Author: cosmo

Yesterday we went over to the Painters’ house– our neighbors– for the first annual Jell-o Fest. Kyra and Hannah came up with the idea of having a party centered on Jell-o, including a mysterious prize for the most original Jell-o creation.

I had a great idea about creating a fully functioning checkers game out of Jell-o. In theory it was pretty simple: make four shallow pans of the stuff in four different colors, then cut squares from two of them and circles from the other two. Arrange the squares in an 8×8 grid for the board, then stack the circles on the board as checkers pieces.

Unfortunately the reality isn’t so easy. Jell-o is very sticky once it’s in the pan (or whatever container it’s made in) and very thin Jell-o is hard to work with. In the end we made a bunch of Jell-o “coins” in mini muffin pans, and even those were hard to peel out of the pans.

Although Kyra and Hannah were a bit disappointed that the entire neighborhood didn’t show up (they’d invited every house on the block), it was still fun. Maybe next year we’ll figure out how to work with Jell-o a bit better.

Today’s depressing news is that apparently all of the Fuddrucker’s burger joints in the Denver area have permanently closed. There’s one a little way down the interstate where I’m fond of going for meetings, or with Laralee when we get the urge, but apparently I’m out of luck now.

Long live Fuddrucker’s, home of the world’s greatest hamburgers.

From a Q&A session with Mr. Know-It-All on Wired magazine:

Heh. Sometimes I feel that way playing Warzone against Alex and Zack.

According to accounting paperwork filed by the RIAA, the record industry has spent approximately $16,000,000 on lawsuits against people accused of illegally sharing music files.

They have collected a total of almost $400,000 in fines.

We already know the file sharers who pleaded guilty didn’t win this scenario. Now we see that the record companies certainly didn’t win either. So who did?

The lawyers.

Just got back from the USA Ultimate national championships, being held in Boulder this year. This is the Masters’ Series (as opposed to the Collegiate Series) where all players are at least 30 years old. I was one of the official scorekeepers, which was a lot of fun and made me really pay attention to the game since I had to record turnovers, defensive plays, assists, goals, etc. There are some top-notch teams competing, and it’s always fun to watch ultimate at the national level.

The best: one of the womens’ teams I was watching had a player who couldn’t have been younger than 60. She had grey-white grandma hair, big glasses, and looked like she’d be more likely to make a nice glass of lemonade than huck a disc fifty yards. But she was out there yelling to her team, talking smack, and throwing like a bullet. I can only hope when I’m 60 I have that same kind of spunk.

Update: I found a picture in the post-tournament wrap-up. Looks like she’s wondering why her receivers aren’t making any good cuts.

“The internet’s completely over. The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”

— Prince, explaining (today) why the internet is a fad that’s now dead

I just watched an AT&T commercial from 1993. It was part of their “You Will” series, which featured quick glances of futuristic technology that AT&T claimed to be a part of developing. I remember the campaign clearly because I was in college at the time and my friend Jason and I designed some t-shirts around the theme.

Anyway, what I find interesting about these commercials from 17 years ago is they were surprisingly prescient. They predicted things like:

• Online books (remember, in 1993 the web was new and Mosaic was everyone’s browser)
• GPS navigation in cars, including automated routing and directions
• RF sensors that can pay tolls as you drive through the checkpoint
• Video conferencing
• Purchasing concert tickets online (in 1993 the web didn’t have any commercial stuff)
• Choosing a movie on demand from a menu on your TV

In hindsight I think it’s easy to say, “Sure, all of that is pretty obvious”. But 17 years ago, it wasn’t obvious at all. When you think about it, the things we take for granted today were barely pipe dreams then. What kind of amazing things can we expect in the next 17 years?

I’m working on some server configuration stuff for a client. They have an account at Rackspace, which is a well-known (and very good) hosting company. Like many such companies, they have an option on their web site for a live chat session. The idea is you can immediately connect to their support personnel and resolve problems or whatever.

Now, there’s kind of a joke in the industry about so-called “Headset Hotties” which are those areas on corporate sites that encourage you to contact them, and there’s always a picture of an amazingly beautiful woman wearing a headset and smiling broadly because she’s so excited to take your call.

Rackspace apparently doesn’t believe in headset hotties.

Uhh. Is that a woman? Seriously. If so, maybe she should lose the army-green cap and overalls and consider a different hairstyle. I fear that if I click the button to chat with her I’ll suddenly be online with someone named Helga and she’ll want to arm-wrestle.

“Just speaking generally, not about any specifics, and taking a wild guess, I’d say that’s a good solid maybe, unless my salary depending on raising money by saying yes, in which case I’d say yes.”

— Seen on Slashdot, although pretty much any politician would say it

Spent today at Sea World. Fun stuff.