buchok.com

buchok.fm: Review: Beach House—Bloom

Thu, 17 May 2012 08:01:08 -0400

by Drew Gulan

The mark of a truly gifted group of musicians is the ability to follow-up a brilliant collection of songs with even more impressive work, bucking the common trend of spending all of your energy and creativity in one fell swoop. In the case of the Baltimore-based duo Beach House,…

fred-wilson: Wake Up (Arcade Fire cover) - Macy Gray happy...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 23:10:30 -0400

fred-wilson:

Wake Up (Arcade Fire cover) - Macy Gray

happy cover friday everyone

coapostropheneill:

Children wake up, hold your mistake up before they turn the summer into dust

I want to listen to this but am on my phone and cannot. So, I will reblog it for everyone incl me!

nprmusic: We had a blind test to determine the best chocolate...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:59:58 -0400

nprmusic:

We had a blind test to determine the best chocolate sandwich cookie at the NPR Music office, you know, like you do. Nothing about it was scientific: No notes were taken, we didn’t any make pie charts (cookie charts?) or Venn diagrams. My boss and I mostly just wanted to settle a score between our favorite cookies, which we both end up betraying in the blind taste test.

The surprising winner across a limited testing population was Tuxedos, the Safeway-brand. Gotta give the grocery store credit: Tuxedos kinda out-does Oreos at its own game, at least when it comes to single-creme cookies (Double Stuf might have broken the “control” of the operation). Other cookies in contention: Target-brand Market Pantry and Newman-O’s.

What’s your favorite chocolate sandwich cookie?

This is really awesome.

limit the details: Why Facebook bought Instagram

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:06:01 -0400

limit the details: Why Facebook bought Instagram:

limitthedetails:

Insta-book. $1B! 13 employees! 700K+ a day “salary”! Systrom! Photos! Yay! FB! OMG. LOUD VOICES!

Ok, now that Instagram madness is covered above let’s talk about why FB bought. I’m breaking down my thoughts into 2 categories: 1) Why I think FB bought and 2) how they helped justify the price tag….

Took me a while to realize this was you writing. I enjoyed.

buchok.fm: Review: The Shins—Port of Morrow

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:54:34 -0400

buchok.fm: Review: The Shins—Port of Morrow:

buchokfm:

by Drew Gulan

It only took until mid-March, but 2012 has finally seen the release of a truly great record: The Shins’ “Port of Morrow”. The year has not been completely barren, with some really solid efforts from Sleigh Bells, Poliça, Air, and the “New Multitudes” tribute album to folk-great…

Lots of love, positive energy and prayers for my mom today.

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:24:58 -0400

Lots of love, positive energy and prayers for my mom today.

Marsha's Blog: My medical leave

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:06:38 -0400

Marsha's Blog: My medical leave:

Love you, Mom!

marbuchok:

Hello dear family and friends!

Gearing up for my FMLA - huh? Family Medical Leave Act. - I’ve never had to pay much attention to my employee health benefits. Glad I have ‘em, but I’ve been a healthy gal so haven’t had to think much about them… Until now.

Went in for a routine mammogram on Feb…

found it.

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 11:04:08 -0400

found it.

How many is too many books to be reading?

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 09:29:04 -0400

I am positive that a person can be reading too many books.

However, an important distinction must be made: Do you have to finish every book you start?

If the answer is, “No, we are not obligated to finish every book we begin reading” (who does?)—the concept of reading too many books becomes a bit more interesting.

Think about your Kindle. (You do have a Kindle, right?)

I have far more books hovering in the 50,60,70-percent range than in the 95+ zone. From a technical standpoint, I think I am currently reading about 28 books.

But that’s not fair.

I try to split my reading into fun and work. I do feel lucky that my fun reading influences my work, and my work reading is enjoyable. But this distinction helps me maintain several texts at a time. It also feels different to sit down with a novel than some mega-dork code jam.

Further, with the Kindle I can pick and choose when to resume different books. It’s liberating.

I’ve made a rule with myself that I’d always find budget for books because I fully believe they are an investment.

But this rule also means I need to change what it means to be “reading” a book as I am shifting from book-to-book often.

Short circuiting the short circuit!

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 10:08:10 -0500

I’m constantly confusing myself when calculating timezones for meetings.

9 o’clock a.m. in San Francisco is what time in Madrid? What time is a 3 p.m. meeting in New York? In general, what time is it in Minneapolis?

I’m finally getting around to writing a really simple JS widget to help me calculate differences in key timezones.

However, when calculating the number 0, I was seeing my tests fail and it was a bit confusing.

Turns out the number 0 causes a bit of a hiccup when using short-circuit evaluations.

var zero = 0;

var myVar = zero || 0; // => NaN.

Hmm, confusing.

Some assertions that prove this point:

    TestCase('TestForZero', {
        'test zero' : function() {

            // Set `zero` and `one` to number values:

            var zero = 0;

            assertNotNaN(zero);
            assertNotNull(zero);
            assertNotUndefined(zero);
            assertNumber(zero);

            var one = 1;

            assertNotNaN(one);
            assertNotNull(one);
            assertNotUndefined(one);
            assertNumber(one);

            // If either variable is null, set a string just for fun.
            // Note: Expectation is that *neither* will be null:

            zero = zero || 'zero';
            one = one || 'one';

            // `one` maintains itself.
            // Assertions copied from above:

            assertNotNaN(one);
            assertNotNull(one);
            assertNotUndefined(one);
            assertNumber(one);

            // `zero` unfortunately does not:

            assertNotNull(zero);
            assertNotUndefined(zero);
            assertNaN(zero); // => Gotcha!!
            assertTypeOf('string', zero);

            // Using a more strict ternery operator yields expected results:
            zero = 0;
            zero = (zero !== null) ? zero : 'zero';

            // Assertions copied from above:
            assertNotNaN(zero);
            assertNotNull(zero);
            assertNotUndefined(zero);
            assertNumber(zero);

        }   
    })

lizporto: Metros. (Madrid, Spain) I like how this photo...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 06:04:39 -0500

lizporto:

Metros. (Madrid, Spain)

I like how this photo turned out.

Image compression resolved?

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:58:45 -0500

Previously, I’d staked out four key areas currently plaguing modern advertising within the HTML5 ecosystem:

(Read the post here)

~~Image compression~~
Fonts
JavaScript libraries
Streaming

It appears that using the <canvas> element, “image compression” may be knocked off the list.

Using Base64 strings, it is possible to write images directly to the canvas. What does this mean? Much like our beloved ad.swf 40kb file, it is perhaps possible to generate ad.js with compressed image data baked into the JavaScript.

ad.js then simply creates the <canvas> HTML element and uses context.drawImage(base64String, 0, 0); to display the image within the browser—all within one file.

With very brief testing, a 20kb JPEG file was converted to a Base64 string that weighs almost an equivalent 22kb.

Ad hoc browser testing reveals the image is displayed on all modern browsers, as well as IE8 with the help of FlashCanvas. IE7 and IE6 did not properly display; FlashCanvas looks to not support these lower browsers.

File weight is a still a big concern once it becomes to time to start adding logic to ad.js, but it’s a very exciting start.

moneyisnotimportant: Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy. We...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:28:29 -0500

moneyisnotimportant:

Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy. We push and push and push until we finally hit a wall.

Usually, our bodies are the ones that have the final say in this, and they start to shut down. The problem is, it’s usually at a time that’s not very convenient.

I’m experiencing that firsthand today with a sinus infection, soar throat, and an eye infection on top of it.

I preach balance every day on this site, but I haven’t been taking my own advice recently. I’ve been pushing myself past the limit of what I can handle physically and mentally - without taking the time to give my body and mind the fuel and rest that it needs.

So, since I’m learning this lesson the hard way, I thought that it would be a good time to remind everyone of this before it happens to you.

Be good to your body and mind. Take time to recharge before you find yourself on the sidelines.

Never better said as I have been bed ridden all day. I am miserable.

Internet of things

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:45:39 -0500

Internet of things:

Checking out a presentation this morning.

the man! (via Kurt Rambis - 1985 - Celtics vs. Lakers in the...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:19:38 -0500

the man! (via Kurt Rambis - 1985 - Celtics vs. Lakers in the ’80s - Photos - SI.com)

getbangedon: I don’t even know what to say about...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:58:33 -0500

getbangedon:

I don’t even know what to say about this.

Unbelievable.

Blake Griffin does things that nobody else can do.

Blake destroys Kendrick Perkins with a crazy poster slam.

(Video from @jose3030)

***UPDATE***

More angles.

@GetBangedOn

this dunk is blowing up all my feeds. wow!!

working on some new moves for the tom tour …

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:01:45 -0500

working on some new moves for the tom tour …

stop over in London on way back to Madrid tomorrow.

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:23:45 -0500

stop over in London on way back to Madrid tomorrow.

When

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:45:14 -0500

I remember the first time I learned about YouTube. It was Andy Samberg’s coming out party with Lazy Sunday.

Lazy Sunday was YouTube’s coming out party.

YouTube’s coming out party meant Flash video became the way we watched video on the web*.

Flash video remains the most pervasive way that video is shared, watched and streamed across the web. Despite the iOS embargo.

A large portion of my work revolves around Flash video.

But things are changing.

HTML5 is here.

HTML5 means <video> will supplant Flash as the de-facto way in which video is distributed across the internet. To-date, the biggest question mark surrounding HTML5 is support.

Any given HTML5 feature requires a look-through at support across the big players: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari. This is true from local storage to <video>, from WebSockets to <canvas>.

I’ll save the details, but I believe that “support” worries for HTML5—and specifically <video>—will be assuaged as soon as HTML5 <video> has it’s “Lazy Sunday” moment.

When the most important thing on the web—which happens every 2.47 seconds—becomes an HTML5 video, anyone in the web audience that cannot watch the video will figure out why, and they’ll upgrade their browser.

Imagine how crazy the web will be once HTML5 <video> has it’s Lazy Sunday moment … and the web world learns that encoding and adding to a website is typically as simple as <video><source>myfile.mp4</source></video>**.

*It hurts to remember that prior to Lazy Sunday, YouTube and Flash video—we often had to deal with embedded MOVs, WMVs or something equally as awful.

** Codec compatibility remains an issue and I’ll save that for another post. But my hunch is Chrome’s support for .mp4 will make it a dominant browser once HTML5 media becomes widespread. We’ll see.

"They want to take over the Internet,” he said. “Can you imagine how much we’re going to be curtailed..."

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:18:59 -0500

““They want to take over the Internet,” he said. “Can you imagine how much we’re going to be curtailed in the spreading of out information if we lose the Internet?””

- Ron Paul, talking about SOPA and PIPA

Presidential Candidate Ron Paul Slams SOPA | TorrentFreak

(via fred-wilson)

buchok.com

buchok.fm: Review: Beach House—Bloom

fred-wilson: Wake Up (Arcade Fire cover) - Macy Gray happy...

nprmusic: We had a blind test to determine the best chocolate...

limit the details: Why Facebook bought Instagram

buchok.fm: Review: The Shins—Port of Morrow

Lots of love, positive energy and prayers for my mom today.

Marsha's Blog: My medical leave

Love you, Mom!

found it.

How many is too many books to be reading?

Short circuiting the short circuit!

lizporto: Metros. (Madrid, Spain) I like how this photo...

Image compression resolved?

moneyisnotimportant: Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy. We...

Internet of things

the man! (via Kurt Rambis - 1985 - Celtics vs. Lakers in the...

getbangedon: I don’t even know what to say about...

working on some new moves for the tom tour …

stop over in London on way back to Madrid tomorrow.

When becomes the standard

"They want to take over the Internet,” he said. “Can you imagine how much we’re going to be curtailed..."

When