Sam Purtill

Kirill’s 24th

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:08:49 -0700

Kirill’s 24th

"So left is left and right is right, and never the twain shall meet."

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:19:47 -0700

“So left is left and right is right, and never the twain shall meet.”

- Paul Krugman “Sex and the married politician”

rahmblr: apsies: Sasha Obama was the star of the first-ever...

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:34:00 -0700

rahmblr:

apsies:

Sasha Obama was the star of the first-ever White House luau, wowing the crowd with a pitch so tough that the 8-year-old sank her dad’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, in the dunking booth, according to Sleuth informants who were there. Dad, wearing a purple lei, followed suit, sinking Rahm on his first try. (via)

Rahmblr is not sure that John Boehner doesn’t have a Sasha Obama costume.

Rahm Fact #30: Sploooooosh.

Rahm Emanuel owns.

Dozens dead in US drone strike

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:10:31 -0700

Dozens dead in US drone strike:

At least 45 people have died in a missile strike by a US drone aircraft in Pakistan, officials there have said. The people killed in South Waziristan region had been attending a funeral for others killed in a US drone strike earlier on Tuesday.

QUESTION: Wouldn’t that drive private insurance out of business? OBAMA: Why would it drive private...

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:00:04 -0700

QUESTION: Wouldn’t that drive private insurance out of business?

OBAMA: Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality health care; if they tell us that they’re offering a good deal, then why is it that the government, which they say can’t run anything, suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That’s not logical.

The way Americans pay for college is a mess. Here's how to fix it.

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:42:00 -0700

The way Americans pay for college is a mess. Here's how to fix it.:

By Eliot Spitzer

From the article:

Why should we be especially interested in this idea now? Despite all the money for K-12 education in the stimulus package, we are woefully underfunding higher and postgraduate education, and few areas are more important to retooling our economy. And things are only getting worse: College endowments have fallen precipitously, making aid harder to fund. Family savings have taken a huge hit, limiting the capacity to pay upfront and obtain loans. And investments in higher ed have fallen because of state budget crises.

Getty Heir Giving Up on Feud Already!

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:44:05 -0700

Getty Heir Giving Up on Feud Already!: Hysterical.

Cooking classes right next to SF CalTrain station

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:09:00 -0700

Cooking classes right next to SF CalTrain station: Finally, FINALLY I found this. I’ll start going to these classes after I return from Rwanda. Top Chef here I come.

"Though I’d like to slap Colette Lafia as a compassionate gesture toward myself"

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:06:58 -0700

“Though I’d like to slap Colette Lafia as a compassionate gesture toward myself”

- Comment of the week on SFGate

"The reason to focus on this is to ensure that we ask the appropriate question: Why did the..."

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:16:44 -0700

“The reason to focus on this is to ensure that we ask the appropriate question: Why did the government fail to use the power it had? Maybe the answer is that the ideology of the moment simply ran counter to the aggressive intervention that was called for, and we have now learned a costly but valuable lesson. That would be fine. Maybe the answer is that the wrong people were in charge of the agencies, and in the new administration the right people are in place. That would be wonderful. But we should not fool ourselves into believing that the government didn’t have this power in the first place.”

- Eliot Spitzer on Obama’s proposed regulations

Fifty Best Tech Startups

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:03:57 -0700

Fifty Best Tech Startups: BusinessWeek and YouNoodle’s list of 50 tech startups includes young companies like Cloudera, Project Better Place, and Scribd that are poised for growth

Kindle DX vs. Kindle 2

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:57:00 -0700

I’ve purchased both the Kindle DX and Kindle 2. One for home, magazines, newspapers (DX), and the other for reading books and travel (Kindle 2). You can see them side by side here (I was able to get the same screensaver on both).

I have yet to put PDFs on the DX, I’ll get on that this weekend to test it out. I’ve had the DX since Monday and the Kindle 2 for a little over a month, here are my thoughts so far.

The 2 is much easier to read books on (fiction and non fiction) because the size of the screen is similar to that of a paperback book. The DX is much better to use when reading magazines or newspapers, since the screen is similar to a normal magazine page. The DX is much heavier and not ideal for taking with you travelling / commuting. All the buttons are on the right side of the DX too (they’re on both sides of the 2) which is annoying when you want to hit Next Page from the left side and have to lift your right arm up and hit it from the right side (subtle but very frustrating).

The ink is darker on the DX which I’ve found better on the eyes. Sometimes the 2 has font that’s not fully black which makes your eyes strain a little (not a big deal though).

I like the 2 more than the DX; I’m using the 2 much more for commuting and reading books - I’ve finished 4 books on it so far (I’m a bibliophile). I really like the DX for magazines (Atlantic, New Yorker) and newspapers (NYTimes, WSJ). Also, Amazon gives out a lot of free books for the Kindle - about 2,000 of them - and I got the Cook’s Illustrated for free, which has been super fun to read on the DX (since it’s about the size of a cookbook).

When comparing the two devices to print books, I’ll take the Kindle all day long. You forget you’re reading on the device after 5 minutes of use and never look back.

A few friends have ran the cost of owning a Kindle vs. continuing to buy print books, to which I’d say a few things:

- The Kindle is environmentally friendly (we wouldn’t be cutting down trees for books/publications if everyone was using an e-reader)
- The Kindle displays only one page at a time, which is a big deal. When you are laying in bed on your side with a regular book, it’s always a hassle to read one of the two pages - you’re constantly holding up half the book to be able to read it. With the Kindle this problem doesn’t exist, you just hit the Next Page button and continue on.
- You can read any book or publication within 60 seconds of purchasing it. No more trekking down to Borders and spending 45 minutes trying to find the book, or waiting 3-5 days for Amazon to ship the book to you. The Kindle is a much more efficient process.
- The number of people that will gawk at you when you pull out the Kindle. I’ve given previews to 7 people on the CalTrain now, and they all love it.
- Books are $9.99 at most, much cheaper than the print versions. And there are thousands of free books that Amazon has - you can view the list here.

I would highly recommend the Kindle 2 to anyone looking to purchase an e-reader.

YouTube comment of the year. (via)

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:39:21 -0700

YouTube comment of the year. (via)

Oh hey Lewis Caroll

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:49:07 -0700

Oh hey Lewis Caroll

Officially SCUBA certified

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:47:11 -0700

Officially SCUBA certified

The Road to Recovery

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:08:52 -0700

The Road to Recovery: I began swimming at UCSF Mission Bay two weeks ago (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) from 7:15am-8:30am. I’m on a mission to get to a (sustainable) target weight of 175lbs by August 31st. I weighed in at 187 this morning after my swim, so I’ve got to lose about a pound a week for the next 12 weeks to meet my goal. Above is the link to a Google Spreadsheet that I’m using to track progress, you can see my weigh ins and the number of laps I swim each workout. Hooray for internet accountability!

Welcome to Vacaville

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:02:08 -0700

Welcome to Vacaville

dihard: This is an interesting graphic that tells the story of...

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:22:25 -0700

dihard:

This is an interesting graphic that tells the story of the culprits behind our budget deficit.

The NYT article from a couple days ago breaks it down in further detail, as shown below.

Just thought I’d share.

Anything is possible in America: Lauren Conrad is an author.

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:36:00 -0700

Anything is possible in America: Lauren Conrad is an author.

A Bull Market in Social Entrepreneurs

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:06:46 -0700

A Bull Market in Social Entrepreneurs: Amid a woeful jobs market, Stanford grads are starting their own companies, many of them with hopes of changing the world.