The Real Adam » Nerdery

The Kindle’s sweet spot

Adam Keys — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:15:39 +0000

Given all the hubbub about Kindles, Nooks and their utility, I thought this bears repeating to a wider audience:

The Kindle is great for books that are just a bag of words, but falls short for anything with important visuals.

I’ve really enjoyed reading on my Kindle over the past year. You can’t beat it for dragging a bunch of books with you on vacation or for reading by the poolside. That said, I don’t use it to read anything technical with diagrams or source code listings. I certainly wouldn’t use it to read anything like Tufte, which is exactly why his books aren’t available on the Kindle. Where the Kindle shines is with pop-science books like Freakonomics and Star Wars novels¹.

If you love books and reading, the Kindle is a nice addition to your bibliophilic habit, but it’s no replacement for a well-chosen and varied library.

¹ Did I say that out loud? Crap.

Ghostbusters then and now

Adam Keys — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:47:59 +0000

What happens when you take scenes from Ghostbusters and see how New York used to look and how it looks today? Pretty awesome, actually. In two parts.

Getting to know your bookshelf

Adam Keys — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:53:50 +0000

The Book Stalker - Rands figures you out by your bookshelf:

Where’s your bookshelf? It’s this awkward moment whenever I first walk into your home. Where is it? Everyone has one. It might not be huge. It might be hidden in a closet, but in decades of meeting new people, I’ve never failed in finding one and when I do I consume it.

Here’s mine from almost two years ago (plus more):

I’ve since expanded to two shelves and look forward to the day when I can devote a whole wall to just reading. As I often tell myself as I sit down to start, “reading is the best”.

My setup

Adam Keys — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:44:08 +0000

Shawn Blanc has been cataloging sweet Mac setups. Last week, he published a description of my own creative den. If you find this sort of thing as intriguing as I do, also check out The Setup.

Balmer =~ Tarkin

Adam Keys — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:26:52 +0000

Steve Ballmer:

Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances.

OK, maybe that’s Grand Moff Tarkin. Either way, I’m considering this my birthday present from John Gruber.

Super Mario motors

Adam Keys — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:01:22 +0000

Too cool - Super Mario stepper motor music:

Of course, an Arduino is involved.

LOST in-joke

Adam Keys — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:50:53 +0000

DUDE. Other phrases of common occurrence in LOST. (Via Heilemann.)

Even the Dharma Initiative has to advertise

Adam Keys — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:12:42 +0000

Wherein fun is poked Continue reading →

On feeds: application posture

Adam Keys — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:02:46 +0000

EventBox. It’s a great idea - roll all the social/distracting applications in your life into one app so you can close it when it comes time to focus. Yesterday, I decided to give it a go.

I quickly felt that perhaps it was not for me. I think it comes down to posture - how is the app intended to be used? I’ve been using Twitterific and NetNewsWire for quite some time (5+ years in the case of the latter), so let’s compare with their posture:

NetNewsWire is meant to scan feeds, collect the interesting stuff, read it, repeat
Twitterific is (beautifully) optimized for scan tweets, reply to a few, post occasionally
EventBox seems to encourage scanning things, handling the occasional item in-situ, and sending the interesting stuff to your browser

I’m not saying that EventBox’s posture is wrong; it’s just different. I’m going to stick with it for a few days and see how I feel about it.

Recreating that famous opening scene

Adam Keys — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:44:03 +0000

I would do the same thing. Brought to you by Alan Francis.