What’s with the black-eyed pea thing here in the South on New Year’s?
Archive for December, 2002
27 Dec
2002
Jef Raskin’s Humane Interface ideas have been turned into The Humane Environment, a radically different document-processor and programming environment.
≡ 7:44 pm
Jef Raskin’s Humane
Interface ideas have been turned into The Humane
Environment, a radically different document-processor and
programming environment. “You cannot make an interface better without
making it different (that’s obvious). If it’s a lot better, it will be
a
lot different.”
27 Dec
2002
“Iraq says that after a month of ‘intrusive, extensive and sometimes aggressive’ inspections, the United Nations has found no evidence that Baghdad has weapons of…
≡ 7:38 pm
“Iraq says that after a month of
‘intrusive, extensive and sometimes aggressive’ inspections, the United
Nations has found no evidence that Baghdad has weapons of mass
destruction.”
Christmas Eve day in Houston.
Getting here was a bit of an ordeal. A heart attack on our SFO→DEN flight forced us to make a stop in Grand Junction, delaying our eventual Denver arrival by two hours. Our connecting flight having long since departed, Erin and I would wait in the various lounges, restauraunts, and window sills of the Denver International Airport for the next nine hours and the second of two Houston flights that day.
We were finally home around midnight, having stepped out our front door eighteen hours beforehand.
Off to Houston.
“Don’t it always seem to go: that you don’t know what you got ’till it’s gone.”
And the great bail-out to go see The Two Towers has officially
begun.
“My name is John, and I am a
Canadian.”
OS X software: Script Editor 2, OS X 10.2.3 (“combo” updater including previous updates).
20 Dec
2002
[12:24] * dsandler wonders what the staticky-hissing noise is emanating from the ceiling outside his office [12:24] <daveb> anyone seen my cobra?
≡ 12:28 pm
[12:24] * dsandler wonders what the staticky-hissing noise is emanating
from the ceiling outside his office
[12:24] <daveb> anyone seen my cobra? last seen in the corner near pix and dsandler
[12:24] <daveb> anyone seen my cobra? last seen in the corner near pix and dsandler
20 Dec
2002
At first I thought these over-cute Japanese cartoon characters were ridiculous.
≡ 10:42 am
At first I thought these
over-cute Japanese cartoon characters were ridiculous. I still
think they’re ridiculous, but some are genius too.
Today’s Penny-Arcade
is a gem. And the funny part isn’t even the punchline!
Going. Going. Gone.
20 Dec
2002
“Now comes perhaps the most important piece of advice you’ll ever hear about lingerie shopping, and it’s one that American men need to take to…
≡ 8:16 am
“Now comes perhaps the most important piece of advice
you’ll ever hear about lingerie shopping, and it’s one that American
men need to take to heart: Avoid Victoria’s Secret like the devil
himself will swallow your soul if you so much as set foot in the place.”
19 Dec
2002
‘Agility’ is the ability of the F-22 pilot to point and shoot with his aircraft, pirouetting, and facing the enemy with his weapons at all…
≡ 6:27 pm
‘Agility’ is the ability of the F-22 pilot to point and shoot with his aircraft, pirouetting, and facing the enemy with his weapons at all speeds. The F-22 pilot can maintain control of the aircraft at speeds as low as that of a Piper Cub or at very high supersonic speeds. Because of the F-22’s sophisticated aero-design and high thrust-to-weight ratio, it can easily outmaneuver all current and projected threat aircraft, both at medium and high altitudes.
The F/AA-22 Raptor. Coming in 2005 to an air campaign near you. The descriptions of the technology are exquisite, including the stealth section, because of phrases like “the pilot’s head, complete with helmet, is a major source of radar return” and paragraphs like the following:
On board antennas and radar systems are a major potential source of high radar visibility for two reasons. One is that it is obviously difficult to hide something that is designed to transmit with very high efficiency, so the so called in band radar cross section is liable to be significant. The other is that even if this problem is solved satisfactorily, the energy emitted by these systems can normally be readily detected. The work being done to reduce these signatures cannot be described here.
“He was only a grad student. Still, the paperwork to get a replacement
was hideous.” Praesodymium.
(Yes, this came up in conversation today.)
Wet weather + Bay Area traffic == total disaster. (In the clipped
image from bayinsider.com, red
dots mean slow or stopped traffic, and blue exclamation-mark triangles
mean accidents.)
19 Dec
2002
“In deciding to announce the plan today, the administration is essentially short-circuiting the debate over whether the systems works, just as withdrawing from the treaty…
≡ 5:23 pm
“In deciding to announce the plan today, the administration is
essentially short-circuiting the debate over whether the systems works,
just as withdrawing from the treaty skirted the question of whether the
United States could legally do so. Putting the system in place would
also allow Mr. Bush to fulfill his campaign pledge to field the
beginnings of antimissile system by the end of his first term.”
19 Dec
2002
OK, if you’re surprised that it may not be safe to blog about your job, you’re a fool.
≡ 5:18 pm
OK, if you’re surprised that it
may not be safe to blog about your job, you’re a fool. (You’ll note
that I only post references to published press releases around here.)
19 Dec
2002
By the way, if you’re interested in putting together a short run of an album, the Internet can help (courtesy The Walkingbirds, which I discovered…
≡ 4:29 pm
By the way, if you’re interested in putting together a short run of an
album, the Internet
can help (courtesy The
Walkingbirds, which I discovered thanks to the Fray’s Fray Day 5 CD info).
Salon: The
shelf goes ever on and on. “Please, we beg of you, don’t allow
yourself to be tempted into the hideous netherworld of collectible
figurines.” (Codswallop!)
19 Dec
2002
It’s Salon Premium, so you may or may not be able to read it, but this article on the U.S.
≡ 11:02 am
It’s Salon Premium, so you may or may not be able to read it, but this
article on the U.S. international posture on family planning is
arresting. “when the U.S. demanded that even the phrase ‘reproductive
health’ be struck from the proposal in order to protect unborn children,
critics — even those from highly religious countries like the
Philippines and Iran — suggested that U.S. foreign policy had been
hijacked by the religious right.”
The 50
most loathsome people in America (2002) is probably old news to you.
Well, we’re back. Day-trip to Vegas for my brother’s graduation from UNLV. It was great to be there — we’re so proud of him! (Vegas was also strangely nonthreatening since we weren’t there to gamble.)
Not too many pithy links tonight, since I haven’t had time to comb the Internet for truly useless crap. Will this entertaining interview with Cathy Rogers suffice for now?
Hunkabutta: anthropological
photography by a gaijin in Tokyo. (Also for the discriminating
hennagaijin, there’s qUirKy jAPan.)
