Category Archives: Linklog

They're 8 Years Old!

Posted on by David Pierce | 1 Comment

As I’m sure most of you have heard, yesterday nine children in Georgia were caught in their plot to hurt, and possibly kill, their third-grade teacher- they decided to do this because, according to one article (which can be found here), “she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, authorities say.”

This is just disturbing to me. Nine year old children, bringing paperweights, duct tape and a steak knife to school? Wow. The part of it that’s most bizarre, though, is the premeditation behind it. These students obviously had a long-standing plan, that other students knew about, and it was a multi-step, carefully designed plan. I can see the flashes of rage in students, those happen to children- and, frankly, to everyone. But this is something different- this is long-term, plotted assault.

Their plan was, apparently, “to knock the teacher unconscious with a glass paperweight, bind her with handcuffs and duct tape and then stab her with a broken steak knife.”

The whole story, beyond being disturbing, begs some questions. These are young children- how much prosecution should they receive? Where do they get these ideas? And what can be done about it?

Some people want to blame video games, others say angry parents. What do you think?

Things I Can't Live Without, Part 2- StumbleUpon

Posted on by David Pierce | 2 Comments


I’m going to try not to be hyperbolic here. StumbleUpon is the greatest thing that has ever happened in the history of human civilization. How’d I do?

If you’re ever bored, inspiration-less, waiting for a YouTube video to load (my new personal favorite use), or just simply don’t feel like doing anything even mildly productive, StumbleUpon is you. StumbleUpon is a Firefox addon that lets you browse random sites with a click of a button. You set up a free account, and tell the program what types of sites you want to see. Then, with the click of a button, you are given a random site that is suited to your preferences.

The longer you use it, the more fun it gets. You can thumb up or thumb down sites you Stumble onto, and StumbleUpon figures out even better what you like.

I’ve come across some really cool stuff just from Stumbling. For instance:

Here are instructions on how to solve a Rubik’s Cube, and look brilliant and nerdy in front of everyone you know.

Here is a site with parodies of Dr. Seuss. Want to forever ruin your childhood? Read “The Freudian Analysis of Cat in the Hat.”

StumbleUpon is, in short, pretty awesome. Want to give it a try? Download it here. Install it, restart Firefox, and Stumble to your heart’s content!

Now here’s what I want from you: put, in the comments, the coolest thing you Stumble on.

You Mean They're Actually Making the System Better?!?!

Posted on by David Pierce | NO COMMENTS


USA Today featured an article today called “NFL rethinking playoff seeding,” which can be found here.

This is an interesting article, if only to a niche audience. How many people really care how the playoffs are seeded, especially in March? This article might be more interesting in November, but I digress.

The NFL appears to be discussing reseeding playoff teams in the wild card rounds. In the current system, the division winners automatically play at home in the first round, regardless of whether or not they have a better record than their opponent. The possible change would allow for a seeding of the wild card round based on the team’s record. There are several reasons for this, which author Jarrett Bell outlines.

“With first-round home games at stake, the final weekend of the regular season that is typically distinguished by random cases of non-competitiveness could become a lot more interesting.

The Buccaneers, for example, lost their final two regular-season games in 2007 after wrapping up the NFC South title in Week 15. Quarterback Jeff Garcia was rested, with little incentive to win.

A re-seeding could reduce the number of cases where a team’s competitiveness is questioned because players are held out.”

I like this idea a lot. It will make all 17 weeks of the season more interesting, and gives the advantages to the better team- not the team in the weaker division.

There are bound to be downsides, though, right? What do you think?

And… Boom Goes the Dynamite

Posted on by David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

This is priceless. I’m so torn when I watch this video, because it’s both the funniest and saddest thing I think I’ve ever seen. It’s brutal.

Basically, this guy is a sportscaster, he looks about 13, and the teleprompter breaks. Hilarity ensues, though not for him. Check it out.

I have to say, I think my favorite part is the end, when he’s thanked for his contributing. The “yeah” is just fantastic.

Avoid a Huge Inbox with "The Trusted Trio"

Posted on by David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

I came across something on www.lifehacker.com (a geek-favorite website of mine) about how best to manage your email. I’ve tried a huge number of these things, and none of them ever seem to work.

Until this one.

Gina Trapani at Lifehacker created the “Trusted Trio” system for managing email, which I’ve become a big fan of. Here is essentially how it works (more details can be found here).

You make 3 folders, tags, labels, whatever you may have (I personally use Gmail, because it’s the greatest thing ever). Gina named these three categories “Archive,” “FollowUp,” and “Hold.” Here’s how they work:

Archive: This is for all the emails you may need at some point in the future, but have no use for currently. Put them here, and they become easily searchable, but don’t just sit in your inbox and clutter it up.

FollowUp: Any emails you need to do something with goes here. I personally named it “Actionable,” because I often need to do things with emails other than just respond. Any email that requires some action on your part goes in here.

Hold: Are you waiting for a response? Will you need info on something tomorrow? Put the email in here. Anything still relevant, but not immediately requiring an action on your part goes in the hold folder.

This system really, to me, relies on two things:

1. You have to delete a LOT of mail. This was hard for me. Chances are, you get a lot of irrelevant mail that you’ll never need again, but you keep it anyway. (For all those who just said “but I might NEED the email from my Aunt Ruth wishing me a happy ninth birthday”- I know, I feel your pain.)

2. You have to review these folders- FollowUp and Hold in particular. These must be kept as up-to-date and actioned as possible. There’s no point on having an awesome system unless you do something with it.

It’s worked really well for me- Thanks, Gina! There are tons of systems out there, and some work better than others. How do you manage email?

The Things I Can't Live Without- Part 1

Posted on by David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

This is the first post in a series that I’ve cryptically titled “The Things I Can’t Live Without.” In this series, I’ll be highlighting a number (I haven’t decided which one) of things that are important to the way I live my life. They’ll be all kinds of different things, but they’re a window into my life. And… We’re Off!

Things I Can’t Live Without

#1: My iHome

I Happen to be one of those people for whom waking up in the morning is not exactly a pleasant experience. I’m incredibly convincing when I tell myself, “no, it’s fine, you’ll definitely feel better if you get five more minutes of sleep.” Then, when five minutes becomes two hours and I’ve missed everything I had to do that day, somehow it becomes my alarm clock’s fault, and I yell at it for a while before going back to sleep and starting the process all over again. Trust me, it’s not as fun and productive as it sounds.

That whole process changed when I got my iHome. An iHome is essentially a charger for your iPod that also functions as an alarm clock, playing songs from your iPod.

There’s something awesome about waking up to music that makes waking up a much more pleasant experience. Instead of my usual “I will punch you in the face if you look at me funny” phase in the morning, I wake up in my “rock-out and dance across my room” phase. Much more fun for those everyone.

Here is a picture of the model iHome I own, the iH4. It retails for about $50, and can be found here.

It’s the only way I get up in the morning, and I can’t live without it.

What do you use to wake up in the morning? And if you’re one of those people who pop off the pillow every day, how do you do it?

Finally, a Sense of Where They Stand

Posted on by David Pierce | NO COMMENTS

Business Week ran yesterday an article titled “The Candidate’s Plans to Fix the Economy.” It can be viewed here.

This thrills me- even if the Democratic positions weren’t particularly different, at least the discussion has been the issues, and what is facing our nation, instead of the two candidates just saying why they’re the ideal candidate. I wish they would state their cases on the issues, and let the voters decide which is better. This is obviously an unrealistic idea, but hopefully this marks a turning point- maybe Obama and Hillary have finally figured out that personal attacks won’t work, and all they can do is be the better candidate. What do you think? Is this a sign of things to come, or just a blip because of Bear Stearns?

Plus, it made me laugh that McCain got only about the last two paragraphs of the article.

So, all around, good times.

Oh Davidson, How You Ruin My Brackets

Posted on by David Pierce | 1 Comment

So Davidson just beat Wisconsin, 73-56. Stephon Curry is officially a monster. He has 103 points now, in a grand total of 3 games. Who is this guy? Where did he come from?
I know Davidson was 20-0 in the Southern Conference, but since when does that mean anything? The NCAA Tournament is supposed to be where the behemoth teams come out and prove how much better they are than all the smaller, lesser schools. It’s been a bizarre year. Anyone see this coming, and know something I didn’t?

Welcome To My Blog!

Posted on by David Pierce | 2 Comments

My name is David Pierce, and I’m a student at the University of Virginia. I’m something of a web nerd- particularly when it comes to blogs and technology. I read them, I comment- it’s a little sad. What I want to do with this blog, though, is make it something for everyone. I like sports, technology, politics, all kinds of things. I might be self-indulgent in doing this, but I want to see who else out there shares my interests. I’ll be posting things I come across that I think are worth noting, and my hope is to over time develop enough of a community here that we can foster real discussion. Some of it will be “which new cell phone is the coolest?” and some will be more serious. I’m new to this, so bear with me, and hopefully we’ll have some fun!

Here’s my first topic of the day: I came across this on the New York Times website today. It seems that in a contest between a number of different computers, a Mac was the first to get hacked, in 2 minutes. For all the flak given to Windows, at least they held out longer. I wonder if, as Macs gain more market share, they’ll end up in the same boat as Windows. Does Windows get exploited more just because more people use Windows?