The Chumby Diaries: A Partial-Attention Love-Hate Story

I could look these up online on my real computer, of course. But it just wouldn’t be the same. Chumby Industries CEO Steve Tomlin writes on the “Chumblog” that on a big computer, widgets, as “side-information,” interfere with productivity. Those funny facts about Chuck Norris are “low-information-value pixels” that get in the way of “high-information-value pixels” — like your budget spreadsheet. But when you transpose the Chuck Norris facts onto a smaller, entirely separate screen, their value increases. They become the big fish in a small pond.

Oh, Chumby. How do I miss thee ... let me count the ways.

Ryan Ward

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• Barack Obama
• Chuck Norris
• I.T. Department
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• Science and Technology

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Day 12

Chumby wakes me up with the goofy, spelling-impaired cats from I Can Has Cheezburger. Obligingly, it plays classical music from Radio Free Chumby while I take a shower. How is this possible, you ask, if the neighbors have wised up and placed password protection on their previously unsecured, “free” Wi-Fi access? It’s possible because I have bought Chumby a peace offering: our own wireless Internet hookup.