inkscar's bits & pieces

Photo

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:51:33 +0100

nevver: Before and After the iPhone Before that there was...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:07:13 +0100

Before and After the iPhone

Before that there was diversity; after that there is a monochrome monotony.

Well, not exactly, but form is defined by function and one has to note that what a Nokia 3210 (the first chubby green phone on the upper picture) was made for is phoning — something I feel it would do even today better than a square, flat brick. It sat good in the hand, had fast comfortable keys and a very very long battery life.

And because this struck me the other day while looking at three images of an iOS, Android and mobile Windows interfaces, the latter is by far the cleanest, most consistent one. It’s a pleasure to look at.

"In a 2010 interview when asked if she believed in God, Gillard stated: “No I don’t..."

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:16:21 +0100

“In a 2010 interview when asked if she believed in God, Gillard stated: “No I don’t … I’m not a religious person … [I’m] a great respecter of religious beliefs but they’re not my beliefs.””

- Julia Gillard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There’s something about Gillard that I don’t like, but I like her honesty in this case.

"Kurz gesagt, ein junger, normal entwickelter Beagle ist nicht so blöd, sich ernsthaft mit einem..."

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:26:46 +0100

“Kurz gesagt, ein junger, normal entwickelter Beagle ist nicht so blöd, sich ernsthaft mit einem stärkeren Hund auseinanderzusetzen. Und kein Hund so blöd, bewusst vor ein Auto zu laufen. Es sei denn, ein blöder Mensch zwingt ihn dazu.”

- Klartext Hund: Und wenn es noch so idiotisch ist. Muss der Hund alles machen, was der Mensch von ihm verlangt?

The weakness of forced registration

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:55:32 +0100

Finally Echofon decided they need to make money out of their Firefox plug-in and place advertising where it will be sure to annoy — at the top of your timeline, permanently pinned. Advertising is not bad in its self but becomes one when done badly.

I first went with disabling the ad visibility in Mozilla’s chrome file but this borked Echofon and it stopped giving notifications for new twits. This was, though, not the last drop. The real last drop came from the discovery that Echofon upload photos attached to twits to lokerz.com without giving you an option to choose an alternative service. I recall that it did initially use Twitpic where I know I have access, but to that lockerz thing I had none.

In order to delete photos, one first needs to register to lockerz, authorize the service on Twitter, and then delete.

Don’t know about others, but I am off from Echofon for good. I say this with regret though, because it was a fine, unobtrusive Twitter client that used to do the basics well. I’ll give DestroyTwitter a try now and see how far this takes us.

"Dave Morin of Path introduced me to Dunbar’s Number, proposed by the anthropologist Robin Dunbar...."

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:56:40 +0100

“Dave Morin of Path introduced me to Dunbar’s Number, proposed by the anthropologist Robin Dunbar. The number is the theoretical limit of how many people with whom one can maintain stable relationships (thought to be 150). But Dunbar’s most recent research shows there are different numbers for women than men—that women are able to maintain quantitatively more relationships within every ring of closeness than men. Knowing that is an important factor if you want to build and stoke social network effects. More female users will likely help your company grow faster.”

- Why Women Rule The Internet | TechCrunch

Academic Earth | Online Courses | Academic Video Lectures

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:46:23 +0100

Academic Earth | Online Courses | Academic Video Lectures:

For those “permanently stupid” among us.

The cult of the hyperpolyglot

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:36:17 +0100

The cult of the hyperpolyglot:

The beeb won’t let me embed vids, but if you click further you will hear one guy speak 11 languages. Quite impressive.

(via Albena : Kateřina Držková) Using dozens of...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:03:50 +0100

(via Albena : Kateřina Držková)

Using dozens of systematically collected postcards I reconstructed how one of the most popular destinations of Czechs in the 1970ies, the seaside resort Albena in Bulgaria, was looking like. Based on that data I created a three-dimensional model of Albena.

BrailleTouch Helps Visually Impaired Users (by GeorgiaTech) And...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:36:00 +0100

BrailleTouch Helps Visually Impaired Users (by GeorgiaTech)

And just by the way, I read that JAWS (the screen reader) can not read YouTube comments. Maybe all web/UI designers should be forced to use a computer for a while only through a reader.

Free friends anyone? That’s from here and they need a new...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:35:14 +0100

Free friends anyone? That’s from here and they need a new copy writer.

Origami Dragon instructions (by modelche) I discovered that I...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:29:15 +0100

Origami Dragon instructions (by modelche)

I discovered that I can watch that with the hypnotised fascination of a small child watching cartoons. And that’s 16 minutes to make a dragon!

Thanks to the internets, one can now observe Rosenmontag in ze...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:26:19 +0100

Thanks to the internets, one can now observe Rosenmontag in ze Dorf from a safe distance.

Sunshine. Maybe winter is finally on the way out.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:28:12 +0100

Sunshine. Maybe winter is finally on the way out.

Cocoa with peppermint

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Many years ago, me and Goonie discovered the magic of peppermint cocoa through a surprise package of small presents from the US. Needless to say the whole mint in hot chocolate thing sounded dubious at first, but ever since that experience, I have been on the search for a similar product here in Europe (Krüger had it for a year or so but discontinued) and subsequently attempting to emulate it.

My previous attempts involved bagged peppermint tea which is a waste of time really. But, a week ago when Herr Chaos told me about dry mint leaves, I bought a bag and am blissfully happy with the results.

The way I prepare my mint cocoa is by heating milk in the amount sufficient for a cup but not letting it boil. I put a tea filter with two teaspoons of dry peppermint leaves in it and keep it in hot milk for good five minutes or more. I’d keep it on the stove but have it turned off. While waiting, I add one teaspoon of cocoa powder and a teaspoon of brown sugar in a cup, add a few drops of milk or water and stir to a creamy paste. Finally, I strain the bag with a spoon and remove it from the milk, and pour the hot minty milk into my cup while stirring.

It’s a good thing that.

The Great Horse. From an Allegorical Engraving by Albert Dürer...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:37:18 +0100

The Great Horse. From an Allegorical Engraving by Albert Dürer (via Rambles of an Archæologist Among Old Books and in Old Places)

Lockerz’s fail whale, so to say. It’s even animated.

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:19:35 +0100

Lockerz’s fail whale, so to say. It’s even animated.

"Astonishingly, in 21st Century Egypt, the latest figures suggest that over 90% of the women have..."

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:35:17 +0100

“Astonishingly, in 21st Century Egypt, the latest figures suggest that over 90% of the women have been subject to female genital mutilation (FGM). The figure comes from a Unicef approved survey carried out in 2008, the year that the practice was banned.”

- Female genital mutilation rife in Egypt despite ban

"If we could try to experience love as a quality – like compassion or courage – and focus less on..."

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:19:28 +0100

“If we could try to experience love as a quality – like compassion or courage – and focus less on love as an event, something that happens, then love would belong to us, rather than being dependent on us belonging to someone.”

- Jeanette Winterson

"In 1518, one of the strangest epidemics in recorded history struck the city of Strasbourg. Hundreds..."

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:06:02 +0100

“In 1518, one of the strangest epidemics in recorded history struck the city of Strasbourg. Hundreds of people were seized by an irresistible urge to dance, hop and leap into the air. In houses, halls and public spaces, as fear paralyzed the city and the members of the elite despaired, the dancing continued with mindless intensity. Seldom pausing to eat, drink or rest, many of them danced for days or even weeks. And before long, the chronicles agree, dozens were dying from exhaustion.”

- In a spin: the mysterious dancing epidemic of 1518