sshanky

I've always been a big fan of BB's blog, and have recommended their approach to friends and clients for their own blogs and sites. Their data, plans, and progress are not only interesting to people who care about the industry, but it's also a window into the kind of people they are. Proud of their accomplishments (their backup servers, which they've open sourced), and their tools (like their server lifts).

This is beautiful, but probably still too complex for most of their customers. I wonder what their motive in putting this together was, as it must have been very expensive.

I also don't get it. Google Wallet has been around for ages and couldn't be any simpler or easier. These kids obviously haven't been burned by PayPal yet.

I lived in Germany in the '90s and loved the way they split bills at the restaurant. In fact, there wasn't even any "splitting"—you paid for whatever you ordered. The server wore a money pouch and sometimes even a coin dispensing machine. She would walk around the table and ask each person what they ordered, would write the prices down on a neat little recycled paper pad that was about 1" wide and 6" tall, hand it to you, and you paid her immediately. No tips (you rounded up sometimes), no guilt—just German efficiency. Geil!

This, exactly. If you're comfortable enough with the property you're buying and know what to look for, the selling agent has a decent reputation (i.e. he has something to lose if he tries to cheat you), and have been through the process before, you can easily approach the selling agent without an agent of your own. An experienced agent will understand what's going on and know that this leaves another 3% to work with. I'll probably never use a buyer's agent again in my home market, though I would probably use one in an unfamiliar city.

"This embedded content is from a site that does not comply with the Do Not Track (DNT) setting now enabled on your browser.

Please note, if you click through and view it anyway, you may be tracked by the website hosting the embed."

ETOPS originally meant "Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards". Just a way to get approval to fly planes with only two engines over large bodies of water, with rules specifying how far they can be from the nearest airport where they could land in case of an emergency.

I can't discern from the article whether or not he actually makes movements. It says that "The hairspring, mainspring, jewels, crystal and leather strap are bought from suppliers, primarily Seiko subsidiaries." However, I imagine he buys entire movements and concentrates on the case, face, hands, and other aesthetic elements.

The car seems to stop for no apparent reason. I noticed it once next to two pedestrians just off the road, and again after turning right at a stop sign. I wonder if that is why they are showing it in a sped up format -- it certainly makes it harder to notice.

I wonder what the frequency of caves like this might be, and how likely they are to ever be found. Are they typically indicated by some evidence or indicators on the surface, or might there be unthinkable quantities scattered all over the globe?

They recently added quite a few international flights [1]. They now offer service to Aruba, Belize, Cabo San Lucas/Los Cabos, Cancun, Cuba (not sure if it has started yet), Grand Cayman Island, Liberia, Costa Rica, Mexico City, Montego Bay, Nassau, Puerto Vallarta, Punta Cana, San Jose, and Costa Rica.

[1] https://www.southwest.com/international/

I finally took one apart a few days ago, off the top of a box of coconut water. It was difficult for me to understand its mechanism -- the cutter ring has a number of channels that correspond with small guide pins. It made sense that the cutter gets pushed down and then rotated somehow to move the foil it cuts out of the way. But what I didn't figure out (third video in the playlist) was that it happens at opening time.

This is probably the most important question to be able to answer effectively, though I (and it appears many others) have trouble coming up with a compelling reason why people should be worried. Most of the people I try to convince remain unworried, thinking along the same lines -- why is it bad if they know more about me? I inevitably try to explain that 1) it's not beneficial to you, and 2) more importantly, bad actors could use the information unscrupulously. However, they believe that if this information is helpful in any way in protecting them, and otherwise doesn't really bother them, then it's a positive trend.

I would like to come up with some powerful (frightening) examples of why the data collection going on is so dangerous, and why people should be worried and careful.

On entering Canada, I've been asked to open my laptop, turn it on, enter an administrator level password, and then search for *.jpg. Everything shows up -- cached browser images as well. The agent asked a lot of questions, but I was allowed to pass eventually. This all took place out in the open, where they would normally collect a form from you.

I immediately started using TrueCrypt with the plausible deniability option, which allows you to enter an alternate password to open a completely different part of the encrypted area seeded with some random files that look realistic enough to pass scrutiny.

It was always fun to unmount the volume and remount it with the plausible deniability volume. Or, just shutting down before crossing the border and knowing that, if needed, I'd enter the alternate password.

Recently I started using a Mac and Apple's own full disk encryption, but reading this just highlights the risk. Maybe I should start using TrueCrypt again.

Ugh...it's frustrating.

In modern cars, disengaging the clutch (or using neutral) when coasting (toward a stop or down a hill) is less efficient than staying in gear. This is because it takes some fuel to keep the engine idling, where staying in gear allows the computer to completely cut fuel flow, as long as the forward motion is keeping the engine turning.

Just give the wrong answer and keep track in your password tracker. At least social engineers can't figure that out.

I wonder if there would be value in simulating left and right hand pages on a single page view screen. I'm imagining something where you'd see the left page, and the crease between the pages rendered on the right edge of the screen, with a slice of the left edge of the text from the facing page visible. Turning the page would be rendered as a slide over to the right. The next page turn would show the page flipping to the left, combined with a slide back to the left page.

I think this is another tactile part of reading a novel: laying in bed balancing the book in your hand, holding the side you're not reading, then repositioning your hand when you start reading the right hand page.

What's SV?

Am I too late to ask for an invite as well?

Man! If anyone does happen to want to share one, I'd love to give it a try! Thanks

This is also something I remember well. I thought they had some way of locking them to the same speed.

Not to mention how amazingly QUIET they can be! In the front of the cabin the engines were a barely discernable whisper. Also, I was always intrigued at how far back the wings are mounted, probably due to the rear engines bringing the center of gravity further back.

I sold an iPhone on eBay once. More than three months later, I received an email from PayPal stating that I'd been charged back because the buyer was disputing her credit card transaction ("Buyer stated that they did not authorize the purchase"). Although I always pull any balance out of PayPal, I owed them the balance. I was required to find proof that I had received the order (right there on eBay), and that I had shipped it (shipping label had been created, and was also visible on eBay). They ended up reversing the chargeback, but the strange thing was how much work I had to do, when it was all systematically available to them.

A lot of those images appear to be airports. Maybe the algorithm mistakenly identifies them?

I didn't know the A series of paper sizes was built around the golden rectangle. Vignelli had some strong opinions on the US standard:

The international Standard paper sizes, called the A series, is based on a golden rectangle, the divine proportion. It is extremely handsome and practical as well. It is adopted by many countries around the world and is based on the German DIN metric Standards. The United States uses a basic letter size (8 1/2 x 11”) of ugly proportions, and results in complete chaos with an endless amount of paper sizes. It is a by-product of the culture of free enterprise, competition and waste. Just another example of themisinterpretations of freedom.

The A4 is the basic size for stationary. Two thirds of it is a square, a nice economical happenstance resulting from the golden rectangle. It is one of the reasons we tend to use as much as possible the DIN sizes: proportions are always leading to other nice proportions. This does not happen with the American basic size which leads to nothing. I counted 28 different standard sizes in USA!. The only reason we use it is because everybody in USA uses it, all stationary in USA is that size, so are manilla folders, files and office equipment! The repercussion of ugliness is endless.

Why is recessed lighting evil?