Ben.am

Reader

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:29:53 GMT

STOP WHAT UR DOIN, just maded a something for you!

(Hint: it’s a Google Reader quick-opening app-let.)

A recommended accompaniment to Fabian Pimminger’s Google Reader Styles Safari 5 extension.

Some character we already know

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:41:21 GMT

This looks like it might just be this.

The Bounce Device

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:48:16 GMT

It doesn’t happen often, but once in a very long while, someone posts something in a Slashdot comment that blows your tiny human mind.

Malignantly

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:03:31 GMT

Homer Simpson, famously:

“To alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”

David Foster Wallace, in the essay “e unibus pluram”:

An activity is addictive if one’s relationship to it lies on that downward-sloping continuum between liking it a little too much and really needing it. Many addictions, from exercise to letter-writing, are pretty benign. But something is malignantly addictive if (1) it causes real problems for the addict, and (2) it offers itself as a relief from the very problems it causes.

Hmm.

List

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:45:16 GMT

Prospective name list for new dog:

Anchovy
Banook
Barnacle
Chewbacca
Coconut
Dragon
Gopher
Jackal
Jekyll
Louie
Mackenzie
Mango
Max
Newton
Pomquet
Proton
Reuben
Rocket
Shredder
Tusket
Viking
Wolfgang
Zombie Destructor

Name of dog eventually chosen from pound:

Cody

NB

Wed, 20 May 2009 19:31:55 GMT

Dialogue facilitates, primarily, decision making.

What?

Shut up.

Astonishing book cover

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:43:08 GMT

I could stare at this for hours.

LOL

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:54:41 GMT

Daniel Eran reports that Microsoft is to open new retail stores to compete with Apple for consumers’ attentions.

Said Microsoft COO Kevin Turner,

“We’re working hard to transform the PC and Microsoft buying experience at retail by improving the articulation and demonstration of the Microsoft innovation and value proposition so that it’s clear, simple and straightforward for consumers everywhere.”

Words. On the Wall. The.

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:18:44 GMT

Festivities have abounded lately, and, with the launch of The Words on the Wall, our first concert series, Coffeeloop is about to celebrate its own inauguration.

The microsite for this event, thewordsonthewall.com, by me, featuring some text, by me, and hosting the fruits of a massive collaborative labour of love, by Peter and Outside Line, is just about to go live. Head over there and marvel. Also, buy tickets.

And if you’re at all interested in the intersection of interactivity and art, this event is a must-see. The technology, a little bird assures me, will blow minds. Really. Angels may be spontaneously created. If you are unlucky enough not to be in Edinburgh on the 30th, you can still catch the event — and interact with it in real time — from the HD live stream, for free, on the site, WHICH YOU SHALL NOW VISIT.

Let me repeat. This concert. Is not. To be missed.

Projector

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:17:39 GMT

What an absolutely brilliant idea for parties.

Big Picture: Bhutan

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:26:35 GMT

Sorry for adjacent Big Picture posts, but I have a slight fetish for, among other things, precarious buildings, or things generally that fall into the category of eyrielicious.

And in eyrieliciousness terms, this is the, well, height. I wonder if it’s possible to visit?

Uninteresting sidenote. In my mind, I strongly link my obsession with the said eyrielicious to my fear of heights, which is a result of reading Douglas Adams’s brilliant (best!) book “Last Chance to See”, in which he mentions a compellingly silly idea about vertigo:

...so what you end up with is a conflict between a primitive, atavistic part of your mind which is saying “Jump!” and the more modern, rational part of your mind which is saying, “For Christ’s sake, don’t!” In fact, vertigo is explained by some not as the fear of falling, but as the temptation to jump...

I challenge anyone to look at that temple without thinking I want to fly... like a tiny bird woman I wish to glide...

Big Picture: Barack Obama

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:21:57 GMT

The Big Picture once again gathers together a collection images to make you squeal like a little girl.

Favourites. 5. 24 and 27 have a wonderful “glimpse into the life of” quality. 28.

What strikes me is how, especially in the more personal pictures, Obama comes across as a genuinely delightful human being.

Howto: reset Photoshop CS layer blending palette location

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:38:20 GMT

Problem: “Window | Workspace | Reset Palette Locations” doesn’t affect the layer blending window.

Solution:

Find file ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CS Settings/Adobe Photoshop CS Prefs.psp
Delete.

(Useful if the palette is hidden by being off the edge of the screen. This can happen when switching from a larger display to a smaller one.)

(Unfortunately destroys other preferences, but you can’t have everything.)

Thought for the day

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:19:24 GMT

We write best when we write badly.

Test Note

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:58:18 GMT

This is a test note.

Gotta love dem centipedes.

Hello, world

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:21:25 GMT

As fate would have it, the ebb and flow of household members leaves me all alone this morning. Normally this is a privilege, a chance to deal slowly with the non-caffeinated part of the day in relaxed silence. Except, as fate would have it, this being Wednesday, I slowly become aware of a grave obligation. A few instants, and the full horror hits me: I must do something, and soon, or be forced to converse with the marauding alcoholic gardener whose gentle thievery has often left us with nary a drop of spirits to be found.

I weigh my options, and inspiration dawns: a lengthy excursion in the name of dog exercise. I grab the beast by the neck even as he still celebrates my surviving the night, fasten him to the end of a rope, and head out in search of safe harbour.

It rained yesterday, not enthusiastically but enough to soak briefly through the grass and into the soil. This, and poor choice of footwear, slightly dampens my high spirits at having escaped the clutches of the Gardener. But moistened days like these bring a sort of happy delirium to Cody, with the scents of the outside world spurred into action by the wet. Sure enough, meandering round the edge of the park, he pounces with an extra dose of glee on each clump of grass, each small winged insect that dares to coincide with our trajectory.

Misty veils of rain pass overhead, much unlike the previous day’s heavy-footed showers. Now the sky dusts our sloped terrain with artistry, illuminating nearby objects while blurring the background landscape into relative obscurity.

nVidia would kill for this effect, I think. It keeps the golfers at bay too.

I decide to take a shortcut to the private drive that runs through the middle of the park — my ill-chosen loafers, glorified slippers, are becoming gradually sodden.

We emerge onto the road and Cody’s nose detaches from the ground, where it was fastened for the last hundred metres. Points of interest are more intermittent here, and the more exciting for it. Where there are recent grass cuttings, he runs along throwing them into the air with his mouth. They are one of his favourite hobbies. Sometimes he eats them, which is not so adorable.

He dashes over to a small stick on the verge, afraid I’ll see it first, and claim it as my own. For barely an instant it is fantastically exciting, before he ditches it for a potentially-edible lump some distance away. He leaps onwards, bouncing relentlessly from point to point, each utterly electrifying, each consuming him, absolutely, momentarily.

A fetid deposit from the lawnmower comes into range. I prepare to reign him in — this one looks delicious — but no action is necessary: an irresistible presence, a breath of something interrupts him, and he turns back, down, along the road, chasing some imperceptible fluff as it skitters away over the tarmac. And I think to myself, This dog has been running Microsoft all along.