How to find mp3s with Google
How to find mp3s with Google. A much more comprehensive guide than you may have seen previously.
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Entries for March 2005
Segway introduces three new models
Segway introduces three new models. An offroad option, a golf cart option, and a sportier model.
Flirting via iTunes
Flirting via iTunes. This is all the fun that the RIAA wants to wring out of music.
Now movie trailers have trailers themselves
Now movie trailers have trailers themselves. “Here’s a look at a television spot announcing the [Star Wars] trailer debut, including the first glimpses of some new Revenge of the Sith footage.” I can’t wait for the making-of the television spot of the trailer of the movie…
Why are movies all the same price at the theatre?
Why are movies all the same price at the theatre?.
The Transom Review features essays from guests
The Transom Review features essays from guests and then conversations based on those essays. Lots of good stuff here; they’ve talked with Ira Glass, Errol Morris, John Hodgman, etc.
Ebert on Million Dollar Baby and the
Ebert on Million Dollar Baby and the critics who seek to spoil it for everyone.
How (some) Americans think: this woman knows
How (some) Americans think: this woman knows SUVs are unsafe and polluting, but she wants one anyway. Update: turns out I’m the stupid American…the article is satirical.
A quick chat with Wes Anderson about The Life Aquatic
A quick chat with Wes Anderson about The Life Aquatic.
Grant Achatz, the chef at a Chicago
Grant Achatz, the chef at a Chicago restaurant called Alinea, is on the cutting edge of exploratory cuisine. During the 30-course tasting menu, you may sample the mozzarella bubbles with tomato foam; he used to make what is essentially a truffle soup dumpling.
Photos of the 1910 Paris flood
Photos of the 1910 Paris flood. Love the final photo of the Notre Dame.
Who are the greatest sitcom characters of all time?
Who are the greatest sitcom characters of all time?.
On the constitutionality of displaying the Ten
On the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments in government and public properties. “1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Shit. Oops, sorry, I mean holy shit. I thought I was going to have to dig a bit deeper to find something that would be offensive to someone who doesn’t believe in a christian (or jewish) god.”
Sajax is a PHP toolkit for Ajax
Sajax is a PHP toolkit for Ajax. No more excuses…playing around with this is to commence in a few days.
Friendster has blogs now, still a stupid company
Friendster has blogs now, still a stupid company. The new new new economy business model: just add blogs!
Share your iTunes Library via iTunes Music
Share your iTunes Library via iTunes Music Sharing or over the web. I was just listening to songs from someone’s library over the web and it worked great.
Telephoto Is for Cowards: on shooting candid photos
Telephoto Is for Cowards: on shooting candid photos. “Real photographers don’t shoot candids with telephoto lenses.”
Yahoo! is ten years old
Yahoo! turned ten years old this week which makes me feel like I’m about ready for the retirement home. As part of their celebration, they put up a copy of their home page from 1995. I poked around a little and found a copy from December 1994 from when the site was still hosted at Stanford on a server called akebono. To do it up right, download an early version of Mosaic or Netscape, change your screen resolution to 640x480 with 256 colors, and surf the page that way. Just don’t blame me if you get all weepy after seeing the gray background and pulsing N in the corner of the browser.
Note: I have no idea if any of these browsers will even work on OS X or Windows XP…you might need to dust off that 486 running Win95 or a 7100 running System 8.
Grant Barrett has updated his excellent MTA
Grant Barrett has updated his excellent MTA fare analysis document to account for the recent price hikes. If you’re a pure communter (10 uses a week), the 30-day unlimited card is no longer your best value.
In NYC, delivery is king
In NYC, delivery is king. You can get any kind of food you want delivered to your door in 30 minutes.
Applying Moneyball tactics to the NBA
Applying Moneyball tactics to the NBA. “What really matters, Oliver and other analysts say, is not how many points a player scores but how efficiently he uses his possessions.”
“Flocabulary: the first vocabulary building exercise to
“Flocabulary: the first vocabulary building exercise to combine hip hop music with the most popular and challenging vocabulary words”. Study for the SATs by rapping vocabulary words. According to the site, “IT WORKS.”
For the old schoolers: Entropy8Zuper celebrates 10 years online
For the old schoolers: Entropy8Zuper celebrates 10 years online. Entropy8 completely dazzled this young designer when I was soaked behind the ears.
Sasha Frere-Jones on ringtones
Sasha Frere-Jones on ringtones. “I spent three days of productive work time listening to polyphonic ringtone versions of speed metal, trying to find exactly the ringtone that expressed my personality with enough irony and enough coolness that I could live with it going off ten times a day.”
Interview with designer, blogger, and Flash guru Todd Dominey
Interview with designer, blogger, and Flash guru Todd Dominey.
Google Toolbar AutoLink
I’m a bit wary about throwing myself in the middle of the whole Google Toolbar AutoLink business (Dan Gillmor has a good summary and lots of trackbacks to opinions, pro and con), but I’m sort of dumbfounded that so many people are so vehemently against it…at least for the reasons being given. The three main points I’ve heard articulated by those opposed to the feature are:
1. Browsers and toolbars should not modify the content or layout of Web pages…they should render them only as stored on the Web server.
2. Microsoft tried to do this with Smart Tags in Windows XP and everyone hated it so why are we willing to give Google a pass with a similar feature?
3. Google can unfairly use their growing clout to exploit AutoLink users.
I’ll address the second point first because it’s sort of beside the point and not an argument at all. One of the big reasons why people were so upset about Smart Tags is that Smart Tags were on by default in early preview releases of IE. The browser was automatically rewriting every single page you loaded, adding links here and there. I agree that this sucks (although users may become used to things like this in the future and not think it’s such a big deal), but AutoLink is not on by default. It’s optional…you have to specifically push a button to make something happen.
But the main reason people seem to be up in arms about AutoLink is that Google is modifying the content and display of other people’s content and that browsers and toolbars should not be allowed to do that. Aside from the first part of that statement being factually incorrect (more on that below), browsers and toolbars already modify other people’s content and no one really complains about it. In fact, people love it:
- Firefox, Safari, Google Toolbar, IE, and several other browsers/toolbars all give end users the option to block JavaScript popups, which typically contain ads. This very much goes against the intention of the content provider and is a clear example of software that modifies a site from how it was intended to be displayed. But users love it so browser/toolbar makers include the feature.
- Browsers allow users to use custom stylesheets when browsing sites, turn off JavaScript on pages, and browse without viewing images or other multimedia files.
- There are tons of bookmarklets and browser extensions that let people modify the page they’re viewing in interesting ways (this one inserts links to Feedster on NY Times and WaPo article pages).
- Since the early days of the web right on up to the present, browsers have purposely misrendered badly written HTML so that people could view the pages instead of getting junk or a blank page.
All of these features break the supposedly cardinal sin of “thou shalt not modify the content providers content from the way it was intended by them to be viewed” and I don’t hear anyone complaining about it. The fact is, once a user downloads a copy of a content provider’s web page from their server, the page becomes just that, a copy. As a user, I should be able to use whatever software is available to me to manipulate, modify, or otherwise remix that copy which I’ve downloaded for my own personal use. If I can, for my own personal use, photocopy magazine articles, rip my CDs to mp3, make backup copies of my DVDs, and scribble in the margins of books, surely I can do the same with copies of web pages I’ve downloaded.
Now, if you’re against AutoLink because you think Google is becoming too big, they’re evil, they’re abusing their power, or they bought another blog company instead of yours, then that’s fine. Just be up front about why you’re upset. It’s a trust issue. Do you trust Google’s software to do what it says its going to do and not take advantage of you? If the answer is no, don’t use it. But if you’re saying that Google should not provide this feature at all and that consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes can’t choose to use the feature themselves, I don’t think that’s a good deal for the users. As content providers, let’s not try and reach into our readers’ computers and dictate what they can or can’t do with the copies of our content that they’ve downloaded for their personal use…let’s leave that sort of wishful thinking to the nutballs in Hollywood.
Michael Wolff on the media biz, the
Michael Wolff on the media biz, the decline of the WSJ, and blogs. From where I’m sitting, his “information wants to be free” thing and his negative views on blogs are in opposition with each other.
You can’t buy a personalized jersey from
You can’t buy a personalized jersey from the NFL Shop with the “naughty” words “gay” or “lesbian” on the back.. Includes a link to an extensive list of banned words.
Wists lets your build visual bookmark lists
Wists lets your build visual bookmark lists. I’ve heard this described as a cross between Flickr and del.icio.us.
Interview with Arrested Development’s Portia de Rossi
Interview with Arrested Development’s Portia de Rossi.
La Coquette is covering the pret a
La Coquette is covering the pret a porter shows in Paris. She mentions my favorite model of the moment, Daria Werbowy, who’s also a fair bowler but looks a bit like a man when she’s off duty.
What famous chefs eat when they’re on the road
What famous chefs eat when they’re on the road. Thomas Keller used to eat Whoppers with extra cheese, but now he’s all about the In-N-Out Burger and Krispy Kreme donuts.
Garry Winogrand on how to approach street photography
Garry Winogrand on how to approach street photography. “He never developed film right after shooting it. He deliberately waited a year or two, so he would have virtually no memory of the act of taking an individual photograph. This, he claimed made it easier for him to approach his contact sheets more critically.”
More giant figures found carved into Peru’s landscape
More giant figures found carved into Peru’s landscape. “About 50 giant figures were etched into the earth over an area of roughly 90 square miles (145 square kilometers) near the city of Palpa”.
IN Network is an “extended cell phone
IN Network is an “extended cell phone life-art performance about distance, communication, intimacy, telepresence, and living together while apart”. 300 miles away, a couple uses cell phones to spend time together: “driving to/from work, eating dinner, giving lectures to students, going for a walk, having a cocktail, reading books in silence, falling asleep and waking up.” Podcasts are available.
Heading to SXSW
I’ll be at SXSW this year after an absence of a couple years. My goals this year are to not get food poisoning and to be fully present at both the panels I’m participating in (I was slated to do a keynote but got bumped by Gladwell…whaddya gonna do?):
- Blogging vs. Journalism: Versus? Oy, that’s quite the setup, isn’t it? Hopefully it’ll be a little better than that.
- Spam, Trolls, Stalkers: The Pandora’s Box of Community: How does it go…social software is the stuff that gets spammed?
If you’re at the conference, amble up and say hi…but be warned that I might ask you for money (not really, I’m just kidding [sadly, he’s not just kidding, but was about the Gladwell thing -ed]).
Photos on Flickr depict some fascinating occupations
Photos on Flickr depict some fascinating occupations. Pastry cheffing, undertaking, and pet doctoring, among others.
PDF of David Foster Wallace’s article on
PDF of David Foster Wallace’s article on talk radio from this month’s Atlantic Monthly. Features hypertext-ish footnoting…words are highlighted with color and the footnote is displayed in a sidebar in the corresponding color.
How to edit your photos like a professional
How to edit your photos like a professional. “Most amateurs are so bad at editing that they don’t have to look any further for the reason why their photography is not as good as it could be.”
Graph: here’s what AIDS has done to
Graph: here’s what AIDS has done to the life expectancy in some African countries.
The cultural pursuits of George W. and Laura Bush
The cultural pursuits of George W. and Laura Bush. “Mrs. Bush shares some of the same sentiment [as Jon Stewart] that many of those shows on TV have become one side yelling at the other and the other yelling back and no one has any idea what they’re talking about.”
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