Ted's Tidbits

Mobile Sites vs. Apps: The Coming Strategy Shift

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:51:00 -0600

Jakob Nielsen:

…the second strategy question is: Should you produce a mobile website or develop special mobile apps? The answer to this question today is quite different from what it will likely be in the future.

tl;dr: Mobile apps are king today, but mobile websites are the future.

via TThor

Saint Valentine

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:45:00 -0600

Wikipedia:

The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nurembrg Chronicle(1943); alongside the woodcut portrait of Valentine, the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to the prisoner — until Valentine tried to convert the Emperor — whereupon this priest was condemned to death.

Happy Valentines Day!

The Remaking of Vickery Meadow

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:46:00 -0600

Leslie Minora:

They fled some of the world’s most dangerous places, only to land in one of Dallas'. Slowly and unsurely, they’re making it their own.

I'll Fly Away

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:26:00 -0600

Richard Beck:

Because here’s the deal, does I’ll Fly Away make any sense when it’s sung by rich people of power and privilege? I mean, what the heck are you flyig away from? Life in suburbia? The Caramel Macchiatos at Starbucks? The vacations at the beach? The fact that you have clean water, indoor plumbing, central heating/air, and two cars? … So of course when the privileged sing the song it sounds theologically shallow. The privileged shouldn’t be trying to fly away. They should be worrying about the injustices at the gate.

…

In sum, I’m back to the realization that Christianity sounds different—theology, hymnody, and the bible itself—when heard from the margins of society. What doesn’t make sense at the centers of power, prosperity and privilege often make a while lot of sense on the periphery.

The Worst Tech Awards Show Ever

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:10:00 -0600

John C. Dvorak:

It’s all very superficial and annoying. Awards, however, are often designed to be slightly controversial and draw attention. Otherwise, nobody would write about them. It’s part of the game. So, a few editors decide on stupid nominees, bad winners, and weird anomalies, typically over lunch. Decades ago, I was in such a meeting and one of the managers rigged a specific award because he was getting laid by the “winning” company’s PR representative. Whatever works.

Buddy Rich Impossible Drum Solo

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:52:00 -0600

He may not be your kind of guy, but just watch this video of him playing up there without all the assistance and he will definitely show you what it’s like.

via @CoffeeGeek

What is a Just War?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:44:00 -0600

Andrew P. Napolitano

The problem with most wars is that they are more strategic and adventurist than they are just.

via @southern__bread

The Illusion of Privacy

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:44:00 -0600

Tal Givoly:

What happens when people have the “illusion of privacy”? Naturally, they feel more comfortable in sharing information, uploading photos and videos online, etc. Once they feel more comfortable about doing so, they do it more often. This, obviously, is the intention of Facebook, and many other corporations.

via Dave Winer

The Soterian Gospel as Selfish

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:21:00 -0600

Scot McKnight:

Instead of having a doxological orientation (how does this bring glory to God) or a christological orientation (what does this say about Jesus, King and Lord) or a theocentric orientation (how does this all reveal God), we too often judge whether something is good by asking selfish pragmatics: How does this help me?!

Sh*t Dallas People Say

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:22:00 -0600

They Were Right (And Wrong) About The Slippery Slope

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:16:00 -0600

Rachel Held Evans:

It was easier before, when the path was wide and straight.

But, truth be told, I was faking it. I was pretending that things that didn’t make sense made sense, that things that didn’t feel right felt right. To others, I appeared confident and in control, but faith felt as far away as a friend who has grown distant and cold.

Now every day is a risk … but the view is better, and, for the first time in a long time, I am fully engaged in my faith.

When asked which command was the greatest, Jesus said:

‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.

Matthew 22:37-38, New Revised Standard Version

I take this to mean that God does not want us to check our brains in at the door. He demands our whole mind. That includes the part that asks questions, the part that thinks rationally. He wants our whole heart. That includes the part that hurts when people suffer and cries when he realizes he was part of the problem. We must ask the hard questions, use the brains he gave us to make sense of this world, and use the talents he gave us to change the parts of the world that make no sense.

Why are software development task estimations regularly off by a factor of 2-3?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:24:00 -0600

Michael Wolfe:

Let’s take a hike on the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles to visit out friends in Newport Beach…

via Marco Arment

Pressing For Decisions

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:58:00 -0600

Scot McKnight:

…twelve ways revivalism’s theories of conversion have shaped and permeated evangelicalism:

Conversion is equated with salvation

There is an emphasis on human choice and decision. It’s all about the will.

Conversion is seen as punctiliar, something that happens all at once, can be dated and marked and known.

Revivalism is ambivalent about the intellect and is often anti-intellectual.

Conversion becomes an individual transaction with God, apart from the faith community/church.

Revivalism is ambivalent about or even anti-sacramental. (Including baptism.)

For revivalism, conversion is easy and painless and certainly not costly. “Just accept Christ today.”

Among revivalists, evangelism is reduced to techniques.

Revivalism pushes that God has no grandchildren, but is ambivalent about second-generation Christian nurturance into conversion and faith.

Revivalism has at times struggled with connections between conversion, baptism and the Holy Spirit.

The church’s mission is to obtain conversions.

Revivalism focuses on the after-life with minimal reference and orientation to this world.

Media and Children

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:24:00 -0600

via @southern_bread

Dallas ISD Trustees Closed 11 Schools Last Night

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:30:00 -0600

Greg Howard (no relation):

The vote to close schools felt predetermined. Once the human element was removed, it was the most rational thing to do. Of the eight voting trustees, the first five voted to pass the proposal. Upon hearing the fifth, there was an audible groan in the main chamber. Fighting back tears, parents began to pick up their weeping children and exit the room … parents, teachers and children left 3700 Ross either in silence, deflated or in the same tears they’ve been shedding for months.

One "L" or or Two?

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:52:00 -0600

The question just came up at work, do you use one “l” or two when you spell the past tense of cancel (canceled or cancelled)? It turns out both are valid, but which one is preferred?

Maeve Maddox at DailyWritingTips says:

The double l in cancelled is British usage; the single l is American usage… In American usage, the final l is doubled only when the stress falls on a syllable other than the first.

Where British usage calls for levelled, libelled, quarrelled, and travelled, American usage has leveled, libeled, quarreled, and traveled.

American usage agrees with British on annulled, controlled, patrolled, and extolled because the stress falls on the second syllable of these words.

Confused yet?

J.C. Penney to Reinvent Itself

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:31:00 -0600

Maria Halkias:

Gone are the dollar and percent-off coupons, morning only sales, additional markdowns at the register and all the “gimmicks,” Johnson said. It will get rid of signs with promotional prices above the racks telling shoppers how much of the artificially inflated “full” prices they’re getting. To make things even more simple, prices will no longer end in 99 cents.

Now that sounds refreshing.

The Story of Henry Texas Howard

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:20:00 -0600

Megan Howard:

Henry has adjusted quite well to life on this earth — it’s his parents who are having difficulty adjusting to life with him. We love this little guy to bits, but we’re not always sure what to do with him. Henry is healthy, eating well, pooping up a storn, and only cries when he needs a diaper change or something to munch on.

I didn’t believe at love at first sight until January 10 at 2:25am when I first set eyes on my son.

Is SOPA Perfect for OWS?

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:56:00 -0600

Dave Winer:

It was all about corporations. On the one side is Hollywood and on the other side is Silicon Valley. That’s how news people think. They look for big rich entities that are facing off and make it an epic battle.

Spot on analysis. News has become entertainment. It’s almost like writing historical fiction where you take some facts and build a story around them. In order to sell the ads, you need to attract the people, so you create something that will get the people to watch. Find the facts and build a story around them.

The fact is that new legislation will give the federal government the power to take over your website at the first complaint of a copyright holder. No investigation, no due process, no proof. Just a compliant.

This isn’t tech startups vs movie studios, it’s the federal government vs our right to free speech. But that’s not the story news people want to tell.

Cloves, Hookahs, and Other Non-Cigarettes

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:36:00 -0600

Joe Bunting:

Through my college and post-college years, I experimented with cigars, pipes, and menthol cigarettes. (They’re not real cigarettes, right? They smell like mint.) But whenever someone offers me a real cigarette?

“Ewwwwww. Gross, no. I don’t smoke those things. Are you even a Christian?”

Loving the Bible for what it is, not what I want it to be

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:08:00 -0600

Rachel Held Evans:

Over the past few years, however, I’ve worked up the courage to re-approach the Bible, this time with a different set of expectations, and I get the feeling that I’m in the early stages of learning how to relate to it the way that an adult child relates to her parents, a way that honors and respects the Bible for what it is, not what I want it to be.

Your Dallas Cowboys Commemorative Poster

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:06:00 -0600

Robert Wilonsky:

We all knew it when we saw it, with 24 seconds to go in the first half and the Dallas Cowboys down 21-0 to the New York Giants: That Sunday Night Football shot of owner and general manager Jerry Jones, his head buried in his hands, would become the defining shot of an 8-8 season that felt much, much worse from the very first game.

Wearing the same clothes you wore to church on Sunday to work on Monday

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:57:00 -0600

Jon Acuff:

Again, not talking same underwear. I’m talking same jeans, same sweater, same shoes…

As I read this, I chuckled first. Then I realized I’m wearing exactly what I wore yesterday morning at church.

The Original Heresy?

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:25:00 -0600

Scot McKnight:

The theme of burial with Christ is that we are raised to be one. The original heresy was to cut up the body of Christ and hack it to pieces.

What if the heretics were not only in the church, but the churches themselves were the ones committing the heresy?

Does your church sign advertise oneness in Christ or difference from other churches? How does it do so? Does your church website market your distinctiveness or your union with all chruches in Christ?

The Treason Card

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:45:00 -0600

Andrew Sullivan:

It is a sign of a movement that has so lost the narrative it can only smear or ignore those with whom is disagrees — rather than engage them.

An Advent Thought From Megan

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:04:00 -0600

Megan Howard:

Easter is the holiday where we celebrate the fact that Jesus finished the work he came to do, the work that changed the world. But I also think there is good reason for Christmas to be the “bigger” holiday. It is the holiday of mystery and wonder. The holiday where we celebrate not what Jesus has done, but the holiday where we celebrate hope for what he could do. The baby Jesus is not a symbol of accomplishment, but a symbol of potential, and potential holds a great mystery.

The View From Nowhere

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:12:00 -0600

Jay Rosen:

If in doing the serious work of journalism—digging, reporting, verification, mastering a beat—you develop a view, expressing that view does not diminish your authority. It may even add to it. The View from Nowhere doesn’t know from this. It also encourages journalists to develop bad habits. Like: criticism from both sides is a sign that you’re doing something right, when you could be doing everything wrong.

I am more and more of the opinion that opinionated reporting is more honest than “impartial” reporting. I don’t believe that one can truly be impartial and that anyone who claims to be is not being honest.

If someone has spent a lifetime covering an industry or topic or company or whatever, that makes them something of an expert on the subject. Someone whose opinion we should value.

He Has a Dream

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:00:00 -0600

Dan Bouchelle:

Whether you like it, love it, fear it or loathe it, the dream below is represenative of many in a generation raised in our churches who have stuck it out but are struggling to live out their faith in our current setting.

What follows in the post it a list of attributes of the church this young minister wants to lead. Definitely go read the full thing, but I’ll pick out a few:

There is no building, but the foundation is the love of Christ

There is no pulpit, but Scripture is opened and taught in living rooms, coffee shops, bars and parks

Ethnic diversity is the norm

No topic off the table for discussion—a “safe place” for any issue

The Four Types of Christian Christmas Parents

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:44:00 -0600

John Crist:

The “Giving-Gifts-With-Subtle-Hints” Parents: When I was 13 I got deoderant for Christmas. Thanks mom. When did you realize I should start wearing deoderant? April? And you decided to wait nine months because you figured it would be less akward that just setting it on my sink one morning and saying, “Use this.” It was more akward at Christmas. Trust me.

Lessons from TileStack: What Does '#Discover' Mean?

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:37:00 -0600

So, last week Twitter debuted a new interface with the stated intent of simplifying the experience. This new interface has drawn criticism from many bloggers. Most of the discussion centered around Twitter organizing their user interface under two categories: Connect and Discover.

Their PR explains it this way (emphasis mine):

We’ve simplified the design to make it easier than ever to follow what you care about, connect with others and discover something new.

The problem with Connect and Discover is that they are not words people use to describe routine actions. Instead they are vague words that convey a range of meanings instead of describing specific activities¹.

I actually get where they’re coming from. There is a perceived problem that people don’t really know how to use Twitter. In the old days of boxed software, this would be a documentation issue. In the post-manual world that we live in today, the user interface is to blame.

The answer is to simplify, which means we need less options. Before there were @replies, #hastags, lists, search, followers and people you follow. I can imagine the meeting where someone asks:

What if we could reduce all those features to two sections. Two is less than six, so that makes it simpler which makes it better. We just need to name the two options in a way that conveys the full power behind them.

That’s how you come up with Connect and Discover. These are abstract concepts, not product features. To someone who already knows what Twitter is capable of, Connect and Discover are great words that succintly distill the full potential of Twitter. To someone that doesn’t know anything about Twitter, these words mean nothing. They need to be explained in the context of Twitter.

The reason I know this is because Josh Gertzen and I made the same mistake with TileStack.

We needed a name for the button that brought up the stack editor.² We wanted to convey to the user that launching the editor was a safe operation, that any changes they made would not be applied to the stack they were viewing.³ For that reason, we didn’t want to use ‘Edit’, because ‘Edit’ made it sound like you could modify something that someone else had made. We had many long conversations and debates about what to call the button. The thesaurus was consulted. Finally we chose a word⁴: ‘Customize this stack’.

The idea was that ‘Customize’ implied that you were creating a custom version of the stack you were modifying instead of modifying the original. This was the exact behavior we wanted to encourage: see a cool stack, make some changes and save a new copy with your changes. We really wanted to grow a community of re-mixers.

There was just one problem: people didn’t click the button. We knew this not by using fancy analytics tools, but by the questions we were asked by email or in our forums. One of the top questions we got was a feature request for a stack editor. We were completely befuddled. The stack editor was the core of what we had built, and most people didn’t even know it existed!

Back to the drawing board. The problem with ‘Customize’ was that it always implied that the intent was to make a new creation. Early on, there was no community. People just wanted to upload their HyperCard stacks and edit them in the browser. We needed something that would convey this ability as well as the fact that it is still a safe operation on someone else’s public stack.

After another long round, we finally settled on ‘Inspect’. The word sounds pretty harmless. You’re just looking around to see how something worked. There’s also the notion of an Inspector Window which was essentially what our editor was.⁵

Do you care to guess what the impact of that change was? How about nothing? We ended up making a series of videos showing how to use the site, which did help a lot, but we still got questions about where to find the stack editor.

To be fair, both Customize and Inspect are actually pretty concrete words, but they were the wrong words. How do I know they were the wrong words? I didn’t use them myself. I would always say Edit. In fact, the tool palette that appeared was called the Editor (not Customizer or Inspector). Those words were forced because the natural word wasn’t deemed to be good enough. This just exposes that we weren’t as smart as we thought we were. Eventually we broke down and just called the button ‘Edit’⁶

When was the last time you went to Twitter to Connect?.↩
By default, stacks were loaded in play mode. If a user wanted to modify the stack (or see how it was built), they needed to launch the editor. ↩
You could launch the editor on any public stack on the site, so that you could see how they worked.↩
Err... phrase.↩
Without the window.↩
If you edited someone else's stack, we indicated that it was a safe operation by changing the Save button to a Save As button.↩

So, American detainees are non-citizens?

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:55:00 -0600

Dave Jones:

But, remember what we’re talking about here. The whole controversy is about detaining Americans, captured on American soil. So, when Scott Brown says that trying these folks in court would “award detainees the same rights as U.S. citizens,” he is evidently saying that once you are detained, you are no longer a citizen.

Blessed are the entitled?

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 09:21:00 -0600

Rachel Held Evans:

…we’ve got to have a “Merry Christmas” banner in front of every parade and an inflatable manger scene outsitde of every courthouse… or else we’ll make a big stink about it in the name of Jesus.

…

This is a very strange way to honor Jesus, “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped…but made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.” (Philippians 2:8)

…

Jesus wasn’t embraced by the government. He was crucified by it.

On the impracticality of a cheeseburger.

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 08:16:00 -0600

Waldo Jaquith:

Further reflection revealed that it’s quite impractical—nearly impossible—to make a cheeseburger from scratch. Tomatoes are in season in the late summer. Lettuce is in season in spring and fall. Large mammals are slaughtered in early winter. The process of making such a burger would take nearly a year, and would be wildly expensive—requiring a trio of cows—and demand many acres of land. There’s just no sense in it.

via Daring Fireball

A Christmas Carol As Resistance Literature

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:30:00 -0600

Richard Beck:

O Holy Night, it turns out, was a song of political resistance and protest. Imagine Americans singing in the years leading up to the Civil War the lyrics: “Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother; And in His name all oppression shall cease.”

O Holy Night is a political protest. A Christmas carol as resistance literature.

This is as it should be. Advent is a call to Christian anarchism…

Awesome! I love learning things like this.

The abusive teachings of Michael and Debi Pearl hurt both women and children

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:30:00 -0600

Rachel Held Evans:

Why bring this to your attention? Because the Pearls are inexplicably popular in certain Christian circles, and abuse in the name of God must be spoken against.

If your church is considering using books by the Pearls as part of its curriculum, please say something. If you see friends or family employing their tactics, confront them. This is not simply a matter of different parenting methods or relationship styles—like Sears vs. Ezzo, or cloth diapers vs. disposable diapers, or complementarianism vs. egalitarianism—it’s a matter of abuse.

There can be no more beatings, no more deaths…especially not in the name of Christ.

I’m about to become a parent, so I’ve been reading as much on the subject as I can. Just about all the authors disagree with each other on some points, so I’m reading to backfill my mind so I can come up with my own style. I like parts of almost everything I’ve read, but every once in a while I see something that is just shocking.

What I Learned About Dallas From Watching Top Chef: Texas

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:21:00 -0600

Jason Heid collects some choice quotes from various national media outlets discussing last night’s episode of Top Chef: Texas which was filmed in Dallas. I'ts a wonderful collection of gems such as

What we learned here is that rich people in Dallas are freaking weird.

Thank you Bravo, for bringing this wonderful attention to my beloved city.

You Are Facebook's Product: That's Why You Don't Pay to Use it

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:02:00 -0600

Adrian Hon:

… it’s not as if you pay to use Facebook. You’re the product, and the advertisers are the buyers!

via Dave Winer

How Does SOPA Threaten Stack Overflow

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:51:00 -0600

Joel Spolsky

If we took down everything somebody wanted us to take down, the Internet would be worse. Right now, under the DMCA, we require the person making the compaint to send us a complete DMCA take down notice. … We respond by notifying the person who posted the material, giving them a chance to make a case for why the material is non-infringing. … The SOPA dramatically alters the careful balance in favor of “alleged” copyright holders.

In other words, it will make the Internet worse and put good sites like this out of business.

Pizza Hut Now Serving Vegetables

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:25:00 -0600

Nick Rallo:

Before we all stuffed our bodies with Thanksgiving last week, Congress declared pizza a vegetable. Only not really. Tomato paste, which is obviously associated with pizza, was declared a vegetable. … Meanwhile, in San Antonio, where the above photo was taken (via Reddit’s San Antonio page), Pizza Hit is enjoying Congress’s findings.

So You Want to be an Entreprenuer

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:28:00 -0600

Dave Winer:

I’m afraid the adults are not levelling with the young folk. And we should be. Even the universities glorify the idea of being the next Zuck. That’s like betting your future on winning the lottery. And you’re not going to win the lottery. And you’re not the next Zuck.

Whatever Works For You

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:18:00 -0600

Marco Arment:

Previous-me tried to presuade everyone to switch to my setup, but I now know that it’s not worth the effort. I’ll never know someone else’s requirements, environment, or priorities as well as they do. I don’t know shit about Windows or Outlook or architecture.

You should use whatever works for you. And I no longer have the patience or hubris to convince you what that should be. All I can offer is one data point: what I use, and how it works for me.

My thoughts exactly. His post could have been a page right out of my own journal.

"The End of Local Radio"? Reports Say Clear Channel May Be About to Go All "Robotics."

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:40:19 -0500

Liquid error: invalid byte sequence in UTF-8

Rick Perry's Balanced-Budget Illusion

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:29:08 -0500

Jim Schutze:

…if you want to know what a state really owes, you have to add up all of what it owes to its own pension funds and other public obligations, as well as gimmicks like the ones reported in the Star-Telegram. When you do that for Texas, we’re in the top five debtor states in the country with California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois. We’re actually in 48th place — with California in 50th as the most debt-ridden. Our debt per capita ranking is not great — 29th place.

And Perry’s holding this up as a model of a well balanced budget? Remind me again, why we didn’t tell him to “Adios, mofo” in the last gubernatorial election.

Ten years of Windows XP

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:21:26 -0500

Peter Bright:

But in many ways, the thing that cemented Windows XP’s status wasn’t Windows XP itself: it was the lack of any successor. Microsoft’s Longhorn project, an ambitious plan to radically rework Windows, with an all-new set of APIs and a database-like filesystem, was delayed and ultimately abandoned entirely. Windows Vista, a massively scaled back, more conservative release, eventually arrived in 2006, but by this time Windows XP had become so dominant that users, particularly business users, didn’t want a new operating system. That Windows Vista had trouble in its early days, thanks to its steeper hardware demands, its polarizing appearance, and display driver issues—mirroring, in many ways, Windows XP’s own introduction—just served to entrench Windows XP further. Business users stuck with Windows XP, and Windows Vista struggled to ever make a serious dent in its predecessor’s market share, peaking at just 19 percent in the final days before Windows 7’s release.

Nest: The Learning Thermostat

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:37:10 -0500

If Apple were to make a thermostat, it would be like this.

UPDATE: It’s made by the guy who created the iPod.

Quicksilver Roars

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:08:13 -0500

Solid update to a great productivity tool that, although I’ve used it for years, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of it’s potential.

On Parenthood

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:02:49 -0500

Jeff Atwood:

As an adult, you may think you’ve roughly mapped the continent of love and relationships. You’ve loved your parents, a few of your friends, eventually a significant other. You have some tentative cartography to work with from your explorations. You form ideas about what love is, its borders and boundaries. Then you have a child, look up to the sky, and suddenly understand that those bright dots in the sky are whole other galaxies.

Posts like this both excite and freak me out. My Henry is coming at the end of this year, and the only thing I seem to know is that I don’t really know what I’m in for.

Talk the Talk: Mayor Mike's Pals Shovel Up the BS at Council Retreat

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:18:32 -0500

Jim Schutze:

I feel sorry for the rest of the city council having to sit through this kind of goofy-ass bullshit. I wish we could have a mayor who knows how to be mayor instead of how to do Ouija-board tricks for out-of-it corporate Moonies still high from their last group herbal massage and martini hours.

Schutze sure has a way with words.

Slowly But Surely, Elm Street's History is Being Erased One Old Building at a Time

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:32:11 -0500

Robery Wilonsky:

Those buildings are just two being added to the growing pile of rubble up and down Elm, which is slowly but surely being shed of whatever history that remains: “In the course of eight months,” writes Noah, “807 Elm, 1600 Elm, 1604 Elm, 2222 Elm, 2224 Elm and 2226 Elm will have been leveled.”

In case you forgot why we’re called the city with no history.

Oracle JDK7 Mac OS X Port Developer Preview Release

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:00:10 -0500

java.net:

The Developer Preview should work on any Intel-based Mac, and has been tested on Mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.0.

This is an important first step in the new world order for Java and Mac OS X. Java 7 will be the first Java relase for the Mac not released by Apple. Once upon a time, the Mac was considered the best platform for Java. When Apple annouced it would discontinue official support for Java, many began to question the future of Java on the Mac.

As a Java developer, I hope Oracle will contine to put out a quality product so that I can continue to make my living on my platform of choice.

Paul wants to phase out federal student loans

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:30:05 -0500

Associated Press:

Republican presidential contender Ron Paul said Sunday he wants to end federal student loans, calling it a failed program that has put students $1 trillion in debt when there are no jobs and when the quality of education has deteriorated.

When you consider that the average student that graduates with a Bachelors degree has $23,186 in student loan debt, and that the unemployment rate for recent graduates is on the rise, this sounds like a pretty good idea.

(via Slashdot)

Amazon's new e-book format brings HTML5 support to your Kindle library

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:04:33 -0500

This is an interesting move. Hopefully this means we’ll see some imaginative eBooks.

1/2 of US Qualifies for Affordable Housing

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:55:00 -0500

Larry James:

So, over one half of all working Americans are eligible to occupy one of our [low-income] apartments!

Fairgoers spend $35 million on food and rides

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:51:10 -0500

The State Fair of Texas:

Fair visitors spent more than $35 million on food and amusement rides. This amount, which represents revenue from coupon sales (State Fair currency for food and rides) was slightly less than last year’s all-time high of $37 million.

Once again, the Fair has come and gone. Next year’s Fair will start on Friday, September 28, 2012.

The Ad Man Cometh

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:54:40 -0500

Anna Merlan:

[Frank Lutz offered] the city council members [a list of] “good” words versus “great” words. Don’t say “sustainability,” but use terms such as “cleaner, safer and healthier.” Instead of saying “working together,” say “partnership.” In place of “sacrifice,” use, “We’re all in this together.” Don’t “inform” the public, “educate” the public. (So if you notice a sudden shift in city council’s vocabulary, that would be why.)

I’m so glad they spent $15k of our tax money on this. (Plus another $15k private donation.)

Meanwhile, my council person, Angela Hunt, had this to say:

I think we just wasted $30,000 on a banal presentation that could have been provided as a handout … I’m not interested in how we develop better messages to better manipulate the public’s perception, or learning buzzwords to prompt the most visceral reaction.

It’s moments like this that make me glad I voted to re-elect her.

Love among the poor

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:30:39 -0500

Dean Brackley:

The problem for us is that the new freedoms and economic security have distanced the non-poor from the kind of daily life-and-death struggle that has been the daily fare of the poor of all times right up to today. Maybe 90 percent of all the people who ever lived have struggled every day to keep the household alive against the threat of death through hunger, disease, accidents and violence. By distancing the non-poor from the daily threat of death, the benefits of modernity have induced in us a kind of chronic lowgrade confusion about what is really important in life, namely life itself and love.

What's Better than One Giant Ferris Wheel?

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:47:15 -0500

Because: “Why not?”

J.L. Long library mural painted by Hall of State artist

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:38:55 -0500

Rick Wamre:

Few people know that J.L. Long Middle School and the Texas State Fair Hall of State building have something in common. In 1934, students watched as well-known local Dallas artist from the era, artist Olin Herman Travis (1888-1975), painted the “Food” mural in the school library. It was one of the WPA arts projects produced in Dallas during the Depression. Mr. Travis is also known for two murals he painted in the Hall of State at Fair Park.

Women's Museum in Dallas to close

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:03:59 -0500

Gaile Robinson:

The 11-year-old institution, located in Dallas' historic Fair Park district, will close its art deco doors after the State Fair.

Ted's Tidbits

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 08:57:00 -0500

The voice in my head says:

Another blog? Really? Don’t you have enough of these already?

The real answer, is that I have too many of these and I need to consolidate. When I post something online, it’s usually either a link to something I found interesting or it’s a full page blog post that’s been gestating in my brain for a while. Up until now, I’ve had two separate avenues for publishing this content. Links went to my linkblog (and from there to Twitter and Facebook). Full posts went to my blog (often with a link to the post being added to the linkblog).

I rarely post full posts, most of the stuff I post are links to other sites. The linkblog is great, but it has one flaw: there’s just not a good place to add my commentary. This is important because often I will want to share a link that I do not agree with, but find interesting. When you post a link to Twitter, it’s implied that you like and agree with what you’ve just linked to. I really want some space (more than 140 charaters minus the url) to add my 2 cents.

This blog represents the combination of the full blog and link blog. Most posts will be just a link to something else with a quote and some comments. Nothing more. Occasionally I’ll hop up here and ramble for a full page, but that doesn’t happen too often.

What’s with the name?

When I was in kindergarten, I published a newsletter called Ted’s Tidbits and passed it out to my classmates. (Actually I’m pretty sure my Dad did most of the work on this one.) I don’t remember much about that except for what it looked like and the name. Considering I’m really just commenting on what I find as I read the internet, I think the name fits this format perfectly.

Like everything else I’ve done online, this is an experiment. We’ll see how well that goes.

Oh yeah, I definitely ripped off daringfireball.net with this site.