DSC_4258 (via tmd)

i’m always at home behind a lens.  i miss it a lot.

this was during #biro_nup, after the pictures we had just checked-in to the hotel and were on our way to the reception.  i was bringing tom’s D300 for him.  elevator doors closing, i decided to catch myself.

fast forward a week, life decided i was having too much fun and broke my toy.  i was taking colleagues through manhattan out to long island for a client event.  i almost wish i was stuck in traffic on my way home now instead of waiting for state farm to call me back.

of course, it’s raining again.  w/ no whip, not sure how my weekend is going to pan out.

slantback:

…the display informs drivers that the lights are synchronized and lets them know the proper speed they must maintain in order to avoid having to stop for a red light. (via What if a speed limit sign told you the most efficient speed to drive? « Nudge blog)

throughout my childhood, my mother would figure this out on her own driving the many roads in our town. i’ve adopted it and can properly reach speeds that are necessary to minimize stoppage. sort of like a real world back to the future.

bleikamp:

Interesting job requirement for Apple’s lead front end engineer position.

not sure how to feel about this. innovation is good, yes. arguably the lifeblood of apple’s dominance. however, i’m not sure they used the language they want to use here. either they’re overturning a new leaf and opening up a bit or they, amazingly, might not really understand how to approach the social web.

inherently, we share things we find interesting, valuable, useful, etc. but, more often than not, when people try to design things only to generate attention - the opposite happens. not doubting apple’s value and function tenants but the vernacular - as ben said - is an interesting choice.

maybe they’re just trying to communicate what they want in someone to the lowest-common denominator? if so, hopefully, those won’t be the kind of applicants they get.

merlin:

Hayakawa’s “Ladder of Abstraction”

think about it.

deplorableword:

Google asks 50 people in Times Square “What is a browser?”

Worth reminding yourself that this is 90% of the planet thinks.

i’ve been kicking around ideas in my head about a good way for people on the web to realize what matters and what doesn’t. the beauty of technology is the speed at which it happens. very few of us could’ve imagined we’d have the power we have today but the world really changes when we start to understand.

this is the only photo of us from vacation.  none of that cheesy sunset shit.  not to say we didn’t try, there were just better things to do.  you can’t see, but this was taken on top of a gun turret protecting the commisioner’s house @ the dockyards (which doubled for a “point of interest” and cruise drop-off).

quickly, about the cruise in the background.  i’ve gone on one in the past and i won’t go on one in the future.  a big reason kate and i were in bermuda was to actually experience the island.  not get dropped off, buy $20 fake dreads, eat the same food you’d eat at home and get back on a big-ass boat.

props to my friend sarah and her mom, pennie, for finding us a great deal to stay at the fairmont southampton.  it’s a wonderful hotel and we even were upgraded to fairmont gold.

some other notes about the trip, as i can remember them:

• t5 is appropriate, not impressive.
• buses are a great way to see the island.  we didn’t rent scooters.
• my calves are too big to properly sport the bermuda short look but i was a fan of the conservative british influence on the island.
• every single building in bermuda has a rainwater collection system and limestone roofing.  that’s how they get their drinking water.
• drink the rum swizzles.
• the beaches are amazing.
• hamilton reminded me of monaco.  the woman whom i bought some china from in bluck’s has a pastor who shares my last name.  odds we’re related?  pretty good.
• the music is primarily top 40, about 15 years ago.
• most of the people are, generally, very nice which was very refreshing.

it was a great, relaxing trip.  if you can afford it, bermuda is a wonderful time (without the amazing deal we got, we certainly wouldn’t have been there.  at least at the fairmont, we were the youngest people there by about 30 years.  not counting young families - but still, we were an anomaly).

everything hasn’t worked so smoothly since i’ve gotten back.  work has been crazy, my laptop died on me (still isn’t fully functional - here’s looking at you time machine & airport extreme).  various things happened in my personal life (sorry internet).

although, tom’s wedding is this coming weekend and vermont not far after that.

polaroidbreak:

Land Camera 1000 with 600 film; no filter or flash.

me.  as seen from inside my mini.

zachklein (via dpstyles):

It’s not the infographics on the page that interest me, rather it’s the trend of emphasizing a user’s popularity on the network. Lamentably, I think this metric will come to define the experience for the next generation of social networks. I fear that the internet’s utility will equate to constant awareness of one’s value, and the play of meaningless games to increase the sum. This in turn will render many networks impersonal and irrelevant. Like a candidate’s bid speech for high school class presidency, I fear my Tumblr dashboard will become padded with ‘popular stuff’ sure to garner votes rather than the intimate, vulnerable and quirky bits that I’ve enjoyed, and define Tumblr’s personality.

I’m disappointed by Tumblarity, and Ashton’s follower count for the same reasons. I liked the Internet better when it was nebulous, and now I’m depressed that it shaping up to be a social pyramid.

i really didn’t want to bring this discussion into my blog but i feel like it’s important. not because i’m on tumblr but because i care about the social evolution of community on the web. this morning, i mustered up enough to echo zach’s sentiment and call-out this new change:

i think i might call bull on this at first pass. not that i really care what a pretty arbitrary # means to an insular community but because it’s self-serving. i doubt i’ll ever care what my tumblrwhatever is because i use tumblr to run my blog.

the number crunching is taking into account supposed “influence” within a community as a way to leverage content. rightfully so, tumblr has the right to do this but i doubt this will help GROW community the right way. is it calculating WHOM the people are that make up these numbers? especially outside the world of tumblr? i don’t think so and that’s the biggest thing about the web. we can cry from the rooftops about metrics, pageviews, uniques, visitors, share of voice, whatever. think about it though - as a number, that is the extent of our definition and, unfortunately, the extent of our perception.

Originally posted as a comment by john ratcliffe-lee on Tumblr Staff using Disqus.

a good visual representation of this argument can be found here.