I'm Chris. I work in technology.
I can juggle two oranges with one hand but not three with two.
I have trouble finding shoes.
Hereunder, whatever I feel like.
G-mail and IM: BoutofContext. See also: Tumblr Backup/Filter Tool
Sep 08
“ I’ve never seen a story that has a lead paragraph that says, ‘The president said this,’ and a second paragraph that says, ‘This is a lie.’ We just don’t have that kind of balls.
I didn’t want to just roll in and top everyone posting 90’s vintage hip-hop and R&B vids today, but screw it. I’m all in with The Lady of the Rage featuring Snoop, Afro Puffs.
Early reviewers dubbed an IE8 privacy feature, InPrivate Browsing, ’porn mode’:
When you launch an InPrivate Browsing session, all traces of your browsing session vanish when you close that instance of the browser. Cookies, temporary Internet files, browsing history, form information, and usernames and passwords — they all vanish…what happens in that InPrivate Browsing session staysin that InPrivate Browsing session, and goes away once the session is over.
Also of interest: InPrivate Blocking. In ’porn mode,’ it prevents sites from sharing your data with third-parties (at least, within the browser session), hopefully limiting those targeted ads that creepily track you from site to site.
Here’s something I don’t understand - why are there no “walk/don’t walk” lights on Park Avenue in midtown?
In order to know when it’s okay to walk you have to look at the traffic lights meant for vehicles…
The NYTimes reported last year on the atypical traffic lights and lack of pedestrian crossing lights along Park Ave in midtown, attributed to “a long-running feud between the city and Metro-North Railroad”:
The reason for the unusual configuration is that the avenue was built on a deck over the tracks that carry trains to and from Grand Central Terminal. The deck varies from about 18 to 24 inches thick, which is not deep enough to provide a foundation for traffic signal poles without breaking through the ceiling of the rail tunnel. Metro-North officials opposed any solution that would affect the tunnel ceiling.
“It was a jurisdictional issue,” said Sam Schwartz, who worked at the Transportation Department from 1982 to 1990. “We would have been puncturing the ceiling of the railroad. That’s where the battle ensued.” [More]
On a related note, I find traffic/crossing lights perform each other’s jobs better in NYC. Worried about timing green lights while driving? You’re better off looking for pedestrian lights paralleling the lane. They blink red seconds before vehicles get a yellow. Preparing a dash across the street before oncoming traffic’s green-lighted? The opposing traffic light’s yellow is your real final warning. Pedestrian lights err cautious relative to able-bodied youths.
“ By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.
Funny, until this mentioned “the services,” I assumed it was Google’s master agreement for anyone putting anything on the Internet anywhere by any means. That, or an ad for robotstxt.org .
While we spend the next decade watching a war of wits between MADD and the Amethyst Initiative ensue over the drinking age, there are pragmatic innovators on the side-lines lessening drunks’ incentive to chance driving home.
For example, Michael Oswalt, A Texas A&M alumnus still in touch with College Station’s chapter of CARPOOL (“a student-run safe ride program…that provides free, safe, and non-judgmental rides”) developed software improving CARPOOL’s operational efficiency and making the reporting/analysis needed for grant applications exponentially easier to compile.
By publishing it under the Creative Commons license for others to adopt, Oswalt contributed to collegiate public safety without getting entangled in the politics. Well done!
As if creatively baffling ads for drugs like Rozerem weren’t confusing enough, Big Pharma found another reason to sometimes tread cryptically. By not mentioning a med’s brand name, drugvertisers are relieved of the obligation to enumerate side-effects.
Instead, “unbranded product advertising” (for example: Ambien’s “Silence Your Rooster” campaign) hints at the offering before referring viewers to a website for more data, where the side-effects and fine print are published in a much less expensive medium.
Too bad the makers of alli didn’t get on this bandwagon, what with having to explain ”oily spotting, loose stools, and more frequent stools that may be hard to control.”
“ So, I’m in the back of a pickup with Bill Brasky Sarah Palin and a live deer! Well, Brasky Palin, she grabs the deer by the antlers, looks at it and says, “I’m Bill Brasky Sarah Palin! Say it!” Then she squeezes the deer in such a way that a sound comes out of its mouth - “Billbrasky!Sarahpalin!” It wasn’t exactly it, but it was pretty good for a deer!
— Mahalia Jackson, August 28, 1963, supposedly prompting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. mid-speech, at the March on Washington to change his dark tone and deliver the ‘Dream’ riffs he’d used at previous events.
On a stroll of lower Manhattan last night, I finally saw the sexy, black&gold monstrosity, William Beaver House; once summed by Gawker as “André Balazs’ vaguely vaginal condominium on William and Beaver streets.” Finally, since it had become my favorite misidentifying-your-target-audience anecdote, sight-unseen.
Balazs first pitched an ”R-rated marketing campaign featuring a martini-swilling beaver…and provocative, animé-style images of scantily clad men and women trading flirtatious glances.” [WSJ] After implying NYT’s Suzanne Slesin was too old for WBH, Calvin Tsao, whose firm designed it, described the building’s appeal “for a new generation that love living in hotel rooms…maybe not for families.” [See en suite, spa bed/bath, right.]
Instead, Balazs attracted “quite a mixed group” of buyers, many “not as young as I thought.” Less price-sensitive older singles, empty-nesters and even some families flocked to WBH and other luxury developments for the high-end, integrated amenities [parking, gym, common areas for entertaining, etc] despite the innuendo marketing. Apparently one part of the impending retirement crisis not mentioned by politicians is baby-boomer neighbors narcing on your party during quiet hours!
Misleading and distorted advertising peeves me, but I usually stifle the indignation to get on with daily affairs. Still, I’m pleased to learn some [far more anal] persons filed complaints with the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, alleging this verbiage from an iPhone ad is misleading:
“all the parts of the Internet are on the iPhone.”
The BBC quotes ASA spokesperson, Olivia Campbell, on the pulling the ad:
“Because the iPhone doesn’t support Flash or Java, you couldn’t really see the Internet in its full glory…They made a very general claim that you can see the Internet in its entirety, and actually that’s not quite true - so we’ve upheld.”
Teacher always warned about unqualified use of ’all’ and ‘never.’
Applying subjective marketing-speak to technical, quantifiable features also vexes me; for example, using terms like “super fast” to describe bit-rates rather than… bit-rates, or a comparison to another service intelligible to non-techies.
See also, use of the term unlimited*, often footed by a note explaining the limits! (Or added costs.) The seeming contradiction is then explained away as a non-issue impacting a tiny minority of scoundrels. Luckily, the FCC and others have scrutinized this particular scheme.
“ Now, there is no thought or reverie. There is nothing but gossip and making plans to shop or watch television. The cellphone and the P.D.A. have basically replaced thought.
![mallisser asks:
Here’s something I don’t understand - why are there no “walk/don’t walk” lights on Park Avenue in midtown?
In order to know when it’s okay to walk you have to look at the traffic lights meant for vehicles…
The NYTimes reported last year on the atypical traffic lights and lack of pedestrian crossing lights along Park Ave in midtown, attributed to “a long-running feud between the city and Metro-North Railroad”:
The reason for the unusual configuration is that the avenue was built on a deck over the tracks that carry trains to and from Grand Central Terminal. The deck varies from about 18 to 24 inches thick, which is not deep enough to provide a foundation for traffic signal poles without breaking through the ceiling of the rail tunnel. Metro-North officials opposed any solution that would affect the tunnel ceiling.
“It was a jurisdictional issue,” said Sam Schwartz, who worked at the Transportation Department from 1982 to 1990. “We would have been puncturing the ceiling of the railroad. That’s where the battle ensued.” [More]
On a related note, I find traffic/crossing lights perform each other’s jobs better in NYC. Worried about timing green lights while driving? You’re better off looking for pedestrian lights paralleling the lane. They blink red seconds before vehicles get a yellow. Preparing a dash across the street before oncoming traffic’s green-lighted? The opposing traffic light’s yellow is your real final warning. Pedestrian lights err cautious relative to able-bodied youths.](http://media.tumblr.com/wHrWZCGr8dfusc6pu5NoqiiC_500.jpg)
On a stroll of lower Manhattan last night, I finally saw the sexy, black&gold monstrosity, 
