Best Quiddler word yet: TRACHEAS
Archive for December, 2005
Wow, the rain today is intense. Good thing I’m not out driving around in it this time.
Has anyone else noticed that (at least today) the Slashdot RSS feed (powered by FeedBurner) is lagging behind the Slashdot front page by about an hour?
Here’s the pitch: UK Channel 4 picks a bunch of thrill seekers for Space Cadets, a reality show in which they get blasted into space for a week!
Or not. Actually, they get flown to Suffolk (decked out like a Russian cosmodrome) and then put in a fake spaceship. Now we get to watch the suckers bounce around believing they’re in space (with “gravity generators” to explain the lack of weightlessness). Oh, the schadenfreude, right? Truly a horrible idea for a TV show—clearly Endemol UK (the creators of “Big Brother”, among other things) believe it’s reality TV gold.
Except that the joke’s on us: All of the cadets are actors. Who are the suckers now? It’s like someone reversed the polarity on reality TV. [from /.]
Update: As always, Rod (Royal Defender of All Things British, Or, At Least, Those Things Worth Defending) sets me straight (see the comments).
“Coca-Cola Blāk is not just a flavor extension. It is a blend of unique Coke refreshment with the true essence of coffee and has a rich smooth texture and has a coffee-like froth when poured. We believe we have created a new category of soft drink — an adult product in a carbonated beverage — and a whole new drinking experience. This brand is ideal for any part of the day when people are looking for renewed energy or simply to take a break,” said Marc Mathieu, vice president, Global Core Brands, TheCoca-Cola Company. [more]
More braindamage:
Also today, at an analysts meeting in New York, the company revealed its new marketing slogan — “The Coke Side of Life.” [more]
Update: Wait, isn’t the a-with-a-bar-over-it pronounced like IPA /e/ (as in “cake”)? Making this product “Coca-Cola Blake“?
Dave Winer: “Here’s a feature I’d love. A grid of public radio station schedules with links to their streams.” What, you mean, like Public Radio Fan? Exactly like that?
So if you Google j2se 1.4.2 api documentation, there’s a strange match toward the bottom of the first page:
See the link to java.sun.co%5cm? [%5c is URLese for \ (backslash).] I’m pretty sure co\m isn’t a valid TLD (i.e. a spammer can’t register something there), so is this a Google bug, or what?
Jim gave me his Linksys BEFW11S4 (802.11b base station) when he left for Germany. Turns out I already had one, but mine is a bulky older version, whereas Jim’s is the v4 which is both slimmer and more powerful. Unfortunately, the v4 causes devices with Airport cards (not Extreme) to quickly enter a hard freeze.
A little Googling revealed that the best thing to do, in addition to updating to the latest firmware, is to do a hard reset: Hold the reset button down for a long time (30–60 seconds, depending on whom you ask), remove the power, restore the power, then release the reset button. The result: No more freezes.
