Over at GQ, Julieanne Smolinski has some advice on how nerds can avoid ‘creeping out’ the opposite sex.

Yes. Nerds are sexy. Yes. We get it. Yes.

Nerd girls are hot. Nerd men are hot. People with cassette fetishes and basement museums now get book deals and “This American Life” episodes instead of swirlies. The word has gone from opprobrium to come-on to something that might be proudly proclaimed via provocatively shrunken spaghetti strap top.

She’s using the wrong word. She means geek, not nerd.
Both geeks and nerds share the enthusiasm trait.
Where geeks and nerds differ is in their social skills. Geeks have them, nerds to do not.
But back to enthusiasm. Julieanne has a problem with too much of it:

The problem here is being too into something. It’s weird! It’s important not to display too much of your -philia to somebody you’re hoping to attract. I know a lot of girls who would find a deep and abiding love for protopunk sexy, but if you can say things like, “Richard Hell is a Libra” then I’m going to suggest you don’t. Be an enthusiast, not an obsessive. (If obsession lies between love and madness, then let us say that enthusiasm lies between “obsession” and “love.” Between obsession and madness? Fan fiction.)

Humans have a problem with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is a gateway drug to passion which in turn leads to fanaticism and fanaticism is a bad word. Someone who’s really believes in their religion? A religious fanatic. Some who loves Apple products (yes, self, I’m looking at you) – they’re a Apple fanatic or Apple fanboi.
For me? I’d rather be fanatical about something, than somewhat/sorta/kinda into things. I don’t want to be ok with my job. I don’t want to think my wife is alright. There’s nothing worse than being someone who loves a particular music genre who encounters someone who has no feelings about music.
The most successful people in the world are fanatical about the thing that made them rich. The fanatics can also be the most dangerous people in the world (Philly Eagles fans? Red Sox fans? you guys are fucking dangerous assholes), so while the object of obsession can be dangerous or destructive, fanaticism and passion, in and of themselves are not negative traits.
Never be afraid of having too much passion about something.
It’s ok to turn the dial up to 11.

Slate asks. Why are restaurant websites so horrifically bad?

While lots of people have noted the general terribleness of restaurant sites, I haven’t ever seen an explanation for why this industry’s online presence is so singularly bruising. The rest of the Web long ago did away with auto-playing music, Flash buttons and menus, and elaborate intro pages, but restaurant sites seem stuck in 1999. The problem is getting worse in the age of the mobile Web–Flash doesn’t work on Apple’s devices, and while some of these sites do load on non-Apple smartphones, they take forever to do so, and their finicky navigation makes them impossible to use.

I’ve also pondered this for years.

The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little.

–Banksy

The new Chamber will be going up (relatively) soon, so’ve decided to take a fresh look at my logo, while also preserving the core.
My gut says the simplest version will win out, but I’ve been having fun playing with flourishes circumscribing the explosion.
Some of the words in my head: bushings, velocity joint, structural layers, heat sinks, hood ornament.

Influencer: MacBook Air, introduced 29 January 2008

Influenced: Acer Aspire 3951, introduced 9 August 2011

MacNN: PC makers gripe: Intel ultrabooks can’t undercut MacBook Air

Intel’s ultrabook spec is triggering frustration among Taiwan-area PC builders used to having cheaper machines than Apple, local contacts claimed Wednesday. Chassis guidelines requiring metal shells, solid-state drives, and very efficient lithium-polymer batteries to replicate the MacBook Air prevent the companies from undercutting Apple on price. Unless Intel cuts its own prices, there’s no real way to beat the Air, Digitimes was told.

The Intel hardware in a $1,000 system would make up a third of the price by itself.

Some are also supposedly complaining about having to change their notebook manufacturing processes. Not being used to the unified, soldered on designs Apple has been making since 2008, they would have to retool to get away from the traditional, bulkier, piece-by-piece manufacturing they’re used to. Intel has been holding workshops with companies to improve methods and the parts themselves.

Steve Jobs said Design is “not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” (fourth paragraph, last two lines)
It’s not much of a stretch to say Design is also about how it’s made.

I’ve been following MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson on Google Plus (yeah, it’s the Tom who used to show up as your first friend on MySpace) and he’s been on a roll lately with some insightful and witty posts.
This one was particularly interesting. It’s a slide presentation by Vincent Wong on what Google Plus is really about:

My former colleague Jedd Flanscha has a great new campaign up called Corporations Can’t. It points out the absurdity of how corporations have the the same legal rights as living, breathing human beings.

Tom Ford tells AnOther Magazine how to be a gentleman (via Om Malik):

1. You should put on the best version of yourself when you go out in the world because that is a show of respect to the other people around you.

2. A gentleman today has to work. People who do not work are so boring and are usually bored. You have to be passionate, you have to be engaged and you have to be contributing to the world.

3. Manners are very important and actually knowing when things are appropriate. I always open doors for women, I carry their coat, I make sure that they’re walking on the inside of the street. Stand up when people arrive at and leave the dinner table.

4. Don’t be pretentious or racist or sexist or judge people by their background.

5. A man should never wear shorts in the city. Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach.

Great list.
Especially #5 – guys with the flip flops, you have to cut that shit out. Ladies too, but I’ll save that for another post.

Steven Hawkings suggests the Universe is a hologram (via Ars Technica):

The proponents of string theory seem to think they can provide a more elegant description of the Universe by adding additional dimensions. But some other theoreticians think they’ve found a way to view the Universe as having one less dimension. The work sprung out of a long argument with Stephen Hawking about the nature of black holes, which was eventually solved by the realization that the event horizon could act as a hologram, preserving information about the material that’s gotten sucked inside. The same sort of math, it turns out, can actually describe any point in the Universe, meaning that the entire content Universe can be viewed as a giant hologram, one that resides on the surface of whatever two-dimensional shape will enclose it.

I wish I understood what the fuck this means. Couldn’t they put it into terms a layman could understand?
Kinda like Egon did with the twinkie.

MacNN: Apple has more cash on hand than the U.S. government

As pointed out by several publications, as of yesterday Apple — the world’s most valuable technology company — has more cash and marketable securities on hand than the federal government does, according to the U.S. Treasury’s own daily statement. At the end of June, the iPad and Mac maker had $76.2 billion on hand, while the government currently has $73.8 billion in operating cash balance.

Reverend Gary Davis was mentioned during the documentary, It Might Get Loud.

The blues he sings is about as real as the blues gets.

Hear for yourself.

Umair Haque: The New Road to Serfdom

Welcome to the new road to serfdom. Here’s how I’d put it. Far from innovating our institutions in this time of historic, sweeping global economic crisis and social fracture, the very opposite seems to be happening–our institutions are diminishing, regressing, devolving, sliding back tens or hundreds of years at a time into economically prehistoric practices and beliefs.

via TWoV