Frank Patrick

Nuggets on video

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:10:59 -0500

On Performer Over-Utilization

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:37:36 -0500

There are still too many project organizations that put emphasis on keeping everyone busy, due to the erroneous assumption that “an idle resource is a major waste.”

Someone on one of the discussion groups I participate in recently suggested one way to get managers to think about the error of these ways…

Ask “If your people are 90% utilized, how long would it take (without overtime) to recover from missing a day of work, or of running into Murphy’s Law to the tune of a day? How about 95%? 99%?” With a little bit of thought, the dangers to speed and throughput quickly become evident.

Voicemail Transcription FAIL

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:57:57 -0500

One of my best sources of laughs recently has been Comcast’s phone feature in which they [try to] do a voice-to-text transcription of incoming voicemail and forward it to my email.

Here’s one from the Golden Corner Diner, letting us know that they’ve got a batch of Galaktoboureko (greek pastry) available.

“Hi this is Amy from the going(?) the corner diner. I’m calling to let you know that the we have like a like a booty call picnic-place(?) thank you.”

I wish my wife didn’t erase the message before I found out what “picnic-place” was about, but Galaktoboureko becoming ”like a like a booty call” was good enough for me.

Boom “like a like a”.

iloveoldmagazines: Life 1971 Vol. 71, No. 24

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 21:01:25 -0500

iloveoldmagazines:

Life

1971 Vol. 71, No. 24

We're Puny, Insignificant, and Doomed – and That's the Good News | Think Tank | Big Think

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 11:34:27 -0500

We're Puny, Insignificant, and Doomed – and That's the Good News | Think Tank | Big Think:

From the linked piece…

If all we have is one another, our brief life spans, and the things we’re able to discover and create, then we’ve got the power and responsibility to make our lives meaningful.

Sounds like fodder for New Years resolutions.

A sonic toothbrush? Isn’t this supposed to be a...

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 07:23:00 -0500

A sonic toothbrush? Isn’t this supposed to be a screwdriver?

Angelo Muscat, in case you were wondering from reading my...

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:40:44 -0500

Angelo Muscat, in case you were wondering from reading my previous post.

Roll Up! Magical Mystery Tour

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:31:00 -0500

Watched restored 1967 Magical Mystery Tour on PBS’ Great Performances. Never saw it before, despite knowing the album well. (Fool on the Hill and I Am the Walrus among my favorite Beatles tunes and instrumental Flying among my very favorites.)

Surreal.

The “Flying” sequence, heavily color-filtered and solarized, reminded me of a simpler version of trippier effects of the next year’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. (I might be reaching here to think it had an influence, since the original 1967 broadcast on BBC was in black and white.)

Lush orchestral rendition of All My Loving as backdrop to a brief “romantic” scene worked well.

Loved Ringo’s simple response to unintelligibly ranting sergeant (frequent filmic Beatles collaborator Victor Spinetti) in the recruiting office scene: “Why?”

Understated Brit subversion.

Wonder to what extent it might have influenced Monty Python a couple years later. There feels like a direct line between John’s smarmy waiter shoveling spaghetti in the dream sequence and Michael Palin’s similar character, not to mention the explosive dining scene in Meaning of Life.

Also spotted Angelo Muscat from The Prisoner (also from ‘67-68) in it among the wrestling midgets.

Found myself smiling broadly during the on-the-bus sing-a-longs of old tunes.

All in all, an entertaining hour from four amateur filmmakers, some of the musical segments of which would have felt at home on MTV 20 years later.

Goo goo g’joob.

And if all this wallowing in my youth is too much before your time, “your mother should know”.

Surprising how long a game of Letterpress can go on. The endgame...

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:17:35 -0500

Surprising how long a game of Letterpress can go on. The endgame is as much strategy as it is vocabulary.

Letters of Note: I love June Carter, I do

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:34:03 -0500

Letters of Note: I love June Carter, I do:

lettersofnote:

On March 1st of 1968, Johnny Cash married June Carter. They remained together until her death 35 years later. Below are two notes, both written by Cash — the first to June in 1994 on the occasion of her 65th birthday, and the second shortly after her death in 2003.

Johnny Cash passed…

Reblogged - nothing to add.

Haiku (this morning)

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:27:46 -0500

a steel-grey morning
brightened by a scarlet flash.
cardinal in flight.

laughingsquid: Hurricane Sandy: The Aftermath [I know...

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:20:16 -0400

laughingsquid:

Hurricane Sandy: The Aftermath

[I know it’s too soon, but I can’t help but think Hurricane Sandy is punishment for the TV show Jersey Shore.]

Rands In Repose: The Elegant Email

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 18:04:12 -0400

Rands In Repose: The Elegant Email

Autumn Haiku

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 17:44:00 -0400

not burning but still
crackling, dry autumn leaves scrape
across the asphalt

Nick Drake?

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 06:25:21 -0400

Nick Drake?:

This is the first time in a long time I’ve been sent to a piece of writing that wasn’t within the targets of my usual web-trawling and that grabbed me the way this did. The thing that drove me nuts is with all its name-dropping from the music of my youth, it’s only this piece and recent references on NPR’s All Songs Considered that has brought Nick Drake into my consciousness. Why do I not know of him? The world is conspiring to get me to look into him. Thanks, Clusterflock, for pointing me to the piece. Fiction or non-fiction, it was a great read. Let’s see if I’ll owe you a thanks for sending me to Nick Drake as well.

thehonkychateau: Manhattanhenge 7/11/12 - NYC …and the...

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 06:10:37 -0400

thehonkychateau:

Manhattanhenge 7/11/12 - NYC

…and the people gathered, supplicating themselves and offering their own light an sound totems to the sun.

Just hanging around…

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:11:54 -0400

Just hanging around…

A Cthulhu Bird? wnycradiolab: fairy-wren: vulturine...

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 19:25:23 -0400

A Cthulhu Bird?

wnycradiolab:

fairy-wren:

vulturine guineafowl

(photo by rex features)

I’M SORRY! I’LL NEVER DO IT AGAIN! OH GOD, STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT.

chartsnthings

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:28:58 -0400

chartsnthings:

A (personal) blog of data sketches from the New York Times Graphics Department. Maintained by @KevinQ.

Examples of processes used to “visualize data”.

Pandas on a slide (by gisellebill)

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:48:27 -0400

Pandas on a slide (by gisellebill)