Today is the day for offbeat hardware tinkering. OK I had to order this for the name alone. I mean, who doesn’t want noontang? The experience is psychotic. The packaging is super nice actually, very simple, clean looking box, looks like it belongs in an Apple store. Then you read the manual which is a ...

The reviews of this thing have been pretty tepid. And if you review this thing as a competitor to a point and shoot, the reviews are right — this is a pretty funky/bad point and shoot. Clumsy to handle, poor UI, hooking this onto your phone feels downright clumsy and bizarre. But the concept is ...

Just Kids by Patti Smith. I’m a rationalist, and I have the faulty assumption that most people think like me. This is a very well written memoir by someone who has a very different worldview, the view of an artist. Not only does the author have different opinions than I do, but she processes the ...

@bfeld posted an interesting article suggesting that Healthcare.gov should have used WordPress as some state sites did. I don’t have a strong opinion on whether WordPress would have been appropriate, but I do love the call in the article to opensource the entire healthcare.gov project, advanced by a number of people including Fred Wilson. The ...

So now Apple has made OS upgrades free, and more importantly, has made productivity software free. A grab bag of thoughts, none of this is fully formed into a thesis. Of course none of this is really free, it is buried in the price of your device. Just as Windows prices are generally paid by ...

Someone saw my Surface this week and shook their head, they assumed I was one of the biggest Microsoft Kool-Aid drinkers ever. I actually think the Surface is kind of a turd. I only have one because it is a part of the conversation in the industry, the conversation about the evolution of Microsoft and ...

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. I love Hesse’s “The Glass Bead Game” and so presumed I’d love this more famous work. But too much droning on and on and on about the nature of the Steppenwolf, and not enough demonstrating his nature through plot and action. I’m a quarter of the way through and I just ...

This thing is stuck on my desktop, on the left side of the screen. No matter what I do, it won’t go away. Persists when I maximize and minimize windows, when I bring up the metro interface or any metro app. Not just a classic desktop phenomenon. Oh and this is a machine without a ...

In the “counting chickens way before they’ve hatched department”, look at the remaining schedule for the Seahawks, Niners, and Saints: Seahawks remaining opponents are 20-32 in aggregate. Niners: 24-34. Saints: 26-31. Advantage: Seahawks. Seahawks remaining opponents average a little worse than 3rd place in their divisions. Niners and Saints, about midway between 2nd and 3rd. ...

The Republican Surrender by the New York Times editorial board: The health care reform law will not be defunded or delayed. No taxes will be cut, and the deal calls for no new cuts to federal spending or limits to social welfare programs. The only things Republicans achieved were billions of dollars in damage to ...

Ed Lazowska shared some observations about the failures in some recent large scale public (or quasi-public) software projects — notably the federal health portal. This project, like others, has had a massive budget, and undoubtedly has had hardworking and well-meaning people beavering away on it. And yet is is an operational failure so far. The ...