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Monthly Archive for October, 2007

Carroll Gardens Featured on Gridskipper

Gridskipper put together a nice feature on our neighborhood in Brooklyn, including a snarky comparison:

Carroll Gardens featured on Gridskipper
Carroll Gardens is quaint, and for those in love with the West Village but who simply can’t afford to live there, it will do.

I’m not sure that I agree with this – we chose to live in Brooklyn over Manhattan, and I would argue that the neighborhoods to the north (Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill) are probably more fitting equivalents. Also, with few exceptions, Carroll Gardens is still very much a family neighborhood. Sure, it might be changing, but take a walk down our street during the day, and you’re going to see a lot of old men who’ve lived there for 50 years, as well as kids playing on the sidewalk. Err, maybe that is what the West Village is like.

Still, can’t deny that Carroll Gardens is awesome, and relatively affordable, considering the restaurant and bar options – we rarely make it into the city on weekends.

[via]

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October 31, 2007
in NYC, cities and travel
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Promenade

Lower Manhattan

Lower Manhattan

Had a lovely walk along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, on a fall day. [from iPhone]

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October 30, 2007
in NYC and photos
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Vamoose Bus

I know what bus I’m taking now, whenever I need to get to Boston or DC:

NYC-Boston bus offers free wi-fi, and reservations
…will provide riders with free WiFi on its leased buses, which are equipped with routers. Vamoose is selling one-way reserved seats for $22.

Free wi-fi and a guaranteed seat, for $40 round trip? Done.

More at Vamoosebus.com.

October 28, 2007
in NYC, links, music, politics and travel
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Unoriginal

copy cattimothytipton.com is using a slightly modified version of my K2 stylesheet, without atttribution.

The post layout is the same, and he’s using the same exact sidebar modules, in exactly the same arrangement. His CSS is full of my custom selectors/classes, and is still hot linking to images on my domain.

It’s one thing to take someone else’s work, pick it apart, and learn from it. It’s quite another to just take someone’s work, remove attribution, and tweak it just enough so that it has your name on it.

My site is built-off of the K2 framework, which is the work of a lot of excellent designers and developers. The difference is that I’m upfront about attribution, AND, I’ve taken the time and care to fashion something new.

So, Timothy, might I suggest reading Greg Story’s post on How to properly steal the design of a website?

I ran a diff on the two stylesheets, and took some screenshots:

no attributionbreaking IMG references instead of removing?hotlinking to IMG on my domaincopying IMGs over to your own servercustom selectors

October 27, 2007
in design, photos and weblogs
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TiVo HD and Copy Protection

Why do I pay money for this?I am an avid hockey fan, since I was a kid growing up in Buffalo. I love watching the game, and I especially love watching my hometown team, the Sabres. For the past 2 years, I’ve forked over $150 to subscribe to the NHL Center Ice cable package, so that I can watch every game of the season. With our TiVo, I can record each game, and watch it whenever I have time.

That is, I did, until this season started. We recently upgraded our TiVo unit from an old DirecTiVo, to the new Series 3 TiVo HD, which apparently implements unnaturally strict copy protection on premium content. Because the new unit utilizes CableCards, TiVo has different rules for these TiVos as compared to Series 2 units, according to their support page:

Since the Series3 and TiVo HD are DCR devices, in addition to the Macrovision rules for analog content, they must also comply with the content protection policies for Digital Cable content.

What this means is that NHL Center Ice content is copy protected, and will be deleted within hours of the game’s completion. Gone. Irretrievable.

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October 25, 2007
in sports, tech and tv
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Gmail Adds IMAP Support

Via the Official Google Blog:

Gmail adds IMAP support
“Are you guys ever going to do IMAP?” Well now I can say: Yes. Yes, we are doing IMAP. In fact, we are doing it for you for free on all devices and platforms.

This is great news, especially for iPhone users, (instructions here). Now, you can keep your mail account synched between multiple computers and devices.

UPDATE: Derek makes a good point about some advanced mail settings on the iPhone – make sure to align your Drafts, Sent, and Trash folders.

October 24, 2007
in Apple, links and tech
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Apple Picking

Stickball

We went Apple Picking upstate, in Warwick, NY. Jason and I discovered something more challenging than chucking apples at each other – spearing them with a stick, and then attempting to fling them at each other. The one pictured above is bouncing violently towards me.

It’s been 3 years since we last went apple picking.

More below the fold. [from iPhone]

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October 21, 2007
in personal, photos and travel
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Saturday Scoot

Narrows

We unchained the scooters this afternoon, and meandered around Brooklyn in the sun. Not too many days like this left. [from iPhone]

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October 20, 2007
in NYC, photos, politics and scooters
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iPhone 1.1.1 and 3rd Party Apps

  • iNdependence for iPhone
    It ain’t pretty, but I used this to upgrade to the 1.1.1 firmware, and then to manually copy installer.app onto the phone. Hello 3rd-party apps!

Beware, this is a lot more complicated than the way things were, before 1.1.1.

October 19, 2007
in Apple and links
» tags: , , , , » 0 Comments

2007 Web Design Survey

A List Apart releases the results of their 2007 Web Design Survey, and I’m feeling nicely average for my profession.

Close to 33,000 web professionals answered the survey’s 37 questions, providing the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide.

ALA provides a PDF with the survey’s findings, but they also provide the raw date in Excel format, which you’re free to play around with, pivot, and chart.

October 16, 2007
in design, links and tech
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Business Week Redesign

Business Week redesignI saw that over at Brand New today, that Business Week magazine has done an interesting rebranding and redesign.

Nothing major on the logotype - gone are the serifs. But, between the covers is the real treat:

It’s inside that the magazine feels more relevant with a clean design and consistent typographic treatments that sway you from beginning to end. Simple size shifts from front of the book to feature stories to back of the book are enough indicators that you are changing sections without resorting to extra fancy opening spreads for the feature stories.

It has a very crisp and modern look, reminding me a bit of CNN International’s on-screen design. I wish other American publications and media would take this approach. The worst offenders are sport broadcasters, who use tickers, graphics, and picture-in-picture interviews to do everything but show you the game.

UPDATE: David Sleight takes a look at the typography behind the redesign.

October 16, 2007
in design and media
» tags: , , » 0 Comments

Apple’s Web Apps Portal

Still no word on when or if Apple will officially allow 3rd-party apps - but some of these are really cool, so long as you’ve got wi-fi or AT&T EDGE. Here are my new favorites:

  • Weather.com // Way better than their old mobile site, with forecasts, and maps.
  • Fandango // Set your location, and movie times are not far behind. This is also way better than their old Mobile site, (as well as MovieFone’s).
  • Tipr // It takes your check total and a specified tip percentage and generates a total that is a palindrome - so you can ensure that you’re not getting ripped off.

And, some oldies that haven’t yet made it into the directory:

October 11, 2007
in Apple, links and tech
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Heights

Heights

A sleepy Sunday afternoon on Atlantic Ave. [from iPhone]

October 11, 2007
in NYC and photos
» tags: , , » 0 Comments

Google Acquires Jaiku

I don’t know many Americans that use Jaiku, a Twitter-like service that allows you to micro-post your day from the web, or mobile phone. But, with the announced acquisition of the Finnish company by Google, I bet more will take a look.

A Q&A on the deal is available on the Jaiku site, but they are freezing new sign-ups for now.

October 9, 2007
in tech
» tags: , » 0 Comments

Alma Mater

Lisa and I still keep in touch with a lot of friends from high school, some of which we’ve known since grade school. We were all trying to remember today if there was an alma mater anthem for our High School. As none of us were particularly rah-rah back then, we couldn’t remember.

Three of us, however, could remember the words to our grade school anthem - which is a bit shocking, considering the last time I heard it was sometime in 1988, in the fifth grade. I think they forced us to sing this thing during assemblies, throughout the school years:

Country Parkway is our school,
where we learn to obey the rules.
We do our best and take great pride,
with our Country’s flag flying high.

Here we work and here we play
Learning new things everyday.
From north to south and east to west,
Our Country Parkway is the best.

Creepy, in its emphasis on conformity - especially for a fairly progressive public school district.

October 8, 2007
in music and personal
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