I demo’d Co-op last night at the monthly NY Tech Meetup.  Aside from being able to tell people about our latest baby, it’s always great to meet all the people in NY who are also working on various interesting projects.  Here are a few noteworthy NYC startups we shared the stage with last night that you should get to know:

FreshmanFund – an easy way to start saving for your kid’s college fund (and allows gifting of college funds so you don’t need to give that new parent another baby blanket they already have).

Glue – an interesting way to discover what your network of friends like and consume in music, books, movies, etc. without the confines of any one social network.

Cookstr – not just another recipe site, this one will feature recipes from some of the best know cook book authors and chefs in the industry.

Wee Web – a private way for parents to document and share updates about their kids (founded by former Meetup.com co-founders).

MixedInk – a document collaboration tool that seems great for groups.

Without a doubt, New York City has become home to more and more design and technology companies through the years, and despite all that is going on right now in the macroeconomics picture, a visit to a full-capacity NY Tech Meetup offers a glimpse into the city’s interest and passion for design, web, and technology.

This post was originally published in the Iridesco Watercooler.

The Mad Men intro sequence interpreted by the Simpsons in their recent Halloween special. (see also: the real deal) »

LINK Change.gov »
If you've not heard, the Obama-Biden Transition Project have just launched this site to communicate with the technically inclined.

How to nap

According to this article from The Boston Globe, our propensity for an afternoon nap isn’t  due to a heavy lunch.  It’s just a part of our physiological pattern, something we’re genetically wired for.  Read up on this article accompanied by tasty infographics for the how and the why.

This post was originally published in the Iridesco Watercooler.

I had the pleasure of attending designer and artist Amit Pitaru’s talk about his recent projects and was thoroughly impressed by the thoughtfulness and playfulness of his work.  Despite the interactive nature of his work, however, one can hardly find information or videos showing his work on the web, so the boot-leg video above will have to do.

In this video, we see the interactive Sonic Wire Sculpture (demo’d by collaborator James Patterson) in action.  By drawing lines within the 3d space, a musical piece is created.  It’s just the tip of the iceberg for the body of work that is possible with this installation.

This post was originally published in the Iridesco Watercooler.

LINK Hulu - Saturday Night Live: Don Draper's Guide »
Look good. Smell good. Talk good. Look good in a suit. Look good in casual wear. Have a great name. Be Don Draper (of Mad Men).

I had the opportunity over the last couple weeks to reacquaint myself with the country in which I was born in and where I spent the first few years of my childhood. Needless to say, many things have changed over the twenty-odd years since my childhood here. Here are just a few things that are noteworthy:

• The famously humid and hot weather here can be pretty uncomfortable. However, at least in October, the evenings are about as comfortable as it gets with an easy breeze.
• It’s hard to go wrong with wide selection of food vendors and restaurants that seem to be everywhere. One simply can’t get the egg pancakes, tasty herb-based chicken soups or stinky tofu the way they do it here. Despite what some may say, I think night markets are just fine for non-local stomachs (of course, some sound judgment such as avoiding the few unsanitary stalls required).
• It is not uncommon for someone to jump back and forth between Mandarin and Taiwanese in mid-conversation, mid-sentence. And how you mix it up, or not, can be a tell for your political affiliation (perhaps not unlike stereotyped southern drawls for Republicans in the U.S.).
• Politicians speak in a sing-songy way when delivering speeches. A favorite trick of theirs is to say a positive statement and immediately ask the audience “hao bu haaaaaoooooo?” (roughly translating to: isn’t that right?). The last syllable is dramatically drawn out as the crowd roars in applause.
• Indie rock, Converse All-Stars, and trucker hats have found their way to Taiwanese youth culture. Along these lines, young artists and entrepreneurs have set up shop in now hip areas like ximending, selling handcrafted goods, t-shirts, and other off-the-radar items. Hip, hip.
• Taipei’s subway system is one of the best I’ve experienced. Clean, easy to navigate, and reliable. Kaohsuing’s (the major port city in Southern Taipei) metro system recently opened, but ridership is sadly sparse.
• Cycling has become all the rage. Though most people still use mopeds as their main mode of transportation, mountain bikes, folding bikes, and accompanying lycra gear have become popular. Road bikes, though, are still reserved to a select few. Side note: GIANT bicycles, the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer, is one of the few well-known international consumer brands I can think of that is based in Taiwan.

That’s it for this edition of Observations. »

LINK Senate Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (PublicMarkup.org) »
PublicMarkup.org is an admirable project: by opening legislation/bills online for review, it gives the general public a chance to better understand and subsequently shape the bills that our congressional committees pass.

October 1, 2008 – This morning, the Senate Banking Committee posted online (in PDF) their version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. The bill, which started life as a three-page measure, reached 110 pages when it was voted down in the House. The Senate’s new proposed legislation is included within a 451-page document filled with additional provisions. In order to facilitate a conversation about the specifics, we’re parsing the bill’s text, and have completed the first part, “Division A: the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008,” posted below for review and commentary.

Also worth a listen: NPR discusses Is the Bailout Worth It?