Corvallis Fall Colors
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Good notes about moving ntext columns to nvarchar(max) and how storage changes.
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"AskMe anything, in moderation." Jessamyn on the life of a MeFi moderator.
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"I figured I'd chime in with my own experiences as a woman, except I want to try and reconstruct as best I can exactly how this instinctual fear evolved for me and what it really means in practice..." Chilling comments that made me see the world in a different way.
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"[Fighting takedown notices] increase the 'cost' of sending cease-and-desists, as they make potential claimants consider the publicity risks being made to look foolish, bullying, or worse." These stories are great, but rare.
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"...there is one asset that is still quite significant and the value of it is growing, not shrinking. It is their large, well trained, and well connected salesforces." A nice contrast to Clary Shirky's recent article Rescuing The Reporters. [via anil]
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Hey, these HTML 5 attributes actually work on the iPhone! I set this up on the forms at Fuelly Mobile.
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"I think you’re safer dealing with people who can improve your site holistically." Rafe responds to Derek's SEO rant.
My Favorite Ignite Talks
Ignite Corvallis is going to have its second event on November 5th. The basic idea is that several speakers will each have 5 minutes to give a presentation with 20 slides which advance every 15 seconds. That's pressure.
I'm helping choose the talks that will be included this time around, so I thought it'd be good to revisit some of my favorite Ignite Talks and collect them in one place for easy viewing. I've been to several Ignite events now, and what I love about them is hearing a wide range of ideas in a short amount of time. Half of the fun is that the format forces speakers to stay on task, and most of the time the presenters aren't pros. I've always found the audience is pulling for the speakers.
So here are some of the five minute talks from Ignite events that have stuck with me. I was at the first Ignite Portland in 2007 and this year I was in San Jose at Ignite Etech. But most of these I've just seen online.
If you have an Ignite event in your area you should check it out. It's a fun way to learn about and from people in your community. I'm looking forward to hearing what folks in Corvallis are thinking about in a few weeks.
I'm helping choose the talks that will be included this time around, so I thought it'd be good to revisit some of my favorite Ignite Talks and collect them in one place for easy viewing. I've been to several Ignite events now, and what I love about them is hearing a wide range of ideas in a short amount of time. Half of the fun is that the format forces speakers to stay on task, and most of the time the presenters aren't pros. I've always found the audience is pulling for the speakers.
So here are some of the five minute talks from Ignite events that have stuck with me. I was at the first Ignite Portland in 2007 and this year I was in San Jose at Ignite Etech. But most of these I've just seen online.
How to Buy a New Car by Rob Gruhl (Ignite Seattle 2007)
How to Work a Crowd by Alexis Bauer (Ignite Sebastopol 2009)
A Series of Tubes by Molly Wright Steenson (Ignite Etech 2009)
How Chickens Will Save Your Life by Sarah Gilbert (Ignite Portland 2007)
You can't see the slides in this one, but they're on slideshare. So you might open them in a new window as you watch: How Keeping Chickens Will Save Your Life. I'm going to build that chicken coop in my backyard one of these days. (I say wistfully.)
The Secret History of Fonts by Bram Pitoyo (Ignite Portland 2009)
Great Designers Steal by Jeff Veen (Ignite San Francisco 2009)
How the Hell Did Matt Get People to Dance With Him? by Matt Harding (Ignite Gnomedex 2008)
Why and How to Give an Ignite Talk by Scott Berkun (Ignite Seattle 2009)
If you have an Ignite event in your area you should check it out. It's a fun way to learn about and from people in your community. I'm looking forward to hearing what folks in Corvallis are thinking about in a few weeks.
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"The good advice is obvious, the rest doesn’t work." Derek on SEO. In summary, hire a good designer not a self-proclaimed Search Engine Optimizer and design for humans not algorithms. Couldn't agree more.
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A hidden mode in OSX that you can use to group open apps. Click in the dock, then Command-Tab to open others. Works well!
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A nice collection of pictures of the new season from across the globe.
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"Being a long-haired beardo has its ups and downs. One of the ups is that if you’ve got a dozen friends and a lot of beer and a questionable idea, you can make something like this happen."
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President Obama reacts to his selection as the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
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Andrew Sullivan on Obama's Peace Prize: "...there are two obvious points: this is premature and this is thoroughly deserved. Both are right."
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Some samples of single-pane comics by H.T. Webster. Sadly, his collections appear to be out of print and there aren't any at nearby libraries.
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Scan of the 1955 book with wonderful caricatures by Ronald Searle. [via peacay]
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"So, this is why I say white supremacy is the only functional form of racism; the only kind that actually works."
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"...you’re just making a fool of yourself when you go around telling users of singular they that they’re wrong, because they’re not."
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It's going to be that time of year again soon. These Thule chains look nice, but I'd rather see real people putting on chains in freezing weather in the demo, not spinning/floating CG.
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Eight rules for writing a short story. [via merlin]
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"The fundamental problems with the American health care system are all linked, directly or indirectly, to the fact that the vast majority of folks get insurance solely through their employers." Amen, and go Wyden! [via Kattullus]
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"The problem is Twitter isn’t really open. For Twitter to be truly open, it would have to be possible to use “Twitter” without an any way involving Twitter the institution. Instead, all data goes through Twitter’s centralized service." I'm not a fan of people pushing content to Twitter like it's an RSS reader for social reasons as well, but that's probably just me.
Peppers
Acorn Squash
Coffee
Autzen Stadium
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Otherworldly collection of pictures from a red dust storm hitting Sydney. Even more at The Big Picture: Dust storm in Australia.