Recent Articles

A clever hack to an Ikea shelving unit which turns it into a decent looking desk. I have two of these shelving units, but know that they make larger ones, so I am betting you could make a pretty sweet standing desk using this technique — if you have, let me know.

Personally I was in Ikea over the weekend and [saw these wall mounted desk/tables](http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80217524/). I really liked them and am thinking about building a similar desk.

My idea would be to have a permanent lower desk that was sitting height, it would have a 24″ or so leaf that drops back towards the wall. Then above it I would have a wall mounted desk that opens up at standing height. The lower desk would be out of the way for my legs, but still be able to hold hard drives and such on the back.

I would like to design it so that the top of the standing desk would make a nice clean backdrop for the sitting desk. Anyways, just my thoughts for now as I am thinking through several desk designs that I want to build.

What I love about IFTTT is that, as a service, they seem to get “it”. They advertise that premium accounts are on the way, which is great because it is a service that truly makes the web better. I don’t have many “recipes” but the ones that I do have would be very hard to replicate without IFTTT. Actually I don’t know if I have the skills to replicate any of the things that IFTTT does.

So this post is half about telling you that IFTTT now works with App.net and half to tell you that I really love IFTTT. *Carry on.*

Jonathan Poritsky has a really interesting thought about Netflix, their original content, and the archival-less nature of streaming-only services:
>But what happens when I fall out of love, or when they hike prices again? What happens when the company starts developing films and keeps them exclusive to streaming as well? And what if they fail and fall into obscurity? If released on disc, they could at the very least be preserved by fans and collectors.

I’d argue that so long as services like The Pirate Bay exists, we won’t need to worry about not being able to archive streaming-only content. That said, this is a really good question.

Without original content, Netflix is just a distributor to production companies. With original content Netflix now has a role in creating works of art (if you believe films and TV shows are works of art, I do). This is an interesting problem for Netflix and film buffs alike as more and more companies like Netflix spring up to make works of art.

Likewise too with Instagram — how many historic photos may be in the grips of Instagram that will be lost when/if the service dies?

Ditto Mixel — what if there were truly great works of art on the service, never again to see the light of day.

With streaming, with cloud hosted, with digital itself — we have such a huge risk to lose really important stuff. Important, historically and more.

Same with this blog. If I stop paying the hosting bill, it all goes away. Not that there is anything that important, but there are websites that *are* that important.

The headline says it all. The victim/alleged shoplifter says it was all a mistake and that he meant to buy the headphones.

What’s amazing to me about this story is a few things:

1. He got a bag from an employee.
2. Even though he had a bag, he was stopped. (How/why?)
3. That this hasn’t happened before, or at least not been blogged about before.

The ‘EasyPay’ feature has always seemed like a PR nightmare waiting to happen since it’s launch. I think we would have seen the “old” Apple executive team quietly handle this — which is why we probably never heard about it — but now we heard about this. This is massively wild speculation: but could Browett be trying to rid this feature and therefore letting Apple take bad PR to prove his point? I’m blaming Browet because he [seems to be the only one in Apple’s ranks that doesn’t understand why the Apple Stores are successes](https://brooksreview.net/2012/08/snafu/).

A new book from the guys at Studio Neat. I had a chance to read an advance copy (I also provided a quote on the site) and I really urge you, no I beg you, to read this book before you launch your next Kickstarter project.

I cannot tell you how many Kickstarter projects I have backed that months after the “expected ship date” still have not shipped, and after reading this book I have a feeling those products could have been shipped on time if the backers knew some of this knowledge.

I told Tom and Dan that after reading this book, I almost think it should be required before starting a project on Kickstarter. While I can’t make that happen, I am 50% more likely to back your project if I know you have read this.

Ok, is that enough reason to go check it out?

If not, get this: it’s $5.

Also: it’s a fast read for a slow reader like me.

I love how Gabe uses Glassboard as a sort of private-single-use Facebook, with privacy. I think this would be a great thing for my family too — and plan on setting it up.

I called for suggestions on how others are using Glassboard, so I am glad I came across this post from Gabe. One thing that I didn’t know was just how robust the website offering is. I’m in.

A great article from the Esquire archives that polled celebrities in the summer of 1969 and asked them what they would say if they were first on the moon. My favorite is Truman Capote’s: “So far so good.”

Of course Neil Armstrong topped them all — may he rest in peace.

Specifically the Lemon Verbena scented soap. I wish this was made in a foaming soap, but I like it so much that I don’t really care that it isn’t foaming. Actually what I really like about it is the clean scent it leaves behind — not over powering like other soaps, just enough that it is there for a bit.

[I buy mine by the 6-pack](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000E75ES2/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20).

If I can’t get this hand soap, and/or I want a foaming soap, my back up is [this Method soap](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00660CVUA/ref=nosim&tag=brooksreview-20). It doesn’t smell as nice, but it’s a solid #2 offering.