Jay Walker’s Library of Wonders - I read with awe at the amazing collection of historical artifacts amassed by Jay Walker, founder of Walker Digital. Equally fascinating is the 3,600 square-foot library, specially designed and constructed to be an “engagement space”. He called it “a room, a library, that would be about human imagination”. I could spend days reading/marvelling at, inter alia, the scholar’s rocks, celestial atlas (first non-Earth centric drawings), Nuremberg Chronicle (first illustrated history book), Enigma code machine.
Biblioburro - This inspiring story is about a different kind of library: a one-man operation aided by two donkeys. On weekends, the trio bring books to remote villages in Colombia. And Luis Soriano has been doing this for the past decade, driven by the belief that reading can make a positive difference to childrens’ lives.
30 Simple Ways to Get Your Child Ready to Read - Great list of easy tips.
October 25, 2008
October 18, 2008
October 15, 2008
Mac OS 10.5.4 on iMac 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
I switched to Mac exactly 6 months ago.
It sure took a while to get used to the interface and different keyboard shortcuts for common tasks, eg. using the Cmd+key combination instead of the familiar Ctrl+C/V (copy/paste) and Alt+Tab/F4 (switch/quit application) key strokes.
But I knew the switch was complete when I reached for Alt+Q instead of Alt+F4 to quit an application on my Windows laptop.
Much has been written about the practical side of switching. These three guides gave me confidence to make the conversion after my PC crashed then:
1. How to Switch to the Mac | The Tao of Mac
2. Guide for Switching to a Mac | Lifehacker
3. Switch 101 | Apple Support
As I looked back, I realised that the deciding factor was not knowing how to switch.
I had been seduced by the form, the cool factor, the culture that Mac represents.
I wanted to try something new, have a different experience, and be a happier person. Yes, design can make you happy.
Image credit: Crouching Donkey
October 11, 2008
Discover Your Inner Economist (DYIE) is not a typical self-help book. After all, it was written by an economics professor. Tyler Cowen blogs at the popular Marginal Revolution.
In the book, Cowen offered practical how-to tips and advice, grounded in economic logic and insights about human nature. Take the reward/punishment idea, for example. It may backfire if it causes people to feel they are not in the driver’s seat. This innate need to be in control trumps the carrot-and-stick principle (which may explain my tendency to avoid working on tasks that come with treats or threats - procrastination is a way to exert control).
Cowen applied economic reasoning to everday activities - how to enjoy books/movies/paintings, get better treatment from your doctor, give to the needy, cultivate self-control, and so on. To profit from leisure reading, we should follow our interests and not feel guilty about not liking popular works. Skip passages, follow one character first, give up a book if its not worth finishing. To quote from Samuel Johnson, “A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”
I was surprised to read about Singapore in DYIE. In the chapter on how to find cheap and good food, Cowen wrote:
October 4, 2008
Weekend Links #3
Two Guys’ Reading Lists - OMG, such meticulous record-keeping that they can run subject/cost analyses. I maintain my personal library list on excel too but I’d love to look at these guys’ excel sheets.
Sorting Books - Thanks to Sarah Turner’s post, I found this poem in the Canadian Medical Association Journal’s poetry collection, though it has no update since Jun 05.
Cloud Appreciation Society - If you think reading is boring or mentally straining, try staring at clouds. The society will convince you that cloudspotting is a skill worth learning. Anyway, take a break, Look at the Sky, please.
Wordle - I am a fan of words. So this is a cool app. It digests a blog, delicious tags, any chunk of text and spews out “word clouds” that can be transformed into works of art. Me like reading too.
Sorting Books - Thanks to Sarah Turner’s post, I found this poem in the Canadian Medical Association Journal’s poetry collection, though it has no update since Jun 05.
Cloud Appreciation Society - If you think reading is boring or mentally straining, try staring at clouds. The society will convince you that cloudspotting is a skill worth learning. Anyway, take a break, Look at the Sky, please.
Wordle - I am a fan of words. So this is a cool app. It digests a blog, delicious tags, any chunk of text and spews out “word clouds” that can be transformed into works of art. Me like reading too.
Happily Switched
Mac OS 10.5.4 on iMac 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
I switched to Mac exactly 6 months ago.
It sure took a while to get used to the interface and different keyboard shortcuts for common tasks, eg. using the Cmd+key combination instead of the familiar Ctrl+C/V (copy/paste) and Alt+Tab/F4 (switch/quit application) key strokes.
But I knew the switch was complete when I reached for Alt+Q instead of Alt+F4 to quit an application on my Windows laptop.
Much has been written about the practical side of switching. These three guides gave me confidence to make the conversion after my PC crashed then:
1. How to Switch to the Mac | The Tao of Mac
2. Guide for Switching to a Mac | Lifehacker
3. Switch 101 | Apple Support
As I looked back, I realised that the deciding factor was not knowing how to switch.
I had been seduced by the form, the cool factor, the culture that Mac represents.
I wanted to try something new, have a different experience, and be a happier person. Yes, design can make you happy.
Image credit: Crouching Donkey
Weekend Links
Why Everyone Should Blog - Shawn Blanc wrote, “You may not be witty or savvy or funny or cute. You are you. And you have something to give. Somewhere there is something that you find interesting, wonderful and beautiful. So please please tell us why so we can discover it too.”
Emerson on Regrets - “We postpone our literary work until we have more ripeness and skill to write, and we one day discover that our literary talent was a youthful effervescence which we have now lost.” (Replace “literary work” with any hobby that you want to pursue.)
People Reading - Interesting blog that profiles readers in San Francisco. It inspired Noses in Books (Los Angeles) and we also read (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).
Emerson on Regrets - “We postpone our literary work until we have more ripeness and skill to write, and we one day discover that our literary talent was a youthful effervescence which we have now lost.” (Replace “literary work” with any hobby that you want to pursue.)
People Reading - Interesting blog that profiles readers in San Francisco. It inspired Noses in Books (Los Angeles) and we also read (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).
Discover Your Inner Economist
Discover Your Inner Economist (DYIE) is not a typical self-help book. After all, it was written by an economics professor. Tyler Cowen blogs at the popular Marginal Revolution.
In the book, Cowen offered practical how-to tips and advice, grounded in economic logic and insights about human nature. Take the reward/punishment idea, for example. It may backfire if it causes people to feel they are not in the driver’s seat. This innate need to be in control trumps the carrot-and-stick principle (which may explain my tendency to avoid working on tasks that come with treats or threats - procrastination is a way to exert control).
Cowen applied economic reasoning to everday activities - how to enjoy books/movies/paintings, get better treatment from your doctor, give to the needy, cultivate self-control, and so on. To profit from leisure reading, we should follow our interests and not feel guilty about not liking popular works. Skip passages, follow one character first, give up a book if its not worth finishing. To quote from Samuel Johnson, “A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”
I was surprised to read about Singapore in DYIE. In the chapter on how to find cheap and good food, Cowen wrote:
Food in Singapore is so good because the city has harnessed the magic of food stalls... A contemporary hawker center... might contain fifty or more food stalls, usually of Chinese, Malay, and Indian cuisines... Customers buy their fried oyster egg from one expert and their laksa (noodle soup, in coconut milk) from another expert. This specialization... is another reason why Singaporean food is so delicious... For many of the most popular dishes, the wait can take over half an hour. (p. 154-156)I read the book too quickly the first round. I will read it again, more slowly the next time, with the aim to be a cultural billionaire.
Weekend Links (Debut)
Portriat of the Blogger As A Young Man - I like the analogy in the article. Web logs are like wunderkammers. Wunderkammer means cabinet/room of wonders/curiosities, precursor to modern-day musuems. Blogs make sense of the immensely huge and fascinating web. Bloggers serve as digital curators. They are collectors, driven by personal interests/viewpoints.
Reading Beauty - Yes, definitely a poster girl for libraries.
20-Year Timeline of Milestone Usenet Articles - This reminded me of my undergraduate days in the mid-90s when we used text-based Pine to read emails and Usenet newsgroups. Out of curiousity, I looked for some of my favourite Usenet groups back then. Eg. alt.ascii-art and soc.culture.singapore are still around.
Dipity - Speaking of timelines, you can create your own at Dipity, another tool to organise information, books read, navigate the web, etc.
Reading Beauty - Yes, definitely a poster girl for libraries.
20-Year Timeline of Milestone Usenet Articles - This reminded me of my undergraduate days in the mid-90s when we used text-based Pine to read emails and Usenet newsgroups. Out of curiousity, I looked for some of my favourite Usenet groups back then. Eg. alt.ascii-art and soc.culture.singapore are still around.
Dipity - Speaking of timelines, you can create your own at Dipity, another tool to organise information, books read, navigate the web, etc.
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