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Showing posts from January, 2007

Bosses

I once worked for a sausage factory and divided my time between shipping and the brat line. The chap I worked with was named Ever. That time is one of the toughest, for I worked for the Wurst boss, Ever.

Quote of the day

From Fergus and the Druid, W.B. Yeats “A wild and foolish labourer is a king, To do, and do, and do, and never dream.” We’re so focused on doing, on completing and accomplishing and advancing that we forget to dream. Heck, many of us forget how to dream! With no dreams, there are no goals, thus no plans, so life becomes a wandering morass of unconnected and empty (if completed) task lists. So many of us dream of kingship, so it seems.

Seattle, The Viaduct, and Life In The City

Here’s my response to this article/survey ( online at the Seattle PI ). The Question: What's the best option for the viaduct? Gov. Gregoire seems to have resuscitated the possibility for a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Have you decided what transportation option you want on the waterfront? If not, what information do you need in order to come to a decision? Looking over the debate, the mayor only seems to be concerned about the beautification aspects of this whole debate. I'm bothered by the fact that few folks are mentioning the economic impact of tunnel construction, how we will mitigate the effects of this roadway being inaccessible for nearly a decade, or, of course, the justification of the extra expense. The tunnel hasn't been sold to me, at least. Personally, I’m worried that this project has not been thought through. The economic impacts for areas such as Ballard and immense, and haven’t been publicly addressed/discussed. May

Quote of the Day, Thanks to Google

“The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.” - Thorstein Veblen This drives home a point that I’ve often meditated on; why is it that that exploration only whets the appetite for further exploration? I was once told that we’re close to knowing all there is to know. What a load of rubbish, eh? That was some time back (junior high, methinks). Well, whatever. What’s really amazing here is how powerful this is. So many folks think that the purpose of research is (simply) answering a question, finding the truth. Yet, the more you learn, the further you seem to be from the truth. Perhaps it is within the quest for knowledge that we learn how far from the truth we really were. Eh, sounds good…

Acquistion Timeline

Here’s a little gem put together by the folks at shmula.com. It shows all the acquisitions by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo over the past few years. It’s a very well done and thought provoking thing. Thanks to Marketing Pilgrim for featuring this.

Great Bumper Stickers

Some are quite dumb, but a few are cute/clever. >> >>Subject: Great Bumper Stickers! >> >> >> >> 1) (On an infant's shirt): Already smarter than Bush >> >> 2) 1/20/09: End of an Error >> >> 3) That's OK, I Wasn't Using My Civil Liberties Anyway >> >> 4) Let's Fix Democracy in This Country First >> >> 5) If You Want a Nation Ruled By Religion, Move to Iran >> >> 6) Bush. Like a Rock. Only Dumber. >> >> 7) You Can't Be Pro-War And Pro-Life At The Same Time >> >> 8) If You Can Read This, You're Not Our President >> >> 9) Of Course It Hurts: You're Getting Screwed by an Elephant >> >> 10) Hey, Bush Supporters: Embarrassed Yet? >> >> 11) George Bush: Creating the Terrorists Our Kids Will Have to Fight >> >> 12) impeachment: It's Not Just for Blowjobs Anymore >> >

New Phisher Scam

A scary new phisher exploit (pointed out by Deb at WXPnews.com ). Eeek! Phishers get deadly serious Phishers have traditionally used trickery and deception to gain access to your personal information and, subsequently, your money. But now they're resorting to threats of violence; a recent phishing scam purports to be from a professional hit man who's been hired to kill you, but will drop the contract if you give him enough cash. Read more about it here: http://www.wxpnews.com/DRML9K/070116-Phishers

iPhone-esque device - from LG

Engadget has a cool piece about LG’s iPhone-esque device. It convinces me that the format developed for the iPhone will be very popular. I haven’t had a chance to really research this, so I don’t know if this uses Symbian, Windows Mobile, or what. We’ll see, I guess. Not too much to excited over, but something interesting, nonetheless. iPhone & LG KE850: separated at birth? Two sparsely-buttoned large, touchscreen phones: the Apple iPhone , and the LG KE850 (which already won the International Forum Design Product Design Award for 2007). Separated at birth, or possible lawsuit number two for Apple? You decide.

Thoughts on Sony

Sony didn’t learn from Beta format mistakes Sony isn't letting the porn industry use their BlueRay format? I'm amazed at their short-sidedness here. Adult Entertainment was one of the key drivers for several industries success. It was key (as Scoble points out here) in VHS winning the format wars. Plus, it was one of the early winners when it came to profit making on the net. Someone might want to the let Sonys exec's know that they're locking out a $ 57 billion industry . On a mildly related note, I received a Sony Reader over the holidays. I've played a little bit with it, and am going to spend some significant time op-testing it over the next few weeks. Already, though, I've two complaints. Number one, no backlighting. So, while I'm waiting for the train to come on a dark platform, too bad, so sad. I think this was a gross oversight. It might save a bit on battery life, but I can think of way too many times that the backlight would be critical. It certain

Google

I'm becoming a Google devotee. The way they've updated the personal homepage is top notch. It's clean, concise, and easy to tweak: a marvelous combination! I've also been enjoying the range of options available for the toolbar (point of clarification: I use Firefox 2). I just discovered the RSS feed "adder" (bad grammar, spelling, etc, but you know what I mean) and have been enjoying easily adding feeds to my page. Yahoo was getting quite cluttered, and the blasted cute graphics were driving me nuts.

Fallout in cannon accident: Woman accused of threats against injured teen

Fallout in cannon accident: Woman accused of threats against injured teen There are some folks who just stun me with their immaturity. I respect and value traditions. However, if someone gets seriously hurt from it, it's time to put it to bed. Too bad, so sad. For a 41 year-old to make threatening phone calls to a 16 year-old whose legs were severely injured by a cannon at a football game is simply pathetic. Gaah! Less you think, however, this is indicative of Snohomish community values, read here . I'm glad the Mayor stepped up and wrote this.

A Rebuttal : Green lobby must be treated as a religion

I felt a compelling need to respond to John Kay ’s piece, “ Green lobby must be treated as a religion ”, from the Financial Times earlier this week. (To be clear, I’m simply responding to the most salient portions.) Environmentalism embraces a myth of the Fall: the loss of harmony between man and nature caused by our materialistic society. Al Gore recounted the words of Chief Seattle, as his tribe relinquished their ancient lands: "Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother?" Perhaps one component of the environmental community does. “Environmentalism” captures a wide group of people. Environmentalists include animal rights types, members of many faith traditions (Christian, Buddhist, etc), as well as a core group of SCIENTISTS, who are the ones who have done most of the heavy lifting until recently. Many within the environmental movement (most by my experience) are actually scientists who would find Kay’s allusion si

Bush's Iraq Speech - FactCheck.org

Bush's Iraq Speech - FactCheck.org As a response to Bush's speech, this sums things up nicely (as well as Durbin's response). Yesterday, though, I heard a little snippet of Bush's speech to a group of troops. There, he said that Americans had forgotten that we are in a critical battle (or something to that effect) and insinuated that Americans had forgotten 9/11. That is the main piece I feel a need to respond to. Particularly annoying to me was the allusion that our annoyance with Bush's performance in Iraq is the result of ignoring the threat of terrorism. This is such an amazing piece of rubbish that sinks Bush to a new low. He seems hell-bent on ensuring that he doesn't have a shred of credibility or respect left when he leaves office. Sorry about the digression... It's been clear for anyone who has any connection to reality that Iraq has nothing to do with terrorism; at least not initially. Even now, Al Queda and other terrorist organizations are rath

Apple Waves Its Wand at the Phone - New York Times

Apple Waves Its Wand at the Phone - New York Times One of a zillion articles on the debut of the iPhone. Dave Pogue has one key piece missing from most others: he's actually handled one (albiet for around an hour). I really appreciate Pogue's review, especially in lieu of the aforementioned point. If you're excited by the thing, this a great piece to give you some insight about how the thing actually works. With that in mind, another good piece on all of this is over at Treonauts . They've done a great job comparing the Treo 680 and the iPhone. Another good piece to read is this one at the NY Times. It gives a good explanation about Cingular's motivations in all this. In here, I have one point to argue with Roger Entner an analyst with Ovum Research (Ovum? Anyway...). He's arguing that the price point ($499) will limit its appeal. He needs to look at the iPod, and how it was introduced. I would gamble that Apple has several lower cost options in the works (the i

The one that got away

At a bookstore I wondered about the books I held. I'm not drawn as strongly to the big titles, best sellers or well known authors. Sure, I buy them from time to time, but they aren't the ones that it's painful to walk away from. I love the books from smaller voices, voices that don't have the million dollar marketing campaign. Those books are hard to leave, for they often don't come into my life again. They are gems, hard to see wrapped in earth, and shameful to leave behind.