Archive: December 7, 2010

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living in infamy

Tuesday,  12/07/10  10:40 PM

Pearl Harbor Day... to those who were alive in 1941, I'm sure it will always feel like 9-11 will always feel to those of us who are alive now.  I have nothing to remember except others' memories, but we should never forgot; truly, it was a day which will live in infamy, as the world changed irretrievably.  Perhaps it is amplified for me today because I just read Cryptonomicon, which starts just before Pearl Harbor and takes place in the immediate times after.  Far more people's lives changed dramatically on 12/7/41 than on 9/11/01, and for far longer...

And so how are you?  I'm fine; having a great week actually, and eagerly anticipating some interesting planning meetings and Aperio's Holiday party on Thursday night.  In the meantime, it's all happening...

Pretty cool: a viral video for a "project" called Say Hi to Space.  In which, apparently, you record a little video of yourself, which is broadcast into space.  What's cool about the video is 1) the waterjet which cuts a hole in the iPad, and 2) the fact that they're making fun of the iPad for not having a camera.  You can bet the iPad 2 will have one, and this will all be forgotten... 

Ted Dziuba: the three basic tools of Systems Engineering.  They are 1) money, 2) time, 3) code, and he claims you must use them in this order.  Of course if you don't have money, you have to use time, but if time is short, you use ... code?  Not quite.  By "time" he means other people's time, and then it makes sense. 

I love this cartoon: It's complicated, aka how to fix the economy.  As Powerline note; it is easier to cut spending if you begin by asking, 'what is the proper role of the federal government?' 

Ted Turner calls for one-child policy.  The fact that he has five kids of his own seems to make him a hypocrit, but I get it; you have to play by the current rules, even while you call for new ones.  Having spent considerably time worried about Unnatural Selection and having personally witnessed the impact of the one-child policy in China, I concede its virtues, but I fear there is no chance it will ever happen in the U.S... 

So, have you switched to the "new" Facebook profile yet?  Me neither.  I'm afraid of it; Facebook's history is that they screw this stuff up, badly, and then have to recover.  Still it seems only a matter of time before we all do it... 

Speaking of Facebook, there's a ton of buzz about Instragram, which seems to be a sort of Twitter with pictures.  I don't get Twitter so you will not be surprised to hear, I don't get Instagram.  Although I concede that random weird pictures are possibly more interesting than random weird messages. 

From the National Geographic: The Ten Weirdest Animals of 2010.  Cool!  (BTW not cool is the overwrought UI for displaying them; what would be wrong with ten pictures on one page?) 

OMG how cool is this: Richard Dawkins will be guestblogging on Boing Boing!

 

 
 

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