"just fun" entries
Cable cuts, conspiracies, and submarines…
It is 3AM at Social Graph Foo Camp and it seems conversations about data portability and authentication will continue until breakfast. As I was leaving to find my sleeping bag, several people insisted that sharing conspiracy theories about the three recent transcontinental fiber cuts was of greater importance than my own desire to sleep. Here goes… It's no secret that…
Hand of Google
While looking at a library book scanned by Google, I found this image, the hand behind the scanner revealed….
Greatest error message ever?
Adobe pushed out an upgrade of its Creative Suite. I installed it, as prompted. This is what happens when I try to run any element of the Suite after the install: Click on the modal dialog box and the program closes. For extra redundancy, there's a second error message that reads "licensing for this product has stopped working." But I…
Fast Forward for December 29th, 2007
I would buy more music if my iPhone held more music. I wonder how much demand is suppressed only by device capacity. I can't believe Leno and company aren't turning to the Internet for jokes. A little Digg-style interface for submitted jokes and an on-air namecheck and away you go. Submit ten jokes that get used on the air…
My favorite iPod accessory is my EFF Membership…
If you are searching for accessories for your new iPod or other music player, please consider membership in the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The EFF helps people fight abusive file-sharing lawsuits and is working to provide ways for artists to be paid for their work. The EFF helps ensure we have fair use of our media, which makes membership the…
Tab bankruptcy
I'm no Larry Lessig, but I get a fair amount of email these days. Still, I'm not yet at the point, and hope never to be at the point, where I would ever declare email bankruptcy. I already get over 200 non-spam email messages a day, but if at some point I can't deal with that, I won't delete my…
Why Global Warming Is Bad for the iPhone
Last night, in chilly Boston, I had to go from one event to another, but didn't know where the second one was. I asked a colleague where to go next. He took out his iPhone and started pecking out the address in the Google Maps app. The following dialogue is guaranteed repeated verbatim: Me: Sorry. I've got one of those….
Thankful I'm Not Bill O'Reilly
I was thinking that I really ought to do some kind of Thanksgiving weekend post, and I finally found my topic. I'm thankful that I'm not Bill O'Reilly, the conservative pundit, and that my readers are smarter than his! It's amazing how much email we get for Bill O'Reilly. And it's gotten worse since we put up the Satisfaction…
Rogers Chocolates, Ajax, and Customer Service
Rogers Chocolates has a fabulous Ajax interface for choosing a custom box of their famous Victoria Creams, a Christmas staple at our house since we discovered them on a family holiday in Victoria, British Columbia some fifteen years ago. These are large, lush chocolates — 1.6 ounces apiece. It was always the height of excess to have one for yourself…