David Lidsky's Blog, page 4714

Work Smart: How to Write a To-Do List

A to-do list is a fundamental tool for getting things done: it helps you plan your day, see what you've accomplished, and what you should work on next. But a badly-written to-do list can actually sabotage your productivity instead of boost it.

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The best part of using a to-do list is crossing items off of it as done, finished, complete. Some tasks are easier to tick off as done than others, so you want to make your to-do list as doable as possible. A common...

BIO International Convention

Policy wonks and science wizards unite at this year's big biotech-industry conference in Chicago, where more than 15,000 attendees talk biofuels, health innovation, and superpowered agriculture with former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and former vice president Al Gore. With roughly $250 billion in market cap and influence across a staggering number of sectors, it's no wonder biotech managed to snag a bipartisan clutch of big names to key-note. "We like to invite speakers who...

Amazon Updates Kindle With Facebook and Twitter Support

Amazon just announced the next major update to its Kindle software, version 2.5. It's about to start rolling out to some users, to see a full rollout in May (pretty sure it's already May, Amazon--check your farmers' market. They'll be selling asparagus. May.). This is the second major firmware update to an ebook reader post-iPad--Barnes & Noble released theirs a few weeks ago. 

So what does Amazon bring to Kindle version 2.5? There's "collections," which seem mostly like folders to me--you...

Google Buys 3D Multitouch Desktop Software Maker BumpTop

BumpTop is a desktop replacement, used by both Windows and Mac--HP's convertible tablet computers like the TM2 use BumpTop as an easy way to make your computer's desktop more touchable. It turns files, folders, and software shortcuts into icons that can be manipulated more directly with fingers. For example, you might have a photo on your desktop. To post it on Twitter, you'd simply tap on the photo and fling it into the Twitter icon shortcut on the side of the screen. Here's a walkthrough...

FarmShare Turns Backyard Farms into a Large-Scale, Community Co-Op

The program is one of six finalists in the $100,000 Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

 

At-home, DIY farming has become the rage among eco-conscious hipsters, but there's still one big problem: scaling up your window farm, so it can become a real food-source rather than a feel-good lark.

And that's what FarmShare, a Brooklyn-based project created by Stacey Murphy, aims to solve. The service, which is still in its early phases, is a finalist in the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, which seeks to...

Friday Fun: The Cow Emissions Fart Chart

Cows fart. A lot. And their gasses don't just smell--they also spew toxic greenhouse gas emissions like methane and nitrous oxide. Thankfully, Jen Phillips at Mother Jones points us to this handy chart that crunched the numbers on the EPA's $15 million worth of research on cow emissions data to figure out just how bad the farts are from state to state.

This doesn't mean that milk from Colorado is any better than milk from California. It just means that California is loaded up with more...

Amazon Slaps Penguin Across the Beak Over E-Book Pricing

You know when you meet a cute kitten, all fluffy, innocent and sweet...and when you stroke it it sinks four sharp teeth into your thumb? The sheer surprise of that is about the same as what Amazon's just done to Penguin books over pricing.

The Wall Street Journal has the full story, but it simplifies down very nicely to just two words: E-book sales. As part of the ongoing (if slightly forgotten) scrap over who tells who what price to sell e-books at, Amazon has just started to sell a number...

Shanghai World Expo 2010

For this year's world's fair, which runs until October 31, Shanghai has
set up a high-tech welcoming committee: an army of 5-foot-tall androids
named Haibao ("treasure of the sea"). The 70 million visitors expected
in town for the fair can direct questions -- and quirky requests -- to
the robots, which will be at the city's two airports and at major
venues. Beyond offering event and travel info (via a touch screen),
Haibao can take photos, make LCD faces, and greet visitors in six
languages...

A Playground Space Built For "Breaking Things," at Stanford's d.school

This week, Linda Tischler has revealed the ins and outs of Stanford's new d.school building. We asked the students to provide some insight on their new digs as well.

We're part of the "No Teacher Left Behind" d.school class and we're using the playground space in the d.school lobby to sit and discuss our reading of Clay Christensen's book, Disrupting Class. The modular space is fun because it can accommodate different group sizes and configurations easily. When play and movement are...

The Art of the Email Auto-Responder Message (I'm Away From the Office Until...)

You're about to go on vacation, so you dutifully set up the classic "Out of the office, will reply to your message when I get back" email auto-responder. While that auto-reply gives you a socially acceptable pass to do nothing about most incoming email for awhile, it doesn't make the nagging feeling that you're missing the one or two really important items go away. So, while you're at a resort in some Carrbbean paradise, you have to surreptitiously check your email for any ticking...