Karm City

Malaysia Air’s “Banana Pancakes”

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:02:43 -0500

Malaysia Air’s “Banana Pancakes”

100 Top Entrepreneurs Who Succeeded without a College Degree

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:27:00 -0500

100 Top Entrepreneurs Who Succeeded without a College Degree:

Abraham Lincoln, lawyer, U.S. president. Finished one year of formal schooling, self-taught himself trigonometry, and read Blackstone on his own to become a lawyer.

Benjamin Franklin, inventor, scientist, inventor, diplomat, author, printer, publisher, politician, patriot, signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Home-schooled with less than two years of formal education.

David Karp, founder of Tumblr. Dropped out of Bronx Science at the age of 15, then homeschooled. Did not attend college.

Walt Disney, founder of the Walt Disney Company. Dropped out of high school at 16.

Holla at my boyz, Abe, It’s All About The Benjamin, and Walt D!

I’ll consider lists like this when they exclude anyone born before 1965. You can’t cite them as a reason to not go to school when a college education was a rare opportunity for most people until recently.

Toilet humor

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:50:04 -0500

In the morning a few days ago, my toilet was plugged. After a few valiant flushing attempts, I knew it was a lost cause. Because I hadn’t yet purchased a plunger, the bathroom was off limits until I had the means to unclog.

I turned off the water line and headed to work.

At noon, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up the secret weapon. They were out. Hopped over to the Rite Aid. Not in stock. I ended up going to “Ye Olde Hardware Store,” and picked up the best looking throne sword I could find.

10 minutes later, the sparkling clean toilet was ready for service. Unfortunately, things were about to get a lot more annoying.

Upon reactivating the water line and performing a test flush, a very loud clarinet started playing. Almost deafening. It turns out the water line must be tuned to the perfect spot, or else it WAILS like a horn. It literally sounds like an aircraft carrier is trying to dock in my bathtub.

I am scared to go to the bathroom now.

Looking forward

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:51:00 -0500

Google recently announced they are officially dropping Internet Explorer 6 from the list of supported browsers for users of Google Apps.

Unfortunately, they’re continuing to support IE7, a browser that is only marginally better than IE6 at rendering pages.

Ultimately, the goal of getting users to upgrade is to help Web developers save weeks of additional time spent making a site compatible with older browsers. Not very much of this time will be saved until the majority of users have upgraded to IE8.

Instead of, “we’re dropping IE6, but still support IE7,” all companies in a position of influence should say, “we’re dropping IE6, so you should upgrade to IE8!”

Let’s keep the ball rolling… not just give it a push up the hill.

App Store

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:37:00 -0500

One big takeaway I got from yesterday’s iPad keynote is how much Apple is depending on the App Store library to sell its new device.

“140,000 apps at your fingertips!”

The issue is, out of those 140k, about 139,500 suck and are near-useless. Of the remaining 500, 400 are games. So we’re talking about 100 truly well designed apps that are realistically useful to most people.

Of course, developers have the option to create apps specifically designed for the iPad. Unfortunately, there’s less core functionality available on the device than an iPhone, meaning iPad-specific apps can’t do things like VoIP and augmented reality.

Even something as simple as a front-facing camera would have made the iPad a truly revolutionary product. Imagine being able to have a video chat with someone while walking around the house. I realize that’s technically possible now with a laptop, but it’s annoying enough to not be a common practice. Making the notion of mobile video chat monumentally easier is worth writing home about.

I’m the target customer for the iPad. I own a MacBook Pro and often leave it at work, because I can do 95% of work-related tasks from my iPhone if I’m away. Unfortunately, using an iPad instead of an iPhone remotely wouldn’t make me any more productive, so it’s impossible to justify buying one.

All in all, I think Apple should have considered exactly what users would realistically use a tablet device for, then build on that, instead of using the bloated App Store library to gauge demand.

The 3Com Audrey © 2000. As soon as Jobs mentioned...

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:50:00 -0500

As soon as Jobs mentioned “grabbing the iPad from the kitchen,” I thought of this — as its pitch was identical. “A kitchen-counter Web tablet”

Why are tablet devices always equated to being used in the kitchen? Can’t I just sit in the chair in my office and use it? I don’t want to get food all over my computing periphs!

Uh... that's it?

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:37:00 -0500

Steve Jobs:
“In order to create a new category of devices, those devices will have to be far better at doing some key tasks — important things — better than the laptop and smartphone. What kind of tasks? Things like browsing the web…

That’s a tall order — better than a laptop at browsing the web? Enjoying and sharing photos, videos, enjoying music, playing games, reading e-books.

Some people have said: oh, that’s a netbook. The problem is netbooks aren’t better at ANYTHING.”

I haven’t heard anyone say “Oh, that’s a netbook.” Don’t act like you just unveiled a revolutionary product that is literally the Apple version of crap Microsoft et al were churning out in 2000.

The iPad, AKA the iPhone with a MacBook Air screen, is as annoying to carry around as a laptop, and is as oversimplified as an iPhone. So, the new device takes the flaws of both and muddles them together.

I don’t get it.

via cyclosity Incredible piece of art. You buy an object on...

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:04:00 -0500

via cyclosity

Incredible piece of art. You buy an object on eBay that automatically posts itself on eBay.

We're Hiring!

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:51:49 -0500

localist:

At Localist, we’re looking for an eager self-starter with a strong desire to win to join our awesome business team.

As a Sales Representative, you will be responsible for generating and qualifying leads in our target verticals. This position requires successful experience working as a Sales Representative preferably for an innovative web technology company.

We’re looking for an extrovert. Know anyone?

"As I am very aware how boring it is to hear about other people being happy, I say only this: I get..."

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:13:09 -0500

“As I am very aware how boring it is to hear about other people being happy, I say only this: I get up every morning at 5 a.m. simply because it’s more exciting to start working than to turn around and sleep some more. I do seem to have a lot of energy. After enjoying a giant pot of coffee and a medium-sized cigar for breakfast, I start my daily schedule of little experiments. This is coming along very well.”

- Daily Routines- Stefan Sagmeister (via rickyv)

Congestion

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:16:31 -0500

Computer screens and highways are fraternal twins.

Highways
During rush hour, typical inefficiencies that arise can often be solved by adding additional lanes. Over time, however, the practice of adding real estate loses its effect, resulting in cluttered roads. Somehow, as more lanes are added, more cars miraculously manage to fill in the extra space.

Computer Screens
On small screens, typical inefficiencies that arise can often be solved by setting a higher resolution. Over time, however, the practice of adding real estate loses its effect, resulting in cluttered screens. Somehow, as higher resolutions are set, the same application windows miraculously manage to fill in the extra space.

This is something that city planners and dual-monitor-wielding programmers refuse to admit.

Indie+Relief

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:41:44 -0500

Indie+Relief:

marco:

All proceeds made on January 20, 2010 will be donated to Haiti. You get great software, Haiti gets financial help in its time of crisis.

Buy any of the software on that page tomorrow (Wednesday) and the developers will donate the proceeds to charities for Haiti relief. (Huge thanks to Justin Williams and Garrett Murray for organizing this.)

I’m participating with Instapaper Pro and donating to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Of all of this great software, I already own and love Billable, MarsEdit, SubEthaEdit, and Tweetie, I’m definitely going to buy Acorn and Clipstart, and I’m eyeing PDFpen and Tickets. Look through the huge list — I bet there’s something you could use.

An excellent idea. Oftentimes, a person needs something tangible, no matter how insignificant, to catalyze a contribution. Hats off to these selfless developers for shouldering the expense.

“Hahaha buddy all these buses look like golf carts they...

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:16:00 -0500

“Hahaha buddy all these buses look like golf carts they wouldn’t last a week on the T”

I’ve never witnessed an argument over how cool a bus looks. Until now.

GPOYW attack! (Do people still do this?)

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:56:00 -0500

GPOYW attack! (Do people still do this?)

Google, evil?

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:20:53 -0500

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting older, but I’m starting to understand where media companies are coming from when they say they want to block (or at least require payment from) Google for serving up their content.

It’s not like these companies are saying, “Give people information for free? No way!” They simply want to stop Google from making billions of dollars off their content without any compensation.

Right now, Google crawls content from various sources, then puts AdSense ads next to them. This equates to pure profit generation off the intellectual property of others. This is the stuff us “freedom of information” folks go nuts about, yet most of said folks are typically staunch opponents of media conglomerates.

It’s pretty surprising that Google has been able to get away with this for so long, as on paper, it’s tantamount to someone copy/pasting an article and reaping all the benefit when site visitors click their ads.

marco: Alex Payne, in Don’t Be A Hero: If someone is working at four in the morning, something...

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:17:46 -0500

marco:

Alex Payne, in Don’t Be A Hero:

If someone is working at four in the morning, something is deeply wrong. Figure out what’s broken and delegate the work out evenly across your team such that it doesn’t happen again. Don’t pat your hero on the back for “pulling another late-nighter”.

This is one reason why, when looking for a job a few years ago, I didn’t consider working for any company whose job description implied (or stated) that I’d be expected to work extremely long hours regularly and not have a family life. Such companies are either run by “heroes” or expect to hire one. (Usually for the same salary as a nine-to-fiver and with a trivial equity stake.)

I resent the commonly held belief that this is an unavoidable part of “startup culture”. (It’s completely avoidable.) Such beliefs encourage workaholism, especially among young people, and cause poor-quality products, employee burnout, and high turnover.

I don’t want to be a part of any company that’s so poorly managed, or simply so cheap, that employees are expected to forego a healthy lifestyle. No job is worth that.

I completely agree. Two guys cranking away 18 hours a day building the next “big thing” in their dorm room is different from crafting a well-structured business in one’s mid-twenties. The two don’t translate, and shouldn’t be expected to.

This guy is not lifting nearly enough weight

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:57:07 -0500

This guy is not lifting nearly enough weight

Home made Cajun fish tacos. Mmmm

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:52:31 -0500

Home made Cajun fish tacos. Mmmm

How about universal petcare?

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:32:00 -0500

[Jake, my brother, who works at an animal hospital]
Jake: im still at work a dog got hit by a car
Me: Oh no! Poor thing.
Jake: yeah :(
Jake: Anddd the owner doesnt have any money to pay for it, ouch
[10 minutes pass]
Me: So what happens now?
Jake: Another person thats been waiting for awhile here felt bad and decided to cover a portion and the rest is covered by another company

We can have a hug

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:52:00 -0500

Me: [asked Mary if I should come up to her apartment or just call when I was out front before heading to dinner]
Mary: come upstairs
Mary: we can have a hug