To the best of my recall, I've never ordered anything for a car (assuming that's what "automotive" means in this context), or anything related to solar power.
And by the way, I had no idea solar power technology was in mass market sale like this.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Automotive?
This must be the strangest email I've ever gotten from Amazon.
To the best of my recall, I've never ordered anything for a car (assuming that's what "automotive" means in this context), or anything related to solar power.
And by the way, I had no idea solar power technology was in mass market sale like this.
To the best of my recall, I've never ordered anything for a car (assuming that's what "automotive" means in this context), or anything related to solar power.
And by the way, I had no idea solar power technology was in mass market sale like this.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Japanese sex dolls
Japanese sex dolls, youtube link. I think such are not only made in Japan though.
One of the Japanese manufacturer's site. Quite expensive for a masturbation aid, but one has to admit a lot of craft has gone into the little ladies.
I think it's an interesting sociological phenomenon. Is it disgusting? Perverted? Evil? Trivial? Is it an attempt to replace real women?
Personally I don't think so. Sex is just sex. The important parts of relationships are communication and love.
These things just are to some men what a vibrator is to some women. It's just a mechanical aid for release of tension. And if a woman wants to satisfy herself with such a thing, and just talk to me, more power to her.
Walden
Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them.
-- Henry David Thoreau, Walden
That resonates with me, so I've just bought Walden. (If I'd had my eddication in the US, I'd probably have read it already.)
I'm curious about how Walden can be as famous and influential as it is, given that it goes totally against the grain of what 99.9% of people feel and believe. Giving up status and property for freedom? Unheard of, practically. He must have been one hell of a writer to make that idea sound appealing to anybody but the tiniest "lunatic" fringe.
-- Henry David Thoreau, Walden
That resonates with me, so I've just bought Walden. (If I'd had my eddication in the US, I'd probably have read it already.)
I'm curious about how Walden can be as famous and influential as it is, given that it goes totally against the grain of what 99.9% of people feel and believe. Giving up status and property for freedom? Unheard of, practically. He must have been one hell of a writer to make that idea sound appealing to anybody but the tiniest "lunatic" fringe.
Monday, May 05, 2008
The Scott Adams dilemma
Scott Adams (Dilbert) decided to blog less because it did not help his career.
He did get personal satisfaction from blogging. But it did not push Dilbert, which I think he should not have expected anyway. Dilbert brings audience to his blog, not vice versa. If Madonna wrote a cookbook, her singing/fame would bring (some) audience to the cookbook, not vice versa.
Also I think he should not have expected to collect a great book from blog postings. I don't think that good blog writing is the same as good book writing. The content in a book is meant to be long, and polished, and thoughtful. The content on a blog is quick and dirty, and meant to be read in five minutes per post. Nobody is going to read a 20,000 word philosophical essay on a blog. They are just very different animals.
I don't think that anybody who is very successful in one area or another, has ever Expanded The Empire by doing something as frivolous as blogging. Such a person should realize that if he wants to blog, it should just be for fun, for the feedback, and for self-expression. Those who have become successful on blogging itself are few, and they work so hard that I doubt it's all that much fun anymore. And I don't think they have time for another career that the blogging can support.
He did get personal satisfaction from blogging. But it did not push Dilbert, which I think he should not have expected anyway. Dilbert brings audience to his blog, not vice versa. If Madonna wrote a cookbook, her singing/fame would bring (some) audience to the cookbook, not vice versa.
Also I think he should not have expected to collect a great book from blog postings. I don't think that good blog writing is the same as good book writing. The content in a book is meant to be long, and polished, and thoughtful. The content on a blog is quick and dirty, and meant to be read in five minutes per post. Nobody is going to read a 20,000 word philosophical essay on a blog. They are just very different animals.
I don't think that anybody who is very successful in one area or another, has ever Expanded The Empire by doing something as frivolous as blogging. Such a person should realize that if he wants to blog, it should just be for fun, for the feedback, and for self-expression. Those who have become successful on blogging itself are few, and they work so hard that I doubt it's all that much fun anymore. And I don't think they have time for another career that the blogging can support.
Make a photobook in a month
Make a photobook in a month.
Also on Mike's blog, a good article about something I've touched upon myself, the devaluation of useful words, in this case "ignorant". (Also about race horses and how they can't be saved.)
The devaluation of words like "ignorant" (or "liberal") comes about from a words being used as a weapon in heated political (in the widest sense) debates. After a few years of that, the word becomes so tainted with animosity that it just can't be used neutrally in mixed company anymore.
Also on Mike's blog, a good article about something I've touched upon myself, the devaluation of useful words, in this case "ignorant". (Also about race horses and how they can't be saved.)
The devaluation of words like "ignorant" (or "liberal") comes about from a words being used as a weapon in heated political (in the widest sense) debates. After a few years of that, the word becomes so tainted with animosity that it just can't be used neutrally in mixed company anymore.
Awkward moments in movies
Isn't it funny how when somebody in a movie needs to draw blood, they will always drag a knife across their palm? It's pretty much the dumbest place you can choose. Either you'll have to bandage the hand into uselessness, or it will take weeks to heal because it will spring up every time you use the hand.
Also when somebody walks into a room/apartment which they know has an armed killer in it, they never look behind the door they walk through.
And the body outlines on the floor. (And in certain movies, on the walls and the ceiling...) It's not done in real life.
Writers have this tendency to sit there in isolation and try to think up stuff. L. Ron Hubbard wrote this great article (the idioms and the numbers are a bit outdated, but heck, it's seventy years old) back in his pulp fiction days, about how one day of research in the real world (the Boeing aircraft plant) not only made his stories much more realistic, but also gave him material for a couple more stories he wouldn't have come up with otherwise.
OK, Hubbard had a huge ego, and he was always trying to appear larger than life, and the scientologists are continuing that tradition. But he was a very good writer, most of the time. And some of his articles are very helpful for writers.
Also when somebody walks into a room/apartment which they know has an armed killer in it, they never look behind the door they walk through.
And the body outlines on the floor. (And in certain movies, on the walls and the ceiling...) It's not done in real life.
Writers have this tendency to sit there in isolation and try to think up stuff. L. Ron Hubbard wrote this great article (the idioms and the numbers are a bit outdated, but heck, it's seventy years old) back in his pulp fiction days, about how one day of research in the real world (the Boeing aircraft plant) not only made his stories much more realistic, but also gave him material for a couple more stories he wouldn't have come up with otherwise.
OK, Hubbard had a huge ego, and he was always trying to appear larger than life, and the scientologists are continuing that tradition. But he was a very good writer, most of the time. And some of his articles are very helpful for writers.
New learning
Isn't it funny how you can keep learning? Sometimes without even taking in any new data, sometimes just by... I don't know, expanding your mind maybe.
For example, this morning I needed a web site I hadn't used for a long while. I knew what I would have called it, approximately, but exactly where I'd stashed it away amongst the hundreds and hundreds of bookmarks I've collected over the years.... ? (Arranged in folders, sure, but still.)
And then I realized that Apple has been putting Search boxes in absolutely everything in later years. Surely they now have a Search box when I'm looking at my bookmarks...
Lo and behold, I opened a bookmarks window in Safari, and there was the expected Search box. I typed in a few characters, and boom, there we had it.
For example, this morning I needed a web site I hadn't used for a long while. I knew what I would have called it, approximately, but exactly where I'd stashed it away amongst the hundreds and hundreds of bookmarks I've collected over the years.... ? (Arranged in folders, sure, but still.)
And then I realized that Apple has been putting Search boxes in absolutely everything in later years. Surely they now have a Search box when I'm looking at my bookmarks...
Lo and behold, I opened a bookmarks window in Safari, and there was the expected Search box. I typed in a few characters, and boom, there we had it.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Iggy Pop interview
Iggy Pop interview.
I love it when he says his art is "Dionysiac". People expect a wild, braindead rocknroller, and he talks like a professor.
This was from the eighties, and it's funny how he no longer looks like the young Iggy, but not yet looks like the middle-aged, furrowed Iggy he became within a few years. He does not look like Iggy at all, in fact.
Here's an early one. He is not making it easy for the interviewer.
I guess he does not like that everybody asks him about bleeding and vomiting on stage, but the question is how much media coverage he would have without it. I like his stuff a lot, but I think that without the records where he was assisted in composing by David Bowie (Lust For Life, The Idiot, and Blah Blah Blah), he would not have much of any great compositions out there.
Update:
Joe Dick ventured:
I think some of the stuff he says is just having fun with the interviewer and can't always be taken seriously.
I'm sure you're right. Rock musicians are notorious for doing that, and worse. For instance Al Jourgenson said once that "The Mind Is A Dangerous Thing To Taste" was recorded in one day. And another time he said it took a year's worth of slavery in the studio. Having fun I can understand, but why would you lie to people who trust you and like you?
He also said once, being interviewed before a concert, that he was wearing diapers, and was pissing himself as he spoke. Diapers? Under the skin-tight jeans musicians always wear? And taking up the amount of pee a beer-guzzling guy is bound to produce? Yeah, right. But the female journalist seemed to take him on his word.
I love it when he says his art is "Dionysiac". People expect a wild, braindead rocknroller, and he talks like a professor.
This was from the eighties, and it's funny how he no longer looks like the young Iggy, but not yet looks like the middle-aged, furrowed Iggy he became within a few years. He does not look like Iggy at all, in fact.
Here's an early one. He is not making it easy for the interviewer.
I guess he does not like that everybody asks him about bleeding and vomiting on stage, but the question is how much media coverage he would have without it. I like his stuff a lot, but I think that without the records where he was assisted in composing by David Bowie (Lust For Life, The Idiot, and Blah Blah Blah), he would not have much of any great compositions out there.
Update:
Joe Dick ventured:
I think some of the stuff he says is just having fun with the interviewer and can't always be taken seriously.
I'm sure you're right. Rock musicians are notorious for doing that, and worse. For instance Al Jourgenson said once that "The Mind Is A Dangerous Thing To Taste" was recorded in one day. And another time he said it took a year's worth of slavery in the studio. Having fun I can understand, but why would you lie to people who trust you and like you?
He also said once, being interviewed before a concert, that he was wearing diapers, and was pissing himself as he spoke. Diapers? Under the skin-tight jeans musicians always wear? And taking up the amount of pee a beer-guzzling guy is bound to produce? Yeah, right. But the female journalist seemed to take him on his word.
IBM Launches Pilot Program for Migrating to Macs
"As further evidence of the growing interest in Macs among enterprise customers, IBM’s Research Information Services launched an internal pilot program designed to study the possibility of moving significant numbers of employees to the Mac platform. The study has already found an enthusiastic response from participants and is helping to drive Mac support for IBM’s business applications."
Article
Article
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Friday, May 02, 2008
Maggie Gyllenhaal
I just had lunch at a place with, today, several very cute waitresses, including one who was the spitting image of Maggie Gyllenhaal. (Movies: "Secretary", "Stranger Than Fiction", and "Adaptation", all good.) Same roguish smile and everything. That doesn't suck! And she seemed to appreciate me mentioning it.
(More pictures of Maggie.)
(More pictures of Maggie.)
Coffee mill
When I was visited recently by a couple of old friends (o, how we laughed and talked), including one who was my boss in the nineties, he one-upped me in the espresso machine department, he's taken courses, has a bigger one (espresso machine that is), and uses a coffee mill.
So I decided to get one myself, seeing as I was not always happy with the quality of my coffee. After some research, I bought a Dualit Burr Coffee Grinder, and I just got it today.
So far I'm very happy with it. It seems like quality, and it's compact, fast, and really easy to use.
And I must say it actually makes a difference to use freshly-ground coffee. I had to have two cups this morning, it was delicious.
Role models
It seems yet another Disney movie star is shocking the bourgeoisie by becoming a woman. Mike Johnston has a suggestion for a solution.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
iTunes unsung songs
I realized it was silly that there are so many songs in my iTunes app which I rarely listen to because I listen to my favorites most of the time. So I made a Smart List which plays songs which I've not yet rated and which I've listened to less than 3 times. Songs which I've bought on iTunes music store, or downloaded, or ripped from old or new CDs. I am thinking I would find a few new favorites to broaden my horizon.
Guess what, that list contains over 2,000 songs!! Jeepers creepers.
Guess what, that list contains over 2,000 songs!! Jeepers creepers.
Compact parcel
Ya gotta like Apple's new efforts in making their packaging compact. This parcel is barely bigger than the one my last version of Photoshop came in, and that one only contained a CD and 38 pages of legal boilerplate. :)
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On the other hand, Apple sometimes goes overboard with the aesthetics*. Witness this external superdrive. Very slick, very pretty. But what's with the eight inch cord? Suppose you want to have the laptop on your lap? And the minuscule 4-point text on the back, printed in... matt black on glossy black! Holy cow.
* No, I'm wrong, what they sometimes go a little overboard with since the millinnium, is minimalism. I'm almost a minimalist myself, but not quite. I like simplicity. But I sometimes wish they would not go all the way to complete featurelessness. For instance I liked the curves on the lid and on the edges of my old Powerbook G3. (Man, that was a wonderful machine for the time, but it cost like five grand. Laptop prices have sure fallen since then!)
Lou said:
* No, I'm wrong, what they sometimes go a little overboard with since the millinnium, is minimalism. I'm almost a minimalist myself, but not quite. I like simplicity. But I sometimes wish they would not go all the way to complete featurelessness. For instance I liked the curves on the lid and on the edges of my old Powerbook G3. (Man, that was a wonderful machine for the time, but it cost like five grand. Laptop prices have sure fallen since then!)
Lou said:
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How's the build quality? Let us know how long it stays good.
eolake said...Each time I get a new Mac, the build quality gets even better.
Only frustration right now is that I have way too many files for the automatic Migration Assistant software to work, and it won't do it partially, so I can't figure out any easy way to transfer my settings, bookmarks, macros...