From Japan: “The Meeting Pot is a networked coffee maker. When someone try to make coffee, it inform the event to colleagues at remote desks by coffee aroma and/or e-mails and/or WWW.” I think they should attach it to a timer, or perhaps use an automatic coffee machine and sell the concept as an alarm clock. (via Nooface which pulled it from a NY Times article)

Remember when Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple in 1997? Part of that contract was a promise that Microsoft continue developing Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and development tools for Mac OS until August of this year. In exchange for the money and applications for their platform, Apple dropped their lawsuits against Microsoft. Will Microsoft continue developing Mac OS products past their August agreement date? David Coursey thinks they will, but he also wants them to commit to five more years and add support for technologies that are missing or poorly supported on the Mac. He also mentions that Microsoft needs to prove that their Mac support is not merely posturing for their antitrust defense. Without control of the OS underneath, the visible pain of creating technology support for the Mac OS would clearly illustrate the intermingling of Microsoft’s apps and OS strategy.

Grade the News, whose mission is “To help citizens of the San Francisco Bay Area assess the quality of the news they rely upon to maintain and enhance a vibrant democratic society”, doesn’t care too much for the news produced by San Jose’s new NBC affiliate KNTV. In fact, they have rated it the lowest of the local news broadcasts. Emotional stories overshadowed real news, ads for NBC were disguised as sports stories, and many items were superficially researched and contained little helpful information. Their report also mentions the continuing saga of the lack of NBC signal for more than 200,000 local households who do not have cable. But, in the case of the news, that could be considered a positive point.

Author Astrid Lindgren, creator of Pippi Longstocking, died Monday in her Stockholm home. She left her rural hometown at age 19, unwed and pregnant, and then supported herself and (I assume) her son by working as a secretary. Pippi’s stories were invented for Lindgren’s daughter, and now that I know more about the author’s background, I can understand why she wove such spunk and independence into the head of the girl with the stiff red braids.

One of the Siemens Westinghouse winners designed a glove that interprets the sign language alphabet. As with voice recognition, you train the device and software to recognize your hand movements. Although it is limited to the alphabet, you can train it to recognize a specific motion as representing a word. Deaf people interviewed for the article agree that it is an interesting concept but that it is of limited use since most signing does not use the alphabet. Regardless, it is an impressive idea from an 18 year old. Inventor Ryan Patterson plans to add a voice recognition component so that the screen can show the results of both signing and speaking which will allow two way communication.

What did we do before the Internet? How many questions were asked during lunch conversations and left unanswered because the research overhead was too overwhelming? We may never know. But, thanks to the Internet, it took me merely minutes to discover if any Howard Johnson’s Restaurants still exist. This site commemorates the legacy that Howard D. Johnson created with those many orange roofs. It lists 16 remaining Howard Johnson branded restaurants and has photo galleries of those that have closed. HoJoLand lists 17 remaining restaurants and 2 ice cream shops. Franchise Associates owns the rights to the Howard Johnson name for restaurants and ice cream products, so if you ever dreamed of owning your own HoJo’s, now you know where to go. They state that the ice creams are still made from the original formulas, so I have some hopes of finding out if my childhood memories of their mint chocolate chip being one of the best are actually warranted. Howard Johnson, the hotel company, has a nice brand history on their company site.

Did Olaf Olafsson, author of “The Journey Home”, plagiarize or paraphrase in tribute? Peter Delevett’s Wiretap column in the Mercury news had an unexpected writing critique last Friday. In it, Delevett describes the disturbing similarities between passages in Olafsson’s novel and M.F.K. Fisher‘s memoir “The Gastronomical Me.” Olafsson is upfront about how he borrowed certain scenes, using his own words, claiming it is a tribute to Fisher. He is vice chairman of Time Warner Digital Media, which is how this revelation landed amongst the usual tech news of the San Jose paper. Without having read the book, I should not make a judgement call myself, but the passage that is quoted in the paper (Fisher’s version versus Olafsson’s rewording) reads as if his reverence of the grand dame of food writing extended to believing she wouldn’t mind if he cribbed her life into his own creation. I wonder if he would have made such a leap of faith if she were still alive. Children’s book author Edward Eager pays tribute to his inspiration, E. Nesbitt, by mentioning her name in his books so readers will be lead to another treasure trove of tales. Uncredited lifting does nothing of the sort. Those in the know could perhaps be amused, but those who aren’t learn nothing. In fact they are at risk of believing something false.

East Palo Alto may be fighting against an IKEA, but they did allow a Starbucks to slip in. What?? Well, turns out that the store resulted from a partnership with Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s company, Johnson Development, which has opened 32 Starbucks in under-served communities. Most of the employees are from East Palo Alto. OK, now I wonder if Magic can help create a taste for Swedish meatballs?

I have had many music lovers tell me how much they enjoy Boléro only to disappoint them when I reveal how uninteresting it is for me to perform. I appreciate its theme and build-up, especially as interpreted by ice dancers Torvill and Dean, but the repetition involves little creativity in the musical performance. Neurologists have analyzed Boléro as a product of Ravel’s deteriorating brain condition. They believe the weakened left hemisphere of his brain played a part in the timbre prevalent composition. Timbre is handled by the right brain. His piano concerto for the left hand also has characteristics different from earlier compositions. But, who can say if this was an evolutionary development in Ravel’s music or a result of disease? A music researcher points out that his interest in mechanization could easily account for the repetitiveness of Boléro. (via Follow Me Here)

Seeing the 555-LIST, a “directory” of movie and television phone numbers, reminded me of the stories surrounding the number used at the end of the movie Sneakers. The story I remember (I can not find a source for it now) was that they did want to ruin the moment in the film where the agent gives her phone number by using a fake sounding 555 number. So they asked the phone company for a 415 number (the film takes place in the San Francisco Bay area) that would not be in use for many years (that was pre cell phone, pager, etc. estimates!). However, Usenet postings tell of a rumor that the number was actually set up by the film’s producers to ring an answering machine for the fictional “Sneakers” security company. Then there were Usenet posters who tried the number and claim that it rang, clicked to another line, rang, and was answered by someone at the IRS. Nice. (555 via memepool)