GirlHacker's Random Log

I've written an about page and FAQ for this log. And because Jay knew exactly who said "round up the usual suspects" and, more importantly, has threatened me with pain of death, I have now tweaked my Blogger template to include a name tag for each entry. The ID for the name is listed at the end of each entry. If you want a permanent link, use the archive pages. Don't say I never did anything for you, Jay. Happy linking.
2/29/2000 1:08:10 AM - name='69304'

I started using Kiss My Face's olive oil & aloe soap today, which was purchased from Trader Joe's, and realized that I've been taking for granted the rounded shape that most soaps have. I found the big, blocky soap to be uncomfortable and difficult to handle. You'd think the sharp corners would be easier to hang onto, but there's something lacking when you can't wrap your hand nicely around the bar. So what other simple ergonomics am I neglecting in everyday life? I notice door handles and switches, thanks to Don Norman, but I never thought before about how I hold soap.
2/29/2000 1:01:40 AM - name='69300'

Some days I feel like I'm just channeling the thoughts and discoveries of Seth (and sometimes he feels like he is just channeling me), but, hey, until he gets his own weblog, I feel compelled to share his discoveries with the world. So, with that said, here is his latest spew (his word, not mine) about observing some animations of Karl Sim's artificial creatures. It made me realize that a creative animator can probably make a small piece of string do things I'd find hilarious.
2/29/2000 12:54:25 AM - name='69294'

Monday, February 28, 2000

This BBC News article discusses how archeological records kept on soon to be obsolete computer formats are in danger of being lost. The Archaeology Data Service also found that old magnetic disks were becoming corrupted as the magnetic coating on the disks had eroded over time. I felt it ironic that on 12/6/99 (December archive page) I wondered if one day there would be computer software archeologists who will prospect through old computer data reconstructing our past. However if the data is not even readable, we will lose much more than if we need to recreate the process of reading it.
2/28/2000 12:17:53 AM - name='68025'

TV Eyes is an interesting concept. Give it a word and it will email you as soon as it is spoken on TV. Hmmm. What shows are they parsing exactly and do they do profanities?
2/28/2000 12:12:37 AM - name='68023'

Sunday, February 27, 2000

Pete Townshend has premiered his new rock opera, "Lifehouse". He intends to broadcast it on the Internet in a few months.
2/27/2000 5:19:04 PM - name='67744'

I saw a stretch SUV the other day on 101. I think it was a Lincoln Navigator or some such luxury sport UV. I've already seen a stretch Hummer and Porsche 911. I'm wondering if someone has managed to stretch one of the new VW Beetles. Of course they'd have to add extra bud vases!
2/27/2000 11:39:05 AM - name='67433'

I was struck by a future vision of myself as a mother, watching my daughter customize her first computer's user interface with all sorts of pretty colors (in the pink family of course), biting my tongue and holding myself back from giving her a lecture on usability and eyestrain. What would be worse is if I don't have what I consider a useable system to buy for her. Tog has some nice ideas in his March special article "Apple Squandering the Advantage".
2/26/2000 10:23:02 AM - name='66483'

Something serious. The New England Journal of Medicine has published the first study to document physician experiences with requests for assisted suicide under the Oregon Death with Dignity Act. Medscape has a summary. A survey of 2649 physicians showed that 144 (5%) had received 221 requests for lethal prescriptions. 1 out of 6 requests were honored and 1 out of 10 requests resulted in suicide.
2/26/2000 10:13:06 AM - name='66473'

The last page of the Internet has been found. We can all safely disembark now from our surfboards. Please take small children by the hand and check all personal belongings before exiting. Thank you.
2/26/2000 10:09:22 AM - name='66471'

Friday, February 25, 2000

What a wonderful idea! Fresh cookies and milk delivered to your door from CookiesNMilk.net. Yum yum yum. This business model may not scale well, but you don't need to be a big success to make a nice pot of money. Maybe they'll add freshly baked brownies too! That'd be awesome.
2/25/2000 1:01:08 AM - name='65057'

I'll go to the Oscars with you, Trey Parker! I know who won the Civil War. And I forgive you for killing Kenny every week. Pick me, pick me!
2/25/2000 12:57:30 AM - name='65055'

I heard myself using the phrase "talk to the hand!" today and was appalled, because a) I hate using catch phrases even though I do it all the time and b) I have no idea where the expression originated from and it's always good idea to know your sources. Being the good little web addict that I am, I did a search. Apparently we have Fran Drescher as "The Nanny" to thank for this contribution to American pop culture lingo. This article gave me the answer. How many of you know where the phrase "round up the usual suspects" comes from?
2/25/2000 12:47:01 AM - name='65051'

Thursday, February 24, 2000

A favorite conversation starter: "What would you rather win? An Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, Pulitzer, or how about one of the Nobel Prizes?" Hmm. Perhaps I need to add something like the Webby Awards to bring the choices into the new millenium. I guess I'd go for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but I'd certainly settle for a Pulitzer. I'm not too picky.
2/24/2000 2:26:06 AM - name='63753'

Just wanted to make sure no one missed the news that David Bowie and Iman are expecting a baby in August. I know -- who really cares 'cept me?
2/24/2000 2:15:57 AM - name='63742'

Wednesday, February 23, 2000

Via memepool: the New Yorker cartoon bank. Yippee!! Now I can search for old James Thurber cartoons -- although I haven't made the leap to actually register yet so I don't know how well the service works.
2/23/2000 9:15:01 AM - name='62708'

Is the 70's style rock'n'roll gig t-shirt back? Seems it's appearing at the fashion shows in London. That means it'll be coming to a teeny bopper near you. I never had any myself. I do own a few concert tees now, mostly from the nineties (Bowie's Sound and Vision tour, Peter Gabriel's Secret World tour -- awesome show). I haven't gotten around to writing about those yet (if you haven't seen it, I have my own t-shirt web site).
2/23/2000 9:07:22 AM - name='62699'

Tuesday, February 22, 2000

(Warning: it's childhood nostalgia day here at GirlHacker!) While doing my usual used bookstore perusal of the children's section, I came across three old volumes by Thornton Burgess. I had forgotten about his books. My father used to read them to me at bedtime. I adored the loveably flawed animal characters he created. I think Grandfather Frog was my favorite. And he wrote many more books than I realized! 171 on this list.
2/22/2000 12:51:30 AM - name='61272'

EM.TV, a German company, has acquired 100% of The Jim Henson Company. "EM.TV is the world market leader in family and children’s programming and the European market leader in merchandising." I guess I feel much nostalgia to be "losing" Kermit & Co to a bigger fish. But I'm sure the Hensons are probably thrilled to pieces over the $680 million deal. I watched The Muppet Show every week it was on, went to all the movies with my best friend, and sang along with the albums. How many of you sang "The Rainbow Connection" in plaintive little kiddie voices during elementary school choir? One of my favorite sketches is The Rhyming Song. Why? 'Cuz it doesn't rhyme. Ha!
2/22/2000 12:46:07 AM - name='61269'

Monday, February 21, 2000

Win a trip to Powell's! Being a used book (or just book) freak, Powell's Books is a mecca of mine. I hope to make a pilgrimage soon. As they aptly put it "Visit the best bookstore in the world. How you cope with ordinary bookstores thereafter, well, that's your problem." And they say they'll fly you from any major city in the world, so everyone can go for it. Heh...maybe I'll win since I'm such a small hop away.
2/21/2000 11:12:32 AM - name='60634'

Seth (who, as Steve and I have remarked, would be an excellent weblogger but instead sends weblog-worthy email to his logging friends) sent me a link to the Stumper's List. It's "an email-based resource where reference librarians can help each other find the answers to difficult questions." Very cool!! They have searchable archives, an informative FAQ, and, amusingly, a guide to why wombats have special meaning to the list. Wombats are the subversively unofficial mascot for my alma mater (yes, Go Wellesley Wombats!) so I enjoyed that part. (Seth found this on Computists Weekly.)
2/21/2000 11:01:20 AM - name='60619'

Sunday, February 20, 2000

I was thinking about the space shuttle mapping the earth from orbit, the NEAR images of the asteriod, and the beautiful pictures we've gotten from the Hubble. All of this perspective on our planet and its place in the vast universe made me wonder about my own microcosm and its relation to the greater world and other people. I'd love to have an (invisible) camera recording my life from a third person perspective. I only have what I see from inside me. Wouldn't it be fun and educational to play back portions of my life from an external perspective? I'm sure some of it would make me uncomfortable, but it's good to get comfortable with how other people see me. I have such a skewed view of how I must appear to other people -- I'm sure we all do.
2/20/2000 11:23:08 AM - name='59861'

Saturday, February 19, 2000

Mary Flanagan, assistant professor of media studies at SUNY Buffalo, is creating a web-based adventure game for girls ages 9-11. Her hope is that the game will make science and math learning fun for girls as they navigate the various scenes. In testing, she found that "girls would jump to narrative sections and linger there, while the boys would race to the end for a prize." Yup. No surprise there. The National Science Foundation is helping to fund her efforts. My hope is that more corporations will fund efforts to create girl-empowering and gender-neutral software. Progress has been made in this area, but, as with most endeavors to create "best-sellers" and "hits", the bottom line always gets in the way and incorrect compromises are made, dulling or lessening the effect. If I learned anything from my time at Purple Moon (now property of the evil pink empire), it's that, even with the best of intentions, running a business is still, well, running a business. And it's hard to alter the perceptions of the guys holding the purse strings.
2/19/2000 9:26:06 AM - name='59173'

Friday, February 18, 2000

This one's for my ex-officemate Eric: Build your own stormtrooper armor. (via /usr/bin/girl)
2/18/2000 1:59:47 AM - name='58223'

I'm now the owner of a fountain pen, my first ever. It is a blue Waterman Carene with an 18 karat gold fine nib (here's a photo of it without the cap so you can see the gorgeous top finial). No more drooling over Levenger catalogs (OK, I'll probably still drool over them anyway), wondering if I should join the ranks of the pen elite. I was never really sure if I wanted one; I love roller balls (Uniball Vision is my one of my faves) and consider them to be a major improvement over fountain pens. My only "real" pens until now were a blue Cross Classic Century Ladies' ballpoint that I use for writing checks, a beautiful, squishy grip Venetian Blue Sensa which takes Fisher Space Pen refills (I got black, blue, purple, and gold) that I use for journaling and other personal writing, and a brilliantly metallic purple rollerball pen with my name engraved on it which I got when I worked at Brio (of course it has the company name on it too). A good fountain pen is so pricey, considering I'm perfectly content with a $2 roller ball. But there's something tremendously appealing about the beauty of a quality fountain pen. I've been using mine for all sorts of innocuous things at work all week: drawing class diagrams, sketching potential design patterns for web-based UIs, editing requirements documents, underlining key phrases in technical articles, and, of course, doodling during meetings. I suppose I should sit down with it and try some serious writing. But, wait, don't I do that on the computer now? ;-)
2/18/2000 1:43:05 AM - name='58205'

Thursday, February 17, 2000

I was hit with a deep and profound thought this morning: Altoids tins have replaced Sucrets tins in American culture. Will Altoids tins be phased out in the future, prompting collectors to bid for them on eBay? I have twelve of them. Any takers?
2/17/2000 9:03:54 AM - name='57571'

Wonderful followup article in Wired about the Norman Nie study I (and I'm sure tons of other people) mentioned yesterday. It replaces "dogs" for "Internet" with very amusing results. "Americans who have dogs spend the time with their dogs instead of said time watching TV, visiting with friends, sleeping, going to movies, surfing the Internet, and doing nothing." And the ending point which had me on the floor laughing: "and a full 92 percent (of dog owners) go on the Internet specifically to interact with other dog owners." Oh no! The horror. The horror.
2/17/2000 8:59:39 AM - name='57569'

Wednesday, February 16, 2000

From the John Markoff in the New York Times: Portrait of a Newer, Lonelier Crowd Is Captured in an Internet Survey. Norman Nie, a political scientist at Stanford University, states "the more hours people use the Internet, the less time they spend with real human beings". He asserts that "the Internet is creating a new wave of social isolation in the United States, raising the specter of an atomized world without human contact or emotion." I completely disagree. What about the fact that the Internet brings people together from the far reaches of the world and bridges the gaps of distance and between cultures? Sure there are people who should spend more time away from the computer screen and out in the sun, communing with people in the flesh, but in general, the Internet has broadened our capacity for reaching out to others, not lessened our social interactions. Hmph.
2/16/2000 9:25:03 AM - name='56683'

Big letdown. As instructed, I checked back with @Home last night to hear the results of the Sunnyvale rollout and "it didn't happen". They have no idea when they will try again. And the guy didn't have as good of a sense of humor as the guy I spoke to last time, so he didn't seem to be amused by my mock crying. Ah well. I guess I should set a deadline for latching onto DSL.
2/16/2000 9:12:17 AM - name='56675'

Yay! AT&T @Home, the cable modem service, is being rolled out in Sunnyvale, CA starting today. I confess that I have phoned @Home almost every month for the past three years to ask if they were servicing my area yet. I don't know why I got so attached to the idea of having the Internet delivered over my cable wiring, but ever since a friend of mine got their service as a beta tester years ago, I have been enamored of the idea. I've heard it's not terribly secure (with neighbors showing up on your Network Neighborhood) and that speeds decrease with more people on the same wire, but there's just something about it that feels really cool. Maybe it's the idea of retrofitting something on top of a TV delivery mechanism (uh, wouldn't that be "a kluge"?). Maybe it's the horror stories friends tell about getting DSL, losing their regular phone service, and having terrible transfer speeds. Maybe it's a glamourized notion that AT&T's customer service (even if it did used to be TCI) has got to be more responsive than PacBell's. At any rate, I'm planning to sign up. I can always cancel it if I don't like it. I'd rather my cable TV stopped working than my phone. (I'd get more things done!)
2/15/2000 1:55:37 AM - name='55548'

How many home furnishing ecommerce sites can the market support? There's a bunch already: HomePoint.com, HomePortfolio.com, MyHome.com, GoodHome.com, living.com, Furniture.com. Then there are related sites such as OurHouse.com, Tavolo.com, SurLaTable.com. Will the online shopping economy support lots of places to buy furniture online or will there be an eventual consolidation into one or two?
2/15/2000 1:41:39 AM - name='55539'

Monday, February 14, 2000

The new Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History is ready to greet the public and, as you can see from these night photos, it's a real beauty. "The Planetarium, as well as the 'Big Bang Theater' -- a dramatic re-creation of the first minutes of the origins of the universe -- is situated inside a sphere 87 feet in diameter, which appears to float in a glass-walled cube." It is part of the new Rose Center for Earth and Space. A beautiful structure for an awe-inspiring subject.
2/14/2000 1:14:07 AM - name='54748'

From House & Garden magazine: "The newest nonstick material on the market is Cybernox, an alloy developed for the French aerospace industry." This material isn't as effective as usual non-stick coatings, but it will stay non-stick for a lifetime and you can clean it without worrying about scratching off the coating. I've been looking for a new non-stick pan since mine has given up even the pretense of being non-stick. I am leaning towards just paying $30 for a cheapy one, but cheap stuff just isn't made as well as it used to be. Where have the decent quality mid-priced products gone?
2/14/2000 1:03:00 AM - name='54745'

Sunday, February 13, 2000

This Economist article on the biology of music is fascinating. It describes various experiments which have analyzed how our brains process music. These have shown that music and language are processed independently of each other and that the processing of music is broken down into several tasks handled in different parts of the brain. Perception of rhythm and pitch are handled in separate areas. Being a musician, I was especially intrigued by the study done on musicians and nonmusicians which found that blood flow increased to the left brain of musicians but not nonmusicians when they listened to music. A musician's training affects the way she perceives harmony. I definitely listen to music differently if I want to "pay attention" to how it is constructed, and as I learned more about music theory I found it harder to turn off the thinking part of my brain when listening to music. The last part of the article discusses the connection between music and emotions, stating that the place where music has its most profound effect is in the brain’s emotional core—the limbic system. When men and women were asked why music was important in their lives, "emotion turned out to be not merely an answer. It was, more or less, the answer." It has been proven that music elicits emotions, not merely expresses emotions that people recognize. Another study showed that music’s emotional and conscious effects are completely separate. I've always been facinated by how tightly music is interwoven into my emotional state of mind. And I'm always taken aback by people who don't seem very emotionally affected by music. Surely they're missing out on one of the profound wonders of the human mind.
2/13/2000 10:36:16 AM - name='54252'

Saturday, February 12, 2000

Wired's article on Silicon Valley recruiters is enlightening if you haven't run across the concept of the power broker recruiter before. The valley's best and brightest are akin to Hollywood stars with their agents tracking down hot leads for new companies and enticing positions. I feel lucky to have cultivated solid relationships with three decent, straight-shooting recruiters over the years, using them for hiring and finding new jobs for myself. They know to check in every once in a while and they know my personality quite well. And I know they won't screw me over. They try to be persuasive, of course, but they know when to stop. The biggest gold mine of jobs for me, though? People I've worked with before. It is so comforting to have a network of contacts who periodically check in to see if I'm "interested".
2/12/2000 10:30:26 AM - name='53730'

Tom Merritt from ZDTV also has a commentary on Günter Grass' opinions on writing and computers which I mentioned on 2/9/00.
2/12/2000 10:20:16 AM - name='53723'

Friday, February 11, 2000

Anyone want to bid on an Original Lip Print from Jerry Yang? I'd rather have a signed photo of him with the lipstick on! I guess I shouldn't be surprised that out of the list of celebrity kisses, Gillian Anderson's is going for the most (by a wide margin).
2/11/2000 1:30:50 AM - name='52759'

I am always amazed by how instantly our brains process input and create a reaction. I react instantaneously to many things which I find funny. From something someone said, something I read, or a situation I see, it takes almost no time for my giggling to commence. Sometimes there is a delay while I figure out the humor in something, but I react to the funniest things right away. How do we do it? How do all those calculations of "well, that's ironic because he hates fish sticks" or "that's bitingly sarcastic and I'm amused because it is so true!" or "look -- his underwear is pink too" click through so rapidly and trigger the laughter? How did this trait evolve in humans? It's not like a sense of humor kept us from being eaten by wolves. Or maybe laughter does scare away predators. It certainly is, as the saying goes, the best medicine.
2/11/2000 1:27:00 AM - name='52756'

Bob Greene, a Chicago Tribune columnist (who, unlike me, apparently was not cured by an English teacher of an overuse of dashes), has mused in his past few articles about reading the newspaper online vs. on newsprint. First he discovers that, thanks to the Internet, he has readers all around the world. Then he considers the attachment some people have to newspapers in the bathroom and the comfort of the Sunday paper. Third, he directly confronts the reality that readers are canceling their subscriptions and reading online instead. Lastly, he winds up with the good news that people are personally attached to their newspapers, on paper or online. Readers wrote him about "my paper", not "your paper", and he sees that as a sign that newspaper people are doing their job right. I know many people who only read the paper online. I read a large amount of news online, but I still practice an almost ritualistic reading of the physical paper; so much so that I get antsy when some else reads my virginal paper before I get to it. Sunday is especially ritualistic, involving a sorting technique (ads in this pile, news in this pile, classifieds in the recycling bin, comics last) and relaxation that I look forward to. I can envision reading my news online only, and in fact I read the New York Times online because I can't stand the idea of wasting even more paper. But I am so attached to the browsing, turning, rustling, and clipping. Will it all go away someday? Maybe.
2/10/2000 1:53:52 AM - name='51888'

Wednesday, February 9, 2000

Günter Grass' traditionally minded opinions about not using computers when writing are extreme for my taste. The Nobel Prize winner thinks computers and the Internet are a bad influence on writing and claims (jokes?) that he can tell after reading 10 pages if a book was written on a computer. He starts with pen and paper and then uses a typewriter for subsequent drafts. I've used all three methods; pen, typewriter, computer, and they are suited for different things. Free form brainstorming and idea connecting works best for me with pen and paper. A typewriter was just a cool funky thing I used to use to whack out short poetry and thoughts; I doubt I'll go back to that again. And, contrary to what Grass may believe, the word processor has freed me from the tangles of my tools and given me an ease of space to "scribble" out my coalescing thoughts, allowing them to manifest themselves into reality. Different things work for different people. His mind is accustomed to the rhythms of pen on paper, and he always writes standing up. I sit. I ponder. I type words onto the screen. I use the backspace key a lot.
2/9/2000 9:01:32 AM - name='51308'

Tuesday, February 8, 2000

I've been checking Walter S. Arnold's website periodically for a few years now. He's a sculptor and stone carver who has been on the web since 1994. He creates beautiful things by chipping away at limestone and marble. I especially like the gargoyles and fireplaces. It's comforting to read about the meticulous creation of art from stone. It provides a reassuring contrast to my daily hurried pace of pushing and prodding bits into the right configurations.
2/8/2000 1:18:25 AM - name='50266'

Nicely done animated evolution of alphabets. Very cool. (found on Yahoo's Weekly Picks)
2/8/2000 1:00:48 AM - name='50255'

Monday, February 7, 2000

This weekend I bought a world globe. I've wanted one for years, but kept forgetting to get one. Everyone should have a globe. I hate how much time we spend looking at and thinking of a flat earth, believing that the distorted view is accurate. A lot of educational material is two dimensional when a three dimensional view would be more appropriate for our brains to learn and grow from. All those cutaway views of cell structures are so much more vivid when represented in a realistic three dimensional view. I'm not talking about having a physical 3D model necessarily, but a diagram drawn in 3D instead of the typical textbook smushed microscope slide view. Wouldn't that exercise the brains of our kids more? I hope the addition of computers in the educational process will allow more realistic materials to be used, but my fear is that the folks who prepare the materials will continue to pander to simplistic conceptualizations of the world around us. (Note: this entry can be linked to using anchor #20700)
2/7/2000 1:39:42 AM - name='49445'

Sunday, February 6, 2000

Saw Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock last night. Decent movie; it gives an enlightening perspective on the 1930's social and political climate. I was pleased with the array of strong female characters (I suppose you can expect that from someone whose partner in life is Susan Sarandon :-). My favorite line came from the always wonderful Vanessa Redgrave who, upon being ordered back into the car by her husband, piped out "Perhaps you have mistaken me for a spaniel!" And towards the end of the credits, I heard an eerily familiar voice singing one of the closing songs and realized it was Susan Sarandon... and that I recognized the voice because of Rocky Horror.
2/6/2000 11:52:13 AM - name='49113'

Saturday, February 5, 2000

Happy New Year! It's the Year of the Dragon, so a baby boom is expected. Taiwan is expecting a 30 percent increase in the number of babies born in this auspicious year.
2/5/2000 1:43:13 AM - name='48556'

1-800-578-7453
This phone number was posted to the rec.music.a-cappella Usenet group. It's a tobacco company and they have a very amusing serenade for you. Listen and (I hope) laugh.
2/5/2000 1:40:20 AM - name='48555'

I was drooling while reading this NY Times article on the goody bags Hollywood socialites receive at ritzy parties. To promote products, marketers weigh down favor bags with pounds of free stuff: cosmetics, photo frames, leather purses, spa gift certificates. It's getting so celebrities are now conditioned to expect these good will gestures and demand extras for "sick friends". Leonardo DiCaprio got a Motorola phone as part of his loot. But Jennifer Tilly complained that she didn't receive even a ballpoint pen at the Star Wars premiere since the gift bags were for the kids. "If there's no gift bag, you get very bummed out." Ohhh poor thing. It's such a sad life to be a Hollywood star.
2/5/2000 1:38:59 AM - name='48554'

Friday, February 4, 2000

On 11/21/99 I mentioned the Sony Memory Stick and wondered how we would exchange data with each other in the future (bandwidth or "sticks"?). A competing technology is being developed by a group of companies including Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba. According to Wired, this new memory card will be the size of a postage stamp, leading me to wonder how people will store them and keep from losing them!
2/4/2000 1:25:12 AM - name='47969'

Here's a wonderful FEED article about the phenomenon of tunes getting stuck in your head. It contains fascinating facts about where memories are stored in the brain, and how remembering a tune in your head is more like singing than listening: "Imagining something, for the brain, is almost the same as really doing. All you subtract out are some low-level processes, in this case, the coordination of motion and breath. Your left brain might be activating representations of the words of the song and what they mean, while your right brain is calling up the tones, musical structure, and most likely your feelings and further associations -- your whole brain lights up like a Christmas tree." Tunes that, for better or worse (usually worse), stick like glue to my internal ears: anything by ABBA, the various themes from Star Wars, and the downright evil "Song That Doesn't End".
2/4/2000 1:12:36 AM - name='47962'

Thursday, February 3, 2000

This Atlantic article by James Fallows describes what he learned about Microsoft culture during a six month stint helping to design Word. Summary points: The people are nice, the pace is slow, the culture is meeting-centric, the planning process is radically "bottom-up" and surprisingly nonpolitical, people do talk about money (as in having lots of it), it is like the military (in a good way), and they understand exactly who their most important customers are. It's a fascinating look inside the enclave. And it's definitely an outsider non-geek viewpoint -- I mean, I don't see anything strange about rigging up a camera so you can see what your cats are doing while you're at work! (thank you Landon)
2/3/2000 1:03:42 AM - name='47327'

In response to my entry about the $1 coin, Passerby (bonjour!) wrote a nice description of how the $1 and $2 coins in Canada led to generous tipping. Read the January 31 entry.
2/3/2000 12:53:57 AM - name='47324'

Wednesday, February 2, 2000

From the "no duh!" department: my favorite Super Bowl ad was, of course, EDS' cat herding narrative. I often use the extreme phrasing of "herding white cats through a snowstorm", but I suppose that would've been more difficult to film!
2/2/2000 1:22:51 AM - name='46699'

I'm sure this article about Colorado College replacing college entrance exams with a Lego building test is being linked to from everywhere. It made me remember thoughts I've had in the past about how to measure creativity. The Lego test isn't designed for that, but perhaps it could be. Ingenuity is such an important facet of intelligence and the ability to solve new problems. And creativity is art. Multiple choice tests could never measure these qualities. More interactive tests have probably been produced to try to measure creativity, but it doesn't seem to be something that colleges and companies directly look for. I try to gauge it when interviewing engineers by asking how they would handle certain situations I don't think they have been in. Once in a while I can tell immediately that someone is a creative thinker, often I'm just not sure. It's always been my favorite programmer trait, and I keep an eye out for it. I'm not sure it is something that can really be taught, though you can learn it by experience.
2/2/2000 1:20:06 AM - name='46697'

Tuesday, February 1, 2000

I have little brain left for original musings; had a very challenging meeting today at work. So instead I will let someone else do the thinking. William H. Calvin, a favorite thinker of mine about things having to do with, uh, thinking, has the entire contents of his book "The Throwing Madonna: Essays on the Brain" online. He intersperses his books with wonderful quotes. I especially recommend the essays "The Lovable Cat: Mimicry Strikes Again" wherein he examines the similarities between cats and babies, and "Did Throwing Stones Lead to Bigger Brains".
2/1/2000 2:27:52 AM - name='46071'