Links

D.C.’s longest operating hotel, infamous and beloved, to close its doors

washingtonpost.com

For the uninitiated, mourning the passing of the Harrington may seem as inconceivable as, say, tearing up over the closing of a Motel 6. But to its devotees — the generations of tourists, Boy Scout troops and school groups that came from all over; the regulars who drank Harry’s cheap beers and inhaled Ollieburgers — the Harrington is an unbuttoned oasis in an otherwise buttoned-up downtown.

I worked around the corner from this place in my first DC job and had my first day’s lunch with my boss at Harry’s. I’d hit Ollie’s for lunch on the regular. “Unbuttoned” is a great way to put it.

Barbara Jordan Delivers the Democratic National Convention Keynote Address (1976)

texasarchive.org

Jordan was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and with this speech, became the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address to the DNC on July 12. This speech remains one of the most lauded speeches in modern history, speaking to the common good and building a national community.

Amazing speech. The context was not long after Watergate, but is incredibly relevant today. And she was 40 at the time!

Niklaus Wirth, or the Importance of Being Simple

cacm.acm.org

Even if hardware progress drives software progress, he could not accept what he viewed as the lazy approach of using hardware power as an excuse for sloppy design. I suspect that was the reasoning behind the one-compilation-pass stance: sure, our computers now enable us to use several passes, but if we can do the compilation in one pass we should since it is simpler and leaner.

Maryland musician’s Bird Calls Phone allows anyone to dial up nature

washingtonpost.com

Schulman said he got the idea for the phone after noticing a neglected, nonworking pay phone in town. He wondered if he could turn it into something appealing.

“As a sound person, I’ve always loved pay phones,” he said. “I really like the old technology of just picking up a receiver, pressing one button and having something happen.”

I followed this thread personally with Dream Dial and I’m still fascinated by it.

What's that touchscreen in my room?

laplab.me

Roughly a year ago I moved into my new apartment. One of the reasons I picked this apartment was age of the building. The construction was finished in 2015, which ensured pretty good thermal isolation for winters as well as small nice things like Ethernet ports in each room. However, there was one part of my apartment that was too new and too smart for me.