Archive for July, 2007

You really must see this. Hasselhoff would be proud.

http://www.tygorz.com/supercool-winkytool/

I just read an article http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25341-2647599,00.html about being able to talk about books we haven’t read. Though the article was written about people in an academic world, I found the following to be wrong:

“We live in a society . . . in which reading still remains the object of a form of sacralization”, particularly where certain “canonical texts” are concerned: it is practically forbidden not to have read these.”

I don’t think any of us probably expect each other to have read anything. Is there any common denominator book? I might risk the assumption that everyone who went to college read Gatsby, but almost certainly that doesn’t apply to the American population at large. Maybe everyone read The Telltale Heart in grade or high school?

Is it useful to have a common cultural “home base”? What do you think it is for our generation? (And will it be The House on Mango Street for some other generation?)

I saw this on a shirt in Urban Outfitters, but since I am in a spending-time-out, I can’t buy it. I have to wait until my virtual personal spending envelope is not in the red. Since I can’t wear it on my chest right now, I thought I’d put it out there this way.

(for all of you smug-DINK-types whose eyeballs are popping at the thought that a college-educated woman in 2007 can’t buy a t-shirt until her virtual personal spending envelope is filled by her husband’s income, all I can say is, it works for us…well, usually. Right now it’s not working so well because I have a slight obsession with finding the perfect bathing suit online even thought the only place I wear it is the toddler wading pool. The housewives of the 50’s thought they had it bad, but they didn’t know the allure of online shopping during nap-time and its cruel tendency to seduce the bored stay-at-home mom with free shipping offers.)

By the way, I’m Maria. Nice to meet you. My posts may be rare because as all of you are reading, thinking about, and discussing intellectual academic research, I am up to elbows in poopy diapers and Thomas-The-Tank-Engine.

I enjoy the reading, however, and will chime in when I can!

Has anyone watched the YouTube Democratic Debates? Any responses about the format or quality of questions and answers?

Here is a clip about standardized voting, which, if I were a single issue voter, would be the issue that I voted on. We need to have a verifiable, anonymous way to vote. Personally, I think it should work like an ATM machine: slide in your voting card, type in your pin, vote, get a receipt with your votes and an id to verify your votes on-line. Easy, cheesy.

While reading a post on slashdot regarding Internet Site rankings someone posted an interesting idea. Simply, TiVo and other PVR units are responsible for the crap on tv. This sounds silly, but really think about it.

When Nielson surveys homes, it does not track TiVo recordings (yet). The very smart and often well off are typical early adopters of new technology, this goes double for Science Fiction fans. So our (I am assuming since you read this blog you are all exceptionally smart) voice when it comes to what is worthwhile on television is being completely ignored. So smart shows and very noticeably Sci-Fi shows are given the ax because of “low viewership.

Does anyone else begin to wonder if this is what happened to shows like Studio 60, Firefly, etc…

I won’t spoil the new Harry Potter for anyone - I imagine quite a few of us are fans. But is anyone else done?

I was feeling pretty anxious on Friday that it wouldn’t be good enough, after all of the waiting and hype — and I think it actually exceeded my expectations. But now I’m sad that it’s over.

For those of you reading it, any thoughts so far…

OK, this is either the coolest, strangest, or saddest thing I have ever seen.

This is 1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice! This is not even the final routine! I wonder if we would have the crime rates we have if this was what prison in the US was like.

If the embed does not work, check out the link.
YouTube

Just a quick Friday venting.

I hate fucking cell phones. I have trouble enough communicating with people as it is. When you throw a cell phone into the mix, oi vey, its no good. I feel like half of my conversations on cell phones is trying to figure out if the other person can hear me or trying to piece together half-words to form an understanding of what the other person is saying. Then there is lag time. The fraction of a second that it takes for our voices to travel to the satellite and to the other person means that I and the other person start talking at the same time and then stop talking to let the other person talk at the same time, and then start talking again at the same time once we have both figured out that the other is trying to be polite. These damn devices that shatter our voices and make our lives more convenient, what would I ever do with out them? Maybe I’ll start texting. That seems like a better way to communicate Do you have the same problems with cell phones that I do? Or is it just me?

Oh and just for good measure, fuck AT&T. Ahh, the venting is now complete.

AKA: a piece of a larger picture.

Fade In:

A 30-40 year old man stands at a drop point on a factory line. He is intently waiting for the product that he is testing to drop onto a flat, padded panel directly in front of him. A chute market correct is on his right, incorrect on his left. An 8 ball drops onto the testing pad. He immediately picks it up, starts shaking it…

Testor: Should I have come to work today?

He looks at the 8 ball.

8 ball: Ask again later.

Testor puts ball aside onto an empty egg crate looking shelf and presses release button on machine. A second 8 ball drops onto testing pad. He picks it up, shakes it and asks aloud…

Testor: Will I get a raise?

8 ball: Not likely.

He throws the 8 ball into the chute marked “Correct”

This goes on through a series of questions ranging from “Will the Republicans stay in office?” to “Will they bring back Who Wants to be a Millionare?” He seems to be indeterminately choosing which 8 balls are correct and which are incorrect.

After 5 or 10 8 ball Q and A sessions he picks up the 8 ball on the shelf and asks out loud…

Testor: Should I have come to work today?

8 Ball: Yes.

Testor thinks about this for a minute, shakes the 8 ball vigorously and looks around to make sure no one is watching. He leans in close and asks…

Testor: Am i determining the future of this reality by dictating which answers are correct and incorrect on little plastic balls filled with a non-toxic ooze or am i just diluting myself into believing that this actually works? In short, can i change the outcome of any series of events by predetermining if the 8 ball is correct for others? Will my judgment based on a randomly selected series of nonspecific questions actually determine other people’s reality, or are they paying me for nothing?

8 Ball: Step away from the pipe.

The man thinks about this, looks around and puts the ball down the chute marked “correct.”

Fade Out.

Anyone who doubts that Micro$oft is not trying to make our lives easier just needs to watch how easy it will be to type a few lines of perl code using microsoft’s new speach engine in vista.

Have to agree with josh… cooperative blog will not allow us to embed movies… try this link…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyLqUf4cdwc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egeekologie%2Ecom%2Fpage2%2Ephp