iokevins

lovewallace:

casual-isms:

Presented without comment, because I’m sure someone will be able to find the words better than I can.

oh look we have cute doodles too

The latest fad among free-wheeling startups may be BYOD, but government offices tend to be far more conservative. Government offices handling confidential data even more so. When Miguel started his contract with a state office, they issued him a laptop. For security reasons, he was forbidden from using any other machine, nor should anyone else use his. Also for security reasons, the laptop was not allowed to leave his desk. It was locked in place with a security chain too short to move the laptop more than a few inches.

The computer had a great deal of… character. It was so old that archaeologists kept stopping by, asking to place it in a museum. Over its lifetime, it had received a few upgrades. The HDD was 500GB, and its RAM was maxed out- at 2GB. This created special challenges for Miguel, since their software required VS2003, VS2005, VS2008 and VS2010, installed alongside their third-party SaaS reporting tools. The machine limped along on Windows XP.

Miguel and his venerable computer toiled away on closing software bugs in the application suite. Meanwhile, the IT bureaucracy was busy with its own tasks. Someone noticed that Windows XP’s support ended in 2014 . Recognizing the epic challenge to move all of their users over, this someone decided that the best time to start was now, and the best place to start was with the IT sub-contractors.

One Monday, Miguel arrived to find the laptop which was never allowed to leave his desk had left. In its place sat a memo detailing the upgrade process. Miguel couldn’t use a different computer, so he warmed a chair and played games on his phone for all of Monday and most of Tuesday. Late Tuesday afternoon, his computer returned to its place, equipped with Windows 7, Office 2003, and nothing else.

Miguel started the reinstall of his development tools. He navigated to the network share where the Visual Studio images lived, launched the first installer, and discovered the Win7 upgrade had revoked his admin access, preventing him from installing anything. He submitted a help desk ticket via email, requesting the appropriate permissions.

The same security reasons which kept Miguel from using any other computers also kept the help desk from simply granting him those permissions, even though he had them only a few days prior. They needed a manager’s sign-off. They needed three separate sign-offs, in fact. This week, one of the three was on vacation. By the time he got back, the second one of the three would be on his own vacation.

Miguel spent two weeks waiting for all the bureaucratic pieces to reach a cosmic alignment possible only once a century. Angry Birds flew across the screen; deadlines flew past Miguel. Miguel did nothing, because there was nothing to do.

Eventually, Miguel’s account was blessed. He started installing the tools he needed. The hours ticked by as he moved through each IDE and reporting system. The reporting system alone took six hours to install, and prompted him for UAC permissions roughly every thirty minutes. After that, he needed to uninstall everything and start over- he had installed the components in the wrong order, and now the application couldn’t build.

Twenty days after the upgrade began, Miguel finally had everything configured to work. He “eagerly” opened IE and pointed the browser at their bug tracker. He expected a huge pile of work backed up over the past few weeks. Instead, he saw an error: the ActiveX control their bug-tracker used was incompatible with Windows 7. Frustrated beyond reason, he called the help desk.

“That’s a known issue,” the help desk drone said. “If you need to access the bug tracker, you’ll need a Windows XP virtual machine.”

[Advertisement] Make your team a DevOps team with BuildMaster. Pairing an easy-to-use web UI with a free base platform, BuildMaster gets you started in minutes. See how Allrecipes.com and others use BuildMaster to automate their software delivery.

This Cloud Rainwater Pipe Attachment made me smile. Congrats to the Russian designer Dmitriy Kulyev.

(Thank you Jen)

BRB

A 2010 campaign for The History Channel by photographer Seth Taras…

Normandy, 1944/2004

Lakehurst, New Jersey, 1937/2004

Berlin Wall, 1989/2004

Eiffel Tower, 1940/2004

(via PetaPixel)

ICIJ:"A cache of 2.5 million files has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts, exposing hidden dealings of politicians, con men and the mega-rich the world over." (Thanks, Lew!)

A collection of evidence suggesting that the people who take stock photographs have absolutely no idea what the process of science looks like, beyond a vague understanding that it probably involves white coats (and also beakers full of liquid).

I posted this in March 2011, but as Kottke says, "it's so good, here it is again." "How a differential gear works" is a short industrial film that does a better job of explaining how differentials work than any other materials I've seen -- a real "a-ha" generator.

How a differential gear works

I’d lost track of The War Nerd, Gary Brecher, which is the pen name for John Dolan, who used to write at The Exile. He was mentioned a while back by Anne Laurie, but I wanted to put in a plug for him, for a couple of reasons.

First, I like the notion of serious, well-informed writing by a persona that has a point of view that is almost farcical in its devotion to the subject. Gary is a made-up character who supposedly lives in Fresno, has a terrible data entry job, and spent his entire youth reading Jane’s guides to different war machinery as well as histories of war. He’s quite well-informed on the latter, as his takedown of Victor Davis Hanson shows. He’s also smart about current military hardware and unafraid to point out that, for example, aircraft carriers would be sitting ducks in a war against a real military power.

Second, even though he’s a military buff, he doesn’t think that American forces should be used willy-nilly. If I had to classify my position on war, I’d say I’m an isolationist, and he comes fairly close to that label. For example, like Brecher, I think most of the picking sides on “humanitarian” interventions, like Kosovo, is nuts.

I have not read his latest stuff, since I just found his new home at NSFWcorp, but once I’ve paid my $3/month fee (cheap!), I’ll read his back columns and report back.

A second trailer for Toei's phenomenal-looking Space Pirate Captain Harlock movie has arrived, and man, I cannot wait until this movie arrives in Japanese theaters this fall so someone can license the damn thing and bring it to America. Hey, if loving a spaceship with a giant skull on the front ramming into another spaceship is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

Read more...

Fewer things can generate more controversy and disagreement than discussions about food and nutrition. It often seems that people will never reach any kind of consensus on what we should and shouldn't eat. But there may actually be a few exceptions to this. Here are 10 nutrition facts that everyone actually agrees on — well, perhaps almost everyone.

Read more...

Ambient noise can do a lot to help boost your creativity. The Rainy Cafe Machine is a simple little site that plays both the bustle of a coffee shop and the soothing sound of gradually increasing rainfall.

The webapp is a lot like Coffitivity, but the addition of rain gives is a nice compliment to the ambient coffee shop buzz. You can also toggle both the rainfall and the cafe tracks on or off individually. Fans of rain may come away a bit disappointed, though, as it's rather short and doesn't seem to loop—you'll have to manually toggle it on and off after it ends.

Rainy Cafe Machine

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker.

When How I Work was just an idea, the Lifehacker team made a "yeah right, in your dreams, probably not gonna happen" list of people the series would feature. Cory Doctorow was toward the top. He's a hero of ours, and here are a few reasons why: He co-edits Boing Boing, one of the best blogs on the web. He writes award-winning sci-fi novels (as well as other fiction and non-fiction) and releases everything in print and under Creative Commons. He's a leader in the fight to make digital media free and easily sharable. He's been called "the William Gibson of his generation." He has an xkcd comic dedicated to him where he descends from "the blogosphere" wearing a red cape. Seriously. We caught up with Cory to find out what gear he can't live without, the best advice he's ever received, and the reason he jumped the Apple ship after nearly 30 years.

Current gig: Writer, blogger, activist, journalist
Location: Hackney, London, England
Current mobile device: Nexus 4
Current computer: Thinkpad X230 (replace a X220 that I dumped a cup of coffee into while touring last month—has a new 600GB Intel SSD that I just swapped from the old machine to the new)
One word that best describes how you work: Diligently

What apps/software/tools can't you live without?

Ubuntu and the suite of GNU tools in any robust Unix system. A good text editor (currently Gedit)—I keep all of my working files at .txts. A robust, highly configurable browser (Firefox/Firefox for Android). A fast RSS reader (presently Google Reader, likely to be Newsblur next). A tetherable mobile connection—I use EasyTether for Android to circumvent tether-blocking as deployed by some of the carriers I use around the world, especially Rogers in Canada. AirDroid for moving files on/off Android devices in my life. An external USB battery (currently PowerGen 5200mAh External Battery Pack).

A rugged, roomy, weatherproof backpack (currently a Bagjack Skidcat). A moneyclip. A small, six-card credit-card wallet. LibreOffice spreadsheets for bookkeeping. GPG, cryptsetup, and TrueCrypt for information security. A high-performance mailer with functional scripting engine (currently Thunderbird with a ton of rules and a huge black-listed kill file and white-listed address book). A titanium Widgy keychain prybar (pictured at right)—useful as a pocket knife but flies (heh) under TSA/BAA radar. No-name, easy to replace earbuds with integrated mic for phone. Exeze waterproof MP3 player for swimming. AquaSphere Seal swim goggles—I swim everyday for about an hour and listen to last night's CBC's As It Happens news podcast. Exeze + Aquasphere are a reasonably priced, reliable goggles/MP3 combo. GoToob silicone bottles for shampoo/soap for the pool—these have strong, reliable suction cups that stick them perfectly to the shower wall.

A no-name, cheap mini screwdriver set—I get these confiscated about six times a year by airport security, especially the jerks at Gatwick airport, but it's worth buying a new set every time. Catering-sized sachets of Tabasco—these don't show up as liquid on airport scanners, unlike the mini bottles. I put Tabasco on everything. I'd use it for contact-lens solution if I could. Aeropress—the single most versatile and reliable way of making coffee, especially on the road. Perfect when paired with a Porlex hand-grinder.

What's your workspace setup like?

I have a mancave that's almost as big as our flat in East London, right beneath the London Hackspace. I have a desk up on breezeblocks that I can use as a standing desk, or with a cut-down treadmill, or with a tall lab chair. I have a Thinkpad dock attached to encrypted backup drive; high-quality, electrically isolated microphone; large monitor; external keyboard/mouse (Logitech Anywhere MX); external speakers; webcam, etc. Most of the stuff at the office is purely sentimental or storage (authors' copies take up a lot of room), but I couldn't live without my postal scales and stash of postage (minimizing wait-times at the stupid post awful). And my Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, which I read through an articulated, illuminated circular magnifying lamp.

Pictured above: A panorama of Cory's workspace.

What do you listen to while you work?

I use Banshee for GNU/Linux, and my daily playlist is a shuffled dynamic list of songs rated 4 or 5 stars that I haven't listened to in 30 days or more.

What's your best time-saving trick?

Anything I type into email more than twice I turn into a QuickText macro that I can invoke with a keyword and tab. I do this especially for repetitive questions and FAQs.

I also generally refuse to do email "interviews" except where I can dictate the answers and send a recording to the interviewer to transcribe at her/his end. I think this is a good balance between the laziness and convenience of "interviewing" someone by sending him a ton of short essay questions ("what is art?" "what is virtue?")

What's your favorite to-do list manager?

~/Desktop/todo.txt

Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can't you live without?

My Exeze underwater MP3 player. Swimming is AMAZING for my awful, crippling back pain, but it gets boring. Adding an hour-long newscast like As It Happens makes it fly past.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

Making breakfast. I make my family a 3-4 course, hot/cold tailor-made breakfast every morning, in 20 minutes flat, with handmade coffees.

What's your sleep routine like?

I'm an early riser. I get up at 5AM with my daughter. I use Klaxon for Android as my alarm, and an MP3 of a loon call as the alarm tone.

Fill in the blank. I'd kill to see ________ answer these same questions.

Bruce Sterling.

What's the best advice you've ever received?

Write every day. When you write every day, it becomes a habit and you do it automatically. Habits are things you get for free.

Is there anything else you want to add for readers/fans?

I used Apple products from 1979 (Apple ][+) until 2006, when I switched to Thinkpads running Ubuntu and, shortly thereafter, Android phones. It was infinitely easier than I expected, and has been revolutionary in terms of ease, convenience, and reliability.

No computer company in the world has a warranty program to match the extended warranty on the ThinkPads. For about $50/yr, you get next-day, on-site hardware replacement. That means that if your ThinkPad breaks down, the next day, a technician from IBM Global Services will come over to your house or office, pretty much anywhere in the world (IBM Global is GLOBAL) and fix it on your desk or kitchen table.

When I was a CIO, I used to write POs for $1MM+ worth of Apple equipment a year. The best day of AppleCare's life can't touch the worst day of the ThinkPad warranty. When you use something every day and earn your living with it, you need something that fails at least as well as it works.

---

The How I Work series asks heroes, experts, brilliant, and flat-out productive people to share their shortcuts, workspaces, routines, and more. Every Wednesday we'll feature a new guest and the gadgets, apps, tips, and tricks that keep them going. Have someone you'd kill to see featured, or questions you think we should ask? Email Tessa.

Top image remixed from gruntzooki (Flickr).

LED space helmet via Wired design

Comments

edroso: Photoset: copacetic: Brilliant. Honest. Powerful. Poignant. Sad. Bittersweet. Everything. derrickslc: My... http://t.co/JOkfIPkZHK

From college courses to TED talks, YouTube is a great source of educational lectures. The downside to this unique method of learning is the time it can take. If you need to cram a bunch of video into a short amount of time, Reddit user ladyzebra suggests switching to YouTube's HTML5 player and turning the playback speed up.

To enable this, you'll need to activate the HTML5 trial here. This version of the player supports turning up video playback to either 1.5x or 2x the normal pace. Depending on how slowly the speaker talks, you may be able to save up to half the time you'd normally spend watching the video. Most videos I found worked best at 1.5x speed, but there will always be that one person who talks impossibly slow that can benefit from the fastest option.

LPT: Watch YouTube lectures in half the time | Reddit

Comments

I recently realized I have never been satisfied with any wallet I’ve ever owned. It was time for that to change.

I thought about the Slimmy (which still looks pretty fantastic), until I remembered reading an interview with William Gibson. He talked about some crazy wallet made out of a material called Cuben.

Now this sounded promising. I headed off to Google and searched for “william gibson wallet.” The top result took me to a review of the Yasutomo Wa-Ben wallet at unfinishedman.com.

Chad’s review convinced me that the Yasutomo 2020 Wa-Ben wallet, made in Hong Kong by Jason Hung and touted as the world’s first Cuben Fiber wallet (specifically, Cuben Fiber CT9K.5), could be exactly what I was looking for.

So I slapped down an electronic $49.50 (post-paid from Hong Kong), and three weeks later I signed for my new wallet at the post office (it seems the people in charge of these decisions deem packages from Hong Kong as untrustworthy).

After carrying it around daily for about a week, I can say it was exactly what I was looking for.

The wallet is extremely light (0.69 ounces, according to the website), extremely thin (you can see through it!), and extremely durable. I often forget I’m even carrying it and have to frantically check my front pocket to see if it’s there. It always is.

It has six credit card pockets, two “hidden” pockets behind the card pockets, and two cash/note pockets, so there’s plenty of room to carry more than enough.

So here’s my short review. The Yasutomo 2020 Wa-Ben wallet is fabulous piece of gear, and I recommend it highly for anyone looking to lighten their everyday carry load.

-- Tom Fassbender

Yasutomo 2020 Wa-Ben Wallet
$50

Manufactured by Yasutomo 2000

You'll love this

http://alioutfit.tumblr.com

THANKS MARGRET!

It's google street view without the boring bits.:

thestateimin:

emmugh:

The Secret Door could take you anywhere in the world. Only unlike completely randomised websites that drop you in the middle of the Australian outback, it’s likely to take you somewhere really, really cool.

WHAT IS THIS OMG?!

I just ended up in a scary white room full of taxidermied mammals holyfuck

Most people, most of the time, aren't creative, generous or willing to stand up and contribute worthwhile work to the community. At least not the contributions you're hoping for.

The myth of wikipedia is that, when given the chance, hordes of people stepped up and built it. In fact, 5,000 people contribute most of the value on the site.

The myth of ebooks is that now that anyone can publish, enormous numbers of people will use this new platform to create countless numbers of new classics. In fact, most self-published ebooks just aren't very good.

And the same is true for just about everything that's open. A few people do an enormous amount (non-profit volunteers, community organizations, online sites), a few people are vandals or merely taking what they can take, and the masses participate, but aren't at the heart of the project.

To dismiss the crowd is a huge mistake, though.

Here's the fascinating part, call it the golden shoulder: We have no idea in advance who the great contributors are going to be. We know that there's a huge cohort of people struggling outside the boundaries of the curated, selected few, but we don't know who they are.

That means that the old systems, the ones where just a few people were anointed to be the chosen authors, chosen contributors, chosen musicians--that system left a lot of people out in the cold. The new open systems embrace waste. They understand that most people won't contribute and most contributions won't be any good. But that's fine, because this openness means that the previously unfound star now gets found.

The curated business, then, will ultimately fail because it keeps missing this shoulder, this untapped group of talented, eager, hard-working people shut out by their deliberately closed ecosystem. Over time, the open systems use their embrace of waste to winnow out the masses and end up with a new elite, a self-selected group who demonstrate their talent and hard work and genius over time, not in an audition.

Go ahead and minimize these open systems at your own peril. Point to their negative outliers, inconsistency and errors, sure, but you can only do that if you willfully ignore the real power: some people, some of the time, are going to do amazing and generous work... If we'll just give them access to tools and get out of their way.

(The curated block isn't reality, it's merely what the curator claims--that his magical powers will find all of the great talent, without error or waste. Of course, a quick look at Hollywood or even an expensive mutual fund shows that this is a fable. The 'open' block includes the low-quality stuff as well, but since that work is created without a lot of expense, pruning it is no tragedy. The secret is embracing the talented and dedicated people who choose themselves.)

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Tagged: Steampunk , gadget , USB , g rated , win Share on Facebook

Alive is a new webapp designed to help you take those long term goals in your head like "learn mandarin" or "exercise regularly" and turn them into a plan, complete with individual steps you can follow. Plus, the site's lets you get help from friends and motivate others to achieve their goals. More »

The Loneliness of Charon by Martin Tomsky posted by ianbrooks.me


The Loneliness of Charon by Martin Tomsky posted by ianbrooks.me


The Loneliness of Charon by Martin Tomsky posted by ianbrooks.me


The Loneliness of Charon by Martin Tomsky posted by ianbrooks.me

ianbrooks:

The Loneliness of Charon by Martin Tomsky

Detailing the pensive, solitary life of the ferryman Charon in gorgeous lasercut plywood, you can purchase the entire set or individual pieces over at etsy.

Artist: DeviantArt / Website / Twitter

I'm just home from Japan - thanks to an efficient series of buses, trains, planes, and one fabulously upholstered ferry. The trip started in Tokyo, then on to Kyoto, eventually making our way to the incredibly special island of Naoshima. While I get unpacked and settled back in to my regular routine, I thought I'd do a quick round-up of a few of my favorite soups from the archives, the ones that really stood out, the ones I love to revisit. I love a good pot of soup, and (particularly) this time of year, make them a couple times a week. And while the following have become some of my stand-bys, let me know if you have a soup recipe you think I'm missing out on. I'm always on the look-out for new ideas to try. In the meantime, I'll try to pull together some pics and a write up of my plane lunch for later in the week! xo-h

- A Simple Tomato Soup: Pictured here - A simple tomato soup recipe inspired by a Melissa Clark recipe - pureed, warmly spiced, and perfect topped with everything from toasted almonds and herbs, to coconut cream or a poached egg.

- Pumpkin and Rice Soup: This was the pumpkin soup I made first-thing after arriving home from India last October - it has an herby butter drizzle and lemon ginger pulp. I serve it over a good amount of brown rice with a dollop plain yogurt.

- Coconut Red Lentil Soup: If emails are any indication, this is certainly one of the more popular soup recipes with all of you. Inspired by an Ayurvedic dal recipe in the Esalen Cookbook, it is a light-bodied, curry-spiced coconut broth thickened with cooked red lentils and structured with yellow split peas. It has back notes of ginger, slivered green onions sauteed in butter, and curry-plumped raisins. It also relies on an interested cooking method to bring it all together.

- Posole in Broth: My style of posole. This version has a vegetable broth base, lots of blossoming corn kernels, avocado and mung beans. It's topped with plenty of chopped olives and toasted almonds.

- Red Lentil Soup with Lemon: Pictured above here - An earthy, turmeric and mustard-spiked lentil soup served over brown rice with spinach and thick yogurt.

- New Year Noodle Soup Recipe: One of my very favorite soups, a bit of an effort, but well worth it if you have a lazy day at home. This is an amazing New Year Noodle Soup from Greg & Lucy Malouf's beautiful book, Saraban. A bean and noodle soup at its core, it features thin egg noodles swimming in a fragrant broth spiced with turmeric, cumin, chiles, and black pepper. You use a medley of lentils, chickpeas, and borlotti beans which makes the soup heart and filling without being heavy. You then add spinach, dill, and cilantro, and lime juice kicks in with a bit of sour at the end. Even beyond that, you also prep a number of toppings to serve with the soup - chopped walnuts, caramelized onions, and sour cream. Amazing.

- Dried Fava Soup with Mint and Guajillo Chiles: Easily one of the best and most interesting soups I've cooked in years. Adapted from a recipe in Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen - a dried fava bean and roasted tomato base is topped with a fascinating cider-kissed tangy/sweet quick-pickled chile topping. Don't skimp out on the topping!

- Green Curry Broth: A beautiful, thin green curry broth, fragrant with garlic, lemongrass, and ginger. It gets heat from serrano chiles, and a zing of tanginess from fresh lime juice. Cumin and coriander seeds keep things grounded, and a flurry of freshly chopped herbs make the sky open up.

- Richard Olney's Garlic Soup : In the realm of garlic soup recipes, this is a favorite of mine. From Richard Olney's The French Menu Cookbook, it is made by simmering a dozen or so cloves of garlic in water with a few herbs, then thickening it with a mixture of egg and shredded cheese. It's hard to beat a ladle poured over crusty day-old chunks of walnut baguette.

Continue reading Soups Worth Making...

Slice-of-life fans have seen fit to assemble this ranking of their favourite anime of the genre best known for its absence of story and maximal moe.

The ranking:

1. Minami-ke series

2. Nichijou

3. Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

4. K-ON! series

5. Hidamari Sketch series

6. Lucky Star

7. Seitokai no Ichizon series

8. GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class

9. Acchi Kocchi

10. Kotoura-san

11. GJ-bu

12. Mitsudome series

13. WORKING!! series

14. Tamako Market

15. A channel

16. Yuru Yuri series

17. Tamayura series

18. And Yet The Town Moves

19. Strawberry Marshmallow

20. ARIA series