In January 2007 I published the GNOME Audio Player Shootout, a simple comparison of the options available to GNOME users for handling their day-to-day playback needs. It proved to be so popular that in December of 2008 I did a followup, excluding some abandoned players and adding some new ones. Though it hasn’t been quite [...]
right n. Designating the side of the body which is positioned to the east if one is facing north. n. Pertaining to the political right; conservative. left n. Designating the side of the body which is positioned to the west if one is facing north. n. Pertaining to the political left; liberal. “Left” and “right” [...]
Just under two years ago, David Foster Wallace killed himself, leaving behind a legacy that included—and perhaps unfairly focused on—his magnum opus, the 1’000+ page Infinite Jest. Though I happened to appreciate Wallace’s nonfiction (see Consider the Lobster) even more than his fiction, he was equally adept at both forms—at any form, to be honest. [...]
I’ve always had an affinity for science fiction about time travel; to the limited degree that I comprehend it, I like hard science too. Something about the fundamental and inscrutable nature of time intrigues me, and so picking up Dan Falk’s In Search of Time wasn’t a difficult decision. It didn’t turn out to be [...]
codicil n. An addition or supplement that explains, modifies, or revokes a will or part of one. Codicil is known mostly as a legal term (for which see the official definition), but in practice is has come to refer figuratively to any addition or addendum, often with a quasi-scholarly connotation. Its use in English dates [...]
¶ Stuff
Hoarding recently got a representative–for better or worse–in pop culture with the arrival of TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive; I’ll leave it to your own judgment if this is a good or bad thing, or just how “pop culture” TLC is, but in any case, it goes to show the tabloid power of psychological problems. Everyone [...]