Asshat/talent Ratio

Jess at hüdwnkdnoted this week that in the field of cake baking her asshat/talent ratio is high enough that if she was rude to you a slice of her cake would make you forget.

Is there anybody out there to whom I owe cake this month?

Joy First

Joy goes on trial July 9th for her participation in this demonstration of conscience. Joy says, “Seven of us were arrested in the Hart Senate Office Building one hour after the Senate voted to give Bush $100 billion in supplemental funding to continue the war. We will use the trial as another opportunity to speak out against the war.”

There is a party in Madison on the 7th, a send-off celebration before Joy goes on trial.

[tags]first joy, Joy First, how many more must die, arrest cheney, arrest bush, arrest feinstein, illegal war without end[/tags]

Tree-o, tree-ee-ee-o…

Daylight come and me wanna go home.
I bought my first Palm Pilot many years ago. It’s in the bottom of an old briefcase somewhere, useless, with a battery that’s probably corroded. I know it’s not charged. Power handling turned me off from the unit when the unit turned off for me. I mean, when that particular model was in its cradle, it drew power. Dead batteries became a way of life. Rechargeables could be used of course, but the unit didn’t have a recharging option. It was poorly conceived, and quickly replaced in the company’s product line by a better model. I didn’t upgrade. I waited for the best to arrive.

Well, the best ain’t coming. This whole Apple iPhone hoot got me thinking. Apple of course is the little tech company that sells underpowered and overpriced consumer grade computers to a dwindling market of rabidly sectarian users, a market largely comprising students and educators and the advertising industry. The “first one’s free” schoolyard marketing model helped the company develop market share through the early days, and some combination of Bay Area chic, ease of use, and design appeal helped them hang onto that market share in the face of commodity pressure during the Wintel years. Now that Vista is signaling the end of Microsoft as we knew it, it’s anybody’s guess whether Apple will flexibly adapt to a new market or snap in the winds of change.

Clearly the iPhone will require some nurturing and some deep pockets if it’s to become a viable product. AT&T has deep pockets, but they aren’t my cell phone service provider.

I had heard about the iPhone for months of course. Apple is great at generating buzz. I heard that it had the power of 14 remote control units in one tiny module. I heard that it would replace every handheld in your life… your iPod, your phone, your PDA. I heard that it would be the best thing since the Magic Bullet. I heard that there were battery issues that make the iPhone more of an upscale toy like an iPod than a useful tool like PDA/cellphone combo.

I looked at tha specs for the Apple iPhone. I looked at the specs for the Palm Treo755P.

I bought the Treo. With rebates it cost me about half what the iPhone costs, and I renegotiated the service plan to save some money there too. Then I went wild and bought about $175 worth of accessories (including a car charger, a nice Plantronics bluetooth headset and a 2GB memory card) for $135, and I still got out of there way cheaper than I would have with a new iPhone and an AT&T service plan.

Plus, the Treo has a nice useable qwerty keypad.

[tags]eat me ma bell, Treo 755p, Steve Jobs strikes out, is that an iPod in your pocket or a TV remote[/tags]

Ordinary guy

A lot of what I write is voiced like it was spoken by my dear Aunt Hentic. That’s because I’m as simple as she is. Auntie waxes eloquent below in a comment about preparing brown bag lunches. But is that what it’s really about? I don’t know.

Last night I dreamed my boss was my dentist, and at the end of a recent visit she had neither floss nor toothbrush to send away with me. Instead, she gifted me with a half gallon container of upscale hair product. I hugged her in thanks but she was a little stand-offish. Hanging from her wall was a miracle of taxidermy, a stuffed five foot diamond back rattler. I looked at it and thought, “This is very symbolic.” It looked back at me.

When I woke up this morning I thought I might contrive a quick post about that dream. When I got to my desk I found email to the EGR list about a dog story. Coincidence? Perhaps.

[tags]snakeskins or sheepskins, gel for the combover, hard boiled yegg, snake eyes, synchronicity[/tags]

Happy Birthday Mr. Noded

It’s James Roberts’ birthday. Stop in and wish a him a good one. I did, and I found out about the new Gibson novel! Thanks jr!

[tags]jr, James Roberts, duly noded, pretty pictures, william gibson, spook country[/tags]

ornery Fellow

I received a letter today from the Chairman of the Sociology Department at the University of Wisconsin. It said, among other things,

Dear Mr. Paynter:

On behalf of the Department of Sociology of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I would like to offer an invitation as an Honorary Fellow in our department from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2024.

…. The status of Honorary Fellow gives you access to university libraries as well as some other privileges.

More than shameless bragging here, this post is my expression of delight that I’ll be privileged to work at the university this year with some brilliant and principled people as I attempt first to understand the drivers that influence racial disparities in criminal justice administration and how these disparities affect us culturally and personally, and second how public policy formation may proceed to achieve dramatic changes for the better in the current situation. My purpose will be to share my deepening understanding more widely with the general public and to organize a modest movement for social change around that shared understanding.

(Friends will smile as well at the fact that I have been given a key to the gate in the JSTOR wall.)Wish me luck.

Missing Meg…

 

House of Mandarin

It’s been a year since she left us.  Here are the patches from her quilt.

 

 

 

frank

Stu, our dear friend, who lives in Germany but blogs in English and German. Always a good read. Had to put him back in the first row so we can find that smiling face.

Yo Kim! Kim of Michigan who writes little gems. Kim is the doodle bug expert and image maker.

cindy

shirl

Noded. A special day to you. Oh yes! The excellent photography and the polaroid border dude...

Morgan Brown

daisy

susan

Col. Mustard in the Library with a Hammer

golby in South Africa

paul

Too funny. Go out to Krugle to see how they got in and land on code they ripped off at Mandarin. It's OK to rip it off but this one is ha ha funny cause they are sposed to be a technical site. In Germany they take our code and rework it in German. Some have reworked it in Bahasa. And countless have reworked it and presented it as education material in languages I know nothing about. That is great. Theirs always looks better than mine. Online since 99 so the design is dated and i'm too old to do it over. There are hundreds and hundreds of pages at mandarin and i still recognize my code. i don't borrow code. Some people use books, some search for examples on the net. I've worked with those types. Me? I just make it up as i go while they are pulling code examples and trying to figure out what it does. i code my own. been sharin it since 1984 but don't tell anyone cause they will know that i'm really that old. and when the internet was a black screen with green text and we could help people with questions. krugle is exactly why some developers can't write their own code. i think it is necessary to be able to do all of it without looking at a book. serious developers that is. ah, that is too serious. krugle will show me what? the only code i've seen worth stealing is rb. that dude can actually make up his own shit. and it pisses me off that he knows how to use color. and words. and stuff like that. steal my cobol, steal some php, python anyone? steal the database design. that was pure genius. steal ...oh, i gave that code away to the national marine fisheries service and got commendations, and from the sas institute back when they used to thank us. but no, nobody wants real code. jes some html and css and ...the easy stuff. they never taket the good stuff. I've fallen into Krugle and I can't get out!

Weird news.Oops. Need to check that. Exploding Cigar. Tales of the weird...

Janice. Janice, a Philippine site with friendly photos and fun...

photo of dave

Alan.Our friend Alan from the San Francisco Bay Area. Trips to Disneyland, Seattle, and going to China and Hong Kong!  Mozilla and IE. Posting more frequently!

gary

Carmel Indiana

Now in Riverton, Utah. He is a Safari dude. A two-time father who has finally found time to start posting again.

rieke

DIPTA

Great pics of New Orleans CrabAppleLane. Rob Ferrara in Bush Louisiana USA.

Gary Turner. The idea man.  Gary Turner lives one hour north out of London in Northampton, England with his wife and daughter and he describes himself as a passionate technologist and a visionary.

Talk Left: The politics of crime

doc

2 Flower

Cassie the breadmaker and more. A darn good blog.

stephen

Leslie I know you come here. Say something! Leslie grlinabox who now has a face. She is getting her own dot.com name soon. Soonday.

MJ

Liz

dropcaps

punkclown

ilana

Angie

Alex lives in Japan right now, on the US Air Force Base.Has lived in Hong Kong and Uruguay. Have husband will travel.Alex has students from the countries affected by the Tsunami.

dropcaps

? not gone?

shirl

riri

bill

yep. it's a mystery and they think HE is the guru of all gurus. they think he is a he. for a she they could not appreciate the intensity.

The Chrocet Blog. You will get hooked.

Kuan GC Gondolier Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia

Richard is not a blogger but his creations are worth viewing. It must feel good to make things. Welcome to Mandarin my friend.

Flightless in cape town

Coding whiz

Paper Clipping