Felipe Alou is the father of Moises. Close, though. Matty is Felipe's brother, and along with a third brother, Jesus, all played in the majors. All three played in the outfield together for the Giants in 1963. The opposing team was quoted as saying, "They're everywhere"
The best children's apps are the ones where the grown-ups want to play with it as much as the kids
There's a really interesting app called Groboto that allows you to algorithmically "grow" 3d forms. You can create magnets or plants to attract or repel the forms you are creating, and it's got animation capablilites and for the big kids,.obj export and alpha channels. Difficult not to make an interesting image with it.
Nonsensical business names have been around for awhile (Kodak, anyone?). Now that domain squatters have grabbed up all the real estate, names for companies will just get curiouser and curiouser. It's certainly more interesting than International Business Machines.
Not to be like Spike Lee or anything, but I'm mildly annoyed by the use of the term "architecture" in regards to software design. For the most part, I can let it go, but damn, using it as a verb? With marketecture and tarchitecture?
I spent 5 years of my life to get an architecture degree, worked 3 years for firms, and yet I can't put my name anywhere near the word "architecture" until I get my license or I get popped for a section 5536 (Practice Without License or Holding Self Out as Architect).
I don't mind the geeks having it, just keep it away from the damn marketing droids.
I'm glad somebody pointed this out. I teach in the architecture department at a large-ish university, and there are quite a few of these traveling workshops roaming around that supposedly teach you to draw in a few hours. These things are big moneymakers, and I see them as being a few steps away from the memory enhancement infomercials on late at night. Some, I believe, actually degrade a student's drawing skill.
Betty Edward's books have some good exercises, but nothing you can't pick up by taking a figure drawing class at your local J.C. These techniques don't necessarily tap into a brain's unused power so you can "flip a switch" and suddenly draw. Like training for a marathon or learning another language, drawing is a skill that if done every day for a little while, gets easier.
I now teach at the university I attended in the early 80's as an undergrad, so I have a little before-and-after vision regarding this. Email has, IMO, really changed things. Students rarely bother coming to office hours, which I typically spend replying to a steady stream of email about assignments and such. I regard this as a good thing. The communication with students perhaps isn't as deep, but is certainly more accessible (I recall a few times where I was too intimidated to go to a professor's office hours).
When I lived in Southern California, I rented an apartment on the top floor. Typical California apartment complex- the roof was six inches think, maximum. The landlords reroofed the place and all that black tar up there would help the sun cook my place in the summer. The "property managers" were unresponsive so I took matters into my own hands, climbing up on the roof with a bucket of white paint and basically spilling it about where my apartment was located (the roof was flat and not visible from the street). This made a huge difference in temperature.
I subsequently learned that they make a paint specifically for this purpose (reflecting sunlight off of roofs instead of absorbing it) and that a lot of large buildings in the LA area were using it to lower energy usage.
Also, the previous post about awnings was spot on. Having shades is one thing, but the heat is already inside. Being able to block direct sunlight before it gets to the window will shave a few degrees off of the temperature.
Meaning that's this is just an extra feature, surely not a selling point.
Carrying around a Palm (or any notebook PC) for me would be a waste, I'm not that organized (nor do I want to be). My iPod is first and foremost an MP3 player and secondly a FireWire drive to haul large files to and from work. Once in a blue moon I might actually need an address or write down an appointment, and it's a nice thing to have. Being able to put notes with links in them really doesn't affect me much, but it's just one more side ability the iPod has.
That being said I hope Apple doesn't expand the PDA abilities of the iPod too much. Trying to cram a bunch of PDA-like functionality in there (add-on keyboards and touch screens) would detract from what it does well- play music. If it ain't broke...
This brings up an interesting point. One of the main struggles in learning a musical instrument is essentially learning the interface- being able to get to the point where you don't have to look at where your fingers are to get the notes you want. A few hours with any good button-masher on a console will get you to this point with the controller, and after playing through several games, this becomes second nature. The PS Controller has 16 game play buttons (I'm counting 8 for the direction pad) and consider how often many of you have been hunched over the booklet "reading" the notation for a fighting game and punching the buttons for a certain move without looking. This is certainly analogous to reading music. It would seem natural to pop a music-generating program in and be able to hit the ground running once the "moves" are figured out.
My beige G3 has been a dependable workhorse for years now, but the memory is maxed, the PCI slots are full, and I will never be able to adequately run OS X on it (not to mention that without AGP, video upgrades have come to a dead stop). I believe a lot of beige G3 owners are in the same boat, and I can't really think people are going to jump at an upgrade that costs half of what a new G4 tower would be, especially when there are so many other bottlenecks to speed (a 66 mHz system bus being one) on the old machines.
But what the hell do I know? I've been waiting to replace that thing with a G5, and it was a pretty zippy machine way back when I made that decision.
Don't be an ass. Some people have kids with strollers who would like a clear sign for that elevator too, not to mention that old people's money spends just as well as hip, cool 20 year olds.
I just find it hard to believe that anyone with strollers or a disabilty would not know that in any two-level store, the elevator is almost always in the back (with the rest of the mechanical)
Although he is generally positive about the store, what infuriates me is that Paco Underhill (Wasn't he Bilbo's neighbor in the Shire?) is applying concepts that seem to be more suited to a big-box retail store than to the Apple Store. I see Apple's retail strategy to be similar to the "branding environments" of stores like Nike Town, where you get to see and touch the products, but not necessarily buy them. Apple could easily stack the place to the rafters with product, but sheer sales volume is not what they are going for inside the store.
As an architect, design consultants make my blood boil. While Mr Underhill may have spent hours in the local mall, noticing that people wander counterclockwise, a list of rules to follow does not a good design make.
His suggestions- glass staircase scares off the oldsters, an "In Stock Now!" sign so people could tell it was a store, and putting more tchochkes at the checkout to get those impulsive spenders- all reek of items that would work well in a supermarket. I'm sure this guy makes millions getting retail corporate sheep to follow his dogmatic design rules (and they are dogmatic- I would hardly call some behavioral observations "science", no matter what the title of his book is.) but if he could step back and realize the kind of people Apple is marketing towards (at the very minimum, a group of people who appreciate good design) then he would know that those people who aren't afraid of a Unix-based operating system sure as hell aren't going to be afraid of a glass staircase. These people will be annoyed by cheap signs littered throughout a space trying to grab your attention (the architectural equivalent of a blinking banner ad) and the few coffee cups at the checkout counter trying to squeeze an extra four dollars out of you while you are waiting in line to spend two thousand.
This is the kind of genius that thinks they should put some kind of pricing special into their ads (Order now and get the Yao Ming/Mini Me combination Powerbook/bobblehead free! Operators are standing by!)
This is likely to be the same company described in the excellent book Fast Food Nation. In the chapter called "Why the fries taste good" the author describes the "flavor industry" in New Jersey which provides the chemicals to make things taste "smoky" or "flame-broiled".
I'm sure there are a lot of additives that they have left over from General Foods International Coffees that they are dying to use so that your latte has even more latte flavor.
I teach a 3D applications course in the architecture department at a large university. When I wander a bit in the lab during a lecture, I can see that about 10% of the students are online. Does this bother me? A little, but as has been said before, if they aren't making noise, no big deal. What does bother me is when some of those students show up at my office hours asking about the assignment, when I know they were more focused on trying to boost their karma than ask a question during classtime. In a design studio, WI-FI is a godsend. Frequently during reviews, I will reference some obscure building or piece of art, and the ability to dig up an image of it in a minute or so and send it to the rest of the class is invaluable. Cell phones are still a scourge though. Get any group of professors together and a rant about ringing phones is sure to ensue. Nothing derails a train of thought like a sudden chime of the Godfather theme, which forces me to stop a lecture and ask, "What are you, A.J. Soprano?"
This won't work. The TV broadcast is delayed, not the radio. Pausing on your TiVo only delays the TV broadcast more, which is why he was asking to be able to buffer his radio. I wish I had some appropriate analogy for this this situation. The SF Giants are the only sports team I truly care about and the tools Fox has foisted upon us make me want to pull an Elvis on my TV. People have been calling the radio station all week begging them to put a longer delay on their broadcast. I have been looking for a similar technological solution myself.
The good news is that an amazing book won the award, the bad news is that it beat out another amazing book: China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. This is the first time in years where some books I have read have showed up as nominations ( I read Chronoliths as well, but it was so-so). American Gods and Perdido St. represent (to me) the best things to come out of the SCI-Fi genre in a long, long time. My love for these books aside, I think the arguements over whether these books are actually Canonical Science Fiction are ridiculous. The genre will stagnate (if it hasn't already) if authors are limited to space operas or extrapolating the latest sci-tech flavor (hmmm, I got it, nanopunk! or how about genomepunk?). Neal Stephenson has moved beyond the genre for the most part, and his books keep getting better. Gaiman and Mieville's work are obviously pushing the boundaries of what is or is not science fiction and this is something to be embraced. As a bonus, both of these books have covers that are actually interesting (Perdido more so that AG). It's nice to be able to read a book in public which doesn't have a cover that looked like someone moonlighting from Harlequin Romances designed it.
Fantastic book. One of the better things about it is that it has a great cover. Most fantasy (and don't let that term spook you, this book is very urban, and has been acclaimed by both the horror and steampunk crowds) have covers that look like they were done by the Harlequin romance cover artists. It's nice to be able to read a fantasy book in public without shame.
Slashdot Mirror
Felipe Alou is the father of Moises. Close, though. Matty is Felipe's brother, and along with a third brother, Jesus, all played in the majors. All three played in the outfield together for the Giants in 1963. The opposing team was quoted as saying, "They're everywhere"
The best Trek series I've seen in years just ended its season a few weeks ago.
Battlestar GalacticaThe best children's apps are the ones where the grown-ups want to play with it as much as the kids
There's a really interesting app called Groboto that allows you to algorithmically "grow" 3d forms. You can create magnets or plants to attract or repel the forms you are creating, and it's got animation capablilites and for the big kids, .obj export and alpha channels. Difficult not to make an interesting image with it.
The down side? It's Mac OS9 only.
Patches? We don't need no stinking patches!
"We would love to partner with Apple,' he said. "They're everyone's favorite company, and iTunes is really cool."
That sounds less like a hint of a possible Apple/Sun alliance and more like fanboy-ish daydreaming.
Nonsensical business names have been around for awhile (Kodak, anyone?). Now that domain squatters have grabbed up all the real estate, names for companies will just get curiouser and curiouser. It's certainly more interesting than International Business Machines.
Not to be like Spike Lee or anything, but I'm mildly annoyed by the use of the term "architecture" in regards to software design. For the most part, I can let it go, but damn, using it as a verb? With marketecture and tarchitecture?
I spent 5 years of my life to get an architecture degree, worked 3 years for firms, and yet I can't put my name anywhere near the word "architecture" until I get my license or I get popped for a section 5536 (Practice Without License or Holding Self Out as Architect).
I don't mind the geeks having it, just keep it away from the damn marketing droids.
I'm glad somebody pointed this out. I teach in the architecture department at a large-ish university, and there are quite a few of these traveling workshops roaming around that supposedly teach you to draw in a few hours. These things are big moneymakers, and I see them as being a few steps away from the memory enhancement infomercials on late at night. Some, I believe, actually degrade a student's drawing skill.
Betty Edward's books have some good exercises, but nothing you can't pick up by taking a figure drawing class at your local J.C. These techniques don't necessarily tap into a brain's unused power so you can "flip a switch" and suddenly draw. Like training for a marathon or learning another language, drawing is a skill that if done every day for a little while, gets easier.
I now teach at the university I attended in the early 80's as an undergrad, so I have a little before-and-after vision regarding this. Email has, IMO, really changed things. Students rarely bother coming to office hours, which I typically spend replying to a steady stream of email about assignments and such. I regard this as a good thing. The communication with students perhaps isn't as deep, but is certainly more accessible (I recall a few times where I was too intimidated to go to a professor's office hours).
When I lived in Southern California, I rented an apartment on the top floor. Typical California apartment complex- the roof was six inches think, maximum. The landlords reroofed the place and all that black tar up there would help the sun cook my place in the summer. The "property managers" were unresponsive so I took matters into my own hands, climbing up on the roof with a bucket of white paint and basically spilling it about where my apartment was located (the roof was flat and not visible from the street). This made a huge difference in temperature.
I subsequently learned that they make a paint specifically for this purpose (reflecting sunlight off of roofs instead of absorbing it) and that a lot of large buildings in the LA area were using it to lower energy usage.
Also, the previous post about awnings was spot on. Having shades is one thing, but the heat is already inside. Being able to block direct sunlight before it gets to the window will shave a few degrees off of the temperature.
Meaning that's this is just an extra feature, surely not a selling point.
Carrying around a Palm (or any notebook PC) for me would be a waste, I'm not that organized (nor do I want to be). My iPod is first and foremost an MP3 player and secondly a FireWire drive to haul large files to and from work. Once in a blue moon I might actually need an address or write down an appointment, and it's a nice thing to have. Being able to put notes with links in them really doesn't affect me much, but it's just one more side ability the iPod has.
That being said I hope Apple doesn't expand the PDA abilities of the iPod too much. Trying to cram a bunch of PDA-like functionality in there (add-on keyboards and touch screens) would detract from what it does well- play music. If it ain't broke...
This brings up an interesting point. One of the main struggles in learning a musical instrument is essentially learning the interface- being able to get to the point where you don't have to look at where your fingers are to get the notes you want. A few hours with any good button-masher on a console will get you to this point with the controller, and after playing through several games, this becomes second nature. The PS Controller has 16 game play buttons (I'm counting 8 for the direction pad) and consider how often many of you have been hunched over the booklet "reading" the notation for a fighting game and punching the buttons for a certain move without looking. This is certainly analogous to reading music. It would seem natural to pop a music-generating program in and be able to hit the ground running once the "moves" are figured out.
My beige G3 has been a dependable workhorse for years now, but the memory is maxed, the PCI slots are full, and I will never be able to adequately run OS X on it (not to mention that without AGP, video upgrades have come to a dead stop). I believe a lot of beige G3 owners are in the same boat, and I can't really think people are going to jump at an upgrade that costs half of what a new G4 tower would be, especially when there are so many other bottlenecks to speed (a 66 mHz system bus being one) on the old machines.
But what the hell do I know? I've been waiting to replace that thing with a G5, and it was a pretty zippy machine way back when I made that decision.
Don't be an ass. Some people have kids with strollers who would like a clear sign for that elevator too, not to mention that old people's money spends just as well as hip, cool 20 year olds.
I just find it hard to believe that anyone with strollers or a disabilty would not know that in any two-level store, the elevator is almost always in the back (with the rest of the mechanical)
Although he is generally positive about the store, what infuriates me is that Paco Underhill (Wasn't he Bilbo's neighbor in the Shire?) is applying concepts that seem to be more suited to a big-box retail store than to the Apple Store. I see Apple's retail strategy to be similar to the "branding environments" of stores like Nike Town, where you get to see and touch the products, but not necessarily buy them. Apple could easily stack the place to the rafters with product, but sheer sales volume is not what they are going for inside the store.
As an architect, design consultants make my blood boil. While Mr Underhill may have spent hours in the local mall, noticing that people wander counterclockwise, a list of rules to follow does not a good design make.
His suggestions- glass staircase scares off the oldsters, an "In Stock Now!" sign so people could tell it was a store, and putting more tchochkes at the checkout to get those impulsive spenders- all reek of items that would work well in a supermarket. I'm sure this guy makes millions getting retail corporate sheep to follow his dogmatic design rules (and they are dogmatic- I would hardly call some behavioral observations "science", no matter what the title of his book is.) but if he could step back and realize the kind of people Apple is marketing towards (at the very minimum, a group of people who appreciate good design) then he would know that those people who aren't afraid of a Unix-based operating system sure as hell aren't going to be afraid of a glass staircase. These people will be annoyed by cheap signs littered throughout a space trying to grab your attention (the architectural equivalent of a blinking banner ad) and the few coffee cups at the checkout counter trying to squeeze an extra four dollars out of you while you are waiting in line to spend two thousand.
This is the kind of genius that thinks they should put some kind of pricing special into their ads (Order now and get the Yao Ming/Mini Me combination Powerbook/bobblehead free! Operators are standing by!)
This is likely to be the same company described in the excellent book Fast Food Nation. In the chapter called "Why the fries taste good" the author describes the "flavor industry" in New Jersey which provides the chemicals to make things taste "smoky" or "flame-broiled".
I'm sure there are a lot of additives that they have left over from General Foods International Coffees that they are dying to use so that your latte has even more latte flavor.
I teach a 3D applications course in the architecture department at a large university. When I wander a bit in the lab during a lecture, I can see that about 10% of the students are online. Does this bother me? A little, but as has been said before, if they aren't making noise, no big deal. What does bother me is when some of those students show up at my office hours asking about the assignment, when I know they were more focused on trying to boost their karma than ask a question during classtime.
In a design studio, WI-FI is a godsend. Frequently during reviews, I will reference some obscure building or piece of art, and the ability to dig up an image of it in a minute or so and send it to the rest of the class is invaluable.
Cell phones are still a scourge though. Get any group of professors together and a rant about ringing phones is sure to ensue. Nothing derails a train of thought like a sudden chime of the Godfather theme, which forces me to stop a lecture and ask, "What are you, A.J. Soprano?"
...is thousand of Mac-based web designers saying "Oh shit."
This won't work. The TV broadcast is delayed, not the radio. Pausing on your TiVo only delays the TV broadcast more, which is why he was asking to be able to buffer his radio.
I wish I had some appropriate analogy for this this situation. The SF Giants are the only sports team I truly care about and the tools Fox has foisted upon us make me want to pull an Elvis on my TV. People have been calling the radio station all week begging them to put a longer delay on their broadcast. I have been looking for a similar technological solution myself.
Let's just hope that Geraldo Rivera doesn't decide to cover it live, which will guarantee that nothing interesting is down there.
The good news is that an amazing book won the award, the bad news is that it beat out another amazing book: China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.
This is the first time in years where some books I have read have showed up as nominations ( I read Chronoliths as well, but it was so-so). American Gods and Perdido St. represent (to me) the best things to come out of the SCI-Fi genre in a long, long time.
My love for these books aside, I think the arguements over whether these books are actually Canonical Science Fiction are ridiculous. The genre will stagnate (if it hasn't already) if authors are limited to space operas or extrapolating the latest sci-tech flavor (hmmm, I got it, nanopunk! or how about genomepunk?). Neal Stephenson has moved beyond the genre for the most part, and his books keep getting better. Gaiman and Mieville's work are obviously pushing the boundaries of what is or is not science fiction and this is something to be embraced.
As a bonus, both of these books have covers that are actually interesting (Perdido more so that AG). It's nice to be able to read a book in public which doesn't have a cover that looked like someone moonlighting from Harlequin Romances designed it.
Fantastic book. One of the better things about it is that it has a great cover. Most fantasy (and don't let that term spook you, this book is very urban, and has been acclaimed by both the horror and steampunk crowds) have covers that look like they were done by the Harlequin romance cover artists. It's nice to be able to read a fantasy book in public without shame.
A good interview with the author is here.
-adso
The maddening thing about that article is that it contained no useful links. Typical Salon sloppy journalism.
A (dull) report on warning signs at a New mexico facility is here.
The Archaeology Magazine article (more of a blurb) is here.
Excerpts from "Expert Judgement on Markers to Deter Inadvertent Human Intrusion into the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant"
A design exhibition of warning markers.
-adso
-adso
>Unix or Windows?
She's a Mac user. Notice the growing number of Apple stories?
-adso