Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,524 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 106 of 153).

Dumb crook of the year

The Brainiac Burglar


I had to laugh when I saw this dumb crook had been arrested. He’s possibly the dumbest crook of the year. Walter Lee Martin, Jr. was arrested for breaking into the North Carolina Museum of Art, but not because he couldn’t get tickets to the latest touring exhibit. And Martin wasn’t intent on stealing the millions of dollars of art that adorn the museum’s walls. No, Martin allegedly broke in because he wanted to steal scrap metal.

I suppose Martin never visited the museum. If he had, he would’ve noted that it’s covered with video cameras and has its own armed security force that guard the museum day and night. He might as well have tried breaking into a police station.

Thigh volumes affecting trash pickup!

Just got this from Raleigh’s Solid Waste Services Department:

“Collection Update: The following YARD WASTE routes were not completed due to thigh volumes: NE4 NE10”

I know many Americans struggle with obesity but I had no idea it has gotten this bad!

Iceland’s On-going Revolution

In 2003 Iceland’s debt was equal to 200 times its GNP, but in 2007, it was 900 percent. The 2008 world financial crisis was the coup de grace. The three main Icelandic banks, Landbanki, Kapthing and Glitnir, went belly up and were nationalized, while the Kroner lost 85% of its value with respect to the Euro. At the end of the year Iceland declared bankruptcy.

Contrary to what could be expected, the crisis resulted in Icelanders recovering their sovereign rights, through a process of direct participatory democracy that eventually led to a new Constitution. But only after much pain.

What happened next was extraordinary. The belief that citizens had to pay for the mistakes of a financial monopoly, that an entire nation must be taxed to pay off private debts was shattered, transforming the relationship between citizens and their political institutions and eventually driving Iceland’s leaders to the side of their constituents. The Head of State, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, refused to ratify the law that would have made Iceland’s citizens responsible for its bankers’ debts, and accepted calls for a referendum.

via Daily Kos: Iceland’s On-going Revolution.

Red Hat hangs its hat in downtown Raleigh!


Looks like Red Hat plans to hang its hat in downtown Raleigh, taking a lease in the new Progress Energy building! Now didn’t I tell you that company was smart?

I just returned from Durham’s American Tobacco Complex and admired its startup incubator there, thinking Raleigh could use a startup incubator, too. Red Hat is no longer a startup company but it is a well-known tech company that will draw other tech companies into downtown. Not only that, but downtown’s nightlife and condo market should see a boost as well.

Downtown Raleigh just became a whole lot cooler. This will lead to more great things for the city!

Roger Ebert: obsessive blogger

I was taken by this excerpt from movie critic Roger Ebert‘s memoirs, discussing how profoundly becoming a blogger affected him. I’ve always admired Ebert’s writing and to hear him praise blogging in this way means a lot to me.

My blog became my voice, my outlet, my “social media” in a way I couldn’t have dreamed of. Into it I poured my regrets, desires, and memories. Some days I became possessed. The comments were a form of feedback I’d never had before, and I gained a better and deeper understanding of my readers. I made “online friends,” a concept I’d scoffed at. Most people choose to write a blog. I needed to. I didn’t intend for it to drift into autobiography, but in blogging there is a tidal drift that pushes you that way. Getting such quick feedback may be one reason; the Internet encourages first-person writing, and I’ve always written that way. How can a movie review be written in the third person, as if it were an account of facts? If it isn’t subjective, there’s something false about it.

via I was born inside the movie of my life – Roger Ebert’s Journal.

DVD download kiosk

Movie Booth DVD download kiosk

On our way through the Seattle-Tacoma (SEATAC) airport, I spied this intriguing kiosk on Concourse B. It purports to offer DVD downloads directly to one’s laptop for $3 and up per movie. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to test this machine and now I wish I had, because I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

I’ve poked around today and can’t seem to definitively identify this kiosk. There’s a kiosk outfit called Movie Booth that has DVD vending machines all around the UK and Ireland. This box is different, though, as there is apparently no physical media dispensed: just a CAT5 Ethernet cable where one would presumably download the movie.

So does anyone have any hints about this machine? Is it some kind of joke, or a legitimate service? I got nothing.

LinkedIn responds to social media privacy concerns

I got an email from Hani Durzy, LinkedIn’s Director of Communications, alerting me to a LinkedIn blog post by LinkedIn’s Ryan Roslansky, clarifying LinkedIn’s use of social media advertising. Hani said:

Heads up that we just published a blog post on the issue around social ads that has come up over the last few days. In it, we clarify a few inaccuracies that we’ve seen in some of the recent media coverage, and detail a change we are making to part of our social ad offering — specifically, the use of individual names and images associated with certain actions in ads served to their networks.

http://blog.linkedin.com/2011/08/11/social-ads-update/

The description of this feature on LinkedIn’s account settings page (and referenced above) remains pretty vague, leaving open its interpretation. After reading Ryan’s post I feel much more comfortable with LinkedIn’s approach. I would hope LinkedIn would better describe its intentions on the settings page, too.

Also, kudos to LinkedIn’s PR department for its swift and proper reaction to the backlash. Well done.

LinkedIn quietly sells your info

A new “option” appeared in the accounts of LinkedIn users, providing LinkedIn permission to sell their users’ names and photos in “social media” advertising without asking its users about it first.

Here’s what the option says:

LinkedIn may sometimes pair an advertiser’s message with social content from LinkedIn’s network in order to make the ad more relevant. When LinkedIn members recommend people and services, follow companies, or take other actions, their name/photo may show up in related ads shown to you. Conversely, when you take these actions on LinkedIn, your name/photo may show up in related ads shown to LinkedIn members. By providing social context, we make it easy for our members to learn about products and services that the LinkedIn network is interacting with.
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What Happened to Obama’s Passion?

With his failure to collar our country’s financial crooks, Barack Obama missed a big opportunity and let America down. As my friend Chris says, when given a choice between the working folks and Wall Street, Obama runs to the moneyed interests every time.

America needed someone to clean house on Wall Street after the mess the banks made of our economy. I suppose we’ll have to keep waiting.

IT was a blustery day in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009, as it often seems to be on the day of a presidential inauguration. As I stood with my 8-year-old daughter, watching the president deliver his inaugural address, I had a feeling of unease. It wasn’t just that the man who could be so eloquent had seemingly chosen not to be on this auspicious occasion, although that turned out to be a troubling harbinger of things to come. It was that there was a story the American people were waiting to hear — and needed to hear — but he didn’t tell it. And in the ensuing months he continued not to tell it, no matter how outrageous the slings and arrows his opponents threw at him.

via What Happened to Obama’s Passion? – NYTimes.com.