Year: 2006
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Sometimes the NDA is real
Vin Crosbie comes out from under a recent NDA… I prefer the frieNDA.
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Not quite Chariots of Fire
On Sunday, I got out for a run on the sand with a couple of hundred other people in the Ocean Beach 5K. As you can see from the results (click on the 5K by Time tab at the very bottom), I did well among the 76 people who chose this distance. But it wasn’t…
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Redesign of NYTimes.com
I learned about the redesign of NYTimes.com via Anil Dash’s post on SixApart: The New York Times Redesigns, Influenced by Blogs. I don’t visit the site often enough, obviously, though if pressured I would guess that I visit at least weekly. My previous visit to an article page wasthe day before the redesign rolled out.…
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Worth a listen: ‘Daily Show’ Producer Ben Karlin
On Fresh Air earlier today, NPR : ‘Daily Show’ Producer Ben Karlin. Thirty-seven entertaining minutes, streaming only. Hardly a surprise to learn that Karlin was a writer for The Onion early on.
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Movie: Howl’s Moving Castle
I’ve wanted to see Howl’s Moving Castle for some time. When I did, I’m not sure what I saw. Original, bizarre, a wonderful mishmash of ideas and cultures, harkening especially to The Difference Engine, where William Gibson and Bruce Sterling looked at computers as they might have existed in Victorian England if Charles Babbage had…
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Book: The Secret Ways
I found The Secret Ways (1959) the least appealing of the three Alistair MacLean books I read over vacation. Preachy and hardly believable, despite interesting opening pages. The movie did not a get a flattering review from the New York Times reviewer in 1961, who asked Is it possible, you wonder, that the shrill, broad…
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Book: Breakheart Pass
The next snack in my MacLean binge was Breakheart Pass (1974). Written for the movies (that’s where the link goes), Breakheart Pass runs along its (train) track and doesn’t stop for much. I recognized immediately that I had read it before, but no matter. I think the movie might be enjoyable, since the book felt…
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Book: Ice Station Zebra
During my vacation, I went on an Alistair MacLean binge. The first of the three tales I polished off was Ice Station Zebra (1963). If you read MacLean, you read for the action. Ice Station Zebra hits on that count. Yet the first-person smug narration was more emblematic in this one. I haven’t been reading…
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Brief Reviews
When I’m posting about books, I always think back to Phoebe-Lou Adams from The Atlantic Monthly. Phoebe-Lou is no longer with us, sadly. I did not know her very well, as I was at the magazine quite late in her career, and I was (frankly) a bit intimidated by someone 60 years my elder. Yet,…
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When the competition isn’t driven by dollars
The New York Times article :Death by Smiley Face: When Rivals Disdain Profit” muses on how businesses must now compete with those who are not motivated first and foremost by money. Whatever I think about this from a media point of view, I think it’s a nifty part of 21st century life that enough people…