Generalities: March 2008 Archives

I listened to the new "Counting Crows" album almost all day Friday and Saturday. It's a good solid album. I was looking for more from them. This album didn't really break any new ground. I was hoping for a bigger reinvigoration of their sound. I didn't get it, but there are still some great songs on the album. I think I like them because of the upbeat melancholia they manage to emit; it's a good approximation for my normal mood.

"I left a lot of ghosts in San Francisco
and now you wanna say you see through me
but what you wanna see ain't your memories of me"
-- Los Angeles, Counting Crows

According to wikipedia there is a system for classifying human feces called "The Bristol Stoll Scale". I think this need to be integrated with my latest tech software gadget, Bullfighter than anti-bull, anto jargon fighter.

The U.S. Congress would never consider a proposal to add a “7 day love vacation” where everyone is encouraged to “devote themselves to each other “both at an erotic and emotional level”“. A member of the Finnish parliament, Tommy Tabermann, proposed this recently to the Eduskunta. The proposal was debated and sent to committee for study.

Being married to a Finn I can say I find this worthy of study as well.

This looks like a pretty neat idea. Not only can I create a comic strip sans talent, I can share it, let people comment, let them edit it - this seems like fun to me. This seems like a lot more fun than "super-poking" someone or sending them a virtual banana for a real dollar.

If you don't recognize this man you probably have not been watching enough TV lately. This is Nick Arrojo, who is famous due to his role as supporting cast on Jeannie's favorite TV show "What Not to Wear". If you aren't familiar with this show it is a one of those reality make over shows. Basically a victim participates in the show has all their clothes thrown out and they get to spend $5,000 on a new wardrobe. The show features everything you might expect including the stars, Stacy & Clinton, who mock the victim's previous clothing choices and provide guidance for spending the $5,000.

Nick visited the Mall of America recently as part of a store opening event. Jeannie stood in line for an autograph as well as a mini hair consultation.

Ethen Zuckerman posted some great notes on his talk, "The Cute Cat Theory Talk" at Etech. On the days when I let my cynicism subscription lapse I like the idea that unfettered access to publications and publishing tools will really turn this world around for the better.

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I never played D&D growing up, but probably should have. One of the inventors, Gary Gygax passed away recently. This cartoon from xkcd.com seemed a fitting memorial.

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I've been looking through the papers posted by James Hamilton at Microsoft Research. Lot's of really good data especially as it relates to the systems they have to to support, like Microsoft Live.

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Speaking of Live, I've been using Live Writer quite a bit lately. It's really quite good, although for reasons I can't quite figure out the backspace is really slow. While I'm super happy about google doc's and the simplicity of use, Live Writer is a pretty good blogging client.

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Speaking of google ... Google Calendar sync is now available. It sort of worked for me, although recurring meetings didn't get synced. Now if my wife's appointment book automatically appeared in my calendar I would know what is going on from day-to-day.