Carl Setzer

Cadbury Dairy Milk - Glass and a Half Full Productions Ok, this is damn weird, but pretty cool.

"Life is our dictionary. ... This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. ... I embrace the common, I explore and sit at the feet of the familiar, the low. Give me insight into to-day, and you may have the antique and future worlds." ~Emerson   Besides inspiring the likes of Thoreau, I believe this ideal drove such luminary figures as Kerouac, Snyder and Ginsberg. It’s one that sings to the deepest kernel of my being.

As I’ve been watching (ever the innocent bystander) the credit market flail, articles such as this one in Forbes are fascinating. Sadly, the more of these that I read, the more my ignorance on things economic becomes obvious. I’ve been wondering for sometime the mechanics of the markets, and the ways that government can influence. There are quite a few variables, whether considering the Fed, Treasury, IMF (though not a US governmental institution, still profoundly affected by US policy), and on and on, which are directly related to governmental influence. However, the huge array of actors within The Market can make one’s head spin. Besides the US , which has a huge impact on the global market, consider the effects of regional organizations (APEC, OPEC, blah blah) and other governments (Europe, China ). And international events and actions ripple through the ever more tightly connected marketplace, affecting the economies of other nations in ways that were unfathomab...

Let's see Clinton top this!

Have you ever thought about what you’d do if you were freed from your obligations for income? The scenario I picture is winning an uber-jackpot. What would you do? Personally, I’d pay off my credit cards and car, next stop the mortgage, then a new car. I would expect that I would replace my wardrobe, though not my personal style. No fashion magazine styles, no Italian sports car (though I’d be sorely tempted by Porches), and no mad run from here. I’d look for a nice home towards Puget Sound with a view. Nothing more grandiose than that.   These imaginings tell one a great deal. It, if nothing else, shows where one’s mind is right now. However, it also shows one’s priorities and values. Perhaps these images also show one’s pathologies as well. Perhaps…

It is so easy to become overwhelmed by concerns. Fears stoked by my old list of wounds, this maddening list of slights and petty miseries that I keep reflexively. This serves as inspiration for a host of potential tribulations, of course with no guarantee, neither for avoidance or their arrival.

My apologies to the Bard.   A hole lot of nothing found by astronomers  

I heard this song some time ago on KEXP. Damn it's funny!

The upgrades that Apple has made to the dot Mac service are good, though a long-time coming (however, anyone else notice that Hotmail upped their email allowance, as well as allow email forwarding, right on the heels of Apple’s announcement?). I would like to see some additional features, though. Particularly, I would love to see a greater integration with iTunes. One idea I had was the ability to carryover any customizations from one machine to another. Also, it would be great if we could store all of our music in one place and listen to it on multiple computers. Dot Mac would be a great way to facilitate that.

The Singles File: Is 'The Game' reduced to target and ambush? Damn funny review, though it makes me very disinclined to watch VH1's "The Pick Up Artist". These folks certainly come across as scummy. Bleh!

I wonder, within software development, whether the idea of collapsing silos is accomplishable. Can we liberate data and still keep it within a traditionally structured database?

Arstechnica has a great series looking at the Amiga. A great story and very descriptive of the issues that the tech industry faces regularly. We have conflicts between managers and technical experts, over-hype, enthusiastic over-exuberance, as well as the usual cast of characters. A history of the Amiga, part 1: Genesis: Page 1 A history of the Amiga, part 2: The birth of Amiga: Page 1

Smooth Sailing for I-5 Seattle Construction and Traffic This Morning; WSDOT Urges Drivers to Stay the Course   For my ex-pat and other out of ( Seattle ) area friends, here’s the latest on the joyous commute. For me, it’s been pretty tame. Of course, I live (and thus commute) in the opposite direction of this.   This has been the talk of the region for several months, with the past few weeks hitting quite a feverish crescendo. It has been a non-event so far, compared to Y2K by many. I find that comparison apt, since I felt that Y2K was a non-event because of the incredible attention and energy expended. The same with this project. All’s good, I guess.

From a friend of mine…   Hello Comrades, Some disturbing news from the Department of Bathroon Hygiene:   ·          The percent of women who wash their hands after leaving a restroom is 80%. ·          The percent of men who wash their hands after using a restroom is 55%. Does anybody else feel dirty?   Nope, just wiped….

Plot Alleged To Fix Chinese Noodle Prices   This looks like the plot to a bad Kung-Fu movie…

Gads….   Perhaps Green is no too mainstream. Paris Hilton Goes Green to “Save Our Earth From All This, You Know, Pollution”  

Perfectionists should only write in pencil. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

More online storage for .Mac members The 10 gigs are nice, plus being able to publish to your own domain rocks. We'll see what else when I have more time. However, I'm pumped!

Undercover NBC Dateline reporter bolts from DEFCON 2007   Chalk this one up to “they never learn”. First they put explosives on trucks to make up a story. Now, they try stupid crap like this. Sheesh! Now wonder Dateline has as much credibility as Fox news. It also speaks to the decline of mainstream media.

» Has Ubuntu clinched the desktop Linux market? | Open Source | ZDNet.com Having played with a few Linux builds, Ubuntu is by far the most thought out and well developed in terms of the average user. It's straightforward and utilizes the same sort of GUI "intuitiveness" as Windows or Mac. Meaning that if you understand how these systems build apps, you'll understand how to get things done with Ubuntu. Blakenhorn is dead on with his main premise, that Ubuntu's focus on the desktop has made it superior. Other builds have been sidelines, this is their focus. As for winning any desktop Linux war, who's to say. That's the beauty of Open Source; there might very well be something waiting around the corner.

It's amazing to me that folks don't even delete their contacts and email, much less do a "clean erase" of their handhelds before selling them on eBay (or some other service). All Blackberry.com has some great advice about preserving your private information.     Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Detour: The City Notebook Experience Imagine what happens when you mix some of our world's most creative minds and Moleskine's legendary notebooks? This site! It's quite amazing, and rather inspiring to my mind's creative crevices.

It's pretty common for people to complain that politicians are disconnected from "the people". There's a certain truth to this, especially when one considers that they are in the highest income bracket. I bring to you an idea, then. Why not pay our federal leaders (at the very least) the median salary? As they need to establish households in DC as well at home, I'm all for giving them some additional compensation. Let's give them a housing allowance for the DC property. Also, let's have the taxpayers cover travel (with public reporting to boot). Lastly, let's have Congress' pay raises pass a super-majority of the popular vote; a national referendum, if you will. At the very least, it'll shave a few smackers off the federal budget.

I've been pondering the array of stuff in my life. Besides the gadget, I have collections of other things. Namely, email addresses. I have a Hotmail (from the pre-Microsoft days), Yahoo, an old school account, work, and Gmail. For the sake of sanitya, I need to ditch a few of these, but which ones? Oh, the angusih! Well, this is rather dumb in many regards, but all of these are tied to some other service, which makes dropping it completely quite challenging. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T