This week in Editors’ Picks: Two Associate Editors who are moving on from Geekosystem this and next week, boo! A secret project Eric has been working on for like a week, yay! And a trackpad, booyah!
James’ pick: Eric and Max
Today and this coming Wednesday usher in a new era here at Geekosystem, as our own Eric Limer and Max Eddy are moving on to new things. They’ve given us their all over their time here, and if you’re reading this, you already know they’re talented, entertaining, bright individuals. They’ll be missed, and they’re some of the best dudes I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing, much less working alongside.
Geekosystem will be infused with some new talented, entertaining blood very soon, but Max and Eric will always have left a positive mark on the site, and will certainly be around the Interwebosphere for a long time to come. Make sure you follow them on Twitter so you still get your daily dose of brilliance and madness, with Eric over at @ericlimer, and Max over at @elecray7k.
Eric’s pick: Secret, Stupid Clown Pranks
As James mentioned above, today is my last day at Geekosystem. Over my year here, I’ve accomplished a lot of things I’m quite proud off. I’ve learned a great deal about copyright law and developed (what I think is) a multi-faceted opinion on the subject. I documented the rise and fall of SOPA. I discovered my love for the American Library Association, discovered horrible things in the Orbit Gum Facebook ad campaign’s TOS, and marveled at the wonders of graphene. This, however, is nothing compared to my favorite little project, a secret I will relay to you now.
If you follow @Geekosystem, you may have noticed we tweet out older stories overnight with our #Geekovault hashtag. If you watch very closely, you notice we always tweet them out at [xx]:12 o’clock. And if you watch very, very closely you know that, for roughly the past two weeks, every day at 6:12 AM, we’ve tweeted out the same picture of a terrifying clown. This is my great triumph.
It’s a stupid joke, I know, but one that amuses me endlessly, and one that really represents the kind of fun I’ve been able to have here at Geekosystem. When you work on the Internet for too long, your sense of humor starts to morph a little, but you guys are on the Internet too, so I trust you’ll understand.
All that said, it’s been wonderful working here, and I’ll never forget where I got my start. One last thing, make sure to get to bed early so you can be bright-eyed an bushy-tailed for the final horrifying clown tweet tomorrow at 6:12 AM. Thanks for reading, folks. It’s been a pleasure.
Oh, and here are a few of my clown tweet faves.
Sha-la-la-la-la-la don’t be scared. You got the mood prepared. Go on and kiss the clown! geekosystem.com/terrifying-clo…
— Geekosystem (@Geekosystem) July 19, 2012
Mary had a little clown, who’s mouth was just a tube. And everywhere the Mary went, the clown would eat some dude. geekosystem.com/terrifying-clo… — Geekosystem (@Geekosystem) July 20, 2012
The best part of waking up is this horrifying clown in your cup! #Geekovault geekosystem.com/terrifying-clo… — Geekosystem (@Geekosystem) July 7, 2012
Alright, you guys know the drill; it’s clown time. #Geekovault geekosystem.com/terrifying-clo… — Geekosystem (@Geekosystem) July 13, 2012
Max’s pick: Magic Trackpad
I’ll keep this brief: When Apple introduced a multitouch trackpad in their line of unibody MacBook Pros, it changed my life forever. I really do hate to sound hyperbolic, but it made trackpads actually work and not just act as flat, crappy mouse substitutes. It suddenly made sense.
When I decided to invest in a dedicated work computer, I also decided to go all-out with the multitouch gestures in OS X. I bought the Magic Trackpad, I installed Lion, I turned on every possible gesture and gesture-based activity that the operating system would allow. I was all in.
I won’t lie, it took a few weeks to get used to it, but pretty soon I was flying along. With a few flicks of the wrist I was navigating between programs, workspaces, and even using Apple’s weird Launchpad thing. Though I’ve always preferred keyboard shortcuts and could never make a real argument that swiping is faster or more effective, like driving a stick-shift it just feels satisfying.
- A Digsby Theme, Why There Are Mountains, Mexicoke
- Gaming mice, Spelunky, and Stereopathic Soulmanure
- OS X’s Twitter client, Drive, and a video about Thomas Pynchon ebooks
