Author Archives: Greg Palmer

When Kurt Vonnegut passed away last week, I was in the midst of traveling up the coast to Bethlehem and then New York. I wanted to reflect on it a bit, but still haven’t had the time. I do wish I had the time for proper reflection, because I remember well Vonnegut’s speech at graduationContinue reading “A Short Post on Kurt Vonnegut’s Passing”

I’ve been using Mint to track basic web stats on a few sites for about a year now. It’s a great product – simple to use, nice to look at, and helpful in understanding your site’s visitors. That said, in late January Shaun Inman released a version 2.0 of Mint, which for the past fewContinue reading “Feeling Minty Fresh Again…”

One way to foil international diplomacy? Stop reading your mail: Case in point: One the night of January 25, 1995, Boris Yeltsin found himself dusting off the old Cold War-era nuclear command briefcase when an early warning radar station detected a missile rising out of the Norwegian Sea and heading for Russia. Several tense, finger-on-the-triggerContinue reading “Ways to Foil International Diplomacy”

Following up on this post about dramatic photography, I noticed that Kottke has written about the famous photograph “Migrant Mother.” It too is part fiction – the mother pictured was not a recent migrant in 1935, but had instead been living in California for nearly 10 years. (Also, I have a weird deja vu feelingContinue reading “Dramatic Imagery, Part 2…”

A bunch of people told me I would love The Prestige, but I never had the chance to see it in the theatre. Finally watched it tonight. It is fantastic.

Microsoft offers a terrible customer experience to Windows Live OneCare clients. Why is it so hard to cancel your account?

Amy points out this movie that shows the ways that traditional media organizations use Photoshop to make photographs seem more dramatic. Frankly it’s disgraceful.

The launch of Google Desktop for Mac reminds me to begin an experiment I’ve been wanting to run for a while now. As much as people applaud Mail.app, I’ve never liked it. I’m a recent switcher and I’m forced to use Outlook 2003 at work, so that might contribute, but I just don’t think IContinue reading “Google Desktop for Mac”

Anyone know the details? I’m a huge fan of the morning news on WAMU. DCRTV hears that there is a “mass exodus” of news people from American University’s mainly news and talk WAMU (88.5 FM). Two have left and two more have given notice and are “actively job hunting.” We’re told that there’s “major unhappinessContinue reading “Mass Exodus at WAMU??”

Mark Potts found a great list of who owns the top 20 newspapers in the country. 1. USA Today … Gannett Co. 2. The Wall Street Journal … Dow Jones & Co. 3. The New York Times … New York Times Co. 4. Los Angeles Times … Tribune Co. 5. New York Post … NewsContinue reading “Media Ownership: Who Owns What…Right Now and Next Year”