jimray

"After all, he’s been turning out team after team of cocky, whitebread under-achievers for the..."

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:33:19 -0800

“After all, he’s been turning out team after team of cocky, whitebread under-achievers for the last two decades, and it’s time someone showed him how the rest of the country feels about his brand of basketball.”

- From a Craigslist post from someone looking for cheap tickets to the Wisconsin-Duke basketball game so he can moon Coach K. This looks like it could be my first Kickstarter project. [via my awesome baby brother]

Google is deprecating Gears in favor of HTML 5's offline storage support

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:51:31 -0800

Google is deprecating Gears in favor of HTML 5's offline storage support:

They’ll still support Gears so that things don’t break but fully expect developers to move towards HTML 5.

Microsoft is finally telling people to upgrade from IE 6

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:48:38 -0800

Microsoft is finally telling people to upgrade from IE 6:

IE 8 is better than nothin’ I guess…

I love being from North Carolina and the Avett Brothers make me...

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:30:29 -0800

I love being from North Carolina and the Avett Brothers make me love it all the more

"Western Union has the skills and experience that uniquely qualify if for such a role; the public..."

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:36:00 -0800

“Western Union has the skills and experience that uniquely qualify if for such a role; the public need for such a new utility is growing at a rapid rate; the field is already large and the potential tremendous - probably at least as large as any other national utility that exists today.”

- From a memo written in 1965 outlining Western Union’s role as an “information utility company”. The whole thing is a fascinating read, both for its prescience and limited view of data as something scarce, something to be metered. Imagine if the internet worked like your power or water line. Imagine if Western Union had become Google. [via Nicholas Carr]

Congratulations, you two

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:00:12 -0800

Congratulations, you two

Perfect

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:55:32 -0800

Perfect

Carving a turkey

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:42:00 -0800

It’s the big day and some of you out there are going to be carving a turkey, maybe even for the very first time. It can be a daunting task but the right method can make all the difference.

The New York Times put together a great video a few years ago about how to carve your turkey like a butcher, you should probably watch it a few times. Forget the cheesy Norman Rockwell paintings of some WASP-y patriarch carving the bird at the table, this is the way it should be done.

The best part of this carving method is that it cuts the breast across the grain of the meat, which helps to make it more tender. As any fellow Harold McGee devotee will tell you what we carnivores know as meat are the animal’s muscles, which are elongated fibers bundled together — you can see them as the “grain” of the meat. Those fibers work by contracting and relaxing (think about how your bicep works) which makes them surprisingly resilient lengthwise, especially to chewing. Separating groups of fibers is easier than breaking them apart, so cut your meat across the grain in order to chew it with the grain[1].

Regardless of how you choose to cut whatever you decide to eat for dinner, I hope you have a lovely Thanksgiving.

[1] I totally stole that line from McGee’s On Food and Cooking p. 129. You really should own this book if you’re interested in what actually happens when you cook food. I could read the egg chapter hundred times and learn something new every time.

Never forget

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:47:06 -0800

Never forget

The whole exchange that incorporates this chart really is...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:58:06 -0800

The whole exchange that incorporates this chart really is wonderful [via Dave Shea]

Neven's Pie Guy game is great

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:23:06 -0800

And the timing couldn’t be better — when the foodish amongst us are ready for pie and the nerdish amongst us are getting agitated about iPhone web apps.

Go play already!

193% of Americans support some Republican in 2012. Looks like...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:30:19 -0800

193% of Americans support some Republican in 2012. Looks like somebody’s gettin’ fired… [via The Slog]

delgrosso: Back in June of 2009, I loaded a Holga camera with...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:58:46 -0800

delgrosso:

Back in June of 2009, I loaded a Holga camera with a roll of film, mailed it to 12 Twitter followers, and asked them each to take a photo of “summer”

These are the results.

Read all about it here.

This is wonderful.

Do you really need to know more than “Paula Deen hit by a...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:55:59 -0800

Do you really need to know more than “Paula Deen hit by a flying ham” to click play?

If so, it’s worth clicking for Ann Curry’s delivery and the bizarre banter at the end.

Zeldman nails the good and bad of self promotion

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:17:31 -0800

Zeldman nails the good and bad of self promotion:

I think most of us struggle with this somewhat fine line regularly, Jeffrey drops his usual, perfectly consise wisdom

"First off, the author creates a main character which is an empty shell. Her appearance isn’t..."

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:15:28 -0800

“First off, the author creates a main character which is an empty shell. Her appearance isn’t described in detail; that way, any female can slip into it and easily fantasize about being this person.”

- The Oatmeal describes how Twilight works.

Just because it’s easy comedy doesn’t make it less funny.

Bruce Schneier Is Not Afraid

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:40:41 -0800

Bruce Schneier Is Not Afraid:

fraidycats:

Bruce Schneier, back in 2006:

The surest defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to recognize that terrorism is just one of the risks we face, and not a particularly common one at that. And our job is to fight those politicians who use fear as an excuse to take away our liberties and promote security theater that wastes money and doesn’t make us any safer.

"I did this for six years. I still wonder sometimes what, exactly, the fuck I was doing."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:27:15 -0800

“I did this for six years. I still wonder sometimes what, exactly, the fuck I was doing.”

- Moltz, reliving the glory days of C.A.R.S.

Through some (cruel?) twist of fate, John and I have become pals and I don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to tell him how much I loved C.A.R.S. back in the day. There was something so specific yet absolutely perfect about the humor of the site. It appealed to that incredibly narrow slice of people who not only know who Rob Enderle is but why he’s a jackass, poked fun at technology fanboys of all stripes yet still reaffirmed the prejudices of Mac nerds. I’m amazed John put up with it for as long as he did and, honestly, I’m not sure I’d find it as compelling now as I did 8 years ago, but I’m glad it was around when it was.

"If you can’t make money from attention, you should do something else for a living."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:01:46 -0800

“If you can’t make money from attention, you should do something else for a living.”

- Seth Godin says Rupert has it exactly backwards

FOX News announces new zero tolerance policy for on-air mistakes

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:00:26 -0800

FOX News announces new zero tolerance policy for on-air mistakes:

I’m curious if this only applies to their “news” programming or to their “opinion” and “entertainment” footage as well. Presumably, had this measure been in effect a few weeks ago, those responsible for the mixed up footage that Sean Hannity aired would be looking for a new job.