Monsieur Soufflé

thedailywhat: Unreasonable Warmth of the Day: I’m no doomsayer,...

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:28:41 -0500

Unreasonable Warmth of the Day: I’m no doomsayer, but Maine was the hottest state in the continental US this morning.

[reddit.]

Maine, representing!

Man the clipping plane in the Big Dig is sooo unrealistic....

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:38:59 -0400

Man the clipping plane in the Big Dig is sooo unrealistic. (tunnel out of Boston is full of gray-green smoke) (Taken with instagram)

Really? Steve Jobs dies, so the news vans show up at… the...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:27:38 -0400

Really? Steve Jobs dies, so the news vans show up at… the Boylston Apple Store? (Taken with Instagram at Apple Store Boylston Street)

Hah! Nicely done, @metroBOS. If I cared, this would be salt in...

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:24:34 -0400

Hah! Nicely done, @metroBOS. If I cared, this would be salt in the wound. (Taken with instagram)

Wow, this is something I had not seen or heard about. Cool!...

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:08:59 -0400

Wow, this is something I had not seen or heard about. Cool! #revs (Taken with Instagram at Al’s South Street Cafe)

Time to take my medicine… (Taken with instagram)

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:24:50 -0400

Time to take my medicine… (Taken with instagram)

Boston is colored like a new Mac’s desktop right now - or...

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 19:20:45 -0400

Boston is colored like a new Mac’s desktop right now - or maybe Reis’s jersey Saturday #Revs (Taken with instagram)

The Movie

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:37:32 -0400

The Movie:

Neven Mrgan:

A thirty-something dude who’s just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend reflects on the relationship as he rearranges his storage unit. Oh and the boxes in the unit are anthropomorphic. That’s my elevator right there, but this baby’s going up to the stratosphere, so don’t stop me now.

This guy is half of The Incident’s team (far as I can tell), and his blog is also fantastic. What a dick, right?

Views Differ on Shape of Earth, Climate Edition

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:03:50 -0400

Views Differ on Shape of Earth, Climate Edition:

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones:

…the correct answer is something in the neighborhood of 98%. But even among Democrats, only 42% think that most climate scientists believe that global warming is happening.

Found, as usual, through Daring Fireball (I’ll get some new sources someday), but I have to admit that I would have probably responded “61 to 80%.” I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to learn it’s so much higher, but like Drum points out, I’ve seen so much stuff talking about the professed “other side of the issue” that I’ve had my understanding swayed to the right.

The Ad Contrarian: Advertising And The Future Of Apple

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:57:39 -0400

The Ad Contrarian: Advertising And The Future Of Apple:

The Ad Contrarian:

Interestingly, one of the first indications of whether Apple is capable of continuing its explosion of creative energy without Jobs at the helm may be found in its advertising. The product pipeline will take years to screw up. But the ad pipeline can be screwed up in no time.

I found this, as I find many things, through Daring Fireball, but I’m linking to it because I think it has some pretty smart insight on the success of Apple’s marketing, and its success as a brand.

This article isn’t about Apple tech. It’s about the Apple brand. But more than that, I think it’s a good blueprint, or maybe a list of pitfalls, for many other brands today, maybe even yours. I think there are some valuable lessons to be learned from Apple’s marketing, and The Ad Contrarian does a great job of outlining some of it.

Unedited Thoughts About Technology Better Left Unposted

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:09:41 -0400

Unedited Thoughts About Technology Better Left Unposted:

Gizmodo:

Nerds: You know more about technology than anybody else, and anybody who knows less than you is a total dipshit. I love you for that. But normal people deserve wonderful technology too. And half the shit you call computing—running custom ROMs, reinstalling OSes, fucking with network settings—is like a chef sharpening his knives over and over and calling that cooking.

Look, I can do that stuff too. I’m not complaining because it’s hard. But this is a point that I really appreciate, and I think it’s a critical distinction in the post-PC wars. And the rest of the article is good, too.

Post-Conflict Potter

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:29:52 -0400

Post-Conflict Potter:

Tom Malinowski, Sarah Holewinski, and Tammy Schultz at Foreign Policy put together a very clever piece regarding the next steps that should be taken after the death of Voldemort. Great stuff.

Tag Theory: How Much Is Too Much To Say After The Credits

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:17:27 -0400

Tag Theory: How Much Is Too Much To Say After The Credits:

Linda Holmes:

I don’t have problems with people who leave immediately missing a bonus sequence. I do have problems with them missing the apocalypse.

Haven’t seen the movie in question yet, but I think I might, tonight, or soon. Linda Holmes is always amusing, (and the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast is just great, week after week) and this article is just an interesting little note about what seems to be a trend that’s getting out of control.

Daring Fireball: "Mike Arrington's Taxes Are Too High"

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:13:39 -0400

Daring Fireball: "Mike Arrington's Taxes Are Too High":

Mike Arrington:

Many in Silicon Valley want to tax the rich into the middle class and let government spend and spend and spend. The super rich tech elite flock to Obama, joining in the call to screw the rich as loudly as all the rest.

John Gruber:

What a crock of shit.

I love John Gruber. He clearly has a bias, but so does everybody else. And the difference, almost 100% of the time – whether it’s about technology (usually) or politics (occasionally) or something else – is that he’s got a really convincing argument, and real, solid facts to back him up.

Beautiful. (Taken with instagram)

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:53:01 -0400

Beautiful. (Taken with instagram)

Adobe Muse: a step in the wrong direction

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:01:33 -0400

Adobe Muse: a step in the wrong direction:

Elliot Jay Stocks:

Dreamweaver, anyone?

This article has a lot in it, but I feel like this sums it up. To be clear, I use Dreamweaver myself, but never for WYSIWYG.

I don’t know. I guess I’ve never seen a full-featured WYSIWYG editor that doesn’t produce gross code. And I suppose this is less gross than Dreamweaver. But it still looks pretty filthy to me. I suppose the problem is really going to be a difference in mindsets, in understanding of the Web, as Stocks points out:

[Adobe Quality Engineer Jason Prozora-Plein] offers a sort of conclusion: ‘In five or ten years, I don’t think very many people will be coding to design websites.’ In some ways it’s a noble aim, if you believe that code is a hindrance to the designer.

But it’s quite the opposite: code is one of our greatest aids.

Somebody's Got to Save This Country From Certain Doom, And Let's Face It, That Person Is Me - Michele Bachman

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:37:45 -0400

Somebody's Got to Save This Country From Certain Doom, And Let's Face It, That Person Is Me - Michele Bachman:

The Onion:

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bachmann. Some things just make sense. Washington led this country to its independence. FDR guided the United States through the Great Depression and World War II. And I’ve suggested teachers could use The Lion King in their classrooms as an example of gay propaganda.

If anyone can bring dignity to the White House, I think we can unequivocally say it’s me.

I find it hard to believe that there are Republicans who think that she’s the best chance for beating Obama – not to even discuss the idea of her being the best option for the Presidency.

Michele Bachmann's Holy War

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 12:44:26 -0400

Michele Bachmann's Holy War:

I recall skimming through this article around the time that it came out – skimming partially due to a short attention span, and partially due to the fact that it’s hard to even read about this stuff without pulling a Professor Farnsworth. But my friend Zach Alig just brought my attention to this paragraph, which is incredibly insightful and really gets to the heart of my frustration about dealing with with the Tea Party mentality – and I’d expect nothing less from the article’s author, Matt Taibi:

Snickering readers in New York or Los Angeles might be tempted by all of this to conclude that Bachmann is uniquely crazy. But in fact, such tales by Bachmann work precisely because there are a great many people in America just like Bachmann, people who believe that God tells them what condiments to put on their hamburgers, who can’t tell the difference between Soviet Communism and a Stafford loan, but can certainly tell the difference between being mocked and being taken seriously. When you laugh at Michele Bachmann for going on MSNBC and blurting out that the moon is made of red communist cheese, these people don’t learn that she is wrong. What they learn is that you’re a dick, that they hate you more than ever, and that they’re even more determined now to support anyone who promises not to laugh at their own visions and fantasies.

It’s an instinctive thing to dig in one’s heels when faced with opposition, but I’ve always assumed that a part of becoming an adult was fighting that instinct, even just a little. The question now is: how do you have a conversation or a debate with someone who only becomes further entrenched the more they are faced with contrary points of view?

Penny Arcade - Dad Stuff

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:53:24 -0400

Penny Arcade - Dad Stuff:

Mike Krahulik:

Gabe plays Minecraft every single day and that’s no joke. For a while I thought maybe I should be limiting his time because that’s what parents do right? They limit “time”. Then I started looking at the shit my son was doing in this game and I could not ask him to stop.

I wouldn’t think that I’d ever link to something Mike wrote - he’s a great artist, but he usually just talks about … you know, games and whatever. And Jerry’s the writer, and Jerry is a really good writer, so I’d assume that even if I wanted to link about games, I’d defer to Tycho. But this little bit about Mike’s son, Gabe, and Minecraft and the developing brain is just … it’s really great. It’s interesting, and it’s touching.

And it’s pretty short, if you’re not a reader.

Restaurant websites: Why are they so awful?

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:22:19 -0400

Restaurant websites: Why are they so awful?:

Farhad Manjoo:

The first thing that pops up when you visit the website of the San Francisco restaurant Fleur de Lys is a nearly full-screen animation of celebrity chef Hubert Keller’s autograph. That makes sense—when I’m choosing a restaurant, the first thing I want to know is, Can the chef sign his name?

Pretty funny article, and while it’s probably one of a million articles about terrible restaurant websites, it has some interesting insight, and it lets me read and say, “I know, right?! What’s the deal?”

And that’s always something I enjoy.