Buffy last night was excellent. On par with the "Hush" episode. (nb. I've got to be vague here since I don't want to spoil it for anyone.) Since it was a serious, emotional subject, it was more unrelentingly intense than "Hush", but the camera angles and scene placements were quite effective. The acting also showed that the cast has range beyond their usual witty quips and fight scenes.
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Besides giving us something new in TV entertainment, the deluge of reality shows was also intended to take us through a possible upcoming writer's and actor's strike. I'm wondering if, in our fast-paced world where memes come and go in days, the reality TV fad will tank out before the strikes arrive. Maybe they should've timed the reality hype to peak much later than it did (it has peaked, I hope, hasn't it?).
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Tuesday, February 27, 2001
For the bride & groom who have everything except time to cook and do dishes, the Chinese Takeout Holder. "Crafted of eyecatching aluminum alloy, the holder keeps soggy cartons from giving way and tidily holds chopsticks in a triangular side pocket." It isn't dishwasher safe, though. (Uh, thank you, but no. We don't have everything and we do sometimes have time to cook and do dishes. No time to actually empty the dishwasher, but you can't do everything.) (In case theknot link gives out, here's a local jpg of it)
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This half keyboard for PDAs is intriguing because it capitalizes on a cognitive trait. Your brain corresponds your left hand fingers to your right hand fingers symmetrically. Your brain can easily map the Qwerty layout "L" from the right ring finger to the left ring finger, so when you put this keyboard into shift mode, you can do a sort of mirror adjustment in your reactions. It does take some training, but compared to learning a completely new layout (or even hand writing), it wins by a mile. (via Memepool)
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Monday, February 26, 2001
The SJ Mercury News published a not very revelatory article on how the CueCat has not been catching on. It points out the obvious (well, they were to me anyway) faults of the wired device: "users are obliged to be physically sitting at their computer at the time they do the scanning". They mention the Cross pen scanner I wrote about a while back, but it's still a $90 item. They've got to create a wireless giveaway to get this concept out of the ICU. I don't think their idea of hiring the Simpsons characters to promote the CueCat will do much except deplete their marketing coffers even further.
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Now that all the relatives and friends have been informed (uh, if I forgot you, you may send me angry email), I decided today was a Good Day on GirlHacker to announce my engagement. I've already been tempted in the past couple months to post wedding related items (mostly rants on icky sides of the wedding industry), so I figured I'd better explain myself first. Well, something just as exciting has happened. Lyn and Steve got engaged on Thursday. And since they actually met through their weblogs, I think they should get the spotlight too, if not more of it. Big congratulations to them! And if you see me yammering on about florists and jewelers in the future, now you know why. The chaos for me ends (or begins, depending on your viewpoint!) on August 19, 2001.
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Friday, February 23, 2001
High schools cope with senioritis. Bet you didn't know there was a National Commission on the High School Senior Year. These presumably wise people state that "many students let one-quarter of their high school learning time slip through their fingers." Horrifying, ain't it. I remember that lack of meaning all too well. It arrives with the warm weather (and lack of air conditioning in my school). Schools have devised independent study programs, foreign study trips, seminars, and internships to keep seniors involved to the very end. But students are getting earlier acceptances to colleges and those dreaded AP tests are done long before school lets out. Keeping them motivated to study is a chore indeed. I hope they at least stay excited about the coveted Senior Skip Day. (via LTSeek)
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Some lucky web cartoonists make it into print syndication. In the current publishing economy, which seems to want to hold onto the "old school" a lot longer than the Internet would warrant, it's still the six major syndicates that allow cartoonists to subsist by doing what they love. The syndicates are staking out space online, but the money remains in print. Will a shift ever occur? I can't see it happening until the line between newsprint and screen is blurred, or should I say unblurred and made sufficiently portable. Thomas K. Dye of "Newshounds" notes that having cartoon archives accessible online allows strips to be more plot and character oriented since readers can look back on the storyline. Peter Zale of "Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet", which moved from the web to print, says he concentrates more on the gag now instead of the plot. As with all entertainment, I hope variety survives, not just the mainstream. Maybe the web can help keep variety alive. (article via MediaNews)
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Thursday, February 22, 2001
Remember that particular brand of high school angst? In my senior year English class, which involved a lot of discussion, a female classmate said "Do you ever feel like you're looking out of a mask?" I knew exactly what she meant but was too chicken to speak up. She was greeted with silence, and did not elaborate. Either no one else was brave enough to say anything, or they hadn't had that same feeling. I have always regretted staying quiet. I can't remember what we were discussing. Probably something involving Shakespeare or a modern hero (it seemed like all we did was read Shakespeare and work on our never-ending modern hero definitions) (here's someone who thinks Homer Simpson fills the modern hero role).
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We visited the California Academy of Sciences this past weekend. It boasts "Earth, Ocean, Space", kind of a three-for-one deal, except that you're not getting exactly the largest collection of each. I hadn't been there before, probably because the Monterey Bay Aquarium beats Steinhart by a landslide (errr, waterslide?), and I don't really like looking at animal bones and dead things (though I do love rocks and minerals). It wasn't bad, especially since my expectations were so low. There is a gallery of Gary Larson's The Far Side originals, which are surprisingly relevant. The special exhibit, Venoms, is being sponsored by Microsoft and Bank of America (insert your own ironic joke here). I realized that most of the dinosaur facts I learned in elementary school are outdated. The dinosaurs don't even have the same names anymore. How strange that I'm more up to date on new technologies than ancient Earth history. Dinosaurs hold their tails up off the ground in depictions these days. But I think they still say poor Stegosaurus had a brain the size of a walnut.
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Wednesday, February 21, 2001
The OJR criticizes the media coverage of Dale Earnhardt's accident. "Misinformation expands to fill the void created by lack of information." Incorrect reports of the cause of death spread and gave the Head and Neck Restraining System manufacturer a chance to promote his product, even though it probably would not have helped in Earnhardt's case. And the author reveals that Earnhardt had an eight-inch long steel sliver removed from the left side of his head in January (UPDATE: actually, if you read the source links, it's an "eighth-inch-long", which is a BIG difference). It's best to let the dead rest in peace, but the spread of misinformation and lack of real information can only provoke unrest in the living who are trying to make life safer based on facts, not hearsay. (UPDATE: Of course you have to know what sources to trust, and this guy had one fact wrong. UPDATE 2: after an email exchange with OJR, they've corrected the story and blamed copy-editing, so the author is off the hook) (first update courtesy Metafilter posting by iceberg273)
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There's a wealth of little tidbits in this NY Times article about the closing of Tytell Typewriter Company, a Manhattan institution. Morley Safer uses and owns six Olivetti manuals. Andy Rooney started with WordPerfect a decade ago, but still owns 17 Underwood 5 manual machines "because I don't want to run out of typewriters before I die." People who have made the switch to word processing are being left behind also as rapidly evolving software and hardware make their systems as obsolete as printer ribbons. Writers complain about useless grammar and spell-checking, and the Microsoft Office Assistant. A Microsoft product manager says that the Office Assistant will be "off by default" in the next version of Word (XP). And in this article about The New Yorker entering the media era with its new website, Andrew Hearst tells of his job interview with their word processing team. In a room filled with people typing on Macs, he still had to prove his typing speed on an IBM Selectric II. (via LTSeek and MediaNews)
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Tuesday, February 20, 2001
Chutzpah scores an interview with Berke Breathed. As featured on Slashdot, two cartoonists got his phone number and managed to convince him to do an email interview. I can't say enough good about Bloom County. I feel bad for the kids growing up now without the benefit of Breathed's pointed view of the odd world around us. At least they have his children's books to look at. The interview starts on PVP and ends on in2it.
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Somewhere in a pile of fiction ideas, I have a scribbled quote from a scientific article that describes how most of human DNA was believed to be junk sequences that did nothing. I saved it thinking that it would be an interesting story concept to have someone discover that these masses of junk sequences were actually the key to human evolution. They could, in sci-fi land, hold the information needed to figure out how humans used to look and how they were going to look. Just because the sequences seemed to be junk now, didn't mean that they couldn't be interpreted as having some meaning. Well, I never got around to actually writing a story, but scientists now believe that these sequences, which are very repetitive, "could actually provide valuable clues to the course of human evolution". A Wired News article gives some differing opinions on this development. Some scientists have evidence that the repetitive strands "have helped genes travel from generation to generation." Some think it is less useful, but not critical. Most just aren't sure. At any rate, my story doesn't seem as compelling now that it could actually prove to be true.
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Monday, February 19, 2001
I had a dream with apple-head dolls in it, and then the American Folk Toys site appeared on Larkfarm. Eerie. We made apple dolls more than once in elementary school (those good old-fashioned New England curriculums). I thought they were scary looking. Thus, perhaps, the appearance in the dream.
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When the Boston Globe decided to run "Heartbreak house - couple say dream home became a nightmare.'' on the front page, they upset a lot of people. Front page placement raises the importance and caliber of a story; readers take that front page seriously, and expect the paper to do so as well. The story of how a couple was disappointed in their $1.55 million "This Old House"-renovated purchase and sold it at a loss angered many readers. ''Maybe next week you can write the heartbreaking tale of the Weston attorney whose Godiva chocolates melted on his way home.'' The homebuyers are upset also by the unwanted attention. They never realized the story would be on page one. "Putting it on an equal footing with major stories and with people who have real problems was not appropriate." They bought a new home they are happy with and the family they sold to is happy. The Globe is left to ponder that front page placement. (via MediaNews)
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Saturday, February 17, 2001
Jason Kottke linked to Weird Al's Amazon wish list, but I had to delve deeper. Weird Al got married on February 10, 2001, and that looks like the remains of (part of?) his wedding registry. Now, I'm speculating that he married Suzanne Krajewski, based on the Amazon info. There's someone by that name who works for Twentieth Century Fox (according to web searches). There is a photo from his wedding on his official site. Looks like the Regis look has caught on somewhat in the demented music biz.
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I'm feeling much better now. Whatever I had, it was smart and took out my head. There's not much you can do when it hurts to think. Turns out you think about a lot of things. And they all hurt. So you sleep instead. But I did find out what TV shows don't make me think. I just won't admit to having watched any of them. I did, however, spot Google co-founder Sergey Brin masquerading as himself on To Tell The Truth. He knew what "URL" stood for. So did a professional bowler pretending to be him.
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Monday, February 12, 2001
I'm home sick with a coughing, head-aching thing. I realized that I actually put a lot of thinking into my log entries (hope it shows!) because I thought perhaps I could do a few entries. Then my brain started to hurt. So I'm going to go watch some high quality (ha ha) daytime TV instead. Hopefully that will put my brain to rights (or, sleep, most likely). I'll be back soon.
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Friday, February 09, 2001
A Wired News article called my attention to ZairMail. With their service you can send a letter to someone (or multiple people) for no charge. They've taken spam back to snail-mail! ZairMail inserts targeted advertisements in the envelope along with your message. They promise to keep your addresses private, so they claim not to be collecting them to sell or use for further junk mail. I wonder how many people will use this service to send their own advertisements out for free (those "make money fast" ads spring to mind)? You can also, if you wish, pay them to send your mail without ads (but direct mail services aren't a new concept).
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File this one under "over the top" embellishments. I saw a guy whack open a champagne bottle with a sword once on TV. I thought the method forced just the cork out of the bottle. Turns out it is a little more violent than that. According to WineToday's description, the lip of the bottle is actually forced off. And there are champagne sabres designed for this very task. The back of the blade is used. Here are some other ones (a little cheaper). And a lovely one that looks well balanced. Since I usually run out of the room when champagne bottles are opened the normal way, this isn't something I'm going to get into myself. But for high drama, what other flourishes can compare?
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Thursday, February 08, 2001
Star Trek: Spock vs Q. Read by Leonard Nimoy and John De Lancie. It's over a year old, which means I missed any publicity surrounding it and instead noticed the new sequel. Hmmm. Fascinating. Or, at least, interesting.
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Stick your coffee sleeve next to a web camera or on a scanner and your browser loads a website. Britevision and Digimarc announced this venture in October. Digimarc was already using the same technique with magazine pages, but someone has correctly surmised that coffee cups end up next to computers more often. With the sleeve so close, "the opportunity for an effective call to action is unprecedented." Except I still think downloading software and using a scanner and camera involves a lot more effort than typing in a URL. But I like to type. And I don't drink coffee. Maybe the caffeine helps spur along that "call to action". (via memepool)
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To Anne Morrow Lindbergh, peaceful rest and a final safe landing. The NY Times obituary is suitably thorough and informative, including mention of her liaison with Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It closes with the death of her grandson, sadly echoing the murder of her own baby boy.
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Wednesday, February 07, 2001
A Washington Post article cites the following Chinese government statistics: China produces 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks every year, cutting down as many as 25 million trees. Disposable wooden chopsticks were once required by the government in some cities, to help fight the spread of diseases. Now environmentalists are discouraging the use of disposables. I hope the wooden ones are not replaced by disposable plastic ones. (via randomWalks)
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Most professional violinists, even if they are famous and well-paid, can't afford a Guarneri or Stradivarius. These instruments cost millions, $3 to $5 million being an often quoted figure. Provenance and condition of course play a large part in the value. So how do many artists obtain a violin they covet? Robert McDuffie set up a limited partnership where his daughter's friends' parents, childhood friend and R.E.M. bassist, Mike Mills, and N.F.L. commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, purchased shares of a 1735 Guarneri del Gesu. Many violinists obtain their instruments from corporate sponsorships or borrow from foundations set up to loan out instruments. Some musicians do well enough that they can eventually purchase their favorites. Robert McDuffie has his on a 25 year lease from his partnership. After that, they can reap the benefits of their investment by selling it. But I think most of them aren't doing it for the money.
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Tuesday, February 06, 2001
A couple of UK news links today. Here's a rather top level view of affective computing and how it may change human computer interaction for the better. Devices like the Emotion Mouse are designed to adapt cold technology to react to human emotions. The article brings up the smart point that once computers start reacting to our emotions, we may have to start caring about the computer's emotions. My solution to that is to keep the human computer relationship as professional as possible. Often I find that when people describe someone as "professional", their main characteristic is that they are able to control inappropriate emotions in their business dealings. I'd rather my computer stayed professional, even if I'm using it to play games.
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Some scientists are blaming an increase in severe memory loss on people's growing dependence on computers and other electronic devices. People aren't using their brains to keep track of things and their underused recall mechanisms get slow. And I thought I was just getting old. So by using my PalmPilot to keep track of things because I can't remember them, am I making myself even less likely to remember things? Didn't people use notebooks, DayTimers, scraps of paper, the backs of the hands before computers anyway? Did the advent of the use of paper for taking notes kill off some of our memory skills? I am all for the idea that if you exercise a brain skill, it will improve. But I am not about to blame my computer and PDA use for my memory loss. However, if it is indeed true that younger people are losing their memory skills, I suppose that the shift to computer use could be to blame. I hope they are using those saved brain cells to create cool new things instead of filling them with trash. (via Feed Daily)
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Monday, February 05, 2001
In an interesting co-marketing deal, TurboTax is also shipping on Zip disk. The idea is that you run the software off the Zip disk and also save your tax files to it. That makes it portable and, as far as you trust the Zip disk, safe. It also solves an interesting problem I've run into, which is that even though I may save the actual tax files, I also have to either save my installation of TurboTax from that year or re-install it if I need to look at the file. With the Zip disk method, I have an archive of both the file and the program. Of course I need to keep a Zip drive around. I don't actually worry too much about saving TurboTax versions, though. I just keep paper copies of my tax return and relevant paperwork which should be enough since that's all I used to have in the dark ages.
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It is fun to discover that someone hasn't seen a certain movie when you absolutely know they will love it. Having the opportunity to spread that bit of joy and happiness into their lives is a special treat. And often it is part of an ongoing chain of recommendations that travels from one like-minded person to another, domino-ing endlessly to many happy victims. That said, Harold & Maude is indeed out on DVD (since the summer). If you enjoyed it, think of someone else who will too and share.
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Friday, February 02, 2001
Right now the Purple Moon website claims to be "Under Construction" and has links instead to other Mattel sites. It's not the first time, by any means, that something I've worked on has evolved past my incarnation of it, but it frightens me because, well, it is Mattel now. And part of me would rather just see it go away instead of becoming something else.
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If you follow weblogging, you know there is a lot of discussion right now about Pyra being out of funds, laying off its crew, paring down to Ev. Blogger is the most personal software I've ever used. I think about the apps I use: Microsoft products which are completely faceless and anonymous, development tools that seem to be written by people who don't write code the way I do, even shareware stuff written by one guy who only asks that you send postcards in return. Nothing has had as much of a face as Blogger. It is in its nature. It allows people to publish themselves for others to see, and the team that created it did so themselves (and, I hope, will continue to do so). And the team cared -- still cares. The face of Blogger to me will always include everyone that worked on it. It's hard to let go of a child. I wish everyone the best and, most importantly, relaxation and peace.
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Thursday, February 01, 2001
The NY Times reports on the latest hot trend in dining: tobacco in desserts. Pipe tobacco in sundae sauce, fine Cuban cigars crumbled into mousse, tobacco ice cream. Makes sense, doesn't it? After all, it's not really a new concept, witness the marijuana brownie. Doctors aren't amused since the ingestion of nicotine can be bad for diners. Smokers, of course, aren't likely to notice the effects since they are already tolerant.
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Space:1999 is being released on DVD. I was discussing Space:1999 with some people the other day. Most of them dismissed it as yet another bad '70s space show that blatantly disregarded scientific fact. I was barely out of feety pajamas when I watched it, so any convenient warping of physics was not my main concern. I just wanted to be Maya. Not only because she could change into all sorts of creatures, but because when the crew used her, yet again, to get out of a bad situation, she often gave them a look that said "What? Again? You want me to save your butts yet again by turning myself into a gigantic, gurgling, orange mop-creature? OK. Fine." Well, she may have only pulled that attitude once or twice, but it sure stuck with me. And I'm pretty sure Space:1999 was of a higher caliber than the hokey Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
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