Archive for June, 2007

Links for 2007-06-30

Saturday, June 30th, 2007

Neat new Google Maps feature

Friday, June 29th, 2007

Maps don’t always give you the best known route to a destination. Now you can tell Google Maps what alternate route you want to take simply by dragging the blue line that indicates directions to another road. Here’s my rerouting of an Evanston-Chicago route that maps always tell you to do by going out to the highway, which is not necessarily the most efficient. (Of course, in that case, you could also just click on the “Avoid highways” button in the upper-left corner, but that still doesn’t give you the best route.) Another change seems to be that clicking on “Link to this page” now gives you a highlighted link right below it ready to be copied.

I understand that some other maps may have already had this feature. But I don’t think other maps are nearly as user-friendly as Google Maps so this is good news. Also, for those not following developments in this realm, the service also has My Maps now, which means that you can create maps with various markers, save them, and share them with others. This is very useful when numerous people ask you for touristy suggestions about the same place over and over again. You have to have a Google Account to use My Maps. Just click on the My Maps tab right below the Google Maps logo.

[thanks]

Taking care of Turquoise

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

I don’t seem to be doing too well playing rock, paper, scissors over on Facebook so I’ve decided to focus my energies on taking care of my adopted turtle Turquoise. It’s good prepartion for when I’ll get a real turtle likely in the near future (unlike some turtle plagiarists, it’s a plan I’ve had for a while).

Unfortunately, you can only earn munny to feed your pet by having your pet pet by someone else or petting other people’s pets. (That’s not as hard to say three times fast as it may seem at first read…) And it turns out that despite having over 150 friends on Facebook, only three of them have (fluff)Friends, one because I asked him this morning. So this is a request that if we are linked on Facebook (or should be since we know each other) then can you please come over and show Turquoise some affection? Thanks!

Anyone wondering why I would spend time on Facebook has to understand that it is imperative for the legitimacy of my research to familiarize myself with these services. It’s a sacrifice, but all in the name of science.

I should add that I have been thinking about a more substantive post concerning Facebook and hope to get around to it one of these days. Lots going on there, it is spreading like wildfire way past college students, and there are some understandable reasons for that. More later. It’s time to check in on Turquoise now.

Links for 2007-06-28

Thursday, June 28th, 2007

Overheard

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

“We should include vinyl.”
“Yes, LPs, that’s a good idea.”
“Hmm.. What is that? Do you mean records?”
“Yes.”

Links for 2007-06-27

Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-26

Tuesday, June 26th, 2007

I’d prefer an ordinary afternoon…

Monday, June 25th, 2007

Comparing the hills during and after the fire

Just this morning I was contemplating how horrible it must be for the people who suddenly lost their homes in the fire around Lake Tahoe. By the afternoon I was watching firefighters from my office window battle flames on Stanford’s hills.

I was sitting at my desk already unable to work having just received word about the death of Peter Marris, Professor Emeritus of Urban Planning at UCLA, dear husband of Dolores Hayden who was a fellow Fellow at CASBS this year. The two of them had to end their year at the Center early, because Peter was sick, but I don’t think any of us expected things to escalate so quickly.

Unable to concentrate on work, I turned around to look at the beautiful view from my office. I spotted some big red flames. Soon I realized that a large area around it was completely black with smoke and flames on the periphery. Eventually sirens and helicopter appeared, as did firefighters. Some of the smoke was now white not just black, apparently a good sign. But not all the black smoke disappeared and an hour later there was still much activity. I went to an event and by the time I got back to my office, another hillside was completely black (see the difference in the left area of the two photos above).

How quickly things can change.

Links for 2007-06-25

Monday, June 25th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-23

Saturday, June 23rd, 2007

Links for 2007-06-21

Thursday, June 21st, 2007

Links for 2007-06-20

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-19

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-17

Sunday, June 17th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-16

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-14

Thursday, June 14th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-13

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-12

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-11

Monday, June 11th, 2007

Links for 2007-06-10

Sunday, June 10th, 2007