Helzerman's Odd Bits : Weblog

Wednesday Jan 10, 2007

PC World editor, Rex Farrance, dead and accused of being involved in drug trade

From SF Gate today. I couldn't be more shocked. Rex was one of the first reporters I worked with when I entered the tech industry in the early 90's. He was always a great guy. Sad news indeed.

"Four masked men burst into a Pittsburg home, pistol-whipped a woman and fatally shot her husband -- a senior editor for PC World magazine -- in what police believe was a targeted attack because they said the victims had been involved in drug activity.

Rex Farrance, 59, senior technical editor at PC World in San Francisco, was shot in the chest and killed shortly after the assailants forced their way into his home on Argosy Court about 9 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said today.

The couple were apparently targeted because they had been involved in the drug trade, Conaty said."

Read the article here.

Posted at 05:03PM Jan 10, 2007 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Sunday Jan 07, 2007

What The Simpsons would look like if it was a Manga cartoon.

Cool find on Neatorama: What The Simpsons would look like if it was a Manga cartoon. Link

Posted at 05:40PM Jan 07, 2007 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[3] Tag it:

Sunday Dec 31, 2006

In which room would this fit best?

Recently downtown Campbell, CA (where I live) has been over run with expensive home decorator shops selling items that I can not imagine anyone buying. Here's an item that I saw whilst walking down the street the other day. Who would buy this and where would you put it?

Posted at 12:19PM Dec 31, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[2] Tag it:

Saturday Dec 30, 2006

Flight booking typo takes fellow 8,000 miles off course

Found on techdirt today. You've just gotta feel sorry for this guy...

"A twenty-one year old German tourist planned to take a trip to Sydney, Australia, but wound up 8,077 miles off-course
-- headed instead for the small oil town of Sydney, Montana, after
mistyping his destination into a flight booking Web site. The man
didn't notice anything was wrong until he was about to board a flight
from Portland to chilly Montana, dressed in summer vacation clothes."

I wonder how many people have confused other cities such as San Jose, CA and San Jose, Costa Rica (both of which are large cities) when booking travel.

Posted at 02:27PM Dec 30, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Tuesday Dec 26, 2006

hamburger with peanut butter (for real!)

My husband and his siblings went to grad school at Purdue and acquired, along with their degrees, a taste for hamburgers with peanut butter! You'd think I'm making this up, but it's for real. You can get these "burgers" (and I use the term loosely) at Triple XXX Family Restaurant (lovely name).

This got me thinking, do all institutions of higher learning have a favorite gross food staple? Are MIT grads eating pickle flavored ice cream?

What did you eat when you were in school? Can you top this:

The Duane Purvis All-American - A very special taste treat!
1/4 lb. of 100% ground sirloin served on a toasted sesame bun with melted cheese on top with lettuce, tomato, pickle, Spanish onion and French fries. Add thick creamy peanut butter on the lower deck and you’re in for the touchdown!

Posted at 10:43PM Dec 26, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[2] Tag it:

Saturday Dec 23, 2006

See my friend and ex-coworker on Conan O'Brien

One of my IBM buds has filmed another spot for Conan O'Brien. You can see his TV clips on his site here. Funny stuff.

Posted at 04:59PM Dec 23, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Thursday Dec 21, 2006

What the....?

Came across this via Google alerts. When you visit this site it says Helzerman's Odd Bits! Is this some sort of new spam that shows the name of your blog in a Google alert so you'll click on the link? (worked... I clicked on it)

Naughty words blurred out in order to keep this blog work-safe (also, I don't want coal in my stocking!).

Posted at 01:56PM Dec 21, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Friday Dec 15, 2006

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:

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:

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:

Sunday Dec 03, 2006

Solaris - drink up

Cool photo of Solaris wine in Dan Anderson's Weblog today.

Posted at 04:04PM Dec 03, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Saturday Dec 02, 2006

It was 50 years ago today....

50 years ago today, on December 2, 1956, 82 rebels arrived in Cuba via a boat named the Granma with the idea of ousting then president Batista. Only 12 of them survived (including Fidel and Raul Castro and Che Guevara). Castro was not present at any of the 50th anniversary celebrations causing a resurface of questions around his health and future leading the country. I have several friends and colleagues who come from Cuba and I'm amazed at how different their experiences were -everything from horrifying to very positive. I have spent time in Cuba, but I am not Cuban and can only understand to a certain extent the strong feelings today brings up for people who are from the island. So, whether you are celebrating the Revolution or the fact that Fidel will likely not be around to see next year's festivities, have a good December 2nd.

Posted at 03:00PM Dec 02, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Thursday Nov 30, 2006

Quote of the day

From kottle.org, "For my president I want a mixture of Mother Teresa, Carl Sagan, Warren Buffet, and Darth Vader."

Posted at 10:06PM Nov 30, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

Monday Nov 27, 2006

Banned in the UAE

Usually a site being censored wouldn't fall into the scope of this blog, however the site in question just happens to be one to which I am a contributor, Dvorak Uncensored (well, at least "uncensored" outside the UAE).

Could it be for posts we've made such as this one?

UAE Censored Dvorak blog

Posted at 06:27PM Nov 27, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it:

My quest....

I'm on a quest to find the ideal (ok, maybe not ideal, but passable) virtual office software. Not VO as in Microsoft VO, but any online environment that lets me have easy access to calendar, tasks, email, etc. Any recomendations? oh..... and it needs to accept IMAP (Zoho and some others seem to think we all use pop mail). Sigh.....

Posted at 06:11PM Nov 27, 2006 by Catherine Helzerman in OddBits | Comments[0] Tag it: