Overeducated

AZULUM: A SHIFT IN DIRECTION: APPLE’S STRATEGY FOR THE NEXT DECADE

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:39:50 -0400

AZULUM: A SHIFT IN DIRECTION: APPLE’S STRATEGY FOR THE NEXT DECADE:

Just Getting Started

At the end of the keynote unveiling the iPad with Retina Display, the first after Steve Jobs passed away, Tim Cook had some very curious parting words:

Only Apple could deliver this kind of innovation in such a beautiful, integrated, and easy to use way. It’s what we…

Bin-summarise-smooth: a framework for visualising large data

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:36:27 -0400

Bin-summarise-smooth: a framework for visualising large data:

Hadley Wickham is at it again.

(via Instapaper)

What can data scientists learn from DevOps? – The Story of Data

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 13:24:25 -0400

What can data scientists learn from DevOps? – The Story of Data:

I have spent the better part of the last two years trying to learn dev skills to apply to my analysis. It’s. really the way of the future.

(via Instapaper)

This 5-minute film was made in 48 hours, and tells a better story than most features

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 11:12:21 -0400

This 5-minute film was made in 48 hours, and tells a better story than most features:

Sometimes a little constraint makes great art.

(via Instapaper)

Buffalo's Parking-Free Medical Center Offers Some Lessons for Providence

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 08:20:39 -0400

Buffalo's Parking-Free Medical Center Offers Some Lessons for Providence:

millerstephen:

This article about a transit-oriented medical center development in Buffalo, built without employee parking, instantly made me think of Providence. Or rather, what could be in Providence (emphasis added):

$91 million has or is soon to be invested in real estate projects — primarily lofts and apartments…[in] the growing cluster of hospitals, medical offices and research facilities on downtown’s northern edge…

The catalyst is the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, where 17,500 people are expected to be working soon…[at] a facility deliberately designed without employee parking…because the campus would rather spend its resources on medical facilities than parking garages…

The city planning chief echoes what everyone from the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus to the University at Buffalo all acknowledge: “This can’t happen without Metro Rail”…

“It’s been a long time since there’s been any real growth here,” [said Patrick J. Whalen, chief operating officer of the Medical Campus]. “It’s refreshing to be talking about it.”

You can have a vibrant small city, or you can have cheap, ample parking in and around downtown. You cannot have both, for the simple reason that parking takes up a lot of space that would otherwise be used by people doing economically productive things. Buffalo seems to have learned this lesson. Providence, meanwhile, is drowning in downtown parking as the metro area’s economy stagnates.

It’s amazing that Providence is falling behind Buffalo — Buffalo! — and much of the rest of its competition in figuring this out. Americans are already driving less, and struggling cities owe it to themselves to make it easier for people to do what they’re already doing.

There are three policy changes the city could enact to help chart a better course on transportation and land use, as part of a bigger economic development effort:

Reform the zoning code to eliminate parking mandates, even if only for the most transit-accessible places near downtown at first. Developers are begging New Haven to do it. Austin is looking at it. An end to parking minimums isn’t an end to parking, but it is an end to requiring projects to build more parking than tenants need. This can help lower costs — after all, parking is expensive to build.

Require new projects to develop Transportation Demand Management plans. These documents specify how building users will get around, and the incentives a development will employ to achieve those goals — for example, parking policies to discourage unnecessary driving, providing bike parking, dedicating space for Zipcar, funding a new bikeshare station, providing transit passes, or improving sidewalks and walking. Brown University, for example, has a TDM as part of its institutional master plan. The Department of Planning and Development should require them for institutions like colleges, hospitals, and other large developments.

Create a special tax district to help fund streetcar construction. Providence already has a plan for street-level rail in and around downtown, but like the city’s bikeshare study, it’s gathering dust until the mayor steps up. Using streetcars to tie together job centers and development parcels with Amtrak, MBTA, intercity buses and the statewide bus hub at Kennedy Plaza adds value to these existing transit connections. Streetcars are often criticized as real-estate development vehicles passed off as transit investments. In already-booming cities like Washington, DC, that critique has real weight. In a development-starved city like Providence, using a streetcar to spur new downtown-area construction is a reasonable prescription. Using revenue from that new development to help fund the streetcar can help make it a reality. Further delay will only kill the project and scuttle opportunities for transformation.

There are already people hard at work in Providence on these issues but they could serve as components of the city’s economic development strategy.

Instead, the city is trying to attract business by branding itself as a “creative capital.” Transit-oriented, car-lite development isn’t about importing tech workers from Massachusetts or creating a cool, hip, creative-class city — a narrow, elite prescription that may not be a good fit for an underemployed working-class city like Providence, anyways.

It’s about making it less burdensome to build new development. It’s about improving the physical form of development that does take place, so the city itself becomes a more attractive place for investment. It’s about reducing the cost of new construction and housing. It’s about putting walking, bicycling and transit first, so households have the ability to take control of their transportation costs in the face of volatile global gasoline prices. It also helps the poorest households without cars gain the same access to economic opportunity as those with private vehicles.

Reducing the cost of business, improving housing affordability, improving economic opportunity. It’s just what Rhode Island’s leaders say they want. It also happens to go hand-in-hand with the physical realities of a city founded in 1638. Providence is not, and never will be, a mega-growth Sunbelt sprawl city. It can be better than that. It’s time Providence started playing to its natural and historical advantages instead of ignoring them.

If Buffalo can do it…

Yup. The way forward is clear.

roderickin: Turn your key, sir!

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:12:21 -0400

roderickin:

Turn your key, sir!

Glimpses of Data: The CBO’s Snapshots

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:24:21 -0400

Glimpses of Data: The CBO’s Snapshots

Why National Science Foundation Grants in Political Science Matter

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:12:23 -0400

Why National Science Foundation Grants in Political Science Matter

Tall task: Grebien plans six-week sprint to pension fix | The Valley Breeze

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:12:21 -0400

Tall task: Grebien plans six-week sprint to pension fix | The Valley Breeze:

(via Instapaper)

Where and When Did the Symbols “+” and “–” Originate? » A Curious Mind

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:48:25 -0400

Where and When Did the Symbols “+” and “–” Originate? » A Curious Mind:

(via Instapaper)

[Miscellany] | A Letter to Paul Wolfowitz, by Andrew J. Bacevich | Harper's Magazine

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 15:36:32 -0400

[Miscellany] | A Letter to Paul Wolfowitz, by Andrew J. Bacevich | Harper's Magazine:

(via Instapaper)

Noahpinion: John Taylor's austerity model

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 13:24:29 -0400

Noahpinion: John Taylor's austerity model:

(via Instapaper)

Modes, Medians and Means: A Unifying Perspective

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 11:12:27 -0400

Modes, Medians and Means: A Unifying Perspective:

(via Instapaper)

thefrogman: By Matt Oswald [tumblr | twitter] I could only...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:20:32 -0400

thefrogman:

By Matt Oswald [tumblr | twitter]

I could only read that in this voice. http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=HUBWxiu5cOo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHUBWxiu5cOo

Hadley Wickham | Stories on Data Science and Analytics

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 17:48:26 -0500

Hadley Wickham | Stories on Data Science and Analytics:

In addition to Hadley building tons of tools that I use every day, I think he has a great perspective on what the real challenges are facing the data-savvy seeking to transform how we do our work.

(via Instapaper)

Lord of the Rings - Legend of Zelda.

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 23:59:02 -0500

Lord of the Rings - Legend of Zelda.

Trust but verify: The real lessons of Campbell’s Law

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:10:39 -0500

Trust but verify: The real lessons of Campbell’s Law:

This is so spot on it hurts.

The Best Sequester Plan in Washington

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:33:27 -0500

The Best Sequester Plan in Washington:

What he said.

Why Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:25:54 -0500

Why Americans Are the Weirdest People in the World:

I felt like I was saying, “Duh?!” a lot during this article, yet, it is probably still the most interesting and important article I read today. A social science must-read.

pblair: Are you not in love with Jennifer Lawrence...

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:16:31 -0500

pblair:

Are you not in love with Jennifer Lawrence yet?

Yeah. Last night got me on the Jennifer Lawrence train hardcore..