The Old New Thing

I mean, come on, these are laptops

September 5, 2007 Sep 5, 2007 09/5/07

Raymond Chen

Last year, Weekend America (co-hosted by former Seattleite Bill Radke—we miss you, Bill!) did a story on the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, which calls itself PLOrk. It's an interesting experiment, but computer music doesn't really move me. It's not the computer-ness that bugs me (I was fascinated by music played on Gameboys, after all...

Whenever there is a coordination problem, somebody says, "Hey, let's create a process!"

September 5, 2007 Sep 5, 2007 09/5/07

Raymond Chen

Whenever there is a coordination problem, somebody says, "Hey, let's create a process." Now you have two coordination problems. I see this over and over, and paradoxically the people who create a process for managing a coordinating problem come off looking like proactive problem-solvers who get ahead of the problem. They're the go-getters, ...

Volunteers help save fruit from home fruit trees from going to waste

September 4, 2007 Sep 4, 2007 09/4/07

Raymond Chen

It's the season where people with fruit trees in their yard are drowning in fresh fruit, be they pears, apples, plums, whatever. It's not long before you find yourself desperately looking for people to give it away to, having pretty much run out of things you can make plums into. This is where Community Fruit Tree Harvest steps in. (Coverage...

Belated follow-up: Mike Goodspaceguy Nelson running for public office, again

September 3, 2007 Sep 3, 2007 09/3/07

Raymond Chen

Undeterred by his failure to win a Senate seat last year, Mike Goodspaceguy Nelson once again ran for King County Council. I can't bring myself to listen to his appearance on the local public radio station (fortunately, he wasn't running in my district). You can read his and opponent Dow Constantine's candidate statements on the King ...