Author Archives: Jeff Porten

  • Glenn Fleishman:
    It is absolutely not true that I have a collection of over 10,000 preserved snowflakes, all different. It’s far fewer than 10,000.

However, it is true that has a macro to tweet “you are a precious unique snowflake” to his entire collection.

  • erika owens:
    My very proto documentation on journalism hack days, includes links to great reportbacks, guides, tips.

curious about your using GitHub to host this. Blog post sometime?

  • erika owens:
    hmm…sure. It was mostly to aid in collaboration and to worry less about formatting, ha.

Right, I just haven’t seen GitHub used for text collaboration before. Adv/disadvantages over wiki/GDocs?

I know some writers who use SVN for personal version tracking, but otherwise haven’t heard much about check-in for non-coding.

Thanks, *another* thing you’ve put on my to-look-at to do list. You’re running the risk of becoming your own category.

  • Noah Veltman:
    I chose github for a few reasons: 1. easy for others to contribute in a structured way (contra Google Docs)
  • Noah Veltman:
    2. Limits of Markdown force me to focus on content and not nitpick the presentation
  • erika owens:
    Grateful you lead the way. Worrying about formatting drives me nuts and git time is quality time.

Nearly all my writing starts in Markdown these days. Agreed that formatting is generally a waste of time.

still wrapping my head around using Git as a collaborative documentation space.

  • John Scalzi:
    It’s Cinco de Mayo, so naturally I am having an Italian sausage hoagie for lunch.

I think you may have been infected on your last book tour to Philly.

Advanced symptoms include a craving for Cheez Whiz.

  • Melody Kramer:
    Things I am going to do this summer: write, swim, relax, bike, hike, not worry about fall, obtain a roofdeck, cook, read, turn 29.

I suggest “buy really really big backpack” prior to “obtain a roofdeck.”

  • Jesse Spector:
    The guy shaving in the Penn Station men’s room… I have so many questions that I don’t know how to ask.

done similar stuff. It’s “oh, shit, I’ve been traveling for two weeks and forgot I have to look respectable in an hour.”

  • Jesse Spector:
    But the Penn Station men’s room?

ever try to shave on a bus?

well, there you go. If the choices are Penn Station or bleeding out, might do the same thing. (Or not shave.)

  • Jesse Spector:
    I’ll take not shave and spend as little time in a place that smells like that as possible.

The trick is to jam as much shaving cream up your nostrils as possible.

Macworld reviews Prizmo 2

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OCR software that recognizes text from iPhone photos. Sounds interesting to me, especially if it works with a panoramic photostitched iPhone 5 pic. But at $50, it’s too pricey for a “buy it in case I need it” purchase; would definitely reconsider at a lower price point, or if it shows up in a future bundle.

Also wondering, for occasional OCR needs, whether Evernote wouldn’t fit the bill. Haven’t played with that feature enough.

Macworld Review: Get scanner-like features for any camera with Prizmo 2

Existence proof #4,387 that the universe is weird

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Never mind that a “time crystal” sounds like what happens if you crash a TARDIS into the Enterprise engine room. This theory about atomic perpetual motion machines is still melting my brain.

[T]ime crystals derive their movement not from stored energy but from a break in the symmetry of time, enabling a special form of perpetual motion. [Physicists] plan to build a time crystal, not in the hope that this perpetuum mobile will generate an endless supply of energy (as inventors have striven in vain to do for more than a thousand years) but that it will yield a better theory of time itself.

  • Peter Cohen:
    Kentucky Derby protip: If your mint julep contains anything besides bourbon, mint leaf, sugar and water, it’s not a mint julep.

Also, should be mixed by a cantankerous old man exclaiming, “I’m a doctor, not a bartender.”

  • Glenn Fleishman:
    Everything I am working on professionally right now is awesome. Thank you, collaborators and editors.

I feel the need to pitch you something boring to be contrarian.

HTC One seems to have impressive uptake. Heading to get mine (on TMo $100 trade offer); have seen 2 in the wild today.