Chuck Wendig's 25 hard truths about writing and publishing (but mostly about publishing. Want to know how to make a million dollars? Solve #6. The person (or likely persons) who solve the issue of finding new books online (that you really want to read) that person will make a fortune. Right now, browsing books online is tedious. My solution is to show a shelf-like view (maybe sell "face out" and "end cap" space), but that's 1) a cludge fix that doesn't integrate (much) of the advantage of the internet (you could put a "other people who liked what you like also liked" function to weed out the millions of options available online), 2) and real world analog (which isn't always a bad thing), and 3) ignores (at least) two other functions a real world bookstore has. Not to mention the resolution issue.
Random Michelle K went to Philadelphia and saw printing presses. And she shares photos.
The world first computer generated art. As might be presumed from the all male world of computers in the 50s, it's pornographic, or at a least a pin-up. So this link may be NSFW. The image itself was first used as a diagnostic; if the image looked okay, data was being transferred from one computer to the backup correctly. If the image was "off", there were data problems. Which is a fairly good diagnostic trick (humans respond better to "images" than number flows). (Pointed to by John)
Sure, we live a post-whatever society. As that article demonstrates we can't even get past the sexism in underwear marketing for kids. (Grokked form Tobias Buckell)
"A group of self-appointed 'patriots' are moving forward with an idea for a planned community of several thousand families of 'patriotic Americans' in Idaho, a project named The Citadel, envisioned as a 'martial endeavor designed to protect Residents in times of peril'…" I wonder if any of these "patriots" have ever heard of an air strike, let alone the rise of the UAV? And while it looks like a castle set up, they've forgotten some serious needs, like water and sewer. Seriously. As someone who has followed various splinter organizations form the 90s to early 2000's, apparently they've become completely unhinged by recent political events. Like the re-election of a black president (that's a link to various assholes in twitter who are probably badly surprised to find the President wasn't assassinated on Inauguration Day. (Grokked from the Slactivist)
Another one bites the dust. Well that makes six people shot at gun shows last week (the week of Gun Appreciation). Okay, well, there are a lot of people who went to gun shows who weren't injured. But most of these people were either gun dealers, or shot by gun dealers. You know, the people who should know gun safety and for whom having a loaded weapon, or ammo next to the firearm it goes with is illegal. I mean, this is beyond basic gun safety. At least when I went to gun shows, it was a cast iron rule, no loaded weapons. And these are the people who think we should be listening to for our gun safety? (Grokked from Joe Hill)
Okay, you know how we like to think of States as amoral at best? Well, how about if a state gave a minority population birth control involuntarily?. In this case it's Israel given their Ethiopian immigrants what is though to be Depo-Provera in an attempt to lessen their numbers, and in the mind of (at least) PM Benjamin Netanyahu, lessen the "threat" they pose to their "Jewish and democratic state." You can read that as "all us European Jews feel threatened by these African Jews." However, before we get all judgmental here, just keep in mind it wasn't that long ago that we had similar programs that targeted the mentally ill (which in some cases only meant "teenage mother").
Tweet of my heart: @aspaul: "It's cold out, so much for global warming" is the new "If evolution is real, why aren't monkeys turning into humans?"
Double dip: @silencewedge Heating mercury thiocyanate looks like you've opened a portal to hell http://t.co/JfGbQEvD
4 comments:
I didn't take pictures of him, really, but the park ranger running the printing press was really really great.
He interacted with the kids, and answered questions, and was generally awesome.
If you are in Philadelphia, you should definitely check out Benjamin Franklin's printing office.
And the post office next door. The woman there was ALSO awesome. :)
All of which is why I like traveling and seeing things during the school year.
The first high res graphic is called the Standard Lenna. Often just tiny segments were used for testing. Turns out it was a scan of the November 1972 Playboy centerfold -- the model was honored the other year at a CS conference. She was in her 60s and everyone was delighted that she was there.
Dr. Phil
Hey Random Michelle K, I need to get back to Philly at some point. I really miss my Ginos. Plus it sounds like they've redone Liberty Village (the historic area) and added a lot since I was a kid.
Dr. Phil, yeah but this was vector. And in the 50s. Also, yeah I've seen several different images used as diagnostics. The human brain can detect image errors faster that seeing even errors being flagged. It keys into our "brain as pattern recognition machine".
I took a bunch of other pictures--more than I posted on my blog.
If you click through to FLickr you can see more.
I really have to recommend historical stuff during the school year when it's (at least supposed to be) cold. Few crowds = more awesome.
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