Links from September 2011

Links for Thursday 1 September 2011
Sass - Syntactically Awesome Stylesheets
"Sass is an extension of CSS3, adding nested rules, variables, mixins, selector inheritance, and more." Compiles sass files into CSS files.
Compass Home | Compass Documentation
"An open-source CSS Authoring Framework" which uses Sass. There's always more to learn.
Jezdez/django_compressor - GitHub
"Combines and compresses linked and inline Javascript or CSS in a Django templates into cacheable static files by using the compress template tag." Can work with Sass CSS I believe.

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Links for Saturday 3 September 2011
Wa-ben - The Wallet
William Gibson's wallet, made of Cuben Fiber CT9K.5. (via @GreatDismal)

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Links for Sunday 4 September 2011
Charlie's Diary: The High Frontier, Redux
Charles Stross on why space colonisation is a ridiculous idea. Colonising our own deserts and oceans is much, much easier but we're in no rush to do that. (via Tom Taylor)
Taco Bell and the Golden Age of Drive-Thru - BusinessWeek
On the processes and efficiencies in fast food restaurant kitchens. I had no idea 70% of US fast-food business was drive-thrus. (via Tom Taylor)
Pret A Manger, With New Fast-Food Ideas, Gains a Foothold in United States - NYTimes.com
That Taco Bell article reminded me of this one about Pret A Manger from a month ago, about how they motivate their staff.
Scott Chacon on the Interwebs - GitHub Flow
How GitHub manage their own git workflow. Sounds good to me. (via Tom Taylor)
Three different definitions of retirement and the resulting confusion Early Retirement Extreme: — when more time > more money
I'm not sure how accurate or generalisable this is, but I like the suggested generational distinctions between what "retirement" means.
The Technium: The Futurist's Dilemma
"Any believable prediction will be wrong. Any correct prediction will be unbelievable. ... the sweet spot that science fiction authors aim for" is the point on the cusp of "plausibility and fantasy".
Wild things: 16 films featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls | Film | Inventory | The A.V. Club
I'm one of those sensitive boys who has to remind himself when watching these films that the Manic Pixie Dream Girl does not exist. Only in the movies. (via John August)

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Links for Monday 5 September 2011
Crossword blog | Crosswords | guardian.co.uk
I don't play crosswords (yet) but I'm really enjoying Alan Connor's crossword blog. Fascinating and funny.

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Links for Wednesday 7 September 2011
Opinion - Image - NYTimes.com
Graphs and charts showing how inequality and household debt in the USA have risen since 1980, especially compared to the more equitable period from 1945-80 (even though productivity was still rising then too). (via Daring Fireball)
Laptop bags > laptop backpacks > STM Bags
Some nice laptop-friendly, pocket-laden backpacks, for future reference. (via Haddock)
Matthew Diffee
I liked the drawing in a 'New Yorker' cartoon of this chap's, Googled him, and lots of his other cartoons are funny too. Nice.

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Links for Saturday 10 September 2011
James Lasdun · Diary: Police procedurals · LRB 8 September 2011
Really interesting account by a curious writer of using a (US) police department's Firearms Training Simulator. (Subscribers only)

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Links for Sunday 11 September 2011
The Mad Men Account by Daniel Mendelsohn | The New York Review of Books
"…even as it invites us to be shocked by what it's showing us, it keeps eroticizing what it's showing us too." Yes, all this. I've never understood why the show's supposed to be great.

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Links for Monday 12 September 2011
Our Universities: How Bad? How Good? by Peter Brooks | The New York Review of Books
I'm not sure why I keep finding these articles about universities so interesting. Maybe because it's so hard to pin down what they're *for*, never mind how to achieve that.

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Links for Tuesday 13 September 2011
[Noisebridge-discuss] update on the shrine!
Brilliant email from Danny O'Brien about the San Francisco hacker space Noisebridge's problems with a lama using one of their rooms for meditation.
The Floodwaters Rise
Jason Scott has been busy importing loads of old computer magazines into Internet Archive. Great stuff (and a great job!).

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Links for Wednesday 14 September 2011
Organize anything, together. | Trello
Really, really nicely done web app for managing tasks, lists, projects, teams, collaboration.

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Links for Friday 16 September 2011
Association of Professional Futurists - V-Gathering Futures Festival
A bit tempted by paying to watch the sessions from this. (via @wendyinfutures)

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Links for Saturday 17 September 2011
LR-iTunes – Lightroom to iTunes plug-in - John Beardsworth
A handy, free Adobe Lightroom plugin that makes it simple to export albums of photos to a folder that iTunes can then sync with your iPhone/iPad.

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Links for Tuesday 20 September 2011
BBC Dimensions: How Many Really?
Lovely thing from BERG that "compares the number of people involved in key historical events or situations to the people you know through Facebook or Twitter." Very good.

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Links for Friday 23 September 2011
The Army Rumour Service
Next in my occasional series titled "I love good forums dedicated to particular careers." This one's about the British army. (via Soldier Systems)

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Links for Wednesday 28 September 2011
A Story of GameLayers, Inc.
Justin Hall's lengthy account of starting, running and then closing his startup GameLayers. A good read. (via @jah)

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Links for Friday 30 September 2011
Infovore » A quick guide to Inspector Spacetime
A lovely account of an amazing runaway myth created by fans out of a single throwaway joke in an episode of 'Community'.

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