July 2009
23 posts
Readability
Here’s a rather obscure little tool that I’m very happy about. It’s called Readability and it strips out web ads, headers, menus, etc. from the article that you’re reading. If you like to clip articles to save them offline or in your personal archive (I use Evernote), this tool is a gem. It makes it so much easier to highlight and copy-and-paste. Look at the Before (left)...
Yahoo committed seppuku today « The Jason... →
Excellent analysis by Jason Calacanis about the Microsoft-Yahoo deal.
Today, with their Microsoft deal, Yahoo again undervalues their search asset. Again, they will be “Powered by…” and again they will destroy their brand and its value.
All that being said, Microsoft’s obsession with taking Yahoo’s second place position and adding it to their 3rd place position is not an indication that it’s...
Ritz-Carlton: Oops about the bomb. Here's the bill...
I wrote about my experience staying at the Ritz-Carlton Jakarta when the hotel was bombed (17th July 2009). At that time, I mentioned rather jokingly that we didn’t get the bill for staying at the hotel. I thought it would be ridiculous for a hotel with their reputation to do such as classless thing. It turned out that I spoke too soon because the bill came on 23rd July 2009.
I should...
The great diet delusion →
FOR the past century, the advice to the overweight and obese has remained remarkably consistent: consume fewer calories than you expend and you will lose weight. This prescription seems eminently reasonable. The only problem is that it doesn’t seem to work. Neither eating less nor moving more reverses the course of obesity in any but the rarest cases.
…
None of these notions [of...
Number of followers will mean less and less
Here’s why:
It is human nature to want to progress. In the realm of social networking, it can either mean more interactions with your friends/followers or increase the number of people you connect with. Most of the time it’s both, because:
There is pressure to follow back. People follow you and you feel you have to follow back. It’s peer pressure. Even if you don’t give...
How do you share links?
This article at Technologizer and this one at Mashable reported that Facebook is leading other methods when it comes to sharing links on the internet. At second place is email. It’s no surprising to me that Facebook came out on top. Facebook has 250 million users and it has truly become a place to socialize for most internet users. The geeks may have their own preferred communities, but for...
Eleven Years of Ambition and Failure at AOL →
Who remembers those disks that come in the mail and magazine inserts? AOL once introduced so many newbies to the internet that the email domain aol.com was like a badge of dishonor. It’s hard to believe the company has been around for 24 years. New York Times Bits take us through the exciting last 11 years.
The cast of characters changed many times. And so have the specific battles:...
The Jakarta Bombings: A Personal Perspective
In the morning of Friday, 17 July 2009, two bombs exploded at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta. My wife and I were staying on the 11th floor of the Ritz Carlton when the event happened. In fact we were about 30 minutes away from having breakfast at the restaurant where the explosion happened. Fortunately, aside from the confusion and anxiety, we were able to use the emergency...
Is The Cheesecake Factory Gross?
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The “light” meal that you order in the restaurant may not be what you think it is. The salmon with miso glaze at the Cheesecake Factory, which sounds like a sensible low-calorie meal, turns out to have almost 1,700 calories — about 75% of average recommended daily calorie intake for an adult male.
The problem is that we don’t always know what we eat. I’ve been to...
How to Behave: New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans →
Wired does an update on Miss Manners. The list is pretty interesting. Some of them:
Delete unwanted posts from your Facebook Wall. Yup. You need to have ownership of your own Wall.
If you can’t find it online, feel free to Bit Torrent. Totally agree with this sentiment. Publishers/movie and recording studios should know that when people can’t find what they want legally, they will...
In Browser Wars, The New Firefox Loses Some Edge →
Walt Mossberg reviews the new Firefox 3.5 and notes that it’s not so special to use Firefox anymore. I personally took the plunge to switch to Google Chrome as my default browser (from Firefox) back in late April 2009 and I never look back. My main decision was speed — especially startup speed. I use a slow computer and a less-powerful mini notebook and the speed difference between...
As China Cracks Down on Uighurs, Jakarta’s Muslims... →
Mass protests in Indonesia are an industry and not so much an expression of public outcry or solidarity. Like all industries, it requires money, participants and consumers. I have heard stories from friends in Indonesia how there are “brokers” that can help gather the masses to use in protests. The price depends on whether the protest is peaceful or bloody. A lot of people actually...
Introducing the Google Chrome OS →
Google made a huge step towards computing in the cloud for the masses.
We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project...
Storage humor →
A Microsoft Answers message board got the question:
I’ve noticed that as I copy data/install programs on my Laptop, the weight of the Laptop increases. I have a bad back and am medically limited on the amount of weight I can carry so I need to be very carefull not to inflict injury upon myself.
I have also noticed my XBox feels heavier as well (the more games I save or purchase from arcade). I...
June 2009
36 posts
