Just me, a laptop, a wedding and TED July 22
Sitting on the couch in the dark. Laptop on my lap. Fran is chipping away at the pile of her belongings that sit in my dining room. Oreo is wet from a recent trip to the park, lulling himself to sleep by chewing on a stuffed animal.
I lost a hard drive late last week. Unfortunately, it was the important one. I keep backups (for most things) and I was also able to get a damaged 750GB drive to spin for me a few more times so that I could pull off some important items. I’m glad storage is cheap these days. Unfortunately, true backup is not. As anybody that has lost a hard drive will tell you, it inspires a certain amount of fear that makes computer part retailers smile. Sunday night I bought a DROBO to scratch several itches and ensure that my important info is a bit more redundant redundant.
Sitting on the couch in the dark, Fran’s laptop in front of me, editing rescued images from the last wedding. Much too quiet in here, so I click on iTunes and browse through Fran’s library. Not much in here except a few podcast subscriptions. However, the girl has good taste. The TED talks are listed as a subscription with only a few downloaded episodes. I listened to one about humanity.
I discovered TED pretty late in the game. If you haven’t yet, you owe it to yourself. As usual, all of this preambling is a dump of ideas. For those of you waiting, the point of my post is this:
As I browsed through the list of available audio recordings from TED, I realized that my queue reflects the things on my mind lately. As this site has been running for a few years now, I imagine I’ll find it interesting to look back and read this post.
Future Scott, this is what interested you in the middle of 2008, as dictated by TED (in alphabetical order):
12 sustainable design ideas from nature – Janine Benyus (2005)
A journey to the center of your mind – Vilayanur Ramachandran (2007)
An atheist’s call to arms – Richard Dawkins (2002)
Becoming Buddha — on the Web – Bob Thurman (2006)
Can we know our own minds – Dan Dennett (2003)
Classical music with shining eyes – Benjamin Zander (2008)
Design is in the details – Paul Bennett (2005)
Do schools kill creativity – Ken Robinson (2006)
Finding happiness in body and soul – Eve Ensler (2004)
How cooperation (eventually) trumps conflict – Robert Wright (2006)
How to listen to music with your whole body – Evelyn Glennie (2003)
Letting Go of God – Julia Sweeney (2006)
Living a life of purpose – Rick Warren (2006)
Secrets of success in 8 words, 3 minutes – Richard St. John (2005)
Simple designs that could save millions of childrens’ lives – Amy Smith (2006)
Simplicity patterns – John Maeda (2007)
Sliced bread and other marketing delights – Seth Godin (2003)
Slowing down in a world built for speed – Carl Honore (2005)
Technology, faith and human shortcomings – Billy Graham (1998)
Telling stories of our shared humanity – Chris Abani (2008)
The brain in love – Helen Fisher (2008)
The story of a passionate life – Ben Dunlap (2007)
The stuff of thought – Steven Pinker (2005)
The tragedy of suburbia – James Howard Kunstler (2004)
The universe on a string – Brian Greene (2005)
The Web’s secret stories – Jonathan Harris (2007)
Treating design as art – Paola Antonelli (2007)
Way-new collaboration – Howard Rheingold (2005)
What separates us from the apes – Jane Goodall (2003)
When it comes to tech, simplicity sells – David Pogue (2006)
Where does creativity hide – Amy Tan (2008)
Why are we happy Why aren’t we happy – Dan Gilbert (2004)
Why design – Philippe Starck (2007)
It’s not so quiet in here. Man, I need a laptop. Anybody want to buy a Mac G5 Dual 2GHz?
