Archive: June 12, 2010

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week of 6/7, redux

Saturday,  06/12/10  07:25 PM

Today was the greatest day imaginable; I did *nothing*.  You cannot know how long it has been since I have done that on a Saturday; between business travel and cycle racing and everything my weekends have been lost.  Today sanity reined.  It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed it :)

And in the meantime, it *was* rather an interesting week...

Steven Den Beste: What a difference a year makes.  Indeed.  The bloom is entirely off the rose, including Another stumble in the Gulf.  Obama's lack of experience is exposed nearly every day. 

On June 4 as reported: Space X achieves orbit with the Falcon 9, on their first flight...  press release with a bunch of pictures.  Congratulations to them, what a fantastic accomplishment. 

Michael Lewis' latest, The Big Short, is now out on Kindle...  got it!  Will have to wait until I finish The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, though; I cannot put that down... 

I must tell you, today I had occasion to watch the World Cup outside in the backyard on my iPad (via Tivo, via Slingbox, via Sling Player), and the screen was pretty marginal.  Meanwhile I read my Kindle and it was brilliant in the sunshine.

And so we had Apple's WWDC, and so Steve Jobs gave the keynote and to noone's surprise announced the iPhone 4.  So be it.  Yawn.  I must tell you neither the announcement nor the content announced stirred my interest. 

Although as John Gruber notes, it has been quite a year for Apple...

News you can use: Wine 101, what is decanting... 

The Adams Complexity Threshold is the point at which something is so complicated it no longer works.  A useful concept.  Keeping things simple is hard. 

Meanwhile Gold hits $1,250 an ounce, wow.  At least for some people it is an uncertain world... 

The Oatmeal on customer support: would be funnier if it weren't 100% true. 

Getting ready for World Cup 2010: South Africa's Stunning Green Stadia... 

I *try* to love soccer (ahem, football), really I do, but then I watch a match like England / U.S. and wonder what the fuss is all about. England scored easily and convincingly 4 min in, the U.S. got super lucky 40 min later, and that's it? 1-1? I'll keep trying... 

And so everyone is asking me, "would I have allowed my daughter to go sailing alone around the world like Abby Sunderland."  Yes.  A conditional yes, based on maturity and experience and preparation, but, yes. 

BTW she was found and will be okay.

ZooBorn of the week: a sea lion pup...

 

 

Caltech E&S

Saturday,  06/12/10  11:43 PM

One of the joy of being a Caltech alum is subscribing to E&S, Caltech's quarterly compendium of interesting "stuff" happening there... and it is indeed amazing.  The latest issue features "random walk", a bunch of short notes about life on campus, an article about the search for dark matter in the universe, the cover story about Cassini, as it explores the rings of Saturn, and a great story about the Netflix competition to build a better recommendation engine.  Great stuff.

It is all available online, too, in a spiffy flash magazine-like format.  Check it out!

 
 

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