Click here If you used an IBM PC in the 1980s — if you used one a lot — you came to know, and perhaps love, the feel of the old IBM keyboards. They were solid. The keys moved. They clicked. Over time, as every aspect of PC manufacturing faced the grim reaper of cost-cutting, […]

Is there an analogy in the house? People who create software are forever trying to explain their somewhat obscure disipline by offering friendly analogies. The most common one is that making software is like building buildings. Recently there's been some discussion of this notion, including an article on Kuro5hin suggesting that “the software construction analogy […]

No, you're wrong! And I can prove it!. The National Priorities Project Database provides a dynamic, numbers and graphs comparison of federal and state spending from 1983 to today. Compare labor costs in Louisiana to military spending in Maine, or infectious disease spending in Idaho to hunger in Hawaii. For the political-thread MeFier in your […]

Bad Reads: A Survey. …So draw near, gentle reader, as 50 leading lights on the literary, political, opinion-forming and media scene identify their worst reading experiences, confess their hatred of global superstars from Shakespeare to the authors of the Bible, and administer a good kicking to victims across the literary spectrum, from Jacques Derrida to […]

Interconnection.org. Weaving a web of support around the globe. This site matches web designer volunteers with non-profits around the world. Seems like a good way to bulk up a portfolio while making a difference. [MetaFilter] it does seem like a great idea, but i wonder if it will put some people who work on websites […]

Reviews. Interesting remark in this Dan Dennett review of Tom Nagel's Other Minds:In an informal survey, I have been asking philosophers a slightly different question recently, and will be pleased to field further answers in response to this review: Which would… [Matthew Yglesias] oh what a question this poses….. i can't think of a genuine […]

“Consumer Protection”: Statement by AHA/OAH Joint Committee on Part-Time and Adjunct Employment. “Everyone in the historical profession has a stake in ameliorating this situation. It is important to halt the erosion of tenure track positions, and where possible to increase them. It is equally important to improve the working conditions and lives… [Invisible Adjunct] this […]

just what everyone needs, i think, yes, everyone needs stuffed giant microbes from dave barry's blog

BBC's weekly news quiz. I hadn't seen this before, but the BBC offers a weekly world news quiz. And they mean world. If you're limiting your news intake to Fox News, or even the NY Times, you might not be able to answer all the questions correctly. My showing was a pathetic 2 for 7. […]

Krispy Kraziness. I went into a Krispy Kreme for the first time the other day. Every time I go by the place… [Kieran Healy's Weblog] in which he says: a single krispy creme doughnut machine produces more calories in an hour than the whole of 17th-century Britain could in a year which isn't entirely believable, […]