All sorts of fun and craziness
July 28th, 2007
You can by anything on the internet now - even Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Patient Peevy Manikin With Genitalia! I am not making this up. “Interchangeable male and female genitalia” how handy is that?
Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
July 26th, 2007
Here’s a blog post from the The Economist that is usually one of my favorite periodicals. However, in this particular case the argument is based more on the political spin than true free-market considerations. Feel free to browse through the comments and guess which one is mine.
Categories: Politics, Science/Tech | No Comments
July 25th, 2007
This is what G thinks from time to time……
Via Digg
Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments
July 23rd, 2007
Bush Approval Rating Falls to 25% - well, approximately 25%. But well less than half, well less, and steadily declining over the last year. Here’s hoping there is fallout for the Republican party in the fall elections.
Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments
July 23rd, 2007
I’ve not been posting as much as usual here. A part of that is that I’ve been using Facebook. Honestly, at first I thought Facebook was just a MySpace knock off, and I’m not in to MySpace. After reading a lot of Scoble’s thoughts and comments, and the new Facebook Platform I had to try it out.
Facebook is interesting in so many ways, I think what Scoble has to say is better than what I can come up with. The basic element though, is that Facebook allows a lot more two way interaction, and a lot of depth in the online relationship. If you friend me and look at my profile you find all sorts of tidbits. You can see what I’m adding to del.icio.us, StubleUpon, my Google link blog (also on the right side of the page here), where I’ve been, what I’m up to at the moment, and other random links that I find interesting.
This is not to say that I have any intent of stopping posting things here, but what we have here will generally be a little longer and more thought out. What you find on Facebook has more variety and may be quicker links to things I’ve come across. There should be interesting stuff in both places. The other thing is that the feed for this site also goes to my Facebook page, so stuff is in both places.
Anyway, unlike LinkedIn where I want to be confident in recommending my connections, with Facebook I’m an open networker - I’ll friend anyone on Facebook, so send me a request.
Categories: Uncategorized | No Comments
July 15th, 2007
Is the price you would pay if you were to purchase a small soda and a bottle of water in a movie theater in Minneapolis. Amy found a few choice words when she saw her total bill (I went to see the newest Harry Potter movie with her and her main squeeze). I was a bit more delinquent and concealed a water bottle in my purse– a certain risk since this particular movie theater does spot checks on bags.
I can somewhat see the reasoning behind the draconian prices for snacks at movie theaters. The attendance has been dropping significantly while the expectations of superior equipment and stadium seating are a norm, so the owners are desperate for revenue. It’s entirely too bad that raising prices on already expensive popcorn and beverages does theaters absolutely no good. In fact, it promotes only two things, both undesirable for the industry. People are even more inclined to rent movies at home (or, gasp!, download them from the internet) or if they do make their way to the cinema, they’re highly motivated to sneak in the 99 cents candy and Coke from home.
Is this all sign of doom for the movie theaters? I am no expert and history gives examples both of industries crumbling and disappearing under the pressure of innovation or persevering and eventually striving (passenger railroads vs cars and planes and regular theaters vs abovementioned movies.) One of the suggestions Ben had was not to charge anything for the movie theater admissions since all of the profits are made from concessions anyway. That would definitely boost attendance but will people be buying enough of $5 gummy worms to compensate? Somebdy’d better write a research paper on this stuff!
As for me, I am back to my beloved Blockbuster online :-).
Categories: Music, Movies, etc | No Comments
July 11th, 2007
I have some Pownce invites to share, please leave a comment if you want one.
Categories: Science/Tech | 1 Comment
July 9th, 2007
Kinko’s is an unlikely object of praises but get this: they made my life easier today through technology. Shocking, I know.
Let me explain. I am organizing training at work for which I need to combine 10 documents into a nice lil’ package and make 16 copies of it. Since I have a luxury of pre-approved budget, I did not have to spend my day copying, printing, unjamming the printer, running for more paper, realizing I printed odd pages instead of even ones, re-printing, collating, punching, re-punching in the right spot, running to Target for binders, and healing 17 paper cuts. Instead, I used Kinko’s Print Online.
The idea is simple: you upload your files, you set some printing and binding preferences, preview the results, punch in the payment information and then pick up the job at a store or have it mailed to you. The genius here is not the idea itself but the execution– the interface is not so impossibly cumbersome that you give up after 20 minutes of trying, the webpage is stable enough that it does not crash on you, and it does not take a psychic to figure out the features and navigation. It even works in Firefox. Pretty low expectations, huh? Years of using custom software made me this way, baby! Have you ever tried to view your medical chart online? Or sign up for a yoga class on your gym’s website? Or try to key in a discount code at a tires store’s page and then recalculate the price? That’s right– most of the time the experience is so infuriating that it’s just easier to pick up the phone and just call the damn place. Only some bigger players (amazon.com etc.) got the whole online shopping experience right; even now a lot of smaller businesses seem have online shopping/ordering not to generate business but because they feel they should put something out there.
My only complain/suggestion for improvement is that the price difference between options (color vs black and white, binding vs. coiling) doesn’t show up on the page till the very end of ordering process, so if you want to change something you need to page back several times and then go all the way again to re-price (no information is lost, it’s just 3 more mouse clicks than I am willing to commit to).
The bottom line: instead of hours dedicated to managing printer and a three-hole puncher, I spent no more than 15 minutes online placing my order and didn’t want to smash my screen by the end. Maybe there’s hope for the internets after all!
UPDATE 07/10/07 : Got a nice email from Kinko’s in the morning alerting me that the order is done (8 hours before the requested time.) Stuff packed neatly in the box, credit card already processed, just sign the slip and go. Fabulous!
Categories: Random/Funny | 1 Comment
July 8th, 2007
There has not been much excitement around our household for a few days (unless you want to hear about our new kitchen floor), so here’s some external enterntainment.
First, let me present you Human Tetris– a bizarre game from Japan. No need to explain, just watch the clip. I am wondering why the pool at the end of the game course is filled with something so…. yellow.
The next video is exclusively for hopeless dog lovers (I am talking to you Genya!). Nothing but a bunch of cute lil’ puppies terrorizing a cat and playing around. For 8 minutes straight!
Categories: Random/Funny | No Comments
