Pick up the pace, Joshua…Tumblr (3.0; @joshuajabbour)http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/<a href="http://mrgan.tumblr.com/post/439212412/whats-next-for-google-maps-now-that-theyve-added">What's next for Google Maps now that they've added Bicycling Directions?</a>: <p>What they totally need to add is Walk of Shame directions… it would figure out the shortest, least visible route home!</p> <blockquote> <ul> <li>Just-got-laid strutting directions</li> </ul> </blockquote>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/439448282http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/439448282Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:33:00 -0500<img src="http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kyxhnzw9uA1qz4iiso1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>“The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a filing cabinet into a car, why not do it with some style?”</p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/432962422http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/432962422Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:15:02 -0500future<img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kywi8vfcz81qz4iiso1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p>Has anyone else noticed these UI updates to bookmark menus in Google Chrome? I’m running 5.0.342.1, and the changes are a very recent addition.</p> <p>AFAIK, as of a week ago Chrome used standard Mac system menus (or at least close approximations) for the bookmark toolbar menus. Now they seem to be using these bastardized, overly-stylized, next-to-useless excuses for menus.</p> <p>How many problems exist here? We can begin with:</p> <ul> <li>fixed width, so most titles are cut off (very useful, I enjoy not being able to read my bookmarks)</li> <li>centered text (just makes the menu soooo easy to scan)</li> <li>no arrows next to folder items (sure, let’s break Mac UI standards just for the hell of it)</li> <li>non-obvious highlighting (awesomely subtle outline replaces standard system color)</li> </ul> <p>What do we gain here? My authoritative list includes:</p> <ul> <li>hell if I know…</li> </ul>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/431947877http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/431947877Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:33:34 -0500google chromemacui<object width="400" height="296 "><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/embed/khPWhL-O7-LhwwyFTpgwUw" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/khPWhL-O7-LhwwyFTpgwUw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="231"></embed></object><br/><br/><p>Of course, <em>The Daily Show</em> nails Chatroulette (and Brian Williams and Keith Olbermann were both hilarious)!</p> <p>via <a href="http://blog.justinpurnell.com/post/428935556">Justin Purnell</a></p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/429687132http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/429687132Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:44:00 -0500“The precious commodity that we, as publishers, have to offer advertisers is the attention of our readers. Web page views are a terribly inaccurate, if not outright misleading, metric for attention. Subscribers to a full-content RSS feed are among the readers paying the most attention, but generate among the least web page views.”<br/><br/> - <em><a href="http://daringfireball.net/2010/03/attention_is_the_real_resource">John Gruber</a></em>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/429065283http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/429065283Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:41:59 -0500<script src="http://player.ooyala.com/player.js?height=375&embedCode=1uZWk4MTrcAV2dxS-IUwAmRNZSM5D-eJ&width=500&deepLinkEmbedCode=1uZWk4MTrcAV2dxS-IUwAmRNZSM5D-eJ"></script><br/><br/><p>This is one of the funniest SNL sketches I’ve seen in a long time. Just the idea itself is hilarious, and the execution is superb (the ending is meh, but the first 3/4 had me howling).</p> <p>And Sudeikis’s character (and pants)!</p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/427771098http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/427771098Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:57:00 -0500“That’s as far as I got before I realized I have to work today.”<br/><br/> - <em><p><a href="http://buchino.tumblr.com/post/426666561/colin-linked-to-this-flickr-set-and-i-saw-this" class="tumblr_blog">buchino</a></p> <p>Wouldn’t it be rad if work was thinking about things like that? I guess on a good day it can be, but more please…</p></em>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/427749038http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/427749038Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:43:00 -0500<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ky2wmpDQxL1qalo8mo1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><a href="http://fuckyeaheyegasms.tumblr.com/post/411302745/hope-via-snarl" class="tumblr_blog">fuckyeaheyegasms</a>:</p> <blockquote><p>hope (via <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/snarl">snarl</a>)</p></blockquote>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/411860716http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/411860716Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:15:27 -0500“Writers tend to work early in the morning, or late at night, when brains are naturally able to focus deeply on one thought. In the middle of the day, distractions are unavoidable. I wonder if anything worthwhile has ever been written in the afternoon.”<br/><br/> - <em><a href="http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/like_a_night_watchman/">Scott Adams: Like a Night Watchman</a> (via <a href="http://www.marco.org/" class="tumblr_blog">marco</a>)</em>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/407203554http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/407203554Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:42:12 -0500<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kxyta60M8V1qz4iiso1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>motion</p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/393890390http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/393890390Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:51:11 -0500nycsubway<object width="400" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ez90azx4LKk&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ez90azx4LKk&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="336" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><br/><br/><p>I <strong>love</strong> this song! It’s arbitrary and fantastical, but totally sensical within it’s own world—just like good improv. Someday I hope to be able to make up a song this good on the spot…</p> <p>NSFW (if your work is the suck)</p> <p>(thanks <a href="http://buchino.tumblr.com">buchino</a>)</p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/393439354http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/393439354Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:24:01 -0500“When we commandeer the emotional lives of our employees we waste a valuable resource. Left to their own devices, employees represent a wonderful variety of attitudes, interests and activities. They are in fact a very good opportunity for the corporation to survey what is happening “out there” in the world. When we ask them to be outward facing ambassadors for the corporation, we flatten their naturally occurring variety, making it much more difficult for them to serve as inward facing ambassadors for the world.”<br/><br/> - <em>Grant McCracken, <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/01/zappos_and_the_problem_of_forc.html">referring to companies that attempt to control their employees’ emotions and personalities</a></em>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/389730118http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/389730118Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:46:02 -0500business<p>On Monday evening, inspired by <a href="http://kottke.org/10/02/chatroulette">Jason Kottke</a>, I spent some time exploring <a href="http://chatroulette.com">Chatroulette</a>. The concept of Chatroulette is simple… connect via webcam to a random stranger. And in this case, simplicity is sublime.</p> <p>In an article for New York magazine, <a href="http://nymag.com/news/media/63663/">Sam Anderson writes</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>The internet has always been defined by (and drawn much of its energy from) the tension between chaos and control—and over the last ten years, web culture has skewed heavily toward control… Once you dive in, there’s no way to manage the experience… there’s only the perpetual forward motion of “next.”</p> </blockquote> <p>Over the course of about 45 minutes, I was connected to hundreds of people. A majority disconnected within mere seconds (most without saying or typing a single word). While I did see dozens of close-ups of guys masturbating, one pair of female breasts, and many signs imploring “Show Your Tits”, unlike Kottke I saw no one having sex (as long as you discount the guy having sex with a plush raccoon doll, and the obvious porno someone was playing).</p> <p>Many connections were to roomfuls of people, who seemingly were using the service as a form of entertainment. And for good reason, as I stumbled across numerous people performing for the camera in non-sexual ways: lifting weights, playing beer pong, smoking pot, playing music, cutting what appeared to be cocaine… one girl even performed a well-choreographed hip-hop dance.</p> <p>As <a href="http://nymag.com/news/media/63663/">Sam Anderson hypothesizes</a>, the point of Chatroulette isn’t necessarily to connect with people:</p> <blockquote> <p>Meeting a new person is thrilling, in a primal way—your attention focuses completely, if only for a nanosecond, to see if the creature in front of you has the power to change your life for better or worse. ChatRoulette creates this moment over and over again; it privileges it over actual conversation. Eventually, I realized that clicking “next” was not so much a rejection as it was pure curiosity, like riding a train past an apartment building at night, looking briefly into as many lit windows as possible.</p> </blockquote> <p>In the end, I did manage to exchange a few words with a couple of strangers, although I had only one meaningful conversation: I chatted for around 60 seconds with a guy offering to play a song on his guitar… interestingly/sadly/ironically, he was also in NYC.</p> <p><em>Update</em>: <a href="http://blogs.nerve.com/scanner/2010/02/10/the-ten-people-youll-meet-on-chatroulette/">10 types of Chatroulette users</a></p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/388017330http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/388017330Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:36:00 -0500meme<embed src="http://www.hulu.com/embed/JlUb5TILe0Bp8xRTQXV2kA/240/509/i365" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="231"></embed><br/><br/><p>John Oliver absolutely <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Morning+Vid:+Jon+Stewart+Guts,+Eviscerates,+Disembowels+Blogs-2438"><strong>eviscerates</strong></a> attendees to the RNC Winter Meeting, held in Hawai’i… the only state in the US with nearly universal healthcare.</p> <p>I particularly love his responses to the conventioneers; they just continue to babble nonsense (and obviously ignore his questions) as he points out the ridiculousness (and cluelessness) of their talking points.</p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/386614866http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/386614866Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:17:00 -0500politicshealth care<blockquote> <p>Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, welcomed Mr. Obama’s invitation [to a health care reform policy discussion]. But like many in his party, he expressed concern that the session would be used as “an arena for political theater.”</p> <p>—Robert Pear and David M. Herszenhorn, in their <em>NY Times</em> story “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/health/policy/09health.html">On Health Bill, G.O.P.’s Road Is a New Map</a>”</p> </blockquote> <p>Yes, because the Republicans are known for their diligent opposition to political theater…</p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/379924824http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/379924824Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:05:00 -0500politics<object width="400" height="336"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XZ_DNc1zbxI&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XZ_DNc1zbxI&rel=0&egm=0&showinfo=0&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="336" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent"></embed></object><br/><br/><p>Save water!</p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/379447432http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/379447432Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:34:16 -0500<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="225" data="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7577554&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF"><param name="quality" value="best" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="scale" value="showAll" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7577554&server=vimeo.com&fullscreen=1&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF" /><embed src="http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7577554&server=www.vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><br/><br/><p><a href="http://paulscheer.com/post/359912026/this-is-one-of-the-best-things-ive-seen-in-a-long" class="tumblr_blog">paulscheer</a>:</p> <blockquote><p>This is one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time. Check out this ridiculous violent and amazingly insane intro video for an Alaskan College Hockey Team.</p></blockquote>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/373697096http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/373697096Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:34:04 -0500<img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kx786cHnKl1qz6f9yo1_500.gif"/><br/><br/>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/368598011http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/368598011Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:00:00 -0500“The bulk of humanity doesn’t want a computing experience it can tinker with; it wants a computing experience that works.”<br/><br/> - <em>Jeffrey Zeldman, <a href="http://www.zeldman.com/2010/02/01/flash-ipad-standards/">on the iPad</a></em>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/365592319http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/365592319Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:55:54 -0500applefuture<img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kx6djemnqY1qz4iiso1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>The <a href="http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_118.htm#sunday">USPS will be issuing a Calvin & Hobbes postage stamp</a> this July!</p>http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/365446515http://blog.joshuajabbour.com/post/365446515Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:55:00 -0500awesomesauce