A society built on fear serves its masters; a society built on trust serves its members.
July 4, 2009
8:02 am
July 3, 2009
If a person inside an industry needs to frequently explain why it’s not dead, they’re almost certainly wrong.
Michael Nielsen, Is scientific publishing about to be disrupted?
8:02 am
July 2, 2009
Lera Boroditsky: “For a long time, the idea that language might shape thought was considered at best untestable and more often simply wrong. Research in my labs at Stanford University and at MIT has helped reopen this question. We have collected data around the world: from China, Greece, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how we see the world.”
8:00 am
June 30, 2009
The productivity of a software engineer has increased 2-3 times that of a marketing person in the last ten years. Yet their relative compensation has remained about the same. That means if you are a savvy company, you should stock up on engineers. In fact, you would want as many great engineers as you can get a hold of.
Auren Hoffman, Engineers Are The Best Deal - So Stock Up On Them
11:20 pm
June 29, 2009
“For the first stage of the contest, which will be called Big Apps, the city will release what Bloomberg described as a ‘huge volume of data’ from various city agencies. (That means the data will be made available in a machine-readable format that’s conducive to programming.) He gave the example of creating a mobile application out of the Health Department’s restaurant grades.” [via]
3:25 pm
June 28, 2009
In short: We who publish must learn how to say what we don’t know at least as well as we say what we know.
10:33 pm
June 27, 2009
In a world of ongoing technological acceleration, today’s cutting-edge brain implant would be tomorrow’s obsolete junk—and good luck if the protocols change or you’re on the wrong side of a ‘format war’ (anyone want a Betamax implant?). And then there’s the question of stability: Would you want a chip in your head made by the same folks that made your cell phone, or your PC?
Jamais Cascio, Get Smarter
10:33 pm
June 26, 2009
On the eve of yet another fare hike, transit advocates have themselves to blame. We haven’t united behind the proper message; we haven’t overcome a powerful auto lobby; and we haven’t made our voices heard by those who hold the purse strings. One day, that will change. For now, we’re left with higher fares and a transit authority on life support.
Benjamin Kabak, Who pays attention to the needs of the subways?
10:33 pm
June 25, 2009
…the privilege of establishing what value the default is set at is an act of power and influence. Defaults are a tool not only for individuals to tame choices, but for systems designers — those who set the presets — to steer the system. The architecture of these choices can profoundly shape the culture of that system’s use.
Kevin Kelly, Triumph of the Default
10:11 pm
June 24, 2009
“‘People have accused us of simply following in Apple’s footsteps and copying everything they do years later,’ said Ballmer. ‘That is simply untrue. Organ replacement for top level Microsoft executives has been planned for some time now….’” [via rit in email]
7:35 am
June 22, 2009
Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball. Above, NY Central Railroad Station, Rochester, NY. “The elaborate curved brick exterior made a prominent mark on downtown. But the decline in passenger traffic emptied the station by the late 1950s, and the building was razed in 1965.” Not the most beautiful building in the list, but shown here because I have been to the replacement station many times but had never seen a picture of the original.
10:18 pm
June 21, 2009
“Under this program the New York Senate will, for the first time ever, give developers and other users direct access to its data through APIs and release its original software to the public. By placing the data and technological developments generated by the Senate in the public domain, the New York Senate hopes to invigorate, empower and engage citizens in policy creation and dialogue.”
4:08 pm
