Relaunching a web app, listje

July 6, 2011

listje, web app

[caption id="attachment_1154" align="alignleft" width="318" caption="The edit view. Note that you can just type things in instead of entering them one by one."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1153" align="alignleft" width="322" caption="The interactive checklist interface. You can tap to check off, and hide check items if you like, with a snazzy animation."][/caption] I’ve actually never written a blog post about this before, but over the past few months I’ve been working on very simple shopping list app in PHP and JavaScript, called listje.

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How to serve independent creatives?

July 5, 2011

biz monkey, creativity, creators, entrepreneurship, independent

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="400" caption=" "][/caption] I’ve been thinking a lot lately about people I know who are independent artisans, inventors and makers. For example, take 90% of the people who sell on Etsy, or lots of the people you see who run small crafts shops, or people who have portfolios on services like Carbonmade. There are and lots of design blogs that showcase these people’s work, and magazines like Craft and Make that cater to them.

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Can you open source a business plan?

July 3, 2011

business plans, open source

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="392" caption="The buttonwood tree, where the NYSE started 220 years ago"][/caption] I wonder whether a business plan could itself be open-source, and by extension whether you could use a Wikipedia mass-participation model to create / refine a viable business plan. What would the advantages and disadvantages be? Open source business plans So I guess the idea would be that you take x weeks, write out a business plan for your idea including all the information that anyone else would need in order to execute it (finance, operations, marketing), and then release it to the world.

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Printing a replacement part... on your printer

July 3, 2011

3d printing, reprap

http://youtu.be/AHr-iC93PPI My friend Chris Thompson just posted this video in which his 3D printer is printing a replacement part for itself… while the very part which he is trying to replace is about to fail. It really points to some of the more interesting implications of a do-it-yourself 3D printer. From a price point and ability-to-spread perspective, a DIY 3D printer really has to be focused on printing as much of itself as possible.

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Leftover magic

June 28, 2011

avocadoes, buttercream, eggs

[caption id="attachment_1205" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Eggs benedict with the soup in place of hollandaise."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1204" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="The soup."][/caption] I’ve blogged before about this thick, almost unsettingly rich avocado soup. It’s delicious, and not that hard to make, but it’s difficult to consume it all within a reasonable time since the flavor is not very complex - I guess what I’m saying is that it gets a little boring. Repurposing is helpful.

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Guinness-flavored marshmallows

June 28, 2011

guinness, marshmallows

[caption id="attachment_1194" align="alignleft" width="336" caption="The label, designed by yours truly."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1190" align="alignleft" width="325" caption="Boiling the marshmallow mixture with Guinness syrup."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1195" align="alignleft" width="325" caption="Ready for distribution. Each label is attached to a bag with 3 or 4 small marshmallows in it."][/caption] Back when I wrote about participating in the homebrew competition with my friend David, I briefly mentioned some Guinness-flavored marshmallows that I made. I wanted to talk a little more about them, and the process of designing and producing them.

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Mussels steamed in white wine and adventures with saffron

June 26, 2011

mussels, parsley, saffron, tomatoes, white wine

[caption id="attachment_1071" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Keeping the mussels alive overnight: damp cloth, bags of ice"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1072" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Saffron threads."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1073" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Steamed mussels!"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1074" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Served in broth."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1077" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="This bread needs no explanation."][/caption] Who hasn’t had a deeply satisfying dish of moules frites? Or mussels in some other context? If you haven’t, go do that now and come back and read this posting later.

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A stock market for cocktails

June 23, 2011

cocktails, stock market

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Whole Foods, 2017"][/caption] Sometimes the most interesting things are right in front of you. Earlier today, I was walking past a local bar and I noticed a sign for the “drink exchange” over the door. I’ve walked by this bar many times before and I’d never seen that sign. What was really interesting was the logo, which is a ticker tape coming out of a martini glass.

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Thinking more about subconscious info processing

June 19, 2011

preparation, subconscious

I was just reading this (actually rather touching) post by Fred Wilson on subconscious problem-solving. Basically, Fred talks about an experience that many have had: working on a problem slowly over time seems to allow your brain to work more efficiently, and come up with better solutions, than if you try to cram in all the work at the end. Fred attributes this to “subconscious information processing”; your brain keeps working on a problem even when you’re not thinking about it.

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Smörgåsbord!

June 18, 2011

dill, herring, ikea, lingonberries, mallomars, potatoes, rollmops, salmon, scandinavia, smörgåsbord

[caption id="attachment_1094" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Smorgasbord plate."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1095" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="The savory table."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1092" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="The sweet table!"][/caption] While shopping at IKEA a couple months ago, we saw a sign advertising their upcoming smörgåsbord (a smörgåsbord, in case you don’t know, is basically a giant Swedish buffet). If you’ve ever been to the IKEA restaurant, you know that it’s pretty good for the price, and this offering was about ten bucks for all-you-can-eat delicious Scandinavian food.

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