Data scientist Hillary Mason (previously) talks through her astoundingly useful collection of small shell scripts that automate all the choresome parts of her daily communications: processes that remind people when they owe her an email; that remind her when she accidentally drops her end of an exchange; that alert her when a likely important email arrives (freeing her up from having to check and check her email to make sure that nothing urgent is going on). It's a hilarious and enlightening talk that offers a glimpse into the kinds of functionality that users can provide for themselves when they run their own infrastructure and aren't at the mercy of giant webmail companies. (via Clive Thompson)
How to replace yourself with a very small shell script
Enjoy a relaxing half hour compilation of rain scenes in videogames
Jez Burrows edited this "supercut of video game characters taking a break from solving crime or shooting people to enjoy a meditative minute of miserable weather." "It's Rain in Games, Part I" (via Waxy) READ THE REST
"Old rubber boots": Fetish video or performance art?
"Have fun at home with my old rubber boots," the creator writes. Avant-garde performance art or fetish video? You decide. One commenter's rave review: "Nice boots. Rubber seems to be very soft." (via r/DeepIntoYouTube) READ THE REST
Watch this head-spinning video of interconnected Olympic acrobatics
Donato Sansone "Concatenation 2" film connects a series of acrobatic Olympic athletes' jumps, spins, and dives into "a series of interconnected things or events," which is the definition of "concatenation." This delightfully disorienting video is a sequel to Sansone's original "Concatenation" film here. (via Colossal) READ THE REST
Ditch the binoculars and travel light with this high definition monocular telescope
With everyone looking for increased portability from all their necessary items, it's a surprise monocular telescopes haven't eclipsed binoculars yet. But it may not be too long before these lightweight marvels are nudging their way past their big, bulkier brother as the instrument people reach for to get a quality view from a distance. While… READ THE REST
No kitchen is complete with a great molcajete and this one is on sale for under $55
There are few tools in the history of humankind that stretch back as far as the molcajete. Going back thousands of years to the ancient Mayans and beyond, the process of crafting stone mortar and pestle instruments to grind up spices is a staple of Mexican and South American food preparation. There are also few… READ THE REST
Train to become a Google Cloud engineer with these online classes
Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure? Those two titans are often the center of every question when considering cloud-based web platforms. While Amazon and Microsoft are the absolute 1-2 in that discussion, how about some of the other contenders in the cloud services space? That inevitably leads to the 3rd largest cloud platform Google Cloud.… READ THE REST
