What Do You Think I’ll Like?

Aaron, one of the masterminds behind FeedRinse, asks that all RSS Reader provide feed-recommendations.

While I agree there is value in RSS readers making it easier to add relevant sources, my experience with the recommendation engines like Netflix and Amazon has them batting .30. It’s rare that I purchase or rent anything either of those engines think I should. It’s far more likely that I’ll be inspired by another person providing a recommendation.

It’s not the engines fault. Star-rating, past purchases, and high-level genre categories don’t provide enough information to generate a quality recommendation.

That said, RSS is a pretty good recommendation engine itself. Nothing like email, but still pretty good. It could be better sure, and I’ve got some ideas around that.

LATER:
I just received an email from Ben Moore pointing me to Tim O’Reilly’ s post about Yahoo’s new Pipes service. Ben thought there might be some similarities between Pipes and some of the projects I’m working on. Ben’s probably right (the site’s down right now).

While Pipes sounds interesting (“Pipes opens up mashup programming to the non-programmer” – Tim’s words). What’s more interesting to me is that Ben pointed me to it. A relevant, personal recommendation.
Thanks Ben.

The Power of 1 Slice of Bread

Every wonder why there aren’t as many open-face sandwiches for sale in your local supermarket. No?…..well, it’s political:

“USDA inspects manufacturers of packaged open-face meat or poultry sandwiches (e.g., those with one slice of bread), but FDA inspects manufacturers of packaged closed-face meat or poultry sandwiches (e.g., those with two slices of bread).” – U.S. Government Accountability
Office, High Risk Series: An Update

The upshot is – by adding one more piece of bread, sandwich manufacturers can sell their product without explicit approval from a government acronym and get inspected every 5 years – rather than daily.

Can I Celebrate New Years on Feb 1?

Like magic, all the crazy stress and pressure I’ve been working through the past 8 weeks evaporated at the stroke of 12 last night. Seriously, magic. I have no other explanation. Then again, I have no explanation for why January was that tough either.

Things feel like they’re right back where they should be. Mind if I celebrate the new year 31 days later? I feel like I missed it the first time around.

RELATED:
David Seah is asking for Groundhog’s Day Resolutions.

Relevance not Determined by the Beholder?

“Relevance is determined by influence.” – Norman Mailer

That was Mailer’s response to: “Has your writing had an impact?”

While Mailer was referring to the larger influence of who controls the past determining what is relevant.

The same is true on a much smaller, person-to-person scale. Perhaps relevance is like identity – defined by everyone else. Individuals can only filter and prioritize.

Home Roasting Hack Method #2

“BREAD MACHINES AND HEAT GUNS WERE NEVER DESIGNED TO ROAST COFFEE”

There are three problems I’ve run into since roasting with the Poppery

  1. Small batch sizes (a maximum of 1/2 cup at a time)
  2. Inconsistent roast times (the Poppery continually gets hotter – shorting roasts, burning beans)
  3. The ambient temperature needs to be warm. So, no roasting in the Minnesota winters

Looks like a new roasting technique solves all three problems at once.

Like podcasting, I’m pretty sure I’ve got all the necessary gear in the basement. More later.

Spanking is Striking

There, I said it.

Spanking a child is child abuse. There, I said it again.

For three reasons:

  1. If same action anywhere else on the body would be considered abuse – it’s abuse.
  2. It shows children that bigger, stronger people have the right to hurt smaller people. So, big brothers think it’s OK to strike their little brothers.
  3. Not putting spanking on the list of disciplinary options – even as a “last resort” – doesn’t make it an option.

If adding spanking into the definition of child abuse isn’t possible, then yes, striking a child under 4 should be punishable by a year in jail and $1,000 fine. Kudos to California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber for initiating an anti-spanking bill.

I learned about this from NPR’s Day to Day: California Lawmaker Pushes Anti-Spanking Bill

New Work Playlist – Thanks to Tangerine

Since discovering Tangerine a couple months back, I’ve been tweaking the BPM-based playlist to find the ideal collection of tunes that keeps me working without calling too much attention to themselves.

Here’s the iTunes Smart Playlist that’s been working for me for 2 weeks:

BPM - is in the range - 90 to 110
My Rating - is greater than - 2 stars

This give me 6.4 hours including tracks from; Minutemen, Mac Lethal, Brad Sucks, Transplants, The Odd Numbers, The Gentle Readers, Two Cow Garage, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, The Its, Winter Blanket, Diesel Jenny, and Tullycraft.

Where Do You Want People Talking About You?

One of the complaints I continually hear about companies supporting forums, comments, reviews under their own domain is that their customers will say something “bad”.

The reality is, customers find places to have these conversations – with our without formal support.

Case in point: KottkeKomments.com.

Jason Kottke doesn’t have comments on his blog, so a reader created a site for kottke.org readers.

Thanks to Jackie Huba @ Church of the Customer.