November 2009
94 posts
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Do You Hate Being Called an "IT Guy?" →
The phrase ‘IT’ is so overused, I’m not sure what it means any more. OK, maybe it’s an ego thing, but I spent a lot of years in grad school, lots of years getting good at creating software, and lots of years getting good at creating technical products and I don’t want the same label as the intern who fixes windoze. I’m looking at a tech management job at a...
Nov 29th
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From Blog to Small Business: Tips for Taking Your... →
Four and a half years ago I started a blog filled with nothing but leads to available freelance writing opportunities. As I studied blogging and the various ways to generate traffic and revenue, the blog began to grow beyond my wildest dreams. After two years I was able to hire someone to help find leads and we branched out to also offering daily tips and advice. After three years, I added two...
Nov 29th
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Calling Video Professor a Scam →
palmerj3 writes in to give some wider attention to a piece on Techcrunch today in which Michael Arrington reacts to Video Professor’s desperate attempts to shut him up after he called Video Professor…
Nov 28th
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How a Self-Educated HS Dropout Became the Youngest... →
James Bach, a legend in the software-testing field, just published Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar, the tale of how he dropped out of school, became a self-taught games programmer, and scored a sweet gig at Apple—all before turning 21.
Nov 27th
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Walmart Shuts Down For 3 Hours After Shoppers Go... →
The Los Angeles Times says that a Walmart in Upland, California had to kick everyone out and shut down for 3 hours this morning, because shoppers lost their damned minds.
Nov 27th
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Lunchtime WalkTunes: Week 48
Lately I’ve been going for a 45 minute walk each lunchtime while I listen to an album. In the spirit of Twelve Major Chords’ One Sentence Reviews, here’s what I have got through so far: Mon: Owl City - Ocean Eyes People keep comparing these guys to the Postal Service, but this just has a way more auto-tuned pop feel to it. Tues: Jeffrey Lewis and The Junkyard - Em Are I Jeffrey...
Nov 26th
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Nov 25th
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Nov 25th
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“i sleep on my back cause it’s good for the spine anddddddddddddd coffin...”
– Yoni Wolf of Why? on Fatalist Palmistry
Nov 24th
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WatchWatch
“Neil Young” performs the theme of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. I don’t usually like Jimmy but this makes me laugh.
Nov 24th
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New Spiritualized album in 2010? →
areminder: YES PLEASE. Spaceman is even talking about it being influenced by Ladies And Gentlemen… Nothing more to add, really.
Nov 24th
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spectacle at Web2.0 Expo... from my perspective →
Last week, I gave a talk at Web2.0 Expo. From my perspective, I did a dreadful job at delivering my message. Yet, the context around my talk sparked a broad conversation about the implications of turning the [Twitter] backchannel into part of the frontchannel.
Nov 24th
HEALTH (12) Wye Oak (10) Duck Sauce (3) Bag Raiders (3) Leo Laporte and the TWiTs (2) Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Nov 24th
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Secret Keeper Turns Your Bra into a Tote Bag →
Ladies, now you can stuff you money into your cleavage for safe-keeping, just like some 1940s floozie.
Nov 23rd
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NYT Writer Caught Plugging Restaurant Of Accused... →
Shared by brownie First paragraph of this story is incredible. New York Times travel writer Suzy Buckley is caught in a sensational tangle of journalistic ethics after notable watchdog blog NYT Picker reported that Buckley used the TMagazine travel section of the paper to recommend a burger joint owned by her former boyfriend. And, oh yeah, he’s been accused of murdering an unborn baby. Scary...
Nov 23rd
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Nov 23rd
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“If little Collins is anything like big Collins sounds good.”
– Found in the spam pile.
Nov 23rd
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How blog PR works →
Here’s an interesting email correspondence that demonstrates how online PR sometimes operates…
Nov 22nd
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Review with Myles Barlow gets a second series →
Very awesome news. Today the ABC have announced that satire comedy Review with Myles Barlow will return for a second series on ABC2 in 2010, two years after the first series went to air. The six part series…
Nov 22nd
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Nov 22nd
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Nov 22nd
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Vice’s Success Shows the Virtue of Cover-To-Cover... →
The $250,000 that Vice Magazine spent on an exclusive party in Brooklyn last month was a good investment in at least one respect: Vice has gotten scads of free, adoring media attention since. In an era when Condé Nast can’t even afford newspaper subscriptions, any magazine, much less a free 150k circulation mag, throwing that kind of money around is big news.
Nov 21st
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The Vice Guide to Creating a Successful Publishing... →
Perhaps you’ve seen this chart from the Awl, which shows via colorful line graphs exactly how screwed the magazine industry is. (Very screwed.) However, one magazine seems to be weathering…
Nov 20th
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Nov 19th
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Nov 19th
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What Makes Ted Run? →
A great profile of Ted Turner, circa 1986.
Nov 18th
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“I was reading my students’ paragraph essays, feeling my soul wither with each...”
– Further Interpretations Of Real-Life Events by Kevin Moffett (appears in McSweeney’s 30) This quotation taken out of context doesn’t reflect the pathos of this story…but needless to say, it’s great. Funny, sad, and smart. In all the right amounts. (via areminder)
Nov 18th
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Wilco Australian Tour Announced
Fresh off the wirez… FRIDAY APRIL 30TH - THE TIVOLI, BRISBANE Tickets available @ http://www.lovepolice.com.au/wilco & www.Ticketek.com.au or 132 849 ** For Sydney fans, and anyone who likes some travel, we have a very special offer available. We will be selling a premium ticket that gets you both a great seat to the State Theatre show, and also entry to a very intimate...
Nov 18th
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The Lowdown On Footy Down Under From A... →
A Sports Illustrated article from 1981 about a man discovering Australian Rules for the first time. A wonderful read.
Nov 18th
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“Ohhhhhh, so that is how Tumblr is gonna make money. I “get it” now.”
– Young Manhattanite on Tumblr user’s current dashboard header.
Nov 18th
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Aaron Sorkin returning to television →
Over at TV Guide magazine, Sorkin says that his next show will once again (like Studio 60 and Sports Night) be set in the world of television, a behind-the-scenes look at…something. He doesn’t say what the show will be, but when Studio 60 ended there was talk that he would do a show set at a fictional cable news channel.
Nov 18th
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“But Christ just imagine it, there you are on some island paradise, alone with a...”
– Zeta fears a women’s only Contiki Tour on The Punch.
Nov 18th
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Bizarre Droid Auto-Focus Bug Revealed →
“Pity the poor engineer who had to find this one. One of the more interesting of the handful of bugs that have appeared since the launch of Verizon’s Droid smartphone has to do with the on-board camera’s auto-focus. Apparently it just didn’t work. And then suddenly it did. Naturally, this off-again, on-again made the theories fly. But the real reason for the bug was...
Nov 18th
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Pontiac Silverdome Sells For Only $583,000 →
Shared by brownie Why bother buying a house in Melbourne when I could have bought a stadium in Detroit? 35 years ago, taxpayers paid $55.7 million to build the Pontiac Silverdome, former home of the Detroit Lions. The city of Pontiac has been itching to be free of the stadium’s $1.5 million umaintenence bill, so it sold the property at auction. For $583,000.
Nov 18th
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Nov 18th
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“Good call on Bon Iver. Bogans love Journeymen musician, of the ‘competent but...”
– Anonymous Bosch on bogans listening in to Bon Iver in the near future.
Nov 17th
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Murdoch Warns That Without eTablets, “Newspapers... →
Old habits die hard. Rupert Murdoch believes that the future of the newspaper business is subscriptions—electronic subscriptions. He’s done with giving away his news for free on the Web and to…
Nov 17th
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Nov 17th
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WatchWatch
Zach Galifianakis interviews Conan O’Brien on Between Two Ferns. *cricket riding tumbleweed sfx*
Nov 17th
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Nov 17th
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Geek Squad Turns Your Laptop Into An XBOX 360? →
Reader Taylor is a little concerned about his laptop. It died on Halloween and he took it in to Best Buy the next day. Two weeks later, he typed his order number into the Geek Squad website and found that a little Halloween magic had taken place. His laptop was now an XBOX 360.
Nov 17th
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Optical Mice Used To Detect Counterfeit Coins →
El Mundo reports that Spanish researchers at The University of Lleida have used a modified optical mouse to detect counterfeit €2 coins with a success rate comparable to that of an expert trained to do so. Details are to be published freely in the journal Sensors.
Nov 16th
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15 Years In Prison After Cutting The Line At... →
Here’s a strange story from southeast Missouri. Three years ago a college student was waiting in line at Walmart. Her cousin was waiting in another line that was moving faster. The college student, now a teacher who lives in Louisiana, joined her cousin in the “faster” line. This apparently started a confrontation with other customers (and eventually the police) that may cause...
Nov 16th
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Blogging moms wooed by food firms →
“People have accused us of being corporate shills,” said [Andrea] Deckard, a Monroe, Ohio, mother of three whose junkets have also included a free trip to Frito-Lay’s Texas headquarters. Deckard, noting that she is up front with her readers about such trips, said they are educational for her and her fans, and “just fun.” I’m sure Frito-Lay think it’s...
Nov 16th
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Nov 16th
65 notes
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Nov 15th
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Psystar Crushed In Court →
We’ve been following the case of Mac cloner Psystar for some time now. Apple was just handed a summary judgement over Psystar, and as usual Groklaw has the scoop. Here is the order (PDF)…
Nov 14th
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Comic for November 11, 2009 →
Nov 12th
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MPAA Shuts Down Town's Free Muni WiFi Over 1... →
The MPAA forced the town Coshocton, OH to shut down their entire free municipal WiFi network because of a single instance of a single user illegally downloading a copyrighted movie. Here are some of…
Nov 12th
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Content is Not King →
I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Content is not king. You are. (or Queen.) Content is currency. You’re the king. Content is a means to deliver interest. It’s a gathering place for…
Nov 11th