A shot of JD

Geography

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:32:26 +0100

"My friend's got a place in New York".
"Ah cool, which part?"
"Jersey".

"[London] does not believe that there exists at present sufficient legal basis under international..."

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:08:44 +0100

“[London] does not believe that there exists at present sufficient legal basis under international law to either declare or recognize water or sanitation as free-standing human rights.”

- British U.N. delegate Nicola Freedman regarding United Nations Resolution A/64/L.63/Rev.1, the Human Right to Water. The United States also offered its own weasely and pathetic explanation in legalese as to why they don’t see water and sanitation as a human right.

(via hungryghoast & jhnbrssndn)

"Rule of thumb: being first helps in the short run. Being a little more right than the masses..."

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:32:12 +0100

“Rule of thumb: being first helps in the short run. Being a little more right than the masses ultimately pays off in the long run. Being last is the worst of all three.”

- Seth Godin

"I suspect many of the services I will work with over my career will be addictive, but I hope they..."

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:43:19 +0100

“I suspect many of the services I will work with over my career will be addictive, but I hope they won’t be emotionally destructive.”

- Andrew Parker on Paul Graham’s “addiction” post.

Birdhouses made from VHS and cassette tapes

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:19:17 +0100

Birdhouses made from VHS and cassette tapes

"The digital economy is huge and creating lots of new types of university courses. Someone..."

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 15:50:47 +0100

“The digital economy is huge and creating lots of new types of university courses. Someone who’s not engaged in that kind of world will think ‘oh, well, that’s a Mickey Mouse course’, but actually that’s where industry is at.”

- Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK.
I of course agree that training for roles in the digital economy is vital. The problem seems to be making sure this training is grounded skills employers actually want, rather than trying to make it into a pseudo-academic exercise, which often seems to be the approach of “vocational” courses, especially in IT/computer science.

FLOWCHART: Should journalists learn programming skills?

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:48:19 +0100

FLOWCHART: Should journalists learn programming skills?

"We cannot say that we can give tacit approval to any and all the activities which threaten our..."

Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:23:10 +0100

“We cannot say that we can give tacit approval to any and all the activities which threaten our intellectual properties. But on the other hand, it would not be appropriate if we treated people who did something based on affection for Nintendo, as criminals”

- Nintendo Doesn’t Want To Criminalize Obsessed Fans

HEAR THAT, MUSIC INDUSTRY?

How Starbucks was blinded by its own product.

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:41:16 +0100

How Starbucks was blinded by its own product.

(via Reddit)

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:23:36 +0100

(via Reddit)

A friend put together a mix CD of alt-country tracks for me...

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:02:10 +0100

A friend put together a mix CD of alt-country tracks for me (retro, I know). I used the Music Brainz audio recognition software to try to auto-tag the files, to save me typing up his handwritten tracklisting. Needless to say, the above is slightly incorrect.

Stock market investing in a nutshell...

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 21:18:00 +0100

Stock market investing in a nutshell... :

(via lbrphoto)

Facebook to close its Gift Shop

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:42:01 +0100

Facebook to close its Gift Shop:

Probably to make way for the introduction of Facebook credits to be used by third party developers. Facebook made $40m~ year from virtual gifts, but I guess they think that pales in comparison to the likely income from social games and 3rd party gift stores.

Such 3rd party apps will likely be benefited (more users, keener investors) by one of their biggest competitors leaving the market, and more profit for them is more profit for Facebook in the long run.

"You see that massive pile of patents Microsoft has been accumulating? What makes you think that they..."

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 15:40:00 +0100

“You see that massive pile of patents Microsoft has been accumulating? What makes you think that they won’t use them to sue your disruptive hipster Web 2.0 startups into the grave? Oh, nothing?
A fat, lazy, slothful Microsoft is good for software innovation because they won’t go out and obliterate potential threats. A weak, hungry, cornered Microsoft? They’ll hit the big red lawsuit button so fast you won’t be able to blink.”

- Doublethink: Hey, people dancing on Microsoft’s grave, be afraid

Z-Vex Fuzz Probe

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:11:02 +0100

Z-Vex Fuzz Probe:

I love the copy describing this guitar pedal. Better than the usual “you too can be a god of rawwwk” nonsense that often accompanies such items.

“Congratulations. You must be insane. Even I don’t get how to use this pedal”.

"Get a different independent magazine each month".

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:53:28 +0100

"Get a different independent magazine each month".:

I love Stack’s indie magazine subscription model. Are there any businesses doing similar with other products? eg. I know there are wine of the month clubs, but how about for more esoteric/geeky goods?

"We had a huge launch party on campus and I bet that party cost more than the amount of revenues we..."

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:31:00 +0100

“We had a huge launch party on campus and I bet that party cost more than the amount of revenues we took in on the product. As an employee, I am embarrassed. As a shareholder, I am pissed.”

- A Microsoft employee talking about the Kin.

If programming languages were tools. The only programming...

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:07:48 +0100

If programming languages were tools.

The only programming language I’ve ever been able to really do anything with was Visual Basic…and I definitely used it like a toddler flinging pudding at a wall with a plastic spoon.

"Even the stupidest possible creative act is still a creative act. And I’d still take the most..."

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:12:44 +0100

“Even the stupidest possible creative act is still a creative act. And I’d still take the most inane collaborative website over someone watching yet another half hour of TV.”

- Clay Shirky

"For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity’s affair, they greeted one another at every stolen..."

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:49:11 +0100

“For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity’s affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss — a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity’s mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world’s thirstiest gerbil.”

- The Bulwer-Lytton award is given annually for the worst first sentence of a novel. Contestants craft deliberately bad opening lines. Molly Ringle took the 2010 prize with this gem.