Katrina aid falls short of promises. WASHINGTON — Two months after President Bush promised to confront Gulf Coast poverty with ''bold action,” the US government is moving on a far more narrow track to aid the hurricane-devastated region, focusing on pouring concrete rather than confronting the underlying race and poverty issues through Bush's ambitious proposals.… Continue reading Katrina aid falls short of promises

Multi-Tasking – The Enemy of Personal Productivity. If you multi-task your way through the day, when evening comes you may find it difficult to figure out what you actually accomplished. Multitasking, a skill frequently requested by prospective employers, is the enemy to personal productivity according to Paul Chin in his article “Unplugged: Information Overload Requires… Continue reading Multi-Tasking – The Enemy of Personal Productivity

The Vision Project. “The blue moon jumps over the purple sky.” – Applied Minds voice key The Vision Project, one of Portland Mayor Tom Potter's key initiatives, was launched this week with the appointment of a 49 member Vision Committee. Members will spend the next year tapping the community's aspirations and goals to map out… Continue reading The Vision Project

Weekend's Sales Rush Largely Bypasses Smaller Stores. Consumers mobbed discount chains, with their $487 laptops and 5 a.m. openings, but mostly shopped right past smaller stores. By MICHAEL BARBARO. [NYT > Home Page]

What is information design?Information design : The discipline of developing structures which allow people to find information that's relevant to them, and use it to make decisions which enhance their lives. . . . If we are going to help people cope with the arrival of the information society, where information can be delivered “any… Continue reading What is information design?

JOURNAL: Market-state vs. Virtual State.   I'm a big fan of Philip Bobbitt. He's done some amazing thinking on how globalization is changing the nation-state (if you would like to quickly catch up, I strongly suggest that you read the second section of his seminal book: The Shield Achilles). In summary (which doesn't do it… Continue reading JOURNAL: Market-state vs. Virtual State

PHP 5.1: The Bazaar Is Sometimes Bizarre. Well PHP 5.1.0 is out. This is a monumental piece of work, and congratulations to the PHP 5 internals team for all the hard work. However it feels rushed through the door. Apparently there are compatibility problems (with typecasting when parameter passing, the prototype date class, and possibly… Continue reading PHP 5.1: The Bazaar Is Sometimes Bizarre

Fast Company on Simple. Fast Company’s The Beauty of Simplicity talks about how companies are beginning to see that “making things simple is the new competitive advantage” (which was the whole thrust of my talk at Web 2.0 — it was even called “Less as a competitive advantage”). The article mostly focuses its praise on… Continue reading Fast Company on Simple

Windows Live Email Service. Domains.Live.com is a free new email service offered by Microsoft. It’s a simple but very useful tool. And, like Office Live, it is disruptive to the existing domain name registrar market (are they even paying attention?). So the basic service is this: Microsoft will host email and instant messaging for you… Continue reading Windows Live Email Service

lighttpd 1.4.8 makes multiple apps per vhost easy. lighttpd 1.4.8 has added support for multiple Rails application on a single vhost. So its less painful to have /forum and /blog under the same domain. Rockin’   [Riding Rails]