Wow, week 8 already! Here we go:
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Project 365 Week 8
Month: February 2011
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Indented Leg Advertising
An ad agency put down “indented plates” on benches so when “people” (I assume “women” is the intended word) sit down, the plate leaves an advertisement impression on the back of their legs.
Clever, a little creepy, but most of all, I can’t imagine this working nearly as well as the picture shows. First of all people move, so I doubt the impression is that clear. I also doubt that they are anywhere as centered as the picture shows. It’s a bench, not a seat so people aren’t necessarily centered over the plate correctly. Nor are all legs the same width. I also suspect most people who sit on it look anything like the picture. Also, some wear pants.
[Hat Tip: Consumerist]
Here is today’s cute/amusing video.
I have a small suspicion her mother or father planted the seed in her head. Also amusing is the follow up video where she professes her admiration for Seinfeld, the desire to write jokes, despite the fact that “nobody laughs at me” and the need “for someone to tweet me”.
I’d like to see the follow up in 15 years.
It’s done several hundred thousand views in the past 24hrs. I think it’s viral now.
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The Best USB Flash Drive
I’ve always been pretty compulsive about the hardware I buy. Several times I’ve documented it on this blog, most recently keyboards, in the past flash drives.
I’m now revisiting flash drives as my current one, a SanDisk Cruzer Titanium is 4+ years old and tiny by today’s standards (2GB). It’s also not exactly speedy. Here’s why I choose the one I did back in 2006:
- It’s made with “Liquidmetal”, which is insanely tough and can be driven over by a car.
- Retractable means no cap to loose
- Reasonable size for what it offers.
- SanDisk is generally pretty reliable.
Now my needs are generally unchanged. Keep in mind I keep my main flash drive in my backpack which I carry with me most of the time. Last year my travel had me doing 40,916.4 miles. Cheap plastic is out of the question. Same goes for a cap. I use it virtually every day so memory quality is important too.
So my requirements are roughly:
- Rugged.
- No cap! Why they aren’t all retractable is beyond me.
- Reasonable read/write performance.
- Small size.
- 8GB+ capacity.
- Good memory quality. I use it regularly.
- Did I mention rugged?
SanDisk at least until recently still sells the Cruzer Titanium though it’s no longer using Liquidmetal, and overall is cheaper in quality based on all the reviews I’ve seen. Presumably since Apple now has exclusive rights to Liquidmetal in electronics, it was discontinued. Availability is also limited as well making this not a viable upgrade.
IronKey is way to expensive for what it is, but I like the rugged hardware with the exception of having a cap. Seriously, why aren’t they all retractable? Lexar has the JumpDrive SAFE lineup but it’s got pretty much the same problems. I don’t need the security stuff from either, so it’s not worth it.
Corsair has the affordable Voyager series, but “rugged” to me means more than a rubberized coating on a plastic drive. They also have a Survivor series but that doesn’t really work for me either due to it being fat and somewhat heavy which puts stress on USB ports. That’s also a pain to carry. Being water resistant to 200M is nice, but for practical purposes not really necessary. On the plus side, it’s rather affordable.
So far the leader is the Corsair Survivor. I can’t believe I’m the only one who requires a more rugged flash drive than the typical $5 plastic toys commonly found. I don’t want to be replacing it every few weeks, and want to rely on it. Anyone else in this group? Suggestions?
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Project 365 Week 7
Holy Hell 7 weeks in? Starting to get into the groove of this and getting a routine down. All shots this week were done in RAW which makes working in Aperture much easier.
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Raymond Loewy
LIFE magazine has a pretty interesting photo essay on Raymond Loewy, who designed many things you likely have seen/used but completely took for granted including the Exxon logo, Shell logo, Coca-Cola packaging, Lucky Strike packaging, Air France Concorde interior, and Skylab interior among many others. Just check out the Wikipedia article for a list of designs by decade. I’m not sure when the guy slept.
I never throw anything out just because it’s “broken” without attempting to fix it. Generally speaking I’m handy enough that I can get things back up and running. Given my family history I had a 50/50 chance of inheriting this trait. I’ve done this from a very young age. It’s clearly something deep inside my psyche.
One odd thing I’ve noticed is that even when I come to the realization something can’t be repaired because of either cost, ability, parts, whatever, I’m still obsessively inclined to reassemble as if I completed a successful repair. Every screw exactly as it was fully assembled from the factory. It’s similar to a mortician dressing up the diseased before burial. I’m not sure if it’s an intellectual challenge (do I recall where everything goes) or just some sort of OCD. I suspect the former slight more than the latter. I can’t recall ever just sweeping something off the table into the trash.
I’m not sure if I’m alone in this, or if it’s common amongst those who repair their own gadgets.
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Project 365 Week 6
6 Weeks into Project 365! I really need to get better at posting this as part of my routine (perhaps Sunday is a good habit to get into). You can of course watch it progress through the week on Flickr if you wish.
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Project 365 Week 5
Another week, another round of pictures. I’ll hopefully get better at posting these promptly at the conclusion of a week.
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Gadgets And Work-Life Balance
On this rainy Saturday I was reading a NY Times article about work-life balance, obviously with my work email open in another tab.
The topic is somewhat interesting considering when I entered the work place it was just a few years into the 24×7 work treadmill that quickly became the new normal. On top of that, supporting a 24x7x365 news site it seems even more natural. In my eyes the days of a 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Monday-Friday job are clearly dead and unlikely to ever return. While my primary task is day-to-day development, I also support the site, meaning when there’s a major news even (planned or unplanned), or a technical problem, that means we’re stepping up. Election nights are planned, shootings, major deaths, etc. are obviously not. Systems fail, things need to be upgraded, scheduling with a 24x7x365 newsroom who needs to always be ready to go is hardly easy. I should note that’s in addition to having a top-notch 24x7x365 operations team a phone call or email away. The repeated use of “24x7x365” is intentional.
Throw in my extensive reading to keep up on things, constant need to hack on things, occasional desire to write about things, and I think I find myself identifying with the people profiled in the article to some small degree. Truthfully I was like this in college already, having a job just replaced the academic part.
On a side-note, while I was reading this article I did a double-take when I saw John Lilly’s name mentioned. I’ve seen his name in the press on many occasions, but never unexpectedly ;-).