With Web 2.0 afoot, SF dot com ghost
With Web 2.0 afoot, SF dot com ghost town South Park is on its way back to boom time. Peter Merholz, a current corporate resident of South Park, recalls the good old days in the area.
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Entries for April 2006
2006 World Monuments Watch 100 Most Endangered Sites, including
2006 World Monuments Watch 100 Most Endangered Sites, including the entire country of Iraq.
The World Heritage List consists of natural
The World Heritage List consists of natural and man-made wonders from around the globe. Thirty-four of the sites are currently on the “in danger” list, in some cases because of a site’s inclusion on the master list (and subsequent dramatic increase in tourism).
McGriddle Fan Fiction group on LiveJournal. “Keep
McGriddle Fan Fiction group on LiveJournal. “Keep it focused on breakfast products. I don’t want to hear about any french fries.” (thanks, thirteen) -dj
I can’t tell if this is a
I can’t tell if this is a joke on TBS’s part or not, but this is an actual promo of theirs for The Lord of the Rings movies done in the style of alternate trailers like The Shining and Brokeback to the Future. “It sucks to be Frodo.”
Update: Looks like they’re having a bit of fun over at TBS…check out their other promos.
Trailer for The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky’s (Pi,
Trailer for The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky’s (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) new film. Official site, interview with Aronofsky on the film, which was originally supposed to star Brad Pitt.
Five suggested Flickr tags. Merlin brings the
Five suggested Flickr tags. Merlin brings the funny. “Rows Of Seated White Men Typing At Conferences”.
Slideshow of graphics submitted for New York
Slideshow of graphics submitted for New York magazine’s High Priority feature, the production of which Michael Bierut says “is as close as the graphic design world gets to an Olympic event”.
John Gruber on Apple’s Boot Camp, which
John Gruber on Apple’s Boot Camp, which lets you install Windows XP on your Mac (in beta). “You now get to choose between a computer that can only run Windows or a computer that can run both Windows and Mac OS X.”
The language of the Simpsons (beyond embiggens
The language of the Simpsons (beyond embiggens and cromulent). “You pressed YOU, meaning me. This is incorrect. You should have pressed ME, meaning you.”
A list of the world’s 50 best restaurants
A list of the world’s 50 best restaurants for 2006, compiled by Restaurant magazine. Here are the winners from previous years.
Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma is now
Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma is now out. Here’s a NY Times piece about Pollan hunting for wild boar that uses material from the book. I loved The Botany of Desire.
Honeymoon
According to Wikipedia (which in turn references the Oxford English Dictionary on the matter), the etymology of the word honeymoon is unclear. The American Heritage Dictionary (via answers.com) suggests it’s “perhaps from a comparison of the moon, which wanes as soon as it is full, to the affections of a newly married couple, which are most tender right after marriage”, which doesn’t sound all that positive. Returning to the Wikipedia entry, honeymoon may have been used in Babylonian times to describe the bride and groom consuming honey (in the form of mead, a beverage) before the next moon.
At any rate, I’ve just returned from mine, the most relaxing vacation I’ve ever had. For two weeks, we did without electricity, running fresh water, newpapers, showers (we substituted ocean swimming + saltwater baths), television, magazines, movies, computers, internet, email, mobile phones (except for two unavoidable calls out and periodic checking of voicemail to see if the cat was ok), and music (for the most part). It was so relaxing that we didn’t even know that Daylight Saving Time was in effect until 2 full days after the fact and may not have found out until we got to the airport if Meg hadn’t shown up a full hour late to her yoga class and everyone was, somewhat confusingly, just finishing up.
I read three books: one fascinating, one great, and one good. Ate lots of great Mexican food with zero instances of microbial confrontation. Found really good pizza in an odd place.
We made up names for the people we saw repeatedly on the beach at the small place we were staying. There were the Naked Hat People, Naked Yoga Guy — you may be noticing a trend…the beach was clothing optional — and Naked Paddleball Players, who we renamed Ketchup and Mustard because of their signature matching red and yellow ball caps (they exercised their option to wear nothing besides). Civilization kept threatening to creep into our media deprivation tank, as when we saw Ketchup and Mustard at dinner near the end of our stay, surfing the web on the wireless connection we had no idea that our hotel/resort had. They checked out the New Yorker site and then caught up on the Huffington Post. Meg turned to me and said, “if he brings up kottke.org, I’m going over there and introducing you.”
“The hell you are. Are you trying to kill Vacation Jason?”
So yeah, I’m back and am eager to get back to kottke.org, even though getting my &%#$^#*%& email this morning completely killed Vacation Jason much sooner than I would have liked.
And not least, thanks to Greg Knauss, David Jacobs, and Anil Dash for keeping up with the remaindered links while I was gone. Good stuff, guys.
ps. For the curious, wedding pics here (taken by Eliot). Some pics of Mexico coming (somewhat) soon.
Launch party tonight (4/14) at Eyebeam for Yochai
Launch party tonight (4/14) at Eyebeam for Yochai Benkler’s new book, The Wealth of Networks. “His book shows why labor done outside the constraints of free markets and giant corporations can still have a huge impact on the economy and social relations. He argues that a ‘third mode of production’ offers the promise of a more free society, but only if we make the right collective decisions.”
Over the past two weeks, David Jacobs,
Over the past two weeks, David Jacobs, Anil Dash and I have attempted to reproduce (in some halting way) Jason Kottke, while the actual Jason Kottke was in rehab on his honeymoon. The attempt, on my part at least, has been an abject failure. Or haven’t you noticed all the crappy links with “GK” at the end of them? Go-kart magazines? What the hell?
Like most of the disasters I’ve had a hand in, I’ve got a theory that both explains what happened and exonerates me. Ducking responsibility sounds better if you put on academic airs about it.
The theory: There are two kinds of bloggers, referential and experiential. Kottke is one. I, now two weeks too late in realizing this, am another.
The referential blogger uses the link as his fundamental unit of currency, building posts around ideas and experiences spawned elsewhere: Look at this. Referential bloggers are reporters, delivering pointers to and snippets of information, insight or entertainment happening out there, on the Intraweb. They can, and do, add their own information, insight and entertainment to the links they unearth — extrapolations, juxtapositions, even lengthy and personal anecdotes — but the outward direction of their focus remains their distinguishing feature.
The experiential blogger is inwardly directed, drawing entries from personal experience and opinion: How about this. They are storytellers (and/or bores), drawing whatever they have to offer from their own perspective. They can, and do, add links to supporting or explanatory information, even unique and undercited external sources. But their motivation, their impetus, comes from a desire to supply narrative, not reference it.
There’s nothing here to imply that one type of blogger is better than the other. There are literally thousands — OK, hundreds… OK, at least a dozen — of both kinds that are valuable additions to the on-going conversation/food-fight/furry-cuddle that is the Internet. My point is that Jason Kottke is a very, very good referential blogger and I am a very, very bad one. And I’m sure I wouldn’t have trouble finding a link that expresses this sentiment (many, many times over, with varying degrees of vehemence), but I’d rather say it from my own experience:
Welcome back, Jason. You’ve been missed. — GK
Today is the 45th anniversary of manned
Today is the 45th anniversary of manned space flight (at least using vehicles that humans built). It’s also the 25th anniversary of the first Shuttle launch. — GK
What happened to the San Francisco mint
What happened to the San Francisco mint during the earthquake of 1906? — GK
National Karting News, American’s leading karting magazine since 1986. — GK
National Karting News, American’s leading karting magazine since 1986. — GK
Mark Jason Dominus on the invention of
Mark Jason Dominus on the invention of the equals sign, diacritical evolution and the benefits of original documents. — GK
The Edge Case (part of a novel.)
The Edge Case (part of a novel.) Five years ago, Jason asked me why I haven’t written a novel. Two years ago, I decided to try and discovered that I hadn’t learned anything in the interveaning time that should have changed my answer. — GK
Luke Seemann’s moving eulogy for his father.
Luke Seemann’s moving eulogy for his father. Fart jokes included. — GK
Argentina on Two Steaks a Day. Maciej
Argentina on Two Steaks a Day. Maciej may very well have just ended my vegan career, if I ever get to Argentina. -dj
Steven Johnson on his new book, The
Steven Johnson on his new book, The Ghost Map: “I feel like it’s the best thing I’ve done, by a fairly wide margin.” Tags include: maps, London, public health, information design and “the power of dense cities to create solutions to problems that they themselves have brought about.” I can’t wait to see the bibliography. -dj
Khoi Vin unveils a fantastic new blogroll
Khoi Vin unveils a fantastic new blogroll design in the footer of his blog. When I get a few free cycles I’m going to shamelessly rip it off for my reblog. -dj
Starbucks has filed for (and won) a
Starbucks has filed for (and won) a trademark over the word “Doubleshot” and is threatening legal action against Doubleshot Coffee in Tulsa, OK. (via) -dj
According to Tufts researchers, white people act
According to Tufts researchers, white people act smarter when in mixed-race juries. “Traditional arguments in favor of diversity often focus on ethics, morality and constitutionality, I wanted to look at the observable effects of diversity on performance.” -ad
Those infernal hidden iPod commands, for when
Those infernal hidden iPod commands, for when you need to hard reset or put your iPod in disk mode. If that’s not fun enough, see 50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod. -ad
Jack Black loves playing Literati on Yahoo
Jack Black loves playing Literati on Yahoo Games. “I play a lot of Literati — it’s like Internet Scrabble. It’s called Literati, on Yahoo! Games. … It’s just like Scrabble, but it’s timed, and I’m pretty bad-ass. It’s hard to beat me.” And it’s the least-Web 2.0 thing on Yahoo. -ad
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts,
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, the influential 1981 David Byrne/Brian Eno collaboration, is being offered for remixing under a Creative Commons license, complete with original samples and multitracks. -ad
The New York Times Newsroom Navigator or “
The New York Times Newsroom Navigator or “Cybertimes Navigator” is a start page Rich Meislin of the Times has made to collect web resources for reporters. The Blogs 101 page lists notable blogs in many categories. -ad
Roger Ebert’s movie glossary lists hundreds of
Roger Ebert’s movie glossary lists hundreds of film tropes, many submitted by readers. -ad
Kids really seem to enjoy dancing to “
Kids really seem to enjoy dancing to “Apache” (as recorded by The Shadows, the Bongo Band, and sampled by the Sugarhill Gang) and then uploading the video to YouTube. It’s probably popular because of the “Viva Lost Wages” episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire. -ad
Last minute diversion takes Mars rover to safety. -dj
Last minute diversion takes Mars rover to safety. -dj
Jason D. O’Grady, who “broke” a product
Jason D. O’Grady, who “broke” a product announcement that turned out to be a false rumor, on his legal problems with Apple: “What if a company with US$14 billion in revenue and 14,000 employees wanted a piece of your ass?” -dj
Pitch by pitch reenactment of the 1986 World
Pitch by pitch reenactment of the 1986 World Series in RBI Baseball. Well, not quite the whole thing, just the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 6, which is all anyone remembers even though Game 7 was also thrilling. I can’t imagine how much RBI playing it took to get this right. -dj
“He would describe something to me, like,
“He would describe something to me, like, ‘Aggressive ships.’ And I’d be, ‘O.K., I get it.’” Bjork on collaborating with her partner Matthew Barney. -dj
A new version of Jumpcut, which in
A new version of Jumpcut, which in addition to being my favorite clipboard manager also exemplifies minimal software design and implementation, is now available on sourceforge. -dj
Jay Rosen on investigative reporting and the
Jay Rosen on investigative reporting and the Plame leak: “Not only is Woodward not in the hunt, but he is slowly turning into the hunted.” -dj
The Gospel of Judas. JESUS: “No, no,
The Gospel of Judas. JESUS: “No, no, trust me. You’re going to come out of this smelling like a rose.” — GK
Donald Trump is getting $1.5 million for an
Donald Trump is getting $1.5 million for an hour-long keynote speech at a Los Angeles real estate expo. Prediction: He will say nothing revelatory or interesting. Another prediction: The type of audience that attends real estate expos that headline Donald Trump won’t notice. — GK
First Responders Handbook of Humor (with a
First Responders Handbook of Humor (with a forward by Marlee Matlin). No, seriously. — GK
While most machinima tries to avoid the
While most machinima tries to avoid the limitations of a game’s engine to tell a story — with cuts and odd angles and cut aways before lips stop matching words — stunt videos (video) exploit the oddities of a world’s physics to do things the designers never imagined. — GK
Tons and tons and tons of fractals
Tons and tons and tons of fractals — the best look almost Lovecraftian. None so disturbing as this, though. — GK
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