Securing the legacy of the world's greatest geek
Securing the legacy of the world’s greatest geek
New Scientist's Jacob Aron interviewed Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal fame, whose latest endeavor is the financing and creation of a museum dedicate to Nikola Tesla’s work.
A random piece of trivia that caught my eye:
He actually built an earthquake machine in his laboratory in New York City, and when he turned it on they had to smash it with a sledgehammer to keep it from taking the whole block down. Not a useful invention, but kind of cool.
Contribute to the project here.
Cloud startup aims to make “dumb” cell phones smart
Cloud startup aims to make “dumb” cell phones smart
Sean Gallagher reports at Ars Technica on biNu, a company developing an asynchronous, server-side smartphone emulator in Java. The system’s low-bandwidth, high-security nature makes it a perfect fit for countries where the next iPhone is out of reach.
Read Gallagher’s article for the details. This is far more exciting to me than the next iPhone. Networked mobile computing technology is still in its infancy when it comes to worldwide availability and adoption. Clever technology like biNu’s may help change that.
Microsoft's Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live heralds the interactive TV future
Microsoft’s Election 2012 hub on Xbox Live heralds the interactive TV future
Samit Sarkar, reporting at The Verge:
The interactive element of the hub is a live polling system. It will gather impressions from Xbox Live users as they watch live broadcasts of the three scheduled presidential debates between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
It’s not exactly the cross-examination inspired debate format pushed for by Will McAvoy in The Newsroom, but I think it’s a forward-thinking use of the platform.
[Longread] Scamworld: 'Get rich quick' schemes mutate into an online monster
[Longread] Scamworld: ‘Get rich quick’ schemes mutate into an online monster
This article by Joseph L. Flatley at The Verge is a feat of modern reporting and storytelling. Do yourself a favor and watch the associated documentary, too.
I like to give everything a “link” / “longread” category and one other that describes the content. This one covers a topic I won’t likely post about often, so I’m filing it under “journalism” because, again, it’s just that good.
What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day
What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day
Kevin Purdy, formerly of Lifehacker fame, shares the morning strategies of several people in this Fast Company article. I have never liked the empty proclamations of Tony Robbins and his ilk, but the rest of the article is interesting.
Longread: Brand as Context in Interaction Design
Longread: Brand as Context in Interaction Design
Ben Fullerton of Method, writing in UX Magazine on the interplay between user experience design and brand messaging:
For designers, the development of a compelling brand helps to round out the design, creating a before and after. It builds a background narrative and meaning that empowers people to respond to design in more complex ways.
What are some things I'd be shocked to learn about the outside world?
What are some things I’d be shocked to learn about the outside world?
Susan Wu, on Quora:
All products inherit the values of their creators and have a sort of corresponding ‘morality.’ When you create an algorithm, it’s optimizing for something — it might be that you think “saving time” is a value worth optimizing for. Or it could be that what you’re trying to optimize for is quantity (quantity of access, of distribution), which can often come at the cost of quality and depth of interaction. Or like most of us who are successful Americans, we automatically assume that our stance on individual rights and belief in the individualistic survival of the fittest / the elite will rise are “ideal” or “optimal.”. Another example is our cultural bias towards the “cult of the celebrity.”. And we tend to measure success by economic output.
This is geared toward inhabitants of the Silicon Valley “island” on which so many people become detached from reality, but much of it applies generally to life in a first-world country, as well.
Why Every Community Should Have Its Own Geek Awards
I recently had the pleasure of attending the Second Annual Philly Geek Awards. It was an amazing experience, but far better recaps than anything I can do are already available (like here and here, so I’ll keep this to around 500 words.
Warning: May contain italics and optimism.
There were over two FIVE(! …sorry Eric!) hundred people there, representing geekdom of all types. There were scientists, foodies, comic book artists, filmmakers, comedians, web designers, indie game and app developers, and many more. The sheer diversity of geekery going on Philadelphia is amazing. But the gathering, and the award ceremony in particular, have become much more than the sum of their parts.
Last year, the first annual Philly Geek Awards proved to the City and its geeks that the Age of Geek is here to stay in Philadelphia. Geek may be the new cool when it comes to pop culture, but there is no shortage of 100% pure geek street-cred in Philly. It’s not a fashion trend (although Philly geeks clean up very well, myself included). It’s also not a boys’ club (Spoiler alert: Ms. Hightower won 2012 Geek of the Year!).
The first ceremony cemented the presence and importance of this city’s geek community.
It was refreshing.
This year, the second annual Geek Awards proved that Philly’s geeks are not satisfied merely to be recognized. They are building, connecting, and developing communities, online and off, all over Philadelphia and at an unprecedented pace. This time, it was more than refreshing:
It was inspiring.
That’s because what I saw, and what I could feel in the air, was a sense not only of like-mindedness when it comes to community and innovation, but an even stronger sense that we can, and should, work together for a better city.
I realize that by the end of that last sentence, I started to sound like a politician. Maybe that’s okay: with any luck, some of the Geek Awards attendees, or their friends, or their spouses, or their children, will become a politician, or work for one. If anyone can overcome the absurdity of politics, it’s a Philly geek.
Then there are the companies, the publications, the government partnerships, the music records, the software, and more that will come from the massive, wonderful brains of Philly’s geeks.
Enough about the future. What about today?
Every city needs such a perfect way to unite, reward, and inspire its geeks. Only recently has Philly’s true geekery started to find its way into government (a beat covered masterfully by Technically Philly). There are undoubtedly geeks across America making rage faces at their city’s website or longing to meet other geeks. Geek Awards are the answer.
The Philly Geek Awards are about what Philly’s geeks, of all types, are doing today to improve their communities, their city, and their world. It’s about people, coming together and making stuff, at art collectives, coworking spaces, and universities all over Philly, right now.
There’s nothing more inspiring than that.
You are listening to Philadelphia
You are listening to Philadelphia
Listen to a mashup of ambient noise recordings from your city (via Soundcloud) and local police scanners. Thanks to Geekadelphia for posting about this.
A Vision for the Future of Newspapers—20 Years Ago
A Vision for the Future of Newspapers—20 Years Ago
Mark Potts, writing about his major part in what might be properly called the genesis of the first digital publishing strategy:
As someone said when they saw PostCard a few years later, “It looks like the Web.” Except that, in those early days of experimentation, the Web didn’t really exist yet.
How to Save the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News
How to Save the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News
Joel Mathis, writing at Philadelphia Magazine‘s blog The Philly Post, may have a point. But going online-only would require a serious modernization of the Philly.com brand and site design.
I don’t see the ownership having the vision to invest in either branding or a design refresh, and if they do, I’m not confident they’ll pick the right people for the job. I hope I’m wrong, because the only sure thing about Philly’s major papers these days is that something needs to change fast.
HP’s webOS group spun out into new company: GRAM
HP’s webOS group spun out into new company: GRAM
Derek Kessler of webOS Nation wrote this up yesterday. His post included an internal email to employees of the new company, “GRAM.”
It was very evasive, vague, and noncomittal for a internal email, but this part bothered me:
Be the culture. Spread our Values: People Matter. Integrity and Trust. Deliberate Innovation. Act small, deliver big.
That is a series of bad PR poster captions strung together with no meaningful intent by HP’s Martin Risau. I hope its aimless encouragements aren’t illustrative of the kind of focus, or lack thereof, the new company will have.
webOS has deserved better than what HP has done for it from the moment their acquisition of the unique mobile OS was finalized. Hopefully, GRAM is a new, bolder, and better beginning for webOS.
Boom Makes Your Mac Speakers Go Up To 11
Boom Makes Your Mac Speakers Go Up To 11
If you’ve ever wanted your Mac to be louder (as I often did before buying this app), Boom is worth the money. Here’s a direct link to the App Store.
Longread: Prosecutorial Indiscretion | Secrets Of An Independent Counsel
Longread: Prosecutorial Indiscretion | Secrets Of An Independent Counsel
David Gran, in 1998 in The New Republic, reprinted online by PBS:
Whereas most prosecutors must discriminate between cases–to decide, say, whether to spend their time and money pursuing people who drive over the speed limit or mug old ladies–independent counsels have only one case, and nearly all the time and the money they need to pursue it. There is little incentive to stop investigating. And, as the investigation racks up costs, the pressure inevitably mounts to convict.
Obama to NASA: I want to know about Martians right away
Obama to NASA: I want to know about Martians right away
President Obama, speaking to NASA’s Curiosity team (as quoted by CNET‘s Chris Matyszczyk):
If, in fact, you do make contact with Martians, please let me know right away. I’ve got a lot of other things on my plate, but I suspect that that would go to the top of the list, even if theyre just microbes.
Interactive Martian Panorama from Curiosity Rover
Interactive Martian Panorama from Curiosity Rover
If you read Boing Boing, you’ve already seen this. But I had to share it just in case. A fellow named Andrew Bodrov used Curiosity’s recent 360-panoramic photo collection to construct this interactive image, a la Google Street View.
Blog Post Cited in a Ninth Circuit Opinion
Blog Post Cited in a Ninth Circuit Opinion
Mr. Eugene Volokh congratulates my former copyright law professor David Post of Temple Law on having a blog post of his cited in a 9th Circuit opinion (PDF).