Some Perspective on the Japan Earthquake

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 · Permalink

Some Perspective On The Japan Earthquake:

When the mall I was in started shaking, I at first thought it was because it was a windy day (Japanese buildings are designed to shake because the alternative is to be designed to fail catastrophically in the event of an earthquake), until I looked out the window and saw the train station. A train pulling out of the station had hit the emergency breaks and was stopped within 20 feet — again, just someone doing what he was trained for. A few seconds after the train stopped, after reporting his status, he would have gotten on the loudspeakers and apologized for inconvenience caused by the earthquake. (Seriously, it’s in the manual.)

Este es un imperdible artículo, altamente recomendado, acerca del reciente Terremoto en Japón y la organización y preparación japonesa frente a este tipo de desastres. En serio, léanlo.

Top 10 Most-Searched Bible Verses: What’s Missing?

Monday, January 24, 2011 · Permalink

Top 10 Most-Searched Bible Verses: What’s Missing?

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that John 3:16 is the most-searched Bible verse, according to statistical analysis provided by the folks at Bible Gateway. They reviewed the behavior of some of the 8 million visitors who stop by their site each month, many of them chasing results provided by Google. I was intrigued to review the top 10 results, which I’ve listed in reverse order.

Y luego de la lista viene lo realmente interesante:

Let me mention an omission. Maybe you caught it, too. Knowing the whole Bible and not just the most-searched passages, you realize that the absence is glaring.

A World without Jobs

Thursday, January 20, 2011 · Permalink

A World without Jobs

Apple made technology safe for cool people—and ordinary people. It made products that worked, beautifully, without fuss and with a great deal of style. They improved markedly, unmistakably, from one generation to the next—not just in a long list of features and ever-spiraling complexity (I’m looking at you, Microsoft Word), but in simplicity. Press the single button on the face of the iPad and, whether you are five or 95, you can begin using it with almost no instruction. It has no manual. No geeks required.

Steve Jobs was the evangelist of this particular kind of progress—and he was the perfect evangelist because he had no competing source of hope.

Yahoo!locaust

Thursday, December 30, 2010 · Permalink

Yahoo!locaust:

I am, frankly, a mixture of disappointed and sad that after Yahoo! shut down Geocities, Briefcase, Content Match, Mash, RSS Advertising, Yahoo! Live, Yahoo! 360, Yahoo! Pets, Yahoo Publisher, Yahoo! Podcasts, Yahoo! Music Store, Yahoo Photos, Yahoo! Design, Yahoo Auctions, Farechase, Yahoo Kickstart, MyWeb, WebJay, Yahoo! Directory France, Yahoo! Directory Spain, Yahoo! Directory Germany, Yahoo! Directory Italy, the enterprise business division, Inktomi, SpotM, Maven Networks, Direct Media Exchange, The All Seeing Eye, Yahoo! Tech, Paid Inclusion, Brickhouse, PayDirect, SearchMonkey, and Yahoo! Go!… there are still people out there going “Well, Yahoo certainly will never shut down Flickr, because _______________” where ______ is the sound of donkeys.

La revista Byte vuelve a renacer

Thursday, December 23, 2010 · Permalink

UBM TechWeb Re-Launching Popular Byte.com:

Byte, which originally started in 1975, will serve as the professional’s guide to consumer technology, providing news, analysis, reviews, and insight across the media gamut – from slide shows and video, to written columns and news commentary. The site will launch in Q2 2011 as part of UBM TechWeb’s growing digital portfolio.

Mi primera revista Byte la encontró mi Papá de casualidad en un puesto de revistas, le llamó la atención porque tenía un dibujo de los Jetsons en la portada. Me describió la revista pensando que sería interesante para mí, pero no recordaba el nombre de los Jetsons — sólo que era un dibujo animado. Fui al puesto y compré la revista que coincidía con la descripción de mi Papá — sólo que esa revista fue Super Juegos (¿alguien la recuerda?), una publicación española de juegos de video.

«No, esa no es,» dijo mi Papá. «La que te digo estaba en inglés.»

Para entonces ya estaba desinteresado, pero mi Papá la compró en la siguiente oportunidad. ¡Qué gran revista! Aprendí muchas cosas de ese único número de Byte, afianzando mi interés por las computadoras y la programación. Conseguí un total de seis números y son un pequeño tesoro. Aún las conservo aquí en el estante de mi oficina.
A diferencia de otras revistas que trataban de no ofender a nadie, Byte era imparcial y preciso. En un artículo del entonces nuevo, revolucionario y aún por salir Windows 95, Byte sacó un artículo con un título espectacular: «The Elegant Kludge.» Un título de lo más apto (y nada menos que genial), viéndolo con lentes de retrospectiva.

Byte ha regresado. No será el mismo, ni tendrá a los mismos escritores pero esperemos que sea digno de su legado. Sería mostro que consigan que Jon Udell y Jerry Pournelle vuelvan a escribir para ellos.

Why «Everyday Matters»

Tuesday, December 14, 2010 · Permalink

Why «Everyday Matters:»

My editor frowned and said that wasn’t really how books worked and that I needed to come up with a theme, a story, an arc, a reason for anyone to care and keep turning the pages. After some head scratching, I decided that maybe the theme could just be «A New York diary». Again my editor frowned. «Just ‘New York’? What about it? What’s unique about your perspective?»

My next idea: maybe it could have something to do with architecture (I had already drawn quite a lot of buildings) and she asked me from what perspective, what did I know about architecture, what was my POV on buildings and I said lamely, «I dunno, I just draw a lot of them.»

Finally, one tense Thursday evening she said, «Look, why do you draw? Why have you always drawn?» I snapped back that I hadn’t always drawn, that I’d only started a few years before, in my mid thirties. I guess I’d never told her that. «Well, why did you start?» she asked.

I explained that the reason I’d started was private, not something I could share in a book, too personal, too private. She kept prodding me until I explained that my wife had been run over by a subway train and that in the months after I had begun to draw and to chronicle our lives and stuff I liked and places I went and thoughts I had and so on.

There was a longish silence.

Settlers of Catan

Tuesday, December 7, 2010 · Permalink

Like Monopoly in the Depression: Settlers of Catan is the board game of our time:

…the great board game of this era is The Settlers of Catan. That game, which came out in Germany in 1995, is not a household name like Monopoly, and given that electronic games have eclipsed board games, it may never be. But it presents a world in which resources are limited and fortunes are intertwined, and serves as a model for solving contemporary problems such as trade imbalances, nuclear proliferation, and climate change.

Hace tiempo quiero comprarme The Settlers of Catan, pero termino convenciéndome que es mejor invertir en libros. Y considerando que recientemente jugamos Risk con mis amigos hasta casi las tres de la madrugada, no se qué tan saludable sea. ;)