I think I want one of these.
Oooh! What a toy!
October 18th, 2006I love snarky reviews
October 18th, 2006… particularly of movies. The reviews of this book aren’t snarky, but they’re certainly fun.
via Bruce Schneier.
Then again, maybe this is a knife
October 16th, 2006Lileks mentions the new Denver Art Museum building today. I got the impression he didn’t care much for it. I also got the impression he doesn’t care for much contemporary art.
That’s fine; neither do I. I prefer representative art that looks as though the artist has skills beyond knowing which end of the brush to hold.
As for the new building, to me, it makes the statement, “Look at me – I’m making a statement here!” Unless it’s “Who cares about efficiency, or having enough room to add exhibit displays in future” or “Can I make people nervous when they go into the pointy end?” I’m not certain I know what it is.
They say bad things come in threes
October 16th, 2006If so, then I’m caught up for the moment. I have two independent heating systems in my house: a regular gas furnace and a solar system. I’m home from work at the moment while a repairman works on the solar system. I was home for an afternoon last Thursday while a repairman fixed my furnace. Not what I was hoping to discover when we had our first overnight freezes about a week or so ago.
I wasn’t the only one to have such problems, of course. That’s why I had to wait this long to get appointments for the repairs. But, I’ll have working heat, which will be a load off my mind.
The third thing? I got sick of seeing the “This USB 2.0 peripheral can run faster” message, and put a USB 2.0 card into my desktop over the weekend. Normally, I leave the system on, because it’s occasionally been cranky about booting. It was particularly cranky after I put the card in, and this time it told me why. I have a hardware problem, and it told me I should consider replacing one of the following: the power supply, the RAM, the CPU, or the motherboard.
Maybe now is the time to consider getting a Mac.
That was different
October 13th, 2006There’s a tapas bar that opened near me recently, and I’m starting to get friendly with the owners. Last night, I took in my remaining bottle of Samuel Adams Triple Bock, which I’ve been aging (read: neglecting) for eleven years now.
Very different. No head, very dark, and with noticeable viscosity when poured. My first comment after tasting was, “That’s pretty black.” There was also a strong burnt caramel aftertaste. We liked it though, and we liked it better when a strongly-flavored sharp Swiss cheese (I forget the name) was brought out – the combination mellowed both of them and it became quite nice.
Now I regret only purchasing the two bottles when this stuff was available. It would be interesting to see how it continued to age.
Everybody, listen up!
October 13th, 2006Laura at Ace of Spades sends notice of this little gem.
That’s not a knife … this is a knife!
October 12th, 2006Impressive, but unwieldy. I don’t believe I’d take this thing camping.
Miscellany
September 20th, 2006For the James Bond fan with a computer: a USB hub self-destruct switch.
They’re currently unavailable, but just the thing for escalating the arms race against the guy in the next cubicle. Video here.
The Anime Network will be showing a new production of The Guyver. You can see episode 1 here.
Microsoft wishes it could be as evil as Apple
September 16th, 2006Starz is having a free weekend this weekend, and one of the movies that’s on currently is The Terminator. I just saw a scene with the terminator’s computer-generated vision overlays, and was reminded that the things that look like columnnar text are actually assembly-language program listings for the Apple II from Nibble Magazine. If I hadn’t given away all of my Apple magazines when I gave away my Apple, I could probably even identify the program.
Not a guide to vacation spots
September 16th, 2006This looks like a pretty good map of recent disasters. Clicking on any of the items brings up more information about the disaster, as well as a Google Maps image.