Archive for the 'Web' Category

Sphere Links

Published
by
Patrick
1 year, 4 months ago
in Asides, General and Web
. 1 Comment

I’ve implemented a little update for the ‘Related Content’ that’s found at the bottom of each post. While all posts will continue to link to other posts on a vaguely similar theme, longer posts will show a ‘Sphere It!’ link.

These links show content from all around the web and particularly the ‘blogosphere’ as bloggers like to call it. I think of the ‘blogosphere’ just as I would ‘the media’ but with the simple difference that content is written by normal people and perhaps not a professional production. The Sphere link opens an onscreen box which links to this other aggregated content. Just as the ‘Related Posts’ links are generated automatically and without any input from me (in their case, by Yahoo), Sphere content is linked via the company itself and I have no control over what it shows your or how or why.

Other examples of Sphere links can be seen below:
Walt Mossberg
TechCrunch

Response to Surface: They Fuck It Up

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by
Patrick
1 year, 4 months ago
in Apple Computer and Web
. 0 Comments

The ‘best’ reaction to the Surface computer I posted about yesterday comes from ‘The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs’ which comes out with the winning headline: Microsoft: Now We Will Fuck Up Your Coffee Table

These friggin guys just don’t quit, do they? They’ve ruined computing. …Now they’re going after household furniture too with this “Surface” computer. Just think. Soon you can sit down and start cursing at your coffee table when it freezes up or needs to reboot or warns you about some security alert. Jesus.

Twitter, the opposite of GTD

Published
by
Patrick
1 year, 4 months ago
in Web
. 5 Comments

I’ve finally come across someone who at least questions one of the emergent Web 2.0 phenomenons. Lifehacker writes the first post I’ve read which criticizes the new fad-of-the-moment Twitter for the timewaster that it is. I don’t see much point in posting micro-posts about what I’m doing at any given moment. If I wanted to do that I’d have an always-on connection to MSN or AIM through my mobile: I don’t see a need for another blogging application. One’s enough for the moment.

Senor writer Elinor Mills says Twitter’s just a bunch of “stream-of-conscious babblings” for friends and people who have time to “read inane musings of strangers.” Staff writer Caroline McCarthy says Twitter’s randomness is a “welcome diversion.” Coincidentally, the Lifehacker editors had quite the internal debate about whether or not Twitter is a post-worthy app, and while there was a difference of opinion about Twitter’s longevity, we all agreed it is never going to boost productivity.

Lifehacker: Is Twitter Worth Your Time?

The Potential of the Young

Published
by
Patrick
1 year, 6 months ago
in Apple Computer, Business, Science/Tech and Web
. 2 Comments

Following on from ‘Microsoft is Dead‘, I’ve just read another long essay in which Paul Graham, a computer programmer, author and venture capitalist, muses on the potential of the young, how large (technology - in his concept) companies should really be buying small startups instead of trying to hire all the good people direcly as well as the quandry of whether to stay in school or start your own business. Graham’s basic thought is that ‘the youth of today’ have immense power because we can take all the risks in the world and largely, come out unscathed from them. We can create our own companies and see how they almost value themselves within the marketplace rather than having to rely on a corporate master for a dollarEuro value on a paycheck. He acknowledges the risk that people take when considering leaving college, grad school or business school but also counsels that it may be the best decision one can make. It’s all a question of timing and of your own and your colleagues’ personal skill.

Here are some quotes, which I’ve shuffled around in order and context to make work here. The essay is worth reading in full. The link is below.

Most organizations who hire people right out of college are only aware of the average value of 22 year olds, which is not that high….The most productive young people will always be undervalued by large organizations, because the young have no performance to measure yet, and any error in guessing their ability will tend toward the mean…. I think few realize the huge spread in the value of 20 year olds. Some, it’s true, are not very capable. But others are more capable than all but a handful of 30 year olds.

Most undergrads probably have more debts than assets. They may feel they have nothing to invest. But that’s not true: they have their time to invest, and the same rule about risk applies there. Your early twenties are exactly the time to take insane career risks… Riskier career moves pay better on average, because there is less demand for them. Extreme choices like starting a startup are so frightening that most people won’t even try.

What’s an especially productive 22 year old to do? One thing you can do is go over the heads of organizations, directly to the users. Any company that hires you is, economically, acting as a proxy for the customer. The rate at which they value you (though they may not consciously realize it) is an attempt to guess your value to the user. If you want, you can opt to be valued directly by users, by starting your own company.

The market is a lot more discerning than any employer. And it is completely non-discriminatory. On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. And more to the point, nobody knows you’re 22. All users care about is whether your site or software gives them what they want. If you’re really productive, why not make employers pay market rate for you? Why go work as an ordinary employee for a big company, when you could start a startup and make them buy it to get you?

-from Hiring is Obsolete by Paul Graham

RSS Feeds and Asides: Ways to keep up to date

Published
by
Patrick
1 year, 6 months ago
in General and Web
. 0 Comments

Just thought I’d point out two or three features of the site that may not be initially noticable. First is the RSS Feed of the page - like a self updating bookmark of all the posts that I’ve been writing. You can drag the link below onto your Safari/IE7/Firefox toolbar and it will show an alert when a new post is published. RSS Recent Posts Feed.

The other thing is the ‘Asides’ posts on the right hand side. Something I’ve been looking at doing for a while - these miniposts allow me to post little bits of info/news without writing a whole lot about them. You can comment on asides just like on a normal post. Click on the number (normally a ‘0′) at the bottom of the ‘aside’ and that will take you to a full-post style representation of the content. It’s like a normal post but, smaller! Think of the hierarchy of posts as; full post, asides, then ma.gnolia bookmarks.

Oh, and there’s the ‘related posts’ thing. I just added that last week or so. Half for me to see what else is related, half in case the thing that’s related is interesting. It works by analysing the words of a post and linking to similarly themed posts. Clever!

Boob ads. Really, they’re just hilarious

Published
by
Patrick
1 year, 6 months ago
in Sex and Web
. 3 Comments

Some breast-filled ads on mainstream sites have really been cracking me up recently. I know the ads that you see on any ‘gay-interest’ sites aren’t going to be subtle either, all airbrushed abs and prominent bulges in all the right places, but the boobs are going to the extreme. I’m thinking specifically about sites that host Bittorrent files, the place you’d go if you’re looking to download the latest version of Linux, or a movie, or a tv show or some music (all those last three illegally of course). The websites can’t get mainstream advertisers because they’d likely be accused of supporting piracy so the websites resort to donations (from people who are specifically avoiding paying for their entertainment - probably not many donations there) or rather less reputable advertisers; the gambling websites, the ‘busty babes’ websites, and the ‘FREE SONY PSP FREE FREE’ type companies. What caught my eye was this knockout photo, so obviously a joke, or digital manipulation as to be laughable. Perhaps that was their intention.

The sweetest standing down ever: Bruno Bonnell of Infogrames

Published
by
Patrick
1 year, 6 months ago
in Business, French and Web
. 0 Comments

Infogrames, who millions will remember from the beginning (if not the future) of the computer games revolution, but more than anything from the came Civilisation III, lost its founder and CEO Bruno Bonnell on the 4th April. The founder and company are splitting to ‘take this opportunity to launch new dynamics of change for the group’. In an interview with Le Monde (published and I assume conducted in French) that could easily have turned bitter (as the interviewer appeared to be hoping), Bonnell came off nostalgic. I think it’s one of the most eloquent and, overall, classy interviews I’ve ever read. If there are errors in the translation, that’s my fault.

Bruno Bonnell: “I am not shut-out from Infogrames”:

Responding to a question as to the reasons for his departure he replies:

We have had setbacks, but Infogrames is always there. Throughout, we haven’t lost our essence. The business est in the top 10 in all countries and in some amongst those in the top five. But it’s necessary to give it a new momentum.

Nous avons ensuite connu des déboires, mais Infogrames est toujours là. Nous n’avons surtout pas perdu l’essentiel. La société est dans le top 10 dans tous les pays et dans certains d’entre eux dans les cinq premiers. Mais il faut lui donner un nouvel élan.

In response to a question about private investment funds, and whether Bonnell fears for the company’s future as a result of their actions, he replied:

[The investment fund] Blue Bay has invested millions of euros in Infogrames when nobody wanted to put in a euro. It has two seats on the board out of a total of seven. Its desire is to give the means for which Infogrames yearns to develop itself and generate value. I’m sure that Blue Bay is there to strengthen the business. If I had a contrary feeeling, I would not have taken the decision to give it command of the business.

Blue Bay a investi des millions d’euros dans Infogrames quand personne ne voulait y mettre un euro. Il a deux sièges au conseil d’administration sur un total de sept. Sa volonté est de donner les moyens qui manquent à Infogrames pour se développer, et lui faire générer de la valeur. Je suis sûr que Blue Bay est là pour conforter l’entreprise. Si j’avais le sentiment contraire, je n’aurais pas pris la décision de donner les rênes de l’entreprise.

And on his future projects:

One thing for sure, I am not going to create a competitor to Infogrames. Moreover, I’ve decided that from today, I will not speak any more about Infogrames in order to let it grow undistubed.

Une chose est sûre, je ne vais pas créer un concurrent à Infogrames. D’ailleurs, j’ai décidé qu’à partir d’aujourd’hui, je ne parlerai plus d’Infogrames pour la laisser grandir sereinement.

Le Monde: Bruno Bonnell : “Je ne suis pas mis à la porte d’Infogrames”

Waaaay Back

Published
by
Patrick
1 year, 8 months ago
in Science/Tech and Web
. 0 Comments

My last post, on who I was when 18 years old, made me think of what my site used to look like. I miss some of those designs. Actually, the one I miss most was one I never really managed to get working, where the top looked like a post-it note and the whole page was designed to work like it was a piece of notebook paper. It sounds cheesy but I would have got it to look subtle. Anyway, working with blogger at the time was just too hard. Now I just don’t have enough time/patience. Maybe someday.

But look at Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine for sortroom.net. It’s amazing the changes! Most interesting to me is how some of my earlier designs looked a lot busier than my current or at least recent ones. It’s hard to make design look simple and yet put a lot of information out there. That is always my biggest challenge: not to give myself a headache!

I was 18 when I wrote this…

Published
by
Patrick
1 year, 8 months ago
in Web
. 0 Comments

And I can tell you, it’s a trip down memory lane this one…

I don’t know if it’s a quirk of the Yahoo! system, but I’m sure I would have known how to spell Tracey Emin. Maybe not.

The dreaded process - told by a fellow blogger

Published
by
Patrick
1 year, 9 months ago
in Family, Gay, US and Web
. 0 Comments

There’s a boy in the US’s Midwest who writes a blog that I’ve been reading of late. It’s an anonymous blog: he doesn’t post photos of himself, he doesn’t tell his readers where he lives or goes to University or what his real name is. He writes under the pseudonym ‘Phil’. He’s a politics student and a swimmer on the school team. He sounds like a nice guy. His parents are pretty conservative, and over the last few weeks he’s been wrestling with the process of how to come out as gay to his family. I know, it’s hard. He’s drafted a letter to his parents to give them after talking to them, he’s doubted himself and his family, he’s defended his sexuality and he’s recounted conversation with his parents. They seem like the kind of people who would be hard to convince to support an opinion they didn’t immediately believe.
On December 12th he wrote about being honest and coming out to his family. Then on December 17th he did it and wrote about it on the 18th: Coming Out to my parents, Part I, followed by the conclusion of his experience in Coming Out to my parents, Part II. It’s really worth reading because it shows the torment through which a lot of people have to go in order to be honest about their sexuality with their families, though the concept could apply to any number of ‘coming out’ problems - breakdown of a marriage, falling in love with someone from the ‘wrong’ religion… Phil’s words on the 18th:

The internal screaming took over my body and shook it. It ran up and down my spine, louder and louder. I got dizzy. I got sick to my stomach. I stared them in the eyes, waiting for a reaction. It felts like ages, years, centuries, but I know it was just a couple seconds. I saw the words hit them in the face. “There’s no going back Phil.” I thought to myself. “This is it. Be confident. Be strong.” Their facial expressions changed, and I didn’t know what to do. Run for the door, or run into a full embrace and hug?

micifus.typepad.com