kcmarshall - The Big Picture

Tiny slice of serendipity

Searching for "Maxx" because of a tweet by a python guy I follow.

The search turns up "The Maxx"

Hmmm, always enough time to read a Wikipedia page or two.

Wherein I see that "The Maxx" was created by Sam Keith - who was also the first artist on Sandman.

Which is the project that made Neil Gaiman famous - who I follow on Twitter.

Don't you love it when the world folds back in on itself like that?

Why he's John Carmack and I'm not...

From Carmack's essay on porting Wolfenstein 3d to the iPhone:

Using the iPhone's hardware 3D acceleration was a requirement, and it should be easy -- when I did the second generation mobile renderer (written originally in java) it was layered on top of a class I named TinyGL that did the transform / clip / rasterize operations fairly close to OpenGL semantics, but in fixed point and with both horizontal and vertical rasterization options for perspective correction.

I'm not even smart enough to come up with teh funny that comes after that...

Place: NPR in the age of online media

NPR finds itself facing a conflict between it's traditional channel (local radio stations) and it's increasing ability to program directly to the listener over the Internet.

Meet the New Boss

Local stations need NPR for most of their programming - especially stations less well funded than my local MPR. 

    [Aside: I remember how pitiful the public radio station was when we briefly live on the mid-East coast area of Florida.  I  honestly believe that contributed to our ultimate return to the Twin Cities.]

As scheduled radio broadcasts (like scheduled TV programs) become less important to listeners (than say podcasts or programming streamed on-demand), NPR has incentive and ability to dis-intermediate it's relationship with listeners.

Place: Girl Scout Cookie sales online?

I'll be collecting some data points on the meaning of place.  How we live in the world is changing.

As good a place to start as any:  Girl Scout Cookie sales.

An 8 year old Girl Scout decided to try selling cookies with a You Tube video and an online ordering form.  Even with a limitation in the order form to prevent orders the Scout couldn't personally deliver, local Girl Scout officials ordered the video taken down.  The national organization still prefers that all sales occur face-to-face.

The Cookie Crumbles

This side of my screen

Scrolling through Google Reader too late tonight and I see an oddity - Dervala has posted!  She has posted twice this year and here I am, just a few minutes after she clicked "Save".  The post is so new, there aren't any comments yet.  For some reason I'm giddy.  Reading it is a pleasure as her posts usually are.

Irony sets in -- her post is about Life Beyond Screens (my emphasis).  Not sure if I should still feel happy or if that's an indicator of brokenness...  I'll just take comfort in the sound of a sometime familiar stranger's voice again.

TED video: Ken Robinson on education

Here's a great video of a TED presentation on the need for greater emphasis on creativity in public education.

[via Planet Jython and Ed Taekema]

QOTD: Thinking vs. Being

"Our opinions about ourselves actually get in the way of being ourselves."

Jon Kabat-Zinn, speaking at Google (at around 1:01:25)
YouTube video

[via 43 Folders, patrickrhone]

Russo's Rants: NHL hockey and next-gen media

I've lately become a big fan of the blog by StarTribune MN Wild beat writer Michael Russo.  He writes in an personal, "bloggy" style and really interacts well with his commenters.  [Is "commenters" really a word?]  I feel like I better understand the world of a newspaper sports reporter and the raw inputs from which he crafts his column (conversations, interviews, hanging around practices, etc).   All in all, good blog.

Today, Russo published - in the newspaper, mind you - an article replying to some recent comments and blog postings slamming the play-off readiness of the MN Wild.  Is this as big a deal as it appears to me:  a newspaper columnist replying in hard-copy print to blog comments?  Note that he is explicitly addressing these other writers - not just obliquely referencing a general zeitgeist.

I really value the intersection of blogs and local community.  I've gotten great enjoyment and value out of the Central Standard Tech blog aggregator.  Seeing the "real" world link up with the blog world is pretty exciting for a geek like me.

Info Overload - your brain on toast

From CNNMoney - How I Work by Bill Gates

Bill sez:

Outlook also has a little notification box that comes up in the lower right whenever a new e-mail comes in. We call it the toast. I'm very disciplined about ignoring that unless I see that it's a high-priority topic.

Or I suppose you could just:

1. Tools
2. Options
3. E-mail Options button
4. Advanced E-mail Options button
5. Display a New Mail Desktop Alert - Uncheck

So... the world's richest man dedicates extra brain cycles to studiously ignore reminders from software created by his own company?!?

I had to suppress the toast within a few months of using Outlook as my official work email client;  I was responding to the "toast" like a crack-addicted monkey.  I'm only a little better now - I still have to consciously will myself to ignore the little mail envelope in the systray.  In fact, I think I'll see if life continues without that reminder for a while.

I do live by my Calendar and the reminder notifications, though.  I'm trying to GTD and having a little success - the Calendar is invaluable for that.

The Walker Channel | Webcast Detail

Here's a link to the webcast of the Neil Gaiman/Dave McKean event which sold out instantaneously a couple weeks back.  Not to be missed, I'm sure!

Link: The Walker Channel | Webcast Detail.