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Reblog: The Return of My Unsolicited Annual Plug for WordPress.com
Nice post from John Scalzi:
Today marks the third anniversary of Whatever’s association with WordPress.com, via its VIP hosting service, and the best compliment I can think to give WordPress.com in this regard is that it’s been three years since I’ve had to think about whether my blog is up and running.
via The Return of My Unsolicited Annual Plug for WordPress.com – Whatever.
Must watch timelapse video: Landscapes Volume Two
Insanely good, and take the advise of the person behind it:
PLEASE WATCH IN HD FULL SCREEN w/SOUND. It is a much better viewing experience. Hopefully you have a 1080P monitor and good connection. If not, bug a friend or colleague that does. It is worth it.
Via gizmodo.com
Retro MacOS WP.com Theme Enabled
My colleagues worked overnight on making this theme available to all of WordPress.com, and I just enabled here on raanan.com:
Yesterday one of the tributes I noticed was the website Boing Boing (WordPress powered) switched their theme to one reminiscent of the original Macintosh interface, one of the several times Jobs would make a ding in the universe through his work. It seemed fitting, and we wanted to make it available to all of you, so our theme team worked through the night and here it is:
More details on the announcement post
A few thoughts on Jobs from D5 and what I’m reading tonight …
I never spoke to Steve Jobs or had any of those famous emails threads with him.
The closest I got was standing just a few feet away from him at the AllThingsD D5 conference back in 2007. It was a group of us talking in the hallway and Steve just sort of walked by and starting chatting with someone nearby. I believe Brian Lam was right there as well, and was chatting with Steve. I recall sometime later that day, Brian telling me how amazing it was to hear that Steve read Gizmodo 3-4 times/day !
D is one of these conferences with top executives in the digital world, and it was instantly clear to me that Steve Jobs was in his own category. He was the only person who created a buzz when he walked through the hallway. He was the only person people would remark to me later in conversations that when they got to meet him, would have to call their wife/husband an instant later, to let them know. Simply put, it was a defining moment for people to even be in his presence.
At the joint interview session with Steve Jobs & Bill Gates — people packed the hall and it was one of the most amazing conversations I’ve ever seen on stage.
When Jobs remarked that “You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead” – I don’t think there was a dry eye in the audience.
By a strange coincidence, I was searching for some older photos last night, and stumbled on this one from that night in 2007 (taken by Adam Tow and captioned “Raanan is witness to the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates interview at D5.”):
It’s been amazing reading all the coverage today, and there are some really interesting posts going up tonight that everyone should check out, including:
- A must-read from my buddy Brian Lam: Steve Jobs Was Always Kind To Me (Or, Regrets of An Asshole)
- Walt Mossberg on his relationship with Steve Jobs: The Steve Jobs I Knew
- Steve Levy: Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
So a sad day for many of us, but very inspirational as well – just watch this:
Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
At a 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, Jobs shared the philosophy that drove him.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life,” Jobs said. “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Siri-ous Mind Blowing: Video Evidence Of Apple’s Prophetic Past — Circa 1987
As you may be aware, Apple held it’s big iPhone 5, er 4S, event in Cupertino today, and while the iCinco failed to make an appearance and the company’s stock plunged 5 percent as a result, it was still a good day for the Apple faithful. iOS 5 is coming on October 12th, and though some who’ve been waiting to upgrade were disappointed by the striking physical similarity between the iPhone 4 and the new iPhone 4S, Sprint users are now welcome, and the 4S is notably speedier. And perhaps most exciting …
Just a reminder that we are living in the future 
Video: Rendering Synthetic Objects into Legacy Photographs
Wow! “@igorclark: inserting CG elements into 2D photos, in 3D space: j.mp/qtstTm – brain-melting stuff (via @theowatson)”—
Nathan Folkman (@nathanfolkman) October 04, 2011
WOW !
(Supplementary material video for our 2011 SIGGRAPH Asia paper (see the project page here: kevinkarsch.com/publications/sa11.html). 3D objects are rendered using LuxRender (luxrender.net).
Video: Each of us, All of us – Cory Booker at Zeitgeist Americas 2011
Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, discusses the lessons he learned from his father’s experience as someone who grew up poor and was helped by a “conspiracy of love” around him, and how he believes that the solutions are out there with regard to solving major problems in criminal justice and education.
From Google Zeitgeist today, really impressive:
Poll: Extended Car Warranty – Worth it ?
I have a used car, and the manufacturers warranty is expiring shortly. Trying to figure out if it’s worth buying the extended warranty. Seems to come out around $1000 for each 15K miles for the top of line warranty which has a low deductible, no coverage limits, and is transferrable (good for resale).
With PCs/electronics/etc, I think the data shows that extended warranties are not usually worth it. But with cars, seems like I’m geting conflicting feedback, and the beta/risk is higher — fixing something can be $1000s.
Hence the need for a poll — what do you guys think ?
