As I noted last week, I’ve been posting either here or on my photoblog daily in April. I’ve done so as part of coworker Justin Shreve’s blogging challenge.
It’s been fun, but I’m also happy the challenge is over. While I enjoy writing, I’m not inspired enough to do so daily. Similarly, I generally don’t take enough photos to fill a week, let alone a month. I’ll probably post more often as a result of this exercise, so it wasn’t entirely without results.
The Salem Witch Trials happened in Salem Village, MA, not the Salem that’s capitalized on the history. Now known as Danvers, the town’s bizarre history continues.
The Creepiest Town in America: Danvers, MA by Malcolm Logan.
An interesting solution from someone with experience, Sam Adams’s Jim Koch.
How to Drink All Night Without Getting Drunk by Aaron Goldfarb.
Working at Automattic is randomly checking something at 6:30 on a Saturday morning and discovering three teammates–two European and one American–online and working as well. It’s not that we’re understaffed or overworked, we just set our own schedules.
When I first tell someone I’m moving to Los Angeles later this year, that person’s response is almost always one of surprise. Six months ago, I’d have been equally surprised.
I’ve used Airbnb dozens of times, and I absolutely love the service. Despite my affinity for renting strangers’ places, I’m not so keen to rent my own place to strangers.
Wired’s piece on the social impact these services are having made me laugh a bit when considering on my own attitude.
Many of these companies have us engaging in behaviors that would have seemed unthinkably foolhardy as recently as five years ago. We are hopping into strangers’ cars (Lyft, Sidecar, Uber), welcoming them into our spare rooms (Airbnb), dropping our dogs off at their houses (DogVacay, Rover), and eating food in their dining rooms (Feastly). We are letting them rent our cars (RelayRides, Getaround), our boats (Boatbound), our houses (HomeAway), and our power tools (Zilok). We are entrusting complete strangers with our most valuable possessions, our personal experiences—and our very lives.
“How Airbnb and Lyft Finally Got Americans to Trust Each Other” by Jason Tanz.
I contribute to the development of web publishing software. I don’t generally use it to publish things myself.
Yesterday, Jen Mylo announced the WordPress-related projects that were accepted into this year’s Google Summer of Code program. I’m very excited to participate as a mentor this year, working with Nick Halsey (aka celloexpressions) as he adds menu management to the Customizer.
The Customizer gained widget and header controls in 3.9, leaving menus as one of the last major appearance features without an accompanying Customizer control. Hopefully that won’t be the case much longer.
It’s really been ten years? I’m not sure how I’d manage my inbox without Gmail’s tools.
Time’s Harry McCracken wrote about the service’s origins for its 10th Anniversary in “How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago.”
After another month-long stay in California, it’s time to return to Boston. Holidays and commitments made before deciding to live in SoCal both require it.
The crazy thing is that even though I’m moving out here–so I know I’ll be back–I’m still quite unhappy to leave. I’d say the impending move was the right choice if a two-month absence troubles me.