- Revealed: Why So Many Web Sites Are Lousy « Web 2.Oh. . .really? - well, that's an interesting report (none)
- YouTube Comment Snob - That might actually make Youtube tolerable. (none)
Linkage: August 26th
August 27th, 2008 – 1:00 am
About “Spot Us” « Spot.Us - Community Funded Reporting
August 26th, 2008 – 5:30 pm
How Spot Us Works 1. Anyone can create a “story idea.” Example: “I would like to see somebody do an investigation into the quality of our water in San Jose.” 2. Journalists create pitches that can be inspired by your ideas. 3. We get pledge donations - but nobody’s credit cards are charged until we reach our goal. This way you know your pledge will play a meaningful role and won’t be squandered. 4. The finished content is licensed under a Creative Commons license and Spot Us will try and get it published in as many places as possible. 5. If any news organization wants exclusive rights to the story, they will have to refund a percentage of the original donations - so you will get your money back to invest in a new story. 6. Democracy flourishes, you feel good. About “Spot Us” « Spot.Us - Community Funded Reporting
So, basically they’ll cover only the stories that:
- The crowd can afford? So, just the stuff that wealthy individuals in the crowd are interested in?
- The crowd think is worth paying for? So what happens to the necessary, if not-so-entertaining, stories? If you had five bucks to throw at a story would it be one you’d enjoy reading, or one that was challenging?
The crowd is a moron. I would be happy to be proved wrong, however.
Linkage: August 25th
August 26th, 2008 – 1:00 am
- Australian pastor, musician fakes illness to get money (OneNewsNow.com) - About two years ago, Pastor Michael Guglielmucci announced to his congregation that he had terminal cancer. Today, he is cancer-free. To the shock of many church members and fellow pastors, at a recent Australian Christian Churches (ACC) – formerly named The Assemblies of God – national executive meeting, the pastor admitted to having a lied about his battle with cancer. The Advertiser stated that the ACC was going to audit Mr. Guglielmucci's bank accounts, which were filled with donations he willingly accepted from people who prayed for his plight. (none)
Linkage: August 24th
August 25th, 2008 – 1:00 am
- Penny Arcade! - A Life Of Service - Oh, you know… uh… A wookiee. (none)
Linkage: August 23rd
August 24th, 2008 – 12:01 am
- Nigerian scam victims should be locked up - The INQUIRER - VICTIMS OF THE NIGERIAN SCAM should be locked up and not pitied according to a Nigerian diplomat. The Nigerian high commissioner to Australia, Olu Agbi has made the point that people who are ripped off by the scams are just as guilty as the fraudsters and should be jailed. (none)
Jumping ship again…?
August 23rd, 2008 – 11:45 pm
I am thinking about moving back to Movable Type, for some of the following reasons:
They set it free 
I initially moved away from MT around the same time that Six Apart kind of fucked us all over. Now that they’re back into releasing a version under the GPL, it’s worth supporting that.
Kick in the bum
I am sort of blogging more now, I guess. I think having a project to do (getting migrated, etc) will give me more incentive to concentrate on it and make it quality.
Multiple blogs
I know you can run several blogs off one Wordpress install in theory. In practice it is still, in my opinion, kludgey and horrid. A system that can do this properly out of the box is, in principle, a better solution.
The interface is fucking amazing
Seriously. So is WP’s new interface, but MT4’s is hella nice.
More intuitive templating
I’ve never loved Wordpress’ templating the way I loved MT’s. It doesn’t hurt that MT’s template tags are much like Matrix’s design elements.
Less hassle for serving
Not that I have a massive amount of readership to be pushing files to, but in principle it is nicer to write static files when you can.
So, you know. There it is.
Dave Winer for CTO of the United States…?
August 23rd, 2008 – 4:57 pm
I won’t be able to vote, but given most of you reading this live in the United States, you may have influence. Dave Winer would make a most excellent US CTO, and we now give him our full support should he decide to officially put his name forward. Winer knows RSS, he knows blogging, and he isn’t shy is sharing his opinions. Spread the word: Winer for CTO. Dave Winer for CTO of the United States
Dave Winer, renowned sulkypants?
Bookmarks for August 22nd from 15:35 to 15:35
August 22nd, 2008 – 5:00 pm
- Shifting Mind » Postalicious - Postalicious is a WordPress plugin that automatically posts your delicious, ma.gnolia, Google Reader, Reddit, or Yahoo Pipes bookmarks to your blog. (none)
Objectified: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit
August 21st, 2008 – 11:51 pm
Bad design is where the customer thinks it’s their fault that something doesn’t work. So if you can’t make your GPS device work in your car — I mean, there should be a riot because they’re so poorly designed! Instead, the user thinks, ‘Oh, I’m not very smart, I can’t make this GPS thing work.’ People should demand more from the things they own, they need to demand that things work.
David Kelley, IDEO (from Objectified: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit)
Objectified is an upcoming indie doco about industrial design.
YouTube - Tiger Woods 09 - Walk on Water
August 21st, 2008 – 11:22 pm
Wait, what?
August 16th, 2008 – 12:18 am
I used Metlink’s journey planner to tell me how best to reach the airport tomorrow morning, should I wish not to catch a cab. Here’s one of the options it told me. I am seriously not making this up.
- Starting at my usual train station at 2.48am, walk to the Night Rider stop.
- At 2.56am, take the Night Rider bus to Craigieburn.
- At 3.26am get out of the bus and wait for the 3.30 Night Rider bus towards the city. (This is probably the same bus.)
- At 4.26, when the bus arrives at Swanston Street, get out and walk to Flinders Street.
- Wait for the 5.14 train towards Glen Waverley.
- Get out at Southern Cross Station (the very next stop) and take the 5.30am Skybus. (Apparently this is better than if you’d just walked to Southern Cross from Flinders Street.)
- Arrive at the airport about 5.54am.
That is: depart 2.48am and arrive 5.54am, for a total of 3h 6m.
If you’re not familiar with Melbourne, this map should make everything clearer.
links for 2008-08-12 [delicious.com]
August 13th, 2008 – 12:30 pm
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Like with most things, there isn’t a single, fix-all solution to the issue. However, as socially-conscious designers, we’ve worked to understand the issues. Now, we can make an honest attempt at addressing them.
Y’all don’t know what it’s like, being male, middle-class, and white!
August 8th, 2008 – 7:16 pm
I now have this song in my head thanks to some poorly-thought-out twitters. Enjoy.
Voltron? Is that you?
August 6th, 2008 – 5:48 pm
Here’s my old place in Hobart. I can’t make out whether the poster in the right window contains Voltron or Optimus Prime.
Either way, that’s the good shit.
What?
August 1st, 2008 – 12:27 pm
I don’t really understand, but I like it very much. (hat tip: @NickHodge)
links for 2008-07-30
July 31st, 2008 – 10:31 am
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On 1 August, find a usability problem, design a solution, and share it!
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‘We’re not sure who worries us more: The compulsive oversharer who felt obliged to Twitter about her 15 minutes in the stirrups of fame, or the reporter who thought this might be a story. But mostly, we’re jealous we didn’t pick up the phone first.’
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“The data, collected by the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre, at the University of NSW, indicates that cannabis users can be as aggressive as crystal methamphetamine users” — no it doesn’t, it just indicates that about cannabis smokers who present at hospitals
Fact
July 30th, 2008 – 12:31 am
iPod/iPhone Twitteriffic shits all over the desktop one.
That is all.
Senator Conroy, you slacker
July 29th, 2008 – 5:24 pm
I wrote to Senator Conroy about the whole filtering thing in… January, was it? It was about the whole content filtering bollocks, and how I didn’t like how his use of language in some of his speeches about it basically implied that anyone who’s against it is OBVIOUSLY some kind of porn fiend. Six months later I get a canned response along the lines of ‘no rly dude, not censorship!’
I cannot believe it takes SIX MONTHS to think of a form letter and mail it. Honestly now.
links for 2008-07-25
July 26th, 2008 – 10:33 am
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Because seriously, trying to use double pointed sock needles on the train is a recipe for a fucking disaster.
Knitted toys
July 23rd, 2008 – 4:45 pm
I’ve been doing quite a bit of knitting lately. This is especially nice for cold days like we’re having right now, when all I really want to do is sit on the couch in the warm. It feels less lazy this way!
Right now I’m making Ziggy from this pattern by Clare Taylor, which is both super easy and hell cute. I also recently made:
- a cuddly round item for a friend’s baby’s first birthday, dubbed Mouldy Potato Guy
- a kittycat for Mathew
- a number of square items reminiscent of Jess Hutchison’s Squarey, but much smaller
- a tooth-shaped critter for my coworker Jason
- an evil TV plush for my housemate.
There have been some scarves and beanies too. Tis the season, and all that.
Anyway blah blah blah, you’ll find me on ravelry as raena. But only if you have an invite!
