Drake.fm

"The first thing I said was, ‘I knew it, I knew it…He’s a monster. He’s the opposite of what people..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:38:31 -0400

“The first thing I said was, ‘I knew it, I knew it…He’s a monster. He’s the opposite of what people thought he was.”

- Fernando Colon, speaking to the Times, weighs in on neighbor Ariel Castro and the harrowing details emerging in the case of three women discovered to have been held in a Cleveland home for upwards of 10 years.

Castro, the man who owns the house the women were found in and is now in custody with an $8 million bail, has a lengthy, disturbing history of violence, which can be read through here.
(via latimes)

theatlantic: Do We Change Our Minds on Abortion When It Affects...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:19:16 -0400

theatlantic:

Do We Change Our Minds on Abortion When It Affects Us Directly?

[Sources: Gallup; Natoli et al., Prenatal Diagnosis, Feb. 2012]

"We see a dog, it is barking. It could be a K9 unit. We don’t know. It is a dog."

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:40:55 -0400

““We see a dog, it is barking. It could be a K9 unit. We don’t know. It is a dog.”

- CNN (via kateoplis)

Why Study History?

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:33:00 -0400

Stanford University History Building

I was very surprised and delighted to open Hacker News today and see this in the top stories:

Why Study History - American Historical Association

As someone who spent over $200k (or at least had as many money paid on my behalf) on a history diploma I figured I had better know the answer to this question. I found the article to be pretty simplistic and a little gushy after the first read, but after some reflection I’ve realized exactly how precious my education is history is in my daily life.

Everyone knows that there are only two legitimate applications for a history major: teaching and law school. I was still under the naive impression that being a lawyer was like living an episode of Law and Order or Suits until I realized that: (a) I’ll never be Jack McCoy (b) the paralegals are nowhere near as hot as they are on Suits. Seriously, the principle donor for a special scholarship that I received from Stanford and former university general counsel Mike Roster authored several articles and spoke at numerous conferences about an impending bubble in law (particularly in the salaries of first years). I saw what was happening in the financial sector and decided to read the writing on the wall and so, in my sophomore year decided to abandon the career choice that I had been preparing for.

Wanna be a lawyer? Full disclosure, paralegals don’t look like this

I still had plenty of time to change my major to any of a number of degrees that would improve my job prospects, and I considered them all. Truth be told, I’m not naturally a good fit for the degree: I’m dyslexic and read very slowly, I’m very opinionated and creative (creativity is not a quality most historians would consider a merit), and I will sometimes just fudge details if it makes the story I’m telling better. But my time in the department had allowed me to interact with some of the most brilliant historical minds in the world: Jack Rakove, David Kennedy, Richard White, my adviser Jessica Riskin, etc.. This advantage on top of the fact that I had fallen in love with the history corner (especially sneaking their late at night to smoke and watch movies on the projectors) was important at the time, but I didn’t realize the true benefits until much later.

Attending college in Silicon Valley, it was only a matter of time before I was swept up in the tidal wave of entrepreneurial spirit and decided that I would be taking my talents to North Beach (actually Hayes Valley but that just sounded too cool not to say) and start my own company focused on developing a new age music player for Android and iOS. Excuse me? Go back to that part where you were a history major and decided to start a tech company… WTF? That’s the reaction that I have been getting for years now. What most people can’t seem to understand is how my history degree has benefited me in my career as a designer and front-end engineer. A lot of these points are touched on in the article that prompted this post and I won’t beat a dead horse, but I will try and summarize:

1. Handling Evidence

One of the most important qualities of a historian is the ability to discern the reliability and objectiveness of the sources that we handle. Unlike mathematicians or engineers, historians evidence is collected through very subjective (non-scientific) methods, and separating the objective “truths” from their human context is the most arduous task. For this reason we, historians, are the ones who read all of the footnotes at the end of the book, or read conflicting accounts of what is presented to better determine the objectivity of the source.

2. A fresh take on old ideas

One of the first lessons that I learned as a history major was that if you think you have something interesting to say, it has already been said a thousand times. How then are you supposed to make novel and insightful contributions in a field when bright minds have been at work for centuries? This is the challenge that excited me the most about History as a subject. For this reason, I am immensely proud of the papers that I wrote.

3. Everything is obvious

Finally, a historical perspective allows you to take a wide angle view of problems and challenges when you approach them. When I am under a lot of pressure to get something huge done and feel that I don’t have the resources or skills to execute it puts me at ease to think back to the many people who have accomplished a great feat largely thought to be impossible at the time. My music start-up set out to reinvent the iPod, and it was a big part of our pitch to remind potential investors and hires about how the iPod came out of nowhere to dominate the market, and how such a small thing catapulted Apple into the world’s most valuable company.

Today, I spend most of my time between Unix and Photoshop and at times even wonder how in the world a degree in history has prepared me for any of this. But something about searching Stack Overflow for a solution through mountains of conflicting solutions reminds me of all those nights spent late in the library searching thousands of pages for one sentence that is going to prove my thesis. When I’m in a meeting with a client and they ask me what’s special about my technology I flash back to my seminar classes while I (without thinking) rattle off the history of the entire industry and why this is the future. I could go on and on about how my degree has helped me in my daily life but I would recommend you reading the article. I only share my two cents because I hope that there is some high school senior or college freshman out there who loves history but still wants to be employed when they graduate.

Just finished meeting with a client, and Counter franchise...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:10:34 -0400

Just finished meeting with a client, and Counter franchise owner, who turned my attention to this amazing web app the counter recently launched to take pick up orders online. Bravo to the design firm that made this, didn’t get the name.

Photo

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:48:20 -0500

gotemcoach: WORK ETHIC A story about Kobe Bryant, as told by a...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:47:47 -0500

gotemcoach:

WORK ETHIC

A story about Kobe Bryant, as told by a professional trainer who worked with Bryant this past Summer, for the Olympics:

I’ve been a professional athletic trainer for about 16 years and have been able to work with a range of athletes from the high school to professional level. Right now I run in a clinic in Cincinnati and have most recently been training with some players on the Bengals.

I activated my reddit account just a moment ago and because I’ve been seeing the videos of Kobe’s most recent dunks and the comments you guys have had to share I decided I might as well chime in what I know about the man. And let me just state by saying that this story doesn’t touch on anything we don’t know about Kobe but rather that he simply is not human when he is working on his craft.

I was invited to Las Vegas this past Summer to help Team USA with their conditioning before they head off to London, and as we know they would eventually bring home the Gold (USA). I’ve had the opportunity to work with Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade in the past but this would be my first interaction with Kobe. We first met three days before the first scrimmage, on the day of the first practice, early July. It was a brief conversation where we talked about conditioning, where he would like to be by the end of the Summer, and we talked a little bit about the hustle of the Select Team. Then he got my number and I let him know that if he ever wanted some extra training he could hit me up any time.

The night before the first scrimmage I remember I was just watched “Casablanca” for the first time and it was about 3:30 AM. I lay in bed, slowly fading away when I hear my cell ring. It was Kobe. I nervously picked up.

“Hey, uhh Rob, I hope I’m not disturbing anything right?”

“Uhh no, what’s up Kob?”

“Just wondering if you could just help me out with some conditioning work, that’s all.”

I checked my clock. 4:15 AM.

“Yeah sure, I’ll see you in the facility in a bit.”

It took me about twenty minutes to get my gear and out of the hotel. When I arrived and opened the room to the main practice floor I saw Kobe. Alone. He was drenched in sweat as if he had just taken a swim. It wasn’t even 5AM.

We did some conditioning work for the next hour and fifteen minutes. Then we entered the weight room, where he would do a multitude of strength training exercises for the next 45 minutes. After that we parted ways and he went back to the practice floor to shoot. I went back to the hotel and crashed. Wow.

I was expected to be at the floor again at about 11 AM. I woke up feeling sleepy, drowsy, and almost pretty much every side effect of sleep deprivation. Thanks, Kobe. I had a bagel and headed to the practice facility.

This next part I remember very vividly. All the Team USA players were there, feeling good for the first scrimmage. LeBron was talking to Carmelo if I remember correctly and Coach Krzyzewski was trying to explain something to Kevin Durant. On the right side of the practice facility was Kobe by himself shooting jumpers. And this is how our next conversation went — I went over to him, patted him on the back and said, “Good work this morning.”

“Huh?”

“Like, the conditioning. Good work.”

“Oh. Yeah, thanks Rob. I really appreciate it.”

“So when did you finish?”

“Finish what?”

“Getting your shots up. What time did you leave the facility?”

“Oh just now. I wanted 800 makes so yeah, just now.”

My jaw dropped. Mother of holy God. It was then that I realized that there’s no surprise to why he’s been as effective as he was last season. Every story about his dedication, every quote that he’s said about hard work all came together and hit me like a train. It’s no surprise to me now that he’s dunking on players ten years younger than him and it wasn’t a surprise to me earlier this year when he led the league in scoring.

Thanks for reading and allowing me to share you my Kobe Bryant story. If anyone has any questions I can clarify. Sorry if the story was at all hard to follow as this is my first time on reddit.

Rob.

#GotEmCoach

When women complain that they can't get a date in the city...

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:00:47 -0500

whilstinsf:

The FuelBand by Nike, which has become an unlikely leader in...

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:35:00 -0500

The FuelBand by Nike, which has become an unlikely leader in wearable computing.

As design continues to gain recognition as a necessary ingredient to consumer success, the massive competitive edge that Apple had built during the Steve Jobs era appears to have dwindled more quickly than anyone could have predicted. It’s not that Apple has completely plummeted, its that a digital renaissance is taking place, and the leaders are graduating from places like RISD and Stanford’s D-School. Rest assured, the web is becoming a beautiful thing.

kateoplis:

“We’re on the tail end of technology being special,” says John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design. “The automobile was a weird alien technology when it first debuted, then, after a while, it evolved and designers stepped in to add value to it.” …

The worship of design has also taken designers out of the back offices and into top executive jobs. Engineers are still in the mix, to be sure. But they don’t rule the roost in product development, which may also be why tech products are easier to use, more human.

Design is Driving Technology Forward | NYT

theclassyissue: Childish Gambino – L.E.S.

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 04:09:55 -0500

theclassyissue:

Childish Gambino – L.E.S.

I don’t have a car, nor do I want one… unless of...

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:43:57 -0500

I don’t have a car, nor do I want one… unless of course it’s this one.

asaucerfulofwheels:

1963 Aston Martin DB4 GT Superleggera (1 of 6)

Remarkable redesign of Facebook. I am very impressed with this...

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 02:56:52 -0500

Remarkable redesign of Facebook. I am very impressed with this guy’s work, and its inspiring me to do some similar work of my own. Check out his full post here

New York Times Demonstrates the Power of HTML5

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:43:54 -0500

New York Times Demonstrates the Power of HTML5:

Today the New York Times published a groundbreaking article (Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek)that was developed in a beautiful HTML page. Regular readers will wonder if this is just an isolated development or if they can loof forward to more beautiful interactive headlines. I sure hope for the latter. I’ve been saying for a while that with the capabilities of the web sites like the NYT should look more like the Daily Prophet, and this is a step in the right direction. This site effectively embeds video, motion graphics, animations and many other impressive features in this beautiful story. I’m sure that this took time to develop and I just hope that more publications develop teams capable of this quality of production.

Could we see online newspapers starting to resemble the Daily Prophet?

Adobe + Bēhance

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:52:51 -0500

Adobe + Bēhance:

Adobe just bought itself the best Christmas gift of 2013: the Bēhance network. This company provides the internet’s best portfolio solution, and boasts a fantastic iPhone app. I’ve been using Bēhance for some time and have been continually impressed. Adobe is a major engine in the creative world; these resources combined should strengthen Adobe significantly. We saw how swiftly and elegantly Google integrated Sparrow. If Adobe can likewise beef up their Creative Cloud offering with deep portfolio integration designers and creatives are in for a treat in 2013.

My purely speculative wish list:

Direct portfolio export from CS apps
Desktop portfolio app with tight Creative Cloud Integration
Social file-sharing options
Significant advances to the Prosite feature

Best Gifs Ever.

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:06:05 -0500

Best Gifs Ever.

"When Quentin told me about the part of Stephen, I complained about being fifteen years too old to..."

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 12:37:00 -0500

“When Quentin told me about the part of Stephen, I complained about being fifteen years too old to play Django. And when I read the script I called him back and said, “So you want me to be the most despicable negro in cinematic history?”

- Samuel L. Jackson on his part in the upcoming Quentin Tarantino film Django Unchained. This movie is going to be all I need for Christmas.

Photo

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 16:01:10 -0500

ymdb: What a legend, and just one day short of the big 9-2....

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:53:49 -0500

ymdb:

What a legend, and just one day short of the big 9-2. This has officially become “Take Five” day.

laughingsquid:

Dave Brubeck (1920-2012), Legendary Jazz Pianist

NFL Week 13

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:31:09 -0500

Week 12 predictions: 10-6

Since Week 9: 40-17-1

Saints @ Falcons -3.5

Seahawks @ Bears -4

Jaguars @ Bills -5.5

Colts @ Lions -4.5

Vikings @ Packers -9

Texans @ Titans +5.5

Panthers @ Chiefs +3

49ers @ Rams +7

Patriots @ Dolphins +7

Cardinals @ Jets -4.5

Buccaneers @ Broncos -7

Browns @ Raiders +1.5

Bengals @ Chargers +1.5

Steelers @ Ravens even

Eagles @ Cowboys -10

Giants @ Washington +2.5

NFL Week 12 Picks

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 13:53:00 -0500

Last week was a pretty good week for my predictions going 10-4 on the moneyline. I’m hoping that this week keeps up, because I’m in Nevada and betting most of the games. You will note that this blog post will come after the Thanksgiving games have already been played, but my predictions are still legit because I bet these games and won money. I have no evidence of this, just take my word for it.

Redskins @ Cowboys (-3.5)

This was my first moneyline win this week and I would like to thank Tony Romo and the Dallas defense for a happy thanksgiving.

Texans @ Lions (+3.5)

I did not predict this game would be as close as it would and the only reason I won my ticket (I parlayed the Houston and New England games) is because the guy accidentally put me on the moneyline for both matchups which saved my ass.

Patriots @ Jets (+6.5)

Duh. But take a break to realize that all three of the losers on Thanksgiving were home teams. Suprised? Don’t be… if there are three teams I can count on to lose at home on Thanksgiving its Dallas, NY Jets and the Lions. From now on whenever I have a bad day I will watch the now infamous ass-fumble.

Bengals @ Raiders (+8.5)

Revenge is a bitch, and you’d better believe Palmer has got it on his brain this week. I know what you’re thinkning: Cam, it’s the Raiders… I know, but they gotta win at some point right?

Steelers @ Browns (+0.5)

Colts @ Bills (+3.5)

This game will be good, it will be close. If you’ve been reading my blog (and my girlfriend might be the only person who does… if you’re reading this I love you baby) then you will know that my two favorite players this year have been Spiller and Luck. I gotta give this to the Colts because Fitzgerald has been cold as ice lately.

Broncos @ Chiefs (+10.5)

I’ve had pisses that lasted longer than all of the time the Chiefs have led this year.

Titans @ Jaguars (+2.5)

Who fucking knows, right?

Vikings @ Bears (-6.5)

Two weeks in a row my heart has been broken. If you think that is going to make me stop picking the Bears you definitely don’t know me. But honestly, from a betting perspective I like the Vikings.

Falcons @ Buccaneers (+0.5)

Let me make two points: 1. The Falcons have beat 1 team that’s .500 or better. 2. In that win Peyton Manning threw 3 picks in a quarter. Case rested. Expect the Doug Martin and the young Bucs’ to do work.

Seahawks @ Dolphins (+3.5)

My loyalty to my homie Richard Sherman runs about as deep as my loyalty to the Bears so I could possibly pick the Seahawks to win every game. That being said with the way Miami has been running the ball, how could I pick them?

Ravens @ Chargers (+0.5)

Take everything I’ve ever said about Tony Romo and apply that to Phillip Rivers.

Drake.fm

"The first thing I said was, ‘I knew it, I knew it…He’s a monster. He’s the opposite of what people..."

theatlantic: Do We Change Our Minds on Abortion When It Affects...

"We see a dog, it is barking. It could be a K9 unit. We don’t know. It is a dog."

Why Study History?

1. Handling Evidence

2. A fresh take on old ideas

3. Everything is obvious

Just finished meeting with a client, and Counter franchise...

Photo

gotemcoach: WORK ETHIC A story about Kobe Bryant, as told by a...

When women complain that they can't get a date in the city...

The FuelBand by Nike, which has become an unlikely leader in...

theclassyissue: Childish Gambino – L.E.S.

I don’t have a car, nor do I want one… unless of...

Remarkable redesign of Facebook. I am very impressed with this...

New York Times Demonstrates the Power of HTML5

Adobe + Bēhance

My purely speculative wish list:

Best Gifs Ever.

"When Quentin told me about the part of Stephen, I complained about being fifteen years too old to..."

Photo

ymdb: What a legend, and just one day short of the big 9-2....

NFL Week 13

Saints @ Falcons -3.5

Seahawks @ Bears -4

Jaguars @ Bills -5.5

Colts @ Lions -4.5

Vikings @ Packers -9

Texans @ Titans +5.5

Panthers @ Chiefs +3

49ers @ Rams +7

Patriots @ Dolphins +7

Cardinals @ Jets -4.5

Buccaneers @ Broncos -7

Browns @ Raiders +1.5

Bengals @ Chargers +1.5

Steelers @ Ravens even

Eagles @ Cowboys -10

Giants @ Washington +2.5

NFL Week 12 Picks

Redskins @ Cowboys (-3.5)

Texans @ Lions (+3.5)

Patriots @ Jets (+6.5)

Bengals @ Raiders (+8.5)

Steelers @ Browns (+0.5)

Colts @ Bills (+3.5)

Broncos @ Chiefs (+10.5)

Titans @ Jaguars (+2.5)

Vikings @ Bears (-6.5)

Falcons @ Buccaneers (+0.5)

Seahawks @ Dolphins (+3.5)

Ravens @ Chargers (+0.5)

49ers @ Saints (+0.5)

Cardinals @ Rams (+2.5)

Giants @ Packers (+2.5)

Eagles @ Panthers (+1.5)