The Jeblog

Moving

2008-10-29T00:28:00.002-05:00

I've decided that (for now) I'm moving to Tumblr, and (for probably forever) moving away from Blogger. Tumblr just works better for me.

As such, I'm moving this blog to oldblog.jebdm.net and my new one to blog.jebdm.net. Hopefully, that won't create too much confusion.

I may migrate some of my posts at some point (with revisions, yippee!) Hopefully there's some automated way to do this.

Metablog: Blogging Software

2008-10-10T12:15:00.003-05:00

I'm dissatisfied with the state of blogging software. Sure, it's good, and for some people it may even be perfect. But I'm looking for something rather specific, so I'm beginning to think I may need to roll my own.

The closest thing I've found so far is Tumblr. Tumblr has been described as "blogging lite"- it makes everything quick and easy, reducing the emphasis on traditional short-article blog posts by making it easy (and with the built-in themes, attractive and un-clunky) to post things like images, quotes, transcripts, and links. The main problem I have with Tumblr is that it is fixed in to those categories; there's no way (other than crude hacks) to add other varieties of posts. This functionality seems relatively easy to add, so I'm not sure why it's not avaliable.

Besides the categories issue, the other main problem I have with Tumblr is the lack of power in general. I don't blame this on Tumblr; power would be rather contrary to it's purpose. But I want more out of my blog. I want to be able to customize my layout to an extreme; I want it to be modular; I want to show different views of my content; I want "static" pages; I want more control over the way that comments display on my site (though the Disqus comment system seems pretty cool); I want, in short, more.

Nonetheless, I'm going to continue using Tumblr for a week or two, just to get a better feel of it. I'll post "real" content here still (that is, original content, not just links, etc.) and link to it from there. In the mean time, I guess I should put together a list of the features I want and either search harder or get programming.

Link to my Tumblr blog

2008-10-05T12:28:00.003-05:00

Arthemia Premium by Colorlabs Project - Though expensive, it's a really cool layout. It's a good example of the progress blogs, and the internet in general, have made.
McSweeney's Internet Tendency: A Populist's Speech for the Patriotic Masses.
Chronological strata filing@Everything2.com - Now I have a fancy name to go along with my excuses!
Grooming: Introduction to traditional wetshaving - I haven't decdied if it's worth getting into this. It might be one of those things where people swear by it, but only because it's odd/fancy/whatever, but who knows.
Colorful Art Using 'Processing' - Some beautiful videos. I downloaded Processing the other day, but I haven't played around much with it. I wonder if it has much potential for creating games?
Detention Report
Flickr: Panda - RAINBOW HURLING PANDA OF AWESOMENESS!!! (Just look.)
Stress: Portrait of a Killer » National Geographic Documentary with Robert Sapolsky (Stanford University)

The Best of Boing Boing - I find a lot of good stuff on Boing Boing. I'm not sure whether to leave it out (and just tell you to read it directly), to make a regular, separate link list, or what. I'm going to track how much I post from them for a bit and see what seems best.

Links for 1 October 2008

2008-10-01T22:05:00.002-05:00

Quick Links

2008-09-27T18:10:00.005-05:00

Beware the Button Police - University of Illinois bans employees (including professors) from expressing their affiliation with a political party.
How a $2 toy ball saved a little girl's life - I think I'd be a little freaked out.
Cleantech 100
the Graveyard. - A beautiful game (though maybe I should it "interactive art"?)
In Quotes - A cool site from Google where you can search for a term and see quotes from different politicians about it.
Project 10¹⁰⁰ - A cool project from Google inviting people to submit ideas to help make the world better a better place— with the help of $10 million from Google.
Wondermark #446; In which a Toy prevents against Neglect
Company will apply green spraypaint to dead brown lawns of foreclosed homes - Dave Barry should've patented the technique.

Links for 27 September 2008

2008-09-27T12:05:00.002-05:00

I could drive one of these.
Mystery artist etches drawings on residents' milk bottles
Salvador DaBot, the portraitist robot
I'm not sure what this is, but it could be good.
The School of Life - an interesting concept, and a well-designed website!
Today (well, September 23) is Earth Overshoot Day
Gut Decisions May Not Be Smart

Links for 26 September 2008

2008-09-25T22:52:00.005-05:00

Use the Best Avaliable Ampersand
5 Unusual Ways to Achieve Super Quality Sleep
Light Box
Architectural Gem of the Day: Casa Tolo, Portugal
Meet Dave, the Man Who Never Takes Out the Trash
The Museum of Bad Art
Listen to Yourself - If virus-writers were a little more thoughtful, maybe people wouldn't mind as much.
16 Incredibly Colorful Bridges - I find myself posting a lot of COLOURlovers features, huh?
Immortal McHorror burger is 12 years old, looks just like new
Chinese schoolgirl flips off old begging woman
monkey's butt is red
Taxibus
Book Stacks That Tell Stories
The Problem with Audience Participation
Breast Milk Ice Cream?
Eco-Buyer Beware: Green Can Be Decieving

Oddly Enough?

2008-09-24T23:39:00.003-05:00

While this was clearly a technical glitch, it made me giggle. ("Oddly Enough" usually features articles such as "Lamb-eating sea eagles upset Scottish farmers" and "Huge pig sent to stud after holding woman hostage".)

Links for 25 September 2008

2008-09-24T20:50:00.003-05:00

Experience Wii - just keep watching
The Fell Types and Some Revival Fonts
Digsby = IM + Email + Social Networks - highly recommended, especially with the new efficiency update
The best magazine covers of 2008 - Out of these, my favorite is New York for June 30, but I've definitely seen some better magazine covers this year (I do periodicals at my college library). Maybe I'll post some pics, though I guess I'm just kidding myself.
Russian Town Puts Giant Smiley On Google Maps
The Quote Mine Project: Or, Lies, Damned Lies and Quote Mines - some epic fails via creationists
The Subprime Primer - the crisis in two minutes— with stick figures!
What Part of Legal Immigration Don't You Understand?

Links for 23 September

2008-09-21T20:15:00.004-05:00

Sorry about the lack of original content lately; I'm plowing through backed-up RSS feeds (the source of these links), working a lot, and trying to organize my life. A site redesign is coming soon (though I may not use Blogger; what I want to do might require a custom platform) as well as some essays, etc. Also, if you haven't noticed, the vast majority of things I've posted have been links to multimedia; in other words, not long writings and such. That's because I'm just pushing anything that's going to take me more than ten minutes into Read it Later.

Eclectic Color Roundup
The rock art that redraws our history
3rings: A Product Blog for Architecture + Design
FLOW (haven't seen it, but am planning to)
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School
Dr Mark Miodownik - How to Make The Perfect Cup Of Coffee
25 Beautiful Macro Photography Shots
How Star Wars Changed the World
Mad Men Illustrated (I haven't seen the show, but the images are great)
Time of My Life - 17 Years of Self Portraits
Word Clock - Fairly impractical, but a really cool design nonetheless.
Footnotes, Endnotes, and Parentheticals That Cost Me Marks on My Thesis.
How to Cheat at Everything
The Most Alien-Looking Place on Earth

The Best of Boing Boing

2008-09-20T23:45:00.009-05:00

You know the 20/80 rule? It seems that it applies to Boing Boing too. I was going through my backlog of Boing Boing posts and picking out my favorites, and I found 44 out of 220 that I thought were worth posting— exactly 20%. The first 35 are quick things, mainly images and short pieces, while the last nine are longer text, audio, and video.

Sidewise Skyscraper Links

2008-09-18T01:08:00.004-05:00

How to Stop Once You've Already Popped

2008-09-18T00:41:00.003-05:00

If you, like me, sometimes have difficulty setting down a can of Pringles (or a box of cookies, or a bag of candy, or a bottle of soda), try this: grab a "last bite" (but don't put it in your mouth), put the rest away, and then eat.

Obviously not foolproof, but the shame of having to get it out again is usually enough.

Quote/Mission Statement

2008-09-17T00:29:00.000-05:00

“I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself.” - Michel de Montaigne

Quicklinks

2008-09-14T14:22:00.007-05:00

Neat Things Roundup

2008-09-14T01:59:00.002-05:00

Solitary Vision
Paper Clips to Tell How I Feel
Llamadas: mobile+human pay phone
How I Stole Someone's Identity
Stunning illustrated typography on dark backgrounds, and the accompanying
Dark illustration inspiration
Type and Media Masters
An Open Letter to Teachers
The Curious World of the Last Stop (a little long, but at least worth skimming)
25 Most Colorful Lakes on Earth
Get A Free Haircut - Fashion Styling 2.0 - Crowd-Sourced Hairstyling
'bending space': photography of georges rousse

Widgets

2008-09-13T19:29:00.003-05:00

I don't like widgets. As a concept, they're okay— little chunks of embeddable content can often be useful. Some of these even turn out to be really good ideas; for instance, YouTube videos, maps, IM status buttons, and Twitter tickers.

However, good ideas are not the norm. Many widgets are simply stylized news feeds. These are good for the content creators, of course, but why anyone would want to put a ticker with someone else's brand and someone else's content on their site is a mystery to me. They clash and nobody's uses them anyways. It seems kind of Geocities-ish to me, though I guess that could explain the appeal.

But sometimes widgets go beyond useless and into the realm of annoying. Anyone who's been on Facebook in the last year or so knows all about these; they plague many profiles in the form of "Top Friends" and "wat kinda lvr r u" apps. To be fair, these seem to be mostly limited to social networking sites, but they have been popping up elsewhere more and more lately.

Overall, I guess I have no problem with widgets, in the same sense that I have no problem with knick-knacks or makeup. It's all a matter of how you use them.

Seth Godin: "Ads are the new online tip jar"

2008-09-13T19:18:00.003-05:00

The idea here is that, if you like some content, it'd be nice to repay the author by clicking an ad (as they are likely his/her main source of revenue). Note, however, that it's important that you actually at least consider the product which the advertiser is offering. Otherwise, while you are helping out the content creators in the short-term, you are hurting them long-term by devaluing ad click-thrus. If people only click ads to thank creators, ads don't do advertisers any good.

(I wonder if I have to remove this post if I start offering advertising space?)

Link: Ads are the new online tip jar

Quick Links

2008-09-13T16:25:00.002-05:00

I've realized that I've been putting perhaps too much into my link roundups, so I'm going to try to separate them a bit. I'll have some post (like this one) with just links, mostly of light stuff- images, etc.; I'll have some with a few brief summaries; and the items which I was writing paragraphs about I'll put in separate posts. So, here are some pretty pictures/funnies:

Link Roundup

2008-09-09T18:28:00.005-05:00

Graphical visualization of text similarities in essays in a book - Data visualizations intrigue me. With the vast amount of information we have available, we need to find new ways of looking at and processing it. This one does a good job, besides being pleasing to the eye.
Politics 2.0: Hack the Vote - The idea of this article (though maybe not the exact way it's presented) is spot-on. I really think that there are enough people out there who would like to vote for an independent (or at least a non-Democratic/Republican) to make it viable for them to win, if those voters would stop worrying about "wasting" their vote.
Unnatural Selection - A cool micro-biography of Nikolai Vavilov. It's interesting to look at the ways that history, politics, and culture have limited (and accelerated) the progress of science and technology.
Algebra - it's everywhere - I think it's probably a good thing to make it "standard" for algebra to be taught in 8th grade. There will, of course, be people ahead of and behind the curve, who should be pushed further or given extra time/tutoring. (In fact, honestly, I think that algebra should be taught much earlier. Arithmetic without algebra is like knowing how to drive without knowing how to get anywhere.)
Bottled Water Demand May Be Declining - I've always thought that buying water bottles was a bit stupid if you have access to a tap, especially if you have a filter (sorry, Mom), so I'm glad to see that people are starting to figure it out. Maybe the whole Nalgene bottle ordeal will help the situation out
35 of the Most Unique & Creative Sofa Designs - A neat gallery. I especially liked the slinky couch. I wonder how hard it would be to build one.
Why ban poems about knives? - O, bureaucracy and overprotectionism! It seems fairly obvious to me that the less you expose your kids to, the less they'll be able to handle later. Obviously, there are limits on this (you don't show your two-year-old Saw) but people tend to take things too far.
Eating Bugs - This is an oldish article (I remember reading it at the doctor's office a while back) but it presents an interesting idea. What if peoples' aversion to eating bugs was entirely social? Could the next generation be raised entomophagous?
Save the planet by cutting down on meat? That's just a load of bull - While London's mayor is probably correct when he says that the root cause of most environmental problems is overpopulation, his point is rather moot— there is very little that the those who hear the UN's advice can do to reduce world population, but everyone is capable of cutting out a serving of meat per day (assuming they eat meat). I would hope for a little better than this petty reactionism from an important politician, but then again, he is a mayor.
And finally, a laugh: Wondermark #441; In which Politics exhilarate

Link Roundup 2

2008-09-08T17:15:00.004-05:00

Saving the Day: Save Systems in Games - I agree with the author completely; games should allow a complete save at any point (preferably without checkpoints) unless the gameplay requires otherwise, in which case there should always be at least a "save and quit" or "save token" option.
tiny houses - small dwellings of every shape and size - A beautiful gallery. I wouldn't mind living in one of these, at least for a while— especially the zeroHouse.
The vanishing personal site - I don't like this "outsourcing", or at least the way that it's basically mandated for certain types of social interaction to take place. I wish there was a more open social networking system which would allow you to link up these different services all on one site, which you could either host yourself or could host on a site like Facebook.
Thinking People Eat Too Much: Intellectual Work Found To Induce Excessive Calorie Intake - AHA! SIMON'S ROCK, I BLAME YOU!
What Your Global Neighbors Are Buying - A cool map which depicts various categories of consumer spending levels in 2007 by resizing countries.
Top 5 MD Myths, Busted. - I love it when people get pissed off.
Klein Calls Blogger to Respond to Criticism - I see these kinds of things as the first steps towards truly utilizing the internet for citizen participation and government accountabilty. What if more politicians read was written about them on the WWW?
Neanderthals Not Dumb, but Made Dull Gadgets - This article seems to be pretty fail to me. For instance, while this quote is on the spot, it has nothing to do with the findings of the study: "We've got to stop thinking of our being the only species of humans on this planet as our right, or as fate. Given different circumstances, perhaps Neanderthals would have gone on to colonize the world." Also, this seems self-contradictory: "The superiority of blades has long been seen as evidence of human superiority. But according to Eren's team, blades had only one advantage: they can be easily attached to shafts." Clearly, blades were superior: spears are a big deal.
Tired of Waiting for Efficiency - Excellent points here. People often forget that making twenty 1% improvements (each over the original) is equivalent to making one 20% improvement, and that often even a 1% increase is really helpful. Maybe it has something to do with the way that we interpret percentages. And finally...
Just right for the garden: a mini-cow

I should really credit these links, but unfortunately I'm working from a backlog of saved URLs and as such I'm not sure where a lot of these came from. Most I either came upon directly (through RSS feeds) or I found on Polymeme.

I need to find a better way of posting these. I'd like to just use Google Reader's share feature, but I don't just want to output an RSS feed. Perhaps I'll write a little script to automatically merge that feed into my blog to make my life easier.

Link Roundup

2008-09-07T20:25:00.003-05:00

RCA: The Future of Money - A couple of beautiful projects, worth a look.
Era of Scientific Secrecy Near End - After doing a research internship this summer, I definitely agree with the sentiments in this article; science should be a more open process, especially in regards to the way the peer-review system works. After all, the World Wide Web was created mainly for scientists; why aren't they taking advantage of it?
A blogger takes office in Malaysia - I'm glad to see this, and hope to see more like it in the future. The internet age is enabling previous unelectables to have a chance at holding public office. More on this later.
Fall Down, Go Boom - The effect of play is something that seems vitally important to the development of children, but it's just now being studied scientifically. More on this as well.
He's giving you access, one document at a time - This seems pretty obvious; how are we supposed to follow the law if we can't afford to look at it? Also, if the government holds a copyright on something, and we live in a democracy, then...
Death of the Credit Card Economy - Good riddance.
In tough times, some families finding private school tuition too much - Not exactly huge news here, but I wonder what impact this will have on public school education.
Faber Finds generative book covers - while I wouldn't consider these "beautiful", per se, the process described here is interesting. It's similar to automated music composition; the product isn't the greatest, but it's really neat conceptually.
Chalk and talk ‘A Recent History of Writing & Drawing’ at the ICA - I'd like the chalkboard thing; a good example of a tangible interface (potentially, at least)
Logic tells us we’re Simpsons not Spocks - A good look at the way the term "logical" is looked at and the different ways it can be applied. Also more on this later.
Atheist Finds Nothing in Toast - Just funny.

Quick Update

2008-09-07T02:16:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the break (I know you missed me, right?); I've been busy with the transition into the new semester. I'm not going to be posting much over the next few weeks, but not because I won't be writing. For the benefit of my own sanity and of yours, I've decided that I'm going to wait two weeks before posting anything I've written (as long as it isn't time-sensitive) so that I can edit it a bit more and have a steady queue of stuff to publish. Thus, you won't be seeing much for a little bit as I build up the queue.

Also, I'm working on putting together a better design for this site, including both better visual appeal and better information organization. I'd like to split the blog into a few little "streams", each covering different topics/types of content (link roundups, essays, reviews, etc.), but I'm not quite sure yet how I'm going to do it.

So, until my next post-
Jebadiah Moore

Recommendation: Polymeme

2008-08-23T06:01:00.005-05:00

The last few links come courtesy of Polymeme, which I highly recommend. It's not a replacement for reading individual blogs or for sites like Digg and Reddit, but it's an excellent supplement-- the content is different than the more socialy-driven sites, and of course if you're really interested in a particular blog, you should continue to subscribe to it directly.

Polymeme excells at filtering through "expert" blogs and pulling out the content that a more general audience is likely to want to see. In fact, I may remove a few feeds from my reader since Polymeme seems to be linking to the articles I would've read. And of the content it's shown me which I wouldn't've seen otherwise, I was interested in over half, a good deal more than almost any other feed on my list. It's at the very least worth a try. You'll be hooked.

NEWSFLASH: AMERICANS LIKE OUTER SPACE!

2008-08-23T05:59:00.001-05:00

McCain and Obama offer their statements about their plans for the space program. (Notice the similarities.)

I've always felt that NASA was one of the less necessary of the governments' expenditures, especially given it's huge cost. It seems like it's primarily a leftover from a Cold War-era effort to "establish the U.S. dominance in science and technology" (from McCain's statement), a good example of government playing the government game rather than doing it's job.

I'd like to see a candidate who promised to cut government spending on things like the space program in order to finance things like fighting poverty, drug research, and fixing the economy.