Saturday, March 31, 2007
Twitterholic: Who are these people?
Twitter is a social networking tool that lets tell your friends what you're doing throughout the day. Kinda like a blog where all the posts are 140 characters or less and you make dozens (or more) posts per day. Why would you want to do this? I'm still trying to figure that out but apparently it's becoming popular. Twitterholic scans the twitter timeline to track popular and prolific twits, er twitter-ers.
Name Game
My son and I were listening to Car Talk this morning. I laughed when Ray read through the list of fictitious staff members. They're all terrible puns such as a Russian Chauffeur named Picov Andropov (pick up and drop off). This time they thanked their Staff Orthopedist Denise Hoyt (de knees hurt). I laughed because I used to work with someone named Denise Hoyt but had never made that connection.
Update:: D'oh! As Mike Kudla points out in the comments, Denise's last name was Hoye, not Hoyt. I'm usually pretty good at remembering names. Sorry Denise. No wonder I didn't make the connection.
Update:: D'oh! As Mike Kudla points out in the comments, Denise's last name was Hoye, not Hoyt. I'm usually pretty good at remembering names. Sorry Denise. No wonder I didn't make the connection.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Mom My Ride
Mom My Ride is a pretty funny parody of the MTV series.
Monday, March 26, 2007
This American Life
The radio program This American Life just had its debut on television (on the Showtime network). We love the radio show and just watched the first episode called Reality Check. There are two stories. The first was about a rancher who tries to reincarnate his gentle Brahmin bull named Chance via cloning. The second story is about a group New York City pranksters who found an unknown band from Vermont and decide to give them their The Best Gig Ever. Both of these stories had been on the radio program. Television does add to the drama but I still prefer the radio show. And I wonder how many of us are both fans of the NPR show and also Showtime subscribers? It'll be interesting to see how the rest of Showtime's audience responds.
One odd touch of the show is that host Ira Glass sits behind a desk placed outside, just like John Cleese in old episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
One odd touch of the show is that host Ira Glass sits behind a desk placed outside, just like John Cleese in old episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Hewlett-Packard acquires Tabblo
The smile in the Tabblo logo just got broader today. Hewlett-Packard is acquiring Tabblo. Congratulations to Ned, Antonio et al.As Ned says in his blog post, he began his career at Digital which through a couple of mergers is now part of HP. So his career has come full circle. My first job was with Applicon. They were acquired by UGS in 1999. Earlier this year UGS was acquired by Siemens AG. In order for me to follow Ned's lead, Siemens is going to have to buy Microsoft. Hmm.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
What's So Funny? Well, Maybe Nothing
This article in the New York Times What's So Funny? Well, Maybe Nothing is interesting.That makes sense. And they also explain why employees might laugh at jokes told by their boss:Although they aren't trying to explain humor, the article reminded me of the Isaac Asimov short story Jokester. It's about a computer scientist attempting to solve the question of what makes jokes funny.
Occasionally we're surprised into laughing at something funny, but most laughter has little to do with humor. It's an instinctual survival tool for social animals, not an intellectual response to wit. It's not about getting the joke. It's about getting along.
When you're low in the status hierarchy, you need all the allies you can find, so apparently you're primed to chuckle at anything even if it doesn't do you any immediate good.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Billg and me
I get a steady stream of emails and blog comments intended for Bill Gates. I got another one today, asking for money. Why me? Type "bill gates email address" into Google. Ah, that's why. I'm the first hit. Funny, I wrote that blog post in 2004 well before I joined Microsoft. And it doesn't even list his email address.
Note: When I looked to see what other search engines reported for the same query, I was amused that one of them returned a link to a cutout version of Bill Gate's house.
Note: When I looked to see what other search engines reported for the same query, I was amused that one of them returned a link to a cutout version of Bill Gate's house.
An Exact Value for Avogadro's Number
If someone mentioned Avogadro's Number to me, I'd immediately think: 6.02 x 1023. It's the number of atoms or molecules needed to make one mole of a substance. It's not an exact number since it's based on a physical measure that can't be tied down but if the authors of this article have their way, it will have the exact integral value of:which also happens to be Too bad they didn't pick an irrational value, it's not enough of a geek challenge to memorize a number with only 24 digits.
By the way, assuming that this sketch is accurate, Avogardo was a pretty scary looking guy.
602,214,141,070,409,084,099,072
84,446,8883
By the way, assuming that this sketch is accurate, Avogardo was a pretty scary looking guy.
Eclipse Review ceases publication
That didn't take long. After publishing only four issues of Eclipse Review, the magazine has been canceled. It makes you wonder whether printed technical magazines, at least for narrow topics like Eclipse, are still a viable medium.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Breach
I saw Breach the other night. It's based on the true story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen who sold secrets to the Soviet Union and was responsible for the greatest security breach in U.S. history. I wasn't sure what to expect but it's a terrific film, especially Chris Cooper's potrayal of Hanssen.
After watching the film, I wanted to learn more about the Hanssen case. The film changes some of the details but stays reasonably close to the story. One thing that that I thought was pretty amusing, at least for ex-Iris folks: in his FBI press photo, Hanssen looks an awful lot like Mike Kudla.
After watching the film, I wanted to learn more about the Hanssen case. The film changes some of the details but stays reasonably close to the story. One thing that that I thought was pretty amusing, at least for ex-Iris folks: in his FBI press photo, Hanssen looks an awful lot like Mike Kudla.
Peru On Time
According to this article, chronic lateness is often overlooked by Peruvians who consider it an endearing cultural trait. But that's all going to change now as a result of a new the campaign, "La Hora sin Demora" or "Time without Delay." Change the punctuality of a country of over 28 million people? Seems pretty unlikely to me.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Daylight Saving Time Update for Palm OS
If you have a Treo running Palm OS or other Palm device, download and install this update that includes the new DST rules that take effect this weekend.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Year of the Pig
It's the Year of the Pig which began on Feb 18th. In China, prospective parents are told that babies born in this particular Year of the Pig, a so-called Year of the Golden Pig, will enjoy especially lucky and prosperous lives. And today, according to Serious Eats, is National Pig Day. Which probably shoudl really be called National Pork Day since pigs are primarily food animals, not pets.
It's been quite a few years since the last time I ate pork. I found it relatively easy to give up meat but I do eat the "fake" stuff such as veggie burgers and MorningStar Farms "bacon" strips. To me the taste and texture of substitutes are appealing but they're unlikely to please someone craving the "real" thing. Including Amanda Kelso a vegetarian who found real bacon to be too tempting. Read her story about her re-embrace of meat, 30 Days of Pork.
Slightly off topic, and probably way too graphic for many, is a blow-by-blow photo essay on how a Piggy gets transformed into a Pork cutlet.
It's been quite a few years since the last time I ate pork. I found it relatively easy to give up meat but I do eat the "fake" stuff such as veggie burgers and MorningStar Farms "bacon" strips. To me the taste and texture of substitutes are appealing but they're unlikely to please someone craving the "real" thing. Including Amanda Kelso a vegetarian who found real bacon to be too tempting. Read her story about her re-embrace of meat, 30 Days of Pork.
Slightly off topic, and probably way too graphic for many, is a blow-by-blow photo essay on how a Piggy gets transformed into a Pork cutlet.
More Snow
We were lulled by Spring-like weather in Seattle to think that Winter was done. Nope. Another snow storm last night messed up this morning's commute. And schools are closed too. This is the eighth snow day for our kids this year. Pretty much like a very snowy school year back in Boston. But here they weren't really "snow" days. Except for today the school closures were due to ice and wind storms.
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