Links

http://feedly.com/e/-sUatCMU birth of the light-saber

http://boingboing.net/2013/04/01/in-which-charles-darwin-gets-t.html How darwin got pranked 

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/_6-Tz9H199E/story01.htm Rigged stock-trading? Also see Daily Show interview

http://io9.com/astronaut-neil-armstrong-on-why-hes-proud-to-be-a-nerd-1556439969 

http://io9.com/this-is-what-the-gops-war-on-science-looks-like-1556202056 

http://io9.com/we-finally-know-why-zebras-have-stripes-1556410614 

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/failblog/~3/er2CdGTxGdA/8130370560 Snakes in toilets -- we need devices to keep them out -- (kickstarter, anyone?) 

http://io9.com/original-star-trek-ii-wrath-of-khan-vfx-storyboards-ar-1554912547 

http://www.lefthandednotions.com/2014/03/palestrina-knot.html Sewing

http://io9.com/12-unexpected-sources-of-energy-that-could-save-the-wor-1555080352 

http://techblog.netflix.com/2014/03/going-reactive-asynchronous-javascript.html 

http://www.fashionsewingblog.com/working-checks-plaids/  Sewing 

http://io9.com/early-design-specs-show-the-space-shuttle-could-have-be-1528524224 

http://io9.com/the-origin-of-lightsabers-according-to-george-lucas-1556149517 

http://www.arghink.com/2014/04/01/organization-this-time-its-going-to-work/ 

quotes:

"So I went back to Things, a program that’s so simple, it doesn’t have a manual. (It’s also Mac only; sorry.) I had the basics down in under two minutes. You click on the Projects button and give the project a name–You Again, Kitchen, Chores, Car, whatever. Under that you click on the Add button and you get a line in your To List so you can break down the job into small parts: Synopsis, Hang Shelf, Wash Dishes, Call Toyoto, whatever. 

"Then you assign a due date for each To Do. That’s it. It does other things–you can assign tags and add notes, etc.–but it does the one thing I need–generate daily to-do lists–and it does it really well."  

"My first to do lists weren’t broken down into small enough tasks, so I’d look at my list for a day and realized it would take forty hours to do what I’d scheduled in twelve. Back to revising the lists, stretching out the time periods for getting things done, making the tasks smaller. My second to-do lists were much better, until I realized that scheduling sixteen-hour work days wasn’t a good idea, either. I can do that for one or two, even three days, but week after week? No. So I went back in and reassigned due dates again, which is easy to do in the program."

http://www.coachingagileteams.com/2014/04/01/uncategorized/book-clubs-at-work-are-you-serious/ 

Quote: 

"As the day of our first release planning event grew closer, I noticed that there were some blank faces among my extended leadership team when I referred to various aspects of what we needed to do. My heart sank as I asked the team, “Who has read the book?“. A couple of hands were raised. “Who has finished the book?“. Only one hand (and yes he still works with me!). “Who doesn’t own the book?“. At least four or five hands were sheepishly raised. “OK” I said “Change of plan. We are all going to buy the book. If you cannot afford the book, let me know and I will arrange a book for you. Then we are going to read the book together. We are going to form a book club!” As Deming said, “without theory there is no learning”. 

"For the next 3 months I met with my extended leadership team for an hour a week. Each week one member of the team lead a discussion on a chapter or two. We would discuss the concepts covered, how they might apply to our situation and agreed on the ideas we wanted to implement. Book club was compulsory and if one team member had something more important to do then book club was rescheduled. Shared understating and agreement was paramount if we were going to be successful. 

"Visitors to the EDW Release Train are often shocked when they hear that I called a mandatory weekly meeting to read a book. I am always quick to remind them that no one would hesitate to call a “business” meeting, so why wouldn’t we want to make time for a meeting focused on learning ways to improve our “business”."

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DailySquee/~3/ZoKqf0UqjjQ/8131468032 Tiger and child 

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/uqKG7PM4EcM/story01.htm Can home-schooling make kids more tolerant?

http://devblog.avdi.org/2014/04/02/why-does-amazon-hate-ebook-authors/ 

Quote 

"If you buy an ebook from anyone other than Amazon, you’re buying an EPUB file. Apple and Google, in particular, have aggressively supported EPUB 3 in their iBooks and Google Play stores. As an ebook author, iBooks and the Google Play reader are a dream come true: I can write the book, style it as I please with modern CSS, and be confident that readers will see the text as I intended. 

"For sales on the Kindle Store, I need to generate a KF8 with kindlegen. I have to painstakingly craft my EPUB files so as not to conflict with the limitations in Amazon’s undocumented subset of EPUB3."

http://feedly.com/k/19JcS1I "quarto" Open source ebook formatter (under development) 

http://www.createadaptablelife.com/2014/04/what-if-i-succeed.html?utm_source=feedly&utm_reader=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=what-if-i-succeed

Quote 

"Fear of success, just like fear of failure, can paralyze you. Can you find a way to create an experiment that will allow you to succeed, in one small way? Then, use the results to learn from that experiment? 

"If you have the growth mindset, it’s not about you as a boxed-in person. It’s about you as an experiment. You build your emotional resilience and your experiences to help you along the way."