October 2009
32 posts
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“…I am so pathologically obsessed with usage that every semester the same thing...”
– David Foster Wallace, “Authority and American Usage,” FN 6, Consider the Lobster and Other Essays
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“We have asked TSA to find the tools terrorists use and prevent both from...”
– Deirdre Walker, “Do I have the right to refuse this search?” [via Bruce Schneier]
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“When simple things need instructions, it is a sign of poor design.”
– A Rule of Thumb on Judging Design from Dean Sheridan
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“if there are benign as well as malign [campaign] contributions, it is impossible...”
– Lawrence Lessig, Against Transparency (page 4 of 11)
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“It’s easy to get fixated on simply making sure that the code works. After...”
– Mike Ash, Defensive Programming
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“Turkeys have been so genetically modified they are incapable of natural...”
– Jonathan Safran Foer, Against Meat
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“Apparent risk is what gets someone who is afraid of plane crashes to drive, even...”
– Seth Godin, Apparent risk and actual risk
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“The trick to keeping your mouth shut is to hold the desire to effect change...”
– Scott Berkun, How to keep your mouth shut
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“The most important emails are almost always 1:1.”
– Merlin Mann, talking about Lizard Brains
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“The choice for IT departments is relatively clear. You can deny that guerrilla...”
– Larry Dignan, reporting on a presentation where Gartner encourages IT departments to stop “supporting worker laptops at $2,500 a pop, [and instead] give them an annual stipend of $1,000 and let users buy their own PCs” in How did IT fall so far behind the tech curve? [via Tim Bray]
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“This was a systematic and aggressive strategy to replace a culture that was very...”
– Mark Froeba, former senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service, on what caused the ratings agency to make so many mistakes when rating toxic debt, in How Moody’s sold its ratings — and sold out investors. One of the things that I think is largely overlooked in reporting on the...
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“The world needs fewer opinions and more thoughtful expertise…”
– Christopher Kimball, on the shuttering of Gourmet in Gourmet to All That [via Mark Hurst]
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“Note to programmers: The only people with a good enough abstract memory to use...”
– Bruce Tognazzini, Restoring Spring to iPhone Springboard, quoted not because of the specific hack he is referring to, but because the statement can apply to so many annoying things programmers do
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“In technology, as in most businesses, the way to make it to the top is through...”
– James Kwak on Calvin Trillin’s Theory, [via ★]
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“If Wall Street can shrug off the worst recession of our lifetimes as if...”
– Kevin Drum, Burn it Down and Salt the Earth
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“Users don’t want to organize data; they organize data because their eventual...”
– Lukas Mathis, Flatland [via ★]
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“The public is too smart to waste its time focusing on matters that are not...”
– Lswrence Lessig, Against Transparency (page 6 of 11)
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“It’s not your job to create content for Google. it’s their job to find the best...”
– Derek Powazek, Spammers, Evildoers, and Opportunists
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“The faster airlines add fees for basic services like checked bags, the faster...”
– Joe Brancatelli, The Forest, the Trees and the Bag Fees [via Nat Torkington]. Brancatelli also uses the term “legacy airlines” to describe Delta/Northwest, American, United, Continental and US Airways, seems quite apt.
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Areas Hit Hard by Flu in Spring See Little Now →
NYC Health Commission Dr. Thomas A. Farley: “We’re not seeing illness in the city right now. We’re seeing essentially no disease transmitted in the city. We had 750,000 to one million sick people last spring. We were the hardest-hit city then. So we have a lot of immune people right now.”
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“Dear Micromanager:
Owners of thoroughbreds never stop their horses during a...”
– Scott Berkun, An open letter to micromanagers
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NYC BigApps →
“A software application competition to make New York City more transparent, accessible and accountable, and an easier place to live, work and play.” [via Anil Dash]
Sounds interesting, but NYC Wireless co-founder Anthony Townsend is not enthusiastic: “As someone who’s spent time brainstorming with government agencies about open data ecosystems, I’m saddened to see that the city...
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“When you are a government official, you’re just waiting for the article that’s...”
– Jonathan Zittrain, quoted in M.T.A. Easing Its Strict Approach to Outside Web Developers [via James in email]
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“Brand is the refuge of the ignorant.… Advertisers don’t believe it’s worth...”
– TV executive to Leo Laporte, quoted in Laporte’s talk to the Online News Association (at about 8:33 into the 38 minute talk) [via Gina Trapani, via Tim Bray]
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“The bias of the [Internet] medium is toward sharing data. When the data is not...”
– Douglas Rushkoff, Equal Opportunity Evades NYU?
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“The brain is fundamentally built to unitask.”
– Clifford Nass, professor of communication, Stanford University, quoted in Driven to Distraction: At 60 M.P.H., Office Work Is High Risk
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When a Parent’s ‘I Love You’ Means ‘Do as I Say’ →
Alfie Kohn: “It turned out that children who received conditional approval were indeed somewhat more likely to act as the parent wanted. But compliance came at a steep price. First, these children tended to resent and dislike their parents. Second, they were apt to say that the way they acted was often due more to a ‘strong internal pressure’ than to ‘a real sense of...