So, um, yeah...

3,997 Models: Android Fragmentation As Seen By The Developers Of OpenSignalMaps | TechCrunch

Wed, 16 May 2012 03:44:06 -0600

3,997 Models: Android Fragmentation As Seen By The Developers Of OpenSignalMaps | TechCrunch:

Wow.

Mid-90s Portland Vinyl

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:40:51 -0600

I was cleaning out a box of mementos this evening and found a stack of 7” vinyl from my college days in Portland. I couldn’t resist sharing what I found.

I really wish that I had a record player handy, but alas, I have to sit and try to remember the songs. I’m totally amused by some of the record label names.

Thrillhammer: Bleed & Bride (1991, Oompa Loompa)
Spinanes: Halloween Candy & Suffice (1992, Imp)
Hazel: Jilted & Truly (1992, Sub Pop)
Hazel: Heida & Pop Uncle (1992, Candy Ass #1)
{I don’t even remember Heida. Crap - so wish I could listen.}
Sone: David’s Sling & Doubt & In Time In Tone Fine Tune (1993, Candy Ass #2)
{Wow. Just totally remembered what “In Time” sounds like.}
Thirty Ought Six: Huck & Wading (1993, Candy Ass #3)
Heatmiser: Sleeping Pill & Temper (1993, CSR7)
{Limited printing of 1500, I have #1030}
Thirty Ought Six: Radon & Headbang (1993, CSR9)
Thirty Ought Six: Eris & Wheeler (1993, C/Z)
Glowing Corn: Wish Eye & Mogadishu (1993, Elemental)
{Limited pressing of 300, I have #256, in transparent yellow vinyl. But seriously, who are these guys?}
Elliott Smith & Pete Krebs: Shytown & No Confidence Man (1994, Slo-Mo)
Team Dresch: Hand Grenade & Endtime Relay & Molasses In January (1994, Kill Rock Stars)
Hazel: Wintogreen & King Twist (1994, Cavity Search (CSR)11)
Heatmiser: Everybody Has It & Dirty Dream (CSR25)
Sone: Bügskull & The Bloat (1994)
Hutch: The Last Cold I’ll Ever Catch & Face & 101 (1994, Excursions)
{In purple marbled vinyl - gorgeous}
Hazel: Blank Florida & Motor Sport Daredevils (1994, Pacific Wonderland)
Starpower: Stargirl & Treefort (1994)
{transparent green vinyl}
Thirty Ought Six: Talon & Moreau (1994, Mute America)
Kpants: Love & Hospital (1995, Cringing Idiot)
Golden Delicious: Cletus, For The Very Last Time, Get The Hell Out of Your Sister’s Dress & The Cuckoo Bird & Raven Maggie & The Butcher’s Boy (1996, CSR32)
{limited pressing of 500, I have #320)
Elliott Smith: Speed Trials & Angeles & I Don’t Think I’m Ever Gonna Figure It Out (1996, Kill Rock Stars)
Elliott Smith: Needle In The Hay & Alphabet Town & Some Song (Kill Rick Stars)
Built to Spill: Joy Ride & Sick and Wrong (International Pop Underground/K #46)
Built to Spill: So and So and So and So & Terrible-Perfect (Saturnine/K)
Spinanes: Rummy & Hawaiian Baby (Imp)

Happy to send a picture/scan to anyone who is interested. If I find myself a record player to borrow, I’ll rip to MP3 and post a few of the ones that aren’t obviously available elsewhere.

Freeing energy from the grid

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:34:39 -0600

Justin Hall-Tipping: Freeing energy from the grid #TED : http://on.ted.com/BWQ5

Totally worth watching. Using nanotechnology to harvest and store electrons.

"The role of a leader is to define reality and give hope."

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:19:07 -0700

“The role of a leader is to define reality and give hope.”

- Napoleon

BBC News - Eurozone debt web: Who owes what to whom?

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:15:41 -0700

BBC News - Eurozone debt web: Who owes what to whom?:

Wonderfully geekfy fun. I’m always amused at the circular nature of debt.

For example, the UK owes the USA €578.6bn, but the USA owes the UK €834.5bn. So net, the USA actually owes the USA a lot of money. And yet, we argue about the absolute value of debt, not the net amount.

Yes, of course, there at different interest rates and different expiry dates. But why doesn’t someone just calculate the net present value and write off mutually canceling balance?

SilverRail: Train tickets made easy | The Economist

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 01:35:28 -0700

SilverRail: Train tickets made easy | The Economist:

I’m very much looking forward to this. Train ticket search & booking the same way airplane tickets work. Especially important as so many of the train lines change at national borders still in Europe.

Two steps remain: getting a broader set of European rail companies on board and building the service into retail travel sites.

Breaking up the euro: How it could happen; why it would be horrible | The Economist

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 06:47:08 -0700

Breaking up the euro: How it could happen; why it would be horrible | The Economist:

The pros and cons of Italy leaving the Euro.

The If default is forced upon Italy, goes the argument, why would it not go the whole hog and create a new domestic currency?

Being on this side of the pond, I get the increasing sense that dissolution of the Euro as it exists today is an increasing prospect. Still very, very unlikely, but well above the minuscule chance that existing previously.

Generation X Is Sick of Your Bullshit

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:30:30 -0700

Generation X Is Sick of Your Bullshit:

Classic rant. Love it.

So sad to see the plane trees dying. They’re such an...

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:57:42 -0600

So sad to see the plane trees dying. They’re such an emotional symbol of France to me.

(via BBC News - The disease killing Europe’s plane trees)

Vocabulary: There's a word for that, somewhere | The Economist

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:27:23 -0600

Vocabulary: There's a word for that, somewhere | The Economist:

Grief bacon. That may be my new favorite word. Can’t wait to move to Germany.

Over at Mental Floss, they’ve gathered two lists of words with no match in English, Volume 1 here, Volume 2 here. Of these, my favourite, easily, is the German Kummerspeck: “Excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, grief bacon.”

Economist Debates: Wilderness

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:21:37 -0600

Economist Debates: Wilderness:

Fascinating! And I love the outcome.

About this debate

There is a paradox in people’s thinking about the wilderness. They think uninhabited wildernesses have a value simply in not being touched by humans and thus seek to preserve them—at the same time wanting to visit them. In practice, the desire to visit tends to win, which puts the preservationist in a bind. If people visit, they put a value on what they visit that may make them more interested in its conservation. But what is being conserved is no longer wilderness. The preservation of truly untouched wilderness has to put a value on nature over and above what nature may offer to humans. And such a value system imposes real costs. The earth has resources that people need, especially at a time when the population is still growing and billions are desperately poor. Should some of those resources be put off-limits because some people place an aesthetic or moral value on the wildernesses where they are to be found? Or should a utilitarian approach be taken, accepting that human needs come before the needs that humans imagine for nature? Some might even argue that wildernesses are particularly good places for mines and oilfields—better, if something goes wrong, that there be no humans around to get hurt. If resources are taken from the wilderness something is gained. But is something also lost—even if the resources are taken out cleanly and without degradation, and if the resulting human presence is respectful? That is the question at the heart of this debate: what, exactly, is lost in such circumstances, and what is its value?

Facebook: Sharing it all | The Economist

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:55:39 -0600

Facebook: Sharing it all | The Economist:

Where Facebook is headed:

Users will be encouraged to report to their friends in real time via these apps that they are, say, listening to a piece of music, cooking a particular kind of meal or watching a specific film. Their friends will then be able to click on, say, a music app and listen to the same piece of music. The company has been working with a group of firms, including Spotify, an online-music outfit, Netflix, a video-streaming service, and a range of news organisations (including the Washington Post and The Economist), to flesh out the offerings it will need to make this new feature take off.

And why:

The more that Facebook can learn about people’s lives and interests, the better positioned it will be to target advertising at them and to persuade companies to use it to market their wares.

Titles: General confusion | The Economist

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:53:13 -0600

Titles: General confusion | The Economist:

I love Johnson. A fantastic column on language.

Finally, it once bugged me that in British and American officer ranks, a lieutenant general outranked a major general, while by contrast a major outranks a lieutenant. (Plain “general” outranks both.) Only later did I learn: major general is shortened from sergeant-major-general. So just as ranks proceed upwards as sergeant-major, lieutenant, captain, so do (sergeant-)major-general, lieutenant-general and (captain-)general.

Melting Arctic sea-ice and shipping routes: Northern exposure | The Economist

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:47:46 -0600

Melting Arctic sea-ice and shipping routes: Northern exposure | The Economist:

A great little 2m video (that I can’t embed unfortunately) demonstrating the reality of the Northwest Passage* and the Northern or Northeast Passage** now available as a result of dwindling Arctic sea ice.

* Northwest Passage = the Canada/Alaska route
** Northern/Northeast Passage = the Russia route

The world economy: Be afraid | The Economist

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:39:44 -0600

The world economy: Be afraid | The Economist:

Wheeeee!

First, for all the breathless headlines from the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington, DC, Europe’s leaders are a long way from a deal on how to save the euro. The best that can be said is that they now have a plan to have a plan, probably by early November. Second, even if a catastrophe in Europe is avoided, the prospects for the world economy are darkening, as the rich world’s fiscal austerity intensifies and slowing emerging economies provide less of a cushion for global growth. Third, America’s politicians are, once again, threatening to wreck the recovery with irresponsible fiscal brinkmanship. Together, these developments point to a perilous period ahead.

Apps on tap | The Economist

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:39:00 -0600

Apps on tap | The Economist:

Read the rest. A good, concise explanation of why apps do better on phones than on PCs (which tend to rely on web).

In many ways, apps are representative of the changes taking place in personal technology. Small, downloadable chunks of software, they give people access to information in a neatly packaged format and most have one or more of the following attributes: simplicity, cheapness and instant gratification.

Schumpeter: Green growth | The Economist

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 03:30:27 -0600

Schumpeter: Green growth | The Economist:

Interesting to think of resource scarcity as a driver for environmental practices. Then again, as David Douglas (Sun Microsystems former Chief Eco-Responsibility Officer) used to say, Eco stands for both Economics and Environment.

Many have found that, when natural resources are scarce and consumers are cash-strapped, greenery can be a lucrative business strategy.

Amazon: The Walmart of the web | The Economist

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 11:09:30 -0600

Amazon: The Walmart of the web | The Economist:

Given what I use my iPod Touch for (e.g. media consumption, much of it on the Kindle client, Facebook, email, web) this might be okay for me. The only frustration would be that I can’t access any of the streaming video from European IP addresses.

Makes me wonder what the syncing is like…

Real competition from Redmond: Windows Phone 7 "Mango" reviewed

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:34:05 -0600

Real competition from Redmond: Windows Phone 7 "Mango" reviewed:

I’m looking forward to seeing the next set of Nokia phones out in the market.

15 of 50 in Part 2. (via 50 More of the Most Famous Landmarks on...

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 08:53:43 -0600

15 of 50 in Part 2.

(via 50 More of the Most Famous Landmarks on Earth (Part 2))