Sunday, September 30, 2012

Scott Orn shared an Instagram photo with you

Hi there,

Scott Orn just shared an Instagram photo with you:


view full image

"#GoodLookingPeople"
(taken at War Memorial Opera House)

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

Saturday, September 29, 2012

How to downgrade by Seth Godin

Awesome post by Seth Godin. Mostly about the apple maps thing, but I can relate via Bens Friends. Wish this post would have been written a few years ago. Here is the best sound bite:

"Apologizing to your best users is significantly more productive than blaming them for liking what you used to do."

Seth's Blog


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Monday, September 24, 2012

I didn't expect the world to be so big

This is just really amazing. A cartoon that is much bigger than you first realize. Pretty neat.

I used the Google Map version at the bottom.
I didn't expect the world to be so big:
Xkcd Big World

Today's XKCD must have taken Randall several years to draw...if you click and drag, it goes on forever. Or not quite forever, but Dan Catt did some figuring and:
Ok, so the XKCD map printed at 300dpi is around 46 foot / 14 meters wide, half that at magazine 600dpi quality.
Here's a better Google Maps-like way to explore the entire world.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Friday, September 21, 2012

Fwd: Transport for London have the solution to all those mapping problems...

Via The Walm


 

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day

The first hour of my day is spent eating and answering emails from Ben's Friends. I learned it from Craig Newmark. The best part is my "customers" are people who are really glad Ben's Friends exists. :)

http://www.fastcompany.com/3000619/what-successful-people-do-first-hour-their-work-day

"Craigslist founder Craig Newmark answered the first hour question succinctly: "Customer service." He went on to explain (or expand) that he also worked on current projects, services for military families and veterans, and protecting voting rights. But customer service is what Newmark does every single day at Craigslist, responding to user complaints and smiting scammers and spammers. He almost certainly has bigger fish he could pitch in on every day, but Newmark says customers service "anchors me to reality."



Sent from Pocket - Get it free!



Monday, September 17, 2012

UrbanSitter - The Queen of All Babysitters - WSJ.com

Great article on my friends' company, UrbanSitter.

The Queen of All Babysitters - WSJ.com:
"The UrbanSitter experience is a bit like online dating, where everyone on the site looks perfect in the exact same way. In their photos, would-be sitters flash huge smiles and cock their heads like eager puppies. They've all served as tutors, volunteered with underprivileged youth, worked as summer camp counselors and are now majoring in education while spending their free time honing their hide-and-go-seek skills. And of course, they all really, really love working with kids. For this bunch, it seems, babysitting is not a job, it's a privilege!"

The Kalamazoo Promise

Looks like an incredible program.

The Kalamazoo Promise:
Excellent NYT Magazine piece on the impact of The Kalamazoo Promise, an initiative by anonymous donors to pay the college tuition of every graduating senior in Kalamazoo. The Promise, which is intended by the donors to be an experiment in urban investment has had several amazing results in only a few years. High school test scores have improved continuously, and the promise of help with tuition has lead to families moving to and staying in Kalamazoo. The 2,450 new students has allowed the school district to hire 92 additional teachers. It's not all rosy, and the Promise hasn't solved every problem yet, but Kalamazoo seems to be headed in the right direction.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Book Recommendation - The Art of Fielding

I just finished a terrific book called The Art of Fielding: A Novel. It has a little bit of everything for both sexes. The plot centers around a college baseball team, but there are a lot of great characters including the school president, his adult daughter and the players on the team. I really enjoyed the book. Check it out.


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Remember when Instagram and Pinterest had the same number of...

holy cow


via the himmelsblog on 9/12/12



Remember when Instagram and Pinterest had the same number of DAUs?

A Chicago Teacher: Why I Am Striking « Diane Ravitch's blog

Wonderful post that my friend Ariel linked to. Teaching is hard.

A Chicago Teacher: Why I Am Striking « Diane Ravitch's blog:
"The school board also wants to institute “merit” pay and use “merit” in our evaluations based on test scores. But how do you really measure “merit”? Do rising student test scores measure “merit”? Does this even work for the music teacher of the foreign language teachers whose subject does not even appear on standardized tests? Perhaps. But teachers receive different students every year. How do you account for differences in the students taught from year to year? How do account for students’ home life? The district has some complicated statistical model which supposedly measures the “value added” by a teacher.
 But is this valid? In New York, they are trying to do this. But under this model, there have been teachers receiving wildly different numbers in the same year and wildly different numbers from year to year. If the masters of the universe cannot even properly mathematically model the value of a credit default swap on Wall Street, how can they measure the infinitely more complicated contribution that a teacher makes for her/his students in a year? This is not “merit” pay. This is random pay."

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Red's Pictures of San Francisco

My online buddy, Red at Trigeminal Neuralgia Support took some awesome pictures of San Francisco while he was visiting last week. It's always great to see your city through a friend's eyes. Here are my favorites. You can find Red's beautiful photos on his homepage, R.A.L. Photographic Art.



John Clayton's SportCenter commercial

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The xx - Coexist

Awesome visualizer of the new XX album spreading throughout the world.

The xx - Coexist:












Saturday, September 1, 2012

Power of the Pod

Ariel posted a great list of fun podcasts to listen to while exercising. I do this all the time. and now that I've cut the cord on cable, I'm listening to even more. 

Running in the 415

"Hour long podcasts:

Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me (NPR): I WAIT for this one on Saturdays. It's so funny…and often my source of current events information!

Ask Me Another (NPR): Also a funny and great source of information. Brainteasers, music, laughs, pub-night-trivia-esque information: what's not to like?

The Dinner Party (American Public Media): A blend of food, culture, history, fun facts, cool guests, music, unconventional wisdom that will make you a much more interesting dinner party guest.

Shorter Podcasts:

Freakonomics Radio (Stephen J. Dubner): If you liked the books, you'll love this. Topics from how American food got so bad to whether or not expensive wines actually taste better.

How to Do Everything (Ian Chillag and Mike Danforth): LOVE this one! Funny titles like "Wine, Wimbledon and Surprises" and "Propane, 50 Shades and Backstage" tell you how to do everything (hence the title) from how to get backstage at a concert to how to know if your wine has gone bad."




Advertising's bumpy transition (and why it matters to you)

Click though to read this Lo g but terrific article from Seth Godin on advertising. Great primer if you are building something, or selling something. 

Seth's Blog

"Since advertising is paying for a big portion of the consumer web, it's being built to please advertisers. Right now, though, what advertisers are used to buying isn't what the web is good at building.

There's huge progress being made in perceptions, but there's a ways to go. Which is why, "we're ad supported" isn't as obvious a strategy as it should be."