Slowdog

five essential phone screen questions – steveyegge2

Administrator — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:41:01 +0000

Been doing a lot of interviews lately, and I haven’t been happy with my phone screening. So, I did some looking up. This post is long, but quite thorough.

There’s also this from Coding Horror, which is mostly a rehash of Yegge’s post, but adds a little commentary. And this from Joel Spolsky.

Reading on the iPad — Shawn Blanc

Administrator — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:01:41 +0000

While I have no doubt that the people creating digital magazines now have a mindset that print is of a higher quality, I have to think some of the current design of these apps comes down to a few more practical points:

They don’t know yet what’s going to become of digital magazines and whether or not it’s going to be profitable for them.
At least partially because of 1., they haven’t hired people to make up a different digital layout. And, since they are currently spending a lot of money working on the current layout, it’s easier to stick with that.
From a user stand-point, it’s certainly easier to refer to certain sections of an article if the layout is similar from app to print.
And, while the apps he talks about, Instapaper and Reeder, certainly have layouts which help you concentrate on reading, they are certainly not “pretty”. And “pretty” is part of the magazine experience (or, at least it has been for some time now).

I don’t love the New Yorker app, and I understand a lot of the criticisms made about it and others like it, but I don’t find that it really limits my reading (time is much more a factor there).

I think it’s going to take a little time, and a few wildly innovative magazines that will probably fold quickly (because they’ll be based too much on new design and not on substance). But, we’ll soon be in a place there digital is the norm and print is the anomaly. And, there will be a new design paradigm that comes along with that.

Are Grains Making Us Fat? – Megan McArdle – Business – The Atlantic

robl — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:05:44 +0000

This is interesting, but, do we really need to go into our past? Can’t we just look around the world? Most of the world is grain-based, not protein-based, and do not have issue with weight like we do. Why is it so hard for us to accept that we eat too many calories while not expending enough? I think that’s because it’s harder to eat less and (especially) exercise more than it is to do specialty diets.

Subtraction.com: The Enduring Value of Netflix by Mail

robl — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:43:13 +0000

I agree with Khoi, except that I think this is where the local video store is going to come back into some prominence. There’s already times that I go to the store (good, quirky, local store, not the Blockbuster variety – sooo happy they are gone), when we want to watch a particular movie right away and it’s not on instant watch (or pay-per-view, or whatever xbox is calling their movie service now). And this is after not going to a video store for over five years.

10 Myths About Introverts || CarlKingCreative.com || Los Angeles, CA

robl — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:07:42 +0000

I don’t know how accurate the science is that’s paraphrased from the book, but I agree pretty completely with the myths.

Especially this line:

… Introverts are people who are over-sensitive to Dopamine, so too much external stimulation overdoses and exhausts them

I love parties, but they do exhaust me. I often find I’m in the middle of more than one conversation, because I have trouble concentrating on just one. Part of that is because I have trouble filtering out all the sounds going on around me. The good side of this is that I can concentrate pretty well on work in loud areas, because I find it easier for me to shut out all that noise (conversely, I hate working in libraries because they are too quiet).

The Case Against Queues

robl — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:10:17 +0000

Couldn’t agree more. I have yet to find a case for using queues, and have actively rejected them twice.

Drive-by-wireless: why the future of cars is P2P mesh, 4G cellular, and the cloud

robl — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:08:19 +0000

There’s no way that this guy’s time frames are likely to come true – no drivers by 2020? I think it’ll take more than nine years just to convince people that it’s a good thing to let the car do the driving. But, I love his enthusiasm, and I can’t wait. This won’t happen quickly enough for me.

Might makes right | johnaugust.com

robl — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:03:56 +0000

Thoughtful post about Google, but what really interests me is the idea that as something (be it company, country, etc.) gets bigger and more powerful, it can do things that, when seen from the inside, are “in our best interest”, but, when seen from the outside, are “evil”. And that this can happen without necessarily any malice, or forethought, or, really, any recognition within.

On Why Open Source Developers Run Mac OS X « Steven Harms

robl — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:52:55 +0000

This is why I left Linux for OS X seven years ago and haven’t looked back. When I want to spend my day effing with the OS, I’ll move back to Linux. But, currently, I’m happy to get some real work done.

(Via .)

What’s wrong with OpenID? – Quora

robl — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 23:07:45 +0000

I’m glad someone else wrote this. I haven’t been able to figure out the need for OpenID, but figured that it might be my issue since the people behind it are so passionate. I use a variation of the second item on his list of how people deal with registering at a site: I use 1password to remember my login info – it works with the major browsers and (using dropbox) I can keep in sync on other computers (and there’s an iphone app). Anyway, I understand what’s going on with OpenID, yet I still can’t fathom what’s happening when I go to a site that supports it. I can’t imagine a lay-person (non-geek) even wanting to figure it out, let alone trying. It’s not easy (either setting up your OpenID account, or logging into a site using it), it’s not seemless. It makes logging into a site more difficult (to do and understand), not less. So, just from that point of view, it’s a failure. As Yishan Wong mentions, the only real solution is for sites to come up with ways for you not to have to register (though my solution works pretty nicely for me, thanks 1password!