So right now I'm working in a kitchen, making about nine bucks an hour. Some part of me wanted this, and I went with it. It has, among other things, made me appreciate just why having a lot of money is nice ( Read more... )

My passive-aggressive jihad against the browser continues. I'm back to using Linux as my default operating system, and I'm exploring apps that "take the web out of the web" -- that is, apps that allow me to interface with resources online without actually having to open a conventional browser, with all the potential for distraction that entails ( Read more... )

Thank you, Randall. Someone had to do this. The only part he leaves implicit is that we've been iterating this algorithm so frequently that we've developed an intuition for it that looks superficially like magic.

It's amazing what the right incredibly trivial hack can do: this Greasemonkey script can be readily pressed into the service of crafting an undictionary -- a list of words which, when typed in Firefox, will automatically be replaced by something suitably embarrassing. Already feels like my brain is being forcibly remoulded by having to circumlocute ( Read more... )

A while back I was considering getting a PDA. More recently it occurred to me that a binder clip full of lined note cards works just as well. I just jot items as they come and then transcribe them to my simple Gmail+Gcal system when I get the chance. I note this only to reinforce the point (to myself) that fancy, expensive tools will often benefit ( Read more... )

Since colinmarshall has started poaching my journal for two interview victims already, I figure I'll go for a hat-trick by mentioning that David D. Friedman finally published Future Imperfect a few months ago. There's been an early draft available online for ages, so it's nothing too new to me, but it might be to a lot of people -- and I can vouch for DDF being ( Read more... )

I think the fact that so much of our surrounding environment is now mechanical tends to skew people's thinking about technology toward mechanical approaches. But technology can be organic, too. It makes me wonder just how many modern problems have natural solutions -- either harnessing things already extant in nature or modeled on such things -- ( Read more... )

The best hacks are often simple. I've started using Gmail as my to-do list: sending myself items as they occur to me in the subject line of blank e-mails and archiving them when I've completed them. Like hooking a generator up to a rat's exercise wheel, this harnesses my obsessive drive to keep my inbox empty into the service of keeping me from ( Read more... )

Google's latest squeeze in the slow strangulation of Microsoft is something that's been on my software wishlist ever since the catchphrase "Web 2.0" started getting thrown around: a browser architecture that's designed on the principle that web apps really are individual apps and should be treated accordingly by the hardware, rather than having one ( Read more... )

The short talk embedded below was music to my ears when I watched it back in July, but I forgot to link to it. I take the point Shirky is making here very much to heart, and it has implications that are broader than he bothers to explore. (Hint: juxtapose with this post.)