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Archives for November 2001
November 29, 2001
Ok, I like my computer too, but
this is taking a bit too far... The only thing the fellow
is lacking is the solar panel on the noggin to produce the
juice to run this thing. [Thanks to Andrew P. for the link].
The party is over.
No more lavish dot-com Holiday bashes. No more free Mango Tangos,
raw oysters, and dolphin-shaped ice sculptures. Now the dot
coms that are still alive are looking to spend their money
in places where it actually counts. Like running their business.
What a novel idea.
The sunny side today tells the story of
rising tech stocks again, after a second straight day
of profits by the Nasdaq. "The market is looking for
leadership. Ultimately, that leadership will come from
technology," said Ronald J. Hill, investment strategist at
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Looks like the more level-headed dot-com spending approaches
may appease the temperamental Wall Street gods after all.
Woohoo.
November 28, 2001
People can sometimes be so sickening. Take for instance
the freaks who justify stuffing a kitten into a small
glass jar with the tagline "Dedicated to preserving the
long lost art of body modification in housepets". And then
they make a profit off those
"Bonsai Kitten" by selling them. Unbelievable.
Let's not let them get away with it. Do like I did -
send them mail
and give them a piece of your mind. Oh, and don't forget the
insults and obscenities.
Another publisher is going down the tubes: Lonely Planet is
getting
truly lonely now. But - "Lonely Planet is attempting to
stave off disaster with a fairly creative approach. The
company is giving employees up to six months of travel
leave with 15 percent pay... So far, about a quarter of
Lonely Planet's 155 U.S. employees have accepted the travel
plan and are now traipsing around the globe."
Ah, yes. I remember now why I like their books.
On the bright side: I found a rare gem of true free speech
today. Ever since 9/11 critical thinking has been seemingly
banned. I'm just glad that at least
this fellow has enough mojo to swim against the stream...
And kudos to the SF Chronicle for keeping him in print.
November 26, 2001
For everyone who cares - I'm back from my Thanksgiving trip to
Palm Springs. I'm actually still in kinda of disbelief that
I made the drive in *one* day. Seemingly all those airplane-
paranoids, plus all the crazies who knew they weren't gonna
be able to smuggle their dope or 15-inch knives or bombs
onto the plane anymore, obviously decided to take to the roads.
And so you're in the Central Valley of California, on I-5 (the
world's most straight and boring road), and you're sitting in
bumper-to-bumper traffic, inching forward at snail-speed,
wondering which massive crash in the DMV database has made it
possible for all these numbskulls to get a driver's license,
and why science, with all it's
human-cloning capabilities, has neglected to invent hover-crafts.
As was instantly pointed out to me though, the thought of all
these idiots flying around in hover-crafts and crowding the
airspace isn't exactly a pleasant one either...
Of course
this explains it all.
On the bright side - economic experts have finally figured out
that we're in a recession. Since March.
Ha Ha. Next.
Oh, and did *anybody* else see that groovy shooting star over
the Bay Area last night around 8:30pm? Driving north on 580,
I saw it coming down out of the left corner of my eye,
streaking across the sky in a shining white flash. Yet
instead of burning out, the tail curiously turned green and
the tip became bright and brilliant, until it vanished
beyond the horizon and out of my sight. I could have sworn
it must have hit the ground somewhere ...
November 18, 2001
Floating in the hottub at 2am on a Sunday morning is fun.
It becomes extraordinary fun when you can enjoy the
lightshow of the century at the same time. During the 45
minutes I simmered in the hot water, I counted 53 shooting
stars. And that despite a milky fog layer, the obtrusive
bright lights of Bay Area surburbia, and the fact that I was
only able to see a small fraction of the night sky from my
tub.
Brilliance, length of the tail, and time travelled across the
sky varied greatly, but I remember at least three meteorites
that were simply spectacular. Media coverage though is surprisingly
scarce this morning - AP is about the only one I've found to
have
something.
Discounting a slightly stiff neck and fingertips resembling
dried old raisins, it was well worth staying up late. I'll
try as hell to be there at the next show in 2099...
November 17, 2001
Damn, this guy is good.
In my quest for the perfect slide/film scanner at a
reasonable price (and to Canon and Nikon - I don't consider
$1500 "reasonable"), I happened upon this fellow, Tony Sleep,
who has done a bang-up job explaining and reviewing scanners
on his
website. With obsessive dedication and and in excruciating
detail, he's written up everything you could possibly ever
want to know about the process.
A wonderful resource for any photographer/digital imaging
junkie - oh, and no ads on the site either.
November 16, 2001
Ever tried to sign up for the
eBay bidding alerts?
No? Well - don't. eBay forces you to go through Microsoft's
Passport system. Both of my browsers (Netscape and IE)
crashed when, in a moment of lightheaded weakness, I tried
to sign up.
So much for .NET...
Oh, and thanks, eBay ...
November 14, 2001
Ever wonder what a .NET faq influenced by Pink Floyd would look like?
Casting aside the annoying fact that he's obsessed with
taking pictures of himself in the mirror (or maybe it's
simply that he's scared off any would-be photographer with
his opinionated ranting),
Chris Locke *gets it*: Amidst the convulsed and bloated
parlance, you can distill out that he's actually grasped
the truth of "transforming the marketing message from
'we want your money' to 'we share your interests'.
It's about tapping into, listening to, and even forming
alliances with emerging on-line markets, who probably know
more about your company than you do."
Bravo.
Gonzo Marketing
rules.
November 13, 2001
Today is my first day as a blogger.
Gimme feedback, but Be Kind, folks....
Well then, here we go:
Belated, but nonetheless important for the world to know:
Ken Kesey died last Saturday. But I won't direct you to
his website, since I don't think that any human being
should have to endure the sight of a neon-pink background ...
So here's the ABCNews article instead.
As a BMW lover, I was horrified to see what people have
been doing to these innocent
metal objects. [Thanks to Cam for initally pointing to the page]
And on the bright side: How do you get the dotcommer off your
doorstep?
Pay him for the pizza.
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