Obvious Diversion

Vote Today!

Christian — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 11:59:27 +0000

Find out where to vote
Phonebank from Home
Find a Local Get Out the Vote Event
Report a Problem when Voting

If time is money, then the Dow is at 1998

Christian — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 23:18:13 +0000

NYC Fun Fact: More People Are Killed in the Crosswalk than Jaywalking

Christian — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:19:19 +0000

There’s a new book out about the sociology of driving called Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us) that looks pretty interesting and includes the fun fact cited in the title of this post: more people are killed in crosswalks crossing legally than jaywalking. Looks like it’s worth a read.

Having Trouble Sleeping? Sound machines help almost as much as medication

Christian — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:59:26 +0000

The September 2008 issue of Consumer Reports has an article on sleep, and their data shows that sound machines work almost as well as the latest prescription meds in helping you get to sleep with meds helping 75% of the time and sound machines helping 70% of the time, with far fewer side effects.

They recommend some dedicated sound machines, but your computer or phone will certainly do the job for free or cheap.

SimplyNoise Web App (free)
Noise Mac App (free)
Ambiance iPhone App (99 cents US)

Dear Scientists, Stories Matter

Christian — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:12:52 +0000

Anyone who works in science should listen to this fantastic speech from Robert Krulwich on why scientists should be more like Galileo and less like Isaac Newton. Hard-won data is a powerful thing, but that same data narrated and illustrated and, ultimately, understood in the minds of the world has an impact that is much deeper.

The Muppets Celebrate the 4th of July with a New Video

Christian — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:46:52 +0000

Want to Understand the “Credit Crises”? Listen to This.

Christian — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:28:48 +0000

This American Life did a great show called The Giant Pool of Money that gives a clear explanation of the series of events that led the economy to it’s current state. It’s a quick listen and will give you a grip on what’s going on.

Netflix Removing Separate Profiles, Trying to Destroy Marriages

Christian — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:24:21 +0000

Back in 2005, Netflix introduced a feature they themselves called the “marriage saver“. Well, evidently, Netflix has declared war on marriage since they have decided to remove the ability to have separate queues for each member of the household. This screenshot illustrates it well.

On September 1st, they will delete all of your additional profiles. If you haven’t moved any movies from your family profiles into the main profile, which you are expected to do manually one movie at a time, then you loose those lists forever. Too bad for you. To make this “improvement” even more absurd, they actually suggest you “print them out”. Yeah, because we all joined Netflix so we could have printed paper lists.

There is no reason for them to remove this feature other than they suspect multiple people are sharing accounts just to save money. So, since they suspect they’re losing revenue, they are going to make the entire experience less convenient for everyone by removing this obvious and necessary feature.

This change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

Just ridiculous. There are plenty of alternatives these days, so one can easily see a lot of canceled accounts over this. (Starting with mine.)

If you can be without your newborn child for 14 business days…

Christian — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:08:38 +0000

Then you can Send Barack Obama Your Baby.

Someone Make This Program: Make My Mac Sound Like an IBM Selectric Typewriter

Christian — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:23:29 +0000

Today came the realization that there really should be a program that makes your mac sounds and hum just like a classic IBM Selectric Typewriter. Whoever takes on this task will have the gratitude of thousands of nerds, who will download it, run it, and then delete it five minutes later when they realize just how annoying the IBM Selectric really was.