I used the term “futzing” today in an email and wondered about the word’s origins. According to Merriam-Webster, “Etymology: perhaps part modification, part translation of Yiddish arumfartsn zikh, literally, to fart around”. I did the requisite web search and was astounded to find that the Gartner Group did a study which showed that the largest cost associated with owning a computer is “futzing”! People apparently spend more time trying to get their computers to run faster than they save when they are running faster. Another study showed that the average office worker futzes for about 5.1 hours a week. For more details read the 1997 articles from the Boulder County Business Report and PCWeek.

Baylink (by Jay, recent Buffy convert) has some enlightening commentary on my social interaction observations from yesterday. See “Prana doesn’t fit through the wires”.

Saying you’ve met someone “online” or “over the ‘net” has become more commonplace and is losing its nerdy aura. That’s a Good Thing (tm). But there’s still a huge difference between the experiences of meeting someone on the Internet and meeting in person. The interactions are completely different and can leave vastly dissimilar impressions. Will that divergence change as Internet use evolves? Will we be able to have almost the same experience meeting someone online in the future as we do in person? The textual nature of current Internet interactions are protective, comforting, almost indirect. What will happen when voice and video are commonplace as bandwidth increases; will they become commonplace? Will the introverts stick with text and the extroverts happily chat into their cameras and microphones? Or will we all keep hidden behind the convenience of attractive 3D avatars? (Note: this entry has a name tag and can be linked to using #12100)

A New York Times article which points out that Mattel’s Barbie PC comes with less educational software than its counterpart Hot Wheels PC doesn’t list all the titles that come with the PCs, just the educational ones. Here’s the Barbie list and the Hot Wheels list. I understand people’s concern with the disparity in the titles provided, but come on, the real problem is that parents would actually buy their kid a Barbie computer in the first place! Don’t get your kids a gender specific computer! Get them some paint and stickers and let them decorate it themselves. Let them pick out the software they want (and don’t cringe when it is Barbie Fashion Designer — even if it’s your son).

Java Programmers! The 3rd Edition of Java in a Nutshell is out and has been spotted in big stacks at Silicon Valley bookstores. It covers Java 2. Hmmm I may have to recreate all the nice post-it tabs I stuck in my 2nd edition.

I decided today that I need to be more tolerant when reading documents with grammatical errors and misspellings. I often read documents at work with a red pen in hand, correcting as I go along. It’s more for my own comfort than to educate the writer. The errors pop out at me and I just have to fix them. I think I inherited a teaching gene (not surprising, both of my parents have been teachers). I know it is difficult to edit and correct your own writing, so I’m not trying to show off my superior knowledge or make anyone feel incompetent. I just have this need to fix the errors in order to continue reading comfortably. I think I’ll try to learn how to use this rather anal characteristic only when I need to. I often see hand printed corrections in books that I take out of the library so I know I’m not the only person out there like this. At least I don’t mark up library books. (That’s not to say that I haven’t wanted to.)

Condolences to Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Syme on the loss of their baby. (my Matrix viewing count: 5 — or was it 6? I can’t remember!)

I had a rip-roaringly enjoyable [laugh out loud, turn page, repeat] time last night reading “Mr. Bunny’s Guide to ActiveX”. Mr. Bunny is a talking rabbit (I bet you guessed that already). Mr. Bunny and Farmer Jake are the main characters in this subversively hilarious romp through the wonders of ActiveX. Along the way, accurate snipes are taken at the Windows Registry, CLSIDs, and Visual Basic. Lawn gnomes come to life to illustrate function calls. Rubber ducks inflate to save our protagonists. Appropriately humorous diagrams illustrate new concepts. Almost all entries in the index say “see ActiveX”. Buy it, borrow it, steal it, xerox someone else’s when they’re out to lunch. Carefully examine each page, don’t miss any fine print or you’ll miss a laugh. There’s also Mr. Bunny’s Big Cup O’ Java which I will read when I’ve sufficiently recovered from this one.

I love flowing, curvy designs so this furniture really caught my eye. Eero Aarnio designed the famous ball chair. I probably wouldn’t decorate with them, but they’re great eye candy for a web site!

I spent at least five minutes of precious work time playing with this mesmerizing DHTML clock. Watch it flow!