Rachel Pietraszek

Rachel Pietraszek

Legal Tech. Web Enthusiast. Turophile.

Paper Writing Setup



Fig. 1: Many, many highlighted documents open at once, as if I can read more than one thing at a time.

Fig. 2: Discarded cans of diet coke and an empty tea mug. Rather than reuse this mug, invevitably I will get a new one each time I decide I want a refill.

Fig. 3: Tea-bag disposed of by placing on a coaster. Stay classy.

Fig. 4: Soothing candle (does not help stay soothed).

Fig. 5: Reading glasses, removed to take picture.

Fig. 6: Notebook full of incomprehensible scribbles which I am attempting to turn into a paper.*

[Not pictured: Angsty, emo or indie music playing on the stereo; 15 Herseys Kisses wrappers hiding behind the computer screen.]

*Note that sometimes I can’t even read my own handwriting.
Posted on December 1, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on December 1st, 2011

Privacy and Expression


At the moment, lawyers at Facebook and Google and Microsoft have more power over the future of privacy and free expression than any king or president or Supreme Court justice. And we can’t rely simply on judges enforcing the existing Constitution to protect the values that the Framers took for granted.

Reblogged from Fastcompany (via nprfreshair)

Posted November 30, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 30th, 2011

Creative Outlets


Matt Caliman has designed a simple way to give electric wall outlets some personality with his Creative Outlet Stickers. (via Laughingsquid)
Posted on November 29, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 29th, 2011

I Should've Bought One




A new product from BERG which aims to reinvent personalized publishing, with printed news from Foursquare, Facebook, and The Guardian.

Posted on November 29, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 29th, 2011

Beartato


What’s in a name? (via Nedroid)
Posted on November 16, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 16th, 2011

Cattache


"Cattache, A Great Way To Let Your Cat Out of the Bag"
Posted on November 15, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 15th, 2011

Cake Pops


I love muppets, and I love cupcakes. Lolipops I’m not so keen on. (via The Laughing Squid)
Posted on November 11, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 11th, 2011

Don't Dead: Open Inside


At first glance, thought the title of this book was The Impossible Dead Ian Rankin. This is why cover design is so important.

Posted on November 11, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 11th, 2011

Married to the Sea Has Wants


inventor of the smartphone, via Married to the Sea

Posted on November 10, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 10th, 2011

Simpsons Quotes


Can you imagine a world without lawyers?
Posted on November 9, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 9th, 2011

Redesigns


"Hey guys, remember in 2006 when MySpace let you set your background image to any old ugly shit so it was harder to read everything? Let’s bring that back LOL."
-Google, apparently

Posted on November 9, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 9th, 2011

Simpsons Quote


Marge: [gasps] Homer! You’ve got it set on "whore".
…
Lisa: Dad, women won’t like being shot in the face.
Homer: Women will like what I tell them to like!
Posted on November 9, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 9th, 2011

A well articulated article in Slate points out why Google+ has lost its chance to compete with Facebook

That launch-first, fix-it-later strategy has worked marvelously for Google in the past. Gmail didn’t match all of Microsoft Outlook’s features from the beginning—it didn’t even have a delete button—but the stuff it did have (lots of storage and fast search) was so compelling that people were willing to stick with it until it became the best email program in existence. In the same way, I switched to Chrome because it was faster than any other browser I’ve ever used—and I stuck with it even though it lacked add-ons or the ability to bookmark many tabs at once. (It has since added those features.)

But a social network isn’t a product; it’s a place. Like a bar or a club, a social network needs a critical mass of people to be successful—the more people it attracts, the more people it attracts. Google couldn’t have possibly built every one of Facebook’s features into its new service when it launched, but to make up for its deficits, it ought to have let users experiment more freely with the site. That freewheeling attitude is precisely how Twitter—the only other social network to successfully take on Facebook in the last few years—got so big. When Twitter users invented ways to reply to one another or echo other people’s tweets, the service didn’t stop them—it embraced and extended their creativity. This attitude marked Twitter as a place whose hosts appreciated its users, and that attitude—and all the fun people were having—pushed people to stick with the site despite its many flaws (Twitter’s frequent downtime, for example). Google+, by contrast, never managed to translate its initial surge into lasting enthusiasm. And for that reason, it’s surely doomed.

Posted on November 8, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 8th, 2011

Amazing Photography


"These amazing photos were taken by the Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, which seeks to relocate rhinos to less-populated parts of South Africa. They move the animals via helicopter airlift, a new, more humane transportation technique which is much faster, allowing the rhinos to remain anesthetized for a shorter period of time. The effect is breathtaking and odd — something straight out of a Terry Gilliam movie."

Posted on November 8, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 8th, 2011

Samsung Galaxy Note



Note from 2022 Rachel: I got this phone like six months later and I hated it so much. Also WHAT was the Dell Streak??
Oh my God I want this phone so much (in spite of the stylus). It’s exactly what I’ve been talking about wanting in a phone for like two years (since the Dell Streak looked promising and then flopped).

"If you want a huge, high-resolution and fantastically crisp and contrast-rich screen, the Samsung Galaxy Note is undoubtedly the best device in its class. It’s also great if you like the attention of strangers, many of them geeky. And if performance is paramount and you feel a tablet is insufficiently portable, you’re going to love the Note." -TechCentral

Posted on November 8, 2011

Rachel Pietraszek Posted on November 8th, 2011