Big Contrarian is a weblog by a designer and developer in Chicago. There’s an RSS feed and a Twitter page available, if you’re into that those types of things.

A profile of Christopher Hitchens from Prospect magazine:

Views of Hitchens among liberal media or academic figures tend to take one of four lines: that politically he’s a busted flush (though still a fine literary critic); that he was seduced by the chance to partake in real power in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion; that he did a “Paul Johnson” mid-life flip from left to right; or that he’s simply a vain contrarian who likes a fight and has got a bigger audience picking one with old comrades than by going with a consensus.

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Economist Tyler Cowen has some issues with America:

1. The American culture of individual freedom is closely linked to the prevalence of mental illness and gun-based violence in this country. We can’t seem to get only the brighter side of non-conformity.

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Lost city in the woods:

Payne’s latest subject is the buildings and landscape of North Brother, a derelict hospital island in the Bronx under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, far removed from the cycles of development and change that are transforming the city.

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Project management disasters:

BOSS: The project has to be completed by the end of the year.

ME: What’s actually involved?

BOSS: A new CRM system has to be installed. It will replace thee old stand alone systems and make us more efficient.

ME: But what’s actually involved?

BOSS: I just told you, we’re implementing a new CRM system.

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Contrasting the comments left on Metafilter versus those left on YouTube.

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Twilight of the area code master:

So way back in my teens, I could tell you where an area code was. All of them. Tell me 404 and I’ll say Georgia, say 914 and that’s New York, 312 is Chicago, 206 is Washington. I’d see a phone number and I’d know where it was. If it was in my home area code, I’d see the first six numbers and know what town it was in.

In 1995, 334 broke it for good. An area code for Alabama, the magic formula was gone. It scanned as an exchange for me, as it did for a lot of switching equipment. It might be hard to imagine now for the younger set, but there was a time when this actually cut off parts of the country

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Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital:

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

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GPS + Spacial Detection + Video + Location Tagging:

“Enkin” introduces a new handheld navigation concept. It displays location-based content in a unique way that bridges the gap between reality and classic map-like representations. It combines GPS, orientation sensors, 3D graphics, live video, several web services and a novel user interface into an intuitive and light navigation system for mobile devices.

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Ebay sues Craigslist over actions that unfairly diluted eBay’s economic interest in the company:

eBay did not specify what those actions were.

An interview with Craigslist founder Craig Newark:

At the time I was an overpaid contract programmer figuring that I didn’t need the money. I decided at that point no banner ads. I was making enough money to be comfortable. How much more money do you need?

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David Pogue on the generational divide in copyright morality:

Finally, with mock exasperation, I said, “O.K., let’s try one that’s a little less complicated: You want a movie or an album. You don’t want to pay for it. So you download it.”

“Who thinks that might be wrong?”

Two hands out of 500.

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50 ways to help the planet by Wire & Twine.

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An American tourist attacked in Shanghai:

When leaving Carrefour some of the crowd started shouting at him and he tried to say he didn’t have anything to do with the Olympics, but 3 men started to push him and then he was hit in the back of the head at least 3 times. He started to run, and the mob chased him. He jumped into a cab, but the mob surrounded the car and started shaking and rocking it.

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Be good:

If you start from successful startups, you find they often behaved like nonprofits. And if you start from ideas for nonprofits, you find they’d often make good startups.

Be bad:

It’s a risky and disingenuous proposition to build a website and community on one model — the “Good” and charitable model — and then bait-and-switch the userbase once the founder’s numbers get drawn. It’s a scummy behavior to engage in, much less evangelize.

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Nicole Peterson’s book cover designs for Dante’s Divine Comedy: Inferno, Paradiso and Purgatorio:

I was inspired by Dante’s use of mathematics and architecture in describing Hell, Heaven and Purgatory. I employed simple geometric shapes and color to represent these places, while still keeping the design simple, and allowing the reader to use their imagination when reading these vivid poems.

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Folks are calling for Bill Maher to be fired after his rant on Pope Benedict XVI and the Catholic Church.

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The Army and Marines are letting in more felons:

Strained by the demands of a long war, the Army and the Marine Corps recruited significantly more felons into their ranks in 2007 than in 2006, including people convicted of armed robbery, arson and burglary, according to data released Monday by a House committee.

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Designing better choices through libertarian paternalism:

The libertarian aspect of the approach lies in the straightforward insistence that, in general, people should be free to do what they like. They should be permitted to opt out of arrangements they dislike, and even make a mess of their lives if they want to. The paternalistic aspect acknowledges that it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people’s behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier and better.

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17 life-altering books as recommended by leading scientists.

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Thirty table of contents:

Last year, on the occasion of “Next,” the AIGA’s Biennial National Design Conference in Denver, Design Observer published a little book, The Next Page: Thirty Tables of Contents. For our readers not in attendance, we are sharing it here as a slide show.

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This is a pylon:

Pylon: The area of a stencil font which (a) adds structural integrity to the letterform, and (b) increases aesthetic value and/or legibility through the inclusion of counters.

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Obama hasn’t lost any support over this whole “bitter” gaffe:

He hasn’t lost any support whatsoever. Clinton has lost it. The “bitter” story broke on April 11, and was turned into an ad by the Clinton campaign on April 13. Since then Obama has moved from a 7-8 point deficit to a 5-6 point deficit in the polls.

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Read about nearly every homicide in the city of Los Angeles.

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Cringely’s Guide to Consultants:

The best consultants are the ones who come with a portfolio of products and tools. Their trick is to have a really good portfolio of stuff that really works, is really good, and can be sold and implemented quickly in a very cost-effective way. So it isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all when a consultant offers to sell you tools, as long as they are the right tools and the consultant really knows how to use them.

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The joys and drawbacks of being able to work from anywhere:

… they want to mingle with others and to collaborate, though not necessarily under fluorescent lights in a cubicle farm an hour’s drive from their homes. The crucial difference between telecommuting and nomadism, he says, is that nomadism combines the autonomy of telecommuting with the mobility that allows a gregarious and flexible work style.

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Artists still can’t work for free. Steven Poole made his novel Trigger Happy available as a free download. The results are pretty sad:

The proportion of people who left a tip after downloading Trigger Happy was 1 in 1,750, or 0.057%. I am of course very grateful to each of them, though I was particularly amused by several who left $0.01, which seems a lot of clicks to expend when you could just write “Fuck you” in the comments.

via Gruber.

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Fairly nasty Flash exploit in the wild. As Matasano Chargen describes it:

It’s a weaponized NULL pointer attack that desynchronizes a bytecode verifier to slip malicious ActionScript bytecode into the Flash runtime.

Read Chargen’s full post if you want to attempt to understand this. Seems like the only workaround is to uninstall your Flash player. Which no one will do.

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Unreleased, playable prototype of the sequel to Infocom’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:

From an anonymous source close to the company, I’ve found myself in possession of the “Infocom Drive” — a complete backup of Infocom’s shared network drive from 1989. .. let’s start with the most notorious — Milliways: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. For the first time, here’s the full story: with never-before-seen design documents, internal emails, and two playable prototypes.

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Kansas City is in Missouri:

Here at kansascityisinmissouri.com, it is our mission to inform the world that Kansas City, is in fact in the state of Missouri.

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Internet debating, reduced to the essentials.

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How to work better:

Do one thing at a time. Know the problem. Learn to listen. Learn to ask questions. Distinguish sense from nonsense. Accept change as inevitable. Admit mistakes. Say it simple. Be Calm. Smile.

(via swissmiss)

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Robb hates Experts Exchange as much as … well, everyone I have ever met:

And then, from time to time, Google will present you with a search result that sounds too good to be true… Experts-exchange employs the morally questionable technique of showing Google the full conversation that you want to read, but if you are a mere fleshling and not a search-robot, you’ll have to dig your pocket for your credit card to see that discussion.

Includes a hint at how to get around it by switching your web browser’s user agent string to make the site think you’re Google.

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Maybe money does buy happiness:

In the paper, Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers argue that money indeed tends to bring happiness, even if it doesn’t guarantee it.

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Play media files from Mac on your 360:

Rivet will automatically load and give you full access to your iTunes music, iPhoto photographs, and any video or picture folder that you wish to share.

Personally I use Connect360, but Barzeski is good people.

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37signals internal In/Out tool looks pretty useful:

So we built a little tool in a couple days called In/Out. In/Out let everyone set their current status (“Working on the Affiliate Program” or “Preparing for my presentation on Friday”), plus In/Out allowed you to make journal entries for the things you’ve finished (“Updated book proposal” or “Modernized list reordering” or “Deployed Backpack calendar reminders”).

Embrace the idea that folks should make money off their work, but some tools are so dead simple and useful that companies should just open source them and call it a day. Moment I get some free time, might write a little PHP script that does this. Someone remind me.

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RealScoop is a new confirmation bias tool:

RealScoop utilizes leading voice analysis technology to analyze statements made by public figures. The most believable statements are green, gradually turning red as they become more questionable.

After watching a few videos on the site, I think it’s either a huge hoax or just terrible technology. Sure some folks are watching things like this Clinton bit and grabbing onto the fact that the bar spikes a bunch. But watch this video of Kanye West’s comment on Bush. Spikes when he describes a 100% factual thing event, the disparity of description in an AP photo caption. So apparently the factual is unbelievable. Calling bullshit.

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Absolutely terrible Vista promotional video that everyone and their goddamn wife are linking to. Some choice lyrics:

If they have been waiting, no more hesitating. When they see the improvements in security, the desktop and mobility, and productivity they’ll say “Vista, gotta get me some.”

Even has a Bruce Springsteen look-alike. Retarded thing is how folks are saying this video “… epitomizes Microsoft’s culture and institutional bad taste.”. The fuck it does. It’s an internal motivational tool for their sales team. Never meant for the public really. What you get when you give Rick, the VP of sales who listens to Born to Run every goddamn day, some money and a camera. Lesson to companies though. If you produce shit like this, show it once, then burn it and salt the earth.

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Grooveshark has a damn nice online music player built in Flex. Not sure who did the UI work, but it’s goddamn gorgeous. Clearly some iPhone and iTunes inspiration, but not so much that it feels like a rip. Nothing too innovative, but nothing so stale you roll your eyes. Kudos.

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Why there are no comments on Steven F’s blog:

Comments. I got rid of them. I know this is going to be contentious. My current view on comments is I really don’t like them — at all, anywhere on the internet. I’m all for communication between author and reader, but comments are the lowest possible denominator. More often than not, they bring out the absolute worst in people.

Thinking along similar lines lately. Think there’s a way to fix that though. Still working out the details. Till then, apply the formula.

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