hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy movie review - 29 Apr 2005
I just got back from seeing The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped. It was a fun movie, and having enjoyed the book, it was fun to see the characters on the big screen, but it didn’t provide the entertainment I got from the [...]
Categories: Movies and Theatre
movie recommendations - 28 Apr 2005
Yahoo has come out with a new service to recommend movies to you based on your history of movie ratings. The recommendations are powered by ChoiceStream, and so far I haven’t been all that impressed because they only show new releases in theatres and on DVD. What I was hoping for was a [...]
Categories: Movies and Theatre
google versus yahoo - 26 Apr 2005
Ben Hammersley recently claimed that Yahoo had become the new Google.
He wrote, “Google, it seems, has . . . been overtaken, . . . not by some new startup of ultra smart MIT alumni or by the gazillions in the Microsoft development budget, but by the deeply unhip and previously discounted Yahoo.”
I, along with Kevin [...]
Categories: Search engines
laughter the best medicine - 26 Apr 2005
Have you ever heard the saying, “Laughter is the best medicine?”
It reminds me of Jack Handy’s observation; “Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.” The saying is slightly off according to a new study, which found that happiness is the best medicine. [...]
Categories: News
random pixies CDs - 24 Apr 2005
I’m not a big fan of the The Pixies. In fact, I’d never listened to them before last week, when I got a free, out of the blue, unsolicited two-CD set of a live Pixies concert in New York City, in the mail. I have no idea why it was sent to me, [...]
Categories: Music
e-mail worse than smoking marijuana - 22 Apr 2005
According to a Guardian article, users who checked their e-mail frequently had an “average IQ loss [of] 10 points, more than double the four point mean fall found in studies of cannabis users.”
When I need to concentrate and focus on something the best way is for me to close my mail client to avoid distractions. [...]
Categories: News
what is 1 divided by 0? - 21 Apr 2005
A thread on webmaster world poses a question I had several months ago but never found a clear answer for.
The question is simple, but the answer is more complicated.
What is 1 divided by 0?
According to Google’s calculator, it’s 0, but I think they’re right out. The two answers I had found were infinity and [...]
Categories: My Thoughts
upgrading firefox - 20 Apr 2005
The Firefox team has released yet another version (1.0.3) but I have one major complaint. Every time I upgrade, I have to reinstall all the extensions. This has made me give up on having a lot of extensions, because I have three computers that I use on a regular basis. I used [...]
Categories: Web browsers
Opera 8.0 released - 19 Apr 2005
Opera 8.0 has been released. Get it while it’s hot.
Here’s an overview of the new features it provides.
Also, to get a free license you just have to refer 250 unique visitors.
Categories: Web browsers
ways to find low-priced airfare - 19 Apr 2005
I’ve recently heard of three new services to find cheap airfare. The first is called Kayak (although as far as I can tell it has absolutely nothing to do with kayaking), the second is Yahoo’s Farechase and the third is Sidestep.
I searched for the same roundtrip fare with all three of them and Kayak’s [...]
Categories: Travel
xm satellite radio - 17 Apr 2005
I’ve heard about XM radio for a while now, but I hadn’t entirely understood what it was or how it worked until I learned firsthand by driving a rental car that had it.
My one sentence summary for it is: It’s like cable TV for your radio.
You pay a monthly subscription fee ($12.95/month) and get more [...]
Categories: Technology
tips for telemarketers and junk mail - 15 Apr 2005
These tips for telemarketers and junk mail are all in good fun. The claims they make (like hitting # several times will remove your number) are probably false but I found them entertaining nonetheless.
1. Three little words that work.
The three little words are: “Hold on please…”
Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking [...]
Categories: Humor
hypercard and stuffit archives - 12 Apr 2005
If you use Linux and want to either read an old Hypercard stack or (possibly to access an old hypercard stack) decompress a stuffit file (extension of .sit) you’re in luck.
I had to do both and found that to read old Hypercard stacks on Linux you can use Dreamcard Player. It’s a slick application [...]
Categories: Linux
burning CDs on Linux - 11 Apr 2005
This is probably old news to most people, but I only recently purchased a CD burner so I haven’t burned all that many CDs. Getting it working on my Linux machine took a little bit of time, but now it’s up and running. At first I used command-line utilities to burn CDs, mainly [...]
Categories: Linux
voicemail play by play - 08 Apr 2005
I found a hilarious mp3 of a voice mail message at mycatharsis.com and had to share it. Below is the story of its supposed origin and though I can’t vouch for its veracity (Snopes says it is undetermined), I guarantee you’ll laugh or I’ll give you a full money-back refund.
In fact, I challenge you [...]
Categories: Humor
gmail shortcuts - 07 Apr 2005
As you’ve probably gathered from previous posts, I’m a fan of keyboard shortcuts, but for some reason I haven’t used them in Gmail. I think it’s because I’m not accustomed to using shortcuts on the web (aside from the web browser itself). In fact, I can’t think of a single web site besides [...]
Categories: Useful
fruit or vegetable - 06 Apr 2005
You’ve probably had someone gleefully tell you that a tomato was a fruit. I used to be one of those gleeful people. But then I began thinking about how to distinguish between fruits and vegetables. If a tomato is a vegetable, what about a cucumber?
I’ve heard several theories. Some say whatever [...]
Categories: My Thoughts
google maps has outdone itself - 05 Apr 2005
Just a few days ago I wrote about how Topofusion was more impressive than Google Maps.
Well, I’m less inclined to make such a statement now that Google Maps has added color satellite images in addition to the map view. It doesn’t have the .25 meter resolution that you get with Topofusion, but it’s still [...]
Categories: Technology
troubleshooting wireless networks - 04 Apr 2005
For those trying to configure a wireless network, this article about troubleshooting wireless networks may be helpful. Like most things, sometimes it’s as easy as could be, while other times it takes hours of troubleshooting. If it’s the latter, here’s a tip I learned after spending quite a bit of time trying to [...]
Categories: Technology, Useful
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