A Thing or Two

Lovefoodhatewaste.com - Tips and recipes to reduce food waste

LoveFoodHateWaste is a gold mine for those of us who hate to throw away good food—or food that we allowed to go bad in the fridge because we just couldn't use it up fast enough.

I buy romaine lettuce three heads to a bag. Inevitably, one of the heads starts turning brown before I can use all three heads.

I'm also the one who can never seem to make the right amount of pasta; there's either not enough, or we end up with a pot of cold pasta in the fridge, getting shoved to the back to make room for more appetizing alternatives.

At LoveFoodHateWaste, I can search for recipes that use up my leftovers, find out which "Best used by ..." dates are true and which are just there to get you to throw stuff away and buy more, learn about which foods keep well and how best to store them, and lots more.

No one like to feel like they are wasting money or food. This site can help you change your habits so you won't. At least, not as often.

Cody's Books closed forever

As one of thousands of ex-employees, it is with sadness that I note the passing of yet another icon of our generation: Cody's Books in Berkeley.

I worked at Cody's from 1979 to mid-1981, along with a group of unforgettable people, many of whom have remained in my life over the years since. After a stint managing bookstores for Tower Records, I had managed to get my foot in the door at Cody's as the children's books buyer. This was when the children's section was upstairs, in the space that was used on a regular basis for author readings and signing events. The upper wall of the room was lined with huge, framed, black and white photographs of all the authors who came through there--names you know and love. I never tired of looking up and seeing them watch me take inventory and shelve titles.

My time in Berkeley was profoundly influenced by the time I spent at Cody's. Coming from an ultra-conservative upbringing in San Jose, right when it was transforming from cherry orchards and strawberry fields (unfortunately, not forever), Berkeley offered a social scene that was rich with the liberal intellectual stimulation that filled a hole in my life. Getting to know Pat and Fred Cody, who'd already sold the store to Andy, was a gift. They were true heroes to me, and remain so. (Hi, Nora!)

Like that favorite aunt or uncle who gave you the right book at the right time--that one book that influenced the rest of your life--Cody's Books on Telegraph earned an eternal spot in my heart. And you can never put a "CLOSED" sign on that.

Love a good makeover!

From the first time I saw one in McCall's magazine, probably at the dentist's office around 1958, I have loved makeovers. Don't you?

I was fascinated by these Before-and-Afters. Click any of the photos and be amazed. The Makeover Guy, Christopher Hopkins, specializes in over-45 ladies, who are in their "second chapter."

Ahem.

His book is called "Staging Your Comeback." If his writing is anything like his blog, it will be fun to read, as well as useful.

Props to Liz for sharing this link.

I want a Phonautograph

This comes from the New York Times:

Researchers say they have unearthed a recording of the human voice, made by a little-known Frenchman, that predates Edison’s invention of the phonograph by nearly two decades.

The 10-second recording of a singer crooning the folk song “Au Clair de la Lune” was discovered earlier this month in an archive in Paris by a group of American audio historians. It was made, the researchers say, on April 9, 1860, on a phonautograph, a machine designed to record sounds visually, not to play them back. But the phonautograph recording, or phonautogram, was made playable — converted from squiggles on paper to sound — by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

The article includes a picture of the paper used to record the sound waves, and MP3s: one, a recognizable snippet from the folk song, and another, the playback of the 1860 phonautograph recording. Neither one is in surround sound. Jules Verne, where are you?
Link

UPS wins Typo of the Day for March 9, 2008

Last fall I attended the Internet Strategy Forum, where the focus was on the role of Community in business websites. The most distinctly out-of-touch speaker was from FedEx, and it was painful to watch the audience barely hiding their eye-rolling. As a fellow human, I suffered for the guy on the stage. But really, he was beyond the pale. As the VP of Electronic Channels and Strategic Marketing at FedEx, he revealed how far in the Dark Ages the company really is when it comes to understanding how your customers can make or break your brand.

Some time after that meeting, I downloaded the API for an e-commerce site we were developing. The documentation and disclosure agreements had such glaring errors and duplication of materials that I actually tried to contact someone via LinkedIn to let them know, so they could get it fixed and avoid further embarrassment. No one ever replied. I think they really just don't care.

And now, this—from UPS. What is it with the Big Two in delivery service?

You gotta love a company that will pay for an interactive campaign to run in the New York Times and then not bother proofing the creative before signing off.

Way to be Brown, guys.

Miz Liz on Biz: my sister, for Filemaker, on YouTube

My sister Liz is busy with her organizing career, and has been partnering with various companies. In this brief spot, she acts as a spokesperson to tout the benefits of using Bento, a new oreganizing product from Filemaker, which works with the newest Mac OS, Leopard. Learn more about Miz Liz on Biz.

Great story behind Graphing Calculator

In his 2004 writeup, software geek Ron Avitur tells about designing and developing the PowerPC version of the Graphing Calculator.

The nifty Graphing Calculator was developed under the radar at Apple by a team of people led by Ron and his friend Greg Robbins. Every day Ron and Greg would sneak into the offices at Apple, where they'd been laid off months prior, just to finish their project in the hope that it would make it onto the Gold Master, and into the installed software on every Mac shipping from the factory. And they did it.

Back in the day, it was almost an unwritten pledge among those of us who evangelized the Mac on a totally volunteer basis: If you were in a store that sold computers, you went straight to the shelf displaying the Macs and fired up the Graphing Calculator. I had more than a few engineer-types notice me fiddling with the Mac, stroll by, and be lured into conversation by the spinning horus or the twisting saddle forms I created using exponents and weird-ass formulae.

"I never knew you could do that on an Apple!" Two tip-offs in one sentence, telling you they were PC geeks.

Then, just before you'd walk away from the one measly shelf of Macs (among rows and rows of PCs), you'd fire up the Graphing Calculator demo, and leave it twirling and rolling in your wake, doing your proselytizing for you, on a totally volunteer basis.

An economist's view of society's shift toward the individual

JP Rangaswami, in his Confused of Calcutta blog, posits the economic and societal basis for the shift from institutions to individuals as drivers for products and innovations. This article, which he calls The Kernel for This Blog, proposes the need for new business models that:

One, make a clear stance on values and ethics.

Two, allow relationships and collaboration to take place, rather than control the relationships.

Three, intermediate to enable trust and fulfilment rather than channel towards lock-in.

Four, recognise that the customer wants to create and co-create value rather than just receive.

More here, in the article that isn't short, but worth a read.

Why?

I find it inspiring that a corporate leader such as JP "gets it" and makes an effort to educate others. We can change things from the ground up, but it helps when thoughtful agendas are promoted from the top, as well.

Merry Christmas from Corvallis to you!

Prancing Lavender Bunnies

Okay, you knew I had to post about Paul's new book: Prancing Lavender Bunnies and Other Stuff from the Darkside of Independent Cinema. What good is having a blog if you cannot use it to hawk your loved ones' creative works?

This is the first book Paul has published. I edited the crap out of a bunch of essays from his 2006 email newsletters, and we self-published the book on Lulu.com. It will be a lot easier the second time around.

Megan Beierle (from Edge Design in Corvallis, Oregon) designed the book cover. It's beautiful, eh? I designed the book guts and laid out every page. Let me see you do that kind of page number magic in MSWeird.

So the first reading is Thursday, December 20 at Grass Roots Books & Music in Corvallis. Paul plans to bring free popcorn as an incentive to get people to show up. Hah! I don't think he needs it; there are already loads of people contacting us to get their own, signed copies. We have ordered a second printing and when those arrive (we hope by this coming weekend) we will schedule another reading, this time at The Book Bin, whose owner is our landlord at the Darkside Cinema.

Let me know when you are suffering from insomnia, and I will tell you all about the process of getting the book ready for publication.