Let's hope that Iron Man isn't another in a long line of Superhero Movies That Suck. I have high hopes -- Tony Stark is more Bruce Wayne than Clark Kent, and as much as I enjoy the tales of the Last Son of Krypton (ridiculous powers notwithstanding), the self-made hero (with the help of vast millions) tends to make for a better story. Besides: I get the sense that Supes is all Kenny G. and Michael Bolton, while here we get appropriate doses of AC/DC and Black Sabbath. Solid.
February 2008 Archives
Now available, free for nothing: American Gods, by Neil Gaiman.
Tiger Woods is off to a pretty good start this year.
Stewart Cink barely put up a fight Sunday in the Accenture Match Play Championship, where Woods broke a scoring record for the fourth straight tournament, collected his fifth straight victory worldwide and didn't so much as crack a smile when someone asked him if a perfect season was within reach.
"That's my intent," he said. "That's why you play. It you don't believe you can win an event, don't show up."
Yahoo! News
It's worth watching the video of the last several holes from the first round of the tournament, where Tiger was down three holes with five to play. Some pretty amazing work on the greens to ultimately win the match.
Via Signal vs. Noise a Tufte-approved information-rich graphic from the NYT that packs a ton of content into a tiny space. Beyond the information-design aspects, it's also very interesting to glance at the colors at the top of the graph to see how remarkably consistent the stock market is for long-term growth.
Two fairly good op-ed pieces at the NYT this weekend, one by Frank Rich and the other by Maureen Dowd, both writing about the "implosion" or the "decline and fall" of Hillary Clinton's campaign for the White House. While they both offer some salient points, they're also indicative of something I didn't like in 2004, either: the tendency to want to "call" the race well before the late-summer conventions.
A good night for Minnesota film makers all around. Kudos to the Coen Brothers (even though my prediction for an upset in the Best Picture category was off the mark) and to Diablo Cody.
Especially with the decidedly international flavor of the awards -- Best Song, all the Best Actor/Actress (and Supporting) categories, too -- it was nice to see our little patch of fly-over-country so well represented in the Academy Awards.
We've got this statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. Especially in the winter, some folks don't like having to stand outside to get their nicotine fix.
What started as a quirky idea to get around the statewide smoking ban appears to be spreading like wildfire.Of course this loophole will be closed in a heartbeat. You can't just include the entire bar as "actors" in a broad improvisational theatrical performance (especially since there's likely no audience at these "theater nights," just countless people lining up to be cigarette-toting thespians). Ultimately, I'm not sure whether to admire the creativity, or feel sorry for the addiction.
Dozens of bars are expected to stage "theater nights'' this weekend in which patrons are dubbed actors. The law, which went into effect in October, permits performers to smoke during a theatrical production. "Two weeks ago, we had one bar doing this,'' said Mark Benjamin, a criminal defense attorney who launched the theater-night idea. He estimates 50 to 100 bars could be on tap for theater nights this weekend based on phone calls, e-mails and requests for the how-to-stage-a-theater-night packet that he's devised. And many bar owners are passing on the information quickly among themselves without getting in contact with him.
Star Tribune
Joe links to a website -- Daily Mugshot -- that helps make it easy to create your own version of Noah Kalina's landmark six years of photos of himself (or even Homer Simpson's similar flashback of his entire life). I've been trying to pay attention to "every day things" much more this year. Not sure I'm up for this level of granularity just yet, but I do like the idea.
Yet another study that illustrates the maybe common-sense notion that you shouldn't eat when you're not hungry. This is such a hard thing to do. When there's food around the house, it tends to get eaten. And it takes a conscious effort to not finish the entire ginormous portion of food that gets served at most restaurants. You eat the bag of popcorn until it's empty, right?
It's the French paradox redux: Why don't the French get as fat as Americans, considering all the baguettes, wine, cheese, pate and pastries they eat?
Because they use internal cues -- such as no longer feeling hungry -- to stop eating, reports a new Cornell study. Americans, on the other hand, tend to use external cues -- such as whether their plate is clean, they have run out of their beverage or the TV show they're watching is over.
Science Daily
I blame society. Who wasn't scolded as a child to finish everything on their plate? That's the cue, right? That's when you know you're done eating, regardless of whether or not you're actually full: the plate's empty. I'd like to see the study that looks at French and American ex-pats, to see if this type of thing is inherent in each country. In other words, if I've been living in France for a year, do I still follow the same cues? Also lends more credence to the "many small meals throughout the day so you're never actually super hungry" theory of diet.
Link via Boing Boing
Today's the day. Still time for the movie marathon to get ready for the post-writer's strike Academy Awards.
You have to figure on at least one "upset" in each of the major categories. I'm guessing it'll be in this category, Best Picture, given the overall high quality of all the films. Current "can't miss" pick is No Country for Old Men. Wouldn't surprise me to see current media darling Juno take home the prize, though, or even the fancy-pants art-housey Atonement.
We've got a full slate of family activities on the agenda today, so it looks like I'm going to have to catch these on DVD as they come out.
Speaking of my story, I've spent the better part of the last month going through everything I've written so far. Major and minor edits. Mostly in Microsoft Word on my laptop, and nothing, yet, updated on the site. I've been fairly successful at spending at least 30 minutes a day with it. Sometimes more.
Earlier in the week I ran out of old material to edit, revise, and tweak. And it's not as though I don't know exactly where the story is going. I've had the story arc down pat for years. I'm just surprised how easy it was -- how simple and methodical -- to edit my old prose, but once I began advancing the story again, tonight, well, not so much. I'd procrastinated for three days. Tonight, even, I futzed around after everybody went to sleep, not quite sure why I didn't want to add a scene or two here and there, some much needed back story.
It'll be eighteen years in remission just over a week from now. My goal is to finish writing about everything no later than the end of this year. But damn. It's tougher writing the "new" stuff than I'd expected. Just when you think these old scabs have healed completely, they still hurt like fuck all when you pick at them.
Interesting article about a Wisconsin man with a fantastic memory (known as Hyperthymesia), although the opening sentence is pretty unfortunate: "For as long as he can remember, Brad Williams has been able to recall the most trifling dates and details about his life."
He can remember stuff for as long as he can remember? Really? How about just "Brad Williams has always been able to recall..."
First sentence aside, it's still a good read. There's also a link near the bottom of the article about an in-progress documentary, too.
Nice discussion at Unclutter about minimalist software options for focusing on writing (including a comment that points to DarkRoom, the Windows equivalent of the ultra-popular WriteRoom).
One way to achieve zen word processing is to hide the fact that your modern computer is a modern computer. (Out there, no doubt, is someone who paid $1,800 for a MacBook Air only to then run WriteRoom on it.) It's an attempt to travel back to a time before virtual tailfins. Another way to zen, however, is to simply use the tools from that era--the era in which word processing had been perfected.
This gets into the discovery of the Alphasmart Neo. Very cool. For about $200, you've got almost unlimited battery life, super lightweight, and nothing but word processing. This might need to go one some kind of birthday wishlist as I continue to work, behind the scenes, on finishing my leukemia story. What a great way to just write.
Heh. Via Curt, a story about a little bad judgment at the office, followed by a far worse response from upper management.
Just let it go, people. It's not as if he was vandalizing company property. If you don't like the comic, just take it down and move on. Sheesh.
In a bit of self-referential cartooning, "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams has penned a series of strips that indirectly describe the plight of Dave Steward, a former security supervisor for Catfish Bend Casino in Burlington. Steward, 50, a resident of Fort Madison, was fired by the casino last fall after seven years of employment. He had posted on an office bulletin board a "Dilbert" strip in which the protagonist compares his bosses to a bunch of "drunken lemurs."
Casino managers were not amused. By reviewing surveillance tapes, they determined that Steward was responsible for posting the cartoon. They fired him and accused him of not being a "team player."
Des Moines Register
I've long maintained that naming your child is the most arbitrary decision you'll ever make in your life, with the most lasting, most significant impact on someone else's life. Names matter. And yet it sometimes feels as though you're just throwing darts at a board to decide on this lifelong choice for your child.
Which is why this story (via Boing Boing) about two parents who chose a name more indecipherable than Mr. Mxyzptlk as "a pregnant, expressionistic development that we see as an artistic creation" is so ridiculous.
Which is why this story (via Boing Boing) about two parents who chose a name more indecipherable than Mr. Mxyzptlk as "a pregnant, expressionistic development that we see as an artistic creation" is so ridiculous.
Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced /'al'bin/) was a name intended for a Swedish child who was born in 1991.While I'd also question the "naming law of Sweden," I've got to believe there are better ways to stick it to the man than this.
The boy's parents had planned never to legally name him at all, as a protest to the naming law of Sweden. Wikipedia
A recent press release:
Not one of my projects, but still nice to see this getting some publicity. And while it's not necessarily obvious at first glance in the photo, those are actually special Target-branded Segways. Pretty cool.
Segway Inc. today announced that Target has purchased a fleet of Segway® Personal Transporters (PTs) making Target one of Segway's largest customers. The units will be used for security patrols at more than 150 Target and SuperTarget stores throughout the U.S. Minneapolis-based B2B Segway, a Segway Authorized Dealer specializing in commercial applications, secured the Target contract and executed the deployment of the units to the Target stores.
[...]
Target Assets Protection team members will use the Segway PTs to patrol the parking lots and surrounding environments of Target stores in markets such as Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle. In preparation for the launch of the program, Target developed a comprehensive Segway PT training program that security personnel completed before the units were deployed at their stores.
Just in time for another stretch of single digit temperatures, our two-year-old high efficiency furnace decided to stop working. To their credit, the gas company -- who we'd bought the furnace through -- came out to look at it within a couple of hours of our phone call. That's the good news. The bad news is that the part that kicked the bucket was the igniter. As our tech described it: "a fairly esoteric part" that he didn't carry in his van. That led to an order from the warehouse to be couriered out to the house, which only took three hours.
Which brings us to now, a little after 9:00 PM, about 10 degrees cooler than usual indoors (not bad, considering), and a waiting game for the next tech to come out and finish the job. Fingers crossed we'll have a working furnace again before bedtime, otherwise there will be some serious piles of blankets to stay warm overnight.
Update: back up and running by 10:30. That's great service. Not sure how long it will take to warm up again, but at least it won't get any colder inside the house.
Which brings us to now, a little after 9:00 PM, about 10 degrees cooler than usual indoors (not bad, considering), and a waiting game for the next tech to come out and finish the job. Fingers crossed we'll have a working furnace again before bedtime, otherwise there will be some serious piles of blankets to stay warm overnight.
Update: back up and running by 10:30. That's great service. Not sure how long it will take to warm up again, but at least it won't get any colder inside the house.
Almost forty years on this earth and I just now figured out -- completely by accident -- that Mourning Doves are not "Morning Doves." Changes my entire perception of the bird, knowing that there's an extra "U" in there.
In case you're wondering why President's Day (or any other holiday, for that matter) shows up in Outlook for previous years, but not for 2008, I'll let one of Outlook's program managers explain:
It's nice to finally have some of these holidays back without having to go in and manually add them. If you happen to be interested in manually adding some holidays (birthdays, special events, etc.), the blog entry above mentions a cool way to edit the "holiday file" to include anything you want.
When we shipped Outlook 2003, we only included holiday information through the end of 2007. Since it's now 2008, you're probably wondering how you can get holidays back on your calendar again. An update is now available to fix this issue by downloading and installing a patch for Outlook 2003. More information is available through http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924423
This update will replace the holiday file (Outlook.hol) with the latest holiday information, and you can use the same process from above to add holidays for 2008 and beyond into your calendar.
Source
I rarely buy new clothes for myself. It's an annual adventure at best. With that, it's understandable that some of the favorite ties I tend to wear during the week are many, many years old. Shirts usually get replaced on birthdays and at Christmas. So it was nice that one of my co-workers mentioned a significant sale at the downtown Macy's.
Long story short: three new dress shirts, four new ties, all for $85. All legitimately good looking stuff. Best part was that the receipt showed the original price on all of the items. I wasn't paying attention when I was picking things out, just wanted to add some variety to the wardrobe -- some different colors and patterns that I don't usually wear.
Total price if I'd gone shopping before any discounts? $320. Nice.
Long story short: three new dress shirts, four new ties, all for $85. All legitimately good looking stuff. Best part was that the receipt showed the original price on all of the items. I wasn't paying attention when I was picking things out, just wanted to add some variety to the wardrobe -- some different colors and patterns that I don't usually wear.
Total price if I'd gone shopping before any discounts? $320. Nice.
Occurred to me on the way into the office, as I thought about another incremental improvement to an application I've developed for internal use, that much of what one might consider "inspiration" appears to be 20/20 hindsight. This next feature, for example, is so slap-on-the-forehead obvious that we should have included it in the first place.
There are lightbulbs waiting to be found all over the place, if we only remember to look behind us.
In a couple of weeks, I'm hoping to try out a few great restaurants. A fixed three-course menu, no more than $30, and some of the better establishments in and around Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Seems like a "win-win" to me -- these places will probably get much more weekday business than they might otherwise, enticing people to return when there isn't the prix fixe menu, plus there's a chance to dine at some swank restaurants without breaking the bank. Complete list of restaurants (and their featured menus) at mspmag.com.
Seems like a "win-win" to me -- these places will probably get much more weekday business than they might otherwise, enticing people to return when there isn't the prix fixe menu, plus there's a chance to dine at some swank restaurants without breaking the bank. Complete list of restaurants (and their featured menus) at mspmag.com.
Heh. I've enjoyed Spongebob Squarepants for awhile. Nice to see the voice talent at work dubbing a few classics.
Probably not as funny if you don't recognize Patrick Star, Squidward, Sandy, and Spongebob. Cracked me up, though. Via Boing Boing.
Probably not as funny if you don't recognize Patrick Star, Squidward, Sandy, and Spongebob. Cracked me up, though. Via Boing Boing.
Via Kottke, much goodness on the way at Starbucks:
I'm not sure if the definition of "Starbucks Card Holder" means anyone who uses one of their reloadable cards to purchase coffee, but it doesn't really matter much. It'll be nice to be able to leverage some free wireless at the corner coffee shop now, since I've actually made it a point over the years to look elsewhere to bring my laptop. Not that I need to be connected every where I go. It's just nice, that's all.
Beginning this spring, Starbucks Card holders can enjoy up to two hours of free Wi-Fi service per day at Starbucks locations offering Wi-Fi access, while more than 12 million qualifying AT&T broadband and AT&T U-verseSM Internet customers will have unlimited free access to the Wi-Fi service. In addition, more than 5 million of AT&T's remote access services business customers will be able to access Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations. AT&T will soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers.
Source
Meant to link to this earlier in the week. Not nearly as complex as, say, Sins of a Solar Empire. But it's free, and it's challenging (but deceptively simple). All you need to do is spin the black circle.
Cool. In honor of seven years of online journaling (or blogging, as the kids call it these days), Harper Collins will be posting one of Neil Gaiman's books online free for nothing. You can influence which book it is by voting for one (or more) here: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/02/birthday-thing.html.
Given that I've already read (and own) all but one of the books listed, I'm not as excited about the freeness for my sake, but for others that might want a good introduction to Gaiman's work. My vote was for American Gods, probably the most accessible of the books listed (with the possible exception of Stardust, which also makes for a great DVD rental, for an even easier introduction to Gaiman).
Given that I've already read (and own) all but one of the books listed, I'm not as excited about the freeness for my sake, but for others that might want a good introduction to Gaiman's work. My vote was for American Gods, probably the most accessible of the books listed (with the possible exception of Stardust, which also makes for a great DVD rental, for an even easier introduction to Gaiman).
I actually don't mind the cold so much -- it is winter after all. I keep posting these images of the silly negative temperatures (and windchill dropping them an additional 30-40 degrees) to remind myself that this year has felt like the first "real" winter in quite a long time. Last winter was tropical compared to this.
I haven't had much time (or inclination) recently for any real gaming. I'll be writing a bit more about some of the things that have occupied my "free" time later. For now, though, I must admit that I'm intrigued by this latest offering from Stardock (and Ironclad Games), makers of one of the only other PC games I've played over the past couple of years.
Early reviews have been stellar. Having cut my teeth on both Civilization and Dune 2, I admit my preference in strategy games has tended toward turn-based, and not so much real-time. But everything I've read about Sins of a Solar Empire is that it's unlike any RTS, and gameplay never feels overwhelming, even when commanding vast armadas of capital ships across a vast galaxy.
Great graphics. Great scalability and stability. Plenty of guns and butter during gameplay. Minimum hardware requirements look like something out of 2002. Might be just the thing to provide a welcome distraction during these last few sub-zero days in Minnesota.
Early reviews have been stellar. Having cut my teeth on both Civilization and Dune 2, I admit my preference in strategy games has tended toward turn-based, and not so much real-time. But everything I've read about Sins of a Solar Empire is that it's unlike any RTS, and gameplay never feels overwhelming, even when commanding vast armadas of capital ships across a vast galaxy.
Great graphics. Great scalability and stability. Plenty of guns and butter during gameplay. Minimum hardware requirements look like something out of 2002. Might be just the thing to provide a welcome distraction during these last few sub-zero days in Minnesota.
While I don't spend most of my days in a data center, I do need to interact with servers and switches and cables a great deal. Perhaps that's why these photos of pristine cabling jobs (via Unclutterer) sing to me.
While I agree with some of the comments that it's easy to make cabling look like that on day one, I've seen enough cable messes, even on initial install, that it's still great to see people take some pride in their work.
While I agree with some of the comments that it's easy to make cabling look like that on day one, I've seen enough cable messes, even on initial install, that it's still great to see people take some pride in their work.
Would have loved to have seen this presentation.
In a presentation here yesterday, [Peter] Tippett -- who is vice president of risk intelligence for Verizon Business, chief scientist at ICSA Labs, and the inventor of the program that became Norton AntiVirus -- said that about one third of today's security practices are based on outmoded or outdated concepts that don't apply to today's computing environments.I always enjoy seeing conventional wisdom get challenged, and there are more than a few challenges in this article. Great stuff.
[...]
Tippett also suggested that many security pros waste time trying to buy or invent defenses that are 100 percent secure. "If a product can be cracked, it's sometimes thrown out and considered useless," he observed. "But automobile seatbelts only prevent fatalities about 50 percent of the time. Are they worthless? Security products don't have to be perfect to be helpful in your defense."
This concept also applies to security processes, Tippett said. "There's a notion out there that if I do certain processes flawlessly, such as vulnerability patching or updating my antivirus software, that my organization will be more secure. But studies have shown that there isn't necessarily a direct correlation between doing these processes well and the frequency or infrequency of security incidents.
"You can't always improve the security of something by doing it better," Tippett said. "If we made seatbelts out of titanium instead of nylon, they'd be a lot stronger. But there's no evidence to suggest that they'd really help improve passenger safety."
http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=145224
Great quote from Anthony Bourdain, via Signal vs. Noise that has me immediately rethinking my practice of keeping a jar o' minced garlic in the fridge for many of my recipes. Treat your garlic with respect. Sliver it for pasta, like you saw in Goodfellas, don't burn it. Smash it, with the flat of your knife blade if you like, but don't put it through a press. I don't know what that junk is that squeezes out the end of those things, but it ain't garlic...Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.Emphasis mine, because the truth will set you free (plus it's the funniest bit).
My thoughts exactly, right down to where the blame falls:
Much to my consternation, it's almost Super Tuesday, and I am an undecided voter. I am a political junkie, a Democrat; I read the papers. But for the first time in my life, barring some truly dramatic last-minute development, I am going to walk into a voting booth on Tuesday, pull a curtain closed, and see how the spirit moves me.Also worth reading, on a somewhat related subject, is the inevitable Mac/PC analogy. Any guesses who gets pegged as the stodgy, conservative, un-hip PC?
This is extremely humiliating. Not simply to be undecided. But to be undecided hours before the first primary in my memory in which my vote will make one iota of difference; to be undecided in a race that is historic, that has provoked more excitement than any I've yet lived through. I'm undecided at a moment -- one I thought might never transpire in my lifetime -- in which I will have the opportunity to pull a lever for a woman or an African-American. I am undecided while many around me whoop it up, volunteer, yell and cry at rallies, and feel the thrill of political certainty that I cannot share.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/02/04/undecided/
Wow. If you're up for back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back movies, looks like the last Saturday of the month will be right up your alley.
On Saturday, Feb. 23, check out the ''AMC Best Picture Showcase,'' featuring all five Best Picture Oscar® nominees (Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Juno and No Country for Old Men) playing back-to-back throughout the day at 81 select AMC theatres nationwide. The $30 admission (more than a $50.00 value) also includes a free large popcorn with unlimited refills all day, plus a collectible pass* featuring the five nominated films.I'm sorely tempted to figure out a way to make it to this. I've been meaning to see at least three of these flicks, and all five in one day would be a great way to get through all of the nominated films.
http://www.movietickets.com/
For chrissakes. Unbelievable.
If any house of worship -- or nearly anyone else, for that matter -- intends to show Sunday's Super Bowl game on a large screen for a group of people, the league says you are violating its copyright.So in other words, if you want to host a Super Bowl gathering at your community center, or at a church, just get a half-dozen 42" plasma screens and scatter them throughout the building. One can only hope that next year the NFL will decides it's against copyright law to watch a public broadcast on public television unless you swear on a stack of bibles that you promise to buy at least five items that are advertised during the game -- one during each quarter, and one during halftime -- to ensure that they're able to maximize their advertising revenue.
...
The league bans public exhibitions of its games on TV sets or screens larger than 55 inches because smaller sets limit the audience size.
"We have no objection to churches and others hosting Super Bowl parties as long as they ... show the game on a television of the type commonly used at home," NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. "It is a matter of copyright law."
Large Super Bowl gatherings around big-screen sets outside of homes shrink TV ratings and can affect advertising revenue, McCarthy said. The section of copyright law giving the NFL protection over the content of its programming exempts sports bars, he said.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikings/15107066.html
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