February 2011
53 posts
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I am doing my taxes today. I hate TurboTax. It is such a scam. There’s a scummy ad every few clicks. I paid you money for software. Stop trying to sell me extraneous tax advice, debit cards, and Mint.com services. You all suck!
I also really don’t feel good about TurboTax saving my bank account number and routing number. I hope that’s saved locally and not in the cloud.
...
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A Nice Narrative For Dems →
Why hasn’t any major liberal/progressive writer written about this until now? Why is Paul Krugman always saving the world? Read The Daily Howler for analysis.
KRUGMAN (2/25/11): In recent weeks, Madison has been the scene of large demonstrations against the governor’s budget bill, which would deny collective-bargaining rights to public-sector workers. Gov. Scott Walker claims that he...
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Who Contributes to State Pensions? →
Extremely long, but worthwhile read to understand who contributes to state workers’ pensions.
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Making Mail.app behave like Gmail is way too difficult.
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We Dems are So Stupid →
We Dems are so stupid we have let this tactic work twice over the last thirty years. Split the lower- and middle-class public and private workers against each other. Classic “class warfare.” Why don’t major Dems talk about this and respond?
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Tractatus Digito-Philosophicus →
A map of Wittgenstein’s thoughts onto software development.
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And All of a Sudden...
I really love the Japanese stores around 4th Avenue and 10th Street. Ippudo NY is supposed to be incredible ramen. The supermarket M2M is great. And Just Sweets Dessert House has cheap dumplings and fantastic desserts. And it is here where I find myself on Tuesday night after a long day at Tumblr. I was going to visit an apartment for a friend, but it turns out the apartment was taken by the...
Mobile post
Ever & Then: Upcoming Films I'm Stoked About for... →
everandthen:
Surprisingly, I can say 2010 was a pretty good year for film…
Some of my favorites were The King’s Speech (which after much thought is my top overall pick; great direction, great script, great acting and most of all great story, see it if you haven’t yet), The Social Network, I Am Love, …
Some good looking upcoming films!
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Lino Ventura on Vacation →
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kant help me: More on Tumblr as a staple of your... →
nettra:
Some dear friends (@niamhhughes @norkor) recently asked Sandbox what social media tools they would recommend as part of a company’s marketing strategy in addition to twitter and facebook. I offered Tumblr as a suggestion. I posted before whenever a company I liked joined tumblr, but never…
Great summary of how to use Tumblr!
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Japan to build fastest train
justin-herrera:
http://inhabitat.com/japan-announces-plans-to-build-worlds-fastest-train/
310mph…can’t even imagine, and it only costs $64 billion? oh wait thats a lot….
I mainly like the fact that they are using magnetic levitation to give the train an extra boost.
I want in the USA!
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What To Carry in Pakistan: →
9mm gun
75 bullets
bolt cutters
GPS unit
infrared light
telescope
digital camera
air ticket
two mobile phones
blank cheque
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Curated Membership Communities →
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These People - Just. Don't. Get. It. →
Columnists just don’t get it. Especially ones like Maureen Dowd. They don’t do reporting. They just shoot from the top of their head. They generally have no facts or data to support any of their assertions.
When they get attacked in comments, they complain.
My take: Garbage Out, Garbage In.
How about: do ACTUAL reporting.
Develop a community of readers who are actually engaged...
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Any worthwhile partner is also a competitor.
I just realized given that manufacturing is entirely commoditized, clothing companies are entirely marketing companies.
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Keyboard Shortcuts!
Remembering keyboard shortcuts for Gmail and Mail.app is kind of a hassle. But you can work so much faster. I need to decide how to handle work email in Mail and personal email in Gmail. Or just merge the two.
y - for yank on Gmail is my favorite shortcut.
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Mathematical Poetics: Dead ex-Factory Towns →
hiremebecauseimsmart:
What we have here is a failure of the imagination.
I know of more than one town in the USA with at least 500 properties in foreclosure. Whole neighbourhoods could be bought for O(10⁴) dollars. But what could you do with such places that would make money?
Laws prohibit some kinds of things.
…
My suggestion is somewhat glib, but what about data centers? The...
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Le Monde iPhone App
I love the Le Monde iPhone App. The push notifications are completely unlike any other publication. I would say roughly 25% are death notifications. For example, the fairly minor French writer François Nourissier died yesterday. Today I just learned that former Tunisian President Ben Ali is in a coma. Being up-to-date on death is part of this Brave New World.
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François Nourissier is dead.
Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq... →
garysick:
Woops! So the invasion of Iraq was based on an invented set of lies.
The infamous Curveball confirms that he made up all those stories about bio-weapons trucks. He’s not sorry, he says, since it was the only way to get rid of Saddam.
But what about U.S. and Western officials? They knew this guy was discredited years before the invasion. But he was telling them what they wanted to...
Must See! →
Hello, Tumblr!
Today is my first day at Tumblr.
You can learn much about someone by looking at his email filters.
There is nothing wrong with being a dumb pipe if you are making money.
The cost of imagination is never to be underestimated.
Google Maps & Label Readability
41latitude:
Why Do Google Maps’s City Labels Seem Much More “Readable” Than Those of Its Competitors?
For months, I’ve been trying to figure out why Google Maps’s city labels seem so much more readable than the labels on other mapping sites.
To me, Google’s labels seem to “pop” much more than the other sites’ labels. Major cities also seem to stand out much more. [1] And whenever you’re...
Apologies to Kundera
Compassion is awareness that the ludicrous element in another’s feelings does not make them any less authentic.
and through a day: HIT AND RUN in Williamsburg --... →
jessversus:
attn: #bikenyc, @bikeblognyc
My friend Serena was riding her bike in Williamsburg and was struck at the intersection of South4th and Wythe around 2:26 pm (Friday February 4th, 2011). She was struck by a motorist who, instead of stopping to see if she was okay, fled the scene and left her for…
Fractals in Jackson Pollock's Art →
Pollock’s contribution to the evolution of art is secure. He described Nature directly. Rather than mimicking Nature, he adopted its language - fractals - to build his own patterns.
Does anyone have a clue about the corporate tax? →
Say what? Very late in this informative piece, we get some striking information: Carnival and Yahoo to the side, the averagerate paid by these 500 companies is 32.8 percent! To our own non-expert ear, that number seems extremely close to “the much-quoted federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent.” That said, here’s where that apples-to-oranges problem appears: The 32.8 percent...
Peter Orszag in the Citi →
