http://shane.curcuru.name/blog Another wicked pissah WordPress blog Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:15:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A grab bag of things this week. Douglas Hofstadter lectures and books. Sometimes overly intellectual, but often a real delight to read if you think about them. Sadly, I bet my GEB is lost at in my dad's house (which means: lost forever). HT to someone on Planet Apache. OK ... http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2010/03/recently-eeenteresting-musings/ Astute North American winter weather watchers know, as does anyone living on the Eastern Seaboard, that this winter's weather in the US has been really weird. Not just slightly unusual, but waaaay off in terms of the snowfall expected at various points along the coast - and elsewhere. The various ... http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2010/02/karmic-snow/ I was following a @monkchips link to IgnoreTheCode about smartphone touch keyboard design, and thought about a bigger issue. Why do we still use QWERTY? Sure, it's embedded in tons of hardware - both plastic/metal and muscle for many of us - but isn't it a good time to switch? The ... http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2010/01/why-dont-we-switch-to-dvorak/ First off, apologies to various people I haven't gotten back to recently, in particular M.G., M.M., and various ASF folks. I actually took vacation around the holidays, and spent several days not reading email at all (gasp!). First time in a long time, and then of course coming ... http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2010/01/year-in-review/ A few somewhat odd things happened in the world of shipping this week here in Shaneville. It's mind-boggling to think how many goods travel around the world every second with modern shipping companies. Sometimes, it doesn't seem to make common sense. Ordering new winter tires from TireRack this Tuesday, ... http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2009/12/strange-world-of-shipping/ Amused this morning when two adjacent spam emails were 1) a phishing spam for a bank, and 2) a purported anti-phishing security report. Imagine my disappointment when I opened the second and realized the Subject: line was bogus, and it was really some religious spam. Not as funny. http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2009/12/disappointing-spam/ Dear #Lazyweb - it's the holiday season, and there are a few simple electronics questions I have for you. Are Ethernet -> WiFi-G adapters really that expensive? I need a simple G wireless adapter for a DVD player that only has an Ethernet port. Isn't there some option besides ... http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2009/12/basic-electronics-questions/ My current Excel registry policy settings prevent me from saving spreadsheets to any 1-2-3 file type. And making it doubly ironic, my current Lotus Symphony (the new one, not the original one) settings don't include any 1-2-3 file type writers, either. Is this what over a decade of testing/building/coding ... http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2009/12/irony-of-ironies/ So what deals are you looking for tomorrow on Black Friday? And how many people are actually going out to the store, versus just shopping online, especially with the large number of retailers promising similar prices? And for the non-US readers out there: does anyone else have similar sales tomorrow, ... http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2009/11/buying-on-black-friday/ Which we've been reading to Roxanne slowly as a bedtime story. One of the first things she said when Amy was done reading the last chapter was: "Can we start again tomorrow?" I was so proud. The Hobbit is definitely one of those books that sounds better read aloud ... http://shane.curcuru.name/blog/2009/11/reading-the-hobbit/