Archive Page 2

Next Time, Use a Chess Clock for the Debates

I thought it was pretty obvious, last night, when the VP candidates were stretching their sentences in order to fill all the allotted time. Many answers started strong, but ended in an incoherent train wreck of talking points.

This is silly. Human brains immediately detect this crap and deactivate.

We should have a debate system that encourages the participants to make direct and succinct points when appropriate. Seems to me that a Chess clock would do the trick nicely.

Warren Buffett on Charlie Rose

Windows Wireless Zero Configuration Sucks

God I hate WZC on WinXP. Why does it make me type my WPA key twice? Why doesn’t it provide a way to turn on the damn echo, so I can see what I am typing. Yes I know it’s a password but after I type it for the 10th god damned time I don’t care anymore.

Oh, and for the love of god, why do you show 8 “circles” in the pre-filled password dialog regardless of how long my pass-phrase actually is? This does not inspire confidence.

Objects in dialog may be larger than they appear.

Apple’s Wifi config is seriously better. (Not that it needs to be… Their supplicant actually works.)

Like, such as, the Iraq

(credit to Ganesh for noticing the similarity)

Confusion

My employer launched a new branding strategy today:

… It’s the power of Fusion. … It’s where customer needs, dreams and desires bond with our own passion for engineering.

Uhh, sounds like someone needs to take a cold shower. I just don’t get it.

Good thing I’m not in marketing, I guess.

Outlook 2007 Instant Search

Outlook 2007’s instant search is just awful. It rarely shows me the results I want — I have to hunt them down manually. It’s like web search circa 1995.

Apparently others share my opinion.

Olympian

Pop quiz: which of these individuals can snatch 83 kg?

Drew, Kassidy and Mark meet Melanie Roach

More about Melanie here.

Annoying QuickTime Bug

Apple: please fix this very old and annoying bug with browser-embedded QuickTime on x64 versions of Windows.

If only I could get John Mayer to install Vista x64, that would probably do it.

Asking Unanswerable Questions

Just got the follwing gem from Google Calendar Sync:

As a result of the sync operation 29 events will be deleted from your Google Calendar. Proceed with the operation?

The obvious problem here is that I am not provided information sufficient to make a choice. The only way to find out which events will be deleted is to click “Yes” and see what happens. †

I realize this was probably someone’s 20% project, and it’s beta software, blah blah blah. It still sucks.

† Actually, I still have no idea what the hell was deleted. If I’m late to your party, consider this a preemptive apology.

Tethering: The Next Big Scam

If you thought 20 cent SMS was bad, hold on to your hat.

The next big scam coming out of your favorite cellular telco is tethering. What’s tethering you ask? Tethering is the act of connecting your laptop to your phone in order to get on the net and take advantage of that data plan you already pay for.

Why would anyone bother to give this behavior a name? Well to charge you more money, of course!

But wait, you say, I already shell out for the “unlimited” data plan! Yes but it’s only unlimited within the, uhh, limits of AT&T’s imagination! War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Limited is Unlimited

Perhaps next they’ll sell us the relaxification plan, whereby we are given permission to use our phones while napping in a hammock.

Mark my words: this is going to be a big deal soon. Avoidance of tethering rates will be the number one reason to jailbreak your iPhone. Customers will find enormous surprise bills as AT&T combs their usage logs to track down the rogue tether-ers. Web forum goers will trade tips on flying under the radar.

I must admit that I’m a bit shocked at the lack of uproar over tethering. Apparently consumers are just accepting it. There are even folks eagerly awaiting a tethering option for the iPhone.

Someday my phone will just be a small computer connected to a wireless internet. Someday.

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