December 2009
76 posts
Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar 2009 →
We are so incredibly tiny.
A Pictorial Guide to Avoiding Camera Loss →
Andrew McDonald shows us his method for helping his camera find its way home.
Famous San Francisco Sea Lions Abandon Their Pier... →
If you’ve ever been to San Francisco you’ve probably checked out the sea lions. When we were there for MacWorld/WWDC 2009 they were a lot of fun to watch.
I hope they’re alright.
Via Neatorama
Tuper Tario Tros. →
Mario Bros. + Tetris = Win.
(The ending’s a bitch.)
Enterprise Rent-A-Car vs. Zipcar →
Marco Arment’s detailed comparison.
Spoiler: Zipcar wins hands down, except for long trips.
Rambler Socket →
Meysam Movahedi designed these should-be-a-standard-feature-everywhere electrical sockets with retractable extension cords built into the wall behind them. Excellent idea.
Submarine Enterprise →
I geeked out a bit watching the video of this model starship cruising around inside a pool.
Daily Drop Cap →
Every day Jessica Hische posts a new, handcrafted drop cap for enjoyment and use. Beautiful work.
Arrows via Enjoy This Beautiful Day →
Whenever we encounter the need for arrows in a project (and what project doesn’t require arrows?), we reach for a little file we’ve kept over the years with a bunch of the pointy things in vector format. We’ll make fresh ones and add to the file when need be.
Handy!
Via Swissmiss
Special Delivery →
One incorrect line of code translates to the delivery of 28,000 tons of unwanted coal. Awesome story.
Scans of the Original Eiffel Tower Blueprints →
They’re not actually blue, but they are quite impressive.
Via Kottke
Jitouch →
Jitouch takes a different approach than MagicPrefs to extend the Magic Mouse’s functionality, as well as providing a wealth of extra gestures for multitouch trackpads as well.
Information Is Beautiful →
David McCandless, an independent journalist, blogs about information visualizations in addition to creating his own.
A passion of mine is for visualizing information – facts, data, ideas, subjects, issues, statistics, questions – all with the minimum of words.
I’m interested in how designed information can help us understand the world, cut through BS and reveal hidden connections,...
Stormtroopers 365 →
Stormtroopers 365 is a photo project starring TK455 and TK479, Stormtroopers in the Galactic Empire Army.
A new photo every day until April. A couple of the recent ones caught my eye.
Every Day the Same Dream →
Worth playing until the end.
I liked the music and the cow.
Remove Security Limitations from PDFs Using... →
gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=OUTPUT.pdf -c .setpdfwrite -f INPUT.pdf
Known to work in Linux and Mac OS X, and I imagine it would work in Windows as well, if you had Ghostscript’s Windows binary handy.
Unexploded Landmines? Call for The Herorats →
African Giant Pouched Rats are being trained to safely find undetonated land mines:
What happens is that they are trained from young to associate the smell of explosives with a treat – such as a banana or peanut. This reward is vital to the rat doing its work as, akin to our own species – individuals do not like to do something for nothing, after all. The rats move up and down an area the...
What I Expect
→
But most importantly, I’m freely expressing my ideas in public, which helps me clarify my thoughts, enhance and alter my views, and improve my writing over time.
I think I’m getting the better end of the deal.
Exactly.
Tech Buyer's Guide from 2000 →
Gizmodo reposts 10 of the hottest gadgets from nine years ago. It’s almost crazy how far we’ve come.
Happy Holidays!
Wishing all three of you the very best!
Verizon's Solution to Loose Droid Battery Covers... →
This, more than anything else, is why I have my doubts about the iPhone being available on Verizon’s network. Yes, Verizon appears to have a much better infrastructure in place, but their corporate culture couldn’t be farther from Apple’s.
24 ways →
24 ways is the advent calendar for web geeks. Each day throughout December we publish a daily dose of web design and development goodness to bring you all a little Christmas cheer.
Really good stuff.
Home Alone on Twitter →
22 Twitter accounts (one for each main character in the movie) are being updated in real-time to reenact the movie.
Via Kottke
Model Makers: Young C. Park →
Young C. Park makes 1/16 scale aluminum aircraft models. What makes them stand out? Everything works: the controls work, the ammunition loading systems work, the flaps, the gears, etc. Absolutely stunning attention to detail.
Make sure you scroll down to the bottom and click through to the larger images — you won’t be disappointed.
Lifehacker's Most Popular Featured Workspaces of... →
Some amazing spaces. I’m going to steal a ton of ideas presented here when we move into a house.
Web 2.0 Suicide Machine →
Awesome. I’d use it, but I never signed up for any of those sites in the first place.
Text a Donation to This American Life →
This American Life, a fantastic radio show you should listen to if you haven’t already, has a cool new donation mechanism:
Also, and this is very exciting: now you can text your donation. Just text the word LIFE to the number 25383, and a one-time donation of $5 will be added to your mobile phone bill. Send your text, then reply YES to the confirmation.
Worked like a charm for me.
Sleep Aid →
$2.99 iPhone app:
Sleep Aid makes it easy for you to determine whether you suffer from sleep apnea and should consult a doctor. The application records eventual snoring sounds and creates an easy-to-read graph. By examining the graph, you can find out your snoring. You can also listen to your breathing and snoring pattern.
Sleep Aid includes samples of typical snoring and sleep apnea...
Why It's Better To Pretend You Don't Know Anything... →
Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly right.
Via Lifehacker
My Life as a Religious Parable →
Nice.
MagicPrefs for Apple's Magic Mouse →
A free app written by Vlad Alexa, MagicPrefs greatly extends the functionality of the Magic Mouse:
It features the ability to bind a variable number of finger clicks, taps, swipes, pinch and other gestures to functions like Middle Click , Hold Down Both Mouse Buttons , Spaces , Expose, Dashboard etc.
Touch Sensitivity implements a single point control for a number of factors impacting the...
Apple Asking App Developers to Prepare for Large... →
Notably, Apple has requested that the developers prepare their applications to run in “full screen” mode rather than limiting display to the iPhone and iPod touch’s 320 x 480 pixels.
A lot of people are jumping to the conclusion that this rumor, if true, is about the mythical Apple tablet. I think it’s much more likely that the next generation iPhone will simply have...
Learning Bash →
Good intro to the Bash shell environment with some hard-as-fuck-to-Google details.
Study: Texting Drivers are More Dangerous than... →
You obviously don’t need to be told that texting and driving are two complex tasks that don’t mix well. But a new study by University of Utah researchers sheds light on why and finds that this activity is even more dangerous than talking on a cell phone while driving.
Wait, you needed a study to figure this out? Seriously?
Community Paper Shredding Events by Shred-It →
Absolutely free shredding. Security plus plus.
AT&T Has Spent Less on Network Construction Every... →
Fuck you AT&T.
Are Trackpads Making Our Hands Mutate? →
Former industrial designer Hemmant Jha recently noticed something odd. Two fingers on his dominant hand are somehow more rigid and firm than any of the others. He suspects that years of two-finger scrolling on his MacBook Pro are the cause.
Probably. I’m not there yet, but I think I’m starting to develop a different texture on my mousin’ fingers.
The Language of Staffing →
If your company is so big and impersonal that you call the people you have assets, resources, bodies, or any of the many other degrading terms available, you’re doing it wrong.
Yes, exactly.
Alma →
Fantastic short film by Rodrigo Blaas available for free in full HD for a limited time. I highly recommend watching it in full screen, there’s a wealth of detail and richness you don’t want to miss.
Instapaper →
Instapaper is a small web service that lets you keep a list of web pages you’d like to read later. These are the two reasons I use it:
It’s dead simple. When you’re on a page you want to read later just click on the Read Later bookmarklet you installed after you signed up and it’s on your list in one click.
It’s supported by (and supports) a lot of different...
Dresden Codak →
Some very impressive comics. I especially enjoyed The Sleepwalkers.
Secret Santa Gift Exchange for Reddit Members →
This is really quite amazing. Well over 4,000 Reddit members got together for a gift exchange. Despite the $15 limit outlined in the rules the average gift price ended up being $26.47, and that doesn’t include shipping.
There are more statistics available, a gallery of received gifts (which I recommend you view sorted by votes), and a more extensive writeup by Webmonkey.
The Small Calendar 2010 →
Grafish Design’s little calendar fits comfortably on a business card and doesn’t suck.
32 Astounding Architectural Designs of Gingerbread... →
These make normal gingerbread houses look almost comically horrible.
Via Neatorama
Damjan Stanković's Design Showcase →
Awesome concepts.
Barnes & Noble Will Send You $100 If Nook Doesn't... →
The nook (it’s lowercase!) I pre-ordered for Aleen arrived about two weeks ago, now I almost wish I’d waited to pre-order a little later.
Via Gizmodo
Growl Styles: Basics and Mono →
If you use Growl you might want to check out these two styles by designer Christopher Lobay. Mono is now my new default.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Growl, it’s a widely-supported notification system for Mac OS X that I recommend trying out.
Via TUAW
“Is PayPal Good for Your MicroISV Business?” A... →
If you’re using or thinking of using PayPal for anything non-trivial you should probably read this story.
So, now the money […] is held for 6 months. Sure, they [PayPal] are “making every effort to minimize any disruption to your business”. Sure, no disruption at all.
Scary.
Via Daring Fireball
Adobe Explains PDF Patch Delay →
From the story (emphasis added):
Adobe chose to wait until mid-January to patch a critical PDF bug because issuing an emergency update would have disrupted its quarterly security update schedule, the company said today.
Unless users apply one of the workarounds that Adobe’s suggested, the decision will leave systems open to attack until Jan. 12, when the patch is released. According...
Google In Discussions To Acquire Yelp For A Half... →
I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. I can see Yelp standing on their own indefinitely, but, you know, half a billion.
Oh, here’s the New York Times story.