I made a couple of jesting comments on Facebook and Twitter about this article describing the first documented case of something called beat deafness, wherein a man named Mathieu “can’t feel music’s beat or move in time with it.” But it’s a bigger problem than those researchers probably realize. I’m sure that complete beat deafness is… Continue reading The Beatless
Month: March 2011
Ballroom Dance featuring “The Cutouts”
Alert readers (and I know that includes all of you, because you don’t let me get away with anything) will recall that our dance last Saturday night featured something different, something that to my knowledge had never been tried in the 20 year history of the Ballroom Dance Society: prerecorded music in place of a… Continue reading Ballroom Dance featuring “The Cutouts”
The Throwaway Special Effect
Yesterday, I ran across a link on Smashing Magazine‘s twitter feed to an article entitled The protocol-relative URL. This is a rather esoteric topic that will be of extremely limited interest to most (all?) of my readers (it provides a technique for avoiding certain warning messages that occur when a browser calls up a secure… Continue reading The Throwaway Special Effect
The sources of Midland County’s net gain in population
Forbes Magazine has created an interactive graphic showing population movements into and out of every county in the United States in 2008, based on federal income tax-related data provided by the IRS. A mouse click on each county reveals lines emanating from that county to every other county where people moved to or from, and… Continue reading The sources of Midland County’s net gain in population
Apple’s Misspelling
Apple Inc. prides itself on its beautiful, user-friendly designs and quality workmanship, and so I was shocked – shocked, I tell you! – to discover this page in the Mac OS X Sites directory (that’s where you can make a website available to the world using the Apache web server software built into OS X):… Continue reading Apple’s Misspelling
A Few Tips for New Google Chrome Users
Mozilla Firefox has been my default web browser for the past four or five years, but during the past year I’ve also had Google Chrome open on my second monitor and I’ve switched back and forth depending on which program was handier. I hesitated to jump to Chrome as my default browser even though it… Continue reading A Few Tips for New Google Chrome Users
Crippled Netflix App (Why, o why?)
Netflix is rapidly becoming the Service We Hate But Can’t Live Without. I’ve previously documented my complaint about the woeful lack of streaming movies, compared to the company’s DVD offerings, but grudgingly admit that there are some external causal factors at play. However, the latest incarnation of Netflix’s iOS app was apparently built without regard… Continue reading Crippled Netflix App (Why, o why?)
Drillcycle
OK, this is just awesome. This guy Nils Ferber built a…a…well, I’m not sure what to call it, but it’s a vehicle that’s powered by a couple of 18-volt cordless drills. (If your first question is “why,” then, sadly, this blog isn’t for you.) The Drillcycle reportedly has a top speed of almost 20 mph.… Continue reading Drillcycle
Georgia to Maine in Four Minutes
No, I’m not referring to your teenager’s driving, I’m talking about the following video, which documents a 6-month, 2200-mile hike of the entire Appalachian Trail. [Link via Neatorama] I found this fascinating, probably because it makes the hike look a lot easier than it probably was. It also made me wish I was retracing Kevin… Continue reading Georgia to Maine in Four Minutes
Dr. Frankenstein Attempts to Kill His Monster
The fact that Microsoft has built a website designed to convince people to stop using Internet Explorer 6 is prima facie evidence that the post title is not hyperbole. IE6 (aka The Browser from Hell, Satan’s Browser Spawn, and the Browser That Sucked The Life Out of The Universe) was created in 2001, and brought… Continue reading Dr. Frankenstein Attempts to Kill His Monster