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
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 at times it…
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 step forward in…
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 some frivolous posts….
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 last manned mission…
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 week and Huffduffed…
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 the FAA's report:…
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 for vaguely similar…
The following two sentences encapsulate an incredible feat in the advancement of human discovery: TRAPPIST-1 is a planetary system, located 12 parsecs away from the Solar system (39 light years), near the ecliptic, within the constellation of Aquarius. Around a star which is 12 times less massive than the Sun and only slightly larger than Jupiter, there are at…
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 cameras changes dramatically….
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 all, other platforms.
Marco Arment just released version 3 of Overcast, the podcast player I use on my phone every single day. I like this bit in the update: No closed-source code will be embedded in Overcast anymore, and I won’t use any more third-party analytics services. I’m fairly confident that Apple has my back if a government pressures them to…
Oristand – Want to try a standing desk? This is a pretty inexpensive and portable way to try it. Houdiniopoly – A local Houdini Museum is creating a boardgame and kickstarted the idea. They've already met their goal. Video: MSFT's hardware testing center – Cool behind-the-scenes look at one of Microsoft's facilities. Drones over Dubai – (more like…
Team Whiskey Bacon tears into Blue Apron and lists 10 things they hate about it. I agree with many of their points, especially #2 and #6 on their list and that Blue Apron is not for those that know their way around the kitchen. We tried Blue Apron for a time. It was an interesting experience. The quality…
I linked to this post in #32 but, just in case you missed it, I'm linking to it properly because I believe it deserves it. Cabel Sasser, on creating the intro song for Stagehand: There was no way I was gonna be able to put a “live” version of the song together by myself. I’m basically musically illiterate, don’t know…
NEPA.js is quickly becoming my favorite tech-related event to attend. On Monday night at the Scranton Enterprise Center a solid group of attendees listened and shared in Jason Washo's presentation on whether or not to handwrite or generate JavaScript through transpiling. Jason is a big believer in transpiling JavaScript but he kept his presentation balanced by providing both the…
Emily Lakdawalla, on taking a writing sabbatical: I feel less and less satisfied doing rushed news-update-style reporting, and am more interested in spending more time to explain science or engineering in depth, in articles that will be useful over time, not just this week. (I am really enjoying writing the book, when I can find time to do…
I missed publishing this on Friday so I'm publishing it today. Roper Game Prototype – Mary Rose Cook showing off again. Maja Kuczyńska wind freestyle – Humans shouldn't be able to move like this. VSauce – I scour YouTube daily for new subscriptions. I'm always amazed that I can stumble across a previously unknown channel (esp. one as…
Phil Condron and I were recently interviewed on tecBRIDGE Radio – a radio show cum podcast about business, entrepreneurship and the knowledge economy in northeastern Pennsylvania. Topics included marketing for small businesses, who should learn to code, and the history of Condron Media. Full disclosure: Condron Media is a reoccurring sponsor of tecBRIDGE Radio as we, like tecBRIDGE, believe…
David Mead writes about Feedly: There seems no way to see all your feeds in one place, and mange them accordingly. Everything has to be a “collection”. Those only show a few on the screen at any one time. So you have to keep expanding and collapsing boxes to make simple changes. It got to the point where…
Dan Kimbrough: Facebook makes sense as the leader. More people use Facebook than YouTube. And by that, I mean we consume a lot on YouTube, most of its traffic is viewing videos, not creating. I think that most companies and influencers have a big enough audience that they can stream anywhere and their followers will…follow. Facebook should be…
Last night Tucker Hottes, Den Temple and I held the first Homebrew Website Club at The Keys in Scranton, PA. I really appreciate that HWC will force me to set aside some time to work on my personal site since it is often neglected for more pressing projects. During HWC I began trying to fix my crufty URLs…
Josh Ginter re: my Instagram pressure post: I tried to fix this by unfollowing just about everyone I know personally and following as many talented photographers as I could find. The result of that decision: enormous inspiration to get out of the house and travel, but also to a confidence-shattering reflection on my own photos. Now, instead of…
Short list this week. Video: Apple Campus flyover – Getting closer to being complete every month. Video: Matt D'Avella's YouTube channel – Friend, former collaborator on many projects, and Director of Minimalists. ASCII weather – You can also pull this in via curl. Complete collection of Wii games – That's a lot of Wii games. YouTube app pro tip…
Marco Arment posits the idea that, maybe, the iPad isn't the future of computing based on the fact that sales are down year-over-year again. He writes: What if, like so much in technology, it’s mostly just additive, rather than largely replacing PCs and Macs, and furthermore had a cooling-fad effect as initial enthusiasm wore off and customers came to…