Memory via Maps

My childhood, seen by Google Maps on Flickr

Does Google maps make this possible? Not really... you could do this through TerraServer (at higher resolution I might add (I do not know exactly where he lived, so I just picked a random street and zoomed in there)).

Is this really really cool? You betcha. I've always been astounded how a slight change in perspective gives you such a richer view of your world... looking forwards or backwards in time. This individual looked at his childhood, and it is riveting, for some unknown reason. What is it about the web that makes other people's fairly normal histories so interesting?

D

The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy

Amazon.com: Books: The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down a President--and Why They'll Try Even Harder Next Time via Instapundit

You keep using this term "untold". I do not think it means what you think it means.

Apparently the book is about how the Democrats attempted to use the media (through documentaries like 'Outfoxed', 'Fahrenheit 9/11' and so on). Interesting premise. Some of my friends are confident that those firms responsible for producing those pieces were tied at the hip with the Democratic party. I do not agree, but can certainly see the possibility of connection. I do not agree that Sinclair Media was tied to the Republican party, though the same possibility of a connection exists between those two organizations. I believe the one exception is the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who DID appear to be tied to Mr. Rove very closely.

My thoughts on the book are that it seems a rather silly reason for a book. Of course they're going to try and take down the president... they're the opposing party! Just FYI, Mr. York used the phrase "take down", I think he meant "defeat in the election" which, last time I checked, was totally legal. Further, I revel in books like this... they save me endless time! Why bother reading them, you know everything you want to know about it just from the title! I was going to come out in a tirade against such front covers/titles, but I've changed my mind... I think they're a huge benefit. Now I don't have to even pick up the book... if it was even slightly more subtle or intriguing, I'd probably pick up the book and flip through it wasting valuable time I could be dedicating to slurping down mochachinos or using wireless networks or whatever other distractions they have in "book stores" nowadays.

D

Childhood through Flickr

My childhood, seen by Google Maps on Flickr

Does Google maps make this possible? Not really... you could do this through TerraServer (at higher resolution I might add (I do not know exactly where he lived, so I just picked a random street and zoomed in there)).

Is this really really cool? You betcha. I've always been astounded how a slight change in perspective gives you such a richer view of your world... looking forwards or backwards in time. This individual looked at his childhood, and it is riveting, for some unknown reason. What is it about the web that makes other people's fairly normal histories so interesting?

Some NYC subways are now computer driven

NYC subway gets a computerized facelift via Slashdot

Well it looks like the NYC trains are finally joining the rest of the world and, of course, the folks on Slashdot have something to say about it. According to the article, there are still "concerns about safety". I find this funny for a number of reasons:
  • First, why is this being referenced from the Boston.com site? From my understanding, there are a couple of newspapers in NYC who probably could have covered it (and probably did!) Wouldn't it be appropriate to check one of those first?
  • Second, look at the slashdot readers and their comments. As they bicker back and forth about fail-safes and hackers, I wish they would think a little bit about what they were saying before they said it (note: present company and/or me excluded). Is it really possible that they NYC MTA would do a change like this without thinking a LITTLE bit about the ramifications?
  • Third, why would they be concerned about safety? Do you think that trains are really that safe today? I suspect you could tell an operator to stop RIGHT NOW and they wouldn't be able to bring it to a halt in under two hundred feet. With computers, you could do some amazing shit. Pressure sensitive doors and walls. Infrared cameras. It'd be awesome! Not that it'd be that much safer. The train is still about 65 million pounds and trying to stop that quickly is not easy.

Google Maps + Craigs List

http://paulrademacher.com/housing/

ACK this is cool. So cool I want to punch myself. Yes, I've seen RedFin which is also very cool, but the fantastic thing about this is that it combines a totally user driven ad system (Craig's List) with a totally open map system (Google Maps) and gives you more information than just looking at each individually. To quote the mailing list I saw this on, it probably breaks Google's Terms of Service, but if they block this (and other functionality which is coming), they're making a big mistake. Just think, if you could have all real estate activity pushed through RSS you could subscribe and paint entire sections of maps with MULTIPLE sources! Then you could say what was hot, what was cold, who is moving where... it'd just be fantastic!

D

Distributed Knowledge

Though I am certainly an “intellectual elitist” of the worst type, never let it be said that I do not have the highest respect and admiration for those whose jobs (or pastimes) are not just sitting around and thinking. My girlfriend was a barista for a few years before moving into Starbucks corporate. I love talking to her about her time there because here you have a very smart person doing, what to some, might be considered a fairly ordinary thing. She worked at Starbucks before they had quintillion different combinations of drinks, but also before you were allowed to write anything on the cups. Someone would come in and ask for a double tall breve latte and it’d be up to her to remember the drink order. Easy with one order; hard with fifteen. So she worked up the most rich and elegant way to remember this stuff. I will not attempt to recount the tale here, but I will provide a simple demonstration. Double, you put two cups on the counter. Half anything, you turn the cup so that it is facing one wall. Breve, you put the cup on the lid facing up. Americano, you put the cup on the lid facing down. And so on. The level of combinations handled in this way was staggering to listen to. Yet in nearly every industry I see the exact same sort of distributed skill smarts. Sometimes it’s more physical skill… a painter I hired to do my shelves came in and did perfect lines all the way down my shelves without even using tape. Sometimes it’s simply procedure which can be learned but is rarely passed on… I remember watching a window washer use a single squeegee swipe to do a whole window, without ever lifting the blade up and without leaving a single streak. This lack of knowledge is particularly apparent to me when I attempt even the most basic of these tasks and fail miserably.

I suppose my admiration will simply result in one more topic for a book I’ll never write would be to walk around and simply capture this intelligence. It does not have to be everything about the job… just the non-intuitive stuff that differentiates the amateur from the professional (how does that window washer do that anyway!?) I'd love to record that stuff on this website.

Thought for the day? When painting anything, pull the tape off the edge before the paint has dried (in fact, pull it off as soon as possible!). This will lead to a much cleaner edge.

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