February 2012
“To be at 15 million users on one platform is not something any other social...”
– Inside Instagram: How Slowing Its Roll Put the Little Startup in the Fast Lane
“The Dan formed when Denny Dias, founder of The Dan, placed an ad seeking bass...”
– Steely Dan Fans Are Assholes - Los Angeles Music - West Coast Sound
“My Twitter and Facebook (and probably Google ) feeds are lousy with links....”
– Path’s Latest Update Makes Me Sad
January 2012
Gary Shapiro is Kind of Clueless
Yet when the BBC ran a story on the practice of hiring scantily-clad models to stand around booths and draw stares from wandering men, it found an interesting defender: Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro, the guy who puts on the biggest electronics trade show in the USA.
"Well, sometimes it is a little old school, but it does work," Shapiro tells the BBC. "People naturally want to go towards what they consider pretty. So your effort to try to get a story based on booth babes, which is decreasing rather rapidly in the industry, and say that it's somehow sexism imbalancing, it's cute but it's frankly irrelevant in my view." Cute? Irrelevant? "Imbalancing?" (Is that even a word?) I'm sorry. Would you care to try again, Gary?
The reason his answer is so bothersome is because as the head of the CEA he is, in a very real sense, speaking for all of us in the technology industry. And that Mad Men bullshit doesn't represent who we are as an industry anymore, and it certainly doesn't represent what we should aspire to become. Technology is about the future, and this attitude is from the past.
“But turning your profile picture green, adding a black banner over your face, or...”
– Twitter Doesn’t Make You Martin Luther King
“I trudge past several million dollars worth of 3DTVs, looking for a good place...”
– Fever Dream of a Guilt-Ridden Gadget Reporter
Not sure I’ll ever top that lede.
“CES, like many industry conventions, will be thick with “booth...”
– Please Keep Your Ass Out Of My Email
“The big knock on Twitter, in its early days, was that it was simply a place for...”
– The Social Network that Stole Christmas
“But as Romney begins to set his sights on the general election, shifting his...”
– Mitt Romney’s Lying Game | Tim Dickinson | Rolling Stone
“But political journalism—unlike war reporting—long ago stopped being about what...”
– Comment: Un-American Activities : The New Yorker
My Most Best Tumblr Posts of 2011
Fuck robots. Fuck them. These are my five best posts of 2011, as decided by me. A real live human being, made from blood and bone and skin and snot.
If number of notes are an indicator of quality; let the algorithms write them.
5. On Rejoicing Death Osama Bid Laden died this year. My grandmother died ten years ago. I am very much alive. 47 notes
4. This Little Girl Is 100 Percent Awesome And...
December 2011
San Francisco Ocean Beach Polar Bear
I like the ocean. I love living by the ocean. And I especially love getting in the ocean. So why not jump in the ocean on New Year’s Day? It seems like a great way to start the year off right, right?
I mentioned something about doing this on Twitter several weeks ago, and was amazed how many other people are into it as well. And then all of the sudden, it’s December 30. Which I guess...
WatchSimple, powerful signs for the homeless. Via Maria Popova
“Smith arrived at The Atlantic‘s offices in mid-2007. He worked doggedly his...”
– The Atlantic: How One Magazine Became Profitable by Going ‘Digital First’
Balls. Total balls.
“I’ve used 3D printing services to make parts for art projects before, and...”
– We Need a Google Books for Car Parts
Brilliant. I love that Torchinsky volunteers Google.
“I think a lot of this can be blamed on Apple’s past history. It lost big...”
– If Apple Wins We All Lose
harperbikebeer:
Salty swimmers to occupy the bay. Go Dolphins! http://t.co/BTb0J3iG
“That CASH stunner is good but not great. The best are Schermer stunners, not...”
– Best. Comment. Ever.
CRISIS IN ALABAMA: Investigating the Devastating... →
ohhleary:
thetart:
excerpt from the report, bold by me:
At an ad hoc hearing on Nov. 21, Mary Bauer shared a “small sample of the kinds of concerns people have raised” through the hot line, including:
A worker called to say his employer refused to pay him, citing HB 56, and stated the worker had no right to be paid under this law.
Latino workers on a construction jobsite were threatened by...
“Unlike Tom from MySpace, Mark Zuckerberg is not your friend. But fuck it. Think...”
– See the full list of Expensive Gear to Shower Upon Mark Zuckerberg
daniel sinker: I'm starting to think Lego is evil →
sinker:
Well, maybe not evil, but “highly problematic.”
First, let’s remove what we all *think* Lego is (i.e. our own nostalgic memories, our aspirational beliefs, or $250 robot sets), and instead concentrate on what Lego today is, for the most part: It’s movie-tie-in model sets marketed pretty much…
word of the day
mcdspot:
Kummerspeck - German word referring to the excess weight one gains from emotion-related overeating. Literally: “grief bacon.”
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-11) →
The Cure (4)
The Microphones (2)
Yeasayer (1)
Van Morrison (1)
Dirty Projectors (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
WatchFour reasons why I love Joel Johnson
“When a prosecutor argues a bullshit case to a jury, he typically does so for one...”
– West Memphis Three Story
“What happens when — and this is inevitable — a generation completely comfortable...”
– No Copyright Intended - Waxy.org
Super Chill Gifties for Your Stoner Uncle →
History will vindicate me.: My Top 5 Longreads of... →
michellelegro:
Hey, that’s me! Why don’t you read my top Longreads already?
longreads:
Michelle Legro, longtime Longreader, is an editor at Lapham’s Quarterly.
***
“The Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” by Paul Ford (The Morning News)
I doubt there are many people that will remember…
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-4) →
M83 (9)
Skrillex (4)
Nick Drake (1)
Bert Jansch (1)
Scott Walker (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“15. If Uga, Georgia’s bulldog mascot, is shown on the sideline and Verne...”
– The SEC Championship CBS Drinking Game : Outkick The Coverage
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-11-27) →
Belle and Sebastian (7)
The Apples in Stereo (3)
Yo La Tengo (2)
M83 (2)
Jarvis Cocker (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
November 2011
“Somebody has to figure this out. The immigrants aren’t coming back to...”
– Why Americans Won’t Do Dirty Jobs - BusinessWeek
Watch2011/07 Mat Honan | Hustle (by San Francisco Creative Mornings)
My Creative Mornings talk from July is up.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-11-20) →
Atlas Sound (12)
Japanther (8)
The Magnetic Fields (6)
John Mellencamp (5)
M83 (4)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“Google should be checking out free 3G Chromebooks at Greyhound terminals and...”
– The Chromebook Is the Perfect Computer for People Who Fear Computers
“One of the reasons I am involved with #OWS, and advocating for an occupy...”
– Interview with a pepper-sprayed UC Davis student
The Muppets Are Real (And Miss Piggy Got a Boob... →
I got to interview the Muppets. I’m still kind of stunned.