David Ehlers » David Ehlers

Are we in control of our own decisions?

David Ehlers — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:52:49 +0000

Still enjoy this 15 minutes:

Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we’re not as rational as we think when we make decisions.

Video here: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html

iPhone 4 Retina Display HTML/CSS

David Ehlers — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:32:51 +0000

Here is a quick and easy way to make your html/css look good on an old iphone/ipod touch AND a new retina display iphone 4. Just try the following:

1) Add the proper meta tag into the html’s header. This version also locks the scale:

2) Add references to images where you want them in high-res, retina 2x. Note, the -webkit-background-size is the same as the original


#someDiv {
      background-image: url(images/myImage.png);
      width: 480px;
      height: 140px;
}

// now replace that div's image with the 2x iphone 4 version:
@media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) {
       #someDiv { background-image: url(images/myImage@2x.png); 
       -webkit-background-size: 480px 140px; 
       //note: the actual image is 960x280
}

Safari Developer Library Ref

10 Things I Have Learned – Milton Glaser

David Ehlers — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:27:05 +0000

Interesting essay by Milton Glaser reflecting on his over 20 years as a designer. Check it out in detail here: http://www.miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es3.html

YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.
PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT
LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY.
ON AGING.
TELL THE TRUTH.

Navigating Past Nihilism

David Ehlers — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 00:21:00 +0000

The nytimes has an interesting op/ed by Sean Kelly, chair of the department of philosophy at Harvard University, Navigating Past Nihilism. “Melville hoped for a life that steers happily between two dangers: nihilism and fanaticism.”

At his site ( http://allthingsshiningbook.wordpress.com ), he has a couple of interesting posts in particular the post on Preachers who don’t believe. Good stuff.

rSync

David Ehlers — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 18:43:11 +0000

I’m done with lame file sync programs. I am always jumping around between a number of computers and need the latest files while not online and synced to cloud storage.

Rsync works great, is free, and is already installed on all macs.

Just open a shell and type: rsync –help

rsync -avx –progress –human-readable [source] [dest]

Learn more here:
rsync: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync

There’s even an awesome logo here: http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/

Heartbroken, in Disrepair

David Ehlers — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:13:27 +0000

Tom & I recorded this cover yesterday in the living room. Dan Auerbach rocks. Check it out on youtube

Apple Knows Where You Are and Tells Others

David Ehlers — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:04:51 +0000

Privacy matters.

As you know, I love apple products, but according to apple’s new privacy policy, this is very facebooky…

“To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, we may share geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services.”

Disruptive Thinking @ Singularity University

David Ehlers — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:04:33 +0000

“Singularity University (SU) is an interdisciplinary university whose mission is to assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies in order to address humanity’s grand challenges. With the support of a broad range of leaders in academia, business and government, SU hopes to stimulate groundbreaking, disruptive thinking and solutions aimed at solving some of the planet’s most pressing challenges. SU is based at the NASA Ames campus in Silicon Valley.”

Very cool indeed – check it out here: http://singularityu.org/

BP Spill Infographics

David Ehlers — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:30:55 +0000

Typically the nytimes.com has the best, timely infographics – but the Wall Street Journal easily topped them with great, clear infographics aof the BP spill and the complete mess from the Deepwater Horizon Rig. Short BP stock.

The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook

David Ehlers — Tue, 18 May 2010 17:34:43 +0000

Matt McKeon a developer with the Visual Communication Lab at IBM Research’sCenter for Social Software has this interesting post:

“The data for this chart was derived from my interpretation of the Facebook Terms of Service over the years, along with my personal memories of the default privacy settings for different classes of personal data. The population sizes are statistics from Google, the Facebook Data Team, and wild guesses based on what seemed reasonable to me.”

Check out the post here