img class=face src=http://planet.ubuntu.com/heads/toponce.png alt= pAbout a month ago, while teaching a class in Philadelphia, a student in my class had an interesting BASH prompt. In fact, not only had he customized a prompt for BASH, but one for CSH and KSH as well, as apparently, he spends adequate time in those shells during work. Well, this got me rethinking about my own ZSH prompt, and how I wanted to customize it to fit my needs. However, as things go with teaching on the road, I got a bit lazy, and didn#8217;t do much about it. Then, last week, while teaching a Linux security course, I had another student with an interesting take on his prompts. That must have been the straw that broke the camel#8217;s back, because I was determined by Friday to have my customized ZSH prompt./p pFirst, the question begs why- why spend so much time configuring a silly prompt? Surely you can get the information you need from commands in the terminal. While this is true, I spend so much time in my terminal, that I want it to be functional, and well as attractive. After all, I probably spend three quarters of my working day behind the terminal. So, I might as well make it as informative as I can. With that, let#8217;s see what I#8217;ve done to my prompt. First, a simple screenshot showing the cleanliness of the default promt:/p div align=centerimg src=http://pthree.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/zsh-prompt1.png alt=Basic ZSH prompt //div pHere#8217;s what I wanted behind my prompt:/p ul liA matching theme with my .screenrc, Mutt theme and 88_madcows Irssi theme (yes, they all tie in together)./li liThe continuation prompt should carry on the theme of the main prompt./li liMy username and host that I#8217;m connected to/li liThe history number of the last command executed./li liA timestamp showing when I executed the last command./li liThe prompt should never be wider than the terminal we#8217;re attached to (we may need to truncate the path)./li liDisplay statuses of the following, only when needed: liBattery status of my laptop, if less than 100%./li liThe current GIT branch, if any./li liThe exit code of the last command, if any other than zero./li liThe screen number I#8217;m attached to, if behind screen./li liThe number of jobs executing in the background, if any./li /li /ul pThat#8217;s it. Not much really. Most of it is fairly straight forward. Some of those points will require some hacking, and a bit of logic, but for the most part, this shouldn#8217;t be too bad. So, with that, let#8217;s start dissecting my code line-by-line./p pAt first glance, you#8217;ll notice that I#8217;m using two functions to pull this off. The first function is a special ZSH function called #8216;precmd()#8217;. This function is always executed before a new prompt is drawn. Because we#8217;ll be creating custom variables, and using them in our prompt, we#8217;ll need to take advantage of this function. If we don#8217;t then we#8217;ll have to source our .zshrc every time we want our dynamic prompt updated. The second function is what actually draws the prompt. We#8217;ll look at that a bit later./p ppre class=phpspan# let's get the current get branch that we are under/span span# ripped from /etc/bash_completion.d/git from the git devs/span git_ps1 span#40;/spanspan#41;/span span#123;/span spanif/span which git gt; /dev/spannull/span; then local g=spanquot;$(git rev-parse --git-dir 2gt;/dev/null)quot;/span spanif/span span#91;/span -n spanquot;$gquot;/span span#93;/span; then local r local b spanif/span span#91;/span -d spanquot;$g/rebase-applyquot;/span span#93;/span; then spanif/span test -f spanquot;$g/rebase-apply/rebasingquot;/span; then r=spanquot;|REBASEquot;/span elif test -f spanquot;$g/rebase-apply/applyingquot;/span; then r=spanquot;|AMquot;/span spanelse/span r=spanquot;|AM/REBASEquot;/span fi b=spanquot;$(git symbolic-ref HEAD 2gt;/dev/null)quot;/span elif span#91;/span -f spanquot;$g/rebase-merge/interactivequot;/span span#93;/span; then r=spanquot;|REBASE-iquot;/span b=spanquot;$(cat quot;/spanspan$g/span/rebase-merge/head-namespanquot;)quot;/span elif span#91;/span -d spanquot;$g/rebase-mergequot;/span span#93;/span; then r=spanquot;|REBASE-mquot;/span b=spanquot;$(cat quot;/spanspan$g/span/rebase-merge/head-namespanquot;)quot;/span elif span#91;/span -f spanquot;$g/MERGE_HEADquot;/span span#93;/span; then r=spanquot;|MERGINGquot;/span b=spanquot;$(git symbolic-ref HEAD 2gt;/dev/null)quot;/span spanelse/span spanif/span span#91;/span -f spanquot;$g/BISECT_LOGquot;/span span#93;/span; then r=spanquot;|BISECTINGquot;/span fi spanif/span ! b=spanquot;$(git symbolic-ref HEAD 2gt;/dev/null)quot;/span; then spanif/span ! b=spanquot;$(git describe --exact-match HEAD 2gt;/dev/null)quot;/span; then b=spanquot;$(cut -c1-7 quot;/spanspan$g/span/HEADspanquot;)...quot;/span fi fi fi spanif/span span#91;/span -n spanquot;$1quot;/span span#93;/span; then a href=http://www.php.net/printfspanprintf/span/a spanquot;$1quot;/span spanquot;${b##refs/heads/}$rquot;/span spanelse/span a href=http://www.php.net/printfspanprintf/span/a spanquot;%squot;/span spanquot;${b##refs/heads/}$rquot;/span fi fi spanelse/span a href=http://www.php.net/printfspanprintf/span/a spanquot;quot;/span fi span#125;/span nbsp; GITBRANCH=spanquot; $(git_ps1)quot;/span/pre/p pBefore I even begin, I want to start off with determining my GIT branch that I#8217;m currently working on, if any. I use GIT extensively at work, and I#8217;ve even setup my own GIT repository at home, to track my own config files and custom scripts that I want to hold on to. As such, if I#8217;m ever on a GIT branch, I want that displayed in my prompt. As noticed in the comment before the code, this was pulled directly from the BASH completion package from the GIT developers? Why the extensive code? Well, when doing a rebase on the branch, I want to make sure I#8217;m keeping track of my current location, as HEAD won#8217;t always be reliable./p ppre class=phpspan# The following 9 lines of code comes directly from Phil!'s ZSH prompt/span span# http://aperiodic.net/phil/prompt//span local TERMWIDTH span#40;/spanspan#40;/span TERMWIDTH = $span#123;/spanCOLUMNSspan#125;/span - span1/span span#41;/spanspan#41;/span nbsp; local PROMPTSIZE=$span#123;/spanspan#${(%):--- %D{%R.%S %a %b %d %Y}! ---}}/span local PWDSIZE=$span#123;/spanspan#${(%):-%~}}/span nbsp; spanif/span span#91;/spanspan#91;/span spanquot;$PROMPTSIZE + $PWDSIZEquot;/span -gt span$TERMWIDTH/span span#93;/spanspan#93;/span; then span#40;/spanspan#40;/span PR_PWDLEN = span$TERMWIDTH/span - span$PROMPTSIZE/span span#41;/spanspan#41;/span fi/pre/p pNext, it#8217;s time to determine the terminal width. As mentioned above, I don#8217;t want my prompt to be longer than my terminal and wrap, so as such, I need some logic to figure this out. After several hours of hacking at this, I couldn#8217;t get it right. So, after a bit of searching, I found a href=http://aperiodic.net/phil/prompt/Phil Gold#8217;s ZSH prompt/a, and decided to copy the code verbatim, and modify it to fit my needs. Phil is using a right hand prompt, and I#8217;m not. As such, there was some code I could cut out, to get exactly what I needed. He does a good job explaining the logic, so I#8217;ll let you read it all there./p ppre class=phpspan# set a simple variable to show when in screen/span spanif/span span#91;/spanspan#91;/span -n spanquot;${WINDOW}quot;/span span#93;/spanspan#93;/span; then SCREEN=spanquot; S:${WINDOW}quot;/span spanelse/span SCREEN=spanquot;quot;/span fi/pre/p pScreen is my best friend. I use it to the point, where I only need one terminal open for all my separation needs. However, as much as I use it, it#8217;s not open all the time. As such, when it#8217;s open, I want to show it in my prompt. When it is not open, I don#8217;t want it cluttering the prompt up. As such, if a value exists in the $WINDOW variable (this is set when screen is executed, then I set the $SCREEN variable. Otherwise, I don#8217;t bother./p ppre class=phpspan# check if jobs are executing/span spanif/span span#91;/spanspan#91;/span $span#40;/spanjobs | wc -lspan#41;/span -gt span0/span span#93;/spanspan#93;/span; then JOBS=spanquot; J:%jquot;/span spanelse/span JOBS=spanquot;quot;/span fi/pre/p pI seem to background jobs from time-to-time. Usually when testing an application, or executing an application from the terminal. Although not critical, it#8217;s useful knowing if jobs are running in the background or not. Again, I don#8217;t want this cluttering up my terminal if jobs aren#8217;t running./p ppre class=phpspan# I want to know my battery percentage when less than 100%./span spanif/span which ibam amp;gt; /dev/spannull/span; then BATTSTATE=spanquot;$(ibam --percentbattery)quot;/span BATTPRCNT=spanquot;${BATTSTATE[(f)1][(w)-2]}quot;/span BATTTIME=spanquot;${BATTSTATE[(f)2][(w)-1]}quot;/span/pre/p pMost of my time computing is spent on my laptop. Although there are several utilities that show my current battery percentage, I figured why not put it into my prompt? One thing that converted me to ZSH was it#8217;s powerful scripting capabilities. Here, I#8217;m creating three variables for ultimately getting the data I want. In the BATTPRCNT, I find the data by grabbing the first line in the list (BATTSTATE[(f)1]) and the second-to-last word ([(w)-2]). For the remaining time, I get this information from the second line, and last word in the list./p ppre class=phpPR_BATTERY=spanquot; B:${BATTPRCNT}%% (${BATTTIME})quot;/span spanif/span span#91;/spanspan#91;/span spanquot;${BATTPRCNT}quot;/span -lt span15/span span#93;/spanspan#93;/span; then PR_BATTERY=spanquot;$PR_BRIGHT_RED$PR_BATTERYquot;/span elif span#91;/spanspan#91;/span spanquot;${BATTPRCNT}quot;/span -lt span50/span span#93;/spanspan#93;/span; then PR_BATTERY=spanquot;$PR_BRIGHT_YELLOW$PR_BATTERYquot;/span elif span#91;/spanspan#91;/span spanquot;${BATTPRCNT}quot;/span -lt span100/span span#93;/spanspan#93;/span; then PR_BATTERY=spanquot;$PR_RESET$PR_BATTERYquot;/span fi spanelse/span PR_BATTERY=spanquot;quot;/span fi span#125;/span/pre/p pNow that I have the battery data that I want, I format it to fit my needs. If the battery percentage is less than 100% and greater than 49%, I want the color to be the same as the rest of the prompt- normal. If it#8217;s less than 50% but greater than 14%, I want the color to be yellow. If it#8217;s less than 15%, then the color should be red. You#8217;ll notice that there are variables for colorizing the value. These are defined the next function below. Lastly, if the battery is 100%, then don#8217;t show the information at all. In order to retrieve this information, I use the #8220;ibam#8221; utility. It#8217;s installed on my laptop, so that#8217;s all that matters to me. This concludes the precmd() function. Now, to drawing the prompt itself./p ppre class=phpsetprompt span#40;/spanspan#41;/span span#123;/span span# Need this, so the prompt will work/span setopt prompt_subst nbsp; span# let's load colors into our environment, then set them/span autoload colors zsh/terminfo nbsp; spanif/span span#91;/spanspan#91;/span spanquot;$terminfo[colors]quot;/span -gt span8/span span#93;/spanspan#93;/span; then colors fi nbsp; spanfor/span COLOR in RED GREEN YELLOW WHITE BLACK; spando/span a href=http://www.php.net/evalspaneval/span/a PR_span$COLOR/span=span'%{$fg[${(L)COLOR}]%}'/span a href=http://www.php.net/evalspaneval/span/a PR_BRIGHT_span$COLOR/span=span'%{$terminfo[bold]$fg[${(L)COLOR}]%}'/span done nbsp; PR_RESET=spanquot;%{$terminfo[sgr0]%}quot;/span/pre/p pNow, we move onto drawing the prompt. This function is defined by myself, and is not a ZSH builtin. First, and foremost, I need to set the prompt_subst ZSH option. This is needed to substitute the variables in my prompt with what was defined earlier/p pThen, we need to load colors into the prompt. ZSH has an awesome autoload utility for loading modules into the namespace. Here, I#8217;m loading colors and terminfo, necessary for setting the appropriate colors. Then, we discover if we can even use colors. One thing I wanted about my prompt, was the ability to fail gracefully, if colors aren#8217;t supported. Here, I make that possible. Then it#8217;s on to defining the colors themselves. A simple #8216;for#8217; loop makes this possible, and we cycle through only the colors needed by the prompt. I#8217;m setting both bold an normal colors, so I can take advantage of them for a little styling of the prompt. I#8217;m also creating a RESET variable for resetting the color back to non-colored, normal text./p pThanks to lists, again, I can grab foreground and background colors as needed. Also, because I created a #8216;COLOR#8217; variable, I need to lowercase the variable when making the assignments, as the #8216;$fg[]#8216; list is expecting the color in lowercase. Why not just do it all in lowercase? I#8217;m a fan of uppercase variables in my scripts, and I keep this behavior here. So, #8216;$fg[${(L)COLOR}] will lowercase the value of #8216;$COLOR#8217;./p ppre class=phpspan# Finally, let's set the prompt/span PROMPT=span'span/span ${PR_BRIGHT_BLACK}lt;${PR_RESET}${PR_RED}lt;${PR_BRIGHT_RED}lt;${PR_RESET} span/span %D{%R.%S %a %b %d %Y}${PR_RED}!${PR_RESET}%$PR_PWDLENlt;...lt;%~%lt;lt; span/span nbsp; ${PR_BRIGHT_BLACK}lt;${PR_RESET}${PR_RED}lt;${PR_BRIGHT_RED}lt;span/span ${PR_RESET} %n@%m${PR_RED}!${PR_RESET}H:%h${SCREEN}${JOBS}%(?.. E:%?)span/span ${PR_BATTERY}${GITBRANCH}span/span nbsp; ${PR_BRIGHT_BLACK}gt;${PR_RESET}${PR_GREEN}gt;${PR_BRIGHT_GREEN}gt;span/span ${PR_BRIGHT_WHITE} '/span/pre/p pThe #8216;PROMPT#8217; variable is the same as the #8216;PS1#8242; variable in ZSH, so I use it here. This is the prompt string itself, doing all the formatting and placement of variables. Notice that whenever I define a bright color, before I can use a non-bright color, I have to reset it first. I#8217;m sure there#8217;s a better way to do this, but it works fine for me. Also, the #8216;PROMPT#8217; variable must be enclosed in single quotes, or some of the variables will not be evaluated./p ppre class=phpspan# Of course we need a matching continuation prompt/span PROMPT2=span'span/span ${PR_BRIGHT_BLACK}gt;${PR_RESET}${PR_GREEN}gt;${PR_BRIGHT_GREEN}gt;span/span ${PR_RESET} %_ ${PR_BRIGHT_BLACK}gt;${PR_RESET}${PR_GREEN}gt;span/span ${PR_BRIGHT_GREEN}gt;${PR_BRIGHT_WHITE} '/span span#125;/span/pre/p pOf course, it would be silly to not define a matching continuation prompt. The #8216;PROMPT2#8242; variable in ZSH is the same as the #8216;PS2#8242; variable, so again, I prefer to use that variable name. Below is a screenshot showing every aspect of the prompt, except for the GIT branch. As you can see, I#8217;m in a directory structure that normally would be longer than the width of the terminal, I#8217;m behind screen in window #0, running 2 backgrounded jobs, there was an exit code of #8216;42#8242; from the previous executable, my battery has a 94% charge, the previous executable was run at 23:05 on November 22, 2008 and I#8217;m about to execute history item number 1573./p div align=centerimg src=http://pthree.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/zsh-prompt2.png alt=Basic ZSH prompt //div ppre class=phpsetprompt/pre/p pLastly, we call the function to draw the prompt, and we#8217;re off! Since creating this prompt, I#8217;ve thought about other useful data that I could use for the prompt. Maybe I#8217;ll get around to that, but right now, I#8217;m very happy with the final status. The post is informative, but not intrusive. It contains both function and form. It#8217;s bright to grab your attention, but not overbearing to distract you for your work. It conserves real estate, yet is loaded with information. Yeah. I won#8217;t be changing shells, or prompts, anytime soon. img src=http://pthree.org/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif alt=:) class=wp-smiley / /p pa href=http://pthree.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/zsh_ps1.txtThe entire source can be downloaded here/a./p pCheers!/p div class=feedflare a href=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pthree?a=mXgSNimg src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pthree?i=mXgSN border=0 //a /divimg src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pthree/~4/462562027 height=1 width=1 /

When reviewing the G1 we found a lot to like, but a lot to dislike too. We knew that some of its shortcomings, like the missing headphone jack, were sadly permanent (free adapters notwithstanding), but hoped that it would just be a matter of time before some enterprising soul (with an enterprising compiler) would take care of another complaint: the lack of multi-touch. Lo and behold now is that time and Ryan Gardner is that coder, author of a little app that proves the inability of the G1 to accept a two-finger salute is not a hardware limitation. You can see for yourself in a video after the break, and once Ryan is done cleaning up his code he pledges to post that, too (don't forget those comments, man). Okay, so being able to cover your screen with red and yellow splotches isn't going to convert any spoiled iPhoners, but we're thinking the rest of you developers out there should be able to pick up this ball and run with it. So make with the running, already.

Continue reading G1 multi-touch a reality, integrated headphone jack still just a dream

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Handhelds

G1 multi-touch a reality, integrated headphone jack still just a dream originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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div style="text-align: center;"a href="http://www.ryebrye.com/blog/2008/11/22/g1-multitouch-proof-of-concept-video/"img hspace="4" border="1" vspace="4" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/11/g1-multitouch-500.jpg" alt="G1 multi-touch a reality, integrated headphone jack still just a dream" //abr //div When a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/16/t-mobile-g1-review-part-1-hardware/"reviewing/a the G1 we found a lot to like, but a lot to dislike too. We knew that some of its shortcomings, like the a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/23/confirmed-t-mobile-g1-has-no-3-5mm-headphone-jack/"missing headphone jack/a, were sadly permanent (a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/21/t-mobile-g1s-now-shipping-with-3-5mm-headphone-adapters-included/"free adapters/a notwithstanding), but hoped that it would just be a matter of time before some enterprising soul (with an enterprising compiler) would take care of another complaint: the lack of multi-touch. Lo and behold now is that time and Ryan Gardner is that coder, author of a little app that proves the inability of the G1 to accept a two-finger salute is not a hardware limitation. You can see for yourself in a video after the break, and once Ryan is done cleaning up his code he pledges to post that, too (don't forget those comments, man). Okay, so being able to cover your screen with red and yellow splotches isn't going to convert any spoiled iPhoners, but we're thinking the rest of you developers out there should be able to pick up this ball and run with it. So make with the running, already.pa href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/22/g1-multi-touch-a-reality-integrated-headphone-jack-still-just-a/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emG1 multi-touch a reality, integrated headphone jack still just a dream/em/a/ppFiled under: a href="http://www.engadget.com/category/cellphones/" rel="tag"Cellphones/a, a href="http://www.engadget.com/category/displays/" rel="tag"Displays/a, a href="http://www.engadget.com/category/handhelds/" rel="tag"Handhelds/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/22/g1-multi-touch-a-reality-integrated-headphone-jack-still-just-a/"G1 multi-touch a reality, integrated headphone jack still just a dream/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.engadget.com"Engadget/a on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:55:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://www.ryebrye.com/blog/2008/11/22/g1-multitouch-proof-of-concept-video/Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/22/g1-multi-touch-a-reality-integrated-headphone-jack-still-just-a/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/forward/1380337/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/22/g1-multi-touch-a-reality-integrated-headphone-jack-still-just-a/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/_Ypd_8y5u01dUifFJLnACGo1ssg/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/_Ypd_8y5u01dUifFJLnACGo1ssg/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=CkKpGLJs"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=CkKpGLJs" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?a=agrDchok"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/engadget?i=agrDchok" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~4/MdrmmItTin4" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/91276?ns=guardianpageName=Art+and+design%3A+How+I+learnt+to+love+the+streets+in+the+skych=Art+and+designc3=The+Observerc4=Architecture%2CCulture+section%2CObserverc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CArchitecturec6=Rachel+Cookec7=2008_11_23c8=1122322c9=articlec10=GUc11=Art+and+designc12=Architecturec13=c14=h2=GU%2FArt+and+design%2FArchitecture" width="1" height="1" //divpSome children are brought up to love cats and hate dogs, others to adore Manchester United and despise Liverpool. I was brought up to revere Victorian architecture and to abhor modern buildings. Modern buildings, whatever their vintage, whatever their supposed virtues, were rubbish and that was that. In the 1980s, an 'executive' estate was built on the field opposite our Sheffield home. For my parents, midway through restoring their black-leaded fireplaces, the arrival of these buildings involved a certain amount of trauma, an anxiety that transmitted itself to me. /ppOur terrace was built of local sandstone and, darkened by age and industry, its exterior always reminded me of burnt toast. These houses, though, were built of brick so bright it made my eyes ache and they had gleaming tarmac drives which looked, even in dry weather, like licks of liquorice. At night, I lay in bed and indulged in violent fantasies in which I went Awol with a wrecking ball./ppIn Sheffield, haters of modern architecture had a perfect focus for their loathing in the form of Park Hill, the council estate that is now the biggest listed building in Britain. As a teenager, I hated Park Hill even more than I loathed Mrs Thatcher, for the simple reason that it made people think badly of my city. It wasn't just that no one liked so-called Brutalism. By the mid-1980s, the flats, then nearly 30 years old, were in a sorry state: dilapidated, and reputedly crammed with the council's most difficult tenants. Yet no visitor could escape them. The estate sits high on a cliff, overlooking the railway station, dominating the landscape like some great prison (a friend of a friend was once told by a taxi driver that Park Hill had been built, not in the late 1950s, but in the 1930s and that had Hitler invaded Britain, it would have been the site of his HQ). /ppWhen I went to university and told people where I was from, they would wrinkle their noses and say: 'Oh, I went through there once on the train...' and you just knew that they were picturing Park Hill. It was embarrassing. Why couldn't the council knock the thing down and start again? /ppStrange, then, that all these years later Park Hill is not only one of the buildings that I like most in the world, but the cause of an unexpected passion on my part for 20th-century buildings in general and 1960s buildings in particular (though I still hate executive estates and always will). This is not to say that I love every bit of concrete I see. The more I learn, the more I realise that postwar architecture is like any other kind of architecture: some is good, some bad. /ppRecently, I visited Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, east London, a scheme with which Park Hill is often compared, and a recent Brutalist cause celebre (in July, to much gnashing of teeth from architecture nerds, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, advised by English Heritage, ruled that the estate, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson and completed in 1972, would not be listed, though the Twentieth Century Society has since been successful in its request for a legal review of this decision). /ppThanks to my new fondness for grey slabs, I expected, if not to love it, then to want to save it; this is the only housing scheme that the radical Smithsons ever managed to get built. But the DCMS was right. Robin Hood Gardens is neither generous, nor well-built, and its site has changed beyond all recognition in the last 30 years, its old dockyard views gone, its 'gardens' polluted by the relentless grind of traffic into the Blackwall Tunnel. It is beyond saving, as its fans would find out if they ran a competition among developers for its renovation (there isn't a company in the land that would want that gig)./ppBut Park Hill is not Robin Hood Gardens. Once a great and innovative building, it one day will be again. In the last year, Sheffield City Council's ambitious plan to give the estate a second life as a hip home for urban professionals has at last got under way: tenants have moved out and Urban Splash, the development company, has moved in. When I first heard about this project, I assumed that these residents, worn down by living in a building so down at heel, would be glad to escape, that they'd say to the incoming yuppies: 'You're welcome to it' and score themselves a nice new house. /ppI was wrong. More than 200 have put down their names for the share of Park Hill that will eventually be owned by Manchester Methodist Housing Association (determined that the site be socially mixed, the council has decreed that a third of the 900 new flats will be 'affordable' and two-thirds of those will be for social rent). Some are living elsewhere and hope to return. A hard core, however, remains on site even as the dust rises around them. This lot love Park Hill and don't like the idea of living anywhere else./ppCut to last April, when all this started. Until now, I've never been inside Park Hill. Once I'm standing in the middle of it, though, two things strike me. The first is the sense of drama that builds as you walk through its courtyards, which get grander the higher the flats grow (built on a hill, the lowest tower sits on the site's highest point and vice versa); their embrace makes me think not of A Clockwork Orange but of the Colosseum in Rome. The second is the fact that Park Hill, unlike Robin Hood Gardens and its listed neighbour, Ernouml; Goldfinger's Balfron Tower, is not built of concrete. Its frame is concrete but its curtain walls are made of red, orange and yellow brick. Thanks to the damage wrought by heavy pollution, this is not something you can tell from the street. /ppBeside me, in the whipping cold, Grenville Squires, a caretaker who has worked here for 26 years - until recently, he lived here, too - is hopping with excitement. He loves tourists. 'The way it all fits together,' he says. 'It's like a jigsaw puzzle. I look at it as a feat of engineering. It was so clever. It had a district heating system - the only place with one like it was in Norway, where they'd capped a geyser - and a communal waste disposal system [this survived until the advent of disposable nappies]. When the new developers did a concrete survey, they found that it is not yet a third of the way through its life.' /ppWe get in Grenville's electric cart, and he drives me along Park Hill's interconnected decks to prove that the now much derided 'streets in the sky' really were wide enough to take a milk float. When we get to a suitable vantage point, he attempts to describe the estate as it was. 'There were four pubs, a supermarket, a hardware shop, a butcher's, a ladies' shoe shop, a chip shop. It was like a medieval village; you didn't have to leave.'/ppSo he doesn't believe that it was Park Hill's architects, Jack Lynn and Ivor Smith, who are to blame for what eventually became of the estate? That their design was too brutal, too idealistic, too rigidly controlling? /pp'No, it was the council's fault. They gave anyone who wanted one a flat and they didn't work hard enough at maintenance. She's lovely [the building]. She's my mistress, the only lady who's fetched me from the marital bed at two in the morning and made demands. She has come on hard times, but all she's got to do is wash her face and put on a new dress and she will be fine.'/ppAt the Park Hill social club, I meet the hard core who remain in residence; they are of the same opinion. Brenda Hague was 22 when she moved into Park Hill on 7 December 1959. Was she full of foreboding as she took possession of her neat new flat with its covetable kitchen, a reconstruction of which I have just seen in Sheffield's Weston Park Museum? Not at all. 'It was luxury,' she says. 'Me, my husband and our baby were living in a back-to-back. My parents were there, too, and my brother. We had no bathroom, just a tin bath on the back of the door. So when we got here it was marvellous. Three bedrooms, hot water, always warm. And the view. It's lovely, especially at night, when it's all lit up.'/ppIn those days, Park Hill was a quiet place, most of its tenants young families. But even when it began to be run down, in the 1980s, her fondness endured. 'It always felt safe to me. They say it looks horrible. Maybe it does from the outside. It's what's inside that counts. My son lives in Harrogate now and he has nothing but fond memories.'/ppHow does she feel about the refurbishment? Pleased, so long as she can remain where she's always been. I ask her friend Edith Bradbury, another resident of almost half a century, if it's hard to imagine a new Park Hill, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of its previous incarnation. 'It is. But it was hard to imagine it when it first went up. All the little streets this replaced. Who'd have thought it?'/pp'Will it work? Will it be a success?' 'Yes. I think it is going to be lovely.'/ppPark Hill tells the story of a century. The streets it replaced were home to some of the worst slums in Europe, people living 400 to the acre in houses so tightly packed they barely saw the sun, their only access to water a standpipe in the yard. But they had work. The valley that Park Hill lords it over was home to steel mills, mines and the workshops of the Little Mesters, the craftsmen who made the finest cutlery in the world. Park Hill's fortunes faded as this industry evaporated into thin air; between 1979 and 1989, 53,000 jobs were lost in a city of 200,000. /ppWhat interests me, though, is what the estate tells us about our relationship with modern buildings. These days, a single structure can come to represent a world view, standing proxy for our aesthetics and our politics. I used to hate it and now I like it. Perhaps you think this tells you a lot about me, but it doesn't really. Or it shouldn't. Park Hill is only one building. This is why we should treat with caution the arguments of commentators like Simon Jenkins, the new chairman of the National Trust, who deride all Brutalist buildings, the 'ideologues' who created them and the intellectuals and theorists who praise them while choosing to live in Georgian terraces. /ppBrenda Hague is no theorist, nor is Ivor Smith an ideologue. 'When Reyner Banham [the architecture critic] called us Brutalists, we didn't know what it meant,' says Smith (his partner Jack Lynn is dead). 'We didn't think we were Brutalists. We thought we were quite nice guys.'/ppWhen work began on Park Hill in 1957, he and Lynn were young, newly qualified, full of youthful enthusiasm and inspired by the optimism abroad in postwar Britain, however austere. 'The Uniteacute; [by le Corbusier, in Marseille] had just been built and it was exciting. But it wasn't an infatuation. We'd also made drawings of John Wood's crescents in Bath.'/ppReturning to Park Hill after 35 years, he thought it looked 'marvellous' from the town. Was there anything he would have done differently? 'The decks. A street has windows at street level. But at Park Hill, conditioned by best value for money, we couldn't have windows on to the pavements.' Does he like Urban Splash's ideas? 'Yes, though if anything I think they could be more daring.'/ppWhat of those ideas? The company has produced a flash brochure to showcase its pound;130m refurbishment of Park Hill and it makes for cheering, if occasionally comic, reading. To the naysayers, it points out that the density of the site - 192 people per acre - is well in excess of what the government considers to be a sustainable community and that the flats' original plans are more generous than the boxes favoured by modern developers. So, Park Hill is a 'bruiser'. /ppThe company will give it 'romance': oak trees, allotments, a wildflower meadow, crown green bowls, a dance studio, a high street ('a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker'). The marketeers write of wanting to build a 'yellow brick road' leading to a city sweet shop, Granelli's Spice ('spice' is a Sheffield word for sweets and Bertie Bassett one of its most famous sons). Cutest of all, the company will retain the graffiti that adorns Park Hill 13 storeys up and which once had a starring role in an Arctic Monkeys video: 'I LOVE YOU WILL U MARRY ME'. /ppBut none of this would be happening at all were it not for the building itself. English Heritage's controversial decision to confer Grade II* listed status on Park Hill in 1998, for its contribution to British Modernism, now seems prescient and wise. It surely would have been demolished otherwise and lots of identical, red-brick boxes stuck in its place. Of course, refurbishments of modernist buildings are extremely challenging and not all successful. In Islington, residents of Lubetkin's Spa Green Estate are taking legal action over the recent refurbishment of their homes, claiming the work was 'poor at best, and damaging at worst'. /ppBut for the time being, the sense of hope and expectation at Park Hill is palpable. After my visit, I catch the bus home to our toasty old terrace and, over supper, I ask my mother, ever so politely, if she has thought about where she will live in her retirement./ph2Good, bad, ugly? Modernist landmarks/h2pstrongRoyal College of Physicians, Regent's Park, London, by Denys Lasdun (1964)/strongbr /Most people know Lasdun for the Royal National Theatre, but this is miles better; its elegant sensibility seems to owe more to Frank Lloyd Wright thanbr /le Corbusier./ppstrongHunstanton Secondary School, Norfolk, by Alison and Peter Smithson (1949-1954)/strongbr /The building that made them famous: a steel frame with brick and glass panels, and a water tank high on a tower, it's a small-scale homage to Mies van der Rohe./ppstrong2 Willow Road, Hampstead, London, by Ernouml; Goldfinger (1938)/strongbr /Goldfinger is best known for his immense Brutalist tower blocks, Trellick Tower in North Kensington, and Balfron Tower in Poplar. Willow Road, his home, is more gentle and notable for its clever use of space and a spiral staircase designed by Ove Arup./ppstrongTrinity Square car park, Gateshead, by Owen Luder and Rodney Gordon (1969)/strongbr /Also known as the Get Carter car park, after the 1971 film in which it appears. See it now: its demolition is imminent. Gordon also designed the unpopular Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth - demolished in 2004 - and the Michael Faraday Memorial at Elephant and Castle in south London./ppstrongApollo Pavilion, Peterlee, by Victor Pasmore (1963-1970)/strongbr /Controversial piece of abstract public art in the Sunny Blunts housing estate. A grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund has recently been awarded for its restoration./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/architecture"Architecture/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Artscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527393112300260553996"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Artscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527393112300260553996" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/95443?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Gang+wars+turn+Caracas+into+a+murder+capitalch=World+newsc3=The+Observerc4=Venezuela+%28News%29%2CWorld+news%2CObserverc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Rory+Carrollc7=2008_11_23c8=1122493c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Venezuelac13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FVenezuela" width="1" height="1" //divpThe building is painted peach and there are palm trees in front, but there is nothing cheerful about Plaza Auyantepuy. It is a place of death. In the basement, a dungeon-like warren, men in rubber boots and surgical masks swing through the double door every few hours and wheel in another corpse. The earlier arrivals lie on trolleys, turning yellow./ppOne floor above, relatives of the dead huddle in small, silent groups. Some hold handkerchiefs to their faces to guard against the smell. There is nothing to guard against the grief. This is the national forensic science laboratory in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and it is the epicentre of a murder epidemic./pp'My son left home this morning at 7am. They rang me at 9.15am to say he was shot,' said Genny Cedeno, 38, clutching a photograph of 18-year-old Carlos. Tears welled in her eyes and she shook her head. 'He had a right to live.'/ppYards away sat another family which had just identified the body of Ernesto Salcedo, 29, a security guard who vanished last Saturday. He had a wife and two children./ppIn the past few years Caracas has become one of the most violent cities on the planet. Armed gangs competing over turf and drug deals wage ruthless, low-level warfare in the slums. Nationally, homicides have soared to more than 13,000 a year, with 2,710 in Caracas alone, according to leaked government figures. That gives a national rate of 48 per 100,000 people. In some Caracas slums the rate rises to 130. The rate in England and Wales is 1.4./ppIn opinion polls Venezuelans consistently rank safety as their main concern, with 64 per cent expressing fear of being attacked in the street. Kidnappings have also surged, especially 'express kidnappings' in which victims or relatives pay an immediate relatively modest ransom./ppPresident Hugo Chaacute;vez may pay a political price today in local and regional elections. Voters are expected to vent frustration at crime - and shoddy public services - by rejecting some of his mayoral and state governor candidates./pp'It's mayhem here. And the government does nothing,' said Mariacute;a Elena Delgado, 54, a housewife in Petare, a vast slum in eastern Caracas. 'I have to think about my children.' The four surviving ones, that is. Three of her sons have been gunned down, including one before Chaacute;vez came to power a decade ago./ppOpinion polls suggest el comandante remains popular, with approval ratings well over 50 per cent, but that anger over crime could lose him control of once loyal bastions such as Petare./ppChaacute;vez speaks in public daily, often for hours, but seldom mentions insecurity. He has blamed crime on capitalism and poverty, and said if his family was starving he would steal. 'The perception that crime has soared is a weak point for him,' said Steve Ellner, a political scientist at Venezuela's University of the East. 'He can't talk about crackdowns because that would contradict his whole discourse.' /ppSome critics claim the President's denunciations of inequality and 'squealing oligarchs' have encouraged youths to ease their poverty the fast way, with a gun. Partly thanks to Chaacute;vez's social programmes, poverty levels have dropped from 53 to 37 per cent. Yet crime has spiked. Corrupt and inept policing has been compounded by a flood of cocaine from neighbouring Colombia. Changing the justice minister every year - there have been 10 under Chaacute;vez- has wrought institutional havoc./ppThe authorities have expressed interest in fresh strategies. Ken Livingstone, London's former Mayor and Chaacute;vez ally, is advising Caracas on community policing. The Justice Ministry, which no longer publishes murder statistics, did not return calls seeking comment for this article./ppIn the hillside slums ringing the capital the bloodiest days are Friday and Saturday. The salsa and reggae beats blaring from bars can swiftly be drowned by gunfire, said Miguel Torres, 52, a taxi driver. 'One second you're sipping a Polar [beer], the next you're under the table.'/ppSome weekends more than 50 corpses make their way to Plaza Auyantepuy. Monday is funeral day, with hearses sometimes getting stuck behind other cortegrave;ges. A gang recently ambushed and killed rivals at a funeral home. 'Often they are just 16- and 17-year-olds but already they are psychopaths,' said Jimin Peacute;rez, director of Project Alcatraz, a scheme which tries to rehabilitate gangsters. 'These guys kill for nothing.'/ppProject Alcatraz, which is funded by the Santa Teresa rum company, has had mixed results. Some gang members have renounced violence. Others have been assassinated within days of completing the programme. Some have lapsed back into killing. 'We have to offer them a chance of another life,' said Peacute;rez. 'When they feel abandoned and alone, that is when they have no limits, no controls.'/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/venezuela"Venezuela/a/li/ul/divdiv class="guRssAdvert"a href="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/click.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527315112300260553996"img src="http://ads.guardian.co.uk/image.ng/richmedia=yessite=Newscountry=(none)spacedesc=rsssystem=rsstransactionID=1227399527315112300260553996" border="0" //a/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a

tags: Runescape runescape pk pking edge jagex rs good best ko wildy whip godsword dds max hit Runescape runescape pk pking edge jagex rs good best ko wildy whip godsword dds max hit Runescape runescape pk pking edge jagex rs good best ko wildy whip godsword dds max hit hilt godwards bounty hunter kids ranqe latvia defil3d 99 party 99 range 99 defence 83 mage maxed out green drags runescape hilt zamorak saradomin noob war noobs tehnoobshow niccy vodka5 ali gross gore ftw runescape jagex ltd riot runescape not comming back world 66 runescape ownage noobs runescape bounty hunter dragon mace ddp ddsownage1 runescape jagex ltd pking green drags wildyowns1 wildy owns1 quitting hacked soz owned got defence pking bounty hunter saradomin hilt drop coinshare runescape fagex ltd rasta man b runescape wilderness jagex andrew gower i dead0rz l i d arrows i greenday uk1 pking maxed out tanker 99 party drop party clue scroll third age fire cape attempt jad failed runescape bounty hunter red skull green skull vid 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 pking at drags lured lord wape lure unit moderator jagex mod world 66 riot update wildy gone bounty hunter new pking area mage arena what spells guthix book unholy book book of balance sara zam zamorak zammy guthix guthans dharoks barrows owned downed 50m 100m 1b party hat stake dies santa hat mask set runescape runescape runescape runescape rune scape rune scape rune scape rune scape runescape runescape 3 Runescape quest mmorpg online game zezima uloveme pk own f2p p2p pwn noob mage magic range warrior sword shield bronze mithril steel iron rune dragon boots god wars varrok falador lumbridge law earth fire water music video glitch hack scam froob choob lol lmao rofl plox haha bank lobster zamorak guthix saradomin inventory map jagex interview tutorial island camp arena holy pure redone in the black knight wizard elvemage theoldnite tyvak519 vinchenz900 castle wars duel arena warrior guild cooking crafting prayer skill cape attack defence 99 strength firemaking fm woodcutting wc fishing shark runecraft runecrafting nature nats abyss staff barrows ahrim dharok karils torag hammer chest drop loot slayer whip 2h funny game energy setting item guardian solo fletching willow tree ent random event gnome ball wise old man party hat purple blue white yellow red santa halloween mask 3rd age kiteshield kite glove update ltd forum mil million gp party edjville highscores ancient ice barrage luner desert treasure crossbow tele alching teleing smithing mining gold granite rockshell anvil bar account recovery world load loading music pass password user username friends list stat stats point protect teleother clan chat ignore log out dance emotion green hitpoints agility monkey madness ape toll herblore potions pots theiving guard farming herbs garden construction house player owned poh hunter mini game horror from the deep mystic cat bob store general arrow knives plate helm helmet wepon obby ring necklace iban skirt skychi ham cape dragonfire wild wilderness scimi long yew money cash studded banner new plox please splitbark robes heros legends hero legend champion slay under over sweet awesome amazing ownage pwnage free stuff drop party game stupid dam fuck gay decorative godsword hat rsmv forging dueling dds dagger poisen glory ammulet stink how much nvm no yes everyone message pm me dark bow monster beserker nice leet wtf omfg omg stray dog new update brb holiday vlog blog maplemountains sladeakakevin dark arm 3 door black light town city king queen gnome ogre dwarf chicken suit each kalaphite selling buying 2 claw cannon death mace vambraces longbow bait newb (u)zombie secret robin vinchenzo900 v1nch3nz0 Flame 105 made this egg christmas easter bunny massive full guild massacre n0valyfe 1st 2nd 3rd cheat battle mod hellomiss 126 bots autoer autominer autofighter autofisher autowoodcutter subscribe stake staking world of warcraft guild wars trimmed (t) (g) combat character guide fire flame email e mail censor Kids Ranqe lexmark78 main duriel321 rich rare phat road kill killing yogosun yogosun2 pk hit wildy war billy talent my chemical romance scat man acdc rush queen avril lavigne xxx sex hot videogame video computer comment maul productions hi hello my is preview date free rs rsc classic walkthrough walk through first second third planet hell nightwish interview poon linkin park nirvana total ultimate win fight caves plz blood ko hacked max merchant millions explain Recipe for Disaster pro wow players player full Discontinued requirments require vid month year day hour minute second speak special song clue scroll treasure trail treasuretrails cluescroll simple plan andrew gower version real life rl banned ban black mark trial ass joke retard maplestory watching watch spam log price overprice teleblock club full edgville fat wrecked fatwrecked xgen20o4 hard easy ez jad

Author: hcjessie Keywords: mwar5 chefjake77 madness7968 ponman19 Added: November 22, 2008

Category: br / Size: 107.51 MBbr / Status: 3 seeders and 1 leechersbr / Speed: -608.98 kB/sbr / Added: 2008-11-22 16:25:05

Second épisode des aventures de Maxime à New York : Les Chroniques de la Grosse Pomme. Au programme : la tour du Rockefeller Center, la soirée électorale et les Yellow cab. Vous pouvez revoir le premier épisode : [Lien]...

Call it a coincidence, but over the past few days I have spent a lot of time with folks who used to work for Amazon but are now out doing new things. It all started with Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu, who was a keynote speaker at our NewTeeVee Live conference. Then last night I met with Dave Schapell, founder and CEO of TeachStreet, an e-marketplace for teachers. And this morning I had coffee with Jeff Lawson, co-founder of Twilo.

My buddy Dave McClure was the one who pointed out that they are all part of the Ex-Amazon club. Just like the rising number of ex-Google entrepreneurs I wrote about last year, these guys are leaving top jobs at one of the best technology companies in the U.S. Here is a list of just some of those names, their current companies and their previous positions at the e-tailer:

• -Jeff Holden, CEO and co-founder, Pelago (Amazon consumer web sites)
• -Michael Sha, co-founder, WikInvest (Amazon Payments)
• -Dave Schappell, CEO and founder, TeachStreet (Misc.)
• -Vikas Gupta, co-founder, Jambool (Amazon Flexible Payment Systems)
• -Reza Hussein, co-founder, Jambool (Mechanical Turk)
• -Jeff Lawson, co-founder, Twilio (Amazon Web Services)
• -Keith Schorsch, CEO and founder, Trusera (Misc.)

Plus Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu (Amazon Marketplace)

Now this isn’t even a comprehensive list, and slowly and surely, it is expanding. The easy availability of capital in Seattle certainly helps, but more importantly it speaks to the amount of top-quality talent that Amazon has been able to attract over the years. Lawson, who stopped by for a cup of tea this morning to pitch his company, Twilio, said that one of Amazon’s biggest strengths has always been its ability to recruit and hire great minds.

It is because of this hiring policy that the company has not only stayed ahead of the technology curve, but established itself as the leader in Web 2.0 innovation. That’s in stark contrast to other tech giants such as Yahoo and Google, which have instead taken their cues from small startups. For talented people, the allure of working with Jeff Bezos can be what clinches the deal, according to Schappell of TeachStreet, which counts Bezos Expeditions as one of its investors. His company has essentially developed a place where you can go to find things like a French teacher, or someone to give you trombone lessons. I like to call it the Yellow Pages with brains, and it’s the kind of service a company like eBay should have launched instead of mucking around with things like Skype.

Those who know Bezos well say that he isn’t afraid of losing and wants to win big — and that means making big bets. This “nothing-in-the-middle” attitude is particularly attractive to folks with an entrepreneurial gene.

Of course, it also has its downside. Bezos’ big-play approach frustrates those who want to unleash small ideas, and nurture them over a period of time. Eventually some great people couldn’t live within the corporate structure of Amazon and went on to do their own thing. Like Lawson, who until recently was the CTO of Stubhub before starting Twilio, a company that has developed an easy way for web application developers to add voice capabilities to their offerings using standard web-programming techniques.

Should Amazon be worried about this brain drain? Absolutely not, for the company continues to attract talent the way lights attracts moths. I’ve often wondered what Amazon would do next, and I have a few ideas as to where I think they’re going. Someday I’ll blog about that, too.

Check out my video interview with Jeff Bezos.

Call it a coincidence, but over the past few days I have spent a lot of time with folks who used to work for Amazon but are now out doing new things. It all started with Jason Kilar, the CEO of Hulu, who was a keynote speaker at our NewTeeVee Live conference. Then last night I met with Dave Schapell, founder and CEO of TeachStreet, an e-marketplace for teachers. And this morning I had coffee with Jeff Lawson, co-founder of Twilo.

My buddy Dave McClure was the one who pointed out that they are all part of the Ex-Amazon club. Just like the rising number of ex-Google entrepreneurs I wrote about last year, these guys are leaving top jobs at one of the best technology companies in the U.S. Here is a list of just some of those names, their current companies and their previous positions at the e-tailer:

• -Jeff Holden, CEO and co-founder, Pelago (Amazon consumer web sites)
• -Michael Sha, co-founder, WikInvest (Amazon Payments)
• -Dave Schappell, CEO and founder, TeachStreet (Misc.)
• -Vikas Gupta, co-founder, Jambool (Amazon Flexible Payment Systems)
• -Reza Hussein, co-founder, Jambool (Mechanical Turk)
• -Jeff Lawson, co-founder, Twilio (Amazon Web Services)
• -Keith Schorsch, CEO and founder, Trusera (Misc.)

Plus Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu (Amazon Marketplace)

Now this isn’t even a comprehensive list, and slowly and surely, it is expanding. The easy availability of capital in Seattle certainly helps, but more importantly it speaks to the amount of top-quality talent that Amazon has been able to attract over the years. Lawson, who stopped by for a cup of tea this morning to pitch his company, Twilio, said that one of Amazon’s biggest strengths has always been its ability to recruit and hire great minds.

It is because of this hiring policy that the company has not only stayed ahead of the technology curve, but established itself as the leader in Web 2.0 innovation. That’s in stark contrast to other tech giants such as Yahoo and Google, which have instead taken their cues from small startups. For talented people, the allure of working with Jeff Bezos can be what clinches the deal, according to Schappell of TeachStreet, which counts Bezos Expeditions as one of its investors. His company has essentially developed a place where you can go to find things like a French teacher, or someone to give you trombone lessons. I like to call it the Yellow Pages with brains, and it’s the kind of service a company like eBay should have launched instead of mucking around with things like Skype.

Those who know Bezos well say that he isn’t afraid of losing and wants to win big — and that means making big bets. This “nothing-in-the-middle” attitude is particularly attractive to folks with an entrepreneurial gene.

Of course, it also has its downside. Bezos’ big-play approach frustrates those who want to unleash small ideas, and nurture them over a period of time. Eventually some great people couldn’t live within the corporate structure of Amazon and went on to do their own thing. Like Lawson, who until recently was the CTO of Stubhub before starting Twilio, a company that has developed an easy way for web application developers to add voice capabilities to their offerings using standard web-programming techniques.

Should Amazon be worried about this brain drain? Absolutely not, for the company continues to attract talent the way lights attracts moths. I’ve often wondered what Amazon would do next, and I have a few ideas as to where I think they’re going. Someday I’ll blog about that, too.

Check out my video interview with Jeff Bezos.