Some things should be, on the contrary, celebrated for their very groundedness and averageness and relatability. Human interest stories — when they're of true human interest (rather than the products of cable's attempts to sensationalize the serious …
Read more… • Posted in: links, news, words
I had a pretty amazingly good 2008, all things considered. I traveled a lot: this was the first year of my life where I can say that I spoke four languages …
Read more… • Posted in: words, year-in-review
I had covered the groundbreaking of the minaret — the first to be built in St. Louis. The mayor had been there to praise pluralism and throw a little dirt around for the cameras… Now I wrote a second story, which was maybe twelve column-inches …
Read more… • Posted in: blogs, journalism, religion, words • Comments (1)
I noticed today that I'd missed an important due date. Cue internal dialogue:
"But I have that in iCal!"
"Well, that doesn't do any good if you ignore the alarms!"
"But I didn't! I didn't ignore the alarm, it never went off! Honest!"
A little investigation …
Read more… • Posted in: tech stuff
NPR has a fantastic story about Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment Corp, known online as utube.com. More than occasionally mistaken for YouTube.com.
Anyway, they are suing Google/YouTube for the costs associated with being a typo away from the phenomenon …
Read more… • Posted in: web
I love this idea. Possibly, because I played in my high school jazz band. (Saxophone, fyi.)
I think the other downside to recruiting for a "rockstar programmer", is that you attract programmers with dominant egos. I'd much rather blend into the background …
Read more… • Posted in: geek-culture
What does this mean, exactly? "Say what you will about..." I mean, in most places, the context seems to imply a sort of "Well, you might not like this for some crazy reason, but I think..."
Where does this phrase come from?
Read more… • Posted in: words
On the other hand, just muddling along is expensive, dangerous, and depressing.
- From an interview with Bjarne Stroustrup, credited as the inventer of C++.
Read more… • Posted in: geek-culture
The worm drives helically through the wood
And does not know the dust left in the bore
Once made the table integral and good
And suddenly the crystal hits the floor
Electrons find their paths in subtle …
Read more… • Posted in: geek-culture
