How to be a Retronaut: “USA Shopping Malls, Summer 1990”
Author Archives: Karl
Andrew Tait’s latest video – comparing every version of IE
YouTube: We are IE – Comparing every version of Internet Explorer:
From Andrew Tait.
written haiku for a cause
Howard is hand writing individual copies of his haiku ‘Heroes 2’ to benefit Team Kristi, the effort to support the the family of Kristi Hertzog, who is fighting for her life after the birth of her twins.
How Google Tests Software
James Whittaker has been sharing the details on the Google Testing blog recently and it has been a fascinating series:
“How Google Tests Software – Part One”
Managing development flow to go faster
Three from Jon Moore (he doesn’t post that often, but when he does, they are must reads, so subscribe!):
Jon Moore: “Managing Software Development Flow”
Jon Moore: Intuitions about Software Development Flow
Jon Moore: How to Go Faster
And one from Aaron Held that is related on the “Measurement of Awesome”: “This is kind of like gravity. Science can only measure the effects of gravity but you can’t run without it. And running beats floating back and forth aimlessly any day”
Hyper-local is about community or it fails
There have been numerous efforts at building services focused on local communities, and almost all of them, that have not had a community element to them, have failed to one degree or another.
Just being an aggregator is not enough. You need to curate. Moderate. Collate. Summarize. Connect. Most of all – communicate! Sure software helps. But it requires hands on work by people too. And it takes time. Like forming any relationship does.
GigaOm: Mathew Ingram: “Hyper-Local News: It’s About the Community or It Fails”
ReadWriteWeb: Marshall Kirkpatrick: “Hyperlocal Heartbreak: Why Haven’t Neighborhood News Technologies Worked Out?”
Audio thumbnails from those fighting in Rockford, Ill
NYTimes Magazine: “Portraits From a Job-Starved City”.
New Karate Kid as good as the original
With so many things from our youth terribly rehashed these days, you gotta celebrate something when it works, and the new Karate Kid did. They did a good job of helping you relate to Dre as bullied. His size, and being so far away in a new home helped considerably, but so did his acting. Moving around so much as a kid, it got me a bit. Really enjoyed it.
Blaming the victim – happens in comics too
Jason Todd was the successor to Dick Grayson as Robin. He was initially a popular character who, through the efforts of writers to give Robin more of an ‘edge’ became less and less so. DC, in a stunt it would never repeat, held a telephone poll on what should be his fate leading to Jason Todd being murdered by The Joker in a scenario that left Batman full of second guessing guilt as to how he could have prevented it. Interestingly enough, over the years, the character’s history has been revised, and revised further to make Todd into a reckless, hate filled monster, whose own impatience led him to his death. In one of the most interesting articles on comics I have ever read, benicio127 at Scans Daily traces the steps in how Jason Todd has become blamed for his own demise.
“Master of Puppets” turns 25
“Master of Puppets” was the among the first three Metallica cassettes I owned. I bought “…And Justice for All” and “Garage Days” at a music shop in Kensington during 1988 and worked my way back through their releases shortly thereafter. My brother and his friends were Metallica fans and “Master of Puppets”, along with “Ride the Lightning”, with a mix of other terrific bands of that era, were the soundtrack to some heady years.
Metallica, from “..And Justice for All” and back, were extraordinary. Push aside the musical changes they went through after the “Black Album” and what you will notice is the lyrics. Prior to the “Black Album” they tackled heavy subject matter head on. It was thinking-person’s metal. Geek metal. There were other bands; Megadeth, Anthrax and especially Iron Maiden and Queensryche, who could match early Metallica for thought provoking music, but few looked *just like you*. Metallica had no videos. They were not on the radio. Had no singles. They wore t-shirts, jeans, and looked like you and your friends. They had a sneaker-net of fans who traded in stories and bootlegs. And with that they sold millions of albums and sold out stadiums. If you’re in a band today, you would probably want to emulate Metallica’s early rise to fame, swapping the sneaker-net for the Web and social media.
I could go on about the reasons why I’m not much of fan anymore. It isn’t about growing out of anything. The band changed how it looked, how it sounded, and in its overreaction to Napster and its lyrical content (“Don’t Tread on Me” versus “Disposable Heroes” or “One” for example), what it stood for. They seem to, just recently, be coming around to what they lost. We’ll see. They were always authentic. And that has carried them through. Anyways, enough of that, 25 is a milestone. Thank you Metallica.
Invisible Oranges: Cosmo Lee: “Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’ turns 25”
Wikipedia: “Master of Puppets”
Adrien Begrand: “Great moments in Rock N’ Roll”
NYTimes: 1988: “HEAVY METAL, WEIGHTY WORDS”