elioty

Audio

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:24:54 -0400

Sitting around the fire. In my apartment. In Manhattan. The best...

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:00:34 -0500

Sitting around the fire. In my apartment. In Manhattan. The best way to beat a cold day.

Hannah Upp in Riverside Park. NYTimes.com

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:42:00 -0500

Hannah Upp in Riverside Park. NYTimes.com

This is where someone works. Honestly, it’s gorgeous, but...

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:15:00 -0500

This is where someone works. Honestly, it’s gorgeous, but I wouldn’t spend much time at my desk there. This wouldn’t be a bad thing, though for my work’s sake I prefer the cramped and energetic spaces of NYC.
(via cubicle17)

Wired explains the “formula that killed Wall Street.” Basically, the Li’s...

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:52:00 -0500

Wired explains the “formula that killed Wall Street.”

Basically, the Li’s Gaussian copula function was too simple. The formula turns correlation, something that varies and is nearly impossible to determine, into a single constant. Not only that, the correlation measured isn’t even based on the underlying mortgages, but rather between prices of credit default swaps as determined the market, which prices these swaps based on the correlation. It’s like an extremely sophisticated way of begging the question. And, there’s more:

… because an unlimited number of credit default swaps can be sold against each borrower, the supply of swaps isn’t constrained the way the supply of bonds is, so the CDS market managed to grow extremely rapidly … At the end of 2001, there was $920 billion in credit default swaps outstanding. By the end of 2007, that number had skyrocketed to more than $62 trillion.

Couple this with a massive expansion of credit during the same period thanks to well-intentioned political initiatives and low interest rates and you’ve got yourself a crisis!

On Negativity

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:44:00 -0500

marco is right that negativity increases when people don’t have to fear the consequences; online anonymity can bring out the worst in people. His post is worth reading, but, and this is a small thing, he goes on to say this:

But one effect is clear: remaining positive and disarming yourself of negativity is the most effective way to avoid being hit by whatever others are flinging around. Osama bin Laden doesn’t hate Canada or Iceland.

Not sure why, but this little sentence stood out amidst the otherwise well informed post. I’m sure his intention is in the right place, but seriously, that’s just a silly comment.

Update: The sentence has been removed.

Safari 4 is fast and the new tabs are great. Now Mint.com is...

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:58:00 -0500

Safari 4 is fast and the new tabs are great. Now Mint.com is even snappier.

Christopher Buckley remembers his father: An article had appeared in the local paper a few days...

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:57:45 -0500

Christopher Buckley remembers his father:

An article had appeared in the local paper a few days before, alerting the community to this gala event. As I perused the clipping, my eyes alighted on the sentence: “The Buckleys are a well-known American family, William F. Buckley being arguably the best known.”

I concealed my amusement, and handed Pup the clipping and waited for the reaction I knew would come. Sure enough, within seconds, he looked up with what I would describe as only faintly bemused indignation and said, “Ar-guably?”

Tonight I’m in the mood for hyperbole: All I ever...

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:59:59 -0500

Tonight I’m in the mood for hyperbole:

All I ever wanted, all I ever needed
Is here, in my arms

Going here now.

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:54:29 -0500

Going here now.

via floraflora

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:50:48 -0500

via floraflora

A weekly address really worth watching.

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:25:17 -0500

A weekly address really worth watching.

Spring/Summer 2009 - Paris

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:07:13 -0500

Spring/Summer 2009 - Paris

Vimeo embeds

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:05:00 -0500

pile:

Remember two weeks ago when I pointed out that YouTube’s “new” text-over-embeds looks like a shittier version of what Vimeo has been doing for 4 years? I guess they took the hint because today they trashed the gross 1px black stroke and decided to throw a grey box behind it, exactly like Vimeo! Of course they didn’t want to look too good, so they threw in some rounded corners for good measure. WE LOVE BEING GOOGLE’S DESIGN TEAM.

Well, with all due respect, the embeds on Vimeo have room for improvement. Yes, the YouTube version with the titles and the useless stars are worse (much worse), but whoever said that we needed to put all this, um, junk (title, play button, a white (why?) time box, progress bar, volume, fullscreen icon and a vimeo icon) on top of the video image. Don’t get me wrong, these elements have style, and when you’re playing a video, are absolutely necessary, but why do I need to see all of them if I’m just scrolling by? If you insist, at least make them visible onhover, otherwise clean it up! How about just a play button?

Other than this, I’d be thrilled if Google did start taking more design cues from Vimeo. Vimeo.com is beautiful.

Loose Money and Politicized Mortgages Caused the Financial Market Crisis - WSJ.com

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:21:00 -0500

Loose Money and Politicized Mortgages Caused the Financial Market Crisis - WSJ.com

Scenes from Pakistan - The Big Picture

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:06:51 -0500

Scenes from Pakistan - The Big Picture

There are only a few artists out there today that have the mind...

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 22:50:51 -0500

There are only a few artists out there today that have the mind and the means to put together a track & video like this. I love it. Welcome To Heartbreak

Recovery.gov is up and running.

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:11:47 -0500

Recovery.gov is up and running.

I’m filling out a application for a student loan and I see...

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:10:16 -0500

I’m filling out a application for a student loan and I see this. Do they really need to ask?

Wonkette: Uncle Sam is depicted as wrinkled, wizened old man,...

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:26:09 -0500

Wonkette:

Uncle Sam is depicted as wrinkled, wizened old man, who, we are led to believe, is unable to achieve or maintain an erection. He’s looking at a pill bottle labeled “Stimulus,” and thinking “Starts to work in 2 years?” The punchline is “If the government made Viagra.” GET IT? This is in marked contrast to the Viagra-for-anthropomorphized-national-symbols that private industry makes, which causes an immediate, intense erection that leads you to try to copulate with everything in sight for the next four hours, at the end of which you die of a massive heart attack.