We briefly had a new neighbor in the form of a pigeon. It was a very tame pigeon, willing to walk up to people and to stay still when people approached.
It also had a tag on its ankle. We think it’s a secret agent messenger bird, recently returned from Afghanistan.
An Architect’s Guide to Color – Color is beckoning this season, and one architect is heeding the call with a plethora of new hues to tempt your house's palette.
Linux computer the size of a thumb drive now available for preorder – "[…] the Cotton Candy, a tiny computer that looks like a USB thumb drive. The device, which can run either Ubuntu or Android 4.0, has a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a Mali 400MP GPU that allows it to decode high-definition video."
Cruise Ship Didn’t Aid Drifting Boat, Passengers Say : NPR – "One of the other birders on the Star Princess was Judy Meredith from Bend, Ore. She says, "We all watched him for a bit and thought, 'This guy's in distress. He's trying to get our attention. And he doesn't have a motor on his boat.' We could see that."
Old news, but that big ol' cruise ship probably could have saved those folks. Instead they kept on driving. Of course, I'm sure if they had changed course, some passengers would have been pissed at the delay in their journey.
Coding Horror: Speed Hashing – As usual, a good post from Atwood on security, if a bit sensationalist. Excellent reading on the article he links to, as well.
I'll confess, Atwood (and the StackExchange user experience) has convinced me that (for now) OpenID is the best authentication method for SAAS applications.
Don’t ask where I’ve been. It’s been dark and full of things like strangely proud “humble views”, polka dots and stripes, mock objects, skiing, the IRS, gradients, and a strange dampness.
Still not sure where the dampness is from.
Getting back into the swing of things, have some links!
Why Indies Rock – Example #488 – Aside from the coolness of accepting the feature request, check the timestamps on the discussion in this post.
Thrown off by Science – Male Pattern Fitness – The history of treadmills and stationary bikes apparently starts in the lab. Makes sense, but doesn't immediately disqualify them as good workout tools, despite this article.
my culture is not a trend. – Amazing letter to a t-shirt company protesting the "Native American" imagery on one of their shirts. The impassioned protest got the shirt design taken down and reevaluated.
Lots of people can’t fire their insurance companies | The Incidental Economist – "[L]et’s unpack the idea that if individuals have their own insurance, the “insurance company will have an incentive to keep [them] healthy”. That’s totally backwards. The idea that people might fire their insurance companies is exactly why they don’t have an incentive to keep you healthy."
This is what happens when Greg asks, “What’s the Harlem Shake?”
I just about feel off the couch. Especially when I realized at about 2:40 that that’s a DVD in his belt, not a buckle.
Greg may never ask me another dancing-related question ever again.
A few other nuggets:
Three Word Phrase, by Ryan Pequin – I’ll confess, I started watching Hoarders recently. Just entered Season 3. I’m not sure how I feel about myself anymore. In my defense Season 3 fired off with enough drama that I’ve skipped episodes.