Saturday March 22, 2008

I just received an email from Amazon, recommending a book, The TreasureHunter's Gem & Mineral Guides To The U.S.A.: Where & How to Dig, Pan And Mine Your Own Gems & Minerals: Northeast States. Admittedly, they did a good job of predicting this title might be attractive to me. However, the single review on the Amazon site gives the book only a single star and provides some fairly damning evidence that the book is, in fact, totally useless. Hardly an incentive to make a purchase...or to trust future Amazon recommendations.

While I do understand that opinions vary widely across many Amazon reviews and they should not be the final arbiters in a buy/no-buy decision, I would think the Amazon recommendation engine would make some attempt to factor the reviews into their ratings. Or, at the very least, the marketing email should include the overall reviewer rating in the advertisement.

Saturday February 23, 2008

A silly set of questions via Geoff, but how can I not share my results now that it has been shown I'm über cool. :-) Take the Nerd Test.

Sunday January 06, 2008

In today's Boston Globe...

Monday December 31, 2007

You all have fun celebrating the rollover from 12/31/2007 to 01/01/08 tonight. Me, I'm waiting for 01/10/2008 9:20pm GMT when time_t rolls over eight digits to 1200000000. Woo hoo! :-)

Thursday December 06, 2007

Perhaps it was my frustration with Apple's Leopard OS that drove me. Whatever the reason, I was finally able to rip an apple apart with my bare hands last night--a feat my sister-in-law demonstrated to me two years ago.

Monday November 26, 2007

I came across the above photo as I was browsing through old yearbook photos on my alma mater's web site several months ago.

My first reaction was, "Oh my, they look incredibly geeky."

My second reaction was, "Hey, I recognize the guy with the sideburns!"

My third reaction was, "Oh, wait. Crap--that's me sitting next to him! What a pair."

Inexplicably, my fourth reaction was "Hey, I should post this on the blog." So there you go--a glimpse into computing and attire at Harvard in the early eighties. And eyeglass styles-- let's not forget that.

Tuesday November 06, 2007

Seen this morning on The Gap's website. Not intentional humor, but an error only a geek would appreciate.

Sunday September 30, 2007

I flew today from Boston to SFO for Sun's Innovation@Sun conference, which starts tomorrow evening. I was happy to get an aisle exit row seat in the Premier section, but not so happy with the traveler in 16E, the seat next to mine. John, a 14-year-old boy, was traveling with his brother and parents. Brother James took the window seat, John was next to me, and their parents had the window and middle seats across the aisle from us.

I think John asked me what time it was at least eight times before the flight took off. And then he asked me to explain the rules of sudoku. And then he tried to convince me of the importance of having Jesus in my life. He was fairly persistent on this last point until his brother told him to knock it off, and I told him he shouldn't talk religion at someone if they weren't interested.

He was polite to the United flight attendants each time he summoned them with the call button. He used that button more on that one flight than I have had cause to use it in over a dozen years of business travel. I lost track after awhile, but I think he used it at least seven times.

One might ask what his parents were doing through all of this. Enjoying the peace and quiet on the other side of the aisle so far as I could tell...

Monday August 13, 2007

As I mentioned in this entry, Fake Steve (author of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs) was unmasked recently. In the meantime, other Secret Diaries have appeared, authored by Fake Bill Gates, Fake Steve Balmer, and now...Fake Jonathan.

I assume at some point we'll see a Secret Diary of John Mackey, but we already know who will be writing it. :-)

Tuesday July 31, 2007

I had one of those "There's Something About Mary" moments at the coffee bar in Sun's Menlo Park cafeteria this morning. I ordered a large chai, which was delivered with a wonderful head of foam on top. As I popped a top onto the cup, a dollop of foam went shooting straight up out of the drinking hole at high velocity. And never came down.

At least I couldn't find it...

Monday July 02, 2007

.ǝɔɐ1d ɹǝ11np ɐ ǝq p1noʍ p1ɹoʍ ǝɥʇ uǝɥʇ 'sıɥʇ ǝʞı1 sbuıɥʇ op ʇ,upıp ʎǝɥʇ ɟı 'ǝsɹnoɔ ɟo .sʎɐp ǝsǝɥʇ uo ǝɯıʇ ɹıǝɥʇ puǝds ǝ1doǝd ʇɐɥʍ ǝɯ oʇ buızɐɯɐ s,ʇı

Monday June 11, 2007

Do you publish presentations as Powerpoint or StarOffice files rather than flattening them to PDF, postscript or some other display format? If so, you should consider the possible ramifications of making those source document available, which could include inadvertently making confidential information available publically.

You might accidentally release sales figures, customer information, or in this case, the classified figures for the entire US national intelligence budget over the last 10+ years. Any comprehensive information protection program must take this sort of problem into account to be effective.

In StarOffice, use the "PDF" button to create a PDF version of your document or presentation. It can't get much simpler than that.

Friday June 08, 2007

Some Friday silliness. Supply information about your physical, mental, lifestyle, personality and find out what you are worth. A new low in quizzes, but what the heck.

I am worth $1,914,938 on HumanForSale.com
How much are you worth?

Monday June 04, 2007

It's always fun to trawl through my blog's sitemeter statistics to see how people reach the Navel of Narcissus. When they reach me via web search, it is especially interesting to see what search terms they've used. Having looked at this for a few years now, I offer the following very short tutorial.

NAVAL

NAVEL

NAVEL

Sunday April 01, 2007

The US government, specifically the Department of Commerce, lost its mind late last week when it announced a pilot program to grant naming rights to qualifying corporations for a small number of well-known government facilities frequented by tourists. Qualifying corporations will be allowed to rename these facilities in exchange for licensing fees to "defray maintenance costs and to foster a more modern, relevant vistor experience."

We've all seen the controversies and outrage generated by the renaming of sports and entertainment complexes over the last several years. Monster Park, Fleet Center, Tweeter Center, to name a few. Check here on Wikipedia for a more comprehensive list. I can't believe Commerce could possibly think the benefits of this program will outweigh the hue and cry it will generate.

Hoover Dam (above) was the very first facility "adopted" under the program, and by a foreign company, too. While this is admittedly a master stroke of sorts by the British vacuum manufacturer Dyson (Hoover is Dyson's largest competitor), their press release (registration required) left me speechless. It was all I had feared and worse. One of their concept photos (below) from the release tells the story far better than any outraged rant on my part could.

The Department of Commerce's really poor justification for all of this is here.