A Whole Lotta Nothing

Hodgman, Coulton, and Roderick

2008-11-17T23:16:34-08:00

The highlight of the Live Wire/Wordstock event I attended a week ago was this:

VeloNews | Knog Love Hate gloves | The Journal of Competitive Cycling. [del.icio.us]

2008-11-19T13:21:25-08:00

Surprised it took so many years to see a hilarious set of gloves like this.

FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right: An Interview with John Ziegler on the Zogby "Push Poll" [del.icio.us]

2008-11-18T22:35:30-08:00

Hilarious interview with a right wing crank. I wonder if this guy would agree most Bush 2004 voters thought Saddam was behind 9/11.

Portland Bike Commuters - a set on Flickr [del.icio.us]

2008-11-17T13:02:36-08:00

Totally freaking awesome on-the-street portraits of bike commuters in Portland. Some of the shots look like they were done in a studio with a fake backdrop, they're so good.

Bigger Stronger Faster

2008-11-11T15:18:16-08:00

I watched Bigger Stronger Faster last night. It's a movie about steroid use in sports which is something I thought I was pretty dead set in my opinions about. As a cyclist I'm keenly aware of how widespread cheating in the sport is and I've always held a pretty low opinion of those that did it.

A scant few things have challenged my opinions. Outside Magazine famously did a story on an older amateur rider taking all the banned substances he could handle and I remember the takeaway for me was "damn, that HGH actually sounds pretty good." and "Wow, I can see why people take these things."

On MetaFilter, user Chuckles compiled a list of 8 previous Tour de France top five results, with everyone implicated in doping marked with an X. If he updated it for 2007 and 2008, there'd be even more X's on the chart. It's really more ubiquitous than we want to think.

I have friends that have defended Barry Bonds and other atheletes and frequently mention Tiger Woods had eye surgery to improve his vision, which is another form of performance-enhancement that seems hypocritical to allow (and I can't help but agree with).

I sort of expected Bigger Stronger Faster to be either some sort of gross-out "let's take steroids and hurt oursevles" or a depressing "here is how it ruins lives" but it's nothing at all like either of those things. It really literally rocked my world because it presents a side of steroids in sports I'd never considered and it completely changed my opinion of the whole issue.

The best part is the main guy and narrator is quite literally just some guy off the street who was interested in examining a complex issue, and his passion for seeking the truth pulls you along through the entire film. I have no idea how the filmmakers found the guy or how the guy got into filmmaking, but he's the perfect subject to move through the film and I shared a lot in common (like my distaste for dopining in sports).

I can't recommend this documentary highly enough.

Tim Tam Chocolate Cookies at Target Now Through March -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog [del.icio.us]

2008-11-15T08:41:42-08:00

HOLY CRAP TIM TAMS ARE HERE. I REPEAT, TIM TAMS ARE HERE.

Newton Running [del.icio.us]

2008-11-13T11:59:42-08:00

Awesome dead simple idea for eco-friendly shoe packaging (he says as he throws a giant pile of cardboard from zappos into the bin)

Newbies and Vets: Tips for better fuel economy! - TDIClub Forums [del.icio.us]

2008-11-13T09:58:09-08:00

Bunch of great tips for VW TDI owners trying to get better fuel economy. I bet the mass airflow sensor is bad on our jetta

BlueTripCSS Framework - Blueprint meets Tripoli | Capsize Designs [del.icio.us]

2008-11-10T18:40:32-08:00

Nice little CSS framework for grid-based design

The Design State [del.icio.us]

2008-11-07T16:29:18-08:00

Looks cool: public sector (think .org) web design critiques

VERDIER - Solar Power & Ground Power [del.icio.us]

2008-11-07T16:21:18-08:00

holy crap this is cool looking. Too bad they're all renderings though.

President Obama

2008-11-05T12:41:53-08:00

After watching McCain's concession speech last night, I realized it was John McCain's election to lose. From a mile up, the race was between a guy with tons of experience and some pretty hardcore wartime stories going up against another guy that was new to the senate and was basically unknown before 2004 to most voters.

I really liked John McCain in 2000, and wanted him to win the republican primaries. I probably would have voted for him as well (if I ignored some of his social conservative tendencies) because he seemed like such a centrist (or at least not too far from center on most issues, especially compared to Bush) and I found Gore totally and completely unexciting (I ended up voting for Nader).

When the republican primaries began in 2008 I was pulling for McCain as well, since I remembered the guy I loved on all those talk show appearances over the last several years. I was also pulling for Obama for the past year and was happy when both my early picks ended up on top.

Then the campaign happened. It didn't come on quickly, but I'd say definitely after the GOP convention, the old McCain I loved was gone. I don't recall much of any talk from McCain from the last two months about his detailed plans or reasons why someone should vote for McCain, instead all I heard about was why I should against Obama. That's never a good path to take -- when you don't accentuate your positives and instead focus on negatives, even if you convince others to avoid the opponent you end up with followers that don't have much to be proud of.

To this day I can't tell if it was McCain's choosing to do what he did at the end of the summer of if it was his true personality finally coming out. I like to think he became a slave to the GOP election machine that likely told him playing it straight with Obama and fighting on the issues wasn't going to rile his voting base as much as attacks and fear mongering could.

McCain's concession speech was eloquent, impressive, and left me with the admiration I remembered in the McCain from 2000 that I used to like. That the crowd surrounding him boo'd every time Obama's name was uttered makes me think maybe the McCain I used to like might be the guy still at the core but unfortunately let others run the controls during the election.

Anyway, for the first time since 1992 I was truly ecstatic on an election night. I knew the polls were looking good but I didn't want to be disappointed and a big part of me never thought Obama would actually win, but he did it. I'm glad my daughter gets to grow up and will remember her first president being an inspirational guy that proves anyone can still make it in America.

Of course, we've left Obama with a pretty tough nut to crack and I imagine once he gets in office all the crazy "socialist!" and "marxist!" talk will quickly go out the window as he'll move to the center and make some tough choices. I predict we'll see people on both extremes displeased with some choices but I find that a mark of a good leader. Bill Clinton made a heck of a lot of choices I disagreed with, but at the end of his term he turned a recession into a boom and kept us out of war and I hope Obama can do the same (obviously, without the intern thing).

My new year's wish finally comes true

2008-11-04T22:39:44-08:00

Eleven months later, my new year's wish comes true (well, president-elect levels of true)

Data Mining: Text Mining, Visualization and Social Media: Google Blog Search Changes [del.icio.us]

2008-11-05T11:09:48-08:00

Google Blog Search turned useless last week, indexing any blog with a sidebar link to my site, making it almost impossible to find actual blog mentions anymore

2008 Unofficial Kansas General Election Results [del.icio.us]

2008-11-04T19:51:02-08:00

c'mon tevis!

Why I'm blocking you on twitter

2008-11-03T14:24:50-08:00

I've been using twitter for about a year and a half now and I follow about 150 friends, acquaintances, and applications. A little over 2k users of the service follow me, and it seems I get about 10 new followers a day. Over the past few months however, I've taken to blocking the obvious spammy accounts where someone trying to market something tries to follow thousands of strangers. In the past few weeks it feels like I'm blocking at least half of the new followers.

I figure the people behind those accounts (if there really are people and it's not just an automated spambot attack on twitter which I suspect most are) deserve an explanation, so here are my reasons for blocking new followers:

You are following more than 1,000 contacts. You could spend hours a day reading twitter while following just 100 people. I usually just check in the mornings and evenings to see what my friends were up to that day -- sometimes it requires paging back 10 times to catch it all and sucks up the better part of a half hour each time. Reading Twitter while following 1,000+ is pointless and likely not being actually read by someone
I know twitter is many things to many people, but I like it as a social micro-blogging application with real honest to goodness humans behind every post. I block anything that doesn't have a personal name and doesn't seem like a person writing it. Oh look, a new wax museum in Ohio just started following me! Surely, they don't just want me to click on their bio URL and blog about their new museum, right? Right? Wrong. Humans can follow me, not buildings or organizations or other sorts of accounts that were created to market something and aren't actually being used by a human.
You have nothing but URL dumps of every blog post as a twitter update, all linking to your "marketing" or "sales" or "social media" blog. Pretty self-explanatory, but this person is using twitter to merely promote themselves, not to engage with others or share anything of substance.
You have a bio that mentions you are an expert on "marketing" or "sales" or "social media". Almost everyone with a bio that mentions these phrases breaks an earlier rule as well, and it's clear they're on twitter and following me for some sort of google gaming reason more than they care what I or 1,000 others might be saying.

McCain Button - Get Off My Lawn

2008-11-01T13:22:01-07:00

McCain Button - Get Off My Lawn, originally uploaded by Hebiclens.

The Culture War on Halloween

2008-10-28T13:52:18-07:00

The culture war on Halloween, originally uploaded by mathowie.

Halloween is a time-honored holiday steeped in the traditions of sharing with your neighbor, celebrating childhood with candy and decorations, and generally having a fun time as the days begin to grow shorter.

There is also a culture war that seeks to end this traditional holiday.

Like the above photograph shows, several local churches near me are throwing parties aimed at avoiding this holiday of giving and sharing with thy neighbors, going by the euphemistic term "Fall Family Festival." They offer treats, fun, and games, but they just so happen to throw them on October 31st, during the prime evening trick or treating hours.

Make no mistake, no matter how many years (Norman Rockwell anyone?) Halloween has existed, no matter how harmless toddlers dressed as ghosts and princesses are, no matter, there is spiritual conspiracy behind this new found war on Halloween and it needs to stop. I fear the day is coming when we won't be able to display our Jack O'Lanterns in the town square, when we will be called names for trying to share real American treats like Crackerjack and carmel-covered apples, and when our sons and daughters will ask us why we can't go out and share candy with our beloved neighbors anymore.

We can't let this happen. Heroes, join me in opposing these PC-thugs and their so-called "Fall Family Festivals." This is a nation with a sweet tooth, our founding fathers ate candy (why else would they have wooden teeth?), and your children and grandchildren should too. Keep candy in Halloween!

Scalable personal IT for non-geeks?

2008-10-27T21:21:58-07:00

Last month, I hung out with a friend from college that was impressed by the gadgets I carried and how I used them, but didn't have the spare time necessary to set everything up like I have (stuff like moving downloaded movie files to a TV for viewing, being able to check 5 email accounts on your iphone using gmail/imap, etc).

After each explanation of how I set things up grew increasingly longer, I realized there's probably a simple business model in place for a Personal IT staff kind of thing for regular users of technology that aren't uber geeks. I picture something that isn't the Geek Squad (they only do work piecemeal, right?) but is more like a subscription service, maybe $20 a month, where you as a customer can basically get your home computer and mobile phone updated remotely with the latest time-saving tweaks. I bet someone that reads lifehacker religiously, can do IT and PC Support work, and could figure out a way to do it remotely (either remote desktop sessions, or having customers' computers phone home to grab updates and configuration scripts) could build a pretty nice business off of it.

Is there anything like this out there today?

Amazon.com: Help > Shipping & Delivery > Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging FAQs [del.icio.us]

2008-11-03T10:48:50-08:00

This is the most brilliant shopping feature. As any parent of a toddler knows, getting toys out of their packaging usually requires about twenty minutes and a pair of wire cutters.

Separate but not equal

2008-10-23T14:31:54-07:00

Mobile Twitter (m.twitter.com as opposed to twitter.com) bugs I wish were fixed:

1. Protected profiles give this confusing error shown above.

2. You can't favorite anyone's posts.

3. You can't block someone from their profile.

4. No link to begin a direct message on people's profiles.

Three more for the old reading list

2008-10-22T13:29:26-07:00

Three blogs I have recently found, devoured, subscribed to, and squeal with glee when they update: FiveThirtyEight (awesome election stats and coverage), Lovely Package (it's to product design what longtime favorite Brand New is to logos), and Be Sportier (like Uncrate, but just stylish sports stuff, with large photos and consistently otherwise impossible to find goods)