Links of the Day: June 7, 2018

Back in the office after a couple of days working from home and on the road, after a week-long trip to the East Coast. Lots to keep me busy today, and I have quite a few links that have accumulated for you all.

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Links of the Day: May 28, 2018

Trying to knock out a lot of my client backlog today while folks are taking advantage of Memorial Day, so on to the links!

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Links of the Day: May 27, 2018

This is going to be a short one given yesterday's massive link dump and me being a bit busy to read much more.

On to the links!

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Links of the Day: May 26, 2018

I fell a bit behind on my link posts and my Chrome install is groaning from the weight of all the tabs of content that I've been waiting to share with all of you Constant Readers. (Or maybe just Constant Reader - thanks Bill!)

Let's kick this off with some good news!

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Links of the Day: May 9, 2018

This is going to be a massive link dump. So, buckle up, bucko!

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Links of the Day: May 7, 2018

Today's been all about the paperwork. Hoping I can actually lay down some decent code today before I escape to the Cubs game this evening...

Links!

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Links of the Day: May 5, 2018

It's Free Comic Book Day! Head to your local comic shop, pick up some free issues, and buy something while there to keep these small businesses going!

On to the links...

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Links of the Day: May 3, 2018

Working through the link backlog while I work through the work backlog. For the record, centralized managed accounts are the Devil's Business. I've run into far too many instances of a paranoid sysadmin setting the controls too tightly and that breaks my apps in unpredictable ways (such as sending e-mail).

However, I'm sure you're here for articles and not my bitching and moaning, so here we go...

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Links of the Day: May 2, 2018

After a trip to San Diego this weekend (planned) and a trip to Iowa in the first half of this week (unplanned, a death in the family), I'm getting back in the saddle with a pretty good backlog of links to share. Picking the relatively uncontroversial items to post today given my lack of time for a good ole fashioned back-and-forth in the comments...

Links below.

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Links of the Day: April 26, 2018

Skipped yesterday due to being pretty busy. Today's going to be a final "sprint day" while I do my best to get things cleared for a trip to San Diego to form the West Coast Avengers with my buddies Ben and Trevor. Fortunately I already patched my instances of Drupal so today's work is going to be deadline-driven, but not "must be faster than the hackers" driven.

Links below.

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Links of the Day: April 24, 2018

On my end, the grind continues. On the plus side, there are going to be quite a few new projects on the Audacious Software portfolio real soon.

On to the links...

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Links of the Day: April 23, 2018

Still working on shipping software today. Should have a new iOS app available for folks challenged by anxiety, as well as some other apps for research studies that try to help people get out and exercise more. Lots on the agenda and I'm just trying to keep the momentum going.

However, interesting links pause for no person!

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The Jordan B. Peterson Post

When I was posting regularly on Facebook, there was no topic that was as consistently predictable for garnering reactions than stories or other content about Canadian psychologist Jordan B. Peterson. This post is intended to lay out my history and attitude to the public intellectual in a way that wouldn’t have been as productive on Facebook (mainly size and readability limitations).

Here we go…

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Links of the Day: Saturday, April 21, 2018

We have good collection of links to kick off the post!

(Updated throughout the day.)

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Links of the Day: Friday, April 20, 2018

"Real artists ship."

-Steve Jobs

That is my remit this day.

(Updated throughout the day.)

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Links of the Day: Thursday, April 19, 2018

More things to read... I'll be continuing my task mop-ups given that yesterday ended up being more of a "mental health" day than "getting things done" day.

(Updated throughout the day.)

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Links of the Day: Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Today's set up to be a "mop-up day", where I spend my time and attention squashing all the small stuff that's been accumulating since the gauntlet of deadlines started two weeks ago. With any luck, I'll get my inbox count back down under 700 and establish some good momentum getting that number even lower in the weeks ahead.

(Updated throughout the day.)

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Links of the Day: Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Back in the office today after being satisfied that I won this round with The Cold. Fueling up before I get started today with an Egg McMuffin duo. On the agenda today is getting everything implemented and in-place for an important client progress demo later this afternoon. Fortunately, the paper describing the technique we're replicating (and extending) engaged in a good bit of, let's say, rhetorical puffery, and the technique is much more straightforward and less esoteric than the description would lead one to believe. That said, if anyone can provide a good reference on Boltzmann sampling (or "Bolzmann", as alternatively spelled in the paper), I'd appreciate it. The cited reference doesn't even mention the process. I'd appreciate a description that uses English Words as opposed to Math Greek, since my fluency in the latter is lacking.

On to the links! (Updated throughout the day.)

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Links of the Day: Monday, April 16, 2018

Settling back into my routine after beating a cold this weekend. Got a full day of programming ahead of me. After some minor "plumbing" work, today's mental energies will be focused on bringing up a reinforcement learner for improving compliance with SMS text messages.

(Updated throughout the day.)

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Links of the Day: Saturday, April 14, 2018

Been resting and reading as I get over this damn cold. Despite how bad it it, it's not even in the same league as November's...

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Links of the Day: Friday, April 13, 2018

Working from home with a fairly competent head cold assaulting me above the neck. Will be working through my reading backlog to feed you all some links...

(Updated throughout the day.)

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State of the Chris: Early 2018 Edition

One of the benefits of being extremely busy was that my current mental state led me to the wonderful analogy that the last week’s been like being the last kid remaining on my side of the Dodgeball court. Since last Monday, I’ve been bobbing and weaving with respect to a variety of deadlines, surprises and obligations. This is probably as good of time as any to post a personal status update.

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Links of the Day: Saturday, April 7, 2018

Today's shaping up to be Epistemology Day.

(Updated throughout the day.)

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Links of the day: Thursday, April 5, 2018

Didn't get much time for reading on the web yesterday, but I did ship the redesign of the Fresh Comics website and I met with my earliest hero in the comics industry, Jim Lee.

That all said, today's a "mop-up" day for me, so expect a good post as I work through the backlog throughout the day.

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Links of the day: Tuesday, April 3, 2018

I didn't get too far in my online reading yesterday, so that post ended up being lighter than I expected. Given what's on my plate today, expect the same today.

(Updated throughout the day.)

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Links of the day: Monday, April 2, 2018

Here are a few links I found interesting today.

(Updated throughout the day.)

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Book Review: "The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America"

Of all of the outcomes of the 2016 election, I suspect that the most persistent and longest lasting one will be the irrevocable bifurcation of the American electorate into two mutually-exclusive tribes of people, the urban "progressives" and the rural "conservatives". I use scare quotes around the political orientations given that those progressive and conservative labels less reflect the actual political dispositions of the two tribes as opposed to an inherited group labels that have become less meaningful as tribal allegiances have hardened. Traditionally, I've enjoyed being a "fellow traveler" with both tribes, but within the overall context of the Trump presidency, and especially in light of recent incidents such as the Parkland shooting, it's become crystal clear to me that these two sides mix as well as oil and water, no matter how vigorously you try to mix the metaphorical mixture.

It's in this particular context that I read Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow's "The Left Behind: Decline and Rage in Rural America". I believe that I was made aware of the book via Rod Dreher's blog over at The America Conservative (but could be mistaken in that point). The context that I do recall was highlighting the differences between conservatives and progressives and how the gulfs between the two camps aren't merely a surface issue of rural conservatives tipping the election towards Trump due to a severe antipathy towards Hillary Clinton, but rather that there are structural issues at play that may render a political reconciliation – even between left and right-wing populists – impossible.

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Reclaiming cognitive equity

Starting right now, I'm trying something new – reclaiming and rebuilding the cognitive equity that I've been sending into third-party walled gardens that I do not control, mainly Facebook, but some other sites like Goodreads to a lesser extent.

Honest confession: I spend way more time on Facebook than is reasonable, primarily as an avenue to fill the "gap" of social interactions that comes with being a natural introvert and a self-employed one to boot. Facebook has served as my "virtual watercooler" and it's time to step away for a bit.

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Li'l Sweet is... Self-Employed

I've been meaning to put together a proper post on my recovered self-employed existence, but haven't been able to find the time to put together a "proper" post. In lieu of that here's a listicle.

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Audacious Software 2.0

(Let's avoid burying the lede this time.) In November, I decided to wrap up my employment with Northwestern University in order to relaunch Audacious Software on a full-time basis and to resume the consulting career I left more than three years ago. I've discussed the details of this with the people it impacts, but have been delaying a public announcement until I had the opportunity to decompress and get all of my thoughts in order. Now's the time to share those thoughts.

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Prime Time 2015

I'm enormously grateful that the fall television season has begun and I'll have a full set of shows, until the holiday hiatus. While I probably watch too much television, I can't but help and appreciate the amount of craft that goes into quite a few modern shows. There's no sense in missing a Golden Age of writing, effects, and acting.

Here's what I'm looking forward to this year.

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A not-so-brief vacation back to Azeroth

I uninstalled Blizzard's World of Warcraft for the Nth time since I started playing a decade ago.

I reactivated my account and purchased the two expansions I missed – "The Warlords of Draenor" and "The Mists of Pandaria" – because I needed something to do where I could disengage from from my to-do list and other daily obligations and relax a bit. There's an idea of a mental state called "flow" and it had been too long since I enjoyed that state of mind.

During the last four weeks, I made it through most – if not all – of the single player content, keeping my Loremaster status fresh. I didn't get into any of the PvP content this time around, mainly because while I enjoy taking on other players, I'm not particularly good at it, especially after my three-year hiatus. Some thoughts from the past several weeks…

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March Check-In

Wow – this check-in is long overdue. In the interest of keeping up with my goals earlier this year, here's my semi-monthly summary of work, projects, etc.

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2560 X-Men Stories From Earth-616

Secret Wars (III) is Marvel Comics' 2015 summer event where – according to the press – the company will be ending their current multiverse that has existed since 1941 (Captain America, published by Timely Comics) and replacing it with a totally new universe that melds the mainstream Marvel Universe (Earth-616) with the Ultimate Universe (Earth 1610) and move forward with a single universe and continuity. This may also mark the point where I stop purchasing physical comic books regularly.

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February Recap

In keeping to my 2015 agenda, here's my recap for the second month of the year.

February threw a number of curve balls my way, from a blizzard early in the month (#5 all-time largest for Chicago), to some accelerated schedules in the office, to my introduction to migraines accompanied with auras and localized numbness. It was a busy month for me, so let's go over these items one-by-one.

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Midseason Television Check-In

I have a small time window available that isn't big enough for some of my larger tasks, so I thought I would follow-up on an earlier post on the 2014-2015 television season and see how shows have stacked up.

Rather than go through show-by-show, I figured I'd break them into four categories: the good, the bad, those treading water, and the unwatched.

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January Mop-Up Month Recap

In my last blog post, I laid out a rough schedule for the first two-thirds of 2015, and I designated January my "mop-up month" where I'd put in some extra time and effort to make good on my existing commitments before moving forward with new projects. Here's that recap for January and a look ahead towards February (even if it's already started without me).

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Agenda, 2015 Edition

As mentioned in my prior post, I'm trying to plan for the year of 2015. My ideas for 2014 didn't work out quite like I planned, so there's some carry over for this year. For the purposes of this discussion, I'll leave my day job out of this and focus on my extracurricular activities.

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How I Work: My To-Do List

After many conversations with people both inside and outside the office, I thought it might be useful for me to describe exactly how I approach my work and why the traditional 9-to-5 day hasn't cut it for me for almost a decade.

From a high level, how well I'm doing with my work is not a function of how many hours I've put into a given week, but rather the state of one artifact: my to-do list. I've used Remember the Milk for over seven years to keep track of what I'm responsible for and how I'm doing meeting my obligations.

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2014 Christmas Wish List

(If you’re not an immediate member of my family looking for Christmas gift guidance, feel free to ignore this post.)

For everyone who keeps asking for my Christmas list and not receiving my e-mails, here’s a list in a handy HTML format.

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The Peter Principle

Last week, I received a congratulations from an old friend for my second anniversary working at Northwestern (the second go-around) via LinkedIn. This was pretty surprising, because I was certain that I had started working at CBITs later in the month of September, and because it's amazing how quickly time flies. I figured that was a reason as good as any to put down some thought on how the last year went and where I'm aiming for the next year.

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An Embarrassment of Riches: Boob Tube Edition

I took a look at this season's schedule, and it's a beast. As a "comic book guy", I feel compelled to check out some of the new offerings based on books I've read. On another note, as the film industry has hemorrhaged quality writers (a topic too lengthy to get into here), the state of episodic television storytelling has risen exponentially in recent seasons. Thus, my DVR will be working overtime this season. Here's what's I'm recording this year.

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Speaking Gigs This Week

I wanted to post a quick heads-up that I'll be doing two public speaking gigs this week.

On Tuesday, August 26, I'll be speaking at Mercy Home for the Friends First program to prospective mentors about my experiences in their program with Willie. If you're interested in mentoring a kid, come check it out. It's a very well-run and well-executed program. (7:30pm @ 1140 W. Jackson Blvd.)

On Thursday, August 28, I'll be speaking at the Chicago Quantified Self Meet-Up group about last month's trip to Six Flags and how I recorded the acceleration traces using Purple Robot and my Pebble watch. It should be a short fun talk among several others and the QS meetings are always worth attending. (6pm @ Merchandise Mart)

If you're interested in either of these and want to accompany me, just let me know and we can coordinate.

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Vacation 2014 Recap

I'm wrapping up my 2014 summer vacation today, with regular work resuming tomorrow. Before I found myself wrapped up in the daily minutia, I figured that I would record a quick recap with impressions of the places visited.

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Assessing 1H-2014

A somewhat lengthy look back at the first half of 2014.

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Book Review: "Flood" & "Ark" by Stephen Baxter

A brief review of Stephen Baxter's end-of-the world duology, "Flood" and "Ark".

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URL Content Tracker and Geospatial Presence

I implemented two new features earlier today to kill some time. The URL Content Tracker is an extremely unsexy, but very useful tool that periodically goes through a list of URLs and sends me an e-mail when the destination's content has changed since the last check. The second tool is called Geospatial Presence and uses data collected from Purple Robot on my smartphone to generate a heat map of where I've been over an unspecified period in the past.

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Scratching an Itch: The Social Poster

The first tool is up and running: a unified interface for publishing content to a variety of social networks from a single form-based interface.

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Welcome Back!

The public website is largely complete and now live for everyone. However, the accessible portions of this site are just the tip of a larger iceberg that is an intentional effort to test whether Doug Engelbart's bootstrapping strategy can be applied on an individual basis to create better technology creators.

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Site Updates: OAuth

The last weekend in May, and the first weekend in June saw the site receive upgrades to talk to OAuth data sources online.

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2014 Des Moines High School Commencement Address

My high school alma mater was kind enough to invite me to deliver the commencement address to the graduating class of 2014. This speech is a version of what I ultimately delivered. (Doesn't include Apple ad-libbing and may also include some typos that were fixed between writing and delivery.)

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2014

Looking back at 2013 and forward to 2014.

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State of Things, 2013 Edition

2013's long-delayed blog post.

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Three weeks in

Three weeks into the new job...

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About This Blog

This blog is a space where I'll occasionally jot down some thoughts as time & interest permits.

What I'm Reading

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