2005.10.27
There's a line of radio copy for "Giant Glass" that I've heard a few announcers read, something like "because if you're ever in an auto accident, your windhshield is the one thing between you and the open road"...I've never quite been able to wrap my head around that line (no pun intended.) I guess I think of "the road" as "the asphault", and generally it's the body of the car that's keeping me from that. So does "open road" mean..."the air"? The threat of other cars leaping at my car? I dunno, but I guess it sounds better than "because you don't want your windshield splintering into a thousand pieces and chopping your body and face".
Of course these are the same ads with that way too catchy for the good of humanity "Who you gonna call when your windshield's busted" / "1-800-54-GIant" tune. Sometime when I get angry at how much it's stuck in my head I enjoy singing along to the spot with grunty imbecilic monosyllables..."wun ate-un-hed fit-ee-oh AI-ent".
Trivia: Giant Glass is named after the NY Giants Football Team, the owner was a fan before the Patriots were added into the New England mix. (You know, I have a tremendous memory for factoids I find "interesting", and a terrible memory for anything my head brands as "mundane". Is everyone like that?)
Article of the Moment
The ChiSox win brings up the thought is GWB the new LBJ? and other thoughts about the possible Curses of Texas.
Geekular Essay of the Moment
Slashdot linked to Petzold on Does Visual Studio Rot the Mind?.
I remember the good ol' Petzold Win32 programming book back at Tufts' Curricular Software Studio. Around that time I also dabbled on my own with VB (version 3, getting into 4) and I designed and taught a for-credit class in it with Tufts' "Experiment College".
My life is Java and Perl based but I see some of the elements he's talking about, at least with the Java. And I feel some of the same conservatism he describes, and I'm never sure if I'm becoming a crusty old coot coder or if a longing for simplicity and opacity in the system we result in is a hallmark of how good programmers think.
Looking at some of the stuff Ksenia is doing for her Graphics Design major...a lot of seems pretty dull, like Typography class and it's kind of fetishistic view of fonts, but sometimes it seems really appealing. I still love fooling around with logos and branding and what not. I think no matter what I'd always program "for love" but sometimes I wish the "for money" part wasn't so much more lucrative than other paths I toy with following.