November 2011
1 post
1 tag
October 2011
2 posts
itricks.com: Penn Jillette Confirmed For Celebrity... →
If Penn Jillette is really on Celebrity Apprentice, my Tivo will face conflicting programming:
1) The Wish List set to record anything with Penn Jillette.
2) The Tivo’s standing instructions to destroy its own hard drive with thermite if it accidentally records anything with Donald Trump.
3 tags
Apple and the Siri User
A Parable.
Salesman: “Hey, I’ve got this great new house for sale. Want to buy it?”
Customer: “Um, it looks like a fine house, but I’m happy with the one I have now so no thanks.”
Salesman: “But wait — I stole all your stuff and put it in this new house! NOW do you want to buy the new one?”
Customer: “…”
September 2011
1 post
July 2011
1 post
June 2011
2 posts
“If the answer is that I wouldn’t want my daughter to do it, then I don’t mind...”
– Steven D. Levitt, saving us from ourselves, on the Freakonomics blog (via Feministing)
I suppose I should give Levitt at least a little credit. Unlike the many writers and politicians who merely behave as if they think the government should treat all citizens like children, Levitt has the nerve to...
April 2011
1 post
Review: Apple Smart Cover
I will admit that I had high hopes for the Smart Cover before it arrived on my desk, but I’m sorry to say that it has not quite lived up to its Magical, Revolutionary promises.
First, the good points: this product easily meets or exceeds the high standards of design, engineering and build quality that we have come to expect from Apple. The polyurethane material is very flexible between...
March 2011
7 posts
3 tags
Some Kind of Wrong
Okay, I’ve learned my lesson. Never again will I watch a movie on the TV Guide Channel.
First of all: A movie? On the TV Guide Channel? Yeah, I too was surprised when TiVo came up with that. But sure enough, they show movies on the TV Guide channel. Which means that the movie appears in a weird little upper-two-thirds letterbox, while the bottom of the screen shows a rolling grid that says...
6 tags
As long as we’re talking about post-punk pop and the early days of MTV:
Can we get a moratorium on advertising uses of “Kids in America” until those of us who actually were kids in America when the song was released are all dead? It’s a little disconcerting. Not to mention that it’s a pretty grim song with which to associate a brand of toaster-oven pizza rolls.
4 tags
Making Money on the Future
Been thinking more about HarperCollins’ goofy plan to make libraries re-license ebooks after 26 loans.
Okay, maybe “abject toads” was a little harsh. But still, it makes me crazy when companies go out of their way to cripple the fruits of a new technology, desperate to chain it down to the limitations of the past, simply because they already know how to charge money for the past...
ebooks on borrowed time →
nostrich:
Ebooks were supposed to be indestructible. Where you had disk-space, you had literature – in perpetuity. Which is bad news for publishers now deprived of that extra round of sales revenue engendered by books being dropped in baths.
HarperCollins has got wise to this: it has announced that US libraries will be allowed to lend ebooks only up to 26 times. Its sales president, Josh...
February 2011
5 posts
I feel like I should apologise in advance for what is, right now, just about twenty-five minutes of incoherent shouting about ghosts and UFOs.
- Warren Ellis
Apologize? Sounds to me like a reason to get to Berlin.
Cool Dad
putthison:
Hey guys!
I’m gonna be a cool dad!
Awesome news. Congratulations.
Now’s the time to start looking for one of those tiny vintage tuxedos.
Watchputthison:
Put This On Episode 4: Grooming
Jesse visits the barber, a how-to for the classic wet shave and some guidance on avoiding and removing underarm yellowing in shirts.
iTunes / Vimeo / YouTube
Clothing Credits
Funding Credits
Episode Sponsors: Shirt.Woot.com / Instapaper
Related Posts
Another outstanding installment of PUT THIS ON.
A wet shave as demonstrated in this video is a...
3 tags
"This is where they lost me."
Here’s the piece we were listening to.
It lost them right around 2:30.
Me, I’ve been binging on Belbury Poly for more than a month now. Wonderful stuff. Go to Ghost Box Music and get some.
January 2011
3 posts
4 tags
3 tags
Daily Edition
It’s just one show in, but I’m really digging The Daily Edition, the new morning show from 5 By 5 with everyone’s Internet pal Dan Benjamin.
The Daily Edition reminds me of what I used to love about talk radio, in the days of yore before it was consumed by vitriol and whoring. It’s like a home-town radio talk show for the Internet.
To be honest I might not listen to...
December 2010
2 posts
5 Typical Acts of Politeness That are Inefficient... →
I understand the function of politeness and social conventions: how they make people feel at ease, how they provide a familiar, comfortable context for interactions in which all is not known. I like politeness and social conventions for this, but I think that some are inefficient and should be banned. Here are five.
Mister Gorrell undersands the function of politeness and social conventions,...
2 tags
November 2010
4 posts
6 tags
Friday Language Peeve
Hi folks.
This is an Instamatic:
This is Instagram:
Looks to me like the Instagram app and photo sharing service is referencing the look and feel of the Polaroid SX70 and other 1970s-era “instant” cameras — cameras that used self-developing film.
Strangely enough, the Kodak “Instamatic” cameras weren’t even “instant.” They used regular film...
Uncracked
The second new top case in two years for my MacBook. I think that means the Apple Care plan I purchased has officially paid off.
It may also mean that Apple had some serious material quality issues in the early-2008 black MacBooks.
Instapaper included in Apple's Hall of Fame
putthison:
instapaper:
Apple published a special App Store Essentials section this week: the Hall of Fame.
I’m honored that Instapaper’s included. View it in iTunes.
Thanks, Apple!
Congratulations to our first sponsor, Instapaper!
Just as Omnifocus is what got me to buy an iPhone, I think Instapaper is going to sell me an iPad. I already use it constantly on the phone, and a bigger...
5 tags
October 2010
6 posts
No Publicity
Apparently some idiot rock band blocked LA freeway traffic yesterday as a publicity stunt.
No way in hell will I mention their name on the Internet. And neither should you. “Idiot rock band” pretty well covers it.
4 tags
5 tags
September 2010
2 posts
7 tags
August 2010
3 posts
I Go Kosho
It’s high time to revive Kosho, the coolest competitive sport for ex-spies. If I understand correctly it began as a martial art designed for self-defense in partially flooded subway tunnels littered with mattresses.
Like Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner, all you need are some trampolines, a kiddie pool, and the ability to look simultaneously goofy, demented and badass while jumping...
Used Game Buyers Are Not Pirates
It astonishes me that the statement in the title of this piece needs to be made, but apprently it does.
In my earlier piece I tried to focus purely on the ideas at issue in this revival of the great used game debate. But the more I read Tycho’s post the more I think language like this needs to be addressed:
“If I am purchasing games in order to reward their creators, and to ensure...
3 tags
Used Games, Markets and the Importance of an...
On Wednesday Penny Arcade revisited the topic of buying used games. Consistent with his earlier pronouncements, Tycho takes the position that buying used games does nothing to support game creators, and therefore anyone who wishes to support creators will buy only new games.
While this has the benefit of clarity, it is too simplistic. It ignores the nature of markets, and the difference between...
June 2010
2 posts
Another Map to Change the World
This great piece by Peter Barber on Ten Maps that Changed the World (via Kottke) put me in mind of one of my favorite maps. I can’t claim that it should oust any of Barber’s top ten, but it’s a map that should change the world, and maybe someday it will.
It’s Buckmister Fuller’s Dymaxion map. First published as the Air Ocean World Map, Fuller’s map minimizes...
May 2010
3 posts
4 tags
http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=9400 →
And thus Warren Ellis summarizes a dozen different Gundam series in one t-shirt.
(a little bit NSFW)
April 2010
2 posts
4 tags
I’ve been on a serious blues bender lately, and this song by Muddy Waters is in heavy rotation. I’ve been listening to the recording that’s on the Real Folk Blues compilation, but the session in this video is pretty great.
March 2010
7 posts
This clip from a recent episode of The...
