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Recent Comments
| On College Football 2022: Week 6 Recap and Week 7 Pre... Ken said: |
| Yeah, we've both had our share of hope and disappointment in this game. Let's just hope for a good b... |
| On College Football 2022: Week 6 Recap and Week 7 Pre... Dan* said: |
| I'm not sure how I feel about this game. On one hand, I feel pretty optimistic that we have the tale... |
| On College Football 2022: Week 1 Preview Dan* said: |
| Glad to see you'll be back writing football again, Ken! Congrats on the easy win today. You didn't ... |
| On College Football 2021: Week 10 Recap and Week 11 P... Ken said: |
| Yeah, sorry one of our teams had to lose. I've come to appreciate Penn State as a classy and sympath... |
| On College Football 2021: Week 10 Recap and Week 11 P... Dan* said: |
| Hey Ken, congratulations on the win yesterday! Some really odd choices by our coaching staff in that... |
Articles
Page 1 | ... | Page 14 | Page 15 | Page 16 | ... | Page 41| We might have to go through with this thing after all | Friday, 2008 May 2 - 5:28 pm |
| Flush the bombers, get the subs in launch mode. The on-again, off-again Microsoft-Yahoo merger might be on again. A lot has already been written about the proposed merger, and my overall take is that most business guys seem to think it's a great idea, and most technology guys seem to think it's a terrible idea. Both arguments have some merit. I figured I'd take a little time to explore the pros and cons. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| I Suppose That WOULD Be Annoying | Wednesday, 2008 April 30 - 10:08 am |
| At first I thought this was an article from The Onion. People of Lesbos take gay group to court over term 'Lesbian' ATHENS, Greece - A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world's gay women. Full article here. |
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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha |
| American Idol 2008 Week 11: Top 5 | Tuesday, 2008 April 29 - 8:29 pm |
| Carly was the surprise loser last week. This week: Neil Diamond. Way to be modern and relevant, guys. This is turning into "Senior Citizen Idol". Also, NOTE TO ANNOYING FRONT ROWS OF AUDIENCE: STOP WITH THE RHYTHMIC HAND-WAVING, YOU LOOK LIKE IDIOTS. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Proof | Thursday, 2008 April 24 - 9:30 am |
| Remember this post, where I noted the recurring pattern of Apple's stock plunging after announcing first quarter results, only to have the stock completely over the course of the year? Remember when I said Wall Street investors must be idiots? The day before the announcement, on January 22nd, Apple stock closed at $159.64. The day after, on January 23rd, Apple stock plunged to $139.07. The stock eventually hit a low just under $120 per share. As of right now, Apple's stock price is $162.55. Apple's second quarter earnings report indicated a remarkable rise in Mac sales. Though iPod sales were essentially flat compared to last year, I think the Mac sales number is more important; Apple will pick up a much larger "halo effect" as new Mac owners purchase more software, accessories, and upgrades. Watch for the stock to rise considerably in the run-up to the rumored introduction of the 3G iPhone. And for those who are interested, a 3G iPhone has become a stronger possibility now that one of the two major obstacles has (according to the rumor mill) been resolved: Apple may have found a low-power chipset that will allow for 3G communication. I'm still not sure how they plan to address AT&T's poor 3G coverage; perhaps they'll still market the current iPhone for areas not covered by 3G, at a reduced price. |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Best News of the Day | Tuesday, 2008 April 22 - 9:34 pm |
| Masturbation May Prevent Prostate Cancer. |
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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha, interesting |
| New Catch Phrase | Tuesday, 2008 April 22 - 8:16 pm |
| One of Amy's co-workers noted about me: "He's funny. Not too funny, but funny." Here's an example. While watching the show "Captured", Amy made the observation that murder victims were almost always nice, friendly people. "It's always the nice ones that killed. Maybe I should be a bitch." My response: "No, it's just that they don't put it on TV when the bitches get killed. No one cares. Ain't no milk cartons for the bitches." Ain't No Milk Cartons for the Bitches. We laughed for, oh, several seconds about that one. |
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Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha |
| American Idol 2008 Week 10: Top 6 | Tuesday, 2008 April 22 - 8:04 pm |
| Observation: instead of Ryan Seacrest giving us his signature "THIS.... is American Idol" opening, I'd like to hear James Earl Jones do it. Kristy Lee Cook went out last week, at last. This week: show tunes! Specifically, Andrew Lloyd Webber music. Expect a lot of, er, drama. I think Jesus Christ Superstar offers the best chance for the contestants not to seem overly theatrical. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| American Idol 2008 Week 9: Top 7 | Tuesday, 2008 April 15 - 8:04 pm |
| Michael Johns went out last week. This week's theme: Mariah Carey, guh. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Learn Something Every Day | Tuesday, 2008 April 15 - 12:33 pm |
| It's possible to be allergic to water. Sort of. Maybe. Specifically, there's a very rare condition called aquagenic urticaria (water-related hives) that causes a person's skin to react to water with rashes and blisters. Supposedly, there was a famous case of this some years ago, where a girl named Heidi Falconer was diagnosed with the problem; she had to be treated with a Swedish foam product that created a waterproof barrier for her skin, so she could do everyday things like taking a shower. This smells a lot like an urban legend, and there's very little reliable medical information on this condition out there on teh Internets. So I'm not really sure how real this all is. "Aquagenic urticaria" is more of a symptom description than an actual disease, and some suspect that hypersensitivity to chlorine is a more likely cause of the problem than water itself. Also, it doesn't appear to be a histamine reaction, like most allergies. So "allergic to water" might be stretching the truth a little bit. |
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Posted by Ken in: interesting |
| Deep in the Heart of Taxes | Sunday, 2008 April 13 - 4:40 pm |
| During tax time last year, I was shocked into a temporary state of Republicanism when I found that my various sales of Apple stock caused me to owe several thousand dollars in capital gains taxes. After squeezing every drop of [legal] deductions out of my returns, I still got socked with a combined federal and state tax bill of about $5700. This year was somewhat better. I'm actually getting some money back on my federal return. I still owe money on my state return. I blame this on the bizarre NC-4 tax withholding worksheet, which somehow told me I was eligible for eight exemptions on my state taxes. And I believed it. D'oh! So between my federal and state taxes, and the stimulus-package tax rebate that'll be coming, my net is somewhere around... zero. Which is good, I guess. There was a question on Yahoo Answers recently (more of a rant than a question, actually), that went something like this: if all the damn liberals are so much in favor of higher taxes, why not make an optional line item on the tax return, so liberals can voluntarily pay more? I answered thusly: "Sure, sounds reasonable. Also, conservatives who want lower taxes should voluntarily avoid using taxpayer-funded services, like roads, public parks, and the military. If conservatives want to continue the war in Iraq, the should go fight there themselves. "Or maybe, just maybe, we should all get together and try to do what's in our common best interests, rather than just trying to maximize our personal gains." My response received a couple of thumbs-ups and a couple of thumbs-downs before the question was deleted by Yahoo altogether. It does make me wonder, though: are Republicans, because of their anti-tax stance, more likely to cheat on taxes than Democrats? And if so, shouldn't they be audited more frequently? |
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Posted by Ken in: life, politics |
| American Idol 2008 Week 8: Top 8 | Wednesday, 2008 April 9 - 8:18 am |
| Ramiele went out last week. This week's theme: Inspirational songs. Everyone sticks to songs they're comfortable with, and it ends up being a pretty good night. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Learn Something Every Day | Friday, 2008 April 4 - 1:48 pm |
| I'm a few days behind with factoids, so I'll post several today. There's little scientific evidence that drinking 64 ounces of water every day is necessary or beneficial. No one is quite sure where the "8 8-ounce glasses" standard came from, but the new thinking is more like the old thinking: drink when you're thirsty. The word "disquisition" means "an elaborate analytical or explanatory essay or discussion". I'm not sure if there's a Spanish translation for that word, but then again, NOBODY expects a Spanish disquisition. There are three elements that begin with the letter "D": dysprosium (Dy), Dubnium (Db) and Darmstadtium (Ds). Of the three, only dysprosium occurs in nature. Also, there are no elements that begin with the letter "W", unless you count "wolfram", which is more commonly known as tungsten (W). These facts may help you if you're trying to name all the elements from memory. |
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Posted by Ken in: interesting |
| April Foo | Tuesday, 2008 April 1 - 8:13 pm |
| Yeah, I was gonna do a big April Fool's post, but I just didn't have the energy to finish it. I did find a video of the best April Fools' joke ever, though. Be sure to watch until the end. |
| Permalink 2 Comment
Posted by Ken in: funnyhaha |
| American Idol 2008 Week 7: Top 9 | Tuesday, 2008 April 1 - 8:04 pm |
| Chikezie went out last week. This week's theme: Dolly Parton. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Learn Something Every Day | Monday, 2008 March 31 - 11:17 am |
| Today's factoid: Fructose melts at 104°C (219°F). Dextrose and glucose melt at 146°C (295°F). Sucrose melts at 186°C (367°F). The reason I'm interested in this is because I'm trying to figure out if the slow-cooking process I use for beef ribs will, in fact, allow me to use add barbecue sauce during the cooking phase. The sweetener in most bottled barbecue sauces is high-fructose corn syrup (a mixture of fructose and glucose). So presumably, if the cooking temperature reaches the melting point of fructose, you'll start to get carmelization in the sauce, and that will destroy the flavor. Cooking at 200°F should be low enough to avoid that. But I think I may have to experiment with it before trying it out on my rib-loving friends. |
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Posted by Ken in: food, interesting |
| Learn Something Every Day | Friday, 2008 March 28 - 4:24 pm |
| You can use the fresnel lens from a projection TV to make a solar mirror that's powerful enough to boil a quarter in 25 seconds. Kids: do not try this at home. A completely unrelated fact: Today I discovered that teenagers are throwing around the term "sponge-worthy" without understanding what it means. Kids: do not use this phrase at home. |
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Posted by Ken in: interesting |
| Learn Something Every Day | Thursday, 2008 March 27 - 7:12 pm |
| Today's factoid: In most of Northern England, the dialect doesn't have what's called the foot-strut split. This means that in that area, "cut" and "put" rhyme, as do "pudding" and "budding". I've long had a fascination with all the varieties of English accents. Most Americans only recognize one or two different kinds of accents from the British Isles, usually Received Pronunciation (RP, or "the Queen's English") and cockney. But someone from England could probably place another British person's accent to within 25 miles. Conversely, British people only recognize two or three American accents, like Midwestern, Southern, and sometimes Bostonian. I'd say the majority of Americans north of the Mason-Dixon line can recognize the distinctiveness of accents from Chicago, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, and New York (even distinguishing Manhattan, the Bronx, and Long Island); most Southerners can recognize the difference between accents from North Carolina, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, and Georgia. (Note for non-Southerners: I have yet to meet someone who has the stereotypical "plantation" accent from "Gone With the Wind". That'd be like meeting a New Yorker who still talks like Edward G. Robinson.) |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: interesting |
| Learn Something Every Day | Wednesday, 2008 March 26 - 10:27 pm |
| In the course of surfing the Internet (and researching answers for Yahoo Answers), I do several dozen Google searches a day. (There you go, a plug for both Yahoo and Google in one sentence.) And I find that I learn a few interesting things every day. So I'm gonna try a new regular blog feature: "Learn Something Every Day". I'll try to post at least one random fact I discovered or looked up that day. Today I looked up a bunch of stuff about the cost of the Iraq war and the cost of U.S. energy consumption, but I covered most of that in my last post. So instead of those facts, I'll tell you about potatoes. Did you know? Potatoes are very good for you. They're loaded with Vitamin C, potassium, B vitamins, and dietary fiber. They kind of have a bad reputation as a starchy food with empty calories, but a potato has half the calories of a serving of rice, and considerably more nutrients. So, enjoy that potato! Just go easy on the butter. |
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Posted by Ken in: food, interesting |
| 4000 lives and 500 billion dollars later | Wednesday, 2008 March 26 - 10:15 pm |
| The Iraq war is still going on. It's been five years now. It's like we've almost forgotten, what with the subprime mortgage crisis and recession and all. But yeah, people are still dying, and we're draining money into the desert. 4000 U.S. troops have been killed. And we've spent over $500 billion in direct military costs. We continue to spend about $10 billion a month. Let's look at what $10 billion a month would buy:
You get the idea. (Of course, this still pales when compared to the cost of health care in this country. But that's an article for another day.) Meanwhile, 4000 U.S. troops have died. That's two lives per day for every day of the war. It barely makes the news any more, when a roadside bomb kills a Humvee full of soldiers. But you can bet that for the families affected, it still matters. The good news? Only 10 months are left in Bush's presidency. 10 months. $100 billion. 600 deaths. |
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Posted by Ken in: politics |
| American Idol 2008 Week 6: Top 10 | Tuesday, 2008 March 25 - 8:31 pm |
| Amanda went out last week. This week's theme: songs from the year of the singer's birth. Read more... |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: television |
| American Idol 2008 Week 5: Top 11 | Tuesday, 2008 March 18 - 8:55 pm |
| It's the Beatles again... I guess tonight, we include Ringo and George. Read more... |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: television |
| MacBook Air | Sunday, 2008 March 16 - 11:55 am |
 For my birthday, Amy got me a MacBook Air.Now, this isn't something I would have bought for myself. It's not that I didn't want it... it's just such a luxury item, I would have felt bad getting it for myself. So in that respect, it's a perfect present: something I really want but wouldn't buy for myself. Amy was worried that I didn't like it, since it's taken me so long to blog about it. Nothing could be further from the truth... I love love love my new baby. Meet the new addition to the family, "Liesel". Read more... |
| Permalink 3 Comment
Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Miscellany! | Sunday, 2008 March 16 - 10:58 am |
| Wow, I haven't done a "miscellany" post in a while. But there are a few stories I've seen recently that are begging for commentary. The New York Times posted a flow chart that diagrams the path of your life depending on whether you were exposed to Dungeons and Dragons early in life. I think the best part of this diagram is the little square in the lower left that says "doubting the technical accuracy of this diagram". I am certain that people who are familiar with flow chars AND who played D&D early in life will end up in this square. The University of Michigan has won a contract from the United States Army to design robotic bats. This is presumably either to combat the hordes of robotic mosquitoes that the terrorists plan to use against us, or to bombard the Ohio State football team with robot guano. I, for one, welcome our new robotic bat overlords. Disney is reportedly exploring the idea of an "adult-oriented" theme park, near Disneyland in Florida. I'm not exactly sure what they mean by "adult-oriented", but this does remind me of when my friend Gary and I had the idea of a porno theme park called "Bush Gardens". (You can just imagine the possibilities... think of roller coasters entering tunnels, staff members dressed as famous porn stars, and a popular midway game called "Whack-Your-Pole".) |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: commentary, funnyhaha |
| Oh, the Drama | Thursday, 2008 March 13 - 9:55 pm |
| Well, I'm up to Level 4 on Yahoo Answers now. I've answered 325 questions, in topics ranging from law to, uh, vaginal discharge. And you know, up until now, I never would have thought the phrase "vaginal discharge" would appear on this blog. Twice. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: dating, interesting |
| American Idol 2008 Week 4: Top 12 | Tuesday, 2008 March 11 - 9:01 pm |
| It's the Beatles, specifically Lennon/McCartney, for the first time ever. Wow. This could be phenomenal or disastrous. The songs are so well known, they're gonna have to try to make them unique somehow. Also: my three-week moving averages start tonight. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| This is the kind of post I write after reading David Sedaris | Thursday, 2008 March 6 - 11:43 pm |
| You know, it's been so long since I've posted anything meaningful, I feel like I owe you something. So here's a little story for you. It's the story of when I moved to North Carolina. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: life |
| American Idol 2008 Week 3: The Girls | Wednesday, 2008 March 5 - 8:59 pm |
| 80s night continues, and Paula is more drunk than ever. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| American Idol 2008 Week 3: The Guys | Tuesday, 2008 March 4 - 8:58 pm |
| It's 80s night. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| American Idol 2008 Week 2: The Girls | Wednesday, 2008 February 27 - 9:48 pm |
| More of the 70s. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Your People Are Causing a Disturbance | Tuesday, 2008 February 26 - 10:15 pm |
| So I had another birthday recently. That makes me officially older than dirt. At least I still have a beautiful and thoughtful wife. Read more... |
| Permalink 1 Comment
Posted by Ken in: life |
| American Idol 2008 Week 2: The Guys | Tuesday, 2008 February 26 - 9:29 pm |
| It's 70s night. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Flu! | Wednesday, 2008 February 20 - 10:01 pm |
| I think have the flu. It might be just a cold, but it's starting to feel awfully flu-ish. I even got the damn vaccine shot. But apparently, this year's vaccine only protects against 27% of the flu strains out this year (it's typically 70% to 90%). They just plain got it wrong... and I can tell you, if there's a 73% chance that a typical person will get the flu, that translates to like 143% for me. Buh. Someone send me some orange juice. |
| Permalink 4 Comment
Posted by Ken in: life |
| American Idol 2008 Week 1: The Girls | Wednesday, 2008 February 20 - 9:57 pm |
| They're "in it to win it", says Ryan. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Obama Wins 10th Straight; McCain Widens Lead | Wednesday, 2008 February 20 - 9:31 am |
| Barack Obama handily won primaries in Wisconsin and Hawaii yesterday. He has extended his narrow delegate lead over Hillary Clinton. CNN estimates his delegate total to 1301, compared to Clinton's 1239. Meanwhile, John McCain won in Wisconsin and Washington, extending his delegate lead to 918-217. Mike Huckabee continues to refuse to withdraw from the race; still, McCain is all but ignoring Huckabee and instead is focusing most of his attacks now on the Democrats. |
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Posted by Ken in: politics |
| American Idol 2008 Week 1: The Guys | Tuesday, 2008 February 19 - 9:53 pm |
| Here we go. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Blu-Ray Wins | Friday, 2008 February 15 - 11:39 am |
| Wal-Mart is expected to drop the HD-DVD format in favor of Blu-Ray soon, joining Netflix and Best Buy in backing a single high definition media standard. That's it, folks... the war is over; Blu-Ray wins (at least, until physical media is dropped altogether in favor of downloadable content). So just to be clear: a superior technology that's more expensive and backed by Sony wins out over a widely available cheaper alternative. Somewhere, the inventor of Betamax is chuckling. |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| American Idol 2008: It Has Begun | Thursday, 2008 February 14 - 12:17 pm |
| Well. We've got our top 24 contestants for American Idol Season 7. Unfortunately, only half of them have received any significant air time on the show. The rest are virtually unknown. It's hard to handicap the contestants without seeing a little more of them. But with that being said, my early money is on these contestants: Amanda Overmyer. She's this year's resident rocker. She can belt it out, she's edgy and unique, and she seems genuine. Best comparison to previous contestants: Gina Glocksen from Season 6. Possible weakness: ballads might be tough for her. Michael Johns. He's ruggedly good-looking, he's got a good voice, and he's got that Australian accent going for him. Best comparison to previous contestants: Ace Young from Season 5. Possible weakness: might have a tendency to choose "safe" songs. Syesha Mercado. She's pretty, she impressively fought through hoarseness during the Hollywood auditions, and she's got some soul. Best comparison to previous contestants: Nadia Turner from Season 4. Possible weakness: a tendency to sound old-fashioned. Ramiele Macrowon Malubay. This might be a stretch, since we haven't heard much from her, but tiny and cute goes a long way. Best comparison to previous contestants: Jasmine Trias from Season 3. Possible weakness: it'll seem weird seeing anything but pop songs come from her mouth. I'll be able to provide a much better evaluation once we get through live performances with all the contestants next week. |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Obama, McCain Win Potomac Primaries | Wednesday, 2008 February 13 - 10:30 am |
| Barack Obama swept to victories by large margins in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. yesterday. John McCain won all three primaries also, but Huckabee came close in Virginia; McCain won 50% to 41% there. Hillary Clinton's deputy campaign manager stepped down yesterday. Clinton is counting on victories in Ohio and Texas on March 4 to prop up her campaign. Prediction: if Obama wins either state, this race is all but over. |
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Posted by Ken in: politics |
| Obama Gains Ground; Huckabee Wins Kansas | Sunday, 2008 February 10 - 8:24 pm |
| Barack Obama handily won primaries in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington, and the Virgin Islands today, closing the delegate gap with Hillary Clinton. Obama has lots of momentum on his side; on Clinton's part, she has disclosed that she had to lend her campaign $5 million of her own money, and today she replaced her campaign manager. Uh-oh, Hillary. Meanwhile, Huckabee won Kansas, and continues to carry the flag for disaffected anti-McCain Republicans. The puzzling thing is this: does Huckabee actually believe he can win? McCain's delegate lead is huge. How many campaign dollars does Huckabee want to spend trying to track it down? When will he, like Romney, eventually decide that he should step aside, in the best interests of the party? |
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Posted by Ken in: politics |
| Debate on Whether God Exists | Sunday, 2008 February 10 - 8:17 pm |
| I found this fascinating: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (best known for his TV show, "Shalom in the Home") engaged the noted atheist author Christopher Hitchens in a debate on whether God exists. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: commentary, interesting |
| A New Obsession | Sunday, 2008 February 10 - 7:23 pm |
| I've recently become totally hooked on Yahoo! Answers. If you're not familiar with this, it's a forum where people ask questions in a broad array of categories, and any idiot with a computer can post answers. Now, I am that idiot. At first, I starting poking through the computer section, figuring I'd have useful knowledge to contribute there, but there were too many questions like "How do I put pictures on MySpace?" or "My Windows crashed, what do I do?" So I got bored with that. But then I found the Singles and Dating section. Oh. My. God. It's a match made in heaven: thousands of lovelorn teens and young adults on one side, and my opinionated advice based on decades of dating experience on the other. True, the vast majority of questions are pointless to answer. A lot of them say things like, "I like this boy in my class, he smiled at me once, do you think he likes me?" What do you say to THAT? "Probably not; it's just a tick." But there are others. There are the people who are infatuated with their first loves, and don't know how to deal with life without them. There are the poor shy fellas who have never been on a date before, and don't know how to approach women. There are the people who are trying to figure out whether to stay with boyfriends or girlfriends who don't treat them well. These people, I can help... I've lived through all of that. The best thing? I think these people can actually benefit from my advice. I feel like I can really make a difference. It's cool. Sometimes I think I should do this sort of thing for a living. |
| Permalink 2 Comment
Posted by Ken in: dating |
| Breaking News: Romney to Exit Race | Thursday, 2008 February 7 - 1:12 pm |
| A Reuters article cites a "Republican Party source" who says that Mitt Romney will suspend his presidential campaign today. Judging from blogs and message boards I've been reading, the core of the Republican party is having a tremendously difficult time with this year's campaign. Of the candidates who remained until today, Romney may have come closest to matching their views on the issues that mattered most to them: the economy, and illegal immigration. McCain is widely criticized by conservatives for favoring an "amnesty" program, and has provided very little guidance on what he'd do to help the ailing economy. Huckabee has said that providing social services to immigrants is the responsible Christian thing to do, and has increased taxes on several occasions in Arkansas. What's a Reagan-era conservative to do with this? The anti-McCain sentiment among many conservatives is so strong, they'd rather boycott the election (or even, egads, vote for a Democrat) than see McCain in office. This includes the shrillest anti-liberal in existence, Ann Coulter, who remarked that she'd vote for Hillary over McCain. Turmoil. It's the new Republican Party. Coming soon: an analysis of possible running mates for Obama, Clinton, and McCain. |
| Permalink 2 Comment
Posted by Ken in: politics |
| Genius | Tuesday, 2008 February 5 - 10:56 pm |
| Google is famous, or perhaps infamous, for its strict hiring standards and its population of brilliant employees. So it was with some interest that I read about a security vulnerability in Gmail. Apparently, if someone manages to steal a Gmail session cookie (by snooping your network traffic), they can impersonate you and access your account. The reason this is interesting to me is that here on realkato.com, I was very careful to prevent this vulnerability. I do use cookies so that you can remain logged in to the site, but the cookie is tied to the IP address you're using to log in, so it can't be used by anyone who's snooping your machine or your connection (unless they also manage to grab your IP address). Now granted, I don't use SSL on my site to further protect your connections, but that's just because I'm too cheap to pay for it, not because I didn't think about it. So I have a security feature that Gmail doesn't. Nothing against all the geniuses at Gmail, but... hey, if I thought of it, shouldn't you have, too? |
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Posted by Ken in: site-business, techwatch |
| Super Bowl Commercials | Tuesday, 2008 February 5 - 10:44 pm |
| I went back and re-watched all the Super Bowl commercials. I think this year's crop was unspectacular, overall. I don't think the problem is that our standards are too high: I think the problem is that ad-writers have latched onto tired cliché formulas instead of making anything truly edgy and funny. There were some things that were funny, and some that were clever, but none that had the "wow" factor of, say, Apple's 1984 commercial. Best Ad: Talking Stain from Proctor & Gamble, for Tide to Go. Funny, interesting, different. Honorable Mentions: Pigeons from Fedex; Stone Circle from Cars.com; Mouse Trap from Frito-Lay (Doritos); It's Mine from Coca Cola. Peculiar but Interesting: Follow Your Heart from Careerbuilder.com; Talking Baby from eTrade.com. Pointless and Dull: What Is Love by Pepsi; Fiesta Platter by Taco Bell. Offensive or Disturbing: Language of Love from Bud Light, for offensive racial stereotyping; Thrillicious from Sobe Vitamin Water, for creepy lizards doing a Michael Jackson dance. Other ads ranged from decent to forgettable; I liked the Bridgestone ads and the Careerbuilder.com ads, but I was "meh" on a lot of the others. |
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Posted by Ken in: television |
| Super Tuesday Notes | Tuesday, 2008 February 5 - 10:20 pm |
| As of this writing, Super Tuesday isn't over, but preliminary results are rolling in... and there's no clear winner in either party. For Democrats, Obama seems to be picking up a lot of votes across western and southern states, whereas Clinton is winning solidly in the northeast. Since Democrats split delegates within states, it's becoming pretty clear that today's results won't decide anything. The exit-poll demographics are interesting: black voters are voting overwhelmingly for Obama; Hillary's strength is primarily coming from white women. For Republicans, Huckabee is showing surprising strength, leading in a number of southern states. But McCain has taken New York and its winner-take-all 101 delegates, as well as a swath of states across the Midwest. The conventional wisdom is that Romney and Huckabee are splitting the vote among more conservative voters, and McCain is benefiting. |
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Posted by Ken in: politics |
| Confluence | Monday, 2008 February 4 - 11:20 am |
| So tomorrow is Super Tuesday, and Wednesday is college football's national letter-of-intent signing day. If there were also a Macworld expo and an American Idol finale happening this week, the Real Kato Universe of Things I Follow Obsessively would absolutely explode. Fortunately, only two of the four things are happening, and I think I can wrap my head around both at once. In a single blog post, even. In election news, Obama has erased Clinton's lead in many polls, most notably in the critical state of California. The Democratic race will probably not be decided this week... in a lot of ways, that's bad news for the Democratic party, who will have to continue spending money on primaries instead of saving for the general election. The Republican party seems to be consolidating behind John McCain, though it'll be interesting to see where Christian conservative voters go if Huckabee drops out. As far as Michigan football recruiting goes, the big question mark is still whether Terrelle Pryor will come to Michigan or not. Many fans and analysts think he's leaning slightly towards Ohio State; while that wouldn't spell total disaster for Michigan, it would certainly hurt, especially considering that Michigan desperately needs a spread-offense quarterback. Michigan did pick up Justin Feagin, a two-way player who played both safety and quarterback in high school. If Pryor doesn't end up at Michigan, Feagin might compete for the starting job. Oh, I do have one quick "American Idol" note... did you catch Jordin Sparks singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl? I thought she did a great rendition. |
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Posted by Ken in: politics, sports |
| Microsoft to Buy Yahoo? | Saturday, 2008 February 2 - 10:51 am |
| So. Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion. I can just imagine a conference room full of Microsoft executives, poring through PowerPoint slides about "synergies" and "leverage". At that level, you can see how Microsoft would be desperate to fight Google in the web search and advertising arenas. But at so many other levels, this is an odd acquisition at best. Yahoo's Linux/PHP technologies won't fit with Microsoft's Windows-based technologies. The two companies have many products that are direct competitors (instant messaging, mail, search, maps); either they'd somehow have to be mashed together, or one would have to be killed off. Culturally, Yahoo has embraced open source and open web standards. Is Microsoft looking for a way to move in that direction, or to quash it? If Microsoft were to proceed with this, I think that five years down the road, most of what we know of Yahoo would be invisible or gone. Everything you see would be covered in garish "Windows Live" dressing... exactly the kind of poorly designed, ad-burdened, proprietary, heavy-handed mess that makes people eschew Microsoft for Google and Yahoo in the first place. Analysts will look back at this purchase as an act of desperation... and a colossal, $44.6 billion mistake. |
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Posted by Ken in: techwatch |
| Hell Yeah the Plane Takes Off | Thursday, 2008 January 31 - 9:10 am |
For fans of kottke.org and/or Mythbusters, I'm sure you were very interested in last night's Mythbusters episode, where they attempted to answer the old "plane on a conveyor belt" question. I've blogged about it before, but here's the problem again, in case you haven't seen it:A plane is standing on a runway that can move (some sort of band conveyer). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyer moves in the opposite direction. This conveyer has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyer to be exactly the same (but in the opposite direction). Can the plane take off? The answer is, as Kottke put it, "HELL YEAH THE PLANE TAKES OFF". Mythbusters demonstrably proved it, not just with a model airplane on a miniature conveyor, but with a real airplane sitting on a giant sheet of tarp, being pulled by a truck in an opposite direction of the airplane. Read more... |
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Posted by Ken in: interesting |
| Florida Primary Results | Wednesday, 2008 January 30 - 9:00 am |
Republicans:
Notes
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Posted by Ken in: politics |
| In Further News | Tuesday, 2008 January 29 - 8:26 am |
| If you happened to be driving by our house last night (which you weren't, because we live in the section of town known as "the boonies"), you would have seen clouds of billowy white smoke pouring out of every orifice of the house, and a few orifices of me and Amy. We THOUGHT we had pressed the "Self Clean" button on the oven, but apparently, we pressed the "Generate Toxic Smoke" button. You know, oven manufacturers really ought to remove that button. This may have something to do with the layer of turkey grease that lines the bottom of the oven. Apparently, that is the fuel that enables the Generate Toxic Smoke button to work. Now, some ten hours later, the house still smells of smoke, and the cats are still angry at us. "Hey, providers-of-food-and-cleaners-of-litterboxes, what's up with the smoke, yo? Also, we need more dangly bits of string." |
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Posted by Ken in: life |
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