After dinner with my folks last night, we rented I Spy. It was a real disappointment; we should’ve rented My Big Fat Greek Wedding instead. My dad called it quits after 20 minutes. My mom stuck with it until the bitter end, but we both considered it a waste of 90 minutes. You can’t win […]
I started reading Crossing the Chasm last night, and 30 pages into the book, I’m wondering where I fit along the Technology Adoption Life Cycle bell curve. Until now, I’ve always thought of myself as an innovator or early adopter. After all, I’m a computer guy, and I spend a lot of time thinking about […]
Richard Feynman’s memory is a blessing to us all. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! is a delightful collection of short stories about Richard Feynman’s life. It’s yet another one of the books on my reading list for 2003. I’ve been reading this book in small sittings over the past year — on the bus to […]
I’m worried about Wesley Snipes. I think he’s lost his touch. I recently rented Undisputed, a movie about a prison boxing match. Terrible. In brief, the heavyweight champion (Ving Rhames) ends up in jail, convicted of rape. A typical alpha male, he fights anyone who gets in his way. He learns that another inmate (Wesley […]
Sam Williams spins a compelling story about a man who is so passionate about a single idea that he ends up alienating most people he meets.
I finally finished reading Fred Brooks’ The Mythical Man-Month this past week as I was recovering from a nasty chest cold. Even though the book is now 25 years old, it’s still got some fantastic insight on why software projects are perennially late, over budget, and full of bugs. Still on my software engineering kick, […]
Every year around X-mas time I’m sure to mention the story about how It’s a Wonderful Life became a holiday classic due to a snafu with copyright law. Earlier this week, NPR reported on this very story: NPR’s Rick Karr reports on how a 1946 box office flop became so ubiquitous on television this time […]
I’m in the kitchen cooking some Latkes for the first night of Chanukah. I think we should rename it the “Festival of Grease.” While I’m cooking, I’m listening to Falco: the Remix Hit Collection. It’s not his best album, but it’s got an awesome beat (maybe I’ve still got Blue Man Group on the brain). […]
My parents bought me an external Firewire CD burner for a birthday present (back in June) but the thing didn’t work. When I met them for dinner last night, they gave me a new one which although is a wimpy USB 1.1 model, at least it’s a name brand (Iomega Zip CD650). Turns out that […]
I recently got a cell phone that allows you to program custom ring tones. So I programmed in the first 8 bars of the Ashim Theme that Mike Cafarella and I composed (with apologies to the Norwegian Folk Song) back in 1996. I can’t reveal the whole set of lyrics to the Ashim Theme due […]