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Monday,  07/27/09  09:58 PM

A busy day of work work work after a wonderful weekend of messing around.  I guess that's just the way it goes.  I made a major [re]discovery today: I love working to music.  I periodically fall out of the habit of working with music in the background (I think when I'm spending lots of time on the 'phone) and then when I try it again I'm like "wow, I love working to music" :)

Made a new coolular discovery about the Pre today: it feels very comfortable in the hand holding it against your head while talking.  Because I use my Plantronics Bluetooth headset all the time I really hadn't done this, but I let the battery in the headset run down and had to use the phone itself, and with the keyboard slid out the back of the phone gives your fingers a nice ledge to rest on... 

An important subject: Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny (shopping for bikinis), from this week's New Yorker.  I particularly like this definition: a bikini is any swimsuit which can fit through a wedding ring. 

Recently saw an email from CNet extolling the virtues of Netflix downloads.  Yeah, but... now that I have Netflix downloads on my Tivo, I never ever use them.  Know why?  Because you have to wait for the whole movie to download before you can watch it.  Meanwhile my AppleTV is just one remote control away and has the same movies at the same prices, and they stream.  No contest. 

Speaking of Netflix and contests, the Netflix $1M contest is over!  And we have two winners!  Both of which have improved Netflix's suggestion effectiveness by over 10%.  So either way their customers will win.

Josh Newman's Next Chapter: "Earlier today, I updated my bio (both above, and on the about page) to reflect my having turned 30... and changed the front-page quote to the Wall St. Journal's 'an Internet elder statesmen'."  Good grief!  He turns 30 and he's over the hill?  Elder statesman?  Wow… what’s next, blog posts that begin with "I remember when…"? 

[Update: Josh responds: "I was going to ask you what it was like to hunt for woolly mammoths"]

I remember when... stamps were 10¢.  Really.  Do you know what they are now?  (Many people don't, like me; I had to look it up because I never buy stamps anymore, and the price changes constantly.)  And so now the USPS are thinking of raising rates from 44¢ to 50¢.  "The more they raise the price of stamps, the lower their volume.  This union driven worker model is too pricey for a declining market."  D'ya think? 

BTW in case you didn't know this is not a joke; the current first class stamps really do feature The Simpsons.  Once again Real Life is stranger than The Onion.

Apropos: Scott "Dilbert" Adams on the Extra Legal age.  "Our laws recognize a number of legal ages for various activities.  You need to be 16-years old to get a driver's license, 18-years old to enlist in the armed forces, and 21-years old to drink.  I think we need to extend that concept.  Once you reach the age of 80, a new set of legal rights should kick in."  80?  How about new rights at 50?  Like the right to start posts with "I remember when" :) 

Important work: The Telegraph reports on research that shows red wine increases women's sexual desire.  I have been conducting experiments of my own in this area that suggest the same :) 

{I must note that this is being posted to The Who's Teenage Wasteland.  Probably should switch to UB40's Red Red Wine :}