Freeform

History spotted at the Brooklyn Flea Market

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This photo, of a newspaper at a Brooklyn flea market with a front page story about Nixon’s resignation, was lost in a WordPress upgrade. More about the Brooklyn Flea Market. Other newspaper accounts of Nixon’s resignation.

Escaping the Screen

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There was one purpose for my journey to the Brooklyn Flea Market: to escape my computer screen.

But breaking the grip of a MacBook Pro’s 2-D, 17″ window onto the world takes a lot more than hauling a Web worker’s chair-sculpted ass up and out the door.

That glowing rectangle is not just a thing that can be walked away from. Not when you spend roughly 80 percent of your day in front of it.

At some point — about 3,000 hours in — the window hops off the table and nails itself to the wall of your perception.

What you once saw, you now watch. What you once felt, you now record.

Where there was the flow and music of nature’s complex, sensual software of human interaction, there is now a control panel stopping and going your heart with a click.

Come as you like. Leave when you want. Reboot, replace, copy, paste.

Repeat and you’ll see: Through this window, relationships are Web sites.

Drop by any hour. Refresh and scour for what you want. No costly, messy exchanges of fragile curiosity and glass hopes.

It is seek, find, click, scrape, escape. Risk-free. Cost-free. Scar-free.

Lifeless.

It is superbly ironic that I attempt to alleviate the isolating voyeurism intrinsic to a wired world by using the very device I rail against for conditioning us more and more every day to watch life rather than live it.

But that’s what I did on a sunny Sunday in New York.

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Counterfeit bills pay a visit to a Little Italy bike shop

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Bicycle Habitat has seen an increase in the number of counterfeit bills brought into its shop, according to an employee. A man recently attempted to buy a tire patch kit with a $50 bill that was proven fake after getting the magic pen treatment. When the employee returned the bill after noting it was counterfeit, … Read more

Edited audio for nytimes.com feature on Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing

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Plotting the Questions, Strategizing the Defense I worked on the clips from Senators Graham and Specter. Here is some more work from the feature’s producer, Elisabeth Goodridge. I used Final Cut Pro (News Videographer writing about the program here) and Soundtrack Pro (Mindy McAdams writing about the program here).

Read it: ‘Spin’ by Robert Charles Wilson

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This sci-fi novel follows the stories of a doctor, brilliant scientist and religious fanatic as the earth becomes ensnared in a time-warping cocoon built by an alien intelligence with intentions that I won’t reveal. At stake, of course, is the future of humanity and possibly the universe. I’m in awe of the imagination that came … Read more

Google’s chief economist explains value in era of endless info

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Hal R. Varian quoted in Wired: Varian believes that a new era is dawning for what you might call the datarati—and it’s all about harnessing supply and demand. ‘What’s ubiquitous and cheap?’ Varian asks. ‘Data.’ And what is scarce? The analytic ability to utilize that data.” Providing information analysis is a task that is related … Read more

Provide solutions to the problems that your stories create

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Summary: In today’s information environment, making and selling a product is not a sustainable business. A product is not an end, but a beginning, and a gateway to the real business: providing services around that product. Inspiration: A CNN story about Riversimple, a company from the U.K. that has come up with a hydrogen-powered, less-poluting … Read more

A whole lot of good

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Summary: Attention to product quality that goes unnoticed and unappreciated by your customer will consume resources that could be put to better use. Source: A Harvard Business Review article from the May 2009 issue (p. 68 is relevant to this post) examining six mistakes companies make in managing capital. There’s a pay wall since the … Read more