Just a fun comparison of the sizes of trees installed in major cities around the US.  The graphic compares the type of tree, their height, weight, miles of wire, number of LED bulbs and power consumption for each.

Makes mine seem small in comparison…

Via Gizmodo

Sometimes I think my job is hard.  At other times I realize how much pressure I’m not under.

As part of our year and a half of upgrades to core systems while we prep for our move, we’ve had to take nearly every system offline at some point to do planned (or unplanned) maintenance.  No matter when we do it or how much warning we give, someone always has to add some stress by making the case “this is a really inconvenient time.”

The weekend: inconvenient
Holidays: inconvenient
Midnight: inconvenient

Well, at least I’m not the CIO for Spirit Airlines.  As of Wednesday morning Spirit Airlines has had a nationwide server crash causing even longer lines during the busiest travel weekend of the year.

Maybe taking Exchange down for an hour on Sunday is so convenient after all.

I don’t do a lot of HTML work directly anymore but am of course curious about what is possible with the version 5 spec.  Not being interested in reading an entire tome about the history of the Web, etc… I thought I’d give HTML 5 For Web Designers by Jeremy Keith a shot.

Its a nice light yet informative read that can be downloaded from A List Apart for only $9.00.  I give it a “thumbs up”.

Not like the iPod was the real killer of the Sony Walkman (portable CD players were once everywhere) but they sure didn’t help.  Alas, on the 9th anniversary of the release of the iPod, Sony officially announced it would no longer make the cassette walkman.

I’ve had several including the very first Sanyo one I’d gotten as a kid.  Big orange headphones, giant “portable” cassette player with a built in AM FM radio.  It was revolutionary.  AM radio, are you next?

via Gizmodo

This most definitely made me chuckle if not least of all because of all the clients who when asked what Web sites they like come back with the answer “Apple and Google”.

via buzzfeed

We have two eBook readers around our house, the Barnes & Noble Nook and the Apple iPad. Of course, the iPad isn’t an eBook per se yet I love to read on mine. There are about a million opinions on whether or not eBooks are as user friendly as paper books and even more  on how the iPad stacks up against more traditional eBook readers.

[Read more…]

Interesting development in Facebook’s hopes to dominate the Web was announced at f8 this week. Sites now have the ability to add a Facebook “Like” button to any page or post of their site or blog. This *may* develop into yet another way to get some serious face time in front of Web users who may be teased into visiting a site they may not normally stumble across.

Interesting infographic comparing the population of the United States with the population of US Facebook users.  There are a few surprises including the fact that South Dakota has the highest percentage of users of any state.  Only the District of Columbia beats it with a whopping 125% (how is that even possible?).

From mashable

Think you might capture kids with a hip blog?  Doesn’t look like it from these numbers.  Stick with social networking and Twitter or SMS if you really want to get their attention.

From ngonlinenews.com

Thinking about creating a mobile version of your site? Keep an eye on browser stats and know how to tailor your templates.

What’s perhaps going to be most interesting is to see if Apple can keep the market share that they currently have. Adding the iPad won’t hurt but Android phones are quickly catching up and may very well surprise the folks in Cupertino.

From icrossing.co.uk