what happens when you drop your credit card terminal

a couple of weeks ago i was in vancouver hanging out in a neighborhood coffeeshop (the wilder snail) when the credit card machine went down. and by “went down,” i mean one of the two dudes in the couple dropped the portable terminal. (sidenote: in canada, everyone’s credit card terminals are these little mobile, wireless devices… fascinating. makes the wired american credit card system seem archaic).

migration: living somewhere else for a month each year

capitalism is theft

Externality is a term that is used in economics to designate unintended side effects on third parties or costs that are not accounted for in prices. Externalities can be positive (benefits) or negative (costs). For example, I may enjoy driving my car, but, unlike the cyclist behind me, I rarely notice the negative externality—air pollution—that I cause.

alternative futures: my first migration – decade two

note: this is another draft for a piece i’ll submit to the alternative futures project i’ve launched with my friend, grant.

listening to the city: sound is physical

following up on a pps in my post about vibrating together, i have two final thoughts (for now) from the listening to the city conference. both are related to the idea of sound being a physical phenomenon.