BlogOfBenglert

Stuff I will buy this co-op cycle

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:41:23 -0500

One of these, because my employee discount on it is insane.

A new video card and display for the Mac Pro, also using my fabulous employee discount.

A new turntable so I can actually listen to my records that I haven’t touched since the Technics died on the way back from NYC.

Stuff I will not buy this co-op cycle

Anything else. There, I’ve committed to it publicly. No speakers, no sound cards or audio interfaces, no microphones.

seen on Gearslutz (of course)

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:05:00 -0500

seen on Gearslutz (of course)

"These are the boys who suck up to the boss’s boss. They’re backslappers. These are the girls who beg..."

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:26:25 -0500

“These are the boys who suck up to the boss’s boss. They’re backslappers. These are the girls who beg you to come out for drinks so they can talk about the tortures of their latest job offers…They’re often imperious (but not always; sometimes they disguise their narcissism as insecurity, to be manipulative). Really, they lack fear. They are likely sociopaths. They are identifiable because, if you stop and look, you’ll realize it is unfathomable to you that this person who actually does nothing but complain in the office, and who goes out to lunch every day for hours, should be getting these opportunities. Oh, should I or shouldn’t I take one of these exciting new jobs that I just can’t choose between! they’ll ask you. And because you’re a good person, you’ll squish down your resentment and annoyance, because you think those feelings make you a bad person. In normal circumstances, you’d be right to do so. (And you should!) But not with these little monsters. Because if you think you feel weird now, just wait until you read about their $500,000 book deal. Or their appointment as the editor in chief of whatever…The soulless careerists, though: they get where they are because social training doesn’t allow us to stop them. They depend upon our unwillingness to say “bad things” about people. But if you don’t, who will?”

- Some Advice for Young People | The Awl

I could have written this very article, and if I had, it would have been subtitled “Why I Left San Francisco.” The place is practically founded on an unwillingness to call bullshit.
(via buzz)
Then again, New York is founded on saying “no, who the hell do you think you are? Do you know who I am?” to everything, so neither is perfect.

"Seriously, if you want to completely overload yourself with work, just spend a week flying first..."

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:30:26 -0500

“Seriously, if you want to completely overload yourself with work, just spend a week flying first class between Los Angeles and New York.”

- The Chamonix Branch Office

Can do, boss.

Intellectual fatigue

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:51:44 -0500

Every cute, colorful little bubble on your phone’s home screen is a room (with hardwood floor and concrete ceiling) full of young men and women with Cinema Displays on IKEA desks sitting in fancy chairs who leverage (and often contribute to) the work of thousands of volunteers spread out all over the world, and every two weeks someone who did what they’re doing long ago and got rich from it and wants them to succeed pays them enough to cover their living expenses in their pricey major city of choice and save a little away, too.

It’s a very nice machine, all told. And in just a few more years I get to be a cog in it. But sometimes it feels like they’re all the same (“Millions of users! Hard problems! Free dinner!”) and that it almost doesn’t matter which one you pick. Put stuff on github, ooze some passion into an email, and you’re pretty much in. Vest, rinse, repeat.

I think I just need to stop reading startup job postings for a while (damn you, Hacker News) or at least go spend some time with some BigCo job postings to remind myself how much more depressing those can be. I’m definitely going to stop watching TechCrunch Cribs, too.

NAZIS FROM THE MOOOOOOOOON This is going to rock so hard. Fuck...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:10:49 -0500

NAZIS FROM THE MOOOOOOOOON

This is going to rock so hard. Fuck yeah, independently financed science fiction!

Disgustingly racist anti-Asian Michigan campaign

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:12 -0500

Disgustingly racist anti-Asian Michigan campaign:

noelduan:

The 30-second ad opens with the sound of a gong and shows the Asian woman riding a bike on a narrow path lined by rice paddies.

Stopping her bike, the woman smiles into the camera and says, “Thank you, Michigan Senator Debbie Spenditnow. Debbie spends so much American money. You borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spenditnow.”

The scene shifts to Hoekstra, who says, “I think this race is between Debbie Spenditnow and Pete Spenditnot.”

The website… I’m appalled. In 1982, Chinese-American and Detroit-resident Vincent Chin was beaten to death by two unemployed autoworkers who were angry about competition from Japan. Have you forgotten, Hoekstra?

Pretty unbelievable.

Photo

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:58:29 -0500

"Brogrammers are mostly Silicon Valley / Harvard type douchebags who got into programming...."

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:53:32 -0500

“Brogrammers are mostly Silicon Valley / Harvard type douchebags who got into programming. YCombinator drop outs. Years of experience in managed and web languages, but who have no idea how to setup a build system nor work in native code.”

- Zynga AmA

NATVE CODE. LEARN IT, USE IT, LOVE IT.*

*unless you’re happy forever writing code that runs slower than mine. In which case, enjoy your virtual “machine.”

Photo

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:21:36 -0500

My newest computer accessory. firetaildiaries: Makana’s...

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 15:30:35 -0500

My newest computer accessory.

firetaildiaries:

Makana’s favorite spot. She likes to talk to me and listen to the other birds outside through the open window.

Photo

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:45:38 -0500

Pretty cute. nerdvalentine: Black Silicone Cassette Tape iPhone...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:10:44 -0500

Pretty cute.

nerdvalentine:

Black Silicone Cassette Tape iPhone 4 Case

_: That feeling of exhausted emptiness, when you’re high on adrenaline...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:58:48 -0500

_: That feeling of exhausted emptiness, when you’re high on adrenaline...:

Haven’t had this in a while, and I miss it. I need to work on something BIG.

inkless-pen:

That feeling of exhausted emptiness, when you’re high on adrenaline and you can’t imagine its over, when you the clapping and bright lights, the smiles and handshakes finish and you’re exiting a building you’ll never again enter - it all feels like a dream, a sprint, a crazy production where…

Ben: this made me think of you

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:54:00 -0500

2:09:55 PM Ben: this made me think of you
2:09:56 PM Ben: http://www.davidslog.com/12967343392/chris-next-book-by-peter
2:23:12 PM Adam A: rofl
2:23:23 PM Adam A: funny i would've said the same thing to you

I actually just use iCloud now, but the sentiment stands.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:40:44 -0500

I actually just use iCloud now, but the sentiment stands.

A slightly meandering video with potentially life-changing...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:43:32 -0500

A slightly meandering video with potentially life-changing implications. Well worth your 12 minutes.

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether: Dave Grohl, RuPaul and Kurt...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:22:01 -0500

awesomepeoplehangingouttogether:

Dave Grohl, RuPaul and Kurt Cobain

This is just… I don’t even…

Wat.

jumiyori: When I was in high school, all I wanted was to get out of San Jose. I...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:12:21 -0500

jumiyori: When I was in high school, all I wanted was to get out of San Jose. I...:

jumiyori:

When I was in high school, all I wanted was to get out of San Jose. I wanted time to pass, so I could escape into this future that I glamorized in my head. I hated South Bay’s suburban sprawl, its listless atmosphere, and the empty highways awash with blinding sunlight in the afternoons.

The future has not turned out to be all that glamorous, but at the end of the day leaving was the right thing to do. I could have gone to school right over the hill, but in leaving I got to know more of our enormous country, and some awesome people that I wouldn’t trade for anyone.

I am enjoying some time back home though, and San Francisco is on the short list of places to move after graduation.

Wow, they must be serious if they bought a SuperBowl...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:44:00 -0500

Wow, they must be serious if they bought a SuperBowl commercial.

(It’s really back, pinch me. This is bigger than Arrested Development. On par with Firefly if that ever returned.)