Star Wars: Machete Order
blam:
Should you watch Star Wars in Release Order or Episode Order? Rod Hilton argues for a third option: Machete Order. Agree or not, it’s a fun read…
ha true
Scaling is about dealing efficiently with events that occur with a predictable frequency. Hard disk failures are rare catastrophes for individuals. They are an operating condition for data centers.
What would be the greatest technological leap you’d have to explain to someone who time traveled from the 1950’s?
I possess a device in my pocket that is capable of accessing the entirety of information known to man.
I use it to look at pictures of cats and get in arguments with strangers.
Susan Crawford for Bloomberg:
The Internet has taken the place of the telephone as the world’s basic, general-purpose, two-way communication medium. All Americans need high-speed access, just as they need clean water, clean air and electricity. But they have allowed a naive belief in the power and beneficence of the free market to cloud their vision. As things stand, the U.S. has the worst of both worlds: no competition and no regulation.
Such an important and easy-to-understand post. Essentially, the U.S. has fallen behind (and continues to fall behind) in high speed internet access because of deregulation gone-bad. It allowed greedy dickbags (the cable companies) to do what they do best (perfect being greedy dickbags).
Just read about how many millions of dollars each of them spend in lobbying to ensure that communities continue to have to pay them (many more) millions for sub-par service. Total. Fucking. Dickbags.
I hope Google (or someone) succeeds in their (insanely expensive) end-around approach. Because it’s pretty clear the government isn’t going to do shit at this point. I wrote this post almost three years ago — what has changed in the meantime? Absolutely nothing. It’s gotten worse. And it will keep getting worse.
Truth
Favorite recent video games & books
Video games:
Micro miners (ipad) - Look past the hipster 8-bit graphics. It’s a great (light) physics puzzle game.
Flow (iphone) - From the “minute to learn, lifetime to master” genre. Elegant game design.
Letterpress (iphone) - Super fun game that all the techies are playing. Watch out for friends who write Python scripts to cheat! ;)
Bridge Constructor (ipad) - Great puzzle game. Bonus: a painless primer in civil engineering.
Splice (ipad) - Beautiful graphics/sound and really thoughtful gameplay.
Books:
Antifragile - I never really got into Taleb’s earlier books, but this one was great — and a page turner! I could have lived without the personal sidebars but the rest was riveting.
The Swerve - Great yarn. And this guy is obviously a serious scholar (who might be talking down to me slightly — but that’s ok).
Passage to Power - Who knew a story about LBJ could be so engaging?? You always hear he was the “master of the Senate” but learning the detailed mechanics of how he did it is fascinating. The author is so good that he makes a routine Senate vote seem like an action thriller.
Micromotives and Macrobehaviors - This economics classic characterized “emergence” long before it became a trendy buzzword. Clearly and concisely written, and at times profound.
“There is no guy on Zaarly saying road construction is his passion…
“There is no guy on Zaarly saying road construction is his passion. Artisanal road construction, perhaps, but not the actually useful sort.”
http://pandodaily.com/2012/12/09/ask-any-entrepreneur-the-freelance-economy-is-a-suckers-game/
If Harvard wishes to retain its primary existence as a gigantic profit-maximizing hedge fund, that is well and good, but meanwhile perhaps it should be required to provide a free top quality college education to a few thousand deserving students as a minor community service.
Hurricane Sandy did a number on New York. While much of the city is returning to normal life, parts of the city are devastated.
At Kitchensurfing, we had an interesting week. But the best part of the week was being inspired by the chefs in our community. We got a call on Thursday from chefs that were headed to the Rockaways to prepare hot food for those in need. We sponsored them and we were shocked to hear the return report. We’ve decided to use our skills to help support our chefs that want to help.
In several communities around New York, people still don’t have power, and many are homeless. There’s emergency relief in place and it is not enough.
A hot meal is humanizing in a way that little else can be. There’s looting, people are afraid, it’s cold, and this week is bringing more bad weather. Kitchensurfing stands for a kind of grassroots hospitality and a belief that breaking bread with someone can right many wrongs. We’re jumping in to help with things that the internet is good at: connecting people together to share and pool resources.
Specifically:
- We’re looking for supporters to make small financial contributions towards food costs as our chefs work the kitchens.
- We have Kitchensurfing chefs donating their time and skills prepping hot dishes for hard hit areas.
- We’ve fronted the cost of transportation to shuttle hot food. We’re going to be partnering with others to shuttle.
- We’re subsidizing the ingredients cost for these chefs
- We’ve got multiple commissaries that are donating their space for our chefs to come and cook together
nice program
Big Thank you to this gentleman directing traffic on 1st and 14th st. We had no power so traffic lights were not working, it was very dangerous and confusing for drivers and pedestrians. This gentleman took charge and started helping the community. We really appreciate your kindness and time! Best AR
awesome
