Jared Spool over at UIE posted this incredible job ad. I love it because it’s innovative in its approach, clearly sets expectations, and conveys accurately not only a sense of what’s expected of the candidate, but also where the company is going or could be going with the right person.
Kudos to Jared and the UIE team for such a great ad. Read more after the break. (more…)
Jake Pulver, 13 year old scion of Jeff Pulver, recently posted this YouTube video, converting a jailbroken iPod Touch to a VoIP phone.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-AKRESzdeE[/youtube]
If the folks at Skype had any sense, they would have rolled out a jailbreak version of Skype the day the iPod Touch dropped. Instead, it’s a 13 year old on Long Island that may well eat their lunch.
The official endorsement from Christopher Penn for the candidates for President of the United States:
No one. Do your own homework.
There are some candidates that I like more than others, but it’s entirely driven on my beliefs.
Based on those beliefs, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out who I endorse. If you can’t come up with a candidate that fits that profile…
… neither can I, really.
I wish you a very happy new year 2008.
2008 is going to be an interesting year. Economically, it’s going to be a rough ride. You know this, and so does everyone else.
Oddly enough, this is kind of comforting. I wish for peace, health, happiness, and prosperity for all my friend, but a dose of economic sourness for the world as a whole is a needed thing to restore balance after the past few years of excess. I also firmly and wholly believe in my friends and their abilities to the extent that in rough times, their abilities and capabilities will shine through.
When it’s noon, everything looks bright.
When it’s midnight, you will see who really shines on their own.
I believe in you, my friends. Let’s shine!
Theme for 2008: Togakure Ryu Ninjutsu
One of the really nice things about the martial art I practice is that each year has a theme, an area of focus that helps practitioners zoom in on a particular way of thinking and set of strategies. This past year, 2007, was the year of Kukishinden Ryu, or the Kukishinden family method of warfare and protection.
2008’s theme is Togakure Ryu, a lineage founded by Daisuke Nishina of Togakure (now Togakushi), in Nagano, sometime in the 12th century. If you remember the 1998 Winter Olympics coverage, Nagano was the prefecture of Japan in which they occurred and from which Togakure Ryu originates.
Togakure Ryu is one of the only surviving ninjutsu lineages around. Its founder, Daisuke Nishina, was on the losing side of a campaign in feudal Japan and as a 16 year old, found himself required by tradition to commit ritual suicide, as his side had lost. Rather than do so, he ran like hell into the mountains and trained with a number of masters over the years in not getting your ass beat while facing overwhelming odds. The practices were codified into the Togakure school of ninjutsu.
Some of the themes in Togakure Ryu are considered “secrets” – not because they’re particularly esoteric, but because they’re so hard to actually do. For example, one of the “secrets” is – only fight battles you can win.
Not much of a secret, huh?
Until you take a step back and look at your life and realize that you take up fights and battles all the time, literal or metaphorical, that you cannot win. Whether it’s office politics, marital relations, or facing an opponent in a dark alley, if you engage in a battle in which you know you can’t win, then you’re either hooked by your ego or you’re an idiot. Instead, your plan had better be to run like hell until you can set things up so that you can win.
What other lessons do the ninja have, nine centuries after the lineage was founded? Lots. Tons. More than enough to fill a lifetime and then some. If you’d like to learn more, go visit my teacher’s teacher, Stephen K. Hayes, or if you’re in the Boston area, visit my teacher, Mark Davis, at the Boston Martial Arts Center.
“Ninjutsu is the way of attaining that which we need while making the world a better place. The skill of the ninja is the art of winning.” – Toshitsugu Takamatsu, 33rd headmaster of the Togakure Ryu
This one caught my eye. Not sure if it’s the tune, or the very well done animation, but it’s good stuff. Hat tip to Lisa Amorao on Facebook for pointing this out!
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o[/youtube]
someone asked this tricky question:
How can I forward Twitter DMs (direct messages) automagically so I can receive them like email?
The answer is: a series of tubes! Pipes, actually. Here’s how to do it.
First, you’ll need three things. A Twitter account, a Yahoo Pipes account, and a Google Reader account. Start by investigating which kinds of Twitter messages you want to manage like email. For example, if you want to receive @replies and direct messages, you’ll need to know this in advance. If you just want DMs, that’s important. If you want DMs from multiple users, that’s important to know, too.
Next, start by obtaining the login credentials of your Twitter account and typing them out in a text editor. For example, if your Twitter account is abc and your password is 123, write out the following:
https://abc:[email protected]/
If for some strange reason your Twitter password is a password you commonly use for other accounts, now is the time to change it. Let’s add to that URL now. If you want replies, add:
/statuses/replies.format
where format is one of four choices: XML, RSS, JSON, or ATOM. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will always be using RSS. This should be the URL for replies:
https://abc:[email protected]/statuses/replies.rss
Want direct messages? Use:
/direct_messages.format
Again, the URL would be:
https://abc:[email protected]/direct_messages.rss
We’re ready for the next step. Open up Yahoo Pipes and Create a New Pipe. This step is necessary for two reasons. First, for whatever reason, Google Reader does not recognize the RSS format spit out by Twitter directly, and second, if you want to manage multiple Twitter DM streams or merge your replies and DMs together, Pipes will do it for you very well.
In Create a New Pipe, drag a Fetch Feed module into the main window and add in as many Twitter RSS URLs as you want. In the picture below, I’ve pasted the replies and DMs. Name your pipe, and then click Run Pipe.
IMPORTANT: At no point during this process should you click Publish or you will be publicly airing your Twitter DMs!
You’re now reading for the last piece. Find the Yahoo Pipe URL for the pipe you just created, copy it, and head over to Google Reader. In Google Reader, click Add Subscription and paste in the Yahoo Pipe URL. Voila! Instant management of your Twitter DMs in one easy place!
A cautionary point: this method does create a publicly accessible feed of your DMs. If you don’t publish it, you’re not advertising it, but it’s otherwise not protected, so there is a small but non-zero chance someone could stumble across the pipe’s URL and read your DMs.
Counting down to 2008
Christmas has come and gone and now we approach probably my favorite holiday of the holiday season – New Year’s Day. I love that for many people on the Gregorian calendar, it’s a perceived fresh start, a way to reboot, a way to mentally delineate between what was and what could be.
Some things to consider over the next week:
1. Review 2007 from a perspective of accomplishment. It’s always good and fun to review the year past and make note of accomplishments, as well as ways in which things might have gone better. You’ll have your fair share of both, but it’s perfectly okay to pat yourself on the back for momentum achieved.
2. Review 2007 from a perspective of education. What did you learn this year? How did you grow? What things, ideas, and people helped you to transform this year?
3. Start thinking about 2008. What goals do you want to achieve? How will you measure them? What things might stand in your way of achieving those goals, and how will you sidestep or transform those opposing forces into allies?
4. Start energizing for resolution. My teacher’s teacher, Stephen K. Hayes often says that a goal not written down is merely a wish. The word resolution is part of resolute – to be firm, unshakeable, unwavering in the face of all the things that would stand against you, that would work to diminish you. As you contemplate what you will be resolute about in the New Year, find an emotional anchor you can tie it to. Write down your goal, and then as you hold the paper, wooden plank, or other instrument of written commitment, find one emotional meaning in your goal.
For example, if your goal is to improve your health and you’re a parent, think of the joy on your child’s face as you’re able to run and play with them outside without tiring, or take them on that mountain hike they’d always dreamed about. Imagine the sheer joy of seeing and breathing new experiences that come from a body that obeys effortlessly your mind’s desires.
For each positive energizing vision, contemplate the wrathful, negative as well so you’re inspired to push away from the negative and pull yourself towards the positive. In the same example, imagine the look on your child’s face at your early funeral because you neglected your health.
Grim, yes, but nothing is as powerful as our human desires to avoid pain and embrace pleasure. Habits we form can only be changed if the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change, and by emotionally “charging” yourself up, you’ll give your goals the energy boost they need.
Get ready to reboot.
