Fun Internet Finds

I am guilty of spending quite a bit of time just roaming the interwebs looking at anything and everything. So that time spent is going to be put to good use by sharing my finds with you!

RGB Colorspace Atlas

This is the coolest thing ever! It is an atlas that shows every color ever possible. It is an 8in x 8in x 8in cube and I think this would be the greatest coffee table piece ever. Plus the inspiration one could get would be endless!

What Happens When an iPhone 5 is Glued to the Ground

This is the random humor I was born with kicking in, but I think this is too funny. Also, part of me is taken back that anyone would spend all that money just to pull a prank. However, I've already seen a video of the iPhone 5 being blown up in a microwave - so what ever makes people happy, right?

Treehouse

This is a screenshot of my favorite new website, Treehouse. I've been very into learning HTML/CSS right now and this is how I've been doing so. I also have books and I use other websites but this is awesome. It is the same concept as Codeacademy where you go through lessons and earn badges but Treehouse uses videos so you see the instructors doing it along with you. Plus they quiz you, which is also a bonus. The only setback is the price, it is free to have an account but to get the services you can either get a silver account for $25 a month or gold account for $50 a month. For just learning purposes I'd go with the silver, but they do offer half off your first month through the gold account!

Pulse

This is my favorite website to go to for news, in particular technology news. Pulse started out as an iPad app and then slowly expanded to the iPhone and then the web. You can pick a bunch of different sources and Pulse puts them together under a category and you can see all of what is happening. They have a ton of legitimate sources too like The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Birchbox, CNN, and so much more. You can see that I have a bunch of different categories set up on the left. Then in the rest of the screen is all the stories from those sources, but you can click to get stories from only one source if you want that too. Love this.

Book Review: The Great Bridge

I started The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough, probably two months ago. It is over 500 pages and with my schedule it took me a while to finish. I'm very glad I did though, it is a great book and the story is incredible.

I had always heard about David McCullough but never got the chance to read any of his work. What made me happiest about this book was finding out how much research Mr. McCullough really did. There is nothing better than knowing that the author of a book like that really did the work.

I recommend this to anyone who is a history or political buff. Or even if you are just interested in what went on behind the scenes, this is a great read for you. There were some things that totally blew my mind, for example, the two ends of the bridges near land are held by caissons (HUGE bottomless, hollow, blocks. One for each end) and the method for sinking them underground was astonishing.

It may be a little difficult to follow because a lot of the terminology may be foreign to someone who doesn't know engineering or bridges, but with a little concentration, you can understand 98% of it without looking anything up.

The best part of the book for me was how it told the story of the bridge and how it was built, it told the story of the family behind building it, and it gave the political aspect and how it influenced not only the bridge but New York City.

Amazing book!

(picture from bn.com)

Book Review!

I just finished a really great book about Apple, yes the company, and I wanted to share it! It is called "Inside Apple : How America's Most Admired - and Secretive -  Company Really Works", by Adam Lashinsky. It is an honest look into the company and how Steve Jobs built it and ran it.

Mr. Lashinsky does an amazing job of getting the reader to see Apple for what it is. He lets us see how Apple set itself apart from the rest, and why it has worked for so long. The book also delves into the company's future and new executive employees.

It is really incredible to see the tactics that Mr. Jobs employed throughout the company. What makes this book so stand out, is that the author actually was able to speak with many former employees. Without giving away too much, one of the major characteristics of the company and its employees is its' secrecy. If they are developing a product, the design department will only know about their own information, they won't know anything from the other departments. The secrecy is so intense that in a note about the interviews he conducted, Lashinsky says that some employees were as hesitant to be quoted praising the company as they were criticizing it.

It took me a while to get through the book only because I've been so busy but I give it a 5/5. It is worth reading if you're an Apple fan or even interested in just the company and how it became so successful.