2005.08.31
Past few days I've been checking out the New Orleans coverage, comparing it to 9/11. I guess since it is regional there isn't the general sense of dread and "could it happen here, now?" Still it makes me think at some point there might be a major terror incident, something WMDish, and it's going to be some mix of the two...a major city becoming a ghost town, a general sense of fear or even panic.
Anyway, on to happier subjects for today I think.
Videos of the Moment
Twelve movies about one thing: muffins. (Thanks FoSO).
Minor News of the Moment
World's oldest person dies, aged 115. "Dutch woman swore by a daily helping of herring for a healthy life". Amazing to think of it...she was, what, in her late 20s during the first world war? Though the herring...reminds me of that joke of the uncle who swore by raw garlic and cigars, you know what his last words were? No one does, we couldn't get near him!
Slating and Ranting of the Moment
Slate.com says dell is hitting a bit of rough patch, including some very bed press from some blogs (the reverse chronolgical order makes it a less compelling read, though...not to mention all the "fear the power of blogs!" crap in it). I just want to say that, based on the website, I don't see why they've done so well. That is a really unfriendly place, too many options, too much information at every turn-- look at their home and home office page, maybe 1/3 of it is what I'm interested in, the rest is just...stuff.
First off, it feels strange to me that I have to select my category, Home-Home Office, Gaming, Small Business, Medium-Large Business...it smells like a scam, that these groups might be getting better prices and I'm not in on it. My friend points out that if you go to dell.com/tv, you're looking at deals that are difficult or impossible to get at through the main interface.
And I know I'm a throwback, but I still want to see and maybe even tough the type of system I'll be getting before buying. There's still enough variation in laptops and desktop systems that I don't like buying them just as some kind of commodity item.
Ah well. At least prices are relatively low, and I suppose some of thats because of folks like Dell.