…
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 typically do, the…
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 began using this…
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 and mention it time…
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, transportation, entertainment, manufacturing — enriching…
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 had been using…
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 be super simplistic…
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 I need it….
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 week. This principle…
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 called Topics, where…