This is not a tag line!
miscellaneous
Getting back in business
Jul 6th
Since I haven’t posted in a while I figured I would post something light so as to ease myself back in! 
Let’s start with a great (though unintentional summary) of how marketing people approach technical problems, courtesy of Overheard in the Office:
Marketing guy: I don’t want you IT guys wasting a lot of time figuring out what’s wrong before you fix it!
More of the same still from Overheard in the Office:
Marketing exec: If we didn’t have to spend so much time telling you our requirements, you could be done with the code already!
Isn’t marketing great? 
More seriously, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs called the family of a teen who got murdered by thugs who wanted his iPod. While it’s extremely sad that someone would kill to get an iPod, it says something about the icon status of the little white gadget. The fact that Steve Jobs would call the victim’s parents and not sound phony doing it says a lot more about him and his company. I doubt that anyone would kill to get a Dell DJ (or whatever these things are called) and I doubt even more that Michael Dell would call the parents and sound sincere if that were to happen… In any case, let’s hope we will never have to find out and that Steve Jobs will never have to call someone’s parents in similar conditions ever again.
Let’s conclude this little post with something that had me green with jealousy when I read it: Snowbird’s ski season ended on Monday, as in Monday July 4th!!! Snowbird is a great resort and I haven’t been able to get some real snowboarding this winter (sorry but Pennsylvania/Maryland hills don’t count) so you can imagine how I can feel when I read such reports… Oh well, always next year, right?
From The Inside from the album Meteora by Linkin Park
Catching up…
Apr 13th
I’ve been spending some time tonight catching up on articles/blog entries that I flagged for that proverbial later, “when-I-have-more-time” time during my daily passes at blogs I read. Unfortunately some of these articles have been waiting for quite a bit (though the ones presented here are still relatively recent) that I am afraid I won’t be able to properly acknowledge where I originally saw a mention to said article…
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New Lessons from the Old World : The European Model for Falling in Love with Your Hometown by Jay Walljasper (possibly via WorldChanging): a very neat article that puts in words things I had been thinking about US cities, how lifeless most of them appear compared to European cities I have been to. Sprawl must disappear for people to enjoy cities once again, for them to be able to shop and do everyday stuff without having to take the car…
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Information Overload by Scott White, which echoes many of my everyday concerns (see above
) about how to deal with the ever increasing amount of information that asks for my attention…
It’s good to finally be able to close some tabs in NetNewsWire, cause of much of my information overload since it remembers tabs across application restarts and rarely crashes, despite still being beta, something that is both a gift and a curse!
Not the kind of news…
Apr 13th
… you’d like to see when you’re suffering (like me at this moment) from a rather annoying cold: Dangerous 1957 Influenza Strain Accidentally Sent To Thousands Of Labs 
Heartless Romantic from the album End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story by The Dears
There’s something about Hurley…
Feb 26th
I enjoy watching Lost quite a bit. There’s still lots to be discovered in the story: all the characters (at least the main ones and who knows what’s going on with the others) seem to have issues with their past and the island is providing them with the opportunity to start anew.
I just went to the show’s website and saw that next episode seems to be focusing on Hurley, played by Jorge Garcia. It really doesn’t surprise me. I actually started this post without knowing this information (I watch the show after downloading it via BitTorrent since I’m usually at kendo practice on Wednesdays so I don’t get to see the preview) but was about to post about him nevertheless: in last episode, if you pay attention, you’ll notice, 15 minutes in, when Jin pays a “visit” to the Environment secretary, the guy’s daughter is watching TV and who else appear on the TV? But Hurley, funny you should ask! What the hell is he doing on a TV show in Korea? Is this intentional or a sort of Easter Egg (just like the opening sequence of Alias was crafted from one of J.J. Abrams‘ home video)? Is there some sort of connection between Jin and Hurley like there’s one between Jack and Sawyer? Is this the case for all the survivors?
That’s what I like about the show: there’s so much going on that it’ll keep you guessing even though the veil gets progressively lifted…
La Vie from the album Clandestino: Esperando La Ultima Ola… by Manu Chao
April 13, 2029…
Dec 28th
According to NASA, near-earth asteroid 2004 MN4 has the highest ever recorded chance of hitting earth with probably catastrophic results. The risk of impact climbed up to 1 in 60 chances but seems to have receded after more observations.
Oh, yeah! Happy Holidays!
WorldChanging has more on the subject, tying it to the idea that, with increased knowledge comes the problem of crying wolf too often. The same issue is also valid for tsunamis: they’re getting easier enough to detect them but how can we make sure that evacuation is in order?
All U Crazies from the album 12” by Basement Jaxx
Sleep more, lose weight?
Dec 9th
Xeni Jardin:
An interesting study points to a link between obesity and (in)adequate sleep.The recent rise in obesity may be partly due to the reduced amount of time we spend asleep, according to new research from the University of Bristol, UK. Dr Shahrad Taheri from Bristol University, and colleagues in the United States, examined the role of two key hormones that are involved in regulating appetite — ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin increases feelings of hunger while leptin acts to suppress appetite. People who habitually slept for 5 hours were found to have 15% more ghrelin than those who slept for 8 hours. They were also found to have 15% less leptin. These hormonal changes may cause increased feelings of hunger, leading to a foraging in the fridge for food.
Link (Thanks, Jobo)
We have a proverb in France that says: qui dort dîne (which translates as: he who sleeps forgets his hunger). Is science finally catching up to ancient wisdom?
Mass Romantic from the album Mass Romantic by The New Pornographers
Lost
Dec 2nd
Just watched episode 10 of Lost tonight. This is some seriously wacky schiznit. I have no idea where this is all going and it keeps getting weirder and weirder. The story line is really compelling and the acting, while not great, is good. And Evangeline Lilly is just so damn cute!
Live @ Santiago, Chile – 24-10-2004 from the album Live @ Santiago, Chile – 24-10-2004 by The Chemical Brothers
200 things
Nov 2nd
200 Things (inspired by a Backup Brain entry)
Things I’ve done are in bold. This had been on my to-post list for a while…
- Bought everyone in the pub a drink
- Swam with wild dolphins
- Climbed a mountain(Grande Rochette, La Plagne, French Alps, though I started pretty high up already…)
- Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
- Been inside the Great Pyramid
- Held a tarantula
- Taken a candlelit bath with someone
- Said “I love you” and meant it
- Hugged a tree
- Done a striptease
- Bungee jumped
- Visited Paris(it’s kind of hard not to when you grew up a mere 10 km away from it)
You know you’re a caffeine addict when…
Oct 7th
… reading an article about coffee makes you want one. Robert reported a while ago about a WebMD article how caffeine withdrawal could be classified as a mental disorder. I never doubted it but today was yet another proof of it…
The Takeoff from the album In Rare Form…Unreleased Instrumentals by RJD2
The Ruby on Rails conspiracy
Oct 6th
Seems like there’s a conspiracy going on for me to look more closely at Ruby on Rails. It all started with Brian McCallister‘s post.
Then, while looking at the Rails website, I noticed that references were made to Basecamp, which I had previously put in a corner of my mind a while ago as something to look at, being in a similar application segment than Mesquite. Basecamp was developed using Ruby on Rails. The plot was thickening…
Just recently, I got to meet Brian personally and he tried to convince Robert and I to use Rails to develop Mesquite…
Finally, TextMate, a much hyped text editor for OS X, was officially released today. Looking at their website, I noticed a block on the right column called TextMate in Action pointing to a video none other than the one that was pointed to by Brian! And I’m like: WTF? This was getting scary!
Decided to not let coincidences take the better of me, I investigated some more and found that TextMate, Basecamp and Ruby on Rails were all developed by the same guy. Whew! There was a rational reason (there’s a pleonasm for you) behind this madness…
Man, the persecution never ends: Dion Almaer chimes in! This setup movie has become something of a blockbuster!
You Don’t Know Jesus from the album Rock Action by Mogwai
