2002.11.14
I'm happy to announce a new feature for the site: Dylan's Pointless Sidebar, you can see it there on the right. Dylan's my best buddy from middle school when I was living up in upstate NY, we kept in touch through out high school, both went to college in Boston, and he even stayed with me for a few months in my old Waltham apartment. He's now in San Diego...he keeps in touch with my life by making this page his startpage, and has kind of kept me informed via the guestbook. But now he has his own public spot to spout tales about his mundane life. He'd like everyone to keep their expectations nice and low for his little sidebar.
Brand Loyalty of the Moment
It hit me that I'm really loyal to this one brand of pen, the Pilot Precise V5 and V7, and I have been for years. I made a special sidetrip to Staples just to buy a 5 pack of 'em (one shown here to the left.) They just write so well, with a nice thick line, almost like painting, but without too much page bleed-through. In middle school, I was all about the EraserMate, but no longer.
Awesome Link of the Moment
PUT YOUR NAME ON MARS! Looks like the real deal...you can put your name in a form, and it will be written to a DVD. They'll then photograph the DVD when it's on Mars. But you have to signup soon!
A Photo of a DVD is kind of funny. Kind of like those folks who can guess what music an LP has just by looking at the groove pattern in the light.
Quote of the Moment
Stupid people surround themselves with smart people. Smart people surround themselves with smart people who disagree with them.I think by this measure, Bush is just a tiny bit smart, but mostly dumb. On NPR, someone speculated that one of the reason Bush has hesitated a little bit from the warpath is reaction from the armed services.
Followup Geek Link
The other day I posted that article on leaky abstractions...today Slashdot picked up on it too (meaning the server is much slower...) and someone there posted a link to this older Salon article by the same author that covered some of the same ideas in a more approachable way. I think one of the differences between good geeks and the rest of the world is that geeks aren't happy unless they have some idea of what is going on behind the wizardy, the "automagicness", while the rest of the people are content with it so long as it works.