Internet Tubes: September 2009

Milky Way tastes like raspberries?

The Milky Way tastes like raspberries.

Astronomers testing a giant dust cloud at the heart of the Milky Way have found that it might taste of raspberries, according to reports. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, were searching space for evidence of amino acids: the basic chemicals from which life is created. They told the Guardian newspaper that, despite failing to locate any such aminos, they did find a substance called ethyl formate, the chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries.

Does this mean the delicious chocolate confetion bar will now have to reformulate to add the taste of raspberries?

Sep 27, 2009 9:23:48 PM

Feline emoticons

via www.neatorama.com

Sep 25, 2009 8:50:14 PM

Animals With Lightsabers

via www.animalswithlightsabers.com

The force is with you

Sep 25, 2009 5:02:07 PM

The cost of free

Anil just said: "It's free... and worth every penny". I can't tell you what we're talking about.

Sep 24, 2009 2:49:34 PM

Status: Hung Over

I love a company where at the engineering team's daily stand-up, it's completely acceptable for someone to say "Status? I'm hung over, but functional".

Sep 24, 2009 10:15:11 AM

That feature we talked about last year? Remember?

via picasa-readme.blogspot.com

This happens to every product manager. You are passionate about a really cool feature and this is actually a real and expressed customer need that has real value. It's not simple, but if it was then everyone would be doing it. So you present your case, and it's a solid case. The technology exists and there are plenty of partners willing to work with you to help integrate it into your site. You have 3 billion + images and you know in your heart that this feature, this technology could revolutionize how pictures are tagged and categorized on your site. You know that tagging would virtually go from the 30% to as high as 80%. It would significantly improve search functionality make it super easy for people with large albums to quickly find people.

Yes people. I'm talking about facial recognition technology to auto-tag people in your images... like Mom. So you could quickly find all pictures with Mom in it. And now a year later, I watch as Picasa rolls out the EXACT SAME really cool technology that could have been in my old company's product a whole year ago.

The fail points were many but I think it was ultimately about vision or lack thereof. Maybe this is why cool sites suffer when they lose the visionary leadership of their founders.

Sep 24, 2009 10:05:42 AM

TypePad more than a blog

Wow... I just learned that the New England local sports site NESN.com runs on TypePad.

Sep 18, 2009 10:39:08 AM

Best of Craigslist: A few things from the bike shop

This is my favorite post/rant on bikes found on Craigslist:

Oh yeah. Listen, bikes can be fast, light, cheap and comfortable. Pick two, and we're all good.

via www.craigslist.org

Sep 18, 2009 10:15:20 AM

Real Life Photoshop

via www.flickr.com

Sometimes you have to step away from the computer and go old skool

Sep 17, 2009 12:46:21 AM

My first 6A blog post got picked up by NYT

Typepad, the SixApart-owned paid blogging service believed to be larger than any other online, announced this morning that every one of its blogs will now make updates available in real time. The service has implemented the Google-backed real-time protocol Pubsubhubbub, an Atom-centric alternative to the real-time protocol RSSCloud, which competitor WordPress turned on for millions of bloggers last week.

via www.nytimes.com

Cathartic. But the real credit should go to the man who did the work, not the one who blogged about it.

Sep 17, 2009 12:45:25 AM

A Word to Husbands

This would have served me well on Sunday night.

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.

A Word to Husbands
by Ogden Nash

Sep 17, 2009 12:10:32 AM

24 hours: world air traffic

via www.youtube.com

wow... how big is our world for all those tiny little dots to rarely come close

Sep 17, 2009 12:07:36 AM

The people you meet: Glo

From time to time, you chance upon some of the most incredible people here in SF. George Oates is one of those people. If you ever meet or run into her, mark the occasion and be sure to say hello. Here is her Flickr page with tons of great photos.

Sep 17, 2009 12:02:43 AM

David Lynch on Product Placement

via www.youtube.com

A man who says it like it is. Honestly is a rare commodity these days.

Sep 16, 2009 11:45:58 PM

Yes Man Soundtrack with Amazon widget

via www.movie-moron.com

In case you wanted to listen to the whole soundtrack.... plus I'm testing this new Amazon widget to see if it posts to my blog. Really cool!

Sep 16, 2009 11:37:36 PM

Yes Man ~ Munchausen by proxy

via www.youtube.com

Just saw the movie.. give it a 3/5, but decent for a "stay in and watch Netflix movies" night. Really liked the title soundtrack by Zooey Deschanel

Sep 16, 2009 11:36:03 PM

No man is an island...

Once in a while, I read this again to be reminded of what's important

All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne
Meditation XVII: No man is an island...

Sep 16, 2009 11:18:50 PM