Helzerman's Odd Bits : Weblog

Wednesday Dec 20, 2006

Merry Christmas

Saw this on the way into the office today. Spray-painted Merry Christmas "sign" in front of a shabby rent-by-the-week "hotel."

Picture of the hotel taken last summer.

Posted at 08:05PM Dec 20, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Personal | Comments[0] Tag it:

Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

Seen and heard in San Francisco

First of all, I'm very dissapointed that I didn't get a picture of Drunkin' Santa, especially since he was so keen on me taking one. Silly me left my phone in the hotel room to charge for once (drat). Maybe tomorrow.

As for over heard (all in outdoor locations),

"Can I be your hero? Can...I... BE... YOUR....HERO....TODAY?" This kind offer was extended to anyone in remote proximinity to Howard and First Street yesterday. If you need a hero, I suggest you stop by.

"Yes, please come to San Francisco.... yes, I'll buy you anything...anything you want. Sure, dinner. Yes, we'll go shopping, anything you want." A man I'll just call Mr. Poor Sap.

"So, I said, I don't care about your personal life, GET BACK TO WORK!" Someone whose employees could probably use a hero.

Posted at 09:19PM Dec 19, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Personal | Comments[0] Tag it:

....take them bowling

What's a Sun meeting without a little bowling? Here's me at our all hands corporate marketing meeting. The morning was spent coming up with some cool ideas for 2007 (you'll just have to wait and see heh heh heh). The afternoon was spent bowling.

See those two lines on either side of the lanes? That's where my bowling balls all ended up. No bowling pins were injured during this bout of play.

"This is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules." The Big Lebowski

Posted at 09:09PM Dec 19, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Personal | Comments[0] Tag it:

Monday Dec 18, 2006

What if NYT published every letter to the editor?

Interesting post in the BusinessWeek blog, blogspotting, today;

"The New York Times receives about 1,000 letters a day, according to its letters editor, and has room for about 15. This is an immense unpublished resource of information, ideas and passion. Why not publish all of it online?"

Read the whole post here.

Tags: blogs, blog, BusinessWeek

Posted at 07:46AM Dec 18, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Media | Comments[0] Tag it:

Saturday Dec 16, 2006

Duke Jeans Jacket (more clothes for Second Life)

My latest piece of clothing for Second Life. Like the t-shirts, this jacket fits either men or women and is available for free at my Second Life house. Just click on the box and it's yours. Click on this link to teleport to my SL House. (must have Second Life on your computer for the link to work)

This jacket was created using a template available on the official Second Life website and an open source Duke logo.

Tags: Second Life Sun Duke SecondLife

Posted at 09:37PM Dec 16, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Second Life | Comments[2] Tag it:

Friday Dec 15, 2006

Nice Web 2.x rant.....

Found this on Out of the Woodwork today.... excellent rant on the term "Web 2.0" Below is an excerpt. Please visit the blog to read the whole entry (it's worth it).

Just say three-dot-NO

Ever love something but hate its name? You know, kind of the way you feel about your Aunt Mertalina. (Just kidding, Auntie--you know I love you!) That's how many people feel about Web 2.0: great ideas and fun to use, but stuck with one horribly hype-driven name.

I'm actually not in that camp (at least not any more). I'm willing to accept the idea that Web 2.0 has emerged as an example of useful jargon. It's been thrown around enough that most people who care know what it means. So we're stuck with it and there is no going back. I've accepted this and must recommend that you do the same.

Still, there is an undeniable dark side to the name... ( more )

Posted at 01:25PM Dec 15, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Sun | Comments[2] Tag it:

No more free Skype

"Holiday present" (like coal in your stocking) from Skype made it into my inbox this morning:

"After December 31st SkypeOut calls to US and Canada will be charged at the standard SkypeOut rate of ¢2.1 USD (or ¢2.4 CAD) per minute."

Posted at 12:24PM Dec 15, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Easy way to add social bookmarking boxes to your blog

Rich Burridge has kindly posted his website template in order to show folks how they can add those little boxes for Digg, Technorati and other social bookmarking sites to their websites. Thanks Rich!

Posted at 07:47AM Dec 15, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in DIY | Comments[0] Tag it:

The first thing you install on your PC

CyberNotes posted results from a forum post asking, "What is the first thing you install on your PC?" Predictability, Firefox is number one.

Posted at 07:42AM Dec 15, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Thursday Dec 14, 2006

Holiday all hands

We had our holiday all hands party today. Duke was in good spirits and Santa stopped by.

Posted at 09:29PM Dec 14, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Sun | Comments[0] Tag it:

Please help me in my quest...

I'm looking for a very good web-based email/calendar application that can handle IMAP. Any ideas? Otherwise, anyone know a good email/calendar product for Solaris (that is not Thunderbird or Evolution)? As my coworkers will gladly tell you, I'm a bit calendar obsessed and looking for a nice application. (special note to Ed Brill, no snarky comments allowed! )

Posted at 09:02PM Dec 14, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Sun | Comments[2] Tag it:

Wednesday Dec 13, 2006

Silliness at the local barns and noble

Recently, the Barns and Noble near my house decided to make one of their main entrances an "emergency exit." Being a main piont of entry/exit people were still using it, so tonight they've installed this fancy barrier (two pieces of blue tape across the security bars) to keep people from exiting.... of course, that makes it not the best of EMERGENCY Exits.... sigh.

Posted at 08:09PM Dec 13, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Top 10 reasons to upgrade to Java SE6

Link of the day: Danny Coward's top 10 reasons to upgrade to Java SE6.

Posted at 08:04PM Dec 13, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Sun | Comments[0] Tag it:

Tuesday Dec 12, 2006

Branding team blessed my Second Life Sun T-shirts

The Sun branding folks officially "blessed" my Duke and OpenSolaris T-shirts, so feel free to stop by my SL house (Hill of Hope 229, 29, 22) and grab them. I'm also told that they fit fine on both male and female avatars. Any suggestions for additional T's? (Yes, Mike, I saw your Linux request. ) I'm thinking my next project might be a Duke tattoo!

Posted at 09:58PM Dec 12, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Second Life | Comments[0] Tag it:

Sunday Dec 10, 2006

Jonathan Schwartz on PBS' Now with David Brancacio

Jonathan Schwartz appeared on PBS' "Now with David Brancaccio" Friday to
discuss the role corporations play in driving social and economic
progress. Vinod Khosla was also interviewed on the future of
bio-fuels and green technology.

See the video here:

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/249/index.html

Posted at 10:33AM Dec 10, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in Sun | Comments[0] Tag it: