Jason Clarke

Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived - The Oatmeal

Mon, 14 May 2012 20:01:06 -0700

Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived - The Oatmeal

iPad productivity apps - Matt Gemmell

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:30:21 -0700

iPad productivity apps - Matt Gemmell:

People who say the iPad is only a device for consumption are wrong.

thenearsightedmonkey: Isolated bass line for Sabotage— Beastie...

Wed, 09 May 2012 18:31:30 -0700

thenearsightedmonkey:

Isolated bass line for Sabotage— Beastie Boys

Why are we featuring isolated bass lines here at the Near-Sighted Monkey lounge today? Scroll down and get readin it mon

tastefullyoffensive: [via]

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:58:51 -0700

tastefullyoffensive:

[via]

I’ve been trying to consciously slow down when responding...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:28:38 -0700

I’ve been trying to consciously slow down when responding to email, and send higher-quality, more thoughtful responses instead of knee-jerk reactions. Even so, based on this Time Before First Response chart, the people that I correspond with are still slower to reply to my emails than I am to theirs.

Gorgeous old photos of New York City (via [Pics] Amazing...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:02:02 -0700

Gorgeous old photos of New York City (via [Pics] Amazing Never-Seen-Before Photos Of New York City | Fstoppers)

Source code for Apollo and Gemini programs

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:31:04 -0700

Source code for Apollo and Gemini programs:

The guidance computers for the Apollo space program used memory that was literally weaved into a physical rope:

Fun fact: the actual programs in the spacecraft were stored in core rope memory, an ancient memory technology made by (literally) weaving a fabric/rope, where the bits were physical rings of ferrite material.

“Core” memory is resistant to cosmic rays. The state of a core bit will not change when bombarded by radiation in Outer Space. Can’t say the same of solid state memory.

Bully For You | American McCarver. Your Sports Blog.

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:29:05 -0700

Bully For You | American McCarver. Your Sports Blog.:

If you have a child that plays any kind of organized sports, this is a must-read.

The look on a kid’s face when he connects with his first real hit, nails his first real swish, grabs his first real pass — it’s amazing. He may not remember the details, but I’ve gotten to see it dozens of times. It’s joy.

But sports has a dark side. There are winners and losers, determined both by the final score and by what the expectations are. To some people — the Worst Person in the World included — all that matters is being on the right side of that line, no matter where it is. Rules, sportsmanship, common decency — they’re all just things that get in the way. These are tiny little men, in tiny little kingdoms, their sense of self-worth so fragile that a group of 12-year-olds can threaten to take it away from them with a meaningless gesture. They’ll literally do anything to prevent that. This is where bullies come from, where they are made.

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:02:02 -0700

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com:

This TED Talk discusses the way the web is currently being automatically filtered to suit our tastes, and what problems that introduces. Of course, the reason sites do this is that it generates more page views, and therefore more money.

People like information junk food more than information salads, just like with real food. Though I agree with this guy’s notion, it doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of actually happening.

"One reason we struggle with insecurity: we’re comparing our behind-the-scenes to everyone..."

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 18:31:32 -0700

“One reason we struggle with insecurity: we’re comparing our behind-the-scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.”

- Twitter / @stevenfurtick: One reason we struggle w/ …

Vancouver Canucks 2012 Playoffs Preview (by sjam99) Let’s...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:44:38 -0700

Vancouver Canucks 2012 Playoffs Preview (by sjam99)

Let’s get this party started.

Here Comes The Sun; the lost solo guitar (by...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:01:07 -0700

Here Comes The Sun; the lost solo guitar (by lucasbandeira01)

Dhani Harrison (George’s son) with Sir George Martin and his son Giles Martin, listening to the master tracks from Here Comes the Sun.

I wonder just how much magic is lurking in the discarded tracks that didn’t make the final records?

Just another example of how amazing the Beatles really were.

The Dukes Of Hazzard All About Jumps (by djflashflood) Supercut...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:28:45 -0700

The Dukes Of Hazzard All About Jumps (by djflashflood)

Supercut of every single General Lee jump from the first six seasons of the Dukes of Hazzard. Wow, did they ever destroy a lot of Chargers.

Wish they would have showed more “landings”.

Zazzle sucks

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:13:25 -0700

Zazzle sucks:

Marco Arment of Instapaper fame created a fun mug on Zazzle, imitating a typical one-star review he’s received on the iOS app store. It’s content he wrote himself, and there are no copyrighted images being used. And yet:

After receiving 116 orders for these mugs today, Zazzle canceled all of them, telling every customer (but not me, yet) that it’s an acceptable-use violation: “Design contains an image or text that may be subject to copyright.”

As of this writing, the mug is still for sale, and they haven’t contacted Marco about the supposed copyright issue. This smells to me like they simply didn’t want to fill the 116 orders for mugs with a 50% off coupon they are offering today.

Adding insult to injury is that it’s going to take them 7-10 business days to return my money now that they’ve decided not to sell me the item that is still showing as for sale on their site.

Here’s my review of Zazzle:

Scummy ★☆☆☆☆
by jasonclarke

Can't believe I tried to buy something from these jokers. I really liked the idea behind this mug, and was looking forward to using it every day. Instead, I get a horrible customer service experience, and have to wait to have my money returned. Do not recommend.

(via Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses -...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:30:10 -0700

(via Google Begins Testing Its Augmented Reality Glasses - NYTimes.com)

I love the idea of Google’s Augmented Reality Glasses¹, but if they look like anything but real glasses, it’ll never work.

I’m concerned about the privacy issues, particularly since they’re being developed by Google. ↩

Messages beta (iChat) stuck dock notification workaround

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:30:15 -0700

If you’re using the Messages beta from the Mountain Lion sneak peek, you may have run into this fairly annoying problem: the red notification number on Messages’ dock icon gets stuck even when there are no unread messages waiting.

One fix for this is to completely reinstall Messages, but that forces a reboot of your system. And it turns out that’s not necessary. A simple restart of your dock is all that’s needed.

You may find that you need to shut down Messages first, but in my case I found that I could leave it running and restarting the dock would still fix the issue.

To restart the dock, simply open a Terminal window, and type:

killall Dock

(Note that this is a case-sensitive command.) Once you hit enter, your dock will briefly disappear, and once it reappears the nuisance unread message notification should be gone.

Flight 1549 3D Reconstruction, Hudson River Ditching Jan...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:01:02 -0700

Flight 1549 3D Reconstruction, Hudson River Ditching Jan 15, 2009 (by exosphere3d)

They kept trying to relight the engines the whole time, carried on multiple concurrent conversations, and with about 20 seconds to go before impact, Captain Sully asks the first officer, “Got any ideas?”, and the FO replies, “Actually not.”

Here’s an alternative version that focuses on the various tower communications going on behind the scenes.

Amazing.

How does a horn make things louder?

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:30:43 -0700

How does a horn make things louder?:

As sound pressure waves move down the horn, the gradually widening shape of the horn (for loudest results, an exponential curve) allows the small amount of higher-pressure air next to the driver to transfer its energy to a large amount of lower-pressure air. The end result is that more of the energy of the driver ends up as sound waves.

I’ve often wondered, and now I know.

The Newsroom Season 1: “Changed Man” Trailer (by...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:57:38 -0700

The Newsroom Season 1: “Changed Man” Trailer (by HBO)

I can already tell that Aaron Sorkin’s new show, The Newsroom is going to be my new favourite show.

'A Test You Need to Fail': A Teacher's Open Letter to Her 8th Grade Students | Common Dreams

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:00:05 -0700

'A Test You Need to Fail': A Teacher's Open Letter to Her 8th Grade Students | Common Dreams:

Because what I hadn’t known—this is my first time grading this exam—was that it doesn’t matter how well you write, or what you think. Here we spent the year reading books and emulating great writers, constructing leads that would make everyone want to read our work, developing a voice that would engage our readers, using our imaginations to make our work unique and important, and, most of all, being honest. And none of that matters. All that matters, it turns out, is that you cite two facts from the reading material in every answer. That gives you full credit. You can compose a “Gettysburg Address” for the 21st century on the apportioned lines in your test booklet, but if you’ve provided only one fact from the text you read in preparation, then you will earn only half credit. In your constructed response—no matter how well written, correct, intelligent, noble, beautiful, and meaningful it is—if you’ve not collected any specific facts from the provided readings (even if you happen to know more information about the chosen topic than the readings provide), then you will get a zero.

Crushing indictment of the public education system in the US, by a teacher with 30 years of experience. Harrowing.