misc
Bangalore Open Hack Day
Bangalore Open Hack Day is going on right now — wish I was there! My trip to Bangalore last year for our internal Hack Day and BarCamp Bangalore the next day was amazing (I never did get around to writing something longer on that experience, as I intimated in this blog post).
Good luck to [...]
The relaunch of the Industry Standard
The NYT is reporting that the Industry Standard is relaunching at IDG, led by InfoWorld CTO Derek Butcher. With Derek involved, the probability for success is high (when I left InfoWorld for Yahoo, right after speaking with our CEO about my departure, I said, “don’t post the job or interview anyone else — promote [...]
9/11 and T.S. Eliot
Six years ago, as the shock of 9/11 continued to set in on that day, I decided to go on a long bike ride in the Berkeley hills to clear my mind. Since the attacks happened early in the morning west coast time, most people like me stayed put and there was nothing else [...]
Culture clash in Berkeley: Tennessee vs. Cal
It’s not that often that a ranked SEC power rolls into Berkeley to play a ranked California team — but that’s exactly what we’ve got in Berkeley this evening. I’m a lot less interested in the football game itself than I am in the idea of a bunch of football-loving Southerners showing up in [...]
You never forget your first
For reasons that make little practical sense, I’ve been holding on to the same email account for 13 years now, paying $9.95/month for a dial-up account that I never used just to keep the address. I just cancelled it today: chadd@mindspring.com is no more. The customer service rep sounded uniquely pained when she [...]
Mini-review: Ryan Adams in Berkeley
Before I get into my mini-review of Ryan Adams’ show in Berkeley on Tuesday night, I should state a few facts for the record about my almost-relationship with Ryan Adams. Forgive me in advance for the indulgence — I need to get a few things out of the way.
I grew up in Greenville, NC [...]
Hack Day London: Smells like Dunkirk spirit
Over on the Yahoo! Developer Network blog, I just posted about the unbelievable goings-on here in London yesterday. It was quite a day, one of the most memorable of my career.
The miracle on I-580
In a world where the-sky-is-falling sensationalist media is the norm, the conclusion to the saga of the collapsed freeway here in the Bay Area is downright inspiring: the contractor (C.C. Myers) finished the job early! When is the last time things came together so nicely on a highway project? Wow! The lede [...]
Born on a train: Twitter and musical serendipity
I had plans this weekend and Twitter led me astray from them briefly, but I discovered a new cover of an old favorite in the process.
It all started when I woke up on Saturday morning, checked in with Twitter, and noticed that Cody had twittered: “Departing to Kansas for the weekend. If Magnetic Fields changed [...]
The PC World controversy resolved: the invisible hand of Pat McGovern
[Update: Wired posted something after I had started writing this that suggested that Pat McGovern's hand wasn't quite so invisible after all. Harry McCracken "returned to [PC World] only because IDG founder and chairman Pat McGovern and IDG President Bob Carrigan both assured him that he would have editorial autonomy over the content.”]
As a [...]