Metafilter has released the metadata for all of their sites, including comments, favorites and contacts. I think it’s excellent that they are taking the time to do this, and hopefully a few academics will recognize the value of such a compact, influential community that has amazing historical data. (via waxy)
Author Archives: Cameron Marlow
Richard Knerr, the real Hudsucker Proxy
WhileThe Hudsucker Proxy is not one of the Coen brothers’ most lauded films, but I have always though of it as an amazing movie about the unlikely sources of innovation. It wasn’t until I read about Richard Knerr’s death that I realized the affiliation the movie has with Knerr’s real life, namely the invention ofContinue reading “Richard Knerr, the real Hudsucker Proxy”
Bribing your way into a restaurant
When going to dinner on a Saturday in New York, one only has a few options: eat early, eat late, or eat at home. Last night we were confronted by Williamsburg Saturday-night economics, four restaurants in a row with over an hour wait, and I was reminded of a story that I read ages agoContinue reading “Bribing your way into a restaurant”
Obama’s music taste
I was surprised the other day when I stumbled onto Barack Obama’s Facebook page and discovered that he actually filled out his music tastes: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Johann Sebastian Bach (cello suites), and The Fugees I think that given the task of coming up with a more inclusive list, IContinue reading “Obama’s music taste”
The myth of short sleepers
I was fascinated by a piece on yesterday’s Morning Edition about sleep, In today’s world, the well-rested lose respect. A myth has been created by America’s most successful politicians, businesspeople and other luminaries that their success is in some way tied to a physical condition, short sleeping, that allows them to have more productive hoursContinue reading “The myth of short sleepers”
Not the norm
Whenever I am selected as part of a survey panel, online or otherwise, I nearly always take the opportunity. I am “one of those people” who creates self-selection bias. I am a perennial student of surveys, and always interested in what researchers and marketers are trying to understand. I received an invitation this morning byContinue reading “Not the norm”
theinfo.org
theinfo.org is a community “for people with large data sets,” founded by Aaron Swartz. It’s essentially a wiki and a few Google Groups centered around three topics: Get: acquiring data through scraping, crawling, or otherwise Process: conversions, queries, algorithms and the like View: visualization in any number of forms I’m excited by the definition ofContinue reading “theinfo.org”
Facebook Mobile Phonebook
I figure that I should document useful features of Facebook as I encounter them. It turns out that if you have Facebook Mobile installed, you can see a list of all of your friends phone numbers. Très useful if you happen to misplace your phone.
Macworld != World
This is the dumbest, most myopic blog title I have seen in a long while: “Apple Stock Tanks During Stevenote.” I don’t mean to be snarky, but is it possible that someone could be so enthralled with the cult of Mac to completely miss the fact that Citigroup posted a $10B loss today? Of courseContinue reading “Macworld != World”
Proof that 2 = 1
From Overcoming Bias, a proof that 2 is, in fact, equal to one. First let x = y = 1. x = y x2 = xy x2 – y2 = xy – y2 (x + y)(x – y) = y(x – y) x + y = y 2 = 1 There is a simple flawContinue reading “Proof that 2 = 1”
overstated 