Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Realistic Internet Simulator
The Realistic Internet Simulator is pretty silly but my son loves the "Kill The Popups!" chorus singing over Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie.
Unsubscribing
I've had a Hotmail account for several years. It's my most "promiscuous" account; I don't worry about using it on web sites, surveys, software registration, etc. Nearly all of the spam gets filtered out but I still get junk email. Most of this email is legitimate: it's the result of registering software or getting added to some long-forgotten email list. I've just let it go but recently decided to see if I could get rid of the junk. So I started unsubscribing. Most such emails have an Unsubscribe link at the bottom. I clicked on a few dozen of these links. That was about a week ago. I was skeptical but it seems to be working. The amount of junk email has dropped way down. And there hasn't been any uptick on junk. Not sure about spam since I rarely look at my Bulk Mail folder.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Happy Fun Ball
A while ago I mentioned the Happy Fun Ball SNL commercial parody. I just noticed that it's available on YouTube:
The Great British Venn Diagram
The difference between England, Great Britain, the British Isles and the United Kingdom is confusing, at least to me. The Great British Venn Diagram explains the distinctions:
Friday, October 27, 2006
Fish Videos
Pete sent me this video about the joys of Fish Sticks. Now I've got the lyrics stuck in my head.
Fish sticks! Fish sticks! What a delicious treat!
Fish sticks! Fish sticks! They're very good to eat!
fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads.
fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum!
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Sony Bravia Paint Ad
Sony has a new Bravia ad that uses paint rather than Bouncy Balls.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Do you Google?
Have you ever used Google as a verb? If so, according to this post on the Official Google Blog, please stop. Unless, that is, you mention the Google website at the same time. As in, and I'm not making this up: "I googled him on the well-known website Google.com and he seems pretty interesting."
Since Google already appears as a verb in the Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English dictionaries, are Google's lawyers really going to be able to protect their trademark?
Since Google already appears as a verb in the Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English dictionaries, are Google's lawyers really going to be able to protect their trademark?
Weird Al Yankovic On Japanese TV
This video of Weird Al Yankovic performing "Eat It" on Japanese TV is pretty funny.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
The Comics Curmudgeon
I started reading the comics in the newspaper as soon as I was able to read (we usually called them "the funnies"). It was a habit that stuck with me into adulthood. But now, except for Dilbert, I rarely read them. I don't have much time to read the paper in the morning and the quality of daily comic strips has been on a steady decline for years anyway. For example, is there a single "must read" in the list of comics that appear in the Seattle Times?
Joshua Fruhlinger writes The Comics Curmudgeon blog. He critiques comic strips that I rarely read or stopped reading years ago such as Mary Worth, Rex Morgan, M.D., Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, etc. Although his comments are snarky and pretty funny, Joshua clearly cares about these strips. Maybe I'm becoming a curmudgeon too; I'd rather read Joshua's comments than the strips themselves.
Joshua Fruhlinger writes The Comics Curmudgeon blog. He critiques comic strips that I rarely read or stopped reading years ago such as Mary Worth, Rex Morgan, M.D., Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, etc. Although his comments are snarky and pretty funny, Joshua clearly cares about these strips. Maybe I'm becoming a curmudgeon too; I'd rather read Joshua's comments than the strips themselves.
Monday, October 23, 2006
The Departed
I saw The Departed a few days ago. It's another great film from Scorcese; his best in a while. The cast is terrific: Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, etc. DiCaprio was especially good. The setting is a very gritty modern day Boston.
I was talking to a friend over the weekend who complained that the film was too long and the plot too complicated. I agree that it does drag in a few places and could be trimmed down but I love plots like this. It's a remake of the very twisty Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs.
One other thing: I can't help but comment on the Boston accents. Obviously the locals (Damon and Wahlberg) had no difficulty. Nicholson and DiCaprio were okay; neither tried too hard which is usually the biggest problem. Martin Sheen's accent sounded too much like JFK. Vera Farmiga who plays Madolyn, a psychiatrist with ties to both Damon and DiCaprio's characters, had the most noticeable problem with the accent. It would fade in and out and sometimes come across as almost Irish.
I was talking to a friend over the weekend who complained that the film was too long and the plot too complicated. I agree that it does drag in a few places and could be trimmed down but I love plots like this. It's a remake of the very twisty Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs.
One other thing: I can't help but comment on the Boston accents. Obviously the locals (Damon and Wahlberg) had no difficulty. Nicholson and DiCaprio were okay; neither tried too hard which is usually the biggest problem. Martin Sheen's accent sounded too much like JFK. Vera Farmiga who plays Madolyn, a psychiatrist with ties to both Damon and DiCaprio's characters, had the most noticeable problem with the accent. It would fade in and out and sometimes come across as almost Irish.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Bloglines
If you're reading this via an RSS Feed in Bloglines, I apologize for not noticing that it was messing up my posts. It looks like they changed some parsing code resulting in the beginning of every post looking like a link. Should be fixed now on my side — at least for new posts. If you see problems with my feeds in Bloglines, or any other RSS readers, please let me know. Thanks.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Peter Sellers doing various English accents
Wow, this video of Peter Sellers doing various English accents is pretty amazing. He shifts so effortlessly from one to the next.
300 million and counting
The US Population reached 300 million this morning at 7:46 am EDT — 39 years after the U.S. population reached 200 million. According to this article, there are now about 84 people per square mile nationwide. This is still relatively sparse compared to Europe (300 per square mile) or Japan (900 per square mile). Of course, population density isn't uniform: Washington State has 88.6 residents per square mile whereas Massachusetts is much more dense at 818 residents per square mile.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Virtudyne: The Next Generation of Collaboration
The DailyWTF has a four-part series that tells of the rise and fall of one of the largest privately-financed ($200M) disasters in the software industry. The company is called Virtudyne in the series. Read all four parts: The Founding, The Gathering , The Savior Cometh, The Digital Donkey
The story sounds plausible (and sadly familiar) until the Digital Donkey.
The story sounds plausible (and sadly familiar) until the Digital Donkey.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Google Maps Mobile for Treo
I just installed Google Maps Mobile on my Treo 650. It takes up 426K (plus maps).
They're done a good job of taking advantage of the Treo's five-way navigator pad. Google Maps works pretty much the same as the browser version (it even supports the satellite view). You can jump to locations, find local businesses, get directions, get traffic information. Very slick.
Speaking of phones, yes I still have my Treo 650. I still like smartphones so if I replace it, I'd want something with similar capabilities. I considered moving to the Treo 700p. It has some advantages (EVDO and a lot more memory) but it doesn't seem like a compelling upgrade. The new Treo 680 looks nice (they finally got rid of the antenna bump) but its improvements over the 650 are modest and currently it's GSM only. Then there's the Treo 700w/wx. I've been using Palm devices for a long time. While Windows Mobile 5 is very nice, it would be big change for me. And if I was going to move to WM5 why not got for the Motorola Q instead?
So, I'm going to stick with my 650 until something comes along that's clearly better.
They're done a good job of taking advantage of the Treo's five-way navigator pad. Google Maps works pretty much the same as the browser version (it even supports the satellite view). You can jump to locations, find local businesses, get directions, get traffic information. Very slick.
Speaking of phones, yes I still have my Treo 650. I still like smartphones so if I replace it, I'd want something with similar capabilities. I considered moving to the Treo 700p. It has some advantages (EVDO and a lot more memory) but it doesn't seem like a compelling upgrade. The new Treo 680 looks nice (they finally got rid of the antenna bump) but its improvements over the 650 are modest and currently it's GSM only. Then there's the Treo 700w/wx. I've been using Palm devices for a long time. While Windows Mobile 5 is very nice, it would be big change for me. And if I was going to move to WM5 why not got for the Motorola Q instead?
So, I'm going to stick with my 650 until something comes along that's clearly better.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Goodbye Reecee
One of our elderly cats, Reecee, has been going downhill recently. She's 17 years old and looks fit but internally she's worn out. One kidney doesn't work at all, the other barely functions. She's senile. She forgets where her food is. She forgets where her litter box is. No need to go into details of what happens when a cat treats the rest of the house as a litterbox. She also seemed to be in some pain, although with cats it can be difficult to tell. She stopped greeting us when we came home at the end of the day. Anyway, during the past few weeks it became clear that it was time to let her go. She died quickly and peacefully this afternoon at the vet's office.
My older son was pretty attached to Reecee. She often slept in his bed with him at night. So this is tough on him. She's always been a part of our family. We're going to put together a DVD of videos and photos of Reecee as a keepsake.
Growing up we had several dogs and cats. Most died peacefully at the vet's office. One of our dogs died in front of me, hit by a car when I was ten. He lay still for a very long time before I was able to accept that he had died. Typing this I can still feel some of the pain. It's tough to deal with the death of a pet. But if you have pets, you'll more than likely have to deal with loss. It sucks, it hurts, but it's a part of the deal.
My older son was pretty attached to Reecee. She often slept in his bed with him at night. So this is tough on him. She's always been a part of our family. We're going to put together a DVD of videos and photos of Reecee as a keepsake.
Growing up we had several dogs and cats. Most died peacefully at the vet's office. One of our dogs died in front of me, hit by a car when I was ten. He lay still for a very long time before I was able to accept that he had died. Typing this I can still feel some of the pain. It's tough to deal with the death of a pet. But if you have pets, you'll more than likely have to deal with loss. It sucks, it hurts, but it's a part of the deal.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
More Battery Recalls
Looks like I spoke too soon about the lack of battery recalls for my Toshiba Tecra M4. Toshiba just announced a recall. My battery pack and backup are both on the recall list. 4-6 week wait for replacements.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Akeelah and the Bee
We watched Akeelah and the Bee this evening. I remembered watching the trailer and expected it to be formulaic. There's some of that but the cast, and some plot twists, keep it interesting. And besides, it's hard to argue with a film for trying to dramatize intellectual pursuits. Thumbs up from all of our family. One of the characters in the film reminded me of Spellbound, the terrific documentary that followed eight teenagers on their quest to win the 1999 National Spelling Bee. Spellbound had more tension since you didn't know which (if any) of the kids might win. Speaking of films about intellectual pursuits, we haven't seen Wordplay yet but it's in our Nexflix queue.
Corn Maze
Each Fall The South 47 Farm in Redmond constructs a large maze in a corn field. We've driven by the field lots of times since it's close to our house. But it's hard to get a sense of what the maze is like from outside.
On Sunday afternoon my son and I decided to give it a try. Unlike the typical rectilinear maze, South 47 Farm mazes are pretty complex. Here's an aerial photo of this year's maze:There are also punch stations hidden along the way where you punch numbered boxes on your map. If you find all ten stations, you get a small prize at the end. Each station also has a farm-related joke. For example:The South 47 Farm has been doing corn mazes for several years. Here are aerial photos of mazes as well as the quiz questions from previous years.
On Sunday afternoon my son and I decided to give it a try. Unlike the typical rectilinear maze, South 47 Farm mazes are pretty complex. Here's an aerial photo of this year's maze:
Many of our favorite crops are native to the Americas, including sunflowers, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, peppers, blueberries, and beans.
Which of the following crops originated in South America?
← ← Potatoes and pineapples
Chocolate and bell peppers → →
Q: What do you get if you sit under a cow?
A: A pat on the head.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Product Naming Rodeo
My former team at IBM just put out a Beta of their next release. Congratulations to Maureen and the rest of the team.
According to the download page, the new product is called "IBM® Lotus® Component Designer 6". I didn't realize that there had been a name change. Earlier releases used the name "IBM® Workplace Designer".
To add insult to injury, IBM rearranges or changes the set of words that are used for subsequent releases. The end result is that both IBM employees and its customers are confused about what the products are called and what they do.
According to the download page, the new product is called "IBM® Lotus® Component Designer 6". I didn't realize that there had been a name change. Earlier releases used the name "IBM® Workplace Designer".
- IBM seems schizophrenic about whether to include Lotus in product names or not. Earlier releases (and other products) just used the IBM name. The new name includes Lotus. And yet it's a tool for building components for Websphere Portal, an IBM-branded product.
- The new name drops the Workplace name, further evidence that Workplace is no longer a brand. Now it's an IBM "strategy and direction". Whatever that means.
- The new name is a little confusing since there used to be a product called Lotus Components, a set of ActiveX controls.
To add insult to injury, IBM rearranges or changes the set of words that are used for subsequent releases. The end result is that both IBM employees and its customers are confused about what the products are called and what they do.
Willard and Ben
We were talking about the film Willard at lunch today. A co-worker mentioned that Crispin Glover played the title role which I hadn't remembered. Looking on IMDB I realized that they were talking about the remake and I was thinking of the original film.
The original had a sequel called Ben. Probably the most notable thing about Ben was that its theme song became a #1 hit single for Michael Jackson. The film was named after a rat, not the rat's owner as in Willard so, yes, the song is about having a rat for a companion.
I haven't seen the Willard remake with Crispen Glover. Given the oddball roles he's done, he seems like an appropriate choice. One of his strangest roles was Cousin Dell in David Lynch's Wild At Heart. Dell wishes that every day could be Christmas and relieves his anxiety by making countless sandwiches and putting cockroaches in his underwear.
The original had a sequel called Ben. Probably the most notable thing about Ben was that its theme song became a #1 hit single for Michael Jackson. The film was named after a rat, not the rat's owner as in Willard so, yes, the song is about having a rat for a companion.
I haven't seen the Willard remake with Crispen Glover. Given the oddball roles he's done, he seems like an appropriate choice. One of his strangest roles was Cousin Dell in David Lynch's Wild At Heart. Dell wishes that every day could be Christmas and relieves his anxiety by making countless sandwiches and putting cockroaches in his underwear.
You Look Like An IBM Type
Ever watch the 1999 TV movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" in which Noah Wyle played Steve Jobs? Shortly after the film was aired, Wyle opened the MacWorld New York keynote as Steve Jobs. Pretty funny. Wyle's question to Steve at the end is from movie: Jobs supposedly asked a job candidate "Are you a virgin?".
Speaking of Apple, Steve Wozniak spoke at Microsoft earlier today. He's such an energetic and enthusiastic guy. He was on The Colbert Report last week which was kinda weird. He belongs in front of an audience of fellow geeks.
Speaking of Apple, Steve Wozniak spoke at Microsoft earlier today. He's such an energetic and enthusiastic guy. He was on The Colbert Report last week which was kinda weird. He belongs in front of an audience of fellow geeks.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Colliding With Death at 37,000 Feet, and Living
What an amazing story. By all rights, the author and the rest of the people on the small passenger jet should have died. Through pilot skill, and some luck, they survived. But, as they learn later, at a horrible cost.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
The Science of Sleep
I watched The Science of Sleep last night. It's written and directed by Michel Gondry who also directed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.In this film, the main character, Stéphane, moves from Mexico following the death of his father to be close to his mother in Paris. Stéphane is an artist. His mother gets him a job in Paris that is supposed to be creative but turns out to be mind-numbing office work. Fortunately, Stéphane has an incredibly imaginative dream life. But he has a hard time telling the difference between his dreams and reality. And often in this film, the audience can't tell either.
Much of the film is charming, funny and clever. But Stéphane's personal quirks become more and more disquieting. He's unable to function in the waking world. He becomes a tragic figure struggling to have a normal relationship with his love interest, next-door neighbor Stéphanie.
The film's trailer captures the tone of the film pretty well. If the trailer appeals to you, you'll probably enjoy the film as well.
Woz?
Someone asked a question about Steve Wozniak on Metafilter so Woz creates an account and answers. Cool. He's on tour promoting his new book, iWoz. He's in Seattle this week including a talk at Microsoft on Friday. That should be interesting.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
The Simpsons: Who Wants To Be a Millionaire:
If you watch The Simpsons then check out The Simpsons: Who Wants To Be a Millionaire
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