And the highest paid public employee in your state is…
Just be you, Vermont.
We’re guessing that this map, when viewed by anyone with a negative, apathetic, or in-perspective attitude towards sports, is probably a good way to spike your blood pressure. Still, nice to see that as in so many ways, Vermont is an island unto itself.
[video]
Yahoo Board to Meet Sunday to Consider $1.1B, All-Cash Deal for Tumblr
TL; DR: Yahoo! wants to spend money ruining Tumblr too.
Slogans are strange things. Powerful, strange things.
They do a good job of summing up the joie de vivre of a moment, or a cultural attitude, or in the case of a local tragedy, a mood.
We’re all still reeling from the events of just one month ago, and “Boston Strong” still gets thrown around a lot, so that makes sense.
But there’s a difference between responsiveness to a community’s needs, and straight-up exploitation, and “Boston Strong” now leans really closely toward the latter.
Look, I get that people wanna help out and be supportive, I really get it. It’s just somewhat difficult to not become cynical about the motivation for so much Boston Strong swag.
And while I’m sure the official Boston Strong Sam Adams beer is delicious and the official Boston Strong Yankee Candle’s cinnamon/spice/tea aroma is delightful and it’s great that some portion of the money you spend on those products will end up with a charity eventually, it’s all just a bit, uh, intense. Especially when some companies try to trademark the phrase “Boston Strong” regardless if they have charitable intentions or not.
Besides, while The One Fund (which actually is a charity that actually raises money for bombing victims and their families) is successful at fundraising, apparently other charitable organizations are feeling the pinch.
I’m not sure what it suggests, but The One Fund doesn’t use the phrase “Boston Strong” on its website, for what it’s worth.
Also: Didn’t know about it until after the comic was done — there’s a Boston Strong Coffee, too.
Hmm.
EDIT: The Brookline TAB.
“Alright, let’s fucking do this”
"It’s a romance novel name." -
Great profile of Reed Hastings by Ashlee Vance for Bloomberg Businessweek. Three standouts:
The master copies of all the shows and movies available to Netflix take up 3.14 petabytes of storage space. (In comparison, Facebook uses about 1.5 petabytes to store about 10 billion photos.) Hollywood studios used to send individual films and shows to Netflix on a disc or thumb drive; now they use a Netflix system called Backlot to send encrypted files via the Internet. Netflix then compresses the files and creates more than 100 different versions, each tuned for the varying bandwidth, device, and language needs of its customers. (An hour of video for the iPhone would be about 150 megabytes.) This compressed catalog comes to about 2.75 petabytes.
Wow — also, Pi.
And:
Netflix began to experiment with cloud services from Amazon and Microsoft, where Hastings served as a board member. In 2009 he bet his company’s future on Amazon. Up to that point, nothing the size of Netflix had placed so much of its crucial technology on Amazon’s systems. Hastings sent an e-mail to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announcing his plans. “I asked him if he was comfortable with that idea,” Hastings says. “If not, there was no point going forward.” Bezos gave the go-ahead.
That seems like a pretty large diss of a company where he’s a board member — especially when you consider that Amazon is now a very direct rival.
And finally, the best for last:
Qwikster was a fiasco, but far less threatening than a debacle that preceded it. In August 2008, Netflix’s technology infrastructure melted down. This was when the company was still known for DVDs-by-mail, and for three days it could not send discs because a crucial Oracle database kept malfunctioning. Reporters and customers took notice. Netflix traced the problem to an expensive, third-party storage system that went haywire after a software update. The incident still annoys Hastings. When the subject comes up in the watchtower, Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt, who’s also gathered at the table, suggests they not mention the storage-system vendor by name. Hastings responds, “Let IBM have it, baby.” (An IBM spokesman declined to comment.)
At least I know I can get my TNG fix anytime.
The Brookline TAB is running Wicked Local’s Right of Way series, all about the current relationship between car drivers and bicyclists in greater Boston, including efforts to make Brookline more bike-friendly. It’s totally worth a look, regardless if you pedal to work or not.
As an aside, I pretty much use my car to get around, and rarely bike. But I side with bicyclists on safety issues.
I kind of assume there are bad bicyclists who are stupid and take chances, just like there are drivers who do the same thing.
But let’s face it: drivers have two tons of steel around them in case they screw up; bicyclists have those cannonball helmets and, uh, spandex.
So it’s not exactly a fair comparison, even when a cyclist seemingly can outrun your car while you’re taping him/her with a dash cam. (FYI: s/he can’t, chill, but if it bothers you, drive on a highway, etc.).
Making roads safer for bicyclists is good for everybody: bicyclists can get to work and back without getting hurt or worse, while drivers can devote even less time paying attention to everything around them.
Calvin and Hobbes by Skottie Young
New head canon: Calvin and Hobbes never went back home after disappearing into the woods that last time. They walk the earth, solving crimes together and getting in zany adventures. They didnt need anyone and everything was perfect. Thank you, Skottie.
Artist: DeviantArt / Tumblr
For this week’s Brookline TAB, a look back at the Maelstrom of Epic Political Awesome that was Tuesday’s primaries for the Senate special election.
In case you weren’t one of the roughly five voters who cast a ballot earlier this week, the general election is set for June 25.
If you find yourselves in the Waltham area this weekend, consider registering for the Moody Street 5K on Sunday, May 5. The race/walk takes you through some of the prettier parts of town, but if you don’t feel like the exercise, consider volunteering instead.
Money collected goes to support local schools, plus, you know, the event ends near a bar that happens to help sponsor the event. So you can help grow the local economy, too.
So all of this is very socially responsible, see? That’s what I’m saying. Hit them up on Facebook.