May 2013
6 posts
Waarom baseball zo'n mooie sport is →
De laatste inning voor thuisploeg Phillies. Ze staan 1-2 achter en hebben nog 2 runs nodig om hun 3-game-series tegen de Cincinnati Reds te winnen. En dan doet Freddy Galvis dit…
De Phillies staan ondertussen wel ‘maar’ 3e in de National League East, 4,5 wins achter de Atlanta Braves.
Lyndon Baty and the Robot That Saved Him →
Een jongen die met (als) een robot naar school gaat:
Other times it makes things that might be technically cheating a little harder, like in algebra one day, when the girl next to him tapped loudly on the microphone.
“Lyndon.”
“What?”
“I need your help.”
“Then give me the answer to number six.”
His math teacher was in the back of the room, but...
“Ja, er is een risico bij windmolens. Als daar een accident gebeurt, een...”
– Jan Bens, directeur van het Federaal Agentschap voor Nucleaire Controle.
(Bron: De Redactie)
Welcome to Google Island →
Mat Honan van Wired:
Governments are too focused on democracy and rule of law. On Google Island, we’ve found those things to be distractions. If democracy worked so well, if a majority public opinion made something right, we would still have Jim Crow laws and Google Reader. We believe we can fix the world’s problems with better math.
Geniaal. En ook wel perfect verwoord hoe ik de laatste jaren...
March 2013
7 posts
What It's Like Being Verified on Twitter →
Anil Dash:
[W]hich made me think someone has the job at Twitter’s office of calling celebrities and asking them “Is this stupid tweet really from you?”
“In the future all laptops will have touch built into them.”
– Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Google Chrome
I agree.
Google Glass: The Future With Monthly Updates →
Joshua Topolsky at The Verge:
Think of it this way — if you get a text message or have an incoming call when you’re walking down a busy street, there are something like two or three things you have to do before you can deal with that situation. Most of them involve you completely taking your attention off of your task at hand: walking down the street.
In a sense, this Glass thing tries to...
The New Yorker profiles Bruichladdich →
I always have some Bruichladdich whisky in my spirit collection. Currently I’m enjoying The Laddie Ten. Ever since I got introduced to them at the Leuven Whisky Festival, where people from the distillery present themselves to shopkeepers, I’ve been intrigued by the company. Them being bought by Rémy Cointreau last year was a strange thing, but could be something good in the end.
(via...
Away →
J.D. Bentley exploring a thought I’ve had about my own blog here lately:
But the real trouble is in elevating oneself above all others by valuing one’s own opinions and experiences over the inherent worth of other people, people who seem somehow less human as words on a screen.
While I’m often (very) late linking to stuff, write very little and offer little to no inside...
February 2013
30 posts
Conditional Action Groups – How to have If-Else... →
The lovely guys at Asian Efficiency found a way to do ‘if-then’ statements in OmniFocus. I’ve been trying to do something similar, but I couldn’t get it working quite right. But they have, so kudos to them!
I don’t care about your weather app. Seriously.
Kickstarter: Epiphany onE Puck →
The idea behind the Epiphany onE Puck is to use a stirling engine powered solely by heat disparities, such as a hot or cold drink, a candle, ice, etc. These heat sources will provide enough power to the stirling engine to fully charge your cell phone battery.
Interesting idea.
Cinema Tarantino: The Making of Pulp Fiction →
Harvey Keitel - in Vanity Fair - describing his first meeting with Quentin Tarantino after reading his Reservoir Dogs script:
I said, ‘How’d you come to write this script? Did you live in a tough-guy neighborhood growing up?’ He said no. I said, ‘Was anybody in your family connected with tough guys?’ He said no. I said, ‘Well, how the hell did you come to write this?’ And he said, ‘I watch...
“[T]here’s no romance in a mouse click.”
– Jack White, musician
James Bond (comics) →
This morning, I didn’t even know these existed, but they look awesome:
Google: 'If I Had Glass' →
Wait, what?
Explorers will each need to pre-order a Glass Explorer Edition for $1500 plus tax and attend a special pick-up experience, in person, in New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Stoffel Vandoorne joins McLaren Young Driver... →
Another Belgian taking first steps in F1!
We are delighted to announce that 20-year-old Belgian racing driver Stoffel Vandoorne, the reigning Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Champion, has become an official member of McLaren’s Young Driver Programme.
The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed →
Phil Bronstein did an interview with the SEAL soldier who shot Osama Bin Laden. It’s quite a long read about the mission and his life after it. Incredible story.
(Taking out one quote wouldn’t do the article justice.)
Wham, bam, thank you Mailbox... →
Bryan Goldberg describes my feelings on Mailbox, which I’ve been using for 3 days now:
They are not a company or a product — they are a feature.
There’s three features that Mailbox offers:
Swipe gestures to archive/delete/list/postpone an email message straight from the inbox
The ability to postpone a message and have it bounce back after a few hours or days.
You see a pretty...
Belgian Aeropress Championships on April 1 2013 →
Rob ‘Caffènation’ Berghmans:
We have, just like at the WAC, 18 participants. In the first round we have 6 groups of 3. The winner advances to the semi finals. Here we go 1 against 1 and the winner of this knock out advances to the finals.
So excited!
* In the picture you see Charlene (the former Belgian champion) win the World Championships.
Dan's Coffee Run →
Dan goes by his local cancer treatment center every Thursday and buys everyone a Starbucks coffee.
He comes in here every Thursday, buying twelve to twenty coffees at a time, so we asked him: ‘What the hell are you doing?’
Such a great man.
(via Chris Gonzales at Unretrofied)
“I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint...”
– The pope quits.
Hitler came to power 80 years ago. I remember it... →
Fritz Lustig for The Guardion:
My brother had a non-Jewish girlfriend to whom he was secretly engaged, and was therefore constantly at risk of being arrested by the Gestapo. One evening he went to see her and did not come home to sleep. As we shared a bedroom, I was unable to go to sleep until he returned in the early morning for fear that he had been arrested. That night has stayed in my memory...
“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be...”
– Eric Schmidt - you know: the creepy guy from Google - in his soon-to-be-release book “The New Digital Age”.
(via The Wall Street Journal)
The Apple iWatch →
Bruce Tognazzini, designer of Apple’s first human interface, speculates on the rumoured iWatch:
(T)he new generation of smartwatches are certainly very attractive to early adopters, but don’t expect them to smash the market open. That’s going to require an entirely different level of both functionality and perfection, just the sort of thing for which Apple is famous.
He makes some great...
How Netflix is turning viewers into puppets →
Andrew Leonard for Salon:
For almost a year, Netflix executives have told us that their detailed knowledge of Netflix subscriber viewing preferences clinched their decision to license a remake of the popular and critically well regarded 1990 BBC miniseries. Netflix’s data indicated that the same subscribers who loved the original BBC production also gobbled down movies starring Kevin Spacey or...
The Kickstarter Economy: How Technology Turns Us... →
Zachary Karabell at The Atlantic:
Kickstarter took an entirely different approach: It used the Web to connect people with ideas to people with money. In Kickstarter’s case, however, the connection isn’t to people with lots of money ‑ it’s to anyone willing to put up a little bit for an idea that inspires, excites or intrigues.
Great profile on crowdfunding.
“The web will be history.”
– David Gelernter predicts the end of the web and the surge of the ‘worldstream’ in an opnion piece for Wired.
This is where we should be headed. It’s a perfect incarnation of the blend between the ‘social’ web and the ‘internet of things’.
Do Me a Favor. Stop Buying Bad Coffee. →
Nicholas Thompson for The Huffington Post:
Suddenly, everyone wants to be a barista. Suddenly, everyone wants access to coffee know-how. By all means, go out and seek answers to your questions. But first and foremost, you must discover your source for bags of fresh, lightly roasted coffee.
Related:
How Gayle Laakmann McDowell Recovered Her Stolen... →
The woman herself on Quora:
The next day at around 1:00pm, I walked into the Palo Alto police station armed with a stack of papers. I talked to three very nice police officers. They were a bit confused — and mildly uncomfortable — as to just how I got all of this information on Cali Cappa, but at least I’d made their jobs easy.
Great story.
EU to set up euro-election 'troll patrol' to... →
Bruno Waterfield at The Telegraph:
Parliament’s institutional communicators must have the ability to monitor public conversation and sentiment on the ground and in real time, to understand ‘trending topics’ and have the capacity to react quickly, in a targeted and relevant manner, to join in and influence the conversation, for example, by providing facts and figures to...
New Monty Python Movie Announced...With Robin... →
Carol Pinchefsky for Forbes:
Their newest creation will be a science fiction film. The Pythons will be playing aliens who grant wishes to humans, just to see what happens.
YES!
Siri UI Engineer - Job Summary →
Apple’s jobs page:
Consider it an entire miniature OS within the OS, and you get a good idea of the scope!
That’s where they’re taking it.
(via Benedict Evans on Twitter)
A crazier prediction: iPhone Plus is real, and... →
Marco Arment makes a great point about the rumored ‘even bigger iPhone’:
I was able to use the Galaxy Note right after it was announced by Samsung in London, and I actually quite liked it. It fills the promise of what used to be the PDA’s, more so than first-generation smartphones were able to. I really think there’s a (albeit business-orientated) market for a larger...
The B&B Podcast: The Penultimate Episode →
Shawn Blanc about his podcast with Ben Brooks:
This was our second-to-last episode.
It’s sad to see them go. They were just the ideal mix of a cocky opinionated technology writer and a run-of-the-mill regular user who has a great way of stating things.
I’m going to miss the show.
January 2013
48 posts
App.net File API →
Dalton Caldwell at the official App.net blog:
App.net “member” and “developer” tier accounts now have access to a 10GB bucket of file storage. This storage can be accessed by App.net applications in order to read/write files.
Curious to see to which innovations this new api leads.
I’ve loved all the app.net clients thusfar, with Felix being my overall favourite. This could bring a whole...
Daft Punk Signs With Columbia Records →
The Hollywood Reporter:
Confirmed details about Daft Punk’s forthcoming fourth album are few and far between, though producer/Chic co-founder Nile Rodgers recently hinted that it would be out in the coming months.
If you’ve been off the grid for a few days, like I have, this is big news. They’re the single best musical thing to ever come out of France. And they’re releasing...
Rdio Expands Free Music Streaming Overseas →
Jamie Cifuentes at PCmag.com:
Free music streaming launched in the U.S. back in Oct. 2011, but is now available in the U.K., Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.
I absolutely love Rdio and am glad to pay for it. So please, try it out for free, now you can!
J.J. ABRAMS TO DIRECT STAR WARS: EPISODE VII →
StarWars.com:
Yes, J.J. Abrams will direct Star Wars: Episode VII, the first of a new series of Star Wars films to come from Lucasfilm under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy. Abrams will be directing and Academy Award-winning writer Michael Arndt will write the screenplay.
I don’t really like this happening.
While I really liked Lost, Star Trek, Cloverfield, Mission Impossible and -...
Sundance 2013: First Look of Ashton Kutcher as... →
Entertainment Weekly has a short clip of Ashton Kutcher playing Steve Jobs. The resemblance is uncanny, especially the way he talks.
Can’t wait for it to come out mid-April!
“Apple posted record quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and record quarterly net...”
– Apple Press Info
They sure are in trouble. Please, get Tim Cook out of there. (Not.) 