Nathan Taylor

Time to accept Frozen’s greatness. And why not? John Lasseter modeled Elsa’s biggest scene.

So yes I’m late to the movie Frozen. On the left are the key characters: Olaf the snowman, Elsa the older sister and snow queen, and Anna the younger sister. And on the right, well, let’s just say each of my three kids identified their favorite movie character with exactly no help from me. So maybe Frozen… Continue reading Time to accept Frozen’s greatness. And why not? John Lasseter modeled Elsa’s biggest scene.

The Ideological Turing Test. What it is. Why it’s worth taking seriously.

The above image is from the always wonderful xkcd. It makes fun of the turing test, a test where a human tries to tell if he’s having a written conversation with a computer or another human. More recently the economist Bryan Caplan suggested an Ideological Turing Test:

Inequality, Piketty and Matthew Yglesias’ The Rent Is Too Damn High

I’m an unabashed fan of Matthew Yglesias’ writing. See how he starts this recent explainer on Piketty’s book on inequality:

Jimmy Iovine argues curating music playlists is niche behavior. But this critique applies more broadly.

Windows 8 explained with smiley faces and Venn diagrams.

Note: Also see my updated Windows 9 version of this graphic For some reason I’ve always visualized the debacle of Microsoft Windows 8 with smiley faces and Venn diagrams. In particular I imagined a Venn diagram showing lots of unhappy regular users surrounding a tiny sliver of happy power users. So for this post I wanted to try something a bit more whimsical than usual by… Continue reading Windows 8 explained with smiley faces and Venn diagrams.

Sure software methodologies appear different. But keep in mind what they have in common.

Over the decades I’ve used many different software development methodologies. So I enjoyed it when the excellent Accidental Tech Podcast had a couple of recent episodes (#55, #56) touching on this topic. My takeaway from their discussion was what works depends on the people, culture and project at hand. So most teams use an ad hoc mix of practices. Totally… Continue reading Sure software methodologies appear different. But keep in mind what they have in common.

Contrary to popular belief, fusion power generation is not really like the Sun

Most positive news stories about generating electricity from nuclear fusion mention fusion powers the sun. The implication being nuclear fusion is simple, clean and healthy. Unlike nuclear fission, which is what existing nuclear reactors use. Nuclear fission produces radioactive waste, and the reactors have a risk of meltdown. Not good. But fusion has its skeptics too. Negative fusion stories always quote some version of… Continue reading Contrary to popular belief, fusion power generation is not really like the Sun

Twitter should copy Facebook the Conglomerate or Facebook Paper, not Facebook the web site.

Twitter is rolling out a new look for people’s profile page. The main complaint I saw in my twitter feed was it looks way too much like Facebook. True enough. Rather than copying Facebook’s old school website, I think twitter might be better served copying Facebook’s conglomerate approach. In particular by creating a second app for casual users along the lines of Facebook Paper.

Getting fat is a metabolic disorder. An evolutionary take on Paleo and Low Carb Diets.

Last year I wrote a couple of posts supportive of Gary Taubes’ book Why We Get Fat. I’m still a believer so wanted to do an update. Though I’ve tried to be careful in noting below where Taubes’ view differs from the scientific consensus.

The God Particle Revisited: Augmented Audio Reality in the Age of Wearables.

Last year I argued voice interaction would become the “God particle” of mobile. And in 2012 that voice was a natural overlay to the phone/tablet touch interface, much as the graphical interface was a natural overlay to the command line. So a true believer. It’s worth taking a fresh look at voice interaction as wearables (fitness bands, smart watches, health monitor pendants, clip… Continue reading The God Particle Revisited: Augmented Audio Reality in the Age of Wearables.