Every day an eminent writer, thinker, commentator, politician, academic chooses five books on their specialist subject. From Einstein to Keynes, Iraq to the Andes, Communism to Empire. Share in the knowledge and buy the books.
Subscribed, obviously. (Via Richard Felix.)
Pull over before you read this.
Just because the technology is realtime doesn’t mean our behavior always has to be. Forget the obvious issues like walking into an intersection or driving off the road. When it comes to the net, we’re habitually guilty of LUI (Living Under the Influence). We sacrifice real life for realtime. We tweet vacation photos while we’re still on vacation. We share anecdotes about our kids when we’re spending time with them. And yes, we read and publish content from the driver’s seat of our cars. […]
All of this data can wait until later – and much of it can wait until never.
Google Reader and all-time read counts
Recently (yesterday?), Google Reader started pushing out all-time read counts via Trends. However, it looks like the count has an upper limit of 300,000 and, somewhat alarmingly, I need to go back just 264 days to reach at least that limit (i.e., Trends says that “Since December 7, 2009 you have read a total of 300,000+ items.”)
300,000/264 = 1,136 items/day. Every day. Wow. Use that statistic to extrapolate a read count for the last ~eight years’ worth of feed reading and it’s obvious we’re dealing with some scary numbers. I always knew the numbers were large — I’ve forever been a bit of an information nut — but this definitely puts my “problem” into perspective and compels me to immediately pare down the number of feeds I track.
(Relatedly, had I submitted my stats to Google’s tongue-in-cheek ReaderAdvantage program, I would have been in the top tier with just a few months’ worth of use. (The top tier required only 314,159 lifetime read items.))
Many of us have grown up thinking that if we are properly self-punishing then we are somehow being responsible. “What, I’m a nervous wreck — how could I possibly take on more?” On the other hand, if, God forbid, we are feeling carefree, we have this nagging sense that we’re being downright irresponsible, certain that if we don’t get right back to self-flagellation then the other shoe is going to drop. And hard. We don’t correlate our sense of responsibility with what we are actually producing. We correlate it with how hard we are being on ourselves. […]
Worry isn’t work. Being stressed out isn’t work. Anxiety isn’t work. Entertaining a sense of impending doom isn’t work. Incessant internal verbal punishment isn’t work. Indulging the great unknown fear in your own mind isn’t work. Hating yourself isn’t work.
I’m speechless.
I have to say I love this philosophy (except, probably obviously, the no-place-to-live aspect), and to some extent have been practicing it for as long as I can remember. Despite how it may come across on Twitter (and even here to some degree), I really don’t own too much stuff, and the less I own the better I generally feel. Sure, when it comes to certain items (namely computers and all other types of electronic gadgets) I participate in a constant (and admittedly absurd) upgrade cycle that seems to know no bounds. However, I don’t tend to own more than one of these sorts of things at a time (e.g., I don’t have nine pairs of headphones), and usually welcome the convergence of devices (as long as I feel that maximum usability can be maintained).
Personalized color contrast — possible?
I want to know the perfect background/foreground color combination for me (for reading/writing). Often I spend hours at a time searching for and experimenting with new color schemes to see if I can come up with something preferable to whatever configuration I’m currently using. I generally like my background to be darker than my text, but beyond that I’m all over the map. (I know it sounds crazy, but I feel like I type faster with a light-on-dark setup.)
Is there some sort of test I can have done that will determine the optimal color contrast for my eyes? Maybe if I’m ‘prescribed’ a color scheme I finally can convince myself that it can’t get any better and will stop looking.
Relatedly, is there a background/foreground color scheme you swear by? Let me know via Twitter or email.
Secrets of the Little Blue Box.
This 1971 Esquire article about phone phreaking may be the best I’ve ever read on the subject.
Apple’s Magic Trackpad
As soon as the Magic Trackpad was announced I grabbed one, but really wasn’t expecting to hang on to it for too long. I figured I’d use it for a few hours and then return it, as I’ve done with, I think, every Apple “mousing” device.
Turns out the opposite happened — I haven’t once used my mouse since getting the new trackpad. What the hell is going on here? I won’t go into a protracted (and boring!) discussion about how I’ve used every mouse ever made, and how I’m constantly testing new input hardware; if you know me, you know that already, and if you don’t know me, then, well, just what kind of life are you leading?
I never particularly enjoyed using trackpads when working from my notebook, and in most cases just attached a mouse. (One exception: two-finger scrolling is the best. thing. ever.) Also, and as you probably know, there’s nothing terribly novel about the Magic Trackpad; in fact, save its size, there really is no (functional) difference between it and the glass trackpad in your MacBook (Pro). Given these two bits of information, it’s not hard to see why I didn’t have high hopes for using the trackpad with my “desktop” (i.e., my MacBook Pro plugged into an external display). However, when setting up the Magic Trackpad I was kind of forced to play with the various multi-touch options now available (most or maybe all of which which have been available for a while on Mac notebooks) and came to realize that this little piece of glass was capable of some, well, neat stuff.
The gestures that really caused me to step back and notice that I actually was enjoying using the trackpad are three-finger dragging/selecting and two-finger right-clicking. (One niggle: sometimes the three-finger text selection doesn’t “take,” or otherwise requires a noticeable amount of time before you can act on the selection. I haven’t been able to reproduce this every time.) Enabling these gestures crystalized for me the main reasons I’ve always hated using trackpads for extended periods; i.e., dragging/selecting and right-clicking required a physical click (and in the case of dragging/selecting, a physical click with one finger and a drag with another). I hated having to do these operations because 1) I was so used to tap-to-click (i.e., no physical clicks) and 2) they just felt so unnatural and forced, and were prone to imprecision.
I think another reason I’m enjoying the Magic Trackpad is because it doesn’t require my hand to move very far to get to it. I’m a keyboard guy — if it can be done with a keyboard instead of a mouse, I use a keyboard. Always. Having the trackpad so close to the keyboard (in my case, just a few inches to the right of it; much closer than my mouse) makes it feel more like an extension of the keyboard, and less like a separate device. It’s a neat feeling, and surely one with which most people who routinely use their notebook trackpads already are familiar (remember, my notebook’s trackpad always has been an afterthought). Relatedly, while it’s nice that it looks exactly like Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard, I do think the angle of the pad is a little off, and probably should be made flat, just like its MacBook (Pro) counterpart.
So yeah, I’m quite surprised by how much I like using the Magic Trackpad, and am now going to have to make a decision that I thought was going to be a mindless one — mouse or trackpad? I’ve a feeling that as soon as I plug my mouse in again I’ll stick with that (she’s so perfect in every way), especially if I’m doing any substantive photo post-processing (which I haven’t yet attempted with the trackpad), but you never know. Hell, given the pad’s tiny footprint, I may just keep both devices on my desk, if only to switch it up every now and again. OK, you’re right, probably not.
Adam Lisagor describes an annoying disconnect between him and (I’m assuming) his girlfriend.
My life.
This is how it feels to be under a nuclear attack.
Incredible, powerful stories all, but this description, from a comment, hit me hardest:
The hospital thronged with people covered in burns, their faces oozing and swollen the size of pumpkins, and skin trailing at their feet or hanging in tatters from their outstretched arms; people desperately trying to push their eyeballs or intestines back in place, or, lacking the strength to do even that, walking about with their intestines hanging out; people burnt so black and raw it was impossible to identify their age or sex. It was just as if I’d stepped into hell.
The shocking theft of the Mona Lisa, in August 1911, appeared to have been solved 28 months later, when the painting was recovered. In an excerpt from their new book, the authors suggest that the audacious heist concealed a perfect—and far more lucrative—crime.
Use your iPhone’s volume controls as a shutter button.
Using Camera+ now feels just like a real camera. Your photos can be sharper because you can now hold your iPhone steadier with two hands instead of fumbling around for the shutter button on screen.
Just when I thought Camera+ couldn’t get any better, they (attempt to) give me the one thing I want most (especially in light of the iPhone 4’s perfect volume buttons). (I say “attempt to” because the update still hasn’t been approved. Fingers are crossed.)
Twelve South’s Compass, a mobile iPad stand.
It’s a beautiful thing. (Relatedly, I’m a big fan of Twelve South’s BookArc stand for the MacBook Pro.)
How a 1950s ballistic computer worked.
Here’s a series of 1950s-vintage videos illustrating the workings of mechanical Navy ballistics computers — enormous arrays of switches and gears that are used to quickly and reliably do complex mathematics in response to changing wind, targets and other factors. It’s a really good, easy-to-follow guide to the underlying logic in a computer, and it’s excitingly mechanical.
Absolutely incredible.
Why our universe must have been born inside a black hole.
A small change to the theory of gravity implies that our universe inherited its arrow of time from the black hole in which it was born. “Accordingly, our own Universe may be the interior of a black hole existing in another universe.”
Sleep well or don’t wake at all
Since installing Mac OS X 10.6.4, more often than not my MacBook Pro refuses to wake from the sleep that’s induced automatically once it’s been disconnected from my 24” Apple LED Cinema Display. Little infuriates me more than when I have to power-cycle a machine to get it back. It’s just not an option for me and my workflow.
After I experienced this twice in a row (it doesn’t occur every time, which only makes it more annoying), I stopped everything and decided to figure out a way around it. An absurd way around it.
The following is the simplest method that works for my machine, and works every time. Whether it will work for your particular machine I can’t say. Also, keep in mind that when my machine is plugged into the external display the lid always is closed.
- Wake the display. (I usually untether my machine from the external display in the morning, after the display has gone to sleep on its own because of my non-use.)
- Select “Sleep” from the menu, and wait for the light on the front of the machine to start pulsing.
- Unplug a USB cable from the machine, but not the USB cable sprouting from the “omni”-cable connected to the external display. (In my case, I disconnect the USB cable tied to B&W’s MM-1 speakers.) (Note that this will wake the machine from the sleep you just forced it into.)
- Unplug the USB cable connected to the external display.
- Unplug the Mini DisplayPort cable connected to the external display.
- Wait for the machine to sleep. (It will do this on its own because the lid is closed.)
- Wave a rubber chicken and count backwards from seven.
If I do all of that, my machine always is responsive when I open the lid.
Pop-culture nostalgery from the ’80s & early ’90s.
This is my new favorite site. I absolutely adore it, and you will too if you grew up in the ’80s. (Via Russell Beattie.)
Everything you wanted to know about “Inception.”
I’ll admit that I came out of the movie a little confused, but have since been able to piece everything together (I think), thanks in large part to this article.
Relatedly, I love this quip from David Sacks: “Inception is like an IQ test. How much you like it will depend on how well you think you did.” So true.
Create an “AppleCare” user account.
Great tip. I’m ashamed to admit the idea never before crossed my mind. (In my defense, I’ve never needed to take a machine into Apple for servicing; after the first time you can bet I would have thought of this.)
[We have] worked out many of the trickiest aspects of the photonic fence and have constructed prototypes that can indeed identify mosquitoes from many meters away, track the bugs in flight, and hit them with debilitating blasts of laser fire.
Brilliant. (Don’t miss the incredibly apt illustration of a grill as the Death Star.)
