“Most of the things we try fail.”
—Jonathan Perlow, software engineer on the Gmail front end
Yet, without trying, there can be no success.
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Hat tip: Louis Gray.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lintmachine/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
On Success
The Universe is Hella Big, Almost…
There is a petition on Facebook to define the number prefix for 1027 as “Hella.” Yeah, that’s a big number: a one followed by 27 zeros, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Coincidentally, the universe is estimated to be 0.88 hella-meters across. That’s hella big, almost… ;-)
To explore how big that really is, take a look at the Scale of the Universe (click “play” below the ad that appears).
Update. Okay, that wasn’t very clear. The number 1027 already has a name; it’s octillion. Hella would be the number prefix for an octillion units, like kilo is the prefix for a thousand units. In other works, an octillion meters would be 1 hella-meters. I edited the post to clarify.
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Hat tip: All Facebook.
SDO Shockwave Destroys Sundog
Yes, it’s real. For more information:
- NASA explanation with another video
- ArmsControlWonk counts the shock waves and explains
YouTube Serves Notice on IE6
YouTube is preparing to drive a wooden stake into the heart of Internet Explorer 6. Kill it!
Coin-Based Decision Making
I make many decisions with a toss of a coin. The trick is knowing when it’s appropriate. When I couldn’t tell which choice was better, I used to think it was a “hard decision.” Now, I recognize that maybe both options are equally good. The decision becomes so easy a coin can make it — so I let it.
I just discovered another “flippin’ case”:
When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. It works not because it settles the question for you, but because in that brief moment when the coin is in the air,
You suddenly know what you’re hoping for.
You know it’s true.
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Hat tip: Minimal.
Virtual Touring
Sometimes I want to be somewhere I’m not. Today, it was Yosemite. Fortunately, there’s a high-tech solution: virtual touring.
Here are a few of my favorite resources.
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- Google Maps Directions
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- Google Street View
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- Google Earth
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- Web Cams
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- Flickr
There are many more resources you can use for virtual traveling.
Do you use the Internet to “travel”? What are your favorite resources?
Update (2/15/2010). Here are a couple more resources I should have mentioned:
- Twitter — Chances are, there’s someone on Twitter tweeting about the location you’re interested in. Tweeting about the location likely will result in your being followed by that someone. For example, I tweeted about Yosemite and was soon followed by @THEYosemiteBlog. Doing a people search for Yosemite resulted in a lot more hits.
- Blogs — Finding blogs about a certain topic is easy. Google’s Blog Search or Technorati are great resources to find blogs.
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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestrated1/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Miss Me Yet?
I haven’t posted much political stuff here recently, but I’ll make an exception for this because I don’t believe it’s particularly partisan (unlike the W version making the rounds).
And yes, I do.
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Photo credit. The Humble Libertarian.
Buzz Kill
Watch Dave Winer’s opinion of Google Buzz drive off the cliff:
- Twitter-killing follow-up. (Scripting News). http://r2.ly/xcex #
- My first Buzz tweet. Not sure if you’ll be able to read this. Let me know. http://r2.ly/xcp7 #
- After 15 minutes I remember that Google is mean and distrusting and filled with side-goals that have nothing to do with delighting users. #
- When I first tried Flickr it was pure fun. Same with every other product that ended up being big in the social media space. #
- I got to the API and saw: No Twitter compatibility. That’s a big red X over the future of Google’s latest misadventure. Pfffft. #
- Google Buzz? Pfffft. (Scripting News). http://r2.ly/38gi #
- How do I get Buzz out of the user interface of Gmail? Show me where I opted in to this horror. I want the option. This is so f***ed up. #
- They put a virus into Gmail. They’re killing their own product. Fools. Stupid. Grrr. #
- There’s a command to turn off Buzz at the bottom of the Gmail page. http://r2.ly/xcq3 #
Ouch! I’m still waiting to try Buzz.
Love Is…
This is but one of Hugh MacLeod’s “love” series of prints.
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Credit: Image by Hugh MacLeod, displayed under Creative Commons license.
I'm Brent Logan and I've been here since 2004, writing about family, food, and fun. You can contact me at 
