Across the Pond Archives » Commentary

Difficult Decisions

djd — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:55:05 +0000

Hospice medical care for dying patients
- Via The New Yorker

An absolutely gut wrenching story about the difficult decisions patients, families, and their physcians face, at end of life.

The Story of Bottled Water

djd — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:58:28 +0000

500,000,000 bottles of water per WEEK in the USA alone. Yikes!

Lemonade

djd — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:31:00 +0000

Really enjoyed Lemonade. Whether you’ve been laid off or not, this is a great 30 minute reality check.

Available in full on Hulu for those in the US:
http://www.hulu.com/embed/U_odwAUsThscpcw2HvAxhA

Talk about a speck…

djd — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:16:03 +0000

This simply has to make you wonder about what else is out there.

It can’t be both!

djd — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:56:53 +0000

Which is the worse scenario?

1) Retail spending is down for the holiday season because consumers are spending within their means.

2) Retail sales are up slightly while consumers over spend on their credit cards and further bury themselves in debt.

Despite what I see on the news most nights, I propose that the answer cannot be both.

A look inside the deliberations

djd — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:40:47 +0000

The New York Times had an excellent feature story a few days ago:
How Obama Came to Plan for ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan

The three-month review that led to the escalate-then-exit strategy is a case study in decision making in the Obama White House — intense, methodical, rigorous, earnest and at times deeply frustrating for nearly all involved. It was a virtual seminar in Afghanistan and Pakistan, led by a president described by one participant as something “between a college professor and a gentle cross-examiner.”

Mr. Obama peppered advisers with questions and showed an insatiable demand for information, taxing analysts who prepared three dozen intelligence reports for him and Pentagon staff members who churned out thousands of pages of documents.

The story features a carefully constructed recount of the deliberations that went into the final decision and strategy to surge in Afghanistan. Regardless of where you stand on the final decision, it’s a fascinating look into the intense debate that went on behind the scenes to make the most of a shitty situation.

3 years!

djd — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:20:40 +0000

Happy 3 year anniversary my love.

All photos are by the amazing Mindy Sonshine Photography.

Doofus quote of the decade: “The Internet was designed for the PC”

djd — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:45:10 +0000

Seriously. This is the message Ballmer’s trying to send during the launch of Windows 7.

“Let’s face it, the Internet was designed for the PC. The Internet is not designed for the iPhone. That’s why they’ve got 75,000 applications — they’re all trying to make the Internet look decent on the iPhone.” – Associated Press

Right….

Because the Internet, with it’s absolutely massive amount of information, the Internet that connects us all in ways never before possible, the Internet that can provide content on-demand to all corners of the globe, is DESIGNED to be accessed from a big box sitting on a desk in your house.

If this doesn’t miss the mark further, doesn’t dismiss the friggin awesomeness of what the Internet is all about, I don’t know what does.

A Big Difference

djd — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:49:40 +0000

Clearly there’s a big difference between simply checking a box to meet a specification (i.e., phone with a 3megapixel camera), and making the complete user experience drop dead seamless and fun.

iPhone is now the most popular camera on Flickr… Flickr for god sakes. And it absoultely blows away other camera phones that have been around for ages.

Garmin Connect is Excellent

djd — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:43:30 +0000

When I picked up my Forerunner 301 a few years ago, Garmin’s support for the Mac left much to be desired. MotionBased was clunky, the connection required some finagling, and on it went.

When I really picked up running last year I tried out a few different tools for syncing my training progress to my Mac. Ascent is very powerful. You can literally relive your runs and rides and dissect your performance by the minute. It’s handy for exporting routes but it really was more than I wanted. I ended up going with Runner’s Log which I loved for its simplicity and fun little progress awards to keep you motivated. Although it’s specifically for running and doesn’t handle routes or mapping, it was perfectly what I needed last year.

With our first triathlon coming up, I’ve been back in the market for an easy way to track progress, and share/discover great routes both on foot and the bike. I tried MapMyRun.com at a buddy’s suggestion, but for me, it was overkill. There were ads all over the site, offers to upgrade to premium, and a never ending set of details to enter about each and every training session. The UI was, very much, out-of-control. After using it once or twice it was quickly taking the fun out of any training progress I was making.

…

Enter Garmin Connect. Somehow I came back to Garmin’s site to see how they were getting on with the Mac support they promised oh so long. After downloading my entire GPS history and using the site the last few days I have to say that Garmin Connect is fabulous!

Syncing my GPS was fast and easy after installing one simple plugin in Safari 4. The interface is clean and appealing, and the feature set is focused. You can view routes in Google Maps, playback your route, chart speed, elevation, heart rate, and cadence, set goals, export in various formats, and post to social networking. Searching for routes in my area led to some really good finds: enough to motivate me to get out on the bike for 47 miles today! Now I can’t wait to explore some more.

It’s been a long time in coming, but Garmin, I like what I see so thanks!
Link to my Garmin Connect profile.

Screenshots