Archive for May, 2009
Friday, May 29th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-29
This week’s New Yorker cover was made with an iPhone: http://rickyopaterny.com/shorturl/ippaint #
NYT iPhone app: You can’t tell what kind of a story something is–news, column, news analysis. You can’t tell how long it is either. #
Checked Twitter this morning, hoping for reactions to Obama’s SC pick, but there are none in my feed. Maybe Twitter [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
Carlos Zambrano goes nuts
Carlos Zambrano got tossed from a game for the fourth time in his career yesterday, and it was quite a doozy. The play at the plate was extremely close and Carlos should have at least questioned it. And the umpire actually bumps ‘los before he pushes him away, so Zambrano has a reason to be [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
How to get AppleCare cheap? The answer is eBay.
Like many but not enough people, I understand that extended warranties are, statistically, a rip-off. The odds are that I’ll pay extra for the warranty and then never use it. Best Buy, among others, makes a killing from selling its customers on extended warranties. However, I have one weak spot when it comes to extended [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General, Technology by Rick
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-22
Looking forward to the end of MLB.tv blackouts for local market games: http://bit.ly/3VxqAn #
I still don’t understand why all web stories aren’t presented in single-page view. Multi-page=more ads, but also more user abandonment. #
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, May 8th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-08
Read David Lipsky’s Rolling Stone profile of DFW, looking forward to Zadie Smith’s essay about Wallace. http://rickyopaterny.com/shorturl/rs #
PEN World Voices Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio in conversation with Adam Gopnik http://rickyopaterny.com/shorturl/lc #
A new, larger Kindle is coming soon? Seriously? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/technology/companies/04reader.html #
A phrase that should be banned: “top of mind.” #
“…the Web is like an endless novel [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
The Kindle DX is great, except that it’s a rip-off
I eagerly read the news this morning about Amazon’s new, larger Kindle DX. The larger screen and the PDF capability seem to make it an ideal reader for not only newspapers and magazines, but also for books and and Word files and, well, nearly everything. The thought of 200-page books becoming 500-page books on the [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Books, General, Technology by Rick
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
They might not know it’s dog food, but they know it doesn’t taste good
A recent study from the American Association of Wine Economists has been receiving online attention for its claim that people can’t tell the difference between paté and dog food. However, in the study, subjects still consistently identify the dog food as the worst tasting of the bunch. Then why don’t they go on to pick [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
Jonathan Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude mix CD
Apparently, Jonathan Lethem handed out CDs containing his own personal soundtrack to The Fortress of Solitude after the novel came out back in 2003. The Millions was able to unearth the track listings on the Internet Archive, but the Archive’s page is now down. So, I’m posting the track listings here in the hope of [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Books, General, Music by Rick
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
Neuroenhancers and the key to productivity
Margaret Talbot published an excellent piece about neuroenhancers in last week’s New Yorker. One of the drugs that Talbot cites and whose use has spread this decade is Modafinil, which I wrote about back in 2002. I said, “The existence of a wonder drug that could abolish a person’s need for sleep … should [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Books, General, Technology by Rick
Friday, May 1st, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-01
No, sorry, Steven Johnson, you’re wrong about what that Kindle of yours means: http://rickyopaterny.com/shorturl/th via @Thessaly #
RT @NiemanLab: Advertising as art, web page as canvas: This stunning new spot for Honda literally thinks outside the box http://tr.im/jLUb #
Finally found a Spanish copy of Bolano’s 2666 at Book Culture yesterday. #
Hoping my pulled quad will heal [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, May 1st, 2009
Zadie Smith: The Internet is an absolute disaster for writers
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I first met Zadie Smith in the summer of 2001 at a book signing in San Francisco. I waited in line with a friend for her to sign my first (American) edition of White Teeth. [...]
