January 2008
Six Degrees vs The Tipping Point and the problem... →
Kevin Kelly writes on something that is getting a fair amount of attention: the new book by Duncan Watts (Six Degrees). Watts critiques another book by Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point), and Kevin Kelly does a good job of commenting on it.
My problem with all this analysis is the use of metaphors. Using metaphors of disease or forest fires helps model and understand the characteristic of...
Mother Tongue Annoyances › How to Attain Serenity... →
three simple but great tips
What boys dream… →
Philosophical podcasts from Schopenhauer to Plato →
When everyone else on the bus is bopping along to hip hop, you can be grooving to Schopenhauer’s “The World as Will and Idea” if you surf over to here.
For truly smart people. (I didn’t know they had podcasts in Plato’s time! )
YouTube - Ordinary Miracle →
YouTube - Tangled Up In Me →
Media Converter - the fastest free online audio... →
Why giving up your privacy doesn’t make you more... →
Over at techdirt.com is a very concise argument on why giving up your privacy doesn’t make you more secure. Key quote:
“Confiscating shaving cream and nail files at the airport doesn’t make anyone safer. Neither does creating a national ID card, because terrorists rely on surprise, not anonymity. The fundamental issue is that real security involves focusing resources on identifying and...
Hawes & Curtis - Accessories →
YouTube - Mutya Buena - B Boy Baby - Ft Amy... →
Life:Explained →
Free web hosting with php and mysql and no ads →
Flash » Samuel L Jackson Soundboard →
Facebook PHP Tutorial →
Virtual Hosting Blog » The Cheat Sheet Cheat... →
How to make a dark room seem light (and well lit)… →
…by reading this article, Chasing the Darkness With Sleight of Hand in the New York Times, which presents a nice case study on how to make a dark room light up. It features a room by Jeffrey Bilhuber, a Manhattan interior designer, whose client had a bedroom in their apartment with very little light. The end result is light and very attractive. Lots of good ideas to borrow here.
Valentino is done →
To people outside the world of fashion, this could be a big, “eh…whatever”. But after 45 years as a leading designer, it’s a big thing that Valentino does his last haute couture fashion show (in Paris, of course). This piece in the NYT’s doesn’t do him justice. Maybe we’ll need the New Yorker to do a story on him, like they did for Lagerfeld recently. In the meantime, see So This Is It:...
From the Fake Steve Jobs blog to the Fake Hillary... →
An interesting development of parody / satire. See: Twitter / fakehillary
Sesame Street Videos - Beta - now online →
Now if you are going to watch a “beta” version of anything, this is the one to watch.
I think I will have a and watch them.
Jason Salavon - Selected Projects →
Wanting to move up from cheap wine at the LCBO?... →
Matthew Sullivan has a great idea for a wine blog. His blog, the Short Cellar, is all about:
“….offering some advice about the joy of aging wine as I build my own cellar from the ground up, detailing what is going in, when it comes out, and what happened to it along the way. My emphasis will be on wines that are easily available in Ontario and that only take a year or two before developing...
Avoiding the sub-prime mortgage disaster…for now →
The whirlpool that is the sub-prime mortgage disaster in the U.S. continues to get bigger and suck more things into it. But not everyone.
At kottke.org, the excellent Jason Kottke has some good references to smart people who have managed to see the problem coming and avoid it (for now). For more details, see his entry: Yay! Today is sub-prime mortgage day on kottke.org, I guess. The…...
Vmware how to - OSx86 →
How to install OS X on a Windows PC
YouTube - Amy Winehouse In My Bed Live →
In 2008, wine is going to get cheaper at the LCBO... →
The globeandmail.com has an article on how the LCBO will now stock cheaper wine in 2008. Fans of wine under $10, take heart!
Some highlights from the Beppi Crosariol article:
- Wine drinkers in Ontario may soon notice a strange trend taking shape at their local liquor stores: more shelf space given over to bargain imports. (Why is this strange? -bm)
- Portugal is likely to be a key source...
twhirl Documentation | twhirl →
Another twitter client using AIR
Friday music - Joanna Newsom →
The brilliant Joanna Newsom with “sprout and the bean”
YouTube - OK Go - Here It Goes Again →
Diacritical Hit - Apparently the first track on... →
A very cool way to come up with ideas
The John Coltrane web site →
I love John Coltrane’s music. Learn more about the man and his music at ::: JOHNCOLTRANE.COM :::
Bonus: you go to the site, it pops up with “A Love Supreme”. Enjoy.
flickr steps up the plate for the Library of... →
The Library of Congress has added 3,000 copyright-free, public domain photos to Flickr. The catch? It’s up to us to tag them all.
To me, this is a significant step in the growth of such Web 2.0 services. Imagine if more and more librarians put their archives on the Web in such a fashion.
Thanks to lifehacker for the tip!
(Photo: Bain News Service,
publisher.
[William J. Bradley,...
Canadian Opera Company’s Opera for a New Age... →
Under 30? Live in or around Toronto? Love or interesting in opera? Then mark this date on your calendar:
On Saturday
January 19, the Canadian Opera Company’s Opera for a New Age
tickets go on sale. You get tickets at $20 a seat (as opposed to $60 or more.) for performances of Tosca by Puccini and From the House of the Dead by Janácek.
See Canadian Opera Company’s Opera for a New Age...
China and Web 2.0 →
Cnn.com has alot of stories on very trivial matters. But this China story is anything but. It’s about:
Wei Wenhua (who) was a model communist and is now a bloggers’ hero — a “citizen journalist” turned martyr.
The world needs China to open up, and so does China. Here’s hoping they do. Everyone will benefit.
Kudos to CNN.
Kids don’t like clowns →
According to a study reported on in the globeandmail.com, children hate clowns. Even older ones. It found that:
“clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable.”
I think this may be an exaggeration, but I think there is alot more too it than adults realize. Perhaps a few generations from now, people will look back and think: wow! There were clowns...
casa cachagua and other great design at... →
What ismaterialicious™? As it says, it is “a weblog featuring residential architecture, design, craftsmanship, materials and products. It is edited by Justin Anthony, a New Yorker who is currently residing in Phoenix, AZ., and was a residential restoration specialist for 25 years.” It is chock full of great architecture and design, like the Casa Cachagua featured above. Go see.
casa cachagua,...
Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools: Art and Fear →
Kevin Kelly, in his list “Cool Tools”, has excerpts of what looks like a good book for anyone who wants to know not just about making art but being creative generally. Here’s a link to the site, and here is a fascinating story from the Cool Tool: Art & Fear
‘The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the...
What the future looks like →
It’s shifting
Great reasons to start a blog from lifehack.org →
For
people who wonder, “why blog?”, the people at lifehack.org have listed
a number of strong reasons why you should in their article, How To Use Your Blog To Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever!
The
article is written from a viewpoint of how to use a blog to improve
yourself, and the bonuses they list regarding blogging (e.g. track
progress, get feedback, share knowledge) apply to anyone,...
http://stratify.com.au/ →
PHP Security Consortium: PHP Security Guide →
Want to get published? nytimes.com has the story →
The New York Times has a good summary on the various web sites offering publishing services in their article: Got a Manuscript? Publishing Now a Snap - New York Times. There are references to lulu.com, blurb.com and others.
If you have been always dying to see your work bound in hardcover, check out this article and then the sites they mention.
YouTube - The Fray-How To Save a Life →
YouTube - Feist - I Feel It All →
Chicken Schnitzel and other great Hungarian food... →
blogto does a great job of covering Toronto, including restaurants. And this review of Country Style Hungarian Restaurant is no exception.
There used to be a number of Hungarian restaurants in the Annex, including the Korona, my old favourite. Sadly, most of them are gone. But not Country Style. Head on over to 450 Bloor St West and have one of these…
…and you will be very glad you did!
...
Bill Gates Last Day at Microsoft →
When you are Bill Gates, you can get some PRETTY powerful people to show up in a spoof video of you. The video is funny, but the underlying message is: hey, I am Bill Gates, and look who I can get to show up.
Watch and see:
YouTube - Bill Gates’ Last Day at Microsoft - CES 2008
YouTube - Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares To... →
YouTube - George Michael - Faith →
YouTube - communication(live) →
YouTube - Feist - 1 2 3 4 →
YouTube - Minnie Driver - Invisible Girl →