April 18, 2009
“

[Today] is Paul Revere Day, so wear your Keep The Ride Alive T-shirts with pride to commemorate the midnight ride of Paul Revere and the power of an individual: “On April 18th, 1775, Paul Revere and other riders set out to warn the American farmers and villagers that the time had come to fight for our freedom.

As individuals, these riders combined to help launch the American quest for independence- an independence that gives each of us opportunities and the freedom to engage in our own personal rides that can make a difference.

So on April 18th, we salute Paul Revere and the others who fought for our freedom, demonstrating the power of a single individual. To them we owe not only gratitude for our freedom, but also the responsibility to KEEP THE RIDE ALIVE- as a reminder of our own potential as individuals.”

Happy Paul Revere Day!

by Colleen.

Today is a great day, where over 350 people across this country (and in 7 other countries) are wearing a Keep The Ride Alive t-shirt to honor the midnight ride of Paul Revere and the power of an individual.

Whether or not you’re wearing a shirt, take a moment to tell someone about what Paul Revere did 234 years ago today and how one person can make an impact!

(via iseffcom)

I’m wearing my KTRA tshirt today!

April 9, 2009
I’m a little weird when it comes to technology: I will almost always refuse to buy into the latest and greatest gadget/website/whatever if I think its too trendy. I guess I have a little bit of a contrarian streak in me. Occasionally, something awesome comes along that makes me change my mind. Like back in the day when everyone was first getting an iPod, I got a Creative Nomad Jukebox instead. Looking back at it now, it was a pretty irrational choice: sure, it was a bit cheaper, but the jukebox had a crap tiny screen, was way clunkier, and had really crumby syncing software. Eventually, the iTunes music store came out, and I couldn’t hold out any longer.. getting music from anywhere else was too much of a pain at the time. Today my friend Ian showed me this: http://www.appstorehq.com/dominicanspanishwordoftheday-iphone-1295/app . There’s a fricken iphone app that will give you a Dominican spanish word of the day. How awesome is that?! I haven’t lived in the DR for almost 8 years now, so my Dominican slag is getting mega rusty… I almost didn’t recognize the word in the screenshot! Maybe its finally time for me to get an iPhone?

I’m a little weird when it comes to technology: I will almost always refuse to buy into the latest and greatest gadget/website/whatever if I think its too trendy. I guess I have a little bit of a contrarian streak in me. Occasionally, something awesome comes along that makes me change my mind.

Like back in the day when everyone was first getting an iPod, I got a Creative Nomad Jukebox instead. Looking back at it now, it was a pretty irrational choice: sure, it was a bit cheaper, but the jukebox had a crap tiny screen, was way clunkier, and had really crumby syncing software. Eventually, the iTunes music store came out, and I couldn’t hold out any longer.. getting music from anywhere else was too much of a pain at the time.

Today my friend Ian showed me this: http://www.appstorehq.com/dominicanspanishwordoftheday-iphone-1295/app . There’s a fricken iphone app that will give you a Dominican spanish word of the day. How awesome is that?! I haven’t lived in the DR for almost 8 years now, so my Dominican slag is getting mega rusty… I almost didn’t recognize the word in the screenshot! Maybe its finally time for me to get an iPhone?

March 28, 2009

If the opposite of con is pro then is the opposite of congress, progress? Or did I just blow your fucking mind?

dlifson:

kaytee:

I know this is supposed to be clever and witty and whatever. It is not anything more than etymologically ignorant.

Pros and cons is a modern abbreviation for the latin pro et contra, meaning “for and against.” While the prefix pro- bears the same meaning, contra- is not the same as the prefix con-, which means “with.” The root or suffix of the word, gress, means “to go,” so these words literally mean “to go forward” and “to go together.” Clearly, these two words are not opposites.

So there… your Latin lesson for the day.

Related story: A few years ago, my team inherited a service that handled file uploads via form POSTs. It signalled errors to the frontend using two urls that were passed in with the upload: progress and congress. If an upload was processed correctly, the browser would be redirected the url passed in via the “progress” parameter, and failures were redirected to the url from the “congress” parameter.

My teammate knew the etymology was all wrong, and as a result absolutely HATED these names (years later, he still teases the author of that code about it).  When we finally replaced the upload handling code, these params were renamed to successRedirect and failureRedirect…. though I’m pretty sure we still accept congress/progress for backwards compatibility.


March 23, 2009
I wonder how many geeks in the state of Washington tried to get this vanity plate only to find it was already taken. I was a little jealous when I saw it..

I wonder how many geeks in the state of Washington tried to get this vanity plate only to find it was already taken. I was a little jealous when I saw it..

March 21, 2009
“ This isn’t beat up the geek, big guy, this is the internet establishment! You put me in front of a judge and he’ll take YOU down. He’ll throw the kindle at you!
Dialog from yesterday’s episode of Dollhouse. Best episode of the season so far!

sotd: placebo - battle for the sun

this is the title track off of placebo’s next album due out this june (avail for free download on http://www.placeboworld.co.uk). I like it.. a little darker/edgier than the placebo I remember from when I used to listen to them on college.

as a techie aside, here’s yet another band with a hard to use form on their website. three steps on the same page, the next steps are dimmed out and dont activate til you fill out the previous ones, and some lame js animations. seriously guys, just keep it simple: I want your mp3, you want my email address.. just let me give it to you!

March 20, 2009
I really hope they know what they’re doing… (source: http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/usfd/page3.pdf)

I really hope they know what they’re doing…

(source: http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/usfd/page3.pdf)

Seattle Sounders FC won their first ever MLS game yesterday (3-0!) in front of 32,523 fans. Definitely going to try to make it to a few games this season. (via seattlest)

Seattle Sounders FC won their first ever MLS game yesterday (3-0!) in front of 32,523 fans. Definitely going to try to make it to a few games this season.

(via seattlest)

March 19, 2009
sorry, couldn’t resist :P

sorry, couldn’t resist :P

my first try at bracketology

my first try at bracketology