Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Author: fish1964

  • UK Election Fun

    An Op-Ed in the NY Times has the following paragraph:

    The old assumptions — that truth matters, that lies shame the liar, that in a democracy the press and the public must have a right to interrogate those who seek the top jobs — have all been swept aside by the Tories’ conviction that in an inattentive, dissatisfied, cacophonous world, victory will go to the most compelling entertainer, the most plausible and shameless deceiver, the leader who can drill home a repetitive and seductive incantation. Facts and details will be irrelevant so long as voters feel a politician is on their side.

    Replace “Tories” with “Republicans” in the US. It’s the same story, right?

  • Origami Risk on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 List

    Ho hum, another award for Origami Risk. This is Deloitte’s list of the 500 fastest growing technology companies.

    screen-shot-2019-11-07-at-1.41.03-pm-768x403

  • Narnia, Customs Checkpoint

    Hilarious one from xkcd…

  • Millennial Lifestyle Sponsorship

    This article argues that “Venture capitalists and start-up founders alike have re-embraced an old mantra: Profits matter”. We’ll see, but it’s an interesting read.

    If you wake up on a Casper mattress, work out with a Peloton before breakfast, Uber to your desk at a WeWork, order DoorDash for lunch, take a Lyft home, and get dinner through Postmates, you’ve interacted with seven companies that will collectively lose nearly $14 billion this year.

    …

    You might call it the Millennial Lifestyle Sponsorship, in which consumer tech companies, along with their venture-capital backers, help fund the daily habits of their disproportionately young and urban user base. With each Uber ride, WeWork membership, and hand-delivered dinner, the typical consumer has been getting a sweetheart deal.

    https://twitter.com/kevinroose/status/1179155318439153664

     

  • Central Park Tower – Oh My

    Via NY Yimby, Central Park Tower Officially Tops Out 1,550 Feet Above Midtown, Becoming World’s Tallest Residential Building. The views are amazing but damn, that’s a bit too much for me…

    1d42bcef-1aca-4f9f-92b1-8cb9f93a644e

    Check out the article to see all the views, wow.

    img-5076

  • Sorry Atlanta

    I visited my favorite bar/pizza joint knowing that my favorite bartender, who is from Atlanta, was there. I didn’t really care about the game, but just on his behalf it may have been the most painful first inning I’ve ever watched…

    SorryAtlanta

  • Statistics Snark

    One of the better mathematically/grammatically correct/obnoxious twitter responses I’ve seen…

  • MLB.com is Terrible

    How can the league have such a horrible UI? Given this screen shot of tonight’s game, how long does it take you to figure out the score? Maybe an important stat?

    mlb

    Just horrible…

  • Food Coma

    Yesterday was one of our favorite days, the Atlantic Antic street fair. We live on Atlantic, so this is a mile of food, etc. right out our door. You can see previous blog posts about it.

    atlantic-antic-2017

    My youngest daughter and I like to walk the street around 10:30 while they are setting up.

    mvimg_20190929_101848

    The corn stands are always ready early. She’s amused at having roast corn for breakfast.

    img_20190929_102855

    There’s music and kid’s stuff and vendors but for me this street fair is all about food. Things I ate include:

    Spanish church food:

    Local high end butcher shop:

    • Beef Brisket
    • Pulled Pork
    • Fried Chicken (super good)

    German stand had Bauernwurst

    A Chilean street food stand was a big hit with this thing:

    img_20190929_154140

    It’s a hot dog with guacamole, salsa, diced tomatoes and Merken seasoning. Yummy. There was an Italian lamb skewer stand that was awesome. And of course we had the standards, roast corn, sausage and peppers and the fried potato on a stick thing:

    img_20190929_145652

    The local gumbo joint did a gator roast but I didn’t get any this year. They limited it to only being sold after 5:00 (the Antic runs from 12 – 6) and we just weren’t near there at the right time. It looked impressive:

    img_20190929_140645

    Finally, this stand has been there the last few years and this year it was literally right in front of our place, the first thing we saw as we walked out the door:

    img_20190929_171044

    These are Japanese octopus balls, but for the record, I did not eat Karls Balls…

     

     

     

     

  • 21 Levels of Skateboarding

    This video is amazing. Tony Hawk goes through what he considers the 21 levels of skateboarding difficulty, starting with the easiest trick and ending with a trick that no one has pulled off yet (well, watch the video). It’s fascinating because of the slow motion views showing how his feet are manipulating the board in the air.

    And of course when he gets to the crazy ramp tricks it’s even better. He describes learning the 900 (level 17) at the 16:45 mark. And they don’t just show him nailing it, they show the many falls…

    I’ve broken my rib on it, I’ve broken my ego many times trying to make it happen. I had been trying 900s for about ten years before I actually made one.

    Ten years!