Sunday, June 13, 2010

All of America Captured In Single Photograph? Not really.

Pablo Fanque,
National Affairs Editor


This photo and commentary comes from a Wonkette- (one of our favorite sites and sources) article titled "All of America Captured In Single Photograph."

Wonkette operative “Lily E.” was just driving around the outskirts of Madison, Virginia, this weekend when she was compelled to snap this picture of America 2010. It’s all there, everything. Everything.  Read more at Wonkette.
At ATIT, we're probably more cynical, but also far more optimistic than Wonkette, and while we don't think this photo captures the Spirit of America, it certainly nails a certain slice of life in these Unites States.
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Saturday, June 12, 2010

The forgotten Post-it note? Or the forgotten bolts?



I was shopping at QFC (a Seattle grocery store chain) this afternoon QFC.  I walked by one of those see-through elevators. On the bottom, through the glass, I saw a post-it note: "Larry, make *sure* to tighten bolts 6, 7, and 12 after you install the door"

I stood there and tweeted the story on my BlackBerry.  But, I NEEDED a picture. As I was getting ready to take it, an under-assistant manager asked me "what's up?"  I pointed to the note, and said "This is too good--I have to have a picture." " I can't let you do that," he said. "Really?" "Really." And, yes, really, I can't blame him a bit. . .
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Digital Art: by Jack Brummet - Stained Glass Sarah Palin

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Friday, June 11, 2010

Cathie Joy's Pro Keds shoes



Cathie Joy, a friend and fantastic Portland-based painter has new shoes out, based on details from her paintings.  You can order her custom Keds here.  
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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Inside Jack Brummet's head

By Jack Brummet
On location in Orange County, California
This is the closest thing I could find to a graphical representation of my brain today.  It's been one of those days. . .

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Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Eat your own dog food!

By Jack Brummet, Games and Software Ed.


Actor Lorne Greene used to flack the dogfood Alpo on TV, saying "it's so good I feed it to my own dogs." It gained currency during the dot-com craze, and the phrase is still used most commonly in technology companies. I believe it is one of the central tenets of quality assurance (as opposed to QA's subdiscipline, testing).


"Eating your own dog food" means that you use the software you create, or play the games you make. In other businesses, you might actually eat the food you serve, watch the TV shows you make, or use the product you manufacture. This can be taken to extremes, of course, as in the Not Invented Here syndrome, where you not only eat your own dogfood, but you also won't touch anyone else's [1].




Ben Hamper, writing about life as a shoprat at General Motors in his book Rivethead, tells how anyone foolish enough to drive a foreign car into the employee parking lot would find their car keyed, tagged with spray paint, mirrors ripped off, and possibly rammed by a one-ton pickup. That is an extreme punishment for not eating your own dogfood.

Why should you eat your own dogfood? You actually get to know the product you are making. By knowing it, you may get some ideas about how to increase its goodness. In the case of games and software, problems, bugs and deficencies become apparent often only after extended use by a variety of people. Eating your own dogfood shows you believe in your own product. If you work at a brewery, a game company, or bakery, it probably works pretty well for you, if you manufacture cod liver oil, syrup of ipecac, chastity belts, or experimental aircraft. . .well, not so much.

[1] "Not Invented Here," describes a company that will use nothing developed by "outsiders." In many cases companies don't know a solution already exists. But even more often, the organization believes they can produce a superior product. Apple Computer, from System 1 through OS9 did not include many U.I. innovations (from, say, Windows) because they were not accounted for in Apple's human interface guidelines (a great document, by the way).


Apple rejected any change they did not invent...which, of course, ignores the fact that Apple cribbed most of this stuff from innovations at PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) in the first place. In the open source world, at any time, there are several groups working on different projects that all do the same thing.


Large corporations like Microsoft reject all use of open source software...because they feel the source sharing requirements are too onerous. Therefore they must come up with all these tools in house, no matter how much it costs and no matter how poorly the tool emulates what is already available for free.
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Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Did Ex-Governor Palin have "some work done"?

By Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor

Our frequent tipster, D.E. of E.I., Wonkette, and dozens of other blogs and websites have noted that Ex-Governor Sarah Palin may have recently spent some of her mega-millions in book royalties on "some new work,"  or, as one author put it: "Did Sarah Palin Buy Herself a Couple of Luxury Items?"

click to enlarge

A Tweet from Wonkette:  "“Sarah Palin 12/09 no boobs http://bit.ly/bmQtPJ  #Sarah Palin today, Instant boobage! http://j.mp/dokqd2 only her #plasticsurgeon knows4sure.”
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Alien Lore No. 173 - Our methane-breathing cousins on Saturn: NASA scientists say "alien life exists on Saturn's moon."

Thanks to All This Is That alien lore tipster Jef Clinton for this story

Nasa scientists have discovered evidence 'that alien life exists on Saturn's moon.'     NASA Researchers believe they have discovered vital clues that indicate primitive aliens could be living on the moon.  Hello, cousins!

NASA's Cassini probe has transmitted data back to us that led to extensive analysis of the complex chemistry on the surface of Titan.   Titan is the only Saturn moon with a dense atmosphere.  Astronomers claim the moon is generally too cold to support even liquid water on its surface.

One study, in the journal Icarus, shows hydrogen gas flowing throughout the planet’s atmosphere, showing  that alien forms could possibly breathe. Another paper, in the Journal of Geophysical Research, says there is no hydrogen on the surface of Titan. The hydrogen theory scientists believe the hydrogen may have been consumed by life. Huh?  Like, they used it up?

According to NASA, "researchers expected sunlight interacting with chemicals in the atmosphere to produce acetylene gas. But the Cassini probe did not detect any such gas."


Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA, said: “We suggested hydrogen consumption because it's the obvious gas for life to consume on Titan, similar to the way we consume oxygen on Earth."


"If these signs do turn out to be a sign of life, it would be doubly exciting because it would represent a second form of life independent from water-based life on Earth.”

Professor John Zarnecki, of the Open University, said “We believe the chemistry is there for life to form. It just needs heat and warmth to kick-start the process."

They warned, as these tricksy scientists always do, that there could be other explanations for their findings. However, "taken together, these studies indicate two important conditions necessary for methane-based life to exist."

All photos and quotes are courtesy of NASA.  And we get to use them here because we, the taxpayers, paid for it.
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Saturday, June 05, 2010

Matt Smith's fantastic one-man show, All My Children, a textbook on the Games People Play

Last night, we went to see Matt Smith's one-man show, All My Children, at the theatre at Richard Hugo House in Seattle.  It was fantastic!  And highly recommended.

The story of Max Poth takes "what-might-have-been to extreme lengths: he tracks down the now-grown children of long-ago girlfriends—and claims to have fathered them all. What starts as a strange lark soon takes on a life of its own."   There are hilarious, touching, and creepy moments.  The fascinating/bizarre, plot is propelled by subtle and overt and outrageous humor, funny asides, and riveting dialog.  A surprise ending came out of nowhere and tied the show up with a bow, rolling up the previously disparate plot elements together in an affirmation of humanity and the games people play.  Great writing, great acting, great directing. 

This show is only on one more weekend--go see it!  Get tickets quick, since these first two weekends were sell-outs.  Go to Richard Hugo House; they'll hook you up with seats for $20/$10- students. 
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Friday, June 04, 2010

Thanks, angels...for donating to the Muscular Dystrophy Association fundraiser (and keeping Jack out of jail)



Thanks everyone for your generous donations to my "bail" as part of the executive lock-up fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I hit my goal of $2,400 yesterday. You guys are the best. Thanks from me, and the kids. I'll only have to do an hour in stir before I can use my get out of jail card. I'll try to post photos of my arrest by the Kirkland Police when it happens (June 17th).

If you would still like to donate, please do!  Jump here to make an online contribution.


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