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On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired - WSJ.com
For Skip Schreiber, 64, an amateur philosopher with wispy white hair who lives in a van, power is the biggest challenge to staying wired. Mr. Schreiber tended heating and ventilation systems before work-related stress and depression sidelined him around 15 years ago, he says. For his 60th birthday, he dipped into his monthly disability check to buy a laptop, connected it to his car battery, and taught himself to use it. “I liked the concept of the Internet,” says Mr. Schreiber, “this unlimited source of opinion and thought.” Mr. Schreiber later switched to a Mac because it uses less juice. He keeps the fan and wireless antenna off when possible and cools the laptop by putting it on a damp washcloth. He says that by using such tricks, he can keep the laptop battery going for 16 hours, if he avoids videos.
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Wall Street’s New Pariah Status - NYTimes.com
“I’d almost rather say I’m a pornographer,” said a retired Wall Street executive who, for self-evident reasons, asked not to be identified. “At least that’s a business that people understand.”
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Utilities Turn Their Customers Green, With Envy - NYTimes.com
Customers who scored high earned two smiley faces on their statements. “Good” conservation got a single smiley face. Customers like Mr. Dyer, whose energy use put him in the “below average” category, got frowns, but the utility stopped using them after a few customers got upset.
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Scarsdale Adjusts to Life Without Advanced Placement Courses - NYTimes.com
A year after Scarsdale became the most prominent school district in the nation to phase out the College Board’s Advanced Placement courses — and make A.P. exams optional — most students and teachers here praise the change for replacing mountains of memorization with more sophisticated and creative curriculums.
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A design and usability blog: Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system. — John Gall
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Fearing the Obama Effect | Print Article | Newsweek.com
The Internet may be transforming political campaigns in other countries, as candidates use it to mobilize supporters and harvest donations. In the United States, Barack Obama has proved a master of the new art and has raised record sums on the Web. Yet campaigning on the Internet still proves virtually impossible in Japan, because the country’s political establishment fears the medium’s formidable potential for change.
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Prototype - If No One Sees It, Is It an Invention? - NYTimes.com
Thirty years ago, pioneers of the personal computer industry swapped ideas and tried to outdo one another at meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club in an auditorium at Stanford. Today, these “meetings” happen virtually and globally, with people modifying, improving and otherwise riffing on one another’s ideas — then posting the results in video form. This wide-scale collaboration, Mr. Lee says, lets the hobbyists “take advantage of economies of scale of innovation.”
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Rep. says 'Liberals hate real Americans' - Ryan Grim - Politico.com
The quickness with which the controversy over the accuracy of the remarks was settled is an example of the changing nature of political campaign coverage. One source that Politico was able to use to confirm the comment came from a Twitter post stamped 10:41 a.m. Saturday by a reporter from The Daily Tar Heel. Another Politico reader said he heard the comment at about 10:30 a.m., independently confirming the timeline. Lisa Zagarali, a reporter with McClatchy, wrote in as well, saying, “I taped it. He said it.”
