the best of the best of the best of the best

Speaking of that time of the year, lifehacker always comes through with the best lists around (or at least the most useful). This time they list the top 10 ways to tinker with the greatest piece of hardware existing in our universe: the human body.

Link. (via lifehacker’s twenty top 10s of 2007)

jet lagging

Wired lists 32 of the nation’s biggest and busiest airports as ranked by the U.S. Department of Transportation.The kick? M.I.A. and Fort Lauderdale International clock in at 24th and 20th respectively. For some reason, I found it surprising that FLL boasted over 7,000 more flights than MIA. All I know is that it’s gotta suck to be stuck in the airport around this time of the year. Hey, maybe those new Britto shirts will help move things along (although, it leaves you to wonder what the hell Ft. Laudy is doing about the slow-downs).

Other figures:

FLL

• Avg. departure delay: 58.3 mins.
• Departures delayed: 22.9%
• Avg. arrival delay: 53.2 mins.
• Arrivals delayed: 27.7%

MIA

• Avg. departure delay: 59.1 mins.
• Departures delayed: 26.3%
• Avg. arrival delay: 56.1 mins.
• Arrivals delayed: 28.8%

Link.

this is what a blogroll looks like

Critical Miami gets a blogroll. FINALLY!!!!

I’m not sure if Alesh sees what the big deal is with it, but it’s always given CM a je ne sais quoi factor of annoyance to me, far from a deal breaker but rather like a love bug hovering around your face in the middle of the summer. It bothers you, but it’s a love bug for God’s sake. Now we can move onto other peeves like how he uses then instead of than.

As for the image above, it’s a graphical illustration of Critical Miami, with the top cluster representing its brand new blogroll (I think). Click the picture (or here -run your mouse over the image) for a breakdown.

Want to see what your blog’s soul looks like?

Here’s the link.

stuck on beating a dead horse

The saga continues.

It’s been ten days since the blog known as Stuck-on-the-Palmetto met its demise, yet it seems SOTP simply refuses to fade away. Alesh’s blog keeps piling them up and Carlos Miller even made three sequels to his original post. In the end, Rick and Alex’s blog keeps doing what it was doing before the unplugging, bringing everybody in the SoFla blogosphere together. Still, this mess being what it is, I couldn’t help myself but to round up all this chaos and blog about it.

And so it comes to this. If you want a concise account of the events, you’d be better off with Wizbang, a.k.a. The Florida Masochist (outed!) than the Herald. After that you’re on your own. Just take your pick:

• ipanemic
• Miami Vision Blogorama (r.i.p.)
• bark bark woof woof
• Miami Nights
• penultimos dias
• Miami-Forum
• rakontur
• Eye on Miami
• superbee’s philosophy
• Habla Mierda
• Florida Blog
• Fanless
• transit miami
• Riptide 2.0
• The Daily Pulp
• cuba independiente
• Florida Progressive
• Michael Mayo
• Miami-Dems
• Tail Rank
• 26th Parallel
• discourse.net
• Infomaniac
• Mambi Watch
• Miami Catfish
• Miamism
• The Cuban Triangle
• Computer Colonics
• Man or Maniac
• Klotz as in Steve
• (last but not least) yours truly

Enough relevant links to start a SoFla blogroll of your own or at least expand on it.

blogging starter kit

In honor of the 10th anniversary of the web-log, I’m posting 10 tips for n00bies courtesy of Jorn Barger, the man who coined the term blog, otherwise known as a guy who still posts like it’s 1999. I’ve taken the liberty of doing a little editing updating some of his tips to better reflect the blogging experience in the year 2008.

1. A true weblog as envisioned in 1997 is a log of all the URLs you want to save or share. Nowadays they call this a blogroll, del.icio.us, or Robot Wisdom Auxiliary.
2. You can certainly include links to your original thoughts, posted elsewhere … but if you have more original posts than links, you probably need someone other than your mom to read it. Links will likely help you get an audience if the material is there.
3. If you spend a little time searching before you post, you can probably find your idea well articulated elsewhere already, specially since there are some 112 million blogs worldwide. Just remember, plagiarism in 1997 is still plagiarism in 2008.
   
4. Being truly yourself is always hipper than suppressing a link just because it’s not trendy enough. Your readers need to get to know you. If you have any readers whatsoever. Or at least readers that think you’re hip and/or trendy. (?)
5. You can always improve on the author’s own page title (or material), when describing a link (or material). (At least make sure your description is full enough that readers will recognize any pages they’ve already visited, without having to visit them again.)
6. Always include some adjective describing your own reaction to the linked page (great, archaic, imaginative, clever, etc.)
7. Credit the source that led you to it, so your readers have the option of “moving upstream.”
8. Warn about “gotchas” — weird formatting, flash!, not-firefox-friendly, registration required, extra-long files, etc. Don’t camouflage the main link among unneeded (or poorly labeled) auxiliary links.
9. Pick some favorite blogs, websites, authors or celebrity stalkers  and create a blogroll or a Google News feed that tracks new mentions of them, so other fans can follow them via your blog.
10. Re-post your favorite links from time to time, for people who missed them the first time.

Link. (flash! ads)

we blog therefore we are

NPR’s Morning Edition is running a week-long series in honor of the 10th anniversary of the birth of the weblog as we know it. On Monday they ran a clever take on the blogging experience in audio format, although not exactly what I would call an audioblog. They’ve also outlined a timeline for the life of the blog (going all the way back to when Al Gore invented the interwebs 40 years ago). Interesting stuff.

Link.

merry christmas

*Tips hat*

the mysterious world of waterboarding

A few days ago, someone took it upon himself to determine whether or not waterboarding is torture, and by “took it upon himself,” I mean self-infliction. Wow! Either utterly stupid or incredibly ballsy, but apparently this guy did his homework so I’ll give him credit for the latter. Politicians Mitt Romney take note.

To sum it up:

“So, is it torture?

I’ll put it this way. If I had the choice of being waterboarded by a third party or having my fingers smashed one at a time by a sledgehammer, I’d take the fingers, no question.

It’s horrible, terrible, inhuman torture. I can hardly imagine worse. I’d prefer permanent damage and disability to experiencing it again. I’d give up anything, say anything, do anything.”

Any questions?

Link. (via boing boing)

all good things do not have to come to an end

It’s always difficult to see something with which you’ve grown familiar, and has become as habitual as morning coffee, be no more. That day has come.

After what he would call a rough week, Rick, the creator of Stuck on the Palmetto, did what he had to do and untied that knot that held a budding South Florida blogosphere together. Yes, both supporters and antagonists, and that was the beauty of it. But these are the risks of operating such a mechanism and running it smoothly. The internets can be treacherous territory.

Now we’re faced with the dilemma of seeking new battlegrounds (at least one with a decent South Florida blogroll). I don’t think it will be left solely up to someone to step up, rather it will be more of a viscerally collaborative effort.

Here’s to a fond farewell for SOTP, you are certainly being missed by many, and although gone, I’m sure that Rick and Alex still have plenty left to say.

this posting is not filtered.

A couple of things.

I’m not the biggest T.V. watcher, but whatever watching I do, it mostly happens around late night. Normally it’s something along the lines of MMA repeats, Family Guy, or Law and Order reruns (o.k. throw a little Monk and Psych in there for the hell of it); if you’re not getting by now, I’m not big on the late night circuit either (although I do think Letterman >>> Leno). Most of the time the stuff serves as background noise.

I gotta say though, Dennis Miller’s Sports Unfiltered on the Versus Network (apparently not everybody gets it; Tuesdays or Wednesdays at 10 p.m.) is something to post about. My guess is that it helps if you’re into sports and humor (notice that no “or” is included in that statement). And also, that you get Dennis Miller humor.

This is the second show I catch, although I’m sure it helped that they featured a few MMA fighters and that he had “extensive” Miami Dolphin coverage (about 2 jokes; 2 extensive jokes). I wouldn’t call it background noise. I’ve always thought he’s a funny guy. His show tonight focused on tough guys… his major downfall was not featuring Tim Tebow.

Basically, I’m not chalking this up to the strike -viewers be forewarned.