The DJ on the radio kept yapping about "new Peter Gabriel coming up", which I thought meant maybe he'd finished another album and released a single, but it actually was him singing on a song from Afro Celt Sound System. Peter is working on a new album called "UP".
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Why take a geek cruise or a sports cruise or even a cruise featuring LDS celebrities, when you can go on a Spy Cruise! Counterintelligence, intelligence and security experts (that means retired FBI, CIA, DoD and KGB) from the CI Centre will be on board to teach passengers about the spy trade.
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Wednesday, May 30, 2001

The American Red Cross recently updated their blood donation policy. It further restricts those who have spent time in the U.K. and Europe, tightening up the time parameters. It is hoped this will reduce the possibility of spreading "mad cow" disease through blood transfusions. If you're capable, consider donating. This restriction shuts out a few people I know who actually do give blood.
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My mother always told me that money is really dirty and I should wash my hands after handling it. It was a case of "you don't know where that's been". It turns out, as usual, that she's right. Really right. Scientists gathered 68 dollar bills and found disease causing bacteria on 94% of them. 93 species were identified. 7% of the bills had really bad stuff like pneumonia. This shouldn't be cause for alarm, but I do think I'll wash my hands after counting up the lunch check now.
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Tuesday, May 29, 2001

Video Games for Felines. (I'm not making this up you know!) Cyberpounce has eleven games to keep your kitty amused. (I double-checked the date, it's not April 1st.) Product development was overseen by a Ph.D. animal behaviorist. (Who probably noticed that cats like chasing mouse pointers around the screen.) Your cat can play solo or you can control the movement of the objects. (Great, now I have to share my entire monitor with the cat, not just the top of it?) The article also mentions BitBoost's "cat walking on keyboard" detector, which was nicely nostalgic for me since it was the subject of one of my very first log posts. The Cyberpounce creator is now trying to think up a way to entertain dogs with the computer. (My suggestion, partner up with smell-o-vision company Digiscents and have doggy tracking games.)
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Here's a nifty little interview with Buffy creator Joss Whedon (contains spoilers of course) wherein he reveals that they are working on a BBC spin-off show for Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) since he's moving back to England. He won't be full time on Buffy next year, but he'll still be there.
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Saturday, May 26, 2001

This seemed bizarre: your keyboard patterns hold secrets. But delving further, I realized it makes a lot of sense. Predictive Networks creates software that gathers online behavior patterns into more specific models and indicators than is typically possible, allowing for targeted advertising. The article is about their technique of determining who is using a keyboard or remote control based on the usage pattern. The company emphasizes their privacy policies, with good reason. Software watching your every keystroke knows exactly what you're up to. This technology fascinates me from a cognitive psychology viewpoint and spooks me from a consumer viewpoint. Who will watch the watchers?
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Friday, May 25, 2001

I believe it was Seth who first introduced me to the CDDB, now apparently controlled by GraceNote. I've only had to submit maybe two CDs and mostly reaped the benefits of other people who buy CDs much faster than I do. This ZDNet article discusses the legal nastiness going on between Roxio and GraceNote, and it tells some of the history of how a company got control over a database of information created by individuals' submissions. In the near future, I imagine the title and track information will be part of the data on the CD, but the overall implications of the lawsuit could have greater repercussions for all types of data gathered by the public.
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Fonts and their personalities. Smaller fonts are preferable for power letters. Verdana is "professional yet appealing". Times New Roman is trustworthy and favored by lawyers. Dr. Aric Sigman did a Lexmark commissioned study on the psychology of fonts. "Using the wrong font may give people the wrong impression about you and could affect decisions that will shape your future." How horrible! Perhaps I can hire him as my font consultant so that my life won't be ruined. Of course most companies already hire graphics and style consultants. And people should express their own style. But if I continue to send my email in plain text so people can read it however they want, am I truly missing out on a large expression of my personality? Hmmm. It actually reflects my personality rather well. I'm frugal about resources, bandwidth and diskspace being a few of them. Back when I had to walk barefoot to school up a hill both ways ... (OK, I actually took the bus. But it did go up the hill both ways, because it had a circular route.)
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Thursday, May 24, 2001

I think I need a pineapple slicer! And a ticket to Maui. "The ingenious Easy Slicer will peel, core and slice a fresh pineapple in just 20-30 seconds. It works like a corkscrew, removing the flesh in perfectly formed rings."
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The original Mr. Met, Dan Reilly, entertains Shea Stadium goers on the Shea Express ferry. He was the first to wear the huge baseball head in 1964 and still booms out the old theme song on the ferry loudspeakers. He recalls celebrating with Tug McGraw after Tug outpitched Sandy Koufax in 1965. I never knew any of the big-headed Mr. Mets. The Mets one lame attempt at a mascot during my tenure as a #1 fan was a mule (or was it a donkey?) named "Metal". Yup. That went over like a load of giant baseball heads.
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From the NY Times, trade show hostesses in Japan have their own attentive fans who follow them from show to show. These obsessed men take photos and compile albums of their favorites. The scantily clad "companion girls" love the attention and most aren't bothered by the sexism of their situations. One former hostess does say "There was something really creepy about these men and their cameras, always trying to catch you from a low angle when your legs are crossing or uncrossing." Of course U.S. trade shows have their own share of "booth babes" and car show spokeswomen. But it's sad reading about Japanese women putting "cuteness over competence" because it's easier than fighting the lack of professional advancement for women. If there were other opportunities for them, would the same women still be craving the sexual attention of camera wielding fans? Some very likely still would.
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Wednesday, May 23, 2001

Realtor-speak notes: There's a big difference between "vaulted ceilings" and ceilings that make you feel like you're in a vault. Also, I'm still waiting to see a home listing advertised as being in a protected outage block. If I was selling or renting my place, that'd be at the top of my listing! I have seen Santa Clara homes advertised with "lights on in Santa Clara!", but I wouldn't say those were outage free, necessarily. Other city run utilities have shut off the lights. But while we're on the subject, here's some research on Santa Clara's cheaper utilities: "The low rates are made possible by Santa Clara's 101-year-old Utilities Department, which has purchased all of the necessary utility transformers and grids within the city limits. Santa Clara has been generating its own electric power since 1896, when the city constructed a lighting plant." (from a MetroActive Best of)
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Mimi Sheraton, former NYT food critic, pops up briefly again in the NY Times with a short critique of the Pillsbury Toaster Bagels. This "highly evolved" treat looks more like a Pop Tart than a bagel. I can't write it better than Ms. Sheraton who found the crust "to have the flavor and texture one might expect from a dampened, heated manila folder enclosing a crowd-pleasing, sweet and creamy filling." She demands that the Doughboy retract the name, since it is certainly not a bagel, no matter what it tastes like.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2001

Oh, hey, why didn't someone tell me it's International Pickle Week? I would've replenished my supply of the tart stuff. Here are some uses for the juices after you fish that last yummy pickle out. For some reason, International Pickle Week is more than a week (May 18 to May 28). If you don't like to eat them, perhaps you'd like to make them glow.
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I didn't expect a wedding photo to pop up in the day's top business stories. But this one did. Henry Ford's grandson, William Clay Ford, married Harvey Firestone's granddaughter, Martha Firestone in 1947 (1948 according to the photo correction). William Clay Ford Jr., Ford's chairman, is the great-grandson of Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. Firestone hasn't been family run since 1976 and is now part of Bridgestone, a Japanese company. As Firestone dissolves its 100 year business ties with Ford, one wonders if it would have been different if both families were still running their respective businesses.
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Monday, May 21, 2001

The remake of Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" that I heard on the radio is by Everclear. As I felt when Nirvana covered Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World", I worry that young whippersnappers won't be exposed to the true originals. I don't mind remakes and often like them, but I don't like when new listeners don't know about the inspiration.
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I am not, nor will I ever become Bridezilla. Forcing bridesmaids to dye their hair the same color? Specifying the centimeter width of the petals in the bouquet? OK, I'll admit I did design a wedding logo, but it's more of a motif for our programs and favors. And I am obsessing over my hubby-to-be's tie color. But that's only because he's colorblind and aesthetically challenged. Really. And I would like to get all these fussy details out of the way so we can concentrate on the real heart of the matter: the words. All in good time.
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We saw Shrek on Saturday. The animation was done so well that I wish the responsible folks had gotten top billing over the voice stars. Not that they didn't do a decent job. I wonder if anyone under the age of 14 appreciated the realistic computer animation? It doesn't matter if they didn't, but I've always wondered where animation houses will draw the line (excuse the pun) at creating completely realistic animations versus ones meant to look cartoonish. It will, I suppose, depend on the story and the audience.
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Friday, May 18, 2001

Bazooka Joe comics in Hebrew. I'm not really sure why I'm linking to this. I guess it's just one of those interestingly random things.
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A very cool applet from San Francisco Airport's noise abatement office lets you track planes in the Bay Area airspace. And there's usually plenty of them to watch with our plethora of airports. There's a 10 minute delay. (via onfocus, thanks pb!)
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Thursday, May 17, 2001

I was flipping past VH1 when I caught Christopher Walken dancing in a hotel lobby with his trademark deadpan expression. It was mesmerizing. Turns out this Fatboy Slim video, directed by Spike Jonze, is creating a nice buzz, if a Google search can be an indicator. I went down a little Christopher Walken research path and discovered that he started tap dancing as a kid and was in many stage musicals before he hit the big screen. In fact, he was nominated for a Tony last year. And he lives in my hometown (that was the coolest find for me). I should've remembered he can sing & dance from his top notch, hilarious appearances on Saturday Night Live (there are transcripts from the 10/24/92 show). Blastro has the full music video, Weapon of Choice, on their Fatboy Slim page. It's a very fun three+ minutes.
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Looking for a new mystery series to read? Tired of reading about cat-owning private investigators or cooks who moonlight as sleuths? Maybe you're looking for a mystery solved by the straight half-owner of a gay bar in Boston, or a blind redneck sculptor from Santa Fe (I'm not making this up). Stop, You're Killing Me! lists mystery series by the characters' professions, locations, culture, and plain ol' alphabetical order. This information puts to rest any ambitions I had of writing the first mystery series featuring a female viola player who solves a murder during a Gilbert & Sullivan production (here's the book). Oh well. I can always fall back on the college a cappella group that solves petty crimes while on tour at other schools.
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Wednesday, May 16, 2001

The hoopla about Qwest raising payphone prices to 50 cents reminded me of the dime my mom gave me for emergencies a long time ago. I still keep it in my violin case.
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TimeZone is all about wristwatches. Their Mechanical Watch FAQ answers many of the questions I've had about things like the number of jewels in a watch and why they're there in the first place. The section on glow in the dark dials led me to this 1998 NY Times article on the horrible exposure of dial painters (mostly female, young as 15) to radium in the early 1900s. (via Memepool)
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Tuesday, May 15, 2001

You know you've been watching too much Martha Stewart when you want to put two coffee grinders on your gift registry. One for coffee, the other for grinding spices. And of course you'll need a labeling system to create nice little identifying tags to tell the two apart. Someone please bop me on the head with a pestle. And while I'm on the subject, here's a wonderful collection of antique mortars and pestles.
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"Scribbling Women, a project of The Public Media Foundation, dramatizes stories by American women writers for national radio broadcast."
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Something I never expected to see pulling out of the parking lot of my "heart of Silicon Valley" Safeway: a Lincoln Town Car (black, of course) with a "Free John Gotti" license plate holder. Yes, I know I shouldn't be surprised that there are Gotti sympathizers in the area, but it was a strange flashback for me to a life closer to NYC.
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Saturday, May 12, 2001

Douglas Adams did more than make me laugh. He made me think. Without it hurting very much. He inspires a pursuit of irony as an art form, a way of finding meanings in life. I'd like to think that this bit from "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" indicates that he found some joy and meaning in his own life.

He hadn't realized that life speaks with a voice to you, a voice that brings you answers to the questions you continually ask of it, had never consciously detected it or recognized its tones until it now said something it had never said to him before, which was "yes."

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Here's a nice article about Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse. Now 75, he's still working, formulating tools and methods for collaboration that he hopes can "bootstrap" organizations together into solving urgent world problems. He's had some past hardships, having research funds cut, losing a house to fire and his wife to ovarian cancer. But he has that optimistic outlook on life, that "can do" attitude which keeps innovators like him going despite naysayers and setbacks. I always wonder how much more I could accomplish if I didn't paid as much attention to the negatives. But at least I'm well suited for risk management.
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Orang-Otang's got some wearable computing patents that seem more Borg-worthy than primate-friendly. In order for wearable devices to catch on apart from specialized tasks (such as the wearable credit card terminal, which is useful for mobile points-of-sale), I think these devices will need to be more in tune with our clothing or at least be more elegant. Of course the actual products will probably be prettier than these patent drawings. But we are a ways from the idealistic ground covered by the IDEO/MIT wearables project. Extreme Computing has links and info on many wearable computing resources. (info from ZDNet wearable patents article)
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Thursday, May 10, 2001

Before "dot com" was part of our vernacular, how did we refer to release numbers? Was it "Windows three dot one" or "Windows three point one"? I remember using "dot" for filename extensions: "dot exe file" and it's very common in Unix to have "dots". But when I heard someone today say "three dot one" to refer to a release, I wondered if we used to say "point". Or were they just used interchangeably? I have a bet with myself that I used to say "point" and didn't use "dot" until domain names infiltrated our language. But I think the real answer is that we most often dropped the period and just said "three one".
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You know what the US Postal Service rate increase affects in a big way? Wedding invitations. Many invitation sets weigh in at over an ounce, especially when you add up all the extra pieces (inner envelope, response cards, reception cards, maps, travel info, etc). Frugal brides & grooms can save postage and trees by going for a simpler approach. But it's nice to have an invitation of substance, so most don't worry about it. That's why the USPS has taken to printing two ounce "Love" stamps. I didn't think I'd have to deal with a stamp increase right in the middle of the summer that only affects items over an ounce. I'm waiting with bated breath to see if they'll immediately issue a new two ounce "Love" stamp or just annoy all the, uh, detail oriented (aka "anal retentive") brides by making us ruin the aesthetics of our outer envelopes with an extra 2 cent stamp. I'm planning to avoid it all by getting our invitations mailed before the rate change.

On a related note, here's what happens when I go to the post office before eating lunch:
Me: I'd like a book of stamps.
Clerk: Flowers? Love? Statue of Liberty? Fruit?
Me: Fruit! HUNGRY!
I actually made a postal worker smile. Amazing.
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Wednesday, May 09, 2001

This report that cell phone antennas are springing up all over made me wonder what it was like when telephone and electricity poles started going up all over the place. "Some environmentalists" are complaining that the cellular antennas are detracting from the natural beauty of the L.A. hills and canyons. I suspect that most of us are accustomed to seeing utility poles with wires and mysterious gadgets on top, but I suppose the addition of the cellular boxes tips the poles over the edge of not blending in. Telephone and electric can go underground, but I don't think cellular can.
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Here are the in-your-face dairy products: Milk & Cheese, and other fun things from Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer
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New to me, but probably not to those of you who get around the web a lot, Airtoons, "The site that tells you what those airline safety cards REALLY mean." Now I know I have to try for style points when I'm making an emergency exit.
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Tuesday, May 08, 2001

I have a real soft spot for Bizet's opera Carmen. I've watched a Met production on public television, a French teacher showed the film version in class, and I've even seen the contemporary film remake with an African-American cast, Carmen Jones. My youth orchestra performed the Carmen Fantasie with a very young Gil Shaham on violin. Watching Carmen in French class was the perfect multimedia activity to involve me in the language, since the literature wasn't doing it for me. Camus, and the other French authors we read, didn't feel as lyrical as much as they felt depressing (granted, I hadn't taken any philosophy yet and wasn't able to properly appreciate it). Carmen may be a tragedy, but it is full of life, and the music always teased my inner ear for days.

With that background knowledge, you may imagine my disbelief, which I gamely tried to keep from turning into horror, at hearing that MTV had created a hip hop version of Carmen. Yes. Hip. Hop. I like hip hop much better than I like certain sugary, exposed belly button pop (and hip hop has a laudable 20 year history). But I stopped watching MTV somewhere around the Jenny McCarthy era, and I haven't had the distinct pleasure of seeing their current show, "JackAss". Suffice to say I don't expect much from MTV anymore, which, since I'm no longer in their demographic, is fine with me. Well, my fears about a hip hopping Carmen may be unwarranted. The reviews I've read of "MTV's Hip Hopera: Carmen" have been positive. The venerable gray lady herself uses the words "artistically sophisticated", and says it "is so vibrantly made that it might even appeal to people who ordinarily wouldn't dream of going out of their way to hear rap." MTV is even running it without commercial interruption, although I'm sure there is plenty to promote without having to break from the plot. If MTV inspires anyone to pick up the Bizet version, I'd be surprised, but perhaps they've truly added to contemporary culture with their hip hopera. Next up, J. Lo as Madame Butterfly, perhaps?
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Monday, May 07, 2001

The Nun Study is a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease. Interesting, useful, scientific data has been collected from the 15 year observation of 678 nuns. This NY Times article presents a few of the findings; one result "Positive Emotions in Early Life and Longevity: Findings from the Nun Study" is being published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The nuns participating in the study belong to the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and one of the convents is right up the street from the house I grew up in. I went to summer camp there and my mother worked there as a nurse's aide. I remember wondering at the mystery of why my swim instructor wore a wedding ring, since all I really understood at the time was that nuns didn't get married (after seeing a few movies with the marriage to Jesus ceremony later on, I figured it out). It's wonderful that the sisters agreed to participate in this rather invasive study. Their generosity will certainly reap great fruit for the rest of us who are much less prepared to meet our maker.
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From the WedLog of the just married BackupBrains: Dr Seuss Wedding Vows. It gets old real fast, but it's an amusing concept. And in other wedding news, Crate & Barrel finally added online registry updating and creation. Thank goodness.
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Sunday, May 06, 2001

Princeton has selected Dr. Shirley M. Tilghman, a molecular biologist, to be its next president, making this a landmark year for Ivy League women leaders. UPenn and Brown are also welcoming female presidents this year. Dr. Tilghman was originally on the search committee, but was asked to become a candidate, and she appears to be a fine, progressive choice. Here, from the NY Times article, are some of her opinions: "She has argued to abolish tenure, calling it 'no friend to women' because the trial period leading up to the tenure decision usually coincides with childbearing years, pressuring many women to choose between a family and career.", "Dr. Tilghman has also said that the federal government should deny funding to scientific meetings that do not include women on their panels of presenters.", "She recently argued to the Bush administration to continue funding for stem-cell research despite the protests of abortion rights opponents." I hope she doesn't have too many staunch opponents in the traditional old boys network, because she could spearhead much positive change, not just for women, but also for genetic research, which is facing many conservative political arguments.
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Friday, May 04, 2001

The NIST Stone Test Wall was built in 1948 to study how natural stones withstand the great outdoors. The website has a database of the stones by state, and I found a stone in there from Norwalk, Connecticut. There are 2352 samples, 320 of which are from foreign countries. (via Yahoo's Weekly Picks)
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Peter Gabriel's WOMAD festival is back this summer and tickets for the Seattle event go on sale today. I attended WOMAD, which stands for "world of music and dance", in San Francisco about eight or so years ago. Tons of people (we said "moo" a lot as we were herded around), but the music was wonderful, and hearing Peter Gabriel is always an ear-filling experience. It is truly a global festival and the locations this year hit most of the continents and a couple islands too.
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Thursday, May 03, 2001

Huh. The Seattle Times collected data from the state DMV and calculated what cars were over and under-represented in each zip code in Western Washington. I don't know much about the Seattle region, but I know what's in Redmond, and its residents seem to really like Land Rovers.
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Metricom, better known as the provider of the Ricochet wireless service, is still hanging in there. They are making a last ditch marketing effort to attract customers. An analyst who doesn't mince words says that their 40,900 member subscriber base is "effectively zero customers." Ouch. Their original plan was to save marketing dollars for building out their infrastructure. But they probably should've seen if they could get one area serviced well before building access in more cities. It's a tough logistic though; business travelers need more service areas. But with more cafes and public areas providing wireless 'net access, like Starbucks' deal with Compaq, is a Metricom network necessary? In my view of the future, you can pretty much go anywhere (a friend's house, cafe, restaurant, mall, work, library, park, train, airport, etc) with your wireless enabled device and get online without needing an account, or to pay for anything ('cept maybe a frappuchino).
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Wednesday, May 02, 2001

Surprisingly, the SF Bay Area is not one of the "Enhanced Areas" for the California automobile smog check program. The L.A. area is, which is understandable, and there are these little spots in areas that I'm not as familiar with. I guess I should count myself lucky that I'm not living in one of the smoggiest areas of the state, but there are days when I wonder! The enhanced test includes a single-axle dynamometer (like a treadmill for cars), which can't be used with all wheel drive cars. I have an AWD Subaru, so I need to pay attention to these things in case I get a clueless technician, but my zip code is still idle test only.
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Update on my PalmVx: After it dried out, it seemed to work for a while. But the digitizer started being flaky and sometimes it would only register pen taps on one section of the screen, no matter where I was tapping. And then the on/off button started being stubborn. It's a little scary when you can't turn something off (and, in the case of the Vx, you can't just take the batteries out!), even if it isn't causing any damage. So, I called "customer care" and they are sending me a replacement and mine is going to go back for repairs (and probably get sent out to the next person who lives dangerously with liquids).
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Tuesday, May 01, 2001

May Day in the USA: A Forgotten History. "Few Americans realize that the seemingly foreign celebrations of labor held worldwide on May 1st actually commemorate historical events here in the United States. ... On May 1st, 1886, the American Federation of Labor declared a national strike to demand an eight-hour work day and 350,000 workers across the country responded." (of course there are also the pagan roots of May Day)
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My cat is obsessed with the neighbors. She'll watch them through the slits of the blinds and, when something (apparently) fascinating happens, she'll run outside to the balcony to get a better look. Do they have a cat or a bird or something? I'm too meek to stare at them myself (it's enough, really, that my meower is voyeur).
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Google comes through again! Their top result for a search on hiccups is Bob's Cure for Hiccups. It is a simple method and worked immediately for me. Amazing! No more "boo!" for me. Also noted, the owner of hiccups.com sells "Hiccups Away", a liquid that you swallow to stop hiccups. "ULTRA CONCENTRATED Ingredients: Water, Key Lime concentrate, Lemon concentrate, Lime Essential Oil, Sulfur Dioxide preservative" Patent pending. I won't be needing that, thanks to Bob.
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