August 2008
45 posts
Cal vs. Michigan St.
Today is our first gameday of the season! Go Bears!
Update: We beat Michigan State 38-31. Our record so far: 1-0.
TechCrunch redesign
TechCrunch got a redesign. I hope it makes it load faster on the BlackBerry. I like their mindset that fast load times are more important than getting all info on the front page. What do you think?
Speaking of TechCrunch, Startups at Berkeley is looking for students to volunteer at TechCrunch 50, September 8th-10th. It is during the week, but they would be happy if you can even swing by in the...
Thought of the day
As today is my first day of school, my thought this morning was, well, about school. In the near future I’d like to profile schools that are taking advantage of new technologies to make their websites more usable. Being a senior now, I’ve had to deal with Berkeley’s websites for three years, and while they are definitely usable, they could be improved to make the experience...
Dear Adobe →
Check out this site. It allows people to submit short gripes about Adobe products, and each time you refresh the page a new gripe appears. Users can then vote whether they “Love it” or “Hate it” or you can report it as inaccurate. This kind of feedback is great for Adobe and great for Adobe’s customers. For Adobe, they can see what users want out of their...
NY Times' "Ideas"
The NY Times has a link blog. It’s nice and simple: title, topic, and an excerpt. The NYT’s has done a good job of keeping up with the changing model for spreading information (from broad, print publications to focused, online content). For example, check out their list of blogs, which include several of my favorites that I read everyday.
The Wall Street Journal has a good number of...
Outside Lands is here!
I’ll be at Outside Lands today working the Clif booth. If you are going to be there, give me a call and I can hook you up with some samples. This concert should be amazing—tonight is the first night a band will play in Golden Gate Park, ever! And it’s Radiohead. Other bands playing tonight include Beck, Manu Chao, The Black Keys, Cold War Kids, Steel Pulse, Lyrics Born, Black...
3 of the last 4 posts have included Barack Obama
Read into it what you may—I’ve just been thinking deeply about my vote lately. I wish everyone would think long and hard about their vote. Even if you decide early who you are going to vote for, you should strive to learn as much as possible about what makes that candidate worthy of your vote. It doesn’t matter what party you are in or who you side with.
Learn about the...
“From the beginning, Obama has sought out academic economists, rather than...”
– NYT Magazine article about Barack Obama, his economic plan, and his way of thinking. (via) It’s worth the read.
“New philosophy: spend 80% of my time doing things I’m great at, and 20%...”
– This is my new philosophy to help with time management. My friend Max brings up a good point though, “How do you know what you’re great at?”
The lives of Barack Obama →
This is cool. The autobiographies tab is great if you want to read more about each point in his life.
Rich Schimbor has a blog
Watch out everyone, my friend Rich has discovered the interweb. Right now he’s working at a VC in SF, getting a taste of the web 2.0 atmosphere. Welcome, Ricardo. His blog can be found here:
Schimbor’s Pontifications
This is the same guy I studied in Sevilla with (and navigated the dark, narrow, lonely streets of Morocco with).
Steve Jobs: 60 million iPhone apps downloaded →
$30 million were paid for apps in the first month since the App Store was launched. 70% of the price goes to developers. If this pace is held for the rest of the year (which is possible given the number of new iPhone owners and as the quality and number of apps increases) that would make for a $360 million dollar market for iPhone apps. Not bad :)
Grades!
I got my grades back today from my semester is Spain. In the two classes (Global Econ and International Finance) that transfer to my major (Economics) I earned A’s, which is cool. On the last day in Sevilla, our school threw a party at a local bar and all of our teachers were there. They told me my grades then, but it is reassuring to see them on paper—a lot of Cruzcampo and sangria...
Funny metaphors used in high school essays →
These will make you laugh. My favorites:
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she...
Perseid Meteor Shower To Peak August 11 and 12 →
“Under perfect conditions, observers can expect to see about 90 to 100 meteors an hour.”
The Economist...
has high quality customer service. I was receiving issues in Sevilla last semester so when I returned to the US I called them to change the address, but nothing came. I called them today and I only had to press one button to get to a helpful lady. She apologized, updated the new address, and added two months onto my subscription. Awesome!
WatchThe Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz. This is a great video, and I really encourage you to watch it if you have time, oh dear reader. You can get a lot out of this video and the ideas behind it. One area where I think this notion is applicable is in user interface design. Give users too much choice, and they can be frustrated and lost. Refine the user’s choices down to the bare...
State Supreme Court rejects noncompete clauses →
Yet another reason why California is the best state.
Californians have the right to move from one company to another or start their own business and can’t be prohibited by their employer from working for a competitor in their next job, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
In a unanimous decision, the justices said state law since 1872 has forbidden what are called noncompete clauses...
How an Economist Thinks →
From MR.
Over the weekend a crew came round my neighborhood offering to paint house numbers on the curb. Large bold curb numbers, they pointed out, make it easier for emergency service workers to find houses in the dark. Good argument. The price was good too. Then I noticed my neighbors were having their numbers painted. So of course, I declined.
Surfing photos (The Big Picture) →
iPhoneDevCamp 2 Apps Recap: Hail a Taxi, Count... →
Here is a great recap from this weekend’s iPhoneDevCamp. Scroll down to the bottom and you’ll see a shot of Dom and I on stage during the awards. Great event Dom! I can’t wait until next year.
New photos
I added some from iPhoneDevCamp this weekend on Flickr.
Check them out!
U.S. 1972 Olympic team still won't concede -... →
A good article about the ‘72 Olympic basketball team, which includes quotes and a photo of the father of a friend I used to tutor, Ed Ratleff. Look at that fro!
Calling iPhone developers!
I am at iPhovedevcamp right now at Adobe headquarters in SF. We are building apps for the glorious iPhone, and prizes go to the top app in each category. I have an idea for a educational game app with a very simple concept/ design that a lot of attendees have showed an interest in. The problem is, I don’t code! I’ve downloaded the SDK and worked with Xcode creating the UI, but thats as...
NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission... →
Sweet! From the article:
“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. “We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and...