Matthew Lang

This is amazing. As you ride the elevator to the top of 1 World Trade Centre, you can watch an animated time-lapse of the New York skyline starting from the 1500s to the present.

via SwissMiss

Moleskine are adapting to the digital world around them, but the big plus from this article is that despite the prevalence of technology, Moleskine's little black books are still their top seller.

The number of Moleskine paper products, including variations on the notebooks, has ballooned to about 500. But the top sellers are still the blank black notebooks in the original pocket size and a larger version.

— Moleskine Notebooks Adapt to the Digital World by New York Times

via The Cramped

Once again, I'm honoured to be included in such great company.

Thanks Kurt.

Given I'm a couple of years from this milestone, it's a worrying prospect to think that my chances of being hired will continue to decline.

The unfortunate truth is that unlike other forms of discrimination that are more arbitrary and capricious, age discrimination can often be a result of objective and sound business justifications. I’m not trying to justify it as an acceptable practice, but just trying to describe the pickle it puts the manager in trying to make a sound business decision without compromising the ethical and legal obligations of the company.

— Programmers: Before You Turn 40, Get a Plan B by John Fuex

I suppose though I'm already working towards a plan B with my freelancing career, but is that enough?

A quick summary from different reviews of the Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch is the best smartwatch on the market, the reviewers agree. And it does some interesting things. But it’s not essential.

This is different than smartphones, which became addictive at first use and were obvious, must-own devices. It sounds like the watch still needs some work before it’s great.

— The Apple Watch reviews are in, and they’re uncharacteristically meh across the board by Quartz

Ever since the first official news that Apple were going to be releasing a watch, I've been skeptical of it's initial success due to the fact there wasn't a single feature of it that made me want to buy it.

My take on it is that I don't want another touch enabled screen to distract me, I've already got one.

If I had to buy something for my wrist that fell in this category of technology, I would have to say that something like a Fitbit, or even Microsoft's Band would be something more up my street. Mostly for the health tracking benefits.

It's still early days though for the Apple Watch and given Apple's history of products it's fair to say that a more streamlined Apple Watch is probably already being planned.

Caesura Letters today discusses the time it takes to form a new habit.

Habits are not the result of thinking about something hard enough to change it, but transforming your behaviour long enough that you stop thinking about it. Therefore, the best strategy is not to have a specific “timeline to habit achievement” at the forefront of your mind. Instead: just keep doing it until you don’t realize you are doing it anymore. Preoccupation with a deadline only gives you more reasons to think about it.

— 21 Days to Change a Habit? by Caesura Letters

Jason Fried wrote about finding a positive experience when he joined Instagram:

Every scroll through Twitter puts at least one person’s bad day, shitty experience, or moment of snark in front of me. These are good happy people – I know many of them in real life – but for whatever reason, Twitter is the place they let their shit loose. And while it’s easy to do, it’s not comfortable to be around. I don’t enjoy it.

Every scroll through Instagram puts someone’s good day in front of me. A vacation picture, something new they got that they love, pictures of nature, pictures of people they love, places they’ve been, and stuff they want to cheer about. It’s just flat out harder to be negative when sharing a picture. This isn’t a small thing – it’s a very big deal. I feel good when I browse Instagram. That’s the feel that matters.

— Look and Feel and Feel by Jason Fried

I too have recently joined Instagram. I was curious to see what all the fuss was about and having discovered a few good accounts that embrace my different interests, I was surprised at the diversity of content on Instagram. Put it this way, it's no longer selfie central or at least it doesn't need to be.

I've always been doubtful about my coming back to Twitter and seeing how positive a difference it would make on me. Truth be told, I've not been that active, and I've purposely kept the number of accounts I've wanted to follow down to a minimum but there's still a number of issues I have with Twitter.

The ongoing changes to the time-line on the web interface makes it difficult to use. With tweets being promoted and inserted, I just can't easily follow what's happening. Not a big problem as I mostly read my time-line using the Echofon OS X app.

One feature of App.net that I really like was that I could verify my own account. This still isn't the case with Twitter, and the rules for having your account verified depend on a number of factors. Whatever the rules are, you can't help but notice that it's usually famous people that get verified status. I would like to see Twitter allowing users to verify their own accounts as well as a filter that only displays content from verified accounts. It would be one way to filter out the nonsense and garbage on Twitter and get back to the content that really matters.

Given my tweets have been infrequent recently, I don't have the number of spam accounts following that I did in the past, but it's still an issue. I did a clear down of my followers recently and found a couple of questionable accounts.

My experience on Instagram has been extremely positive and the visual aspect of the network is something that is much more enjoyable to flick through than Twitter is. It's just a more pleasant place to be.

My following list is biased towards mountain biking and fixies of course with a smattering of notebooks, the NFL and National Geographic plus a few Internet celebs whose work I enjoy.

Initially I'll be keeping my account private. If you request to follow me and I know you, I'll approve it. If I don't know you, you don't get approved. Sorry, that's just how it is for the moment.

A slightly biased article towards cyclists that points the finger at the motor industry to blame for what they call crazy helmet laws. I disagree.

I wear a helmet not because I'm afraid a car hits me. If I fall off my bike at speed due to a car, pedestrian or even a pothole, then I stand a better chance of walking away from the fall.

Put it this way, would you take a chance with your kids not wearing a helmet when they're cycling?

via FGGT

The message is clear. Exercise often. It's just one aspect of clean living.

“We’ve always spoken about the principle of association since he was young and playing in bigger stage events,” McCormick said. This means paying attention to the good shots of others to increase the likelihood you’ll hit a good shot. “We’ve also worked on building an ‘imagery reel’ of his past successes to draw back on to amplify his confidence.” Again, the idea is the act of remembering a good shot can actually trigger your motor skills to fire the same way.

— Spieth's instructor since age 12 knew he had something special by Golf Digest

Seth lays out five steps to digital hygiene.

A must step for anyone serious about embracing pen and paper.

After a rocky start to the year, it seems that Ethan is finding his form again. It was a big ask for Ethan to beat James in his match but despite losing, his scorecard was made up of fives, sixes and sevens. Well done kid!

Elderslie Golf Club continues to be a great place for Ethan and the rest of the juniors to develop their game. Hat tip to Scott and Craig and everybody else involved in helping develop the junior team there.

Michael Wade, our resident pathfinder, knows the way forward.

Take your time and as you move down the path, be open to new thoughts. They frequently visit when we're otherwise engaged.

— Watch the Trail by Execupundit

This was too good not to post.

via CycleEXIF

Yip, pretty sure I want one of these.

via PEDAL Consumption

... is an undoubtably great new series from NB.