- Dirty 30s! – The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot
Lester Dent sold a lot of books in his day. Writing a series of modern day stories that ultimately follow this formula might be fun. 10 or 12 would make a nicely publishable volume, too.
- Paypal orders destruction of antique violin
I'm not sure what to say. This feels very like something that ought to be a crime – the seller had an authenticated antique violin, worth $2,500, and sold it. The buyer disputed the purchase. Paypal required proof of destruction before they would refund money. Buyer destroys antique, seller is now out both an antique violin *and* the money. Surely Paypal could be held to be complicit in a theft, here?
Tag: advice
Bookmarks for November 29, 2011
- Little Printer | BERG Cloud
There are a bunch of things that interest me about this. The physicalisation of internet-sourced data. The just-enough and just-in-time approach. The social angle. And most of all, the suggestion that this is the first of a range of tools to bring the virtual and physical closer together. I want one, and I want the developer documentation for this "bergcloud" or which they speak, because I imagine I can have fun with them.
- Hidden habits of ineffective people by Chris Wake – Quora
There are a couple of things in here that I should really work on, mostly 1 and 3, but they're all good advice.
Bookmarks for August 13, 2010
- McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Our Daughter Isn't a Selfish Brat; Your Son Just Hasn't Read "Atlas Shrugged".
"The thing is, in this family we take the philosophies of Ayn Rand seriously. We conspicuously reward ourselves for our own hard work, we never give to charity, and we only pay our taxes very, very begrudgingly. "
- Cyberoptix TieLab: hand silkscreened TIES THAT DON'T SUCK!
Actually, really true. There are absolutely hordes of ties in here that I would actually wear. Astonishing.
- Mike Marcus – Contemporary Artist and Photographer
This guy is offering ten quid portrait photography to, essentially, passers-by, so that everyone can have a decent profile pic on any on-line service they care to use it on. Wish I'd thought of this. And also that I wasn't a total bag of arse at portrait photography.
- Mule Design Studio’s Blog: Tips On Buying Design
This is, frankly excellent. It can be boiled down to: expect to pay money, so have an idea how much you can afford. And also, be absolutely sure that you actually need to buy design, rather than doing it yourself, or buying off the shelf. I've had a half written post on selecting an agency in my queue for a while, and this has obviated my need to write it quite nicely.
Bookmarks for September 30, 2009
- nef 'five-a-day' to well-being in major new government report
None of these are rocket science, when when considering them as a checklist, I suspect generally manage about 3-4 of these on any given day – one or two of them almost always fall by the wayside. Must try and find ways to structure my day so I hit all 5 more often.
Bookmarks for August 18, 2009
- David Foster Wallace on Life and Work – WSJ.com
"The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default-setting, the 'rat race' — the constant gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing."
Bookmarks for July 10, 2009
- Top 10 comic book cities | The Critics | Architects Journal
Some really interesting picks here. I think I'm going to have to make efforts to acquire a few of the works mentioned in here that I've never read.
- Metropolitan Police Service – About the Met – Photography advice
Advice about dealing with Photographers given to officers by the Met. Sensible, clear, know your rights stuff. If an officer talking to you does *not* know your rights, then you might try giving them this, because after all, it's their boss telling them what they're allowed to do.
Bookmarks for February 5, 2009
- Southbank Centre > Music > Mouse on Mars soundtrack Herzog's Fata Morgana
Anyone interested in this? Herzog + weird German Electro sounds like a moral victory to me.
- Should The New York Times Ditch Paper, Distribute Kindle E-readers?
According to one set of maths, it might actually work out cheaper for the paper to give away Kindles for a while, and then switch to digital only. The logic is flawed in a number of places (the move would cripple their ability to pick up new readers in the short term for example), but it's still fascinating to see that even with e-paper equivalent as expensive as the Kindle, the maths looks to be becoming favourable.
- Open the Future: Flunking Out
Jamais Cascio explaining quite clearly why the academic program offered by the recently opened "Singularity University" is a load of old trousers, and offering a rather more sensible sounding educational program for teaching people to think about the coming years/decades.
- DesignAday – Truism
"Broken gets fixed. Shoddy lasts forever." Having recognised that as true, I don't particularly need to refer to the actual this link myself, but I thought I'd mark anyway it just as an action to ensure I commit it to memory.
Bookmarks for November 19, 2008
- Magnum Blog : Wear Good Shoes – Advice to young photographers
A lot of it is generic stuff that you might say to anyone starting out in a creative discipline – "have something to say, find your own voice, be yourself, keep at it" etc. But there are a few gems in here.
Bookmarks for April 14, 2008
- Whining, Blue Smoke & the Mechanics of Getting Unstuck | 43 Folders
Everyone and their dog has already linked to it, but that’s because it’s well worth a read.
- Virgin Media CEO Says Net Neutrality is “A Load of Bollocks” (via BoingBoing)
Using Virgin as your ISP? I’d strongly urge you to end your account, and find an ISP that believes in your right to use the internet as you, rather than they, see fit. If they get away with this, then other ISPs will too, and then we’re all fucked.