Notebook Heavy

Take a Rest

kenstone — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:54:46 +0000

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. John Lubbock

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – Book Suggestion

kenstone — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:32:43 +0000

Aside from children’s books like Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, it’s rare for me to read a book quickly. I’m more of an ambler, which did me no good in high-school English. Anything over 50 pages and I’ll get back to you in a week or more. Programmers and non-programmers alike will love this book, written by Robin Sloan, an ex-Silicon Valley geek who took his techie knowledge and wrote Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour [...]

Welcome to the Cotton Bureau

kenstone — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:31:41 +0000

If you’re good with a pencil and fancy yourself a graphic designer, but you’ve only worked on your uncle’s company logo, the Cotton Bureau is here to give you the boost you need to jump-start your T-shirt designing career. You’ve got the artistic streak, they’ve got the know-how and they’re willing to share. Created by the appropriately named United Pixelworkers, the Cotton Bureau offers you the opportunity to submit your custom T-shirt design to be [...]

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kenstone — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:26:34 +0000

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Coffee Science with Harold McGee

kenstone — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:17:00 +0000

You know who Harold McGee is, right? No? Listen, if you’re an engineering type, like cooking food, and don’t know who ‘ol Harold is, you need to stop now, head over to Amazon and pick up his bible, “On Food and Cooking“. If you’re the type that needs celebrity endorsement, Alton Brown lists On Food and Cooking as one of his reference guides. In this video, Mr. McGee shows how to do a science in [...]

From Lager to Stout – Living Letter Press

kenstone — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:31:25 +0000

This weekend at my local farmers market, I strolled along as I always do, pushing my daughter in the stroller, trying to avoid the smell of patchouli, when I finally found something that really spoke to me. In between folks selling artisanal cheese and high-end dog treats, I found this: You’re looking at a poster made from wood-cut type and two single colors blended in a single run on a Vandercook proof press. Turns out, [...]

Old Palette = Herb Garden

kenstone — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:30:04 +0000

Fancy yourself handy? With a green thumb? In need of some fresh herbs for the summer? This might just be a project to satisfy all three of those criteria: The DIY Palette Herb Garden. Paula Jones at her blog bell’alimento shows a little of her project to convert an old palette that was just laying around into something useful. If you live in an apartment with little balcony space, this might be a good solution [...]

Big Lebowski Movie Print

kenstone — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:38:35 +0000

Phone’s ringing dude. You hear that? It’s your internal decorator telling you to check out these prints by French graphic designer Alizée Lafon. She takes iconic items from a movie or TV show, boils them down to their essence and assembles them into ordered, relevant imagery. This graphic design project is pretty sweet and would be a great gift idea for someone who’s a fan of The Big Lebowski, Mad Men, James Bond, or Pulp Fiction. [...]

Sriracha Taste Test

kenstone — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:30:58 +0000

Rooster sauce. The ketchup of a new generation. When I was growing up, there was no mention of this condiment of the east and it wasn’t until well after I graduated college that I purchased my first bottle. Now I put it on so many different foods whenever I need a boost of flavor and heat. Sriracha is gaining in popularity as evidenced by the Lays new flavor contest which included a sriracha flavored finalist [...]

Quartersawn Boards from Trees

kenstone — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:30:04 +0000

Some of you may know that I’m an amateur woodworker. Back before my first daughter was born, I built my fair share of furniture. In fact, I’m writing these words while sitting at the ten person, solid walnut dining table I built five years ago. I got seriously involved in woodworking ten years ago when I was single and had a huge, empty basement just begging for some action. I think programmers develop (see what [...]

SimpleCircuits

kenstone — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:30:25 +0000

There’s a brand new project over on Kickstarter aimed at geeks who love to play with circuits but hate the annoyance of breadboards. I do not yearn for a replay of my days in engineering school debugging a breadboard circuit. It’s called SimpleCircuits. They’ve got a ton of different simple circuit modules ready and looks like an awesome project. If you’ve got kids, this might be a great way to teach them about basic circuit [...]

Thirty-Thirty Coffee

kenstone — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:30:15 +0000

One day in the not too distant past, I whined on Twitter that I needed some more coffee. Lucky for me, my neighbor Nick told me about a place in Peoria, IL called thirty-thirty Coffee Co. that really got him excited. Now, Peoria is far enough away that I’d have to make a road trip to get to it. Luckily, thirty-thirty ships for free. My first taste of the coffee told me that my neighbor is [...]

Etsy Loupe

kenstone — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:30:09 +0000

The devops team over at Etsy have released some code for a project they call Loupe. It’s made up of two parts, Skyline and Oculus, and their goal is to automatically detect anomalous metrics. Monitoring is great, but kind of useless if no one is watching. Skyline does the detection and Oculus attempts to correlate an errant metric with other errant metrics. They’ve released both of these projects on GitHub (http://github.com/etsy/skyline and http://github.com/etsy/oculus). Via Code [...]

The Little Things

kenstone — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:30:00 +0000

Sometimes, a little thing can make a big impact. To the guy in this photo, it’s his rose lapel pin. For you, maybe it’s something you do for your family or your coworkers. Or your customers. Or your parents. Or yourself. Where can you make a big impact with just a little pop. Via The Dapper Gentleman

Minimize the Clock

kenstone — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:50:01 +0000

Behold, the Time Line Clock This takes the idea of an analog clock to a whole new and minimal level. It’s only got one arm and a little LED for the minute hand. It says a GPS timer rotates the hand, which I’m guessing means that you don’t have to set the clock. You can stick it anywhere. Doesn’t look like it’s anything we can actually buy, however. Bummer. Via Design Taxi

Pixelivery T-Shirts

kenstone — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:34:38 +0000

Pixelivery is a t-shirt company from the same folks that make the United Pixelworkers t-shirts. Lately, they’ve been releasing new, colorized versions of their pixelated 50 states project. This week, they released Illinois, Alabama, Maine ,Missouri, Arkansas, and Tennessee. For $24, you can order one in men’s or women’s cut. I know that some of you out there have a bit more around the mid-section than you’d like. The super-soft American Apparel t-shirts they use can run a [...]

DIY Concrete Stool

kenstone — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:15:28 +0000

Have you ever wanted to build your own concrete stool? Artist Elise Burbaud has created an attractive guide on doing just that. In less than an hour, you too can have an attractive three-legged stool made out of concrete!

Anything Not Everything

kenstone — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:30:38 +0000

I can do ANYTHING I want, but I can’t do EVERYTHING I want. -Anonymous

Try Again

kenstone — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:30:07 +0000

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. - Thomas Edison

Supercell Timelapse

kenstone — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:05:19 +0000

This is an amazing video shot by Mike Olbinski of a rotating supercell and it is impressive. A supercell near Booker, Texas from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo. Via Mike Olbinski A supercell near Booker, Texas from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo. Via Mike Olbinski