Announcing Music 365
I’ve decided to take on a “Project 365″ adventure, described here.
Leave a Comment!
Here’s my meek plea for you to leave comments.
Why?
- They give me something to read and respond to when I’m bored at work (which is often).
- It gives you an opportunity to point out my factual or subjective errors in reasoning (who doesn’t love that?).
- It’s easy to do. As long as you provide “a” name, “an” email address, and something that isn’t blatantly spam (i.e. no comments of “HUAHhfjsssjsjjjkioOUYATSID”) you can leave one.
- If you have a blog, you can put your website into the field and I will in turn look at it and comment on your posts. More comments mean more people are likely to read the comments, which in turn leads to greater exposure for everyone. Win-win-win!
- You can now edit your comments thanks to the WP Ajax Edit Comments plugin. I’m investigating some other plugins, but it will take some fiddling with the CSS to make them compatible. Any suggestions?
As usual, thanks for visiting. Leave a comment 
12 Reasons Why Facebook’s New Design Sucks
I do not pretend to have any sort of designers’ eye, but the new Facebook offends even my sensitivities. It seems like every new version keeps getting worse and worse, and while I have been tempted many times to remove my account I ultimately decide it’s not worth it since Facebook can’t be trusted to remove my information in the first place.
What follows is a list of things from a stylistic standpoint of the shortcomings of the new Facebook layout. I tried very hard to avoid attacking all of the useless new “features,” but in some cases I discuss them if they have relevance to the site’s design.
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Why the Paper Book is Still Relevant
Books are something that I have had a very involved (for lack of a better word) relationship with since childhood. I read constantly when I was young, and when it came time to get my first “real” job the only place I seriously thought about working at was my town’s independent bookseller.
With the recent release of Amazon’s second generation Kindle, I’ve heard a lot of buzz about how paper books are looking more and more dated with each new electronic innovation. While I will concede that electronic print is becoming more and more of a viable alternative to traditional print media, I find this talk of the death of paper to be extremely premature. Keep in mind that this is not a comparison between the pros and cons of a paper book and an eBook/eReader, although I will occasionally use the comparison simply because it better illustrates my point. If anything I will bring up the deficiencies of the eBook/reader because there is an issue that must be addressed before it can truly be called a viable replacement. I realize that eBooks offer a lot of advantages that hard copies don’t; physical space advantage and ease of distribution to name a couple, but that’s for a future post.
So, here is a short list of 8 reasons that the paper book is not yet ready to roll over and die.
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10 Small Things I Can’t Stand
Sometimes it’s the little things that can really ruin a meal, your morning commute, or even managing your finances. I tried to come up with a somewhat unique list of small things that seem to conspire against me on a daily basis that aren’t as obvious as the all-too-common things that nobody likes such as stubbing your toe or being attacked by a rabid platypus.
1. Apple bruises- I’m a pretty big fan of apples. Gala, Pink Lady, even the venerable Granny Smith… all delicious. Refreshingly sweet and healthy, I almost always have a couple in the refrigerator awaiting consumption. However, apple bruises take all of the joy out of eating one. These soft spots not only taste like something is amiss, but they have a spongy, unsatisfying texture coupled with a sickly brown pall. A surprising (to me, anyway) amount of research has gone into the cause and characterization of apple bruises. For example, according to a study done in the Tree Fruit Postharvest Journal, the average number of bruises per fruit were caused by:
Picking (2.6)
Bin hauling (2.2)
Packing line (5.4)
Bagging (2.7)
Distribution (.34-1.45)
Apple bruises have also been characterized by their electrical impedance in a study by the University of Budapest, although sadly I am not able to access the paper without paying. I’m sure it sent shockwaves through the industry when it was first published. No matter how you want to study or classify these defects of nature, the bottom line is that apple bruises suck, big time. (more…)
Copyright © 2009 Black Holes and Snowy Mountains
