onfocus

Photographer, vanishing America.

Photographer, homes at night.

"Nothing focuses the mind of the reporter like being asked to specify what exactly they’d like to see done, and it’s much easier for a developer to scan a list with actual tasks right in the sentence construction." Good advice for personal to-do lists too.

Fun way to browse full-size images from Google Image Search results.

Minimalist Clipboard Buffering for OS X.

simple, mouse-driven window management.

A peek behind the curtain at Facebook with an anonymous FB developer.

"...Brad's work was altogether more messy and funny and human and passionate and complicated, just like the man himself. I can offer no more succinct summation of the man than that he was a good man and a good friend, profoundly funny and profoundly kind." Anil shares some memories of Brad.

"...the hero is the most damaging person on a team, particularly on a team that’s supposed to be writing high-availability or otherwise mission-critical software." Interesting analysis of team dynamics. [via jessamyn]

"One user following another in social media is analogous to one page linking to another on the Web. Both are a form of recommendation." Amit Singhal on how Google ranks Tweets for real-time search.

Rules for PR folks who want to work with bloggers. "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE means FOR IMMEDIATE DELETE."

"It turns out that milder sanctions can be swifter and more certain." Interesting article in the Economist about alternate strategies for curbing crime.

A TextMate plugin that provides a better "find within project" feature. Nice!

This is the best photo-editing software I've found for the iPhone. And it's free.

A nice interview with Josh, including some thoughts on being a MeFi moderator. "...the enthusiasm from other folks on the site to collaborate and make it all work was just stunning and cemented for me somewhat the reality that this was a community and not just a bunch of nerds yelling at each other on a website."

A serious warning about using Google Groups for public discussion. [via ginatrapani]

Nice little Mac menubar app that gives you more control over your computer fans.

"Nike has discovered that there's a magic number for a Nike+ user: five. If someone uploads only a couple of runs to the site, they might just be trying it out. But once they hit five runs, they're massively more likely to keep running and uploading data. At five runs, they've gotten hooked on what their data tells them about themselves." [via blackbeltjones]

This is a sharp bike. It's 8-speed, has a carbon drive belt instead of an oily chain, and includes fenders for Oregon weather. Officially on my wish list. [via mathowie]

"What are some books that people are particularly likely to be assholes about?" Another fun thread gathering books that people are, umm, passionate about.

"You know the one. I can't think of its name. It's the one they always use." Hilarious thread that catalogs overused songs in movies and TV.

"...you can use LineIn to play sound coming in through a microphone or any other device plugged in to your Sound In port..." Used this today to pipe my iPhone through the computer speakers.

"I'd argue that attention is an important part of the status metric; but I don't think more attention always translates to more status..." Interesting thoughts about why people contribute on the Web. [via anil]

10 typefaces for programming. I'm trying out their top pick--Inconsolata--and I like it so far. [via protherj]

It's a good time to revisit this Lakoff article on framing taxes. Basically, taxes are an investment, our fair share, patriotic, and our dues for enjoying our high standard of living.

You deserve this!

This is spectacular. They're suggesting high speed rail between Eugene and the Canadian border.

this app "...makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day." This looks great, but I'd like the app to remind me not to do any photo color-adjustments at night if I open Photoshop.

A multifunction utility for system maintenance, optimization, and personalization.

Looks like a neat screen saver that uses grid computing to generate its patterns. [via Cool Tools]