Central Perk

sâmbătă, 5 noiembrie 2011

Damn Cool Pics

Surfer Almost Swallowed by Whale
Diary of a Style Evolution
Retail Sales On Black Friday [Infographic]

Posted: 04 Nov 2011 11:25 PM PDT

"Woman floating on a surfboard near Santa Cruz, California almost ended up on the lunch menu for a humpback whale over the weekend," reads the caption of the video posted to YouTube.

The video shows a surfer and two people in a kayak floating off the shore in California. Seconds later, two massive humpback whales emerged from the water in search of food only a few feet away from them.

The group wasn't harmed by the encounter but clearly shaken up, as you can see the surfer quickly paddling away from the whales as soon as they appear.

Diary of a Style Evolution

Posted: 04 Nov 2011 10:34 PM PDT

A girl has sparked a YouTube sensation by taking a photograph of herself every day for the past four-and-a-half years.

The 41-second time-lapse video, which has had more than 4 million views, shows the hundreds of photos, taken between September 29, 2006 and May 12, 2011, in sequence.

Source: clickflashwhirr

Retail Sales On Black Friday [Infographic]

Posted: 04 Nov 2011 10:27 PM PDT

If Black Friday 2011 is anything like 2010, retailers are going to be swimming in cash while shoppers bathe in savings. Black Friday deals drew 212 million shoppers to stores in 2010 and collectively spent $39 billion on products and services. The average amount spent by a Black Friday shopper in 2010 was a whopping $365.34!

We predict Black Friday 2011 Sales will surpass all records with a 20% increase over 2010.

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Source: blackfridaysales

Weekly Address: We Have to Increase the Pace

Your Daily Snapshot for
Saturday, November 5, 2011

Weekly Address: We Have to Increase the Pace

Speaking from the University of Pittsburgh, Vice President Biden argues that this month’s jobs numbers demonstrate that Congress should pass the American Jobs Act to strengthen our economy and create jobs right away.

Watch the video.

Vice President Joe Biden tapes the weekly address at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 4, 2011. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Weekly Wrap Up

Here's what happened this week on Whitehouse.gov:

Executive Orders Wednesday in the Oval Office, the President signed an Executive Order to guard against prescription drug shortages. This is one of a number of Executive Orders the President initiated to help Americans who have been waiting for Congress to act. “Congress has been trying since February to do something about this. It has not been able to get it done. It is the belief of this administration that we can’t wait to take action on the hill, we have got to go ahead and move forward.”

National Monument With the strong support of Virginians, President Obama signed a proclamation on Tuesday establishing Fort Monroe as a national monument. Local analysts predict that this will create thousands of jobs in the commonwealth of Virginia.

G20 Summit The President travelled to Cannes, France, on Thursday for the G20 Summit to meet with leaders from the 20 nations that represent the world’s most influential industrialized economies. During his visit, the President also held bilateral talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Trick-or-Treat At the North Portico of the White House, the President and First Lady welcomed students and children of military families to the White House for the annual Halloween celebration and trick-or-treating. Harry Potters, princesses, and vampires alike received a goody bag filled with White House M&Ms, cookies, and dried fruit.

NASA Visitors In the Oval Office Thursday, the President welcomed the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis to the White House. Earlier in the week, NASA held their Fourth Annual NASA Small Business Symposium to provide opportunities for small businesses. NASA shares the Administration’s strong commitment to the small business community. There will be new opportunities to work with small business partners in the near future as NASA takes its next big leap into deep space exploration.

Key Bridge To continue the urgent call for Congress to take action, President Obama spoke about the American Jobs Act in front Washington’s historic Francis Scott Key Bridge. If passed by Congress, the American Jobs Act would create new infrastructure projects and put thousands of construction workers back on the job.

West Wing Week: Check out your video guide to everything that happened at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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Seth's Blog : When "minimal viable product" doesn't work

When "minimal viable product" doesn't work

One of my favorite ideas in the new wave of programming is the notion of minimal viable product. The thought is that you should spec and build the smallest kernel of your core idea, put it in the world and see how people react to it, then improve from there.

For drill bits and other tools, this makes perfect sense. Put it out there, get it used, improve it. The definition of "minimal" is obvious.

Often, for software we use in public, this definition leads to failure. Why? Two reasons:

1. Marketing plays by different rules than engineering. Many products depend on community, on adoption within a tribe, on buzz--these products aren't viable when they first launch, precisely because they haven't been adopted. "Being used by my peers," is a key element of what makes something like a fax machine a viable product, and of course, your new tool isn't.

With enough patience and push and consistent enthusiasm, these products have a shot at crossing the threshhold. But if the mindset is "see what works and do it more," you'll often discover yourself giving up long before that happens.

2. There's a burst of energy and attention and effort that accompanies a launch, even a minimally viable one. If there's a delay in pick up from the community, though (see #1) it's easy to move on to the next thing, the next launch, the next hoopla, as opposed to doing the insanely hard work of sticking with that thing you already launched.

Inherent in the process of minimal viable product, then, is a trusting, large permission base that will eagerly listen to you, try your new work and let you know what they think. And you don't have the option of building that audience once the product is ready--that's too late.