NYT snark
'Public Option' Keeps Toehold in Senate Deal on Health Bill:
The fight over the public plan has never been about its short-term impact. Opponents fear it will lead down a slippery slope to a fully government-run, single-payer health system like those in many European countries.
Many of the most ardent supporters hope that it will lead down a slippery slope to a fully government-run, single-payer health system like those in many European countries.
Posted at 10:35
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I love our new clients
FanChatter is live with our new clients, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and their fans are pretty awesome.
Posted at 15:11
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OMG
Happy 4th of July everyone. I made you a LOLBuilding.
Posted at 17:53
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Senuti goes payware I share Sho Fukamachi's sentiment:
For what it's worth, Sho has a copy of the last GPL'ed version of Senuti, 0.50.2. It still works for the moment.
Formerly GPL'd program Senuti (used for sucking music off of an iPod - it's "iTunes" backwards) has gone payware.
This pisses me off, yes - but it's not even really anything to do with Senuti. It's the fact that I can't copy songs off MY FUCKING IPOD that I OWN. While there was a free program that worked so well, it was easier to ignore. Now that program demands payment and Apple's contempt for its paying customers is rubbed in my face.
Posted at 20:01
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Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat
Best. Keyboard cat. video. ever.
Posted at 07:35
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Announcing VeloTweets, Pulse of the Peloton What's Different about VeloTweets?
We wanted to make VeloTweets different than the other subject matter aggregators out there. We wanted a hook that would combine the immediacy of Twitter with pro cycling in a compelling way.
Here's what we came up with.
First, we focused on who to include. Instead of everyone who's talking about cycling, this contains only pro cyclists (and a few others associated with the sport, like managers or team mechanics).
Second, we extended the data that is given to us by Twitter. We can enter every cyclist's real name, nationality, and team, as well as expanded biographical data (here's Lance Armstrong's profile for instance).
Third, we collected cycling events in a calendar that's displayed on the site, and added a Message of the Day that's tuned to what's happening in the racing world each day.
Forth, we brought in photos from the tweets (only TwitPic is supported right now). We store references to the photos in our DB so we can show the latest photos, along with photos that individuals have posted, and all of them. This turns out to be really cool because where else are you going to see photos like this one as they happen?
After all this we still weren't totally satisfied with what we'd come up with, because it still looked too much like Twitter (long list of messages in reverse chronological order). Then Jamie came up with the idea of only displaying each cyclist's most recent tweet in a grid. We really like how this works because people who tweet a lot (like Lance) don't dominate the page. It gives you an overview of what the whole peloton is talking about without letting a few people dominate it.
Developing for Twitter
I've been doing a number of Twitter-related projects lately. The first was Twistr, which combines Twitter and Flickr LOLcat style for occasionally amusing results. Then Barry Hess and I built Follow Cost, which tells you how much someone tweets before you follow them. I created a prototype for FanChatter's next product based on Twitter conversation aggregation. Now comes VeloTweets and another project that's not public yet.
I really enjoy working with the Twitter APIs. It's fun to develop applications that utilize the platform that the Twitter folks have built.
On that front, I recently received a copy of Twitter API: Up and Running (Follow Cost is mentioned on page 70!) which I will give a full review to soon. You don't need a book on the Twitter API to develop applications for it, but it does provide some ideas and a useful reference, as well as details on some interesting aspects of Twitter (for example, I did not know that direct messages disappear if they are deleted by either party.).
I'm pleased to announce VeloTweets, the pulse of the peloton, a curated collection of professional cycling Twitter activity. The idea and driving force came from Jamie Thingelstad. I did most of the development, and Norm Orstad designed the site. Chris Hatch helped a lot on the back end, providing a list of cyclists on Twitter, filling out profiles and affiliations, and doing research.
Posted at 13:20
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Puff
Posted at 12:12
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Portrait Here's a sneak peak.
(I am apparently a "hip program writer" :)
Kate Sommers took photos for me and Jenny today.
Posted at 20:22
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Oh yeah!
Posted at 12:37
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Winter Bike Upgrade Project My friend Garrick hooked me up
with a sweet deal on components and helped me (read: I helped hold stuff)
perform the upgrades over the course of two Saturdays in January.
I rode my bike over to Garrick's when it was -11° F out. Brrr!
We planned to install:
Before:
The fenders presented the biggest problem (hah, I thought they would be
easy).
The front mounting bracket did not match up with the hole in the fork.
Fortunately Garrick has an insane amount of tools including a shop drill,
so we were able to drill a new hole (photo by Garrick).
The whole process of putting on the fenders took about 3 hours, so we
called it a day.
The next weekend we finished the job. Putting on the handle bars was the
biggest part because we had to run two new cables. After that, getting the
lights and kickstand on was a snap, and we were done!
After:
So, how is it?
I like it! The fenders are great for keeping the slush off. The new
handlebars probably need to be a bit higher but they are much more
comfortable and a lot easier to ride with gloves.
More photos of the bike upgrade
by me and
by
Garrick.
One of my goals for this winter is to ride my bike to work. In late
November, I realized this was not going to happen without some upgrades
to my bike.
Posted at 21:00
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Viva la revolucion!
This kitty just made me think of Kruschev pounding his shoe at the UN, so
it required re-captioning.
I made a LOL:
Posted at 10:34
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How I Stumped Christian Lander Christian's talk about his extremely fast rise to quasi-fame and the
inspiration for his book was really interesting. He's a genuinely
hilarious person. The UMN Bookstore recorded it as a podcast, so
you listen to it if you're
interested (AAC).
He typically stays "in character" on the site, so I really enjoyed hearing
him talk about some of his experiences that backstop the SWPL
entires, as well as his more philosophical take on what the site is
trying to say.
After talking about that for a while, he did a reading. Since he'd just
done an interview with MPR, he read the entry on
Public
Radio.
This got me wondering about the conflict we're having between MPR and the
St. Paul LRT line. What happens when Public Radio conflicts with Public
Transportation That Is Not A Bus (#147)?
So, I asked that in the Q&A.
"Impossible! How could that happen? What?! Are they fighting buses? This
is not happening!" Then he put his head down for several seconds.
It was hilarious.
So anyway, he signed my book "Fuck NPR".
EPIC WIN!
I've been a fan of Stuff White People
Like ever since my friend Joey
linked to
it last February so when I saw that SWPL author Christian Lander was
coming to Minneapolis I decided to go (seriously, though, Christian, why
save MPLS for the third leg of the tour? This is, like, the whitest place
on earth).
Posted at 20:37
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Perry Bible Fellowship I'm late to the party on this, but Perry Bible
Fellowship is hilarious. I love the twisted sense of humor.
Here's a few of my favorites:
This strip is basically over, but there's a ton of laughs in the archives
and a compendium is coming out in
February.
Posted at 12:20
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2008 Books In 2008, I read 41 books.
Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up, John Allen Paulos
30 Days of Night, Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith
Post Office, Charles Bukowski
The Gods Themselves, Issac Asimov
Night Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, Richard Rhodes
The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (and Their Employees), Patrick Lencioni
Babel-17, Samuel R. Delany
Founders at Work, Jessica Livingston
Lucky or Smart? Secrets to an Entrepreneurial Life, Bo Peabody
Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
Silas Marner, George Eliot
Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
The First Salute, Barbara Tuchman
Women, Charles Bukowski
O Pioneers!, Willa Cather
Kidnapped, Robert Louis Stevenson
The Chosen, Chaim Potok
The World Without Us, Alan Weisman
The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American Colonies, 1760-1785, Don Cook
Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed? (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries), Jared Bernstein
Brain Rules, John J. Medina
Second Contact, Mike Resnick
The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner
Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering, Robert L. Glass
Beggars in Spain, Nancy Kress
Stumbling on Happiness, Daniel Gilbert
Magical Thinking, Augusten Burroughs
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles C. Mann
Behold the Man, Michael Moorcock
Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion Year History of the Human Body, Neil Shubin
The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way, Bill Bryson
Choosing the Right Pond: Human Behavior and the Quest for Status, Robert H. Frank
Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper, Diablo Cody
Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball
Revelation Space, Alastair Reynolds
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" Adventures of a Curious Character, Richard P. Feynman
Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter
Descartes' Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human, Paul Bloom
Since 2006 I have kept track of every book I've read (this only counts books I've completely read, so many technology and reference books do not make the cut). My list from 2007 is here and I've just posted my list for 2006. As before, the fact that I read the book does not constitute endorsement of it.
Posted at 11:47
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2006 Books For those interested in my taste in books, you may want to check out my Good Reads profile.
Camp Concentation, Thomas Disch
Profiles of Courage, John F. Kennedy
Ice Station Zebra, Alistair MacLean
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
A Military History of Sovereign Hawai'i, Neil Bernard Dukas
The Emperor of Wine: The Rise of Robert M. Parker, Jr. and the Reign of American Taste Elin McCoy
Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy, Lindsay Moran
Moneyball, Michael Lewis
Spin, Robert Charles Wilson
V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and David Lloyd
Tortilla Curtain, T.C. Boyle
Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Aproach to Web Usability (1st edition), Steve Krug
Pandora's Star, Peter F. Hamilton
Shadow Cities, Robert Neuwirth
Real World Web Services, Will Iverson
A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
The White Mountains, John Christopher
The City of Gold and Lead, John Christopher
The Pool of Fire, John Christopher
Suburban Nation, Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck
Superman: Red Son, Mark Miller
Misquoting Jesus, Bart D. Ehrman
Learning the World, Ken MacLeod
Stiff, Mary Roach
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford
The Ghost Brigades, John Scalzi
Judas Unchained, Peter F. Hamilton
Fallen Dragon, Peter F. Hamilton
Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
The Truth About Dogs, Sephen Budiansky
Information Dashboard Design, Stephen Few
Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
The Know-It-All, A.J. Jacobs
Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman
Bicycle Magazine's Bicycle commuting Made Easy
Confessions of a Tax Collector, Richard Yancy
Forty Signs of Rain, Kim Stanley Robinson
Fifty Degrees Below, Kim Stanley Robinson
Speed of Dark, Elizabeth Moon
The Prestige, Christopher Priest
Wind, Sand and Stars, Antoine De Saint Exupery
The Inverted World, Christopher Priest
Bios, Robert Charles Wilson
The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan
A Good Hard Kick in the Ass: Basic Training for Entrepreneurs, Rob Adams
City of Truth, James Morrow
Blind Lake, Robert Charles Wilson
Polaris, Jack McDevitt
End of an Era, Robert J. Sawyer
Perdido Street Sation, China Mieville
Newton's Wake, Ken MacLeod
Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck
A Scanner Darkly, Philip K. Dick
Inspired by Kevin Drum, in 2006 I began recording all the books that I read that year. However, I did not post my list from 2006. Here it is! In 2006, I read 54 books -- more than one a week!
Posted at 11:43
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