Links 11/5/08 (Of Hope & Passing)
This was a great speech, especially the concluding story tying one voter’s life to American history.
TED: Remembering Michael Crichton
The author of Jurassic Park and Sphere died yesterday after a long private battle with cancer. He was 66.
Links 09/16/08
This is a collection of writings by Mr. Wallace for Harper's Magazine. Tragically, David Foster Wallace committed suicide last Friday. He was discovered by his wife of four years.
Here is a quote from a commencement speech he gave that I think is just brilliant:
The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.
Jeffrey Zedman Presents: A Modest Proposal
This is a fantastic piece of writing about the dishonesty that is allowed and unquestioned in American politics. Here's the opening of the article:
It is illegal to make false claims in a TV or radio commercial unless you are running for political office.
If you’re selling toothpaste, your claims must be vetted by legal and medical professionals. But not if you’re selling a candidate.
If you’re selling a candidate, not only can you lie about his record, but more to the point, you can lie about his opponent.
I also think the first comment under the article hits the proverbial nail on the head:
The most horrifying aspect of false advertising in politics is the willingness of the American public to whole-heartedly accept these claims without even thinking twice.
Links 08/27/08 (Random Linkages of Genius)
Merlin Mann shares some completely unfair and subjective criteria to which one should subject potential reading material – specifically nonfiction. However unfair, though, I think these guidelines would prove quite effective.
Mozilla Labs: Introducing Ubiquity
It's like Quicksilver for Firefox – except you would only understand that reference if you are a Mac user. Here, watch this video. Then follow the link.
Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.
National Interest: Reflections on Leaving the Party
Susan Eisenhower writes about leaving the party for whom her grandfather had served as president.
Hijacked by a relatively small few, the GOP of today bears no resemblance to Lincoln, Roosevelt or Eisenhower’s party, or many of the other Republican administrations that came after…
As an independent I will now feel comfortable supporting people of any political party who reflect those core values.
Photosynth
This is a really amazing product coming out of Microsoft Live Labs. Unfortunately, the site only works on Windows machines at the moment, but here's a video of it being demonstrated at this year's TED conference.
Arthur C. Clarke 1917-2008
''Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered,'' Clarke said recently. ''I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer.''
Mr. Clarke is probably most remembered for his work on 2001: A Space Odyssey, but he has authored over a hundred other works covering a variety of topics. A couple of his most visionary predictions include communicaation satellites and the concept of geosynchronous orbit.
via Daring Fireball
Links 11/13/07
This is a great write-up helping you understand the nerd in your life. Some of his points can also translate to interacting with your high-functioning autistic children and peers. I really think I need to add this blog to my sidebar links.
via DaringFireball
YouTube: Cartoon Firefox
Completely charming animated ad for Firefox.
NYT Sunday Book Review: A Galaxy in Your Face
Artistic pop-up books are one of my autistic obsessions that emerges every time I'm in a bookstore. (I am a Robert Sabuda fanboy.) This piece of work by Matthew Reinhart brings the Star Wars universe to the magnitude of pop-up art.
(Books like this are also great examples of how children's literature truly transcends generational gaps. Everyone should spend time browsing the kid's section of their favorite bookstore!)
also via DaringFireball
Links 09/25/07
There’s very high “it just works” factor here. Music is easy to find, easy to buy, and easy to download once you have the Amazon MP3 Downloader installed. When you download music with Amazon MP3 Downloader, it simply shows up in iTunes, as you’d expect, with no manual importing or additional action required on the user’s part. Sync your iPods, and the new music shows up there, too.
This could be huge.
Look Me In the Eye
This is the blog of John Elder Robinson, author of Look Me In the Eye (due out today) about growing up with and continuing to live with Asperger's Syndrome. I'm going to be hitting our nearby B&N after school to check this book out!
Inhabitat: PREFAB FRIDAY: Zero-Energy MkLotus debuts!
Here's an incredible new eco-prefab home showcased on the lawn of San Francisco's city hall. Check out the Flickr photoset for some other great pictures.
EcoSpeak: An interview with ex-IPCC co-chairman Sir John Houghton
Mr. Houghton puts global warming in some historical perspective and still comes to the conclusion that our current level of carbon emissions are cause for concern. He also discredits our politicians' recent obsession with ethanol:
Ethanol from corn is not a good deal. Why it is being pushed by President Bush, I don’t know. It’s been disastrous for the price of corn and it’s not helping the CO2 budget significantly at all.
Rogue Amoeba: Radioshift
John Gruber has the best analogy: "Like TiVo for radio."
Finishing the fight: Ars reviews Halo 3
Ars Technica reviews Halo 3's single player campaign. I won't give away the whole review, but here's a snippet:
Suffice it to say that there are a couple of twists and turns that some may not have been expecting, and some familiar faces will come and go, to the surprise and shock of long-time fans. When the game is done, though, one thing is certain: fans will have the closure they were looking for.
Links 08/19/07
I've read most of the top 20, and I'm pleasantly surprised by number one.
Ars Technica: AACS DRM tentacles reach far into operating systems
So, when thinking about this issue, we have to ask ourselves: is a company like Microsoft or Apple likely to tell Hollywood to jump off a cliff? No, because both companies know that users will want to play HD DVD or Blu-ray discs on their computers. Microsoft didn't tell AACS LA to stuff it, and Apple won't tell them to, either.
Marcello's Homepage – Comics – Calvin & Hobbes
Every Calvin and Hobbes comic strip ever published. I can now sleep better at night just knowing these are here.
PagesUser: A Huge Saving of Space
So that's where all those megabytes went... I had a hunch.
Red Sweater Blog: We're In This Together
It’s pretty awe-inspiring to sit in the same room while the makers of competing products such as BBEdit and TextMate, or Transmit and Fetch discuss product design issues, laugh at each other’s jokes, and yes, withhold some of their more strategic plans! But almost everybody in the room, competitor or not, is respecting each other’s work, and having a great time.
This is something I really like about being a Mac user. The third-party developers (especially the indies) are generally nice people, and the cut-throat feeling pervasive in the Windows software market is all but absent.
Infinite Loop: The secrets to Apple's success in marketing to teenagers
In addition to the reasons listed in the article, I think another factor in Apple's success with young people is that Apple doesn't talk down to them or try to create a blatantly corny atmosphere of "hipness."
A Dune Shot Game
- the adjective "surreptitious" or the adverb "surreptitiously" is used.
- the adjective "sinewy" is used.
- Prince Rhombur says, "Vermillion Hells."
- Kailea brushes her, um, bosom against someone's arm.
- "doe-like" is used to describe a female's eyes.
- "creamy" is used to describe a female's skin.
- "generous" is used to describe a female's mouth.
- a grown man begins crying uncontrollably.
- you feel like the next chapter should begin with the words, "And now for something completely different."
- a character fits into a shameless stereotype.
Okay, you can pick any two or three of the above conditions, and that should put you under the table within a few chapters. Really, I think Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson have created some fascinating additions to the Dune universe, but those initial three novels...
(If you're like me, Jell-O cubes or a favorite candy make a nice substitution for alcohol. Read with a friend. It makes the game more enjoyable! Yes, I'm a geek!)
Links 08/12/08
Some of the most intelligent and cognizant thought on the Harry Potter series I've read. (I will say there are some spoilers in here for anyone who hasn't read the book and cares.) Here are a couple of key quotes:
"But reading was never dead with the kids. Au contraire, right now it's probably healthier than the adult version, which has to cope with what seems like at least 400 boring and pretentious ''literary novels'' each year."
"...If the field is left to a bunch of intellectual Muggles who believe the traditional novel is dead, they'll kill the damn thing."
An Aspie and Ramona
There are twenty-two desks in the classroom, eighty-four ceiling tiles plus or minus a few (based on perspective, light arrangement, and wall irregularities), twenty-five cubbies with coat hangars, and one sink with a step stool in front of it.
Nineteen students (counting the author) occupy twenty-two desks. It takes three hundred eighteen steps to get to the cafeteria, eighty-six steps to accelerated math, twenty-eight to the sink, and fourteen to the right cubby – except a direct fourteen-step route makes for a bad day because “14” (like the letter “N”) is uncomfortable.
Teacher Miss Hiles is five feet, four inches (which equals 64 inches in all or 162.5 centimeters). She has been reading for four minutes or 240 seconds. Thirteen words have already begun with the letter “N.” If one more happens too soon – before the brain loses count – this won’t be a good chapter.
“Robert, are you listening?” Teacher says. That is not part of the story. It makes no sense. Ramona was just trying to convince her father to stop smoking after being caught throwing away his cigarettes. Ramona books are by Beverly Cleary who is a better author than Judy Blume because Fudge is annoying. There are three Ramona books at home, and “Robert” in not a character. Did Teacher mean “Ramona?”
“Robert, what did I just read?” What. When. Where. Why. They all sound the same. They are okay in writing, but they aren’t good out loud. They are okay in a book because the book gives the answer. “Romana, why did you throw my cigarettes away?” And Ramona gives a reason. “Why,” in this context, looks for motivation, but why can also mean different things. “Why, look at that rainbow!” Teacher says to listen for something called “inflection.” She once said sentences using different inflections, but they all sounded the same.
“Robert.” There is no Robert in this chapter! Romaona’s dad is Mr. Quimby. Here sister is Beatrice, but she calls Beatrice “Beezus,” and Beezuz is friends with Henry Huggins. Ramona was first introduced in the Henry Huggins books, and she got her own books later. This is called a “spin-off.” This fits Ramona because she likes to spin. She also likes to make curls go “BOING,” and she likes to make noise with Howie. Maybe Howie will get a spin-off.
“Robert, have you listened to a word I’ve said?” Teacher says louder to … to me. She takes some glasses out of a pair of hands. My hands. She puts the glasses on my face. “Robert, you’re daydreaming again. Can you tell me what we’ve been reading?”
Of course I can. I can tell her all about Ramona and her father, but my voice has gone missing. So I just look at my desk. I don’t expect to find my voice on the desk, but looking at the desk avoids all of the frightening faces looking in my direction.
Teacher shakes her head and says she will have to talk to my parents about my daydreaming again. It will be the fourth conference this school year. This is September. September has thirty-one days. Today is the twentieth. A Friday. Birthday was on August twentieth – number six. Six-years-old means kindergarten for some born in August, but I went to kindergarten at five. Something called an I.Q. (or “intelligence quotient”) is 135. I know that “intelligence” means how smart someone is, but “quotient” is a mystery.
I tried to find out by reading every “K” word in the dictionary (American: of or associated with the western hemisphere; Heritage: background or history) – all 2,180. It took five days to read them all. Anyway, it is likely that a quotient has to do with daydreaming. Dad says it has to do with division. “Division,” “daydream,” and “dad” all start with “D,” and you can use the letters in “daydream” to make “dad” as well as “yard” and “dare” and “made” and “ram” and “mare” and …
“Robert!”
I stare harder at the desk. Still no voice.
“Robert, if you are not going to listen, just go sit in the corner.”
I sit in the corner and try to be small. I’m very good at small. You’d be surprised at some of the places I can fit into. When I’m small, my voice comes back, so I count to feel better. Numbers (except for 14) are nice. “1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, …”
The next day we are supposed to write about a favorite book. My paper is about Ramona. I use a pen because pencils give me the bad kind of goose-bumps. So does chalk and velvet.
I write more than anyone in class. My voice was on my desk all along. It was hiding inside my pen.
Alteration from the original:
- The classroom originally had more ceiling tiles, but I felt a smaller number was more accurate. A part of me wants to go back and count.
- I double-checked my Ramona facts. Nothing to fix.
- I changed my teacher's name to keep her anonymous.
- In the original manuscript, I counted by fives. Though I liked fives, chances are I would have counted by odds if upset. They required more concentration and would have better served to take my mind off things. Primes serve that purpose well nowadays.
Links 05/20/07
The Bills (Gates and Clinton) unite to bring free online tools to communities wishing to decrease their carbon footprints, and a company named Business Objects is looking to provide cities with open source solutions in the efforts to curb detrimental climate changes.
- Ars Technica: Attacking climate change with open data
- Nobel Intent: Microsoft and the Clinton Foundation team up to tackle climate change
Ars Technica: Why writing in games matters: Part II—challenges of interactive storytelling
This entry focuses specifically on the challenges of fitting a plot (linear by nature) into modern games (nonlinear by design). Good stuff.
AVING USA: 120-inch wide touchscreen display 'T-VIEW'
Wow! Any word on pricing?