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Steve and 4 other people › Comments
Anyone heading to the Maker's Faire tomorrow? We'll be at the MV station for the 9:19am NB train. Hope to see you there!
Morton Fox and Stephen Mack #TeamMomo liked this
Heading there on Sunday!
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
I will be there today, tomorrow and Sunday!
- Rachel Lea Fox
We'll try to stop by the Imp booth and see you -- oh wait, are you at the Fox Hollow booth? Both?
- Steve and 4 other people
Is Google Play All Access a Spotify killer?
Possibly Pandora too. Depends on the strings attached to it.
- Me
Why would it be a killer? Is it free? Can you download your music and store them on your device for when you don't have internet? Do they promise not to track and monetize your listening habits?
- Tinfoil 2.0
What's the inventory?
- Todd Hoff
Someone with an Android will have to tell me. I'm curious.
- Eric - seven eleven
I don't think it's actually available yet, and at $9.99/mo, I don't think it's an anything killer.
- Steve and 4 other people
FYI new play music is in the market now, so update.
- Steve and 4 other people
Items you like on toast:
Kol Tregaskes, bde, Starmama and 4 other people liked this
Nutella
- Yvonne
Cranberries and melted cheddar.
- Jennifer Dittrich
Goat cheese.
- John (bird whisperer)
Too many cheeses to name. Jellies, jams. Pate. Butter. (I just really like toast.)
- Jennifer Dittrich
apple butter
- Jenny...
Peanut butter, honey, fig preserve, marmalade, nutella
- Jason - The Opaque
from Android
Hot chili jam and cream cheese.
- Micah
from FFHound(roid)!
fish
- Steven Cooper
Peanut butter and banana
- Rodfather
Mayonnaise, Turkey, and a tun of black pepper.
- Steve and 4 other people
Tunafish, Sprouts, and a ton of French Dressing.
- Steve and 4 other people
liverwurst, mayo & tomato.
- Starmama
from FFHound(roid)!
bacon, tomato, avocado.
- Starmama
from FFHound(roid)!
Cheese! In particular Dublin Cheddar. Oooh, and mixed with whole grain mustard. Mmm.
- Soup in a TARDIS
Diamonds.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
Vegemite.
- Headless Gnad Kicker
Butter and some kind of Jam, Jelly or Preserves.
- Friar Ticket to Ride
lemon curd
- Tamara J.
butter, cinnamon, and sugar
- scherbi: bottom dweller
Bubba beat me to it. Only I would have said Tom Hiddleston or suchlike...
- Spidra Webster
Raspberry preserves. Or, fried egg, sunny-side up, with Parmesan cheese and black pepper.
- Mary B: #TeamMonique
Cheese with brown sugar sprinkled on it and toasted under the broiler.
- Spidra Webster
Butter and peanut butter.
- Headless Gnad Kicker
Baked beans. Avocado. Tomatoes and salt. I'm currently eating bread with mustard because cravings.
- joey
roasted garlic
- Me
U-238
- Mo Kargas
shrimp scampi
- c.a.j.
more toast
- Amit Patel
shit...though technically it's on a shingle
- Todd Hoff
If you use the suffix "-ivo" to mean "time shifted" you come up with...
Laura Norvig, Amit Patel, Victor Ganata and 2 other people liked this
Breakfistivo : synonym for brunch or brinner: "Yeah, that breakfastivo was totally delicious, too bad its already time for bed"
- Steve and 4 other people
Workivo : Working late into the evening / at home : "Oh my gosh this workivo is really driving me nuts! When will it end?"
- Steve and 4 other people
Sleepivo : Seeping off-hours, as when jet lagged. "Sorry honey, can't go out tonight because I've been totally sleepivo these last few days"
- Steve and 4 other people
Weatherivo : Grossly unseasonable weather. "Man, I'd love to go hiking this weekend, but it's supposed to be totally weatherivo."
- Steve and 4 other people
Facebookivo: "Steve, I was reading one of your status updates from 2010 just now, and--" "Wait, why are you all Facebookivoing my crap from 2010?"
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
A 17-Year-Old Girl Creates Twivo, a Program to Save the World From Twitter TV Spoilers http://zite.to/16hrSVs
 |
Steven Perez, MoTO #TeamMonique, Lisa | #TeamMonique and 5 other people liked this
Love the use of -ivo as a "timeshift modifying suffix"
- Steve and 4 other people
1 | The 20 Best Biking Cities In The World | Co.Exist - http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681955...
imabonehead and Kelli H. liked this
Only one North American city makes it into the top 20--Montreal, in 11th place--and there are no U.S. cities. But several do make it to the top 40: Minneapolis, New York, Austin, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago. Portland, San Francisco, and New York have fallen out of the top 20 since the 2011 ranking, though that’s not necessarily because they’ve become worse places for biking...
- t-ra: not givin up
from Bookmarklet
I've heard some pretty bad experiences from friends of mine who have lived in San Fran/Bay Area about biking there. What I like about this article is the point that if biking was made to be the better transpo option, then folks would bike more often, and not that it's necessarily always best to ride a bike.
- t-ra: not givin up
No Davis, CA?
- Steve and 4 other people
What happens to radio waves? They're picked up by devices and interpreted. At that point do they cease to exist or continue on to infinity?
ronin, Steven Perez, Stephen Mack #TeamMomo and 4 other people liked this
They continue on as noise into the universe. Though I doubt it's to infinity, except possibly in a vacuum; the waves will gather interference and slowly be destroyed. If being picked up was enough to kill them, they'd be pretty useless.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
Ok. Idk what I was thinking but I'm wondering if it really does go on forever.
- Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart
from Android
The device is like a listener then? How many types of radio waves exist? Are there a kajillion and we just can't possibly interpret all of them?
- Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart
from Android
If the wave doesn't get absorbed, it should keep traveling through space forever. That's the whole premise of SETI (and the book and movie *Contact*)
- Victor Ganata
Explorers actually used this as part of the plot. The aliens intercepted our OTA TV broadcasts, but they were so far out they were picking up stuff with Elvis. http://www.imdb.com/title...
- Jimminy IS Everybody
Zulema, there is a spectrum of frequencies. There are at least billions out there, for WiFi, Phones, TV, Microwaves, FM and AM, and others. The whole Digital TV, transition in 2009 was driven by trying to free up spectrum for cellular and internet growth. The country has fewer radio waves than urban areas, at least in the general principal.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
We classify waves with frequencies between 3 kHz and 300 GHz as radio waves. From a purely theoretical standpoint, there are as many distinct frequencies as there are quantum energy levels for photons (so there is a finite number of frequencies), but from a practical standpoint, very close frequencies are going to interfere too much to be practical for transmission of signals.
- Victor Ganata
A good way to think about "radio waves" in general is to think about light, because it is the form of radio wave that we can most directly sense. There are no fixed colors (frequencies), and the light will travel "forever" if nothing stops it.
- Brian Johns
If energy states are quantized, doesn't that imply set frequencies?
- Victor Ganata
Some of the energy is absorbed by the antenna and turned into the sounds that you hear, so in some sense, it does get "used up" by each person who's listening, but not in any significant amount to really "block" the waves from going out into space forever.
- Steve and 4 other people
Specifically, the radio waves absorbed by the antenna are converted to an electrical signal in a wire, which can be converted to sound, picture, etc. The energy that was absorbed by the antenna no longer propagates on forever so in that sense it ceases to exist as a radio wave. But in most radio systems the vast majority of the radio energy misses the intended receiver and carries on forever. The amount of energy captured by most antennas is VERY small compared to the energy radiated by transmitters.
- Brian Johns
I love ya'll. <3 Thinking about it in terms of light helps but light is absorbed isn't it? By colors, by objects, by us seeing it. Or am I thinking about it wrong?
- Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart
from Android
Yeah, the photons of visible light you perceive get absorbed by photoreceptors in your eye, but just like radio waves, this is still a very scant fraction of the photons emitted by the sun or by artificial light that bounce off the object you perceive.
- Victor Ganata
from iPhone
Oh, I see. Fascinating! Radio waves are fascinating. The idea that they can carry data. So a text message, for example, does that signal go on forever too?
- Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart
from Android
It would seem to me that once the energy that produces the radio wave propagates through space, no matter how diminished it becomes over great distances, the energy of the space is forever changed for having had the wave energy pass through. By a minuscule amount, of course, but given that radio waves are being generated and propagated by so many energy sources throughout the universe,...
more...
- Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ
Also, I absorb more energy than most, cause I'm denser (i.e. more dense.) I haven't spent anytime in prison, but if I had I'd be considered a condenser.
- Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ
Teensy alien-looking skeleton from Chile poses a medical mystery - Science - http://science.nbcnews.com/_news...
Kelli H., Kirsten, Andrew C (✓) and 11 other people liked this
"A 6-inch-long (15-centimeter-long) skeleton was found in Chile's Atacama Desert. The skeleton showed several anomalies, including its alienlike skull, teensy body and the fact that it had just 10 ribs rather than the 12 that healthy humans normally have."
- Surprisingly Monstrous
from Bookmarklet
The eency weency skel'ton crawled up the water spout! // Down Chilean rain came and WASHED the ribs right out!
- Micah
I love Micah. *dead*
- Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart
from Android
wait, this reads like "science" when in fact I thought this was total fabrication. is there any real truth here?
- Steve and 4 other people
there's truthiness.
- Joe "Bad Guts" Silence
It only took me a month to put together the easel Santa got her. That counts as a huge success, right?
Lisa | #TeamMonique, mina_sydney, Dario Gomez and 36 other people liked this
Damn Santa got the hardsel instead of the easel!
- Todd Hoff
Todd made me laugh so hard, I almost fell out of my chair. :D And I want that easel! SO. COOL. :D
- Hookuh Tinypants
sweet!
- Joe "Bad Guts" Silence
Hookuh: Go for it! On sale at the present time, $61.47 (normally $80): http://www.amazon.com/Melissa...
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Just makes x-mas last even longer!
- Steve and 4 other people
We got the Ikea version of that.
- Brian Johns
Yvonne, Santa also got her the easel accessory kit that came with some paint and a dry erase marker and some chalk. So, uh, Melissa and Doug chalk, I guess?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
IS IT ME? AM I POPE?
Lisa | #TeamMonique, CarlC, spelling expert, grizabella and 15 other people liked this
NOPE. It's me. shhh. Don't tell anyone
- ellbeecee
Declare yourself pope, I'll join the Mackiens. Don't you already have Thursday evening services with cards & beer?
- Steve and 4 other people
Every other Tuesday. We're religious about it.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
I voted for you, but they burned my vote.
- Brian Johns
Awww, thanks Sparky, that's sweet. I guess it wasn't me, unless I'm now in the running for Anti Pope.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Wow, Stephen, you have an admirer now that you're Pope!
- Steve and 4 other people
And I *almost* felt bad about nuking that spam...
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
...for I am a benevolent Anti Pope.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
you gotta get your PopeMobile all tricked out now that your title is official!
- Morgan
I'm bored with this new pope already. Is it time to elect another one yet?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
According to the Onion, it is: http://www.theonion.com/video...
- Ken Gidley
Hahaha!
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
initial thoughts upon the appearance of white smoke: only the first Francis? ummm, St. Francis of Assis was never ordained as priest, ok then, elections, Francis Underwood plotting at the window of his dining room :-), Francis Bacon paintings of popes. Why not Adrian VII ?
- Adriano
The real reason why parents hate springing forward becomes clear on Monday morning.
MiniMage, Harold, ᏓᏰ #team Monique and 39 other people liked this
Thanks, Ilker :) #zombiechild #damnyoudst But she rallied on the walk to school.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
On the other hand, I loved the extra hour she slept in.
- Brian Johns
Pssssh, that was MONTHS ago. What's DST done for me LATELY?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
No, I mean this morning the number on the clock when she woke up was one more than last week. The sun comes up later, so she wakes up later. Awesome!
- Brian Johns
Eh? I get her up at 7 for school. Same last week as this week. So the clock says the same time. But her body thinks she's getting up an hour earlier. It's true it was darker because the sun is coming up later (relative to our adjusted clock), but I don't understand what you were saying at the beginning.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
Yup, had myself a crying whining #zombiechild this morning
- Just Kidée: Road Warrior
I feel your pain. But great photo. :)
- Stephan Planken
from iPhone
Thanks, Stephan. How did your Sophie do this morning?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
Same look. :)
- Stephan Planken
from iPhone
Longterm benefit outweighs shortterm pain. :)
- Steve and 4 other people
Steve, I'm not convinced there are any benefits. There are more deaths, though: http://www.inquisitr.com/566032...
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
I just like "Summer time" better than "winter time". I'd prefer it dark in the morning and light in the evening, even in winter. :)
- Steve and 4 other people
But there's a surfeit of light in the summer, and a shortage in winter. Even when we fall back, the "extra" evening light quickly disappears in just 1-2 weeks. So it's a pointless exercise of screaming against the tide. Are heart attacks and traffic fatalities worth that? Definitely not. It's long past time to stop this ridiculous and archaic fiddling with clocks.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
Longest day of the year: Jun 21. Sunrise 5:48 AM, Sunset 8:35 PM (14h 46m 52s). If we didn't "spring forward" sunrise would be at 4:48AM. That would be bad. Compare with the shortest day of the year: Dec 21 Sunrise: 7:22 AM, Sunset 4:55 PM. If we didn't "fall back" this would be one hour later than the stated times, which would be fine with me, although sunrise at 8:22am might be brutal for kids going to highschool (starts at ~8am). Personally, that would be OK with me and better than the status quo.
- Steve and 4 other people
I agree. Perma-PDT is the best compromise.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
Or we could just shift by :30m one year and split the difference. :)
- Steve and 4 other people
Or move to the equator?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
You people make my brain hurt. I'm all for the equator suggestion, though. I abhor DST.
- Lisa | #TeamMonique
from Android
When I was a kid, I saw this movie that I've been trying to find ever since...
Greg GuitarBuster, Stephen Mack #TeamMomo and Micah liked this
General premise was family & survival scenes over time, from prehistoric times until present day.
- Steve and 4 other people
The family was cast the same, and at scene cuts, we'd move to a new era.
- Steve and 4 other people
At the time, I swear I thought the father was played by Robin Williams, but that doesn't seem to be true.
- Steve and 4 other people
There were at least 4 or 5 eras, if I remember right.
- Steve and 4 other people
And each era change kind of continued on the themes from the previous one.
- Steve and 4 other people
It was not at all "funny" if I remember right, and showed a lot of tough times and how the family survived.
- Steve and 4 other people
If we can't crack the case, you can repost here: http://movies.stackexchange.com/questio...
- Micah
from FFHound(roid)!
Sounds intriguing, but I don't recognize the premise.
- Micah
from FFHound(roid)!
Don't think I saw it but I'd watch it.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
It's possible it was made for TV, but I didn't think so at the time.
- Steve and 4 other people
Sounds like "History of the World, Part 1"
- Mark H
Yes, it was a bit like History of the World, but I really don't think it was a comedy -- mostly focused on family strife & survival issues over time.
- Steve and 4 other people
States make up for reduced gas consumption with new tax on Hybrids - http://www.news10.net/news...
♫410 I Coach 'em Up♫, imabonehead, Eivind and 3 other people liked this
"Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, signed a new law last month that lowers the gas tax for everyone, but slaps a $64-per-year fee on hybrid and electric car owners to help make up for what those drivers aren't paying at the pump. "What's not to like about getting better than 40 miles per gallon of gas?" asks Kraus. "Oh, wait - less revenue for Virginia. Well, excuse us for helping to reduce the nation's oil dependency.""
- Eric - seven eleven
from Bookmarklet
Ugh.
- Steve and 4 other people
Stay classy, Virginia.
- Monique the crochet freak
from Android
I'm not completely opposed to this. If we immediately flipped every single vehicle on the roads to full-electric, how else would we raise revenue?
- Brian Johns
I think roads should be paid for primarily based on the amount of usage, based on weight and miles traveled.
- Brian Johns
The gas tax is largely a proxy for usage tax to maintain infrastructure? Why doesn't this make sense?
- Jimminy IS Everybody
place a tax on stupidity.
- Joe "Bad Guts" Silence
In Australia, the amount of profit a power company can make is determined by a national body. Since a large number of people are either going solar or using less energy (through habits or more efficient appliances), those power companies are losing revenue so they are putting the prices up to make the shortfall. *medium-size rage*
- Johnny
from iPhone
which in turn will drive away even more customers, if there's any justice.
- Joe "Bad Guts" Silence
I'd say there needs to be a better way to fund vehicle infrastructure than gasoline taxes...
- Spidra Webster
Daft idea
- Mo Kargas
Spidra - that's really my point, even if it didn't come across above. If you buy into the grand vision of an electrified fleet, you gotta raise tax revenue from somewhere other than the (hopefully soon to be non-existent) gasoline tax. For the record, I buy into the grand vision. :-)
- Brian Johns
I'm all for properly assessing usage, but punishing hybrid owners doesn't feel right. But I don't want to see more toll bridges either.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Taxes on fuel have been lagging as a source of revenue for decades, which is one of the primary reasons why our road and bridge infrastructure is so woefully under-maintained. As vehicles have become more efficient, and thereby consume fewer gallons of fuel per x number of miles, the logical thing would be to increase the tax per mile based on the average mpg for vehicles on the road....
more...
- Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ
imabonehead, Amit Patel, Micah and 2 other people liked this
"Slash is clearly a word to watch. Slash I do mean word, not punctuation mark. The emergence of a new conjunction/conjunctive adverb (let alone one stemming from a punctuation mark) is like a rare-bird sighting in the world of linguistics: an innovation in the slang of young people embedding itself as a function word in the language. This use of slash is so commonplace for students in my class that they almost forgot to mention it as a new slang word this term. That young people have integrated innovative slash into their language while barely noticing its presence is all the more reason that conjunctive slash might have staying power."
- Steve and 4 other people
"(yes, I did use “they” as a singular right there—more on that in a future post)." Funnily enough, I just switched over from the wiki articles on gender-neutral pronouns and the singular they. It was something that I was thinking about the other day, the only other decent alternative for gender-neutral was "he/she" or "he-slash-she".
- Jimminy IS Everybody
And 7-11. just make me think that they're talking to Slash. Which I find funny.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
80's guitar player. Current hat wearer.
- Surprisingly Monstrous
Cristo knows that. It made me laugh.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
See, "slash" means something totally different to me.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Yeah, "slash" means something completely different to me. It's a descriptive noun and it's a verb. And it has nothing to do with grammar. Well, maybe. Conjugation, of a sort.
- Betsy #TeamMonique
These new uses are horrible. Every single one of them. And esp in online text chats, why are they writing 'slash' instead of using the slash key? <getoffmylawn>
- Andrew C (✓)
TiVo should make a Roku-sized box with 16gigs of flash and the full TiVo UX. Nobody wants full-sized AV components anymore.
Shakeel Mahate, Benjamin Golub, JA Castillo and 8 other people liked this
It's like the iPod evolution from small hd to bigger hd to small flash to bigger flash. TiVo is currently in the 2nd step.
- Kevin Fox
I love looking at my home theater rack, but I hate crawling around behind it.
- Eric - seven eleven
OH GOD YES CHRISTO.
- Kevin Fox
16GB ~= 2 hours of 19Mbps HD video (i.e. broadcast HD). But I like where you're going with this. :)
- Steve and 4 other people
Consumers can get 64GB flash drive for $35; I bet TiVo could probably get it much lower. No reason to skimp with just 16GB, this isn't 2003.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
*listening*
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Could flash, even SLC flash, stand up to the rewrite cycles of a DVR? Wouldn't you be better off with an iPod classic size HD? I really doubt the HD (even with cooling) keeps the box as big as it is.
- Andrew C (✓)
http://www.storagesearch.com/ssd-slc... - SLC rated for 100K write cycles, MLC for 3K write cycles. So back of envelope, 64 GB of flash MLC would be good for 3 years before crapping out if you've got the box recording 24/7, but SLC would last long enough.
- Andrew C (✓)
I have 250GB in my DVRs, and it's not enough. OTOH, high-capacity DVRs are a form of lock-in with the provider (and its antiquated hardware model).
- Tinfoil 2.0
OTOH, everything is available as streaming, so why have any local storage at all?
- Steve and 4 other people
Not legally. Not at any price. And many (most?) people don' have the bandwidth or caps necesary for all-streaming, all the time.
- Tinfoil 2.0
"uncompressed" HD comes right off the cable or antenna, so TiVo-style. The 1G/hr stuff is what you find on teh internetz. Or, are you thinking "download & play" for this thing?
- Steve and 4 other people
Based on the specs for the TiVo premiere (500 GB, 75 hours of HD advertised), they're running at ~6.7 GB an hour. So 16 GB would give you ~2.4 hours. Probably couldn't get everything you need to transcode to something like h.264/h.265 in a Roku-sized box. It would take forever to do it, too (definitely not on the fly).
- Mark Trapp
The TiVo Stream encodes HD video down to 1.2gigs an hour in realtime. It doesn't take a big box to house and feed an mpeg encoder chip.
- Kevin Fox
The HD video I get off comcast is pretty highly compressed. The only place you'll find uncompressed HD is OTA, which is why the latest TiVos *only* write bytestreams from cablecards, so they don't do any compression themselves.
- Kevin Fox
That's true: I wonder why Tivo advertises such conservative storage capacities, then. If it's as densely packed as the 2nd gen Apple TV, it doesn't look like you'd be able to fit the cable card housing inside a Roku-sized box, but you'd have room to spare in a 1st-gen Apple TV/Mac Mini sized box. Still much smaller than a traditional Tivo/set top box.
- Mark Trapp
True, and instead of onboard flash you could have a microSD card slot like the Roku has. Granted, companies like to get high margins on high capacity boxes, but they could just sell it with 8gb flash and bundle a 64gb microSD for a good amount of storage.
- Kevin Fox
Mostly, I just think the full-sized TiVo isn't a good fit for dorm rooms. It's not bedroom friendly due to size and fan, which is why they made the TiVo Mini, but that's just a slave device to a full TiVo. A small standalone box without a spinning disk or fan is very appealing.
- Kevin Fox
A 1.8" disk might not need a cooling fan.
- Andrew C (✓)
1.8" is interesting. I'd be a little worried about their MTBF if they're always reading and writing, and I'm not sure if you'd get much of a price savings over flash for ~160GB, but it's possible. Heck, Apple still sells 160GB 1.8" HD iPod Classics.
- Kevin Fox
The biggest thing I wonder about this is how to get a cableCARD slot into such a small form factor.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Seal teaching its baby how to swim … at Point Lobos. Beautiful place.
Balasundaram Balasanmugan, Starmama, humanwatch - آرمان and 15 other people liked this
are there enough seals around to watch this time of year?
- kartik vaithyanathan
I went to Point Lobos on Apr 18 and there were plenty of seals. They had closed one of the beaches so that the seals could use it for pup-rearing.
- Amit Patel
I was at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve last weekend and there were a bunch of pups being born. Bring binoculars.
- Steve and 4 other people
Awesome! I have only been there once and want to go back.
- Amit Patel
Happy birthday to Stephen Mack, FriendFeed's most proficient, and accurate, liker. He is loved by all, admired by many, and his works are enjoyed by all those who come in touch with them. This year, for his birthday, I am told FriendFeed has chipped in to buy him a screensaver! It will come on a floppy disk in the mail.
Stanley Mathis, Dario Gomez, system4ezmoney and 74 other people liked this
Photo by Thomas Hawk a long time ago with Stephen's first little one, Sammy.
- Louis Gray
A screensaver! But is it compatible with TiVo boxes, everywhere. Happy birthday, Stephen.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
Thank you, Louis! That photo was more than 7 years ago...
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Does he still use a Sinclair ZX81 as well, or is that a bit too modern? I think Charles Babbage had some kind of interesting gadget that came a bit before Apple's ipad too.
- Erik Retallick
Look at that happy face! :)
- Kelli H.
Happy Birthday to one of the nicest people I have the pleasure to know!
- Running Slow
Happy Birthday Stephen!!
- Georgia
Happy Birthday, Mr. Mack!
- Ross Miller
Happy day to you, Stephen. I hope your birthday is a wonderful one.
- Friar Ticket to Ride
Happy Birthday, Stephen! I hope you have a great day!
- Jennifer Dittrich
Happy Birthday, Stephen!
- AJ Batac
Stephen, happy birthday. This is a better community with you in it.
- Micah
from FFHound(roid)!
happy bday!
- holly #ravingfangirl
Thank you, everyone!
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
Happy!
- Jenica
Happy birthday
- Eric - seven eleven
Happy Bearthday!
- Steve and 4 other people
Happy birthday to one of my favorite people!
- Mary Carmen
Happy Birthday, Stephen!
- Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ
Happy Birthday!
- Roger N
Yay! Happy Stephen Day! I hope your day is as awesome as you are!
- Lisa | #TeamMonique
from Android
That's so sweet, Lisa, and thank you all!
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Happy birthday, Slacy!
MoTO #TeamMonique, Kelli H., Jennifer Dittrich and 11 other people liked this
(Photo by his wife of the fourth of the "4 other people" -- baby Zoe, born 4 months ago.)
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
I was thinking that he might need to update for more people. ;) Happy Birthday, Steve.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
Happy Birthday!
- Anne Bouey
Happy birthday!
- Spidra Webster
Happy birthday!
- Tamara J.
Happy Birthday!
- Laura Norvig
from iPhone
happy bday!
- imabonehead
Happy birthday :)
- Eivind
Thanks everyone! Had a great time yesterday at the beach!
- Steve and 4 other people
I could say something really obnoxious about how ever since 9/11 the U.S. is in such a frenzy over "perceived threat" that we'd let a single, likely unarmed 19yr old terrorize and shut down an entire city for 24+ hours, but that would be unpatriotic, so I won't.
Me, Micah, John (bird whisperer) and 2 other people liked this
We are truly living in fear. I know I overreacted in terms of how much time I spent following the news, and speculating (privately) about how far-reaching this was. On the other hand, I do feel like the current level of response is appropriate in terms of number of law enforcement officers and shutting down parts of the Boston area during a manhunt for an armed and dangerous criminal who has killed at least five people.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
He's a coward and a fool. Treat him as such.
- Steve and 4 other people
At this point, he wants to jump on a boat and commit suicide, not continue to terrorize Bostonians. His "job" is done and now he's feeling the aftereffects, likely from severe depression, anxiety, etc.
- Steve and 4 other people
For Pete's sake! RT @colinsteele: The New York Post's 'Person of Interest' Is a Local High-School Track Runner http://gawker.com/5994955...
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Brian Johns and Steve and 4 other people liked this
In other news: Reddit and 4Chan have become sources for "Major" news organizations like the Post. Ugh.
- Steve and 4 other people
This is the Ford Expedition of phones. http://www.theverge.com/2013...
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Greg GuitarBuster liked this
I'm not as opposed to this idea as I had once thought I would have been. :)
- Steve and 4 other people
I carry around my Nexus 7 with me most everywhere, and this would be smaller. :)
- Steve and 4 other people
That's...substantial. Too big for me, but clearly there's a market for them.
- Derrick
I was displeased when I had to switch from putting my phone in my coin pocket to putting it in a main front pocket. But I can't imagine lugging a device with me that had to occupy a hand or bag all the time.
- Tinfoil 2.0
A buddy of mine has a Note II and he loves it, but he looks silly to me when he's on the phone, or the imprint is visible in his pants pocket.
- Derrick
I have a Note II and love it but I also rarely talk on it. My wife has one but uses a headset (that's more of habit than anything else, though). These Mega phones are silly if only for the fact that they're not as powerful.
- c.a.j.
When you're a _________, everything looks like a __________.
imabonehead, SAM and Victor Ganata liked this
narcissist / compliment. Thanks for writing this post about me, Steve!
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Tivo Employee / screensaver, thus no need.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
Winklevi / good idea.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
Madlib / adlib
- Micah
from FFHound(roid)!
hammer / nail
- Steve and 4 other people
Jet / Shark
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
Friendfeeder, pale attempt to replicate FF.
- Mike Nencetti
Is there a name for this style of talking in a video?
Stephen Mack #TeamMomo liked this
because at first I really liked it and now I pretty much can't tolerate it.
- Steve and 4 other people
Talking extremely fast?
- Jimminy IS Everybody
It's the editing and cadence too.
- Steve and 4 other people
Pomodoro Technique: "The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down periods of work into 25-minute intervals called 'Pomodori' (from the Italian word for 'tomatoes') separated by short breaks." [Wikipedia] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
Laura Norvig, Hookuh Tinypants, Amit Patel and 4 other people liked this
Article begins with Underlying principles: "There are five basic steps to implementing the technique: (1.) Decide on the task to be done. (2.) Set the pomodoro (timer) to 25 minutes. (3.) Work on the task until the timer rings; record with an x. (4.) Take a short break (3-5 minutes). (4.) Every four "pomodori" take a longer break (15–30 minutes). The stages of planning, tracking, recording, processing and visualizing are fundamental to the technique. In the planning phase tasks are prioritized by recording them in a 'To Do Today' list. This enables users to estimate the effort tasks require. As 'pomodori' are completed, they are recorded, adding to a sense of accomplishment and providing raw data for subsequent self-observation and improvement."
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from Bookmarklet
Anyone ever use this technique?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
No, but I need some time management zen.
- Eric - seven eleven
Read about this a while ago but decided that the kanban method was more my style.http://www.personalkanban.com/pk...
- Steve and 4 other people
I do.
- Running Slow
I would, but don't have an egg timer.
- Eivind
Celebrity deaths: A statistical analysis - http://www.zeigen.com/blog...
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Steven Perez, Betsy #TeamMonique, Eivind and 17 other people liked this
A statistical refutation of http://friendfeed.com/davisfr... . The image above can be viewed full-size at http://www.zeigen.com/blog... . My conclusion? Celebrity deaths come in one-point-sevens, not #threes.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Awesome
- Chieze Okoye
Thanks, Chieze! I enjoyed crunching actual data.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
No refutations? Have I really killed it this time?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
from iPhone
See my blog comment -- From some perspective, deaths *always* come in 3's, you just have to see what the distribution of durations between deaths D and D+2 are. :) I'd like to know: What's the median (or 90, 95%ile) time for which "all deaths come in 3's" is true.
- Steve and 4 other people
BTW, would also be nice to compare vs. a random control sample of a similar distribution to actual celebrity death data.
- Steve and 4 other people
Steve, I've seen your blog comment now, and you've proposed an interesting approach. When I get some time I'll post the CSV data and run the analysis you suggest. However, you can tell at a glance from just the visual representation that the duration between D, D+1, and D+2 will vary wildly.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Davis, how do you propose testing for the global population? What groupings of the deaths do you think exist? Geography?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Also, Davis, you're right about July 99. You've got me thinking of another simple analysis: Number of deaths per month, and what percentage of the time that number is evenly divisible by three.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Steve, for the control data, what do you suggest? National obituaries? Death records for all inhabitants of a particular county?
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
No, just a random distribution. You know how many deaths occurred over your interval, so just simulate it assuming each person has a 1/Nth chance of dying each day (where N is the number of days in the sample).
- Steve and 4 other people
And yup, I know the distribution will be pretty wide, and that's what's interesting about it. :) You should be able to compare that with the random distribution to see if there's any difference.
- Steve and 4 other people
Man, this conversation reminds me of the stuff I liked about my stats class... 8^D
- Chieze Okoye
Steve, I took a look at the suggestion of days between D and D+x as you suggested in more detail in your blog comment. For every metric (average days, median, etc.) the data is better explained by groups of 2 than groups of 3. Performance for all groupings was pathetic, with an average of at least 8 days overall even for groups of 2. The standard deviation was at least 4.5 days, which backs up my previous prediction that it would vary wildly.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Davis, I took a look at number of deaths per month as well. The number of months where the total deaths was divisible by three was... wait for it ... 38.2%, close to expected value of 33.3%. Average number of deaths per month is actually 7.7.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
A revised version of the spreadsheet with new tabs ("Avg Days of Span" and "Calendar" respectively) for the two new methods is now available, http://docs.google.com/filevie...
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
I've also provided a data file called CORPUS.TXT with just the names and dates, in CSV format: http://docs.google.com/leaf...
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
If I'm reading that right, the ~50%ile of the number of days between D and D+2 is 7. To me, that says "half the time, 3 (or more) celebrities have died in the same week" That seems like the kind of thing that would easily turn into an urban myth. If you go out to 14 days, you get to nearly 87%!
- Steve and 4 other people
Steve, yes. But 50% success is awful. Another way of saying that is, "half the time, when a celebrity dies, only 1 or 2 celebrities will die that week." So the myth at BEST is 50% right, when you allow a FULL WEEK for the deaths to coincide. You'd do better if the myth is that "celebrity deaths come in 2s" -- about half the time, 2 celebrities die in a period just 2 days apart.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Put another way: Using your method, "celebrity deaths come in twos" is more accurate than "celebrity deaths come in threes." So the superstition is wrong.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
For an urban myth, I think 50% success rate is pretty good. :)
- Steve and 4 other people
It's not 50%. To get 50%, you have to include 3 OR MORE (so, sometimes 4, sometimes 5, sometimes 10) -- and that's with AN ENTIRE WEEK of allowance. Remember, other variations of the myth (celebrities die in 2s, celebrities die in 1.7s) do better . You've seen the spreadsheet. There's no method where "celebrities die in 3s" has any statistical validity whatsoever. This myth has been 100% debunked.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
The idea of 70% dead celebrity is kind of gruesome ;) (He's only mostly dead....)
- Victor Ganata
He got better.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Send this data to Mythbusters!
- Ken Gidley
Unless the Mythbusters team gets to actually blow up the celebrities to test whether they clump together in threes or not, I don't think this myth is quite telegenic enough for them.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Slacy created a graph in a separate thread here: http://friendfeed.com/slacy...
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
50/50 after 4 votes. Please go and vote your conscience!
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
I think what's missing is a solid theory of celebritigenesis. Without that, it's hard to figure out what the null hypothesis would be.
- Victor Ganata
Rue McClannihan makes three!:-P Actually Stephen, I've got some interesting analysis to dovetail with your own that I hope to write up in the next few days.
- Kevin Fox
Victor, I think stiffs.com's approach is good. A celebrity is hard to define, but (like many other things) we know one when we see one. Having an objective panel that independently answers "have you heard of this person?" is about as good a criteria as I can think of.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Kevin, I thought it was supposed to be Art/Gary/Dennis and now Rue starting a new series? This superstition is so hard to nail down! But regardless, I look forward to your analysis.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Stephen, I guess that's just it--where exactly is the threshold for celebrity vs non-celebrity? Are you famous if 1 million people know you, but not if only 999,999 people know you? I guess my question is, what do we actually think we're measuring? ;)
- Victor Ganata
Art isn't famous to me, so it'd be Gary, Dennis and Rue.
- Kevin Fox
Victor, it's an excellent question. If you want to create your own personal list of living celebrities, we can then monitor that list as they pass away and test whether or not they die in threes (whatever THAT means), and then judge whether or not the superstition is true for YOU.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Kevin, funny, I'd never heard of Rue before today. (Never watched Golden Girls.) It proves Victor's point. The subjective nature of the superstition is what makes it hard to prove or falsify.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
The subjective nature makes it much easier to prove, just harder to tell whether it's meaningful. If, in any string of 10 deaths, there are clumps of three that are meaningful for one person that person will claim it to be an instance of the 'death in 3s' phenomenon, and for them it will be right. They'll have heard of several other instances of 'death in 3s' from their friends over the...
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- Kevin Fox
Now that I think of it, the null hypothesis would be thus: if celebrities *don't* die in clumps of three, then there should be roughly equal spacing between their deaths (+/- some error), regardless of what time frame you choose. So all you have to do is pick a threshold duration, wait for celebrities to die, and see if there's a statistically significant difference between the actual death rate versus if they just died at regular intervals instead.
- Victor Ganata
So say we pick a duration of a week. If the null hypothesis is correct, then they should each die roughly within 2 days and 8 hours of each other. If it's tighter than that (we'd have to do the math to see at what point it would be statistically significant) then the alternative hypothesis is true, and they *do* die in clumps.
- Victor Ganata
Kevin, exactly right. My first debunking (from 2008) used the same argument: "This belief is an example of selective perception (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...); You tend to remember the times when there was a grouping of three seemingly-related deaths in a short period of time, which reinforces the belief, but tend to forget the times when there wasn’t a pattern. As...
more...
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Another psychological factor to consider is mental temporal boundaries. If the weekend is a memory reset, where things on the far end of a weekend feel more removed, then three deaths in a work week, or in a single weekend, could be perceived as a clump even if the boundary between the first and the one previous to it is less than the boundary between the first and the third, just because the one before the work week 'feels significantly longer ago'
- Kevin Fox
Victor, the raw data is available. (See links above.) There are 1,422 deaths over 5,669 days. So you expect the average death to be about 4 days apart, which in fact is what the data shows. The null hypothesis you propose in fact has strong significance in the data.
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
So there you have it. Proof that celebrities don't die in clumps but actually die at regular intervals. :D
- Victor Ganata
Thank you, sir! *shakes hands with Victor*
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
Still like this thread.
- Micah
from FFHound(roid)!
Thanks, Micah. (In reviewing the above: I miss Chieze, and I'm still mad at Davis F. for deleting his account.)
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
I don't care how long it's been called Costco, I still call it Price Club.
Lnorigb, imabonehead, Kevin Johnson and 5 other people liked this
A kindred spirit.
- Micah
You just broke the first rule of Price Club.
- Spidra Webster
Buying rendered fat in bulk has never been so easy!
- Micah
How about BJ's? (yes it's really called that)
- Steve and 4 other people
I think Costco is the reason Cost Plus is now World Market. Too many people (i.e., me) asked at the door whether a membership was required.
- Betsy #TeamMonique
We were Price Club members when I was a kid.
- Brian Johns
Steve - we've been Price Club/Costco members since the one in Fairfax, VA opened. We looked into BJ's & Sam's Club a few times, but didn't see anything we weren't already getting through Price Club
- DAMMIT, MR. NOODLE
from Android
RT @zdnet: Server boxes are now really big, and take up acres of space http://zd.net/Y55Ahk
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Stephen Mack #TeamMomo liked this
Headline reads like The Onion
- Steve and 4 other people
You have a point
- Eric - seven eleven
Amazon.com: Richard Scarry's Busy Busy World (Golden Bestsellers Series) (9780307655394): Richard Scarry: Books - http://www.amazon.com/Richard...
Steve and 4 other people, Stephen Mack #TeamMomo, Sarah and 9 other people liked this
We had this book growing up. It was handed down one generation, so I am fairly certain that it was an early (if not *first*) edition. It was definitely a well-loved book.
- Julian
from Bookmarklet
Me & my brother loved this book, too.
- Starmama
from FFHound(roid)!
Yep! That was one of my favorites!
- LB: #TeamMonique
from Android
We had this book. It was no Cars and TRucks and Things that Go but still good.
- Surprisingly Monstrous
One of my faves. I like Richard Scarry books in translation to help me with the words you just don't learn in academic language classes.
- Spidra Webster
I remember reading this when I was very little and suffering from chickenpox. Totally took my mind off of itching and was also the first book I ever remember anyone ever giving me. MY precious! lol
- Libraryman
I loved that book! so much to look at on each page. LOVE.
- $tephanie•Cog$ciLibrarian
mine got eaten by our dog, i believe.
- Joe "Bad Guts" Silence
We've got an old copy of this at home. The kids love it, although some of the character names are mildly inappropriate by today's standards.
- Steve and 4 other people
Report: Asian carp may have reached Great Lakes - Yahoo! News - http://news.yahoo.com/report-...
Rodfather, Stephen Mack #TeamMomo, Jennifer Dittrich and münevver binti süleyman liked this
"At least some Asian carp probably have found their way into the Great Lakes, but there's still time to stop the dreaded invaders from becoming established and unraveling food chains that support a $7 billion fishing industry and sensitive ecosystems, according to a scientific report released Thursday."
- imabonehead
from Bookmarklet
:(
- Kelli H.
Oh no
- DAMMIT, MR. NOODLE
Time to bring in the cane toads.
- Amit Patel
Send in the Asian Snakeheads to take care of them! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Steve and 4 other people
The last time I went to Lake Cachuma they were allowing bowhunting of carp. I guess it impacts water quality since it's also a reservoir. http://www.countyofsb.org/parks...
- Rodfather
Are there any plugins for Wordpress that will index documents so that their contents can be searched? Must work without internet. (No Google Custom Search for example)
Julian, John (bird whisperer), Sir Shuping is just sir and Jennifer Dittrich liked this
It's not going to be straightforward -- most full text searches (Sphinx, lucene, etc.) require a secondary server to be running. What's your hosting situation?
- Steve and 4 other people
Self hosted on dark nets.
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
Sphinx looks pretty brilliant...although we may just decide not to put documents into the CMS.
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
Tech procedures are really best kept as web/wiki pages anyhow.
- Scoble, Alex Scoble
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