Things That Scare Lauren Leto

betaworks: Dots - a game about connecting

Wed, 01 May 2013 12:46:49 -0400

betaworks: Dots - a game about connecting:

About 3 months ago, Patrick Moberg started experimenting with various iOS interaction designs as part of the hacker in residence program. We didn’t set out to build a game, but quickly realized there’s a desire for well designed mobile entertainment so that’s where we focussed. Patrick worked…

my girl

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:27:09 -0400

my girl

Giphy: The First Six Weeks

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:15:39 -0400

Giphy: The First Six Weeks:

giphy:

On a Friday afternoon, February 1st, Alex Chung and I pushed Giphy live. After a month of weekends cobbling together a prototype, we planned to share the site with a dozen folks, solicit feedback, and see if the idea merited any more of our time.

A few Twitter mentions and within an hour, the…

Go Jace and Alex! (and Giphy)

grantcuster: A day late for his would-be 51st birthday it’s...

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:08:26 -0500

grantcuster:

A day late for his would-be 51st birthday it’s probably time I finally blog about my treatment of David Foster Wallace’s Host. The detailed explanation is available on site but wrapped up in the project is a long-held affection for Wallace, a curiosity about the still underexplored possibilities for long-form text on the internet and a desire to just try some stuff.

There are four different footnote options to explore and I’d love to hear peoples’ thoughts on their favorites, their most hated, or an option they would have liked to see instead.

Someday there’ll be a longer post on skeumorphism, footnotes vs. hyperlinks, physical vs. digital possibilities, and maybe content geography, but, for now, this.

Chris Beck Tunes on SoundCloud

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:13:29 -0500

Chris Beck Tunes on SoundCloud:

Music morning.

Video Games (Lana Del Rey) by Small Dream Ada (by SmallDreamAda)

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:07:02 -0500

Video Games (Lana Del Rey) by Small Dream Ada (by SmallDreamAda)

Books Read in December, January

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:04:35 -0500

December

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

The same person who recommended I read Risk Pool (blah) recommended Edgar Sawtelle around the same time (years ago). This was one of the best books I’ve read in years.

Girls in White Dresses

Read while at airport, fine airport reading. Wouldn’t recommend.

U and I

A better read about being a writer than On Writing. Fell in love with Baker.

On Writing

I love King, I’m a huge fan of The Dark Tower series but I didn’t get much out of this. I think so many blog posts, etc have recycled/summarized his tips that I didn’t need to read the book.

January

How to Be A Woman

Not as great as people said it would be, some moments of sudden clarity, she struck a few profound thoughts in my head but her writing style (I hate when authors use all caps) bothered me.

The Sluts

Told through reviews/entries on a message board, read the entire thing in one sitting, great, gave me nightmares for a week.

Tiny, Beautiful Things

I’m an idiot and for some reason assumed the advice would be different than what I’ve already seen on The Rumpus.

Girl, Gone

Oh, the ending is so creepy and made me so angry.

Seating Arrangements

Was frightened it would be another Girls in White Dresses, it wasn’t - it was great. The plot was obvious and characters stereotypical except for small, wonderful quirks that kept the story fascinating and horridly realistic.

Beautiful Ruins

I hated The Financial Lives of Poets, loved this book. Walter surprised me. Found myself crying on the subway while reading the end.

Currently

Rabbit, Run

Picked it up during U and I, can’t get past his perfect metaphors, to the point that it becomes a distraction from the narrative. Kinda don’t love it?

Tenth of December

Saunders is great, all his character voices sound the same, bothers me.

Updates. My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner. Eat while warm,...

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:23:16 -0500

Updates.

My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner. Eat while warm, burn your tongue, worth it.

Since I’m no longer cataloguing books I’ve read for Judging, I figure I should go back to blogging them, kinda.

November reads

Plan B

Read on plane to Arizona, regretted the time spent reading it. Does Jonathan Tropper have an obsession with his past? The only book I’ve also read of his was The Book of Joe but it again focused on hometown friends, fame, and attempts to reconnect with the past.

The Age of Miracles

Read on plane back from Arizona, slightly less regretted time spent reading it than Plan B. Couldn’t get rumors of her advance out of my head, felt like publishers threw money at it hoping it’d be a phenomenon like Room, instead was more like The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake; fascinating in theory, underdeveloped plot.

Of Human Bondage

This book has been on my shelf for over three years. I’m happy I finally read it. I’m in love with Mildred. I can’t get Hayward out of my mind, particularly when dealing with similar, real-life characters. I would’ve supported Philip smothering his uncle but he was the unluckiest man in the world so it probably wouldn’t have turned out well. Reminded me of Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky.

The Year of Magical Thinking

A present from co-workers Jake and Nick, their answer to my claim of ‘no good memoirs’. It was good. I cried. I won’t approach Blue Nights.

Balthazar

I (re)read the Alexandria Quartet whenever I hate love.

Currently reading

The Risk Pool

Richard Russo is a good author that I can say nothing interesting about - his book was on my shelf, I’m reading it, I’m enjoying, I won’t regret the time spent reading it, but I’ll put it down after finishing and never think of the book again.

The Turn of the Screw

The Master (not the movie, Toibin’s book) made me fall in love with Henry James. Currently reading this on my commute, love free ebooks on Kindle. Am only 20 of those little epages into the story, so nothing to say yet.

Find out why

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 13:53:18 -0500

Find out why

monday emails

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:52:00 -0500

Current status. 26.

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:21:08 -0400

Current status. 26.

What Twitter Cards Will Do For Twitter

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:39:00 -0400

A while back (before the recent API controversy) I tweeted, “Twitter should buy IFTTT”. A lot of people replied, some agreeing and others not as much.

The trouble with Twitter is that they can’t touch the stream. No money making schemes can be baked into innovation in design, because the design can’t fundamentally change. All things serve the stream (yes, Dark Tower reference). Therefore, I presumed it’d be actions inside of and away from the stream that Twitter would monetize - ’recipes’ for Favorites, RT, links tweeted with certain hashtags, clickthroughs, could be partnerships and premium features.

Instead, they’ve created Twitter cards. The idea with Twitter cards is that:

it is data that doesn’t necessarily have to be included in your tweet. It can be anything related to the URL that is linked to, and can even include semi-personalized information.

via Way of the Duck

So far, these Twitter cards have been used to give a small image alongside the first sentence of an article for media properties. For photos, it’s basically the photo.

At Findings, we’ve manipulated it to show your post on Findings, but the link in the tweet leads people back to the source. In the Twitter dialogue box, you can input anything. So, your tweets can appear like this

Clicking the link takes the user straight to the article on Esquire. We decided the source is more important than the post, since the entirety of the post is contained in the tweet already.

Future plans for the Twitter cards include

Before Twitter cards, every opportunity to tweet from an app was created to be as self-serving to that app as possible. It’s always boring.

The new Hosu lounge by Patricia Urquiola is on sale on @Fab for just a few more fabulous days: http://fab.com/sale/11775/

With Twitter cards, Fab could inject a decently sized photo of the product along with the URL and potentially sell the product inside of the stream. This is all in the expanded view so the sanctity of the stream is still saved. Uninterested? Keep skimming.

Is this going to make Twitter money? Making buying easier increases likelihood of purchase. We all know this. Producers especially know this. But in order for that amount of money to be significant, Twitter has to become the average user’s default browser. As in, I want tickets to Argo, so I visit Argo’s Twitter account to buy them. This is not likely to happen, Fandango and other ticket services have better options than Twitter possibly could place into a card. But, Twitter is betting on the same thing that’s worked for them forever, the reason Twitter *does* work - serendipity.

Serendipity is the reason you keep checking the stream, even when there’s nothing timely occurring to check on. Sudden opportunities to network/socialize, surprising reads, jokes; this is why you open the Twitter app outside of work.

So, stumbling across a promotion in my stream for tickets to see Argo at Union Square Cinemas on Twitter and being able to buy it with one-click? That might work.

farahhhh: imperfectwriting: I went to the mall, and a little...

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:45:49 -0400

farahhhh:

imperfectwriting:

I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

My name is Ela. I am seventeen years old. I am not Muslim, but my friend told me about her friend being discriminated against for wearing a hijab. So I decided to see the discrimination firsthand to get a better understanding of what Muslim women go through.

My friend and I pinned scarves around our heads, and then we went to the mall. Normally, vendors try to get us to buy things and ask us to sample a snack. Clerks usually ask us if we need help, tell us about sales, and smile at us. Not today. People, including vendors, clerks, and other shoppers, wouldn’t look at us. They didn’t talk to us. They acted like we didn’t exist. They didn’t want to be caught staring at us, so they didn’t look at all.

And then, in one store, a girl (who looked about four years old) asked her mom if my friend and I were terrorists. She wasn’t trying to be mean or anything. I don’t even think she could have grasped the idea of prejudice. However, her mother’s response is one I can never forgive or forget. The mother hushed her child, glared at me, and then took her daughter by the hand and led her out of the store.

All that because I put a scarf on my head. Just like that, a mother taught her little girl that being Muslim was evil. It didn’t matter that I was a nice person. All that mattered was that I looked different. That little girl may grow up and teach her children the same thing.

This experiment gave me a huge wakeup call. It lasted for only a few hours, so I can’t even begin to imagine how much prejudice Muslim girls go through every day. It reminded me of something that many people know but rarely remember: the women in hijabs are people, just like all those women out there who aren’t Muslim.

People of Tumblr, please help me spread this message. Treat Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Taoists, etc., exactly the way you want to be treated, regardless of what they’re wearing or not wearing, no exceptions. Reblog this. Tell your friends. I don’t know that the world will ever totally wipe out prejudice, but we can try, one blog at a time.

this is so perfect in absolutely every single way.

a white girl put on a hijab and experienced discrimination. suddenly the tumblr-verse erupts in awareness. of course.

Why Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are sending kids to ER via...

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:29:35 -0400

Why Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are sending kids to ER via Findings.

just some new facts for your thursday.

fndgs: Letters of Note: Sorrow passes and we remain via...

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:58:41 -0400

fndgs:

Letters of Note: Sorrow passes and we remain via Findings.

pretty new template on findings

Findings Blog: 10th Most Clipped Article on Findings

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:43:03 -0400

Findings Blog: 10th Most Clipped Article on Findings:

fndgs:

Over the next two weeks we’re running down the 10 most popular articles on Findings!

In the #10 spot is: The Tweaker, The real genius of Steve Jobs.

Malcolm Gladwell - the scientist of anecdotal evidence - wrote this piece for the New Yorker, declaring Jobs’s indecisive and stubborn nature…

I wrote a blog post on Findings that was supposed to be all cheery and nice then I got mean.

Miley Cyrus haircut shocker: Short hair isn’t a cry for help via...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 14:19:43 -0400

Miley Cyrus haircut shocker: Short hair isn’t a cry for help via Findings.

Wait, what.

Tap through to read, interface inspired by Robin Sloan’s...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:44:41 -0400

Tap through to read, interface inspired by Robin Sloan’s Fish essay.

Judging a Book by Its Lover is out today. Lots of crazy facts...

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:53:51 -0400

Judging a Book by Its Lover is out today. Lots of crazy facts such as:

Kurt Vonnegut’s nickname in high school was “snarf”. A snarf was someone who smelled girls’ bicycle seats.
Ayn Rand had a six foot tall dollar sign made of flowers next to her casket at her funeral.
Rielle Hunter is the inspiration for a character raped by Patrick Bateman in American Psycho)
The line Daisy says in Great Gasby about her daughter, “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool” - that was taken almost word from word from a recording F. Scott had of Zelda, drugged after giving birth to their daughter.

normal work day scene.

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:40:22 -0400

normal work day scene.