11 Feb 2003 | sickboy said...

My head cold is killing me!

11 Feb 2003 | omit said...

Me, too!

11 Feb 2003 | Joshua Kaufman said...

Pet owners in Colorado might be able to sue pet abusers for up to $100,000 for "loss of companionship." They are currently considered "property" which limits their value to $50.

The Oscar nominees have been announced.

Background music on websites: is it ever okay?

What is the the value of one pixel on Yahoo!'s homepage? (inspired by Nielsen's latest Alertbox)

Stuart Langridge's take on tooltips.

11 Feb 2003 | alisha said...

no more politics. how bout "Hope in the Henhouse"?

frank polifka, farmer turned tinkerer in clinton, north carolina, can create a temperature controlled tornado in a large vessel. his contraption can carry out industrial grade separation, dehydration, and grinding processes in ways no machine on earth ever has. if you feed it egg shells at room temperature it will deliver dehydrated eggshell powder; and the separated egg shell membrane will ooze out as a gooey liquid. and if you feed it gooey liquids at high temperature, egg shell membranes or jellyfish or whatever, it will dehydrate and powderize that too. people are lining up to throw all kinds of things into this marvelous machine - coal, garbage, and chicken backs among other things.

11 Feb 2003 | Original Jim said...

Stem cells can mend human hearts

A damaged heart can be repaired with a dose of stem cells, French researchers have shown. Their study provides the first direct evidence that stem cells injected into an injured heart do develop to take on some of the workload.

Muscle stem cells, called myoblasts, were taken from the thigh muscle of a man who had suffered a heart attack, cultured, and then injected into his heart. The function of the 72-year-old man's heart was stronger after the treatment.

Dunno, GM vs. nonGM crops seemed much easier. Stem cells kinda freak me out but... Well, they seem to work don't they?

11 Feb 2003 | Scott said...

That tornado story is amazing! Maybe they could drop Nielsen's AlertBox into it and magically filter out the pomposity.

11 Feb 2003 | Bill Brown said...

Fox is the Real of television.

Last night's episode was billed as the final one with no mention of a further episode. How contrived!

Pissed the hell out of me. Two freaking hours to reveal who he picks and show him confessing? For that kind of a time investment, the deceived should be forming a line to sock him in the gut.

Oh wait, there's a bigger secret. Could Evan really be a millionaire? Is he just playing dumb? Or could the secret be that Fox really, really knows how to conjure ratings out of thin air?

12 Feb 2003 | fajalar said...

Alaska's current Governor is beginning his run for president in 2008. This prognostication would be welcome to be proved wrong, but is based on the following Anchorage Daily News article on G-Murkowski's ideas for opening ANWR. If he can open it for Bush, perhaps he can be a shoe-in for the GOP nomination. It would certainly put Alaska's erstwhile (though can you be totally erstwhile when your daughter has your previous job?) Representative's name out in front of the Outside public.

Which is why he is starting now by suggesting that the Permanent Fund be used to pressure companies that the fund invests in to lobby Congress on behalf of the good people of AK (well, 50.1% of them anyway).

Do not open ANWR or NPR-A.

12 Feb 2003 | ~bc said...

I think the SvN logotype up top would look much better left aligned with the gray comment box, or centered above said box. Just a thought. It's always irked me in its current placement.

12 Feb 2003 | p8 said...

On sunday I saw a very interesting discussion on dutch television: RIVERSIDE CONVERSATIONS.
It was about the the succes of China, globalisation and state of world economy.

Hosted by american investor Jim Rogers.
Guests: american oil and economy expert and Pullitzer Prize winner Daniel Yergin (who is a White House advisor), and Swiss investor and Asia expert Marc Faber

It is downloadable for realvideo broadband or smallband

Some good parts:

MF: In China every year 500.000 engineers graduate from universities. The same as in India. They are willing to work a 100 hours a week to succeed. They don't go skiing in the weekend or sailing in the summer. I was never optimistic about internet stocks but the internet allows people anywhere in the world to know the same as you. A big knowledge trasfer is taking place. In the US and in Europe everyone says: We have the knowledge and knowhow. But the indians and chinese are quickly taking over. In 5 years you will see big research- laboratoria in China and India. Research in those counties only costs 10% of the costs in the US and Europe.
JR: Marc is right about that. China has an excellent infrastructure and people like to work all day. They save and invest. They save 40% of their income.

DY: What would you do if you were in charge of the FED?
JR: Raise interest rates.
MF: Good idea. That's what I would do.
JR: This way you eliminate overcapacity. Cut off the dead wood so the tree can blossom again. The FED is telling Japan to write off bad debts, take their loss and stop supporting zombie companies while the FED is supporting zombie companies back home. Interest rates are almost zero. Lucent Technologies and WorldCom still exist. We need to get rid off those companies. Interest rates will have to go up. It will hurt, yes. A month, a year, two years. But in Japan they're hurting for 13 years. What would you rather have?
MF: For capitalisme to work it is essential that only good companies survive. If the system supports bad companies, the weak ones survive not the strong ones.

JR: I know productivity and inflation figures are doctored. Commodoties have risen 80% in five years. The american government says they haven't risen. In November they said oil had lowered 11%. Where did they get this from? The Wall Street Journal said it had risen 25%. My oilman says even more than 25%. Yet the american government reported in november 2002 that the price of oil had lowered 11% so it was a month without inflation.
DY: So somebody just said: hey Joe, change those figures?
JR: I get calls from people saying they had to adjust the figures.
MF: Productivity figures are also adjusted. They are based on a 40-hour work week. Working a hour longer greatly effects the productivity figures. The figures also do not account for people who work at home or at night.
DY: Are the GNP-figures also incorrect?
JR: I know they are.
MF: First you have to determine how you define the GNP-growth. If you spend more, your GNP grows. But what if you are producing in other countries? Especially when it's financed by growing debts? That's the point. Is it possible to endure this debt in the long run? I agree with Jimmy.

More on this: They Are Lying to Us Again

MF:There is only one country that can compete with China on industrial production. That is Vietnam. But for commodoties and agriculture China has a water problem. They will have to import this. But the Chinese are smart. They are not using militairy force but are becoming good customers of other countries. This way they get a lot of economical influence on countries like Indonesia, Australia and all african countries. They have connections everywhere and are becoming a huge geo-political power.
JR: They are the world's biggest customer. Everyone's nice to a customer.

DY: What will the stock market do?
JR: Japanese stocks have lost 95% since 1990. American stocks are still doing well. The real pain still has to come.

Texts might not be entirely correct because they were translated from english to dutch to english again.

12 Feb 2003 | EG said...

I'm surprised you guys haven't mentioned anything about the recent redesign over at www.fedex.com with your 'better designs' and all... any comments?

12 Feb 2003 | JF said...

I'm surprised you guys haven't mentioned anything about the recent redesign over at www.fedex.com with your 'better designs' and all... any comments?

We've been thinking of working on 37BetterFedExAgain once we have some free time. I think they made some nice improvements, but it's still far from as good as it could be design and usability wise.

12 Feb 2003 | JF said...

I just started reading Of Paradise and Power: America Vs. Europe in the New World Order last night. Very interesting read. Honest. 100 pages too -- I like short books.

12 Feb 2003 | Jacob said...

I want someone to make a decision for me (since I haven't been able to, myself): 12" Powerbook or 12" iBook (800 Mhz, maxed RAM)? I'm looking to work with HTML, PHP, Perl, etc. with a text-editorno Dreamweaver. Photoshop for mockups and resizing, but nothing major.

Push me, please...

12 Feb 2003 | JF said...

the iBook would be sufficient, but you'll always appreciate the extra speed and smoothness of the G4 -- especially with OS X. The Powerbook will also be a more viable machine a few years down the road (the iBook will probably be too slow by then). My advice is to always go with the best machine you can afford. If you are even considering the 12" Powerbook that means you can probably afford it. Go for it.

12 Feb 2003 | ek said...

I second that. Even for what you're doing the G4 and faster video sub-system in the 12" PowerBook will make a difference, mostly because OS X is very compute/gpu intensive.

Some other big pluses of the 12" G4 are the ability to get both Bluetooth and Airport Extreme in the machine. Since the iBook does not have built-in support for Airport Extreme or a PC Card slot, this is not something that you'll be able to add down the road.

Then there's the fact that the 12" PBook, even though it's more powerful and provides more features in the box, is thinner and lighter.

12 Feb 2003 | ~bc said...

PB v iBook: G4 hands down. You can always add more RAM later. Everything in the OS is geared toward the G4, and the iBook is the last machine on the G3. Be forward-compatible.

China: people like to work all day. They save and invest. They save 40% of their income.

How is this a good thing? What do people do with their huge savings if they work 100hrs a week? Die at 45? If people in China are such great workers, why are most of them still more impoverished when compared to our "lazy" poor. This is crap. I think Americans work themselves to death as is. Germans are just as productive as we are, but have much more vacation time, per capita. What's left for the Chinese? Well working 100hrs/ week leaves no time to conceive children (just like the gov't instructs) nor protest the gross political oppression they live beneath (just like the gov't instructs). I bet these guys voted for Bush...

12 Feb 2003 | dk jr. said...

How is it all of Michael Jackson's kids are white? I mean really white.

13 Feb 2003 | p&g said...

"How is it all of Michael Jackson's kids are white? I mean really white."

clorox? hehe. on a more serious note, have you seen ben on cover of vanity fair? gotta love him. handsome, smart, talented, young, and he has jennifer. did i mention rich?

13 Feb 2003 | p8 said...

They save and invest. They save 40% of their income. How is this a good thing?

Investment is deemed to be low in the United States because the "pool of savings" is relatively small and government deficits drain the pool of what saving there is. If only people would save more and the government would curtail borrowing, then the pool would swell, interest rates would automatically fall, and investment in productive capacity would surge.

Plus, the only way to make it through the hard times is if you've prepared for them.
The US system (lowering interest rates) discourages saving and investing, but encourages consumption. The US desperately needs more saving and investment, not more SUVs and vacations in the casinos. In the US Consumer-debt levels continue to soar as people take money from their homes and spend rather than lower debt or save. The US savings rate is roughly 1 percent, one of the lowest in the world. A consumer-debt bubble is building and it will devastate many people when it bursts. Greenspan is on record as saying this use of more unsustainable, non-productive credit is a sound basis for keeping the economy humming. How will more debts which only produce more negative cash flow save the US down the road?

According to Jim Rogers:
"Our national debt to foreigners is now around $6.4 trillion, with interest payments alone last year totaling $333 billion. Were importing far more goods than we exporting. International reserves remain around $60 billion, but were attracting far less direct foreign investment every year. Our current account deficit runs at roughly $500 billion a year, or five percent of our gross domestic product. Think of it this way: It costs us about $1.3 billion a day in the foreign markets just to keep the dollar afloat. Were like the untrustworthy brother-in-law who keeps borrowing money, promising to pay it back, but can never seem to get out of debt. Eventually, people cut that guy off."

If people in China are such great workers, why are most of them still more impoverished when compared to our "lazy" poor.

Because they are still more impoverished when compared the US's poor. They are already at the bottom and can only go up. China has a lot of growing potential. They can get a lot richer but still labor will be cheap compared to the US.

I think Americans work themselves to death as is. Germans are just as productive as we are, but have much more vacation time, per capita. What's left for the Chinese?

They are 10 times cheaper. (They also can cope a lot better when the economy goes down because of their savings.)

I bet these guys voted for Bush...

I think probably libertarian. They think companies shouldn't get support from the government (by lowering interest rates) and they think the deficit is a huge problem.

14 Feb 2003 | anon. said...

Will we ever see AudioFile 5? for OSX? web based even...

please.

15 Feb 2003 | edmz said...

PLEASE!
Enable "ping blo.gs" on you install of MovableType.

24 Feb 2003 | Don Schenck said...

I got a new clutch installed on my 1994 SAAB 900S and it is great.

I was in Orlando last week, enjoying nice weather while y'all were getting snowed in back home. Had a good Cuban cigar and a lot of other good cigars.

Got stranded in Chicago for two days. Saw the museum at the Art Institute.

31 Oct 2003 | Debt Consolidation said...

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20 Nov 2003 | motorcycle insurance information said...

cheese...mmm

17 Jan 2004 | Rook said...

At WWDC, I listened to Apple representatives make some excellent points about taking the time to build a 100%-compliant Aqua application, and I think all developers need to look beyond the code and listen to what the folks at Apple have to say

17 Jan 2004 | Judith said...

At WWDC, I listened to Apple representatives make some excellent points about taking the time to build a 100%-compliant Aqua application, and I think all developers need to look beyond the code and listen to what the folks at Apple have to say

17 Jan 2004 | Ursula said...

At WWDC, I listened to Apple representatives make some excellent points about taking the time to build a 100%-compliant Aqua application, and I think all developers need to look beyond the code and listen to what the folks at Apple have to say

17 Jan 2004 | Ellis said...

For example, if you see an AIM window peeking out from behind your browser and you click on it, that window will come to the front, but the main application window will not. The Mail.app/Activity Viewer is another example. The Aqua system of layers works well in many instances, but not in all. Thank goodness that the Dock is always there to come to the rescue. I know that clicking on an application icon in the Dock will always result in not only the application coming to the front, but also any non-minimized windows associated with it. And if the application is active but no windows are open, clicking on the Dock icon should create a new window in that application.