Dave Winer, whose weblog software I use and who knows a thing or two about online community, is less impressed with Tom Friedman’s column of this past weekend than I am. He says: Now with all due respect, they shouldn’t believe everything they read in the NY Times either. Well, that’s certainly true enough. The thing […]
Continue reading... May 13, 2002
Why User Interface Is Important
From the New York Times: Dazed by a Technical Knockout. The BMW 745i is a remarkable car with so many genuine technical advancements that it is surely the world’s most advanced sedan. I’m quite certain that I’ve never seen Niklaus Wirth quoted in a car review before. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him […]
Continue reading... May 13, 2002
Here Kitty Kitty Kitty….
From Reuters: A Canadian family had to flee for safety after their pet Siamese cat went on a rampage, tearing at clothes and skin and driving them out of the house… Another police officer said Cocoa was “a Siamese cat with an attitude problem.”
Continue reading... May 13, 2002
The Softer Side, Indeed.
Sears to Buy Lands’ End for $1.9 Billion. Sears, Roebuck & Company, the nation’s largest department store company, agreed to buy Lands’ End the biggest specialty catalog and Internet retailer, for $1.9 billion in cash. OK, let me get this straight. Sears has a catalog for 100 years. It pretty much invents direct marketing and […]
Continue reading... May 13, 2002
Snooping and EZPass
Here in the Northeast, we can use something called E-ZPass to pay bridge and road tolls on most major highways. You set up and account with the E-ZPass folks, they send you a box that you attach to your car’s windshield (or behind the grille), and roll slowly through toll barriers. It’s really quite wonderful. The […]
Continue reading... May 13, 2002
Don’t Try This At Home, Nautical Div.
An acquaintance on one of my mailing lists sends this link along. I’m not sure, but didn’t Bogart try this move in The African Queen?
Continue reading... May 12, 2002
The Usenet Motto
“It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them.” — Caron de Beaumarchais. You probably know about Car Talk, the public radio talk show about cars and car repair. The hosts, Click and Clack (a/k/a Tom and Ray Magliozzi) once had a spirited conversation about whether two people who don’t know […]
Continue reading... May 12, 2002
Go Ahead. Document the Prior Art.
A 5-year-old is awarded a patent (6,368,227, if you’re counting) on a technique for swinging on a swing. More evidence of a system out of control.
Continue reading... May 12, 2002
But Is It Art?
Susan Kitchens outpoints an L.A. Times story about an artist who altered a freeway roadsign so that people won’t actually get lost following it. The job was so good that Caltrans didn’t notice for nine months — until the story hit the paper. And they may well leave things as they are. Any chance we […]
Continue reading... May 12, 2002
Credit Card Bazaar
Matt Richtel in the NY Times reports on a Russian online market for stolen credit card numbers. Among his data points is a finding from a market research firm that fraud rates are three times higher for online MasterCard and Visa transactions than in the real world. We’re still talking about a quarter of one percent, […]
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