GirlHacker's Random Log

Information from my hometown's "answer book" (which is like a big printed FAQ): Dogs are not allowed to roam on someone else's private property when not attended by an owner. Cats, however, are allowed to roam on others' property because Connecticut considers cats to be "nomadic by nature". (I guess dogs have learned to settle down and farm, perhaps using the slash and burn technique of agriculture.)
7/31/2000 8:10:25 PM - name='558140'

I watched much of Dennis Miller's debut on Monday Night Football and thought he performed admirably. But then, I've been a fan of his for, geez, fifteen years. Everyone else in the booth was supportive and he definitely did his homework. I hope his delivery doesn't get repetitive with the entire season ahead of him. Or perhaps he will develop catch phrases. The odd thing for me was watching the Patriots play (trounce, actually) the 49ers in Ohio while I was in New England, visiting from the Bay Area.
7/31/2000 8:06:38 PM - name='558119'

Sunday, July 30, 2000

Ever wonder about the family behind the Campbell Soup Company? They declined requests for interviews, but The New York Times got a pretty good ladle of backstory anyway for a Sunday Business article. Campbell's may lose the soup battle if they don't get creative or seek partnerships. I was unaware that they also own Godiva and Pepperidge Farm (yum on both counts).
7/30/2000 7:43:04 PM - name='552301'

When someone makes a statement to me that I do not think is true and we end up in a big disagreement with no resolution, I often go away feeling horrible. Sometimes a lot of that is because I start questioning myself and whether my belief is actually true. So my icky feeling is one of self-doubt, which is never any good. Not long ago, a recruiter, panicking because I was turning down a chance at a company he had pitched me to, started telling me that I had been at a string of failed companies and that it was time for me to find a success. I had been told to trust this recruiter by people I knew, so I was completely blindsided by his change in tactics. His tone of voice put me on the defensive as he made me feel that everyone would start looking at me like a pariah.

Instead of just telling him thanks and goodbye, I went into a long tirade about how I could not understand why he felt I had been only at failures when the first startup I was at created a successful product and eventually went public and the second produced an award winning product and was purchased. And then I started spouting about how my version of success did not have to involve a company IPO-ing for millions of dollars and that what I really care about is that I was respected in my position, had fun working with excellent people, and successfully shipped quality product. Since I've accomplished that in most of my jobs, I have every right to feel proud of my career and I told him that. He defended his position and I told him that if he felt I was a failure, I did not want him representing me anymore. I will not be working with him in the future.

I do not know if I should feel proud of giving this guy a piece of my mind, even if I feel that he deserved it. But the self-doubt that clouded my head when I hung up reached critical proportions and it took me a long time to shake it. Some days I thought he might be right and that other people would look at my resume and wonder why I was in such a rut. Then one night I had a dream in which I was giving a speech in a crowded auditorium, perhaps at a graduation ceremony. I ended it with this statement: "What we are asking for is not the opportunity to be successful, but for the chance to define for ourselves what success means to each one of us." After that, I felt more resolved.
7/30/2000 7:30:18 PM - name='552250'

Medley logs that LL Bean is opening a new store in Virginia. But when I checked into it, I noticed it's only open from 10am-9pm! One of the joys of the flagship store in Freeport, Maine is that it is open 24 hours. In college we always talked about driving up to Maine in the middle of the night just to go to the Bean store. (Instead we would usually go the 24 hour Star Market. Oh sorry, that would be "Stah Mahket".)
7/27/2000 10:37:33 PM - name='540083'

Mike Gunderloy kindly reminded me that the middle gas service I spoke of yesterday is called "mini serve". Phew. Chuck that little nagging nit out of my head. He also reminded me that self service is illegal in Oregon and New Jersey. "Keep your hands ON the steering wheel sir and DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT step out of the car!"
7/27/2000 10:35:55 PM - name='540076'

I am a mosquito magnet. My mom fondly recalls when I was a baby that I often looked like "one big mosquito bite". Lovely. It is usually just a big nuisance, but right now it is actually somewhat of a fear, because the big news item around the New England and New York area is the deadly viruses the mosquitos are now carrying. I think six people died last summer. Some areas are being sprayed with pesticides, but the rain has delayed much of that. And the rain is great for the skeeters. It is sad to feel so unsafe to be outdoors. Deet products are selling quite well.
7/27/2000 10:33:05 PM - name='540070'

I'm pretty sure I do not want the "Simultaneous Ring" service described in this Wired article. "With SimulRing's technology, a single call can ring on a cell phone, a home phone, an office phone, and up to seven other lines, all at the same time." I can see the advantages for someone who wants to be always accessible, but I feel like it would cause me to scream something along the lines of "PLEASE -- make it STOP!"
7/26/2000 10:28:27 PM - name='534541'

Something very depressing happened to me today. Earthlink told their Netcom shell customers that they would be closing their accounts in September. I've had my Netcom email address since 1991. I thought I would have it forever. So did a lot of the other 2000 account holders they are shutting out. They are only providing forwarding until December. I am so upset at them that I will probably also cancel my Earthlink PPP service (which I got before the mass of mergers made me have two eggs in one basket).
7/26/2000 10:18:02 PM - name='534497'

Today I got gas at a "full serve" station for the first time in, well, I can't remember when I've ever had someone pump my gas for me. The gas was actually cheaper at this place, so I didn't even notice that I wasn't supposed to do it myself. And I had to think really hard to remember what I was supposed to say. It went something like this:

[nice man waits patiently in the rain while I try to remember how to roll down the window in my mom's car]
Me: Uhhh sorry, it's my mom's car. uhhhhh, fill it up with ... [glances at selection of pumps] 87.
Ever helpful brother: What? You don't call it 'regular'?
Me: No. The last time I saw full service the choices were regular and unleaded.

I remember that there used to be three levels of service. "Full" meant that they checked your oil and cleaned your windows. Then there was something in the middle which I can't remember the name of, where they just pumped gas. And sometimes there would be self service too.
7/26/2000 10:06:47 PM - name='534454'

Newspaper revenues are still strong in the Internet age, confounding some analysts (the same ones who thought TV news would kill newspapers too, I suppose).
7/25/2000 8:51:54 AM - name='524591'

I always turn to the New York Times for in-depth coverage and high caliber writing, but some people think it has gone downhill. Smartertimes.com publishes "we beg to differ" counterpoints to NY Times articles they find inaccurate. Their eventual aim seems to be to support an alternative choice (yet to be created). "Smartertimes.com is dedicated to the proposition that New York's dominant daily has grown complacent, slow and inaccurate." The problem is, most papers are worse.
7/25/2000 8:48:39 AM - name='524563'

Monday, July 24, 2000

I was recently on a quest to find the perfect blue ink for my fountain pen. I wanted a bright royal blue. A few that I tried had the right hue but were too transparent. There seems to be a balancing act between pigments and color depth for inks, and also not clogging the pen. I do have a purple ink that I like very much, but it just won't do for legal and more official paperwork. Also a lot of inks look fine when you first write, but dry and fade over time into something less appealing. It's like when I pick up pebbles at the beach. Most of them look gorgeous when they are wet, but once they are home and dry, I am disappointed. Anyway, I've settled for now on Omas Blue, which is on the higher end of the price scale for inks, but definitely affordable (their Vespucci Red is supposed to be amazing). I discovered that someone actually has actually created a book of 200 hand painted ink samples. You can buy it for $27.50.
7/24/2000 1:21:41 AM - name='517292'

Sunday, July 23, 2000

At Albertson's, which I still refer to as Lucky's, there was a free sample kiosk with a strange device which had a rotating pizza on it. There wasn't anyone at the kiosk and the pizza appeared to be baking while it spun. It was a demonstration of the Presto Pizzazz pizza oven with "exclusive RotaBake(tm) technology". It appears to bake pizzas right out there in the open, spinning them slowly around. I wonder how safe it is with pets and small kids around. Apparently, Presto hasn't been doing so well since Wal-Mart reduced their orders (you may know them for their SaladShooter) and this pizza oven is supposed to save the business. Perhaps they'll take the infomercial route.
7/23/2000 1:28:59 AM - name='513293'

Saturday, July 22, 2000

Nick At Nite will start showing The Facts of Life in September according to a Merc article (which is mostly about Barney Miller coming to TV Land). Lisa Welchel, who played Blair, has her own official site. If you don't want to remember how we dressed in "the eighties", the show will give you that scary retro feeling. I think I stopped watching around when George Clooney was added to the cast. Yes, George Clooney -- with lots of hair.
7/22/2000 9:34:31 AM - name='510462'

Diablo II came down to $40 at Fry's so I finally joined the legions of happy questing zombies. But first I did my laundry and fed the cat. I think "time sink" is probably an understatement. For those of you who don't know how Diablo works, I apologize for the following digression. After many hours of slogging through fields and dungeons I went to sleep and had a dream that I was on a quest with 4 other people. We had to find a stamp and put it on an envelope in someone's office and then get out of town before the police caught up with us. The stamp and the envelope part worked great, except for the yapping dogs, but leaving town was tricky. I had to bribe a police officer with 147 pieces of gold in order to steal a Corvette. But when I got to the car, it wouldn't fit in my inventory. So I opened my pack and apparently I had managed to store several pieces of furniture in there, a lovely antique dresser, a plant stand, an old telephone, etc. I had to do lots of shuffling to get the car to fit in there and lost precious time. Then I wasn't able to drive the car very well because my driving skill level was so low I kept running into things. Eventually I made it onto the road out of town -- and remembered that I should probably go back and get my companions. I think I was so exasperated that I left them to fend for themselves.
7/22/2000 9:20:43 AM - name='510427'

Friday, July 21, 2000

Oh no! No more purple iMac! (However, the sage one almost matches my car.) Have they given up making a matching keyboard and mouse? It seems those are only black and clear. Certainly that's more cost effective. Apple did not tell vendors of Mac accessories about the colors in advance, so they are left to scramble them into manufacturing. "Apple won't provide hardware vendors with colored plastic samples even after the launch of new products. 'We have to do it ourselves: physically test colors by eye or with a densitometer.'" Agh!
7/21/2000 10:52:26 AM - name='506139'

I know people who claim that clothes dryers are very harmful to fabrics and you'll get many more years out of clothes if you hang them up to dry. I am inclined to believe that, and I keep my favorite clothes out of the dryer. But the dryer is just so darn convenient! Whirlpool has introduced a new drying system called "Senseon" which they claim reduces drying time by 20 minutes and is gentler on clothes because it uses lower temperatures. That also saves energy: "Air is heated to its maximum temperature (depending upon the cycle selected) using a 5400-watt element. When that level is reached, a 2700-watt element takes over to maintain that temperature. This saves over 30% in energy usage and is the most efficient in the industry."
7/21/2000 10:51:15 AM - name='506128'

Thursday, July 20, 2000

Thank you Randy for fixing that little itch in the back of my head that kept saying "You've seen Jean Grey somewhere else, and it wasn't GoldenEye". Famke Janssen was the Metamorph in that very intriguing episode of Star Trek:TNG. So she and Patrick Stewart had already spent some quality time together prior to X-Men.
7/20/2000 2:21:05 AM - name='498298'

Miracle of miracles, AT&T @Home finally has decided that they can give me cable modem service. After my DSL no-go and literally years of phoning the @Home folks every month, I can barely believe that I may be able to actually get a high bandwidth connection. But I know better than to rejoice until I have the actual hookup working, so I won't go bouncing gleefully around the place just yet (plus, the cat looks at me funny when I do that). My first setback has already occured: I called to sign up (operators are standing by, 24 hours a day) and the nice man couldn't get something overriden about a prior hookup in a different unit of my complex. So I have to call back in the morning (apparently the people with override privileges get to work in the daytime). If I didn't have to type, I'd be crossing my fingers.
7/20/2000 2:12:53 AM - name='498279'

I've been using GuruNet for over eight months. It's a handy Windows utility that lets me alt-click on a word on my screen to get a dictionary lookup, web search, translations, and book search. I found a competing product today called Zapper. It takes context into account (as does GuruNet) and activates with a control + right click. I suppose I could install that too and do a head to head battle. Zapper has more specific lookup options, like shopping, sports, and finance, but I'm sure GuruNet can easily add more if they so desire.
7/20/2000 2:07:31 AM - name='498271'

Wednesday, July 19, 2000

I watched Nova's The Diamond Deception episode last night. It described the discoveries and processes of synthetic diamond making. The Nova program opens with a GE scientist demonstrating how he can make a diamond out of a dollop of peanut butter. Not surprisingly, De Beers has been keeping up with synthetics themselves, acquiring their own equipment to make synthetics, not for market, but to develop methods of identifying man-made diamonds. They rather people bought the Real Thing from them. I was amused when one of their spokesmen said "It's like a Picasso versus a copy of a Picasso. The copy is worthless, but the Picasso is priceless." I thought...well, let's see... Picasso was an artist who put time and creativity into making a work of art. The scientists behind the synthetics have been using remarkable creativity to learn how to produce in hours what nature took billions of years to produce blindly. You're digging rocks out of the ground. I know consumers will still desire the naturals over synthetics, and De Beers will sway the vote with their own campaign. I'm not naive enough to think everyone will think this one through like the engineer geek I am. Scientists will eventually produce diamonds which can not be distinguished from natural ones, so De Beers has plans to start etching logos onto theirs.
7/19/2000 12:06:02 PM - name='494877'

According to a Mercury News article, Zoom Media is responsible for putting up motion triggered advertising for the 'Norm' show near urinals in men's rooms. Zoom Media specializes in the "18-34s", a hot target market. It seems we're in the "accumulation" stage of our lives, buying stuff. Big stuff, like houses and cars. I guess at 35 you switch over to accumulating things for your kids and living with what you've got. Hmmm, maybe I should be buying better stuff.
7/19/2000 11:53:49 AM - name='494799'

Tuesday, July 18, 2000

I good way to catch up on quality children's books is to take a peek at the Newbury Award winners. I've found some old treasures there too, like The Westing Game!
7/18/2000 11:50:05 AM - name='489376'

It's harder to tell when an online shopping site is going under. When you head into a store and see that their stock is dwindling (and it's not because of a big Christmas rush!) and the workers don't look too happy and there's a general aura of malaise, well, the writing is on the wall. But an ecommerce site can look happy and peppy up to the bitter end. It's been depressing going into certain bookstores lately, seeing their stacks getting smaller as they try to manage a decreasing cash flow. The problem is that a vicious cycle starts when I don't want to go to that bookstore anymore because their selection isn't big enough. Then they lose customers and go further downhill. But I hope a few of the better, more creative ones, will remain.
7/18/2000 11:45:02 AM - name='489358'

Business 2.0 has a detailed, but interesting, tale of creating a "dot com" ad. It tells of the creative process and results, which were: "We determined through research, that consumers liked the ads but still weren’t sure what the site did." That is a common problem with dot com ads. You have an advantage if your domain name says what your site does and you can then use your ad dollars to wham that URL into people's heads. But that is often not the case. (via xblog)
7/17/2000 12:05:39 PM - name='483900'

Commercial web sites make efforts to ensure that the ads they run are not going to screw up their users. Yahoo's banner ad and JavaScript banner guidelines state: "Advertisements cannot mislead the user. For example, they may not mimic or resemble Windows/Macintosh/Unix dialogue boxes, error messages, or the like" and "banners may not contain graphics that simulate interactivity (ie drop down menus, search boxes and the like) without that functionality truly existing." They also imply that they test all the ads, which makes complete sense. The ads are, in a sense, becoming part of their site, and therefore should conform to their standards of user interaction and quality. Lycos' guidelines are similar.
7/17/2000 11:49:28 AM - name='483812'

Sunday, July 16, 2000

Somebody very nice handed me a South Carolina quarter yesterday. Of course it's a "D" (Denver mint), but I will be heading to the east coast soon and hope to pick up my missing Philadelphias.
7/16/2000 1:32:41 PM - name='479166'

The 5th Annual Air Guitar World Championships is August 25 in Finland. Yes, air guitar. Yes, Finland. "According to the ideology of air guitar playing all evil things disappear from the world whenever people play the air guitar." The classical music station in New York City I used to listen to once held an "air baton" contest for at-home orchestra conductors.
7/16/2000 1:28:34 PM - name='479158'

Saturday, July 15, 2000

X-Men was OK. It could have been done a lot better. But I enjoyed watching it, and I suppose that is what's important, since I'm not a die-hard comics fan. Hopefully it can take in a lot of money and someone else can come along and do the next one tons better. These interviews with the actors are really amusing.
"Could Professor X kick Captain Picard's butt?"
Patrick Stewart:"For obvious reasons [Professor X is in a wheelchair], he couldn't kick Picard's butt, but he could lick him. He could certainly kick the s--t out of Captain Kirk -- and you can quote me."
(via brainlog)
7/15/2000 11:18:52 AM - name='475454'

At used bookstores I always browse the childrens' books section to see if any old memories pop out at me. I've found many almost forgotten treasures: Emil and the Detectives, the Mushroom Planet books, Pippi Longstocking. But I realized that they keep publishing books for children. They didn't stop when my childhood ended. How obvious! But when I browse I wasn't browsing to see what was new. I was looking for old. However, there's a gap between when I stopped reading those books and when my future children will read. So my kids may benefit from my paying attention to what I've missed in the interim. Of course, browsing at the library, which filled many of my childhood hours, will probably fill in any holes. There's got to be something more substantial than those silly "Babysitter's Club" series and less hyped than Mr. Potter.
7/15/2000 11:14:21 AM - name='475443'

Craving some retro-gaming, but afraid people will laugh at your dusty old Atari 2600? Pick up the iTari. "iTari's joystick is exactly like the original... only prettier!" And it plays all those old Atari games too, on its blazing 1.19 MHz processor. (via memepool)
7/14/2000 2:19:01 AM - name='469674'

I once had this flash of inspiration to gather up a bunch of friends and inline skate over the Golden Gate Bridge, but I discovered that "Roller Blades, Skateboards and Roller Skates are not permitted" (Seth is now going to send me email telling me to take up unicycling). So I wish I had seen an announcement earlier for this skate from Denmark to Sweden over the brand new Oresund Link. Of course, I don't know if I can actually skate 11 miles without collapsing, but I would have trained for it. After all, it's at least ten thousand times cooler to have skated from one country to another rather than merely skating from San Francisco to Marin County (even if it is illegal).
7/14/2000 1:51:35 AM - name='469640'

De Beers, surprisingly, has announced that they will start slashing their stockpile of diamonds from $3.9 billion to about $2.5 billion. They've been hoarding the gems since the Great Depression, carefully cultivating the aura of scarcity. It is a significant change, but I am not knowledgeable enough to judge the impact it will have on the actual industry as a whole. I doubt anyone is about to let diamond prices drop by releasing a big supply into the marketplace and I am skeptical that De Beers will be happily opening themselves to additional competition. They are also planning to increase their advertising and marketing efforts to boost sales, which makes me wonder what tactics we'll see next. Perhaps they will go beyond special events (weddings, anniversaries) and try everyday, everyman/everywoman tactics. (info culled from AP report in NY Times)
7/14/2000 1:32:55 AM - name='469607'

Monday, July 10, 2000

I will be without Internet access (gasp!) for the next few days, so my incessant daily posting will cease until later in the week. There are many other wonderful things to read in logging-land, so I am sure this absence will not cause any universal constants to shift or anything profound like that. Until I return, you may ration amongst yourself the following GirlHacker special features:

The Driving Compatibility Test - In the spirit of Cosmo, test your compability with your mate (or anyone, really). I used to argue about #2 with an "ex" and that made me think of other driving-related compatibility issues. Remember, this is just a joke. And please, no wagering.

Haiku Contest Entries - Salon is having another Haiku challenge. The theme of this one is "the rise and fall of dot coms". Only 3 entries allowed per person, but you get to read all my rejects!

and if you still need more to read, you can pop over to my personal site for my page of rants and book reviews.

But maybe you are looking for some neat links instead. Well, here's Eric's Chopsticks Gallery, which shows a fabulous collection of those eating utensils. And the Totally Tessellated site, which is self explanatory. And last, a nice page on Girls' Series Books, a favorite genre of mine. I appreciate everyone's continued visits here. I'll be back in a jiffy.
7/10/2000 12:30:08 AM - name='448289'

Sunday, July 9, 2000

You can make a fashion statement in Diablo II. I'm wondering if my aesthetically challenged friends are running around in mismatched armor, not realizing that chain-mail just doesn't drape properly over those, um, well-endowed female characters. Can I hire myself out as a Diablo fashion consultant? Seriously, though, when a game arrives that allows you to completely customize the body shape and look of your character, I think I will wander around in a form that looks like a rotund donut baker (or Pillsbury doughboy), but that can actually kick some real ass. Why put anyone on their guard? (n.b. Sapphire baubles purchased for your honey inside Diablo II do not count towards real life bauble-buying points. Unless she is a serious serious gamer, in which case, count yourself lucky.)
7/9/2000 11:45:18 AM - name='445809'

Saturday, July 8, 2000

Via Metafilter, Bruce Sterling's 1991 Game Developers Conference speech, "The Wonderful Power of Storytelling". It's tough reading through rambling speeches, but he has some worthy food for thought. Beyond his calling Brenda Laurel "The High Priestess of Weird" (no comment from this ex-Purple Moonie :-), he worries over how science fiction books are shuffled through racks faster and faster ("They're cliches because cliches are less of a cognitive load.") and eventually advises that gamers ignore storytelling: "We're not into science fiction because it's *good literature,* we're into it because it's *weird*. Follow your weird, ladies and gentlemen." As I look at my stack of Doom clones, no make that Wolfenstein clones, I wonder if the truly innovative designers out there are getting shut out by the "sure to please the masses" games. In ten years have we really only progressed in making everything more realistically 3D in version X+1, instead of trying new, mind-blowing methods of gameplay? Is there an outlet for the "art film" game equivalents?
7/8/2000 10:57:55 AM - name='442305'

I've been making my way through the "Time-Life Foods of the World" book series (those I've gathered from various used bookstores and booksales). They feature excellent writing (M.F.K. Fisher authored one of the France books), and wonderful historical information. In perusing the "The Cooking of Japan", I learned that tempura was developed after the Portuguese began trading with Japan and sending Jesuit missionaries in the 1500s. "The Portuguese, as good Catholics, rejected meat on Ember Days, which they called by the Latin name of Quattuor Tempora, the 'four times' of the year." They instead requested seafood, especially deep-fried shrimp which came to be known as "tempura". "Thus, did the ancient Latin word for 'times' turn into the Japanese word for shrimp fried in batter." The frying method was refined by the Japanese into the light, crispy, yummy treat we know today. Etymology can be so enlightening. In all the times I've had tempura I've never wondered if the word was derived from Latin roots. I often pick out Chinese-derived words, but I never would have guessed where this one came from. The author's source for this information was Mario Pei's "Talking Your Way Around the World" (now out of print).
7/8/2000 10:33:16 AM - name='442223'

Steve's link to the Coffee FAQ, which lists the caffeine content of various drinks, reminded me of the page I found a while back on Hershey's site listing the theobromine content of their various chocolates. Special Dark wins by a landslide (if you don't count the baking supplies). (Actually, Special Dark can't hold a candle to serious European dark chocolates, but it's fine in a pinch.)
7/7/2000 1:45:18 AM - name='436725'

I think someone should make a Nike parody t-shirt for software engineers which says "Just ship it", but I'm not sure how to parody the Nike swoosh logo into something appropriate. Anyone? (It's very likely that someone has already done this and my brain just believes it has created an original concept!)
7/7/2000 1:38:08 AM - name='436706'

Tobacco products sold in Canada will now be required to have graphical warnings on 50 per cent of their packaging. The products must also include inserted information on quitting and further details on the dangers of tobacco. I wonder if the various graphical warning labels will just be ignored after a while, or perhaps the government will rotate new ones in, which would make them harder to get used to. Using visuals is obviously a more effective device than text. My fourth grade teacher quit smoking after seeing human lungs on display at the Boston Museum of Science. They were taken from a smoker and were horribly blackened. She immediately stopped smoking; the image of those nasty lungs was burned into her brain forever.
7/7/2000 1:35:27 AM - name='436703'

Thursday, July 6, 2000

As if I didn't worry enough about whether I should rocker my Rollerblades differently, now a new-fangled set of wheels has come along. Parabolics Wheels have four different shapes allowing inline skaters to maneuver more like you can on ice skates. They have wheel sets for outdoor hockey, indoor hockey, and, of course, outdoor whatever.
7/6/2000 12:56:54 AM - name='431980'

Via the well-balanced Media News, an amusing account of how a newspaper managed to print the winning Oregon Lottery numbers before they were actually drawn. They printed the numbers from the wrong lottery. They happened to be the right ones -- in advance.
7/6/2000 12:47:16 AM - name='431950'

Helen Thomas, former White House correspondent for UPI, is joining the Hearst News Service. She will be writing two weekly columns, but it doesn't sound like she'll need to be back in that front row at the White House briefing room. I would love to hear what other offers she had. Perhaps she'll reveal her choices in her next book of memoirs.
7/6/2000 12:40:56 AM - name='431937'

Wednesday, July 5, 2000

Intacta Code is a pattern of dots that can be translated into all sorts of files (executables, images, etc). A deal with Fujitsu is allowing Intacta Code to be printed in Japanese newspapers, such as the Yomiuri Shimbun, the world's largest newspaper. This ZDNet article says: "Each byte of the original file is represented by a pattern of black-and-white or color dots that can contain around 400 bytes per centimeter." It reminds me of UPS' Maxicode which you may have seen on some UPS deliveries. Maxicode has the advantage of being able to be scanned from any direction, unlike typical bar codes, so you can have boxes scanned while they are moving along a twisty conveyor belt at a good clip. Other bar codes are described on this page of 2D bar codes.
7/5/2000 11:37:48 AM - name='428968'

Sili Valley: Unfriendly to Women? "Monika Khushf, director of engineering at Intuit, has made a documentary film that reveals the effects of Silicon Valley work culture on women engineers." It seems that male engineers spend their time using Nerf weaponry and building things with Lego and soda cans. But "the social gap in notions of fun may have more to do with age than gender." I'd agree somewhat. The demographics of a company can predict what types of bonding you will find in the hallways, but it's really the specific personalities that have been added and cultivated that determine if everyone's playing with toys or isolating themselves in their cubes. (I hate generalizations, but I probably use them as much as everyone else.) Some people (women and others) may feel isolated in toy-heavy environments, but there are also toy-loving individuals stuck in rigid companies who are wondering if a job has to be this boring.
7/5/2000 11:21:26 AM - name='428889'

Tuesday, July 4, 2000

I loved reading about the glass blower who works at Caltech. Rick Gerhart creates and repairs custom glass equipment for researchers. His father was a glass blower for Corning Glass and Gulf Oil Co. So some of our newest discoveries are depending on an artist's craft. Beautiful.
7/4/2000 1:45:16 AM - name='423442'

There are many notable examples of Walter Matthau's acting abilities, but my fondest memory of him is in Hello Dolly! because he did a great surprised look by raising his eyebrows which made his entire hat pop up. It makes me laugh whenever I think of it. And he had to put up with Ms. Streisand. So, my hat's off to him.
7/4/2000 1:36:54 AM - name='423416'

400,000 people work in the fireworks industry in Liuyang, China's "fireworks capital". Last week there was an explosion at a factory that killed 36 people, injured 160, with 30 more missing, presumed dead. And some fireworks have poisonous compounds such as lead. No, I'm not trying to put a damper on anyone's 4th of July celebrations, I'm just having an informed holiday, thanks to a NY Times article with even more of a party-pooper tone. "Americans spent $122.4 million on Chinese fireworks last year." Wow.
7/4/2000 1:28:09 AM - name='423400'

Monday, July 3, 2000

More info on that pesky new dollar coin. A SF Gate article claims that the reason they aren't going into circulation is because stores aren't asking for them from their banks, and banks haven't been ordering them from the (supposedly) plentiful Federal Reserve Bank supply. The few that are out are being hoarded. So if stores don't want them and banks aren't getting them, how are the coins supposed to get out there? Stamp vending machines? (thanks Unknown News)
7/3/2000 3:07:43 AM - name='419623'

I have yet to buy a digital camera. Mostly I worry about battery life and picture quality. And I still like to have actual photographs for albums and frames, without having to buy a photo quality printer. I'm very happy with my 14 year old Nikon 35mm and no digital cameras have enticed me. But this past week I kept thinking about the new Canon Digital ELPH. It's 3.4 x 2.2 x 1.1 inches and weighs around seven ounces. What can you expect from something that small? According to the Digital Camera Resource Page review, quite a lot! It's a 2-megapixel, has zoom, and supports speedy USB. It uses white LEDs to backlight the display. This other review has photos comparing its size to credit cards and a key chain. As for battery-life, it's a lithium ion (no icky NiMH!) and they claim 85 shots with the LCD on, 270 off. It's $600. But I don't really need one, do I?
7/3/2000 2:53:40 AM - name='419596'

Sunday, July 2, 2000

RE: the contraceptive pill "over the counter" debate, I remember hearing that if men take women's birth control pills, they also become infertile, but pharmaceutical companies were unwilling to go down that route. This was from a reliable source, so it's not rumor, but I can't remember where I saw/heard it. What I have found is this article on how pharmaceutical companies don't think men would take well to taking pills, though they were working on a male version.
7/2/2000 12:30:34 PM - name='417275'

While the rest of the gaming world time-sinked into Diablo II, I started in on a $5 copy of Magic Carpet 2 which originally managed to escape my attention. The continued irony of this situation is that my computer needs some tweaking to run this old DOS game, but probably would have no problem cranking out Diablo II. Hmph.
7/2/2000 12:26:43 PM - name='417259'

Saturday, July 1, 2000

When I watch reruns of The Simpsons, I catch jokes or references that I did not get the first time. I realized recently that a big reason for this is not that I overlooked the joke the first time, but that I didn't know the reference at all. I saw Dr. Strangelove a few weeks ago (yes, finally) and this week I saw part of the Simpsons episode where Homer starts a vigilante crime-fighting group. He is out buying supplies and envisions himself riding a nuclear bomb with a cowboy hat on. I did not get that the first time. So what else have I been missing?
7/1/2000 1:02:06 AM - name='413433'

Well, it's not as new as wrapping cars with advertisements, but Salon ran an article a little while ago on dot com advertisements appearing on shopping bags. Red Herring was the first client for Smart Bags, a company that gives stores free shopping bags with advertising. Current rate for "bagvertising" is $25,000 for 200,000 bags. If this spreads I may have a reason beyond environmental to bring my own bags with me when I shop.
7/1/2000 12:56:04 AM - name='413420'