Entries for January 2005
In NYC, when you don’t have a car and you need to move stuff that won’t fit in a taxi and isn’t enough that you need an entire huge moving van, you call a “man with a van”.** I recently used the services of a guy named Paul, recommended by a friend of a friend. After packing the back of his truck with my things, we set off for our destination, chatting along the way. He asked me how I’d found him and we eventually got to talking about craigslist.
Paul told me that these days, he got most of his jobs from CL and only one or two a week from personal referrals. I found that surprising and when I pressed him further, he told me that because of CL, he’s been able to do pursue moving (which he really likes doing) as a full-time career. I can’t remember the exact quote, but Paul said something to the effect that he can’t believe he’s getting away with starting a full-time business on CL without it costing him a single dime.
I’d never really thought about it before, but in some ways, CL helps lots of people build businesses cheaper and more effectively than more “robust”, complex, and expensive enterprise software solutions. Movers are just one example. CL can help you find employees for your business. If you’ve got a van, you can pick up free furniture and electronics around the city, fix or refurbish, and sell it. You can start a business doing computer troubleshooting, piano lessons, buying and fixing up old motorcycles, or escort and sensual massage services. And if you need something done for your business but don’t have the money to pay for it, you can always barter goods or services in exchange. These are just the obvious examples. Does anyone know of anyone using craigslist in more creative ways to make a living or other examples of people succeeding in business using CL?
** Don’t know how this evolved, but folks in the “man with a van” profession like to rhyme the names of their businesses. My guy was “Call Paul to Haul”, but you will also probably find “Chuck/Buck with a Truck”, “Cory with a Lorry”, “Schmuck with a Truck”, “Call Jack to Pack”, and so on. (Oh, I’d recommend using Paul if you need a man with a van…check here for his info.)
Fixing the poor animation in The Polar Express. Also a bit about Gollum, The Incredibles, and the uncanny valley.
What it’s really like to be a homicide detective. “Never trust a detective who dresses like one of those TV characters”.
The One to One Future. “In the future, companies will do their best to get their hands on as much of your original writing as they can.”
“Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, suggested the other day that innate differences between the sexes might help explain why relatively few women become professional scientists or engineers.”. “But the best signal to send to talented girls and boys is that science isn’t about respecting sensitivities. It’s about respecting facts. The only people who don’t belong in science, male or female, are those who would rather close their eyes-and yours-than see what’s there.”
Awards voting and the catch-22 the movie studios find themselves in. DVD screeners need to be sent out in order for the voters to see the studios’ movies, but the process and end product are often so painful that some films find themselves out of the running.
The Morning News is holding a tournament of books. It’s like March Madness, except with books and in February.
Sorry for the lack of updates around here. I’ve been busy and preoccupied with other things, mostly just trying to put one foot in front of the other. I’ve got all sorts of things I want to talk about but just don’t have the energy to do so. Justin sums up what it’s like sometimes for those of us who have been putting their lives online for awhile now…the ways in which we can paint ourselves into corners using this still-new social platform without realizing it until it’s too late. Justin pours much more of his life onto his site than I do mine, but enough of me is here that his video made me cry about my own experiences a bit.
Anyway, I hope things will be returning to normal around here soon…the remaindered links should continue as usual (more or less) since they’re pretty easy to do. In the meantime, I’m going to be in London at the end of the month for a few days, an attempt to change my perspective a bit and get reamed by the exchange rate in the process. I’m considering a trip to SXSW in March. I haven’t been for a couple years and it would be nice to see everyone again (and hopefully not get food poisoning this time). I’m also thinking about going to Thailand in March (which may kill the SXSW trip). My dad is there & familiar with the area and I’ve only heard good things the country. But we’ll see.
What If…. “[This chart represents] the ways my life could have deviated from its actual path”.
The College Humor guys get the Rebecca Mead treatment in the New Yorker. “The friends finally arrived in New York last summer, and took up residence in a newly renovated, forty-two-hundred-square-foot, five-bedroom loft in Tribeca, which rents for ten thousand dollars a month — a move that bears about as much relation to the typical postcollegiate experience as ‘Sex and the City’ does to the demographic it purports to represent”.
Great win yesterday by the Patriots. Nearly flawless execution of their game plan; they held the ball for 2/3 of the game, not allowing the Colts celebrated offense much time on the field.
Michael Jordan: “Has anyone so completely dominated his sport and left so small a mark upon it?”. “Jordan’s heading toward a point at which he’ll be only a chain of newspapers and an opera singer shy of being Charles Foster Kane”.
The answer to “I’m coming to NYC…where should I stay/go/eat/etc.?”. I get this question a lot…it’ll be nice to have somewhere to direct people.
John Battelle’s looking for a subtitle for his book, “The Search”. How about “Solving the world’s biggest problems and getting rich doing it”?
The earth is getting less sunlight than it was 50 years ago. Global dimming may be caused by air pollution and could affect the earth’s climate.
Tufte has posted a new chapter from his upcoming book, Beautiful Evidence. Chapter is called “Corrupt Techniques in Evidence Presentations”, some of the ugly evidence in the book.
Spam is like a broken watch. It’s right about twice a day. A sampling from the past two weeks:
- Need a change?
- No more.
- I cannot forget you!
- Looking for cheap high-quality software?
- IMPORTANT: this email address is circulating…
- Now you can watch ON_Demand Movie channels
- I cant live without…
- Is it time for a change?
- How Badly Do You Want To Exit The Rat Race?
- Today is the first day of the rest of your life
- relief from pain
- Freee your mind and b0dy — relax when you should
- home alone
- Feeling Depressed?
- Spamed?
- Relieve the pressure and anxiety
- You pay TOO MUCH for meds!
- one more time
- silent. On a sofa
- I hope this is what you want.
- How are you? You could be better….
- i need some company
- suffered for so long,
- Adieu.
- It’s for sure
- you are lost
The Sound of Data. Piping data files to an audio player to see what they sound like. Fun!
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