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The movie vanishes

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:53:00 -0400

A charming video explaining how Pixar nearly deleted the entire Toy Story 2 movie by accident. Toy Story 2 has long been my favorite Pixar movie, so this would have been devastating for me. I still remember watching it for the very first time in that small theater in Shadyside while I was at CMU. [YouTube via kottke.org]

How my friend Akio made my day

Thu, 17 May 2012 17:42:00 -0400

Everyone knows that a chef’s most essential tool is a trusty kitchen knife. So when I told my friend Akio that I’d like to start cooking more often, but the only thing standing in my way was the lack of a good knife, she went out and bought me one as my graduation present. Actually, she bought me three. And she made me a hand-drawn card. She is officially awesome. And I now have no more excuses.

Did Eduardo Saverin do anything wrong?

Thu, 17 May 2012 17:24:00 -0400

Did Eduardo Saverin do anything wrong?:

A lot of people seem to think that Eduardo Saverin is ditching his US citizenship in order to avoid having to pay US taxes. While there’s no question that it’s at least partially motivated by tax, it doesn’t quite work that way. So how much tax will Eduardo Saverin really be paying after renouncing his US citizenship? The Economist sets the record straight. The answer: a lot.

Saverin won’t escape all U.S. taxes. Americans who give up their citizenship owe what is effectively an exit tax on the capital gains from their stock holdings, even if they don’t sell the shares, said Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, director of the international tax program at the University of Michigan’s law school. For tax purposes, the IRS treats the stock as if it has been sold.

…

[T]he net effect of his citizenship renunciation on his immediate tax bill is to increase it, hugely. For it will, at minimum, start with the idea that he’s just made a $3.5 billion or so profit (adjusted downwards for the difference between the private market value of Facebook last fall and the IPO price) on his Facebook stock which he got originally for minimal amounts of money. At the standard 15% long term capital gains rate that’s near $500 million right there.

How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes

Wed, 02 May 2012 11:52:00 -0400

How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes:

As someone who is interested in both Apple and taxes, I suppose I should link to this article in the NY Times describing how Apple’s tax strategy saves it billions in taxes:

Without such tactics, Apple’s federal tax bill in the United States most likely would have been $2.4 billion higher last year, according to a recent study by a former Treasury Department economist, Martin A. Sullivan. As it stands, the company paid cash taxes of $3.3 billion around the world on its reported profits of $34.2 billion last year, a tax rate of 9.8 percent. (Apple does not disclose what portion of those payments was in the United States, or what portion is assigned to previous or future years.)

Defenders of Apple seem to be citing to the fact that other large corporations (e.g. Google, GE, etc.) use similar methods to reduce their tax burden as well. That doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable — just because there are a lot of people who act like jerks doesn’t mean that it’s okay to act like a jerk (unfortunately). Of course, it isn’t clear whether what these corporations are doing is wrong, either. As the article states, they employ perfectly legal methods for reducing their tax burden (although they do tend to push the envelope).

One thing that is clear, however, is that those who are upset with this type of behavior shouldn’t be blaming the individual corporations — they should look to the tax system. If the rules are setup so that this kind of stuff can happen (legally), then you shouldn’t fault those who take advantage of the rules. As a wise person once said: don’t hate the player, hate the game.

How the guys at Studio Neat helped out my friend and made her day

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:16:00 -0400

How the guys at Studio Neat helped out my friend and made her day:

A few weeks ago, I gave my Cosmonaut stylus to my friend Akio. She used it so much that it developed a tiny slit at the top. She decided to email the guys at Studio Neat, and they wrote back to say that it was “by far, the greatest email [they] have ever received”. See for yourself. [Akoism]

Caine's Arcade

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:32:39 -0400

Caine's Arcade:

I know that this has been shared by just about everyone, but it’s absolutely adorable and definitely worth a watch. [Vimeo]

On love, life, and hope

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:24:00 -0400

I love this:

I would speak to you of cool breezes.

You may or may not wish to listen to me, since I am 43 years old and have never. Sex, kiss, date, cuddle, whatever a human might want from another human, slap a ‘never’ on it and that is me. Taking my advice might not be a great idea. But I have learned some things.

Sometimes on a warm day, a cool breeze will come along. It just happens. Or it doesn’t happen. There is no schedule for it, no specific reason, nothing I can do to cause it. It feels awfully nice when it does happen. I don’t deserve it, or not deserve it. I can’t earn it.

All I can do is be out there doing whatever I am doing, and enjoy it when it comes along. That is not to suggest you should be passive, not at all. Exactly the opposite. But you should allow life to happen.

You want to stop feeling. You can do that. I did. It can be done. But there is no way—none, zero, no way at all ever—to stop feeling the bad parts without also stopping feeling the good. You do not get to choose that, it cannot be done. If you numb the bad, you numb the glorious.

Have you ever met a girl you thought was pretty nice, but you just didn’t feel that way about her? I don’t think you can just decide to love her, whoever she was. You could decide to think of her as charitably as you can but you can’t feel what you don’t feel. And neither can they. Love is a cool breeze. You can’t decide whether to feel it, all you can do is decide what to do about it if you do feel it.

You know you will probably never find someone for you. Tempting, isn’t it? To have that final answer, to stop enduring the misery of hope. You are sure. It is nice to be sure. It is nice to have that out of the way and not have to wonder and hope, dream and want, need and yearn. Yearn! What a word. But there it is. Yearning. Sounds like a goddamn sonnet but that is the word for it.

You don’t know a goddamn thing. I am sorry, but the bad news is you probably will find someone. You can try being as repulsive as possible and some girl might like you anyhow, people are crazy like that. Stop trying to be sure, and learn to endure uncertainty. Being sure is like riding a flat rollercoaster. Whee.

The bad news is you have hope. Hope’s the rope that keeps you tied in knots—the torture never stops. Even when you find her, and she likes you and she can’t help it and she gets all silly and wants to have your babies and everything, you will still have to hope. It never ever ends. You will hope every day she still loves you. You will hope she isn’t bored with you. You will hope the tests come back negative. You will hope she forgives you. It never, ever ends. Well, until you are dead, and there is time enough for that later I assure you.

There is no solution to hope and uncertainty. All you can do is be who you are and hope like hell. You are not a strategy, you are not an attempt. You are you, and now let’s see what happens.

I still hope. And I will never stop. Failure has no meaning, as I am not attempting to succeed. I am what I am. Who I am does not depend on circumstance or events. I hope, I want, I dream. No matter what, I damn well hope. If I fall from the 87th floor of a building I will hope on the way down. I am hurt, I am disappointed, I am ashamed and miserable and alone. But I will never give up hope. That pain is mine, and I welcome it. I yearn.

I wish you many cool breezes.

[Reddit]

Txt, my very first cinemagraph

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:40:00 -0400

I really like this new app called Cinemagram, which lets you take short video clips and convert them into cinemagraphs like the one I took above of my friend Akiko at the coffee shop. It’s available for free in the App Store. [iTunes]

Fish: a tap essay

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 01:15:00 -0400

Fish: a tap essay:

Everyone with access to an iOS device should really download this (free) app called Fish: a tap essay:

This is a short but heartfelt manifesto about the difference between liking something on the internet and loving something on the internet.

I couldn’t agree more that there’s simply too much good content on the internet these days. But even with all of the great stuff that you probably come across on a daily basis, you’ll occasionally find that one article/video/whatever that really hits a nerve and makes you stop and think. For me, I really fell in love with the Pendulum video that I posted the other day — I’ve gone back to rewatch it several times in just the past day alone.

Thanks to social networks like Facebook and Twitter, we’ve become accustomed to oversharing the things we merely like, when really what we should be sharing are the things we truly love.

That’s why I’m going to be making a conscious effort to only post things that I truly love, even if it means less regular updates. And no, it’s not because I’m too lazy to post. At least not entirely. [Robin Sloan via kottke]

Akio and her new Cosmonaut on her (new) old iPad

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:53:00 -0400

A few weeks ago, I sent my Cosmonaut stylus to my good friend Akio mainly because I knew that she would make way better use of it than I ever would. She thanked me by drawing this adorable image of her holding it using her (new) old iPad — an iPad 2 that we recently got replaced when I was visiting her in Denver. You’re welcome!

Pendulum

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:30:00 -0400

Pendulum:

We all have times in our lives where we wish we could just hit the rewind button and start over again, but unfortunately life doesn’t exactly work that way. This animated short captures that emotion perfectly. It actually reminded me of another classic short, the opening scene from Pixar’s Up. [YouTube via Kotaku]

Photorealism

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:10:46 -0400

Photorealism:

A video made using only still images and some snazzy After Effects tricks. [Vimeo via Doobybrain]

Girl's first ski jump

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:08:00 -0400

Girl's first ski jump:

What an inspiring (and adorable) video. Definitely worth a watch [YouTube via kottke]

Tribute to RJD2's "Good Times Roll Pt. 2"

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:16:00 -0400

Tribute to RJD2's "Good Times Roll Pt. 2":

I love this sweet video that my buddy Eddie put together in tribute to RJD2’s “Good Times Roll Pt. 2”. [Vimeo]

Why James Whittaker Left Google

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:11:00 -0400

Why James Whittaker Left Google:

Edit: I should have guessed from the URL, but James Whittaker apparently left Google to work at Microsoft, so you should probably take what he has to say about his former employer with a grain of salt.

Former Googler James Whittaker wrote a nice post explaining his reasons for leaving the Big G. It’s worth a read since it offers a glimpse into how Google has changed over the years, but what I found even more interesting was his take on Google+, which I believe is spot on:

Officially, Google declared that “sharing is broken on the web” and nothing but the full force of our collective minds around Google+ could fix it.

…

As it turned out, sharing was not broken. Sharing was working fine and dandy, Google just wasn’t part of it. People were sharing all around us and seemed quite happy. A user exodus from Facebook never materialized. I couldn’t even get my own teenage daughter to look at Google+ twice, “social isn’t a product,” she told me after I gave her a demo, “social is people and the people are on Facebook.” Google was the rich kid who, after having discovered he wasn’t invited to the party, built his own party in retaliation. The fact that no one came to Google’s party became the elephant in the room.

I know it seems as if I share a lot of anti-Google posts, but believe it or not, I actually love Google. As Whittaker points out, the company seems to be shying away from its reputation as a “tech” company and becoming more like “an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus,” but they’re still working on some ridiculously cool and ambitious stuff too, and you have to respect them for that. [JW on Tech via Daring Fireball]

The inside of instruments

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:12:00 -0400

The inside of instruments:

I love these marco shots taken inside of instruments. [Behance via Peta Pixel]

Why videos go viral

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:33:07 -0500

Why videos go viral:

Kevin Allocca, a trends manager at YouTube, explains why certain videos go viral. I love all the nyan cat iterations. [YouTube via Gizmodo]

Dropbox can do what Apple, Microsoft and Google can never do

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:57:00 -0500

Dropbox can do what Apple, Microsoft and Google can never do:

Garry Tan wrote a response to Farhad Manjoo’s post regarding Dropbox, and he also makes a few good points:

Earlier in the piece Farhad talks about how things just plain worked as Dropbox synced things from his Windows desktop to his Macbook Air. What are the odds of Apple getting their sync client right for PC’s? Just about zero, considering what they’ve done in the past with MobileMe sync.

Same goes for Microsoft writing sync software for the Apple platform. Arguably Google is in the best shape to provide a seamless multiplatform experience… well, except for iOS! The odds of a viable multi-platform option emerging from one of these big three seem slim to me.

As an all-Apple user myself (iPhone, MacBook Air, Hackintosh desktop) I would actually prefer an all-Apple “Dropbox-killer” that synced system/application preferences, browser tabs, etc. across all my Apple devices. Of course, I’m not the typical user, and I’m sure there are tons of people who use multiple platforms, such as OS X, iOS, Windows, Android, and Chrome OS. Just kidding. Nobody uses Chrome OS. [Garry’s Posterous]

Samsung Galaxy S III looks pretty hot

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:49:23 -0500

Samsung Galaxy S III looks pretty hot:

The ultra-thin bezel at the top of the phone seems a little too thin, but this phone looks pretty slick (and has some ridiculous specs to boot):

1.5GHz quad-core Samsung Exynos processor
4.8-inch “full HD” 1080p resolution with 16:9 aspect ratio display
A 2-megapixel front-facing camera and an 8-megapixel rear camera
Ceramic case
4G LTE
Android 4.0

[BGR]

Dropbox is a feature, not a product

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:02:22 -0500

Dropbox is a feature, not a product:

I’m a huge fan of Dropbox, but this article by Farhad Manjoo for PandoDaily is one of the more negative outlooks I’ve seen yet for the service — and he makes some great points:

Someday, someone will figure out how to make this sort of thing work well, but I suspect it will most likely be one of the companies that makes a major operating system: Either Apple, Microsoft, or Google. Each of these firms has a file-storage and/or syncing solution that it’s pushing, and I expect that those efforts—iCloud, Skydrive, Google’s Chrome syncing and perhaps the mythical Gdrive—will gradually incorporate more and more of the features I’m looking for.

Dropbox is probably working to build many of these features as well. But as third-party app, it’s just not in a very good technical position to do so. In order to sync programs and window states, Dropbox would need access to some of the deeper parts of my various gadgets’ OSes. This is easy for some operating systems and impossible with others—including iOS and probably Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Apple could easily build a way to sync the current browser tabs between my Mac and my iPhone, so that I can switch from reading Pando on my couch to reading it on the train. Dropbox will need to go through incredible hacks to achieve the same functionality, and it probably won’t manage to do so even then.

Dropbox is still way ahead of the game for now, but I wonder how long it can stay that way. [PandoDaily via Techmeme]