Bookmarks for July 8, 2019
- Choose Boring Technology
An excellent principle.
Tag: technology
Bookmarks for April 12, 2019
- A New Luxury Retreat Caters to Elderly Workers in Tech (Ages 30 and Up) – The New York Times
On the face of it, this is an absurd idea, born to soak up the excess cash of the over-privileged. Counterpoint: I am in my 40s. I no longer have the time, energy, or desire to spend my spare time studying the latest hot tech framework (at the expense of seeing friends, or basic life admin), or to re-skill into machine learning or the next highly-employable trend. I *am* becoming irrelevant in my own industry. I would love help figuring out how to cope with that better – both personally and professionally. (And I know I've got it easy…)
Bookmarks for February 19, 2015
- Syllabus | MAS S66: Indistinguishable From… Magic as Interface, Technology, and Tradition
I would sell a kidney to attend this class.
Bookmarks for October 15, 2014
- Lockheed says makes breakthrough on fusion energy project | Reuters
I… don't know what to make of this. If it's true, this is *huge* news. Just enormous, on a sort of I-can't-quite-believe-this scale. But this isn't "mad scientist with basement lab makes mad claims" like we've seen with fusion before, this is a major military industrial player that is apparently seeking partners to actually *build* the thing! I really hope this is true. Wow.
Bookmarks for June 18, 2012
- Sky City: Chinese company proposes world’s tallest building
A new tallest building is not that interesting. What is interesting is that they're saying that can build it in 90 days.
Bookmarks for October 25, 2010
- The Most Popular Phone in the World
This is the sort of thing that it's useful to keep in mind as perspective, when considering technology. "90% of the phone for 20% of the price" is something that could be applied to all sorts of different sorts of development work. (Especially since is it my experience that the first 90% of any project, the rough functionality type work is indeed, less that half the work/cost.)
Bookmarks for September 28, 2010
- IMac 2000 vs iPhone 2010
I'm not posting this as an Apple fan – Apple are a long, long way from being the only example of this kind pace of technology, and probably aren't even the best. But they're a well know, very recognisable one. As you look at this though, I invite you to consider the following: you didn't even notice that change happening, did you?
- Now Shipping: ThinkUp Beta 1 | Smarterware
Need to grab this and get it running somewhere – on the one hand, most of my stuff is inconsequential crap, on the other hand, I don't like not having my own copy of data I generate, so something that auto-archives my socialmeeja crap is handy, especially if it'll let me produce stats on it.
- Lessons of the Chewbacca Incident « Binary Bonsai
Some data on the behaviour of users who were referred by to a site, split by the site that referred them – for example, users referred by BoingBoing stay longer, but read less extra pages that this initial linked one than those who arrive via Bleeding Cool or io9. I'd be cautious of putting reading *too* much into the data, but it's still interesting.
Bookmarks for July 26, 2010
- rotonic for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store
Horrifyingly addictive little game – I downloaded it, and then when I looked up, it was hours later.
- Insufficient data – Charlie's Diary
I'm actually more optimistic about what "Big Society" can potentially achieve than most people I know, but I recognise that actually, most of what it can achieve is (significant) optimisation of already-funded and already-managed programs that are set up with the correct social tools. Which is why I found this such interesting ready: Charlie Stross, in the course of wondering about how many people you'd need to send to Mars, ably demonstrates why society is already far too large and complex for "Big Society" to ever work past a certain limit.
Bookmarks for July 23, 2010
- Janet Fitch's 10 rules for writers | Jacket Copy | Los Angeles Times
Actually, these aren't half bad, and if I could make more of an effort to remember them, it'd probably lift my writing quite a lot.
- Wayward Alzheimer's patients foiled by fake bus stop – Telegraph
Architectures of control, right here. Nice.
- The ever-arrogant Apple « Observatory
I admit to coming off like a bit of an Apple fanboy, but still, this piece really nailed something for me: if Apple are sometimes arrogant (and I don't think there's a dispute about whether or not they are) then it's because they've earned the right to be by leading the way in personal computing on a technology level for decades now. They may not have been the most successful financially, but they've been the game changing-innovators since before the iPod, never mind the iPhone and iPad. And if someone comes along that can humble them, then I will sincerely welcome them but it hasn't happened yet. The reason I buy Apple products is that they're the best on sale at the moment, and as soon as someone comes along that offers me a better experience, I'll switch.
- Stuart Roebuck: Mobile Proxy Cache content modification by O2
I'm a little fucked off about this, but not quite willing to throw my toys from the pram over it – not least because I can't, having just signed up for another 18 months. But it's one to keep an eye on, and one to be professionally aware of, at least, as more clients start asking up for iPhone/iPad tailored content.
Bookmarks for May 19, 2010
- ReclaimPrivacy.org | Facebook Privacy Scanner
If you're staying on facebook, I thoroughly recommend that you use this, to be absolutely sure of what your settings are. Remember, if you don't set everything correctly, you friends can share information about you without your knowledge, so do make sure to check…
- People are walking architecture, or making NearlyNets with MujiComp – Blog – BERG
Yes, someone at BERG has done a thing, and I'm linking to it again. What this thing is is a short exploration of bottom-up ubicomp, and how it is making our cities come alive. Cleverness is basically the art of drawing useful connections that others don't, and Matt Jones is bloody good at it, skating here from Archigram to Clay Shirky via Muji and Guy DeBord, and laying out a way of bringing on the future of our public spaces. Plus, I love the idea of the porch being the point where the public and the private mesh. Much friendlier that the computer-nerd term DMZ, much more useful.
- Museum of London – Street Museum
Nifty little app for visually mining the history of London while out and about.