cursing.nerds

1 week ago from bookmarklet

High Scalability - Startups are Creating a New System of the World for IT

Long-ish, but engaging write-up on what the overhyped ‘cloud’ term really means. This is not new information for many, but I really enjoyed the author’s voice and the wealth of concrete comparisons to ‘the old datacenter’ to the ‘new cloud’.

Notes: 8 / 9 months ago from izs

New English

izs:

shown to be far more ergonomic.
the bottom to top writing direction was
Reviled and ridiculed at first,

it became apparent this was not ideal.
on monitor screens,
Displaying text in streams

all written down from the top.
languages of the ancients were
Developed for paints in hand,

Notes: 8 / 10 months ago from webosdaily

webOS Daily: Ubuntu 11 running on webOS

webosdaily:

File under: Awesome. The above screenshot shows the full-blown version of OpenOffice running on the TouchPad. How is this possible?

The webOS Internals crew has enabled webOS devices all the way from the Pixi to the TouchPad to run a full standard Linux distribution — Ubuntu 11.04 to be…

10 months ago

Paper.js looks pretty cool

I am thoroughly impressed with this API. I think this will very likely land itself in one of my upcoming projects. I love that they’ve created an extensible object and tools model.

IMHO, the svg-edit team would do well to refactor on top of this lib (last time I played with svg-edit it was a bit of a mess in terms of extensibility).

Notes: 16 / 11 months ago from zhephree (originally from arainert)

"There is always the temptation to add power-user features under an “advanced” tab. Don’t do it. It will cost you in consumer confusion, team focus and support costs."

- There are so many gems in this piece on Netflix’s success by @rakeshlobster but this was my fave. (via arainert)

11 months ago

Suggestion of Life (ch. 1, snippet 1)

“…ake… …p…” …

“…wake… …up…” …

“Wake UP!” Jo had been having a deeply restful sleep. For once! Grumble grumble… what do you want?

“… what? What?? Why can’t you just see me lying here sleeping and just… let me sleep?” She shoved her head under the pillow in a show of cobweb induced disgust. How dare anyone pull me from wherever I just was.

There was still some fragment of her dream hanging in her head. Not a great dream. No, not even a good dream. Maybe if it was a good dream she wouldn’t have felt so angry for having been ripped from it. Nah, that’s not right either. Probably she’d have been even more pissed. But what was it? Something about… a bird? flying? …a blue… crap… it’s gone. Just a bunch of static now.

Alex did genuinely feel bad for waking her up, but not enough to not do it. Certainly not enough to apologize for it. Today was a special day and she’d better get up soon.

“It’s past eleven, darling.” She loved it when he called her darling. He had a calm way about him. It really was incredible. With one or two little words she felt right again. Awake.

“…mmm.” I’m still not getting up, she thought.

“I said… it’s past eleven, darling.” The last word was just a tick louder. Why was he… oh crap!

“Oh my God. I’m so sorry. I’m up. I’m up.” She wiped at the sleep in her eyes, looked up at him, tried to make her smile look as sweet and apologetic as she could. He laughed.

Alex was smitten the first day they met. He and some of his friends were out being stupid and young and drunk. She knew Alex from around town, but never really hung out with him before that night. They both just happened to be at the same bar and in roughly the same state of mind. He caught a glimpse of her sitting near the far corner of the rail as he made his normal scan of the place as he entered. As the night wore on they traded several playful smiles from various locations in the establishment. The spirits did what they do and before two rolled around they were hanging on each other. They mushed their words and laughter and faces and lives against each other, drunkenly, merrily, and for hours. Sometimes good memories are better because you can barely remember them, the details anyway. You just remember being there with that person and feeling something good that you know you don’t always get to feel.

11 months ago

Suggestion of Life (intro)

I’ve started writing a book that’s been rattling around in my head for years. It may take me quite a while to finish, so I’ve decided to start posting snippets as I make progress. It’s fiction, and it’s a love story. What I post here can be considered a rough draft. Don’t expect expediency; I find it challenging to find time for art.

—-

“Suggestion of Life” by Ryan Gahl

Introduction:

Life is good. The start of each day shows us that. Light and sound and thought fill us with being and feeling and spirit. Wonder opens our eyes and minds. We enjoy and often cling to our needed rest at the same time we move forward into what lies ahead. We know some days hold challenge, and some dread, but we know these challenges can be met and that we can seek and receive help to face and overcome those things that are hard to bare.

Life is ever changing and ever lasting; it is renewed daily, hourly, constantly. When we sleep we remember being awake. Our dreams are created in our minds as shades of our experiences and they lead us back to daylight for more. This cycle is unending for our lifetimes as we grow and learn and live and give. At the end of each day as we lie down to rest we know that others are waking up to their own days, living a life not so different from our own, led to each morning by their own dreams.

It is truly wonderful, that we are here.

11 months ago

Pure art.

Was watching Great Performances on PBS (Bill Murray MC’ing Eric Clapton’s Guitar Festival), and looked up the show on pbs.org.

I found this performance by 10 year old Jackie Evancho. Wow.

My daughter is 2. She has 8 years to get this good. No pressure, honey :)

Notes: 1 / 11 months ago