24 Feb 2019, 11:10 a.m.

Interesting University Press Ebooks via NYPL

Hey New York Public Library patrons! Today I looked at NYPL's "E-Book Central" and discovered University Press Scholarship Online. Click "Connect to database" and enter your NYPL barcode number and PIN, and you can read …

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22 Feb 2019, 16:50 p.m.

Tropes, and Missing Stories, in Art about Programming

"The Art of Python", the one-night arts festival about your experience of programming, is still open for proposals, till February 28th. What experiences do we want to explore? We want variety -- because there are …

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22 Feb 2019, 8:33 a.m.

The Fascinating Life of Dalip Singh Saund

My latest MetaFilter blog post is "At the beginning I never thought of becoming a candidate myself." Immigrant, math Ph.D., farmer, and judge Dalip Singh Saund wasn't just the first Asian American elected to the …

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19 Feb 2019, 6:36 a.m.

As The Saying Goes, I'm Part Of The Precipitate

Tonight, I'm gonna attend my local Community Board meeting, which will include an MTA presentation on the Astoria Boulevard ADA & Station Renewal project. (I hope that, after the meeting, I can hang out with …

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17 Feb 2019, 10:53 a.m.

My Open Data Quest, Part ... 11?

On Tuesday night, I attended a committee meeting of the NYC council's Committee on Technology at City Hall (another view) and gave a bit of public comment (video -- my testimony is 02:05:03 till 2:09:11, …

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14 Feb 2019, 7:58 a.m.

Puns About Domain Names Are Kinda Par For The Course Around Here

I blearily woke this morning - Leonard was already up. I wished him a happy Valentine's Day. "I think we really match. And in some sense, because we met online,* we met in e-harmony. And …

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11 Feb 2019, 14:04 p.m.

Some Movies Are For Not-Me

I haven't really been keeping up with reviewing movies here. Some recent joys: I loved Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which was astounding in its artistry and the marriage of story and virtuosic presentation. The Muppet …

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07 Feb 2019, 8:17 a.m.

Socratic Questioning, Devil's Advocacy, and Conversational Power Tools

"Devil's advocate" was a job. In order for someone to perform the role of Devil's advocate, someone else had to appoint them to that position. And the Devil's advocate performed a bounded task within an …

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07 Feb 2019, 4:49 a.m.

My Recent-ish Government Transparency Efforts

I've put together a page of my past few years of Freedom of Information Law requests and the responses they've garnered. In particular, folks might be interested in the NYC Department of Health and Mental …

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06 Feb 2019, 11:06 a.m.

A Few NYC Winter Hikes

I'm better when I hike more often. It nourishes me to clamber around rough trails and navigate and be among trees. You actually can use city transit to get to parks within NYC for a …

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