Archive for the ‘wtf??’ Category
present day thinking »
Monday, May 7th, 2012
Most days, I ride a bike over a hundred potholes, through half a dozen poorly designed intersections, and under a few thousand feet of raised track that looks as if it could fail at any moment. It’s sort of great but also sort of sad.
It’s clear our transit system is a disaster. But not because we cater to cars, don’t plan complete streets, or even that our maintenance lags desperately behind deterioration.
When we connected the cross-country rail lines, creating incredibly oppressive monopolies, trains were a big deal many couldn’t afford. When we created a nation-wide network of paved roads, displacing millions of poor people, cars were all the rage, if you could afford one. Both projects created Rome-in-a-day social and economic gains after substantial upfront costs. (more…)
when not to infographic »
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
First, let me start with a small lie and tell you with the utmost facetious honesty, I’m not an infographic snob. Sure, I can generally throw a Gestalt together; that’s irrelevant.
Have a look at this graphic and, within a few seconds, think of what it’s trying to tell you. Have a pretty good idea? Now on to it. (more…)
playing with The Android Argument »
Friday, October 7th, 2011
This is a great read. (Nice SEO-link-fodder title!) It exemplifies The Android Argument fairly well and is also hilarious. Here goes an unnecessary response-as-thought-experiment.
Essentially, the article says: the iPhone 4S is out of date despite not having launched yet. Dual-core processing, 8mpx camera, FauxG speed, and big storage are all on Android already.
Here are some highlights. (more…)
one million strong for Facebook sucking! »
Friday, September 30th, 2011
Three times already, I’ve been encouraged to enable the new “Timeline” feature on Facebook. I won’t, but I know enough about it that I’m sure it’ll totally set some people off.
With each redesign (can we call them that?) of Facebook, there’s outrage, but why? We use their product, it’s not our Facebook. It’s our speck of collected statuses in a vast, vast, vast wasteland of other collected statuses.
We’ve changed the definition of “ownership” in the digital space, haven’t we? We use Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr to share our thoughts, sure, but then those thoughts aren’t really ours anymore, right? (more…)
why Qwikster may change my mind »
Monday, September 19th, 2011
Long ago, in the age of walking into a building in search of Digital Versatile Discs for use in proprietary media readers, I was a member of Blockbuster. I like movies; Blockbuster had them so I liked that awhile.
Then their online service started, and I’m incredibly lazy so I liked that awhile. Then Netflix, a competing company with far better branding, got streaming. I’m very impatient, so I liked that awhile.
Fast forward an epoch or two, and you have the present day and the Netflix price increase. (more…)