Circadian Shift

Music and filmage ahoy....

In addition to the Electronic Dream Factory CD that I mentioned in the post below, I also picked up a lesser known Beach Boys compilation called Summer Crush. (As it turns out, the disc was originally distributed by (ick) Starbucks, but anyway...) Unlike other compilations which feature the early goofy surfer-boy stuff, this is a thoughtful collection that showcases Brian Wilson's songcrafting and production abilities, including tunes like "Don't Worry Baby", "God Only Knows", and (of course) "Good Vibrations". This is sublime stuff that requires several listens to fully appreciate. And no sign of (ewwwwwww) "Kokomo" to be found.

Went to see The Ring last night with some of my fellow local blogging enthusiasts. It was OK, but I was all set to be completely frightened senseless (based on what I'd heard from others who saw it before me), and it didn't happen. Then again, some of the images from the film started playing my head once I got home and went to bed. It was very creepy. Fortunately I was able to fall asleep reasonably soon.

Today, I caught a matinee screening ($3 Happy Hour at the Bloor Cinema, whoohoo!) of The Believer. This was a far more compelling film, featuring an impressive performance from Ryan Gosling as the "Jewish Nazi". I'm still trying to sort out the miasma of (anti-)faith, passion, and self-hatred that the character respresents. Definitely a film to watch.

Linkage:

• Telecoms play both sides

  "For regional phone companies like Verizon, Qwest, SBC and BellSouth, privacy services like Caller ID and Security Screen are a growing revenue source.

  But the phone companies aren't just trying to thwart sales calls. They're also helping telemarketers make them."

  (Via Slashdot.)
• Unspooled

  "Ones and zeroes sound better than oxide-coated polyester or vinyl. Everyone accepts this, driven to fits of pleasure by iPods, and wonders why a few of us can't: the kid in Best Buy who shrugs when you ask if there are any Sony Walkman cassette players left besides the two models on display; the car salesman who is pretty sure you can't get a cassette deck as standard equipment in any of the models on the lot; and the record industry, which saw the cassette format slip to below 4 percent of total music sales last year (from a mid-1980s high of 66 percent) and has decided to let it quietly hiss into history."

  (Via Metafilter.)

But blank cassettes, used to capture segements of Brave New Waves or Night Lines from CBC-Stereo, and to make mixed tapes to suit every mood and occasion, I had plenty of. Ah, the joy of making tapes....

Sure, I now have a CD burner, and wouldn't go back to recording cassettes, but there's a lack of spontaneity, a lack of involvement, in making your own CDs. Much of the process is automated (ripping other CDs to WAV or MP3 files), and you don't get to hear the CD in progress while it burns. Even recording something off the radio no longer requires hair-trigger reflexes on the "Pause" button; just open up the sound file in a WAV editing program after the fact, and you can trim it far more precisely than you would have dreamed possible.

Funny thing is, today I just bought a CD to replace a piece of music I had on cassette (must, must learn to stay out of Sonic Boom on Bloor St.). There was a track I recorded off Night Lines from a group called Electronic Dream Factory back in the early 90s, a jaunty little piece of synthpop called "Johnny and May Ling". Whereas the song might have faded from memory had I not captured it on tape, I've been able to listen to it again and again over the years.

The CD sounds crisp and clean and I can play it as loud as I dare to. However, the taped incarnation has a brilliant lead-in, in the form of M+M's "Several Styles of Blonde Girls Dancing" (requested by yours truly via the Night Lines request line), that won't be duplicated -- unless I digitize it myself, of course. Which one will I listen to more? Hard to choose....

In response to my remark about Jakob Nielsen and Halloween, blamb points out Jakob's gallery of promotional photos.

Not surprisingly, some people like to put Herr Jakob's portraiture to their own use:

• The Dancing Jakob Nielsen


• another Dancing Jakob


• Davezilla's selection of Jakob Nielsen posts (my favourite one is this)


• and, of course, the motherlode of all things poking fun at Jakob: USEIT or LOSEIT (my favourite link from here: the Jakob Drinking Game)

[Addendum 30 October 2002: I thought this link was included on the USEIT or LOSEIT page, but it ain't:

• Jakob Nielsen's review of Magritte's "The Betrayal of Images"

Why do laundry when you can post more linkage?

• 27things


• the Creatures in my Head (via Weblog Central)

There's a post over on MetaFilter that has a bunch of linkage pertaining to fairy tales by the brothers Grimm, many of which contain "bizarre and disturbing stories with less than happy endings".

I'm not too familiar with Grimm Classic (as opposed to the happy Disney-fied transmogrifications), but there's another set of tales in German that were seared into my memory as a small child....

Struwwelpeter ("Slovenly Peter") is a collection of vignettes that instruct children on such basic lessons as:

• Don't play with matches.


• Don't suck your thumb.


• Look where you're going when you walk.


• Don't goof off at the dinner table


• Eat all the food on your plate.

(The web site provides English translations, purportedly written by Mark Twain. The illustrations are the same, but -- to my eyes -- don't have the vividness of the printed versions.)

Misc. linkage:

• Random Blog Quotes


• Blogdex has a new design


• Women?s Fashion: Part 1, Classics (via diveintomark)


• Review of Dynamic HTML The Definitive Reference (2nd edition) on Slashdot

Given my recent ramblage about Jakob Neilsen's Alertbox, what should arrive in my inbox today, but the latest Alertbox newsletter:

Celebrating Holidays and Special Occasions on Websites
Summary: Even small holiday decorations can increase joy of use and make websites feel more current and more connected to users' lives and physical environment. The key is to commemorate without detracting from your users' main reasons for visiting the site.

One can't help but notice that Herr Jakob's site is currently without holiday-themed adornment. Perhaps because, for Jakob, every day is Halloween.

[Addendum (29 October 2002): The holiday piece gets a right drubbing on IA Slash.]

Went to see Jackass: The Movie with some of the GTAB folks. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, although I could have done without some of the graphic scenes depicting bodily functions. However, if you feel the urge to spend an hour or so laughing like an idiot (movie run-time is 80 minutes), you could do a lot worse with your movie-going dollar. (Disclaimer: I used a movie coupon off the back of a Shreddies box, so I didn't really spend any money on the movie.)

Throw in a good dose of sunshine on the walk to the theatre, and an oh-so-yummy helping of Chicken-Fried Steak at Shanghai Cowgirl after the movie, and I had quite the cheerful day. Cheerful is good.

And, thanks to Fark, I've found an extensive gallery of Ewan McGregor pictures. *rrrrowr*

*blink*

First it was 2am. Now it is 1am.

Meanwhile, my internal clock hasn't got a freaking clue what time it is.

Can't get enough cultural theory in your day? Try carrying a handy deck of Theory.org.uk trading cards with you. All your faves, like Lacan, Foucault, and Jung, in a convenient format that you can swap with your friends.

See also the theorists as Lego mini-figs and action figures.

(Thanks to v-2.org for the link.)

Rolling and falling, I'm choking and calling
Name after name after name

Naked and bleeding, the streetlights rain by me
Hurting my eyes with their glare

Helplessly braking, exchanging my faces
Destined, we had to collide

Caught on the outside, I'm crumbling and crawling
Watching the day drag away
Spiralling deeper, I can't feel my fingers
Grip round my throat as I dream

Via xBlog comes a link to a short piece called "The Day Alertbox Died". I think I gave up reading Herr Jakob's column regularly about two years ago. It's been several months since I've read it at all. Given the mounds and mounds of other IA-related reading out there, I found I wasn't getting much out of Alertbox anymore. Evidently, it's not just me.

Well, people seem to be abandoning Blogger following yesterday's hackage (no linkage here -- go look it up on Blogdex), but I'm still here. I'm lazy.

Today's linkage:

• Dooce is switching meds.


• An older post by Evanizer on meds: "The Hour of Lead".

brbrbrbrbrrbrbrbrbrbrbrbr (sound made by sticking out your lips and flapping them back and forth with your finger while making a monotone sound with your voice)

Was up, dressed, and out of the hovel before *11am* this morning to meet a friend for an early lunch. This after congregating with my fellow GTABs last night for drinks (plural) with Jish (where I discovered that the cohort of bloggers in their mid-30's isn't quite as small as I thought), followed by a late-night Montreal smoked-meat feed at Mel's.

Got back to the hovel after today's lunch around 4pm, which led to the inevitable nap. Now it's 'round 8 in the evening and I am all groggy.

Here is some linkage:

• The Case Against Professionalism -- or rather, against being a professional corporate vampire. (Gracias, Richard.)


• Invention at Play -- Fun and games are good for your brain. (Via Neat New Stuff on the Net.)


• The Power Point Anthology of Literature -- "Too busy for Cliff's Notes? Welcome to The PowerPoint Anthology of Literature: Great books distilled to their essence and presented in the most efficient form of communication ever devised." (Again, via Neat New Stuff on the Net, but I know I spotted the link on some other site about four or five days ago.)

Once again, someone's blog is brought to the attention of their boss. Fortunately, in this case, boss is understanding. (Link via tbit.)

Was a bit late in reading this, but there's an entertaining article on branding consultants and the goofy names that they pick for companies (link via diveintomark). Hell, give me a dictionary, a semiotics text, and several cups of coffee, and I can come up with a name for you for half the price.

Other helpful hints (I swear to god, I've seen these things happen):

• Don't pick a name that is someone else's registered trademark.


• Don't launch your new brand name on April 1st.


• Don't pick a brand name that people won't know how to pronounce. (If you need to include a phonetic spelling of the name on the home page of your website, there's a clue.)


• Don't pick a name that suggests what you might have been drinking when you thought of it.

New on Blackmask: Herman Hesse's Siddartha.

From the Journal of Memetics: "Three Challenges for the Survival of Memetics".

I got up at 11 this morning and opened up the blinds. I got all confused because the sun was on the "wrong" side of the building. It took me a minute to realize that the sun being in the eastern part of the sky before noon was perfectly normal. Oops.

Here is The Metaphor Rant (via paranoidfish).

Linkage:

• A Salon article on Scott Adams and his new book, Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel. (Via Premium Blend.)


• Artifact: the complete text of the book New Rules for the New Economy, published in 1998. (Via SynapShots.)

Happy Weasel Day, everyone.

If you have nothing else to do with your copious spare time, you can do some reading on game theory.

Linkage:

• The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Recreational Evil -- "Frank-N-Furter exists in a world where everything pretends it is something else, and in which the present is pasted together from the bits and pieces of movies past, so that life becomes an endless vaudeville revue. He is a second-order simulation, created out of the simulations of Hollywood, trapped in a schizophrenic's virtual reality..." Readings of Baudrillard's works are optional. (Via MemeMachineGo!.)
• What's Wrong with Libertarianism -- "The Libertarian Party website makes as much of social liberty as it does economic liberty. However, I've never seen the libertarian elements among the Republicans do a thing about these theoretical ideals; on the contrary, they're happy to ally themselves with Ashcrofts willing to trash judicial rights, Starrs poking into politicans' sex lives, Bushes mocking the protection of civil rights, and theocrats wanting the government to control movies, university courses, and women's wombs. In practice, then, libertarianism has nothing to do with social liberty, and everything to do with removing all restrictions on business." (Via Follow Me Here.)

Slashdot links to an article about the success of free e-books. The ensuing Slashdot discussion may also be of interest.

Meanwhile, Blackmask has added Miyamoto Musashi's A Book of Five Rings to their collection.

Y'know, I've been pondering this whole thing where your personal and professional lives collide in your blog. Lord knows, I've mouthed off here and elsewhere to a degree that some might consider to be imprudent.

Yet another example wherein one might draw the conclusion that one shouldn't be so candid with one's opinions online: Digital Ed's wife got fired after making certain work-related postings in her blog.

OK, a few simple rules are perfectly reasonable. For instance:

• Don't blog during work hours.


• Don't say anything slanderous about your colleagues or your customers.


• Don't disclose confidential information on your blog.

More thinking required....

Ah, fun with recycled content....

I'm amazed this still exists, but if you're so inclined, have a look at my old Geocities site dating back to 1998:

link deleted

After making the post following this (or rather, the one located above this one on the page), I started re-thinking whether or not I should've posted that link in the first place. I decided it was a mistake.

Linkage:

• "The Hidden Traps in Decision Making" -- very quick overview, but still useful


• "My Best Friend, Joe" -- "caffeine is making me smarter, wittier, thinner, more productive, more fun at parties and... sexier" (via Badgett's Coffee eJournal)


• "If You Read You'll Judge" -- excerpts from the diaries of Kurt Cobain (spotted on MetaFilter and Blogdex)

Did actually drag myself out of the hovel for a while. Wound up cutting across Bernard over to Bathurst, and started walking south to Bloor. Spotted a cafe called Grapefruit Moon, which Jayme has mentioned a couple times. Looked in the front window, and lo and behold, Jayme was there.

Five hours later, I did make it down to Bloor St. and wound up in the big second-hand CD store (name escapes me) next to the Bloor Cinema. Perhaps not a wise move. New purchases:

• Electronic, "Disappointed" CD Maxi-Single -- this isn't quite as old as I thought it was; it dates from 1992, but the piano riff just screams house ca. 1989-90


• Various Artists, The Hardest Hits, Volume Two -- a decent compilation of hard-to-find 80s retro (and hence, itself hard to find), despite the appearance of Naked Eyes' "Always Something There to Remind Me", which seems to crop up on every other freaking retro compilation out there (that and Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy")


• Ultravox, Dancing With Tears in My Eyes -- not the best Ultravox compilation in existence, but it was there, I was there, and it was going cheap

My friend Martin wants to know:

'Where does this "whinge" come from? I know it's a real word, a very old word, but what's it got over the more sensible "whine"? What have I missed?'

whinge
(WAV file of correct pronunciation available on their site)
INTRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: whinged, whing·ing, whing·es
Chiefly British To complain or protest, especially in an annoying or persistent manner.
ETYMOLOGY: Dialectal alteration of Middle English "whinsen", from Old English "hwinsian".
OTHER FORMS: whinger ?NOUN; whinging·ly ?ADVERB

MopeFest 2002 continues here at the hovel. I did, however, manage to get myself cleaned up and dressed. Yay, me. Next step would be to leave the hovel and get some air.

Richard has coined a new term:

Blangst -- The feeling you get when you draw a blank thinking about things to blog, but you worry if you don't write something then your loyal readers will abandon you.

Oddly enough, this link appeared in my inbox as part of my InformIT newsletter:

Fundamental Concepts of Content Reuse -- "Content reuse is the practice of using existing content components to develop new "documents." Learn the benefits of reuse and how other industries have employed reuse for decades to improve their processes and the quality of their products."

• Soaring


• Sounds


• Silliness

When you're not inclined to do any writing yourself, you can always click a few widgets on someone else's page and get them to generate the content for you:

you are a book called



what dr. seuss book warped you?

Link via The G Spot.

Yes, I've been light on the bloggage for the past while. I've been off my game lately and figured I'd spare y'all from the self-pitying whinge-fests. (At least nothing too extreme.)

I ran across this post (via blogdex), which referred to another post, the upshot of which is:

"If you know that you're not going to publish for a while, let your readers know. I'm appreciative when some of the other bloggers I read do this. Keep your loyal readers clued in."

The ice cream will return eventually. I hope.

Blogger's Proverbs (Via JOHO The Blog.)

I recently removed the link to Rare 80s MP3 from my blogroll, because the site had been down for about a week or so. It is now back up, and hence reinstated.

It's not really one of my favourite 80s MP3 sites (those being the first cut and the GTA-based Rare 1980s MP3 of the Week), but it occasionally posts some decent tracks. This week happens to be one of those occasions -- one of the tunes is the extended version of Bronski Beat's "Hit That Perfect Beat".

One can only lie in bed for so long, playing Solitaire on the PDA and listening to the same melancholy CD over and over and over, before one gets bored.

I suppose that I should refer to these blurbs as inspirational or uplifting or something:

• Allan Newell's Precepts
  • Do what you love, love what you do.
  • Help others to find a similar state, no matter how different their choices might be.
  • Don't worry about how intrinsically smart you are or anyone is.
  • Be intellectually tough -- uniformly on everyone
  • Be careful about what you commit to do, and then really do it.
  (Via David Crow.)
• Chicken soup for bloggers:

  "I think one of the hardest things to do in the blogosphere is to learn the equivalent of hitting singles day after day, especially when it seems like everyone else in the blogosphere is knocking them over the fence. Face it, no one hits a home run day after day, not even Lileks or Den Beste. The best you can do is make contact, keep the ball in play, advance the runner, keep on keeping on. Yes, a home run drives in a lot of traffic, but since home runs are few and far between for most of us, it's the singles that keep us in the game."

  From Blogcritics.org (via Blogdex).

Am still in a crappy mood, but somewhat less so than yesterday. If you are looking for amusement, there are some new toonz up at toothpastefordinner.

Other linkage:

• A Taxonomy Primer -- Admittedly, I'm not in the mood to read this right now; it'll go in the reading pile. (Via IA Slash.)


• Seven different types of conversation -- #5: "Conversations for possible conversations."

Fuck. I feel like crap. Of course, it is October. Guess I should turn on the lights.

Hate getting calls from telemarketers? Give 'em a taste of their own medicine. (Thanks, Fark.)

It's a very lazy holiday Monday (mind you, every day is a holiday when you're unemployed), and I'm up at my parents' place. Here is some linkage for you:

• What makes a meme successful? Selection criteria for cultural evolution (Via abuddhas memes.)


• The Executive as Coach -- Although this focuses on dealing with problem behaviour in the workplace, you can probably apply some of the points to other contexts.

• Generation Wrecked -- "...the core of Generation X--the 40 million Americans born between 1966 and 1975--found themselves riding the wildest economic bull ever... Now that the thrill ride is over, Gen X's plight seems particularly bruising. No generation since the Depression has been set up for failure like this." (Via Slashdot from a few days ago.)


• The Myth of '18 to 34' -- "Eighteen to thirty-four: for decades, conventional advertising wisdom has attached the adjective ''coveted'' to this slice of the viewing audience. According to an analysis by the former NBC News president Lawrence K. Grossman, advertisers pay an average of $23.54 to reach 1,000 viewers in that age bracket, versus $9.57 per 1,000 over the age of 35.... The odd thing is, there's no real reason for it anymore." (New York Times article; free registration required to view.) (Via Blogdex.)

Does anyone out there remember the TV show The Hilarious House of Frightenstein?

It's funny, 'cuz a few days ago I was telling Jimbuck2 about how that show was responsible for making "Jumpin' Jack Flash" my favourite Rolling Stones song. Jim wasn't familiar with the show, and I eventually dug up the link to the website.

Imagine my delight to discover (via BoingBoing) that an entire episode is available for download in MPG format. Whoohoo!

"It's a gas, gas, gas...."

Went bowling with the GTAB crew last night. Was great to meet some new people and attach faces to names. Not so great: my hand and my shoulder hurt. QFD.

Here are some links:

• "How to Fail in E-Business With a Record Effort" (Via Blogdex.)


• "Job loss can lead to downward spiral of depression and poor health." Duh. (Via Catfish on the Table.)

Assorted linkage:

• U.S. Patent 3,216,423: Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force (Thanks to my brother for e-ing me the link.)


• Ravenlike -- a new blog about writing. (Via Mememachinego.)


• "We want to hear what our employees' thoughts and concerns are. No, really." (Here is the employee e-mail in question.) (Commentary and linkage via MetaFilter.)

The October issue of First Monday (which, perhaps, should be renamed First Wednesday, Second Monday, or Whenever) is out. Articles of interest:

• Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted Passenger Screening System -- "To improve the efficiency of airport security screening, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) deployed the Computer Assisted Passenger Screening system (CAPS) in 1999. CAPS attempts to identify potential terrorists through the use of profiles so that security personnel can focus the bulk of their attention on high-risk individuals. In this paper, we show that since CAPS uses profiles to select passengers for increased scrutiny, it is actually less secure than systems that employ random searches." (For some reason, I'm having trouble accessing the full page -- I only get the first half of it, then my browser says it's "done".)


• Hypertext Links: Whither Thou Goest, and Why -- "This paper explores the semantic and rhetorical principles underlying link development and proposes a systematic, comprehensive classification of link types that would be of use to researchers and Web production teams."

• Content, Please -- a case study of two Enterprise Content Management (ECM) implementations


• Can Public Web Services Work? -- online apps for the masses, and SOAP vs. other protocols

Misc. linkage:

• The 3 Cs of Knowledge Sharing (via Brent)


• Graig has had a contest going at his site for the last while, and there's still time to enter.
  (Addendum: I just looked at the contest link on Graig's site and discovered that you can't access the comments from there. Here's the same contest page, with commenting, on the GTA Bloggers site.)


• Beer vs. children? Where are your priorities? (Spotted at a couple places; can't remember where.)


• Take the latest Slashdot poll

Haven't been much inclined to write over the last couple of days. I've got stuff to say (and some fragmentary blurbage sitting on my Jornada -- I took it with me when I went out for coffee yesterday, and typed up a storm) but just haven't felt like sorting it out into something coherent.

Briefly dragged myself out of the hovel today to go to Dominion, and wound up on a side-trip in Second Spin. New CD acquisitions:

• The Cars, Just What I Needed -- a double-CD compilation from Elektra/Rhino; I could survive without Disc 2, but the first disc has a prime assemblage of tracks


• 808 State, 808:88:98 -- if I ever get a cell phone, I want the synth riff from "Cubik" to be my ring-tone (can I get that?)


• 808 State, Gorgeous -- had a hankering to hear "Time Bomb"; can't believe this is 10 years old already

and since those selections filled up my "Frequent Buyers Card", I chose as my free disc


• Thievery Corporation, The Mirror Conspiracy

• Moby, Play


• Various Artists, Classic Acid -- compilation from the Moonshine label; includes "The Age of Love" by (uh) The Age of Love


• Richie Hawtin, Decks, EFX & 909


• The Orb, UFOff: The Best of the Orb


• London Chamber Orchestra, Minimalist -- a collection of works by John Adams, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Dave Heath


• Kronos Quartet, Performs Philip Glass -- Glass' String Quartets, No.s 2 to 5


• J.S. Bach, The French Suites -- performed by Keith Jarrett on harpsichord


• Dave Brubeck, Take Five


• John McLaughlin, Shakti, with John McLaughlin


• Various Artists, Slam Jams -- an under-rated Punk/New Wave compilation, from the folks who brought you the Jock Jams and Jock Rock series


• Various Artists, Starry Eyes: UK Pop (1978-79) -- a beautifully curated New Wave compilation, from Rhino


• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook: Remixed Star Rise -- wicked cool remixes from the likes of Talvin Singh, Asian Dub Foundation, and State of Bengal

Since I've been on a tear about blogging and knowledge management of late, thought I'd mention a blog that I ran across a while ago. SynapShots bills itself as "Citings for Knowledge Workers", and has a lot of nifty linkage relating to KM.

Some other KM linkage:

• "What is a k-log?" -- a rudimentary intro on using blogging for knowledge managment


• "CEO Blogs and Corporate History" -- discusses k-logging for those at the top of the corporate food chain (the cynic in me wonders who many CEOs would be willing to be so candid)

Linkage:

• Is your company ethical? Here's a handy corporate integrity checkup. (Via Neat New Stuff on the Net.)


• On a less ethical note, how about ways to take a sick day when you aren't really sick? (Via The G Spot.)

I've rambled before about using blogs in a business context. So, my interest was piqued when I spotted a couple of articles on Brent Ashley's blog:

• "Altruism as a Cultivated Resource"
• "Before you get in the car, you need a driver and a map"

I've always been in the habit of sharing information with work colleagues. If I see something interesting online, or if I get something useful via e-mail, I'm happy to pass it along. It's easy to do, an it's not like you're really giving up any of your own power.

I'm secure enough in my abilities to not worry that someone who has read the same books or websites as me is going to automatically usurp me in the job market. After all: (a) it's what you do with the material that counts, and (b) there's plenty more information out there to find and use (this being the abundance mentality that encourages knowledge sharing).

Of course, if you've put a lot of time/money/effort into gathering data and developing some piece of information, insight, or knowledge, I'm not suggesting that you automatically up and give it away -- we're in a knowledge economy, after all, and you've got the right to earn a living with it. But there are those who will hang on to every scrap they get at all costs, like they'll never get any more. Those are the people who I find sad.

But anyway....

Also on the subject of knowledge sharing, I recently stumbled across an article by David Weinberger where he listed blogs as part of his 99 cent KM Solution. I usually enjoy Weinberger's writing, but I have to wonder what the hell he was smoking when he wrote this:

"...an enormous outpouring of ideas and critical reactions will occur. Voices will emerge. The mid-level engineer in R&D may turn out to have caustically trenchant things to say about marketing. The woman in shipping may have her finger on the pulse when it comes to HR and morale issues. The graphics designer may be on a tear about why the company isn't taking international competition seriously enough. Who knows?"

Yeah, right -- it'll be more like, "Shut your goddam piehole and stick to engineering!" Or, more likely, the VP of Marketing will have a quiet word with the VP of R&D, and the offending engineer will receive a scolding while their comments are expunged from the record in due course.

Cynical? Hell, yeah, I'm cynical. Oddly enough, Weinberger has something to say about that as well -- he thinks cynicism is a good thing.

Where there are cynics, there is hope.

In lieu of actual content, I will post this:

You are 52% geek

You are a geek. Good for you! Considering the endless complexity of the universe, as well as whatever discipline you happen to be most interested in, you'll never be bored as long as you have a good book store, a net connection, and thousands of dollars worth of expensive equipment. Assuming you're a technical geek, you'll be able to afford it, too. If you're not a technical geek, you're geek enough to mate with a technical geek and thereby get the needed dough. Dating tip: Don't date a geek of the same persuasion as you. You'll constantly try to out-geek the other.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

View at your own risk:

Sandals & Socks 4 Ever

Anyone who's worked with me knows that I am not a fan of PowerPoint. Yet, this Boxes and Arrows article argues that PowerPoint could actually be useful for a couple of things.

(BTW, Click to Add Title seems to have stalled at Round 3. A pity.)

Did you enjoy the viking kittens? They also go punk. (Gracias, Wryan.)

Are you throwing away your old dryer sheets? Don't do it.

Damn, my sinuses are throwing a shitfit, as they are wont to do when the weather fluctuates rapidly.

Why don't you go read about state-of-the-art European military technology, circa 1867.

Well, blondes are not in danger of extinction after all. 'Twas all a joke.

(Heard it on CTV News last night, but thanks to gak for the linkage to the Globe and Mail article published today.)

The number 1 link on blogdex right now is to a piece titled "There are Four Lights". (I'm guessing it's a Star Trek: TNG reference. I suppose the fact that I got it makes me a geek.)

The situation is akin to what I mentioned in two other posts. This guy's boss found his blog, and asked him to stop writing it, arguing that it might give clients the wrong impression. Rather than stop writing, the guy resigned.

[Addendum: Oh, OK, the guy didn't resign, actually, but posted his resume online instead. As a result, he was fired on a technicality.]

I'm glad he didn't stop writing, because he's got some interesting things to say. And I've something to think about.

"14 Principles of Polite Apps" -- software that is nicer to you than some people are. (Via paranoidfish.)

"Death of a Meta Tag" -- Thinking about adding keywords to a web page? Don't bother.

"A thousand angels can fit on the head of a pin..."