“We have heard of at least one case where a company took steps to disable USB ports on their PCs with superglue,” SurfControl Australia’s managing director, Charles Heunemann, said.
Ahhhhhhhhhh… read the story at News.com.au
Google Knighted
Posted on June 29, 2006 ·
Well, almost. Getting the term “Google” included in “The definitive record of the English language” as a verb is the equivalent of getting knighted. Next time you say “I’ll google it“, it’s no longer slang, it’s proper English, meaning: “To use the Google search engine to find information on the Internet.
trans. To search for information about (a person or thing) using the Google search engine.”
(hat tip: John Battelle)
Related posts:
Update (7/6): Now, this is funny. Why is this on TechMeme a week later? How come everyone wakes up now?
The Motley Fool, Techdirt, InsideGoogle, IP Democracy, Business Filter, Digital Inspiration, Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim and Google Operating System
NASA’s Foamy Business
Posted on June 27, 2006 ·
A year old post of mine, titled Debris Falling from Discovery has been my most-read page ever. Another piece, Time to Dump the Shuttle also attracted a lot of readers:
“This is sickening… with all the billion$ spent on the Space program, we’re dealing with pieces of foam, tape, glue, pieces of junk protruding, falling off… are we talking about kids’s toy models or space-age design and materials here? As so many other’s stated, instead of band-aiding it, it’s time to dump the old Shuttle , and either build a brand new one, or leave space travel to the Russians … or perhaps Private Enterprise.”
I don’t want to write another “hit” article like this. Yet I can’t help but wonder reading this:
“The seven crew members of the space shuttle Discovery will arrive at Kennedy Space Center today to take one of the biggest risks of their lives. They have a 1-in-100 chance of dying during their spaceflight that begins Saturday.
Those, at least, are the official odds that NASA has given.
Michael Stamatelatos, who as director of safety and assurance requirements at NASA is the agency’s risk guru, said that number should be taken with a grain of salt, because NASA used to say the chances were 1 in 7,000 until Challenger proved that to be overly optimistic.
Two top officials at NASA took the unusual step of dissenting from the space agency’s decision to go ahead with the launch without fixing the potentially catastrophic problem of foam falling off the external fuel tank — the very problem that doomed Columbia 3 1/2 years ago.
The agency’s safety director and chief engineer wanted to wait and fix the problem. But NASA Administrator Michael Griffin decided a July 1 launch is worth the added risk for a variety of reasons.” (original story at CBS News, emphasis is mine)
I don’t know about you, but I think a 1:100 chance is really, really big. A “Business Decision” has been made, overwriting the Safety Director. This is as bad as it gets. I really don’t want to write another “sensational” post.
Update (7/4): Yet another crack in the foam is discovered … but NASA proceeds with the launch plans for today.
Related posts:
- Officials Clash Over Shuttle Safety
- NASA: the shuttle plot thickens
- who’s running this thing?
- the discovery of politics over safety
- Shuttle death possibility – 1%
- Big Trouble at Old NASA
Dell’s “Hottest” Laptop Ever
Posted on June 21, 2006 ·
Summer is here, and so are “explosive” laptops from Dell: The Inquirer reports a Dell laptop exploded at a conference in Japan.
The reporter is wondering when such an accident will happen on an airplane. He also has a suggestion: don’t use your laptop in your lap. Agree – and here’s another reason why male users should think twice before “laptopping”.
Update (7/29): Another Dell laptop ignites
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I’m sixty-four
Posted on June 18, 2006 ·
The inevitable happened: the Beatle whose “When I’m Sixty Four” became a hit 40 years ago is indeed 64. Today, on Father’s Day.
Sir Paul, who’s had a rough time with his divorce will get a special treat: he will hear a special recording of “64“, performed by his grandchildren, Arthur (7), Elliot (4) and Miller (1).
This will be the third Beatle-generation singing the song… the second generation was Julian Lennon, John’s son from his first marriage.
And now, thanks to Youtube, enjoy several video tributes to Paul McCartney on his 64th birthday.
Is Evil More Readable than Good?
Posted on June 15, 2006 ·
Dennis Howlett recently ran a readability test on some blogs he follows. The Gunning Fog index is a rough measure of how many years of schooling it would take someone to understand the content. The lower the number, the more understandable the content is.
This reminded me of another test I wrote about, the Gematriculator, which calculates the Evil / Good ratio of a website.
Now for the shocking result: I took a sample of blogs I read, and ran them through both test. Blogs with a higher Evil ratio appear to be more readable! Wow! But of course the sample was too small, to really see if there is strong correlation we’d need a larger sample. So, in the name of science (?) please fill in the form below, using the results from the Readability test and the Gematriculator:
If the form does not work in your feed, please click through to my blog to complete it. When I have a large enough sample, I will publish the statistics.
Thanks for your participation!
Update (6/15): The form I created is fairly basic, but there is a lot more you can do with Zoho Creator, as this animated tour demonstrates.
Betting on Ben’s Gap Year Travel Blog
Posted on June 14, 2006 ·
Too bad Alexadex is not for real money… otherwise I’d be buying shares in Ben Casnocha‘s so far dormant, but soon higly read Gap Year Travel Blog. A safe bet …
Youtube Brings Back Memories – Queen in Budapest
Posted on June 13, 2006 ·
I recently said in my Tiananmen post that Youtube allowed me to see parts of history that I missed in original, back in 1989. Well, here’s another one that has nostalgic value to me from 1986 in Budapest, Hungary:
(Watch the video on Youtube should the embedded player not work)The “weird” language is Hungarian, and Freddie Mercury is singing a Hungarian Folklore song. In 1986 the Queen performed in front of 80,000 people in a crowded stadium in Budapest. They also shot a full feature movie, “Queen Live in Budapest” featured the band members taking day trips into the country, including race-car driving, hot-air balloons, visits to the Royal Castle, Freddie buying up half the inventory in all the city’s antique shops…
I was a student then, moonlighting as translator for several bands visiting “behind the iron curtain”. Too bad my assignment was John Deacon who spent most of his time in his room… My friend, Gabor had a lot more fun taking Freddie to all those places, and teaching him “Tavaszi Szel”, the folklore song in the clip above. He had the English pronunciation of the lyrics scribed on his palm.Here’s another 6-minute video providing some background on the Queens tour in Budapest. (Hm, it says 72k people … all I know is the stadium’s capacity was 80k, tickets sold out long in advance, and lots of people got in with guest passes .. or without).
Update (9/27/07): For whatever reason this lil’ post got picked up by Queenzone.com and is now getting hundreds of readers. Funny… readers are asking “where’s John?”. Here’s a little piece of the video showing him in Budapest, outside Hotel Intercontinental ( I think it’s a Marriott today).
The guy sitting at the table, facing John, with his back to the camera is yours truly … my 3 seconds of fame 
A Tale of Flashdance, Microsoft and IBM
Posted on June 13, 2006 ·
The woman whose life was the inspiration for the hit ’80s movie “Flashdance” lost her bid in court Monday for a copyright interest in the film, which grossed more than $150 million at the box office in the United States.
Maureen Marder, the former construction worker by day and exotic dancer by night depicted onscreen by Jennifer Beals, released her interest in the project for $2,300 shortly before the film hit theaters in 1983. (Full story at the SF Chronicle)
$2,300 out of $150M … too bad. But a deal is a deal. Just like the deal Bill Gates made with Tim Paterson to buy his QDOS operating system for a grand total of $50K in 1980.
The small fact that Gates and company forgot to mention is that they already had a deal with IBM to develop the next generation Operating System, to be later known as MS-DOS. Still, the real loser in this deal is not Paterson, but Gary Kildall, whose CP/M was the foundation for QDOS.
On second thought, I take it back. The real loser in the deal was IBM, that allowed Gates to keep the rights to DOS and licensed it on a per-copy based royalty instead, essentially “creating” Microsoft, the Monopoly. They did not have a Deal Architect to advise them. ( A funny coincidence that on the day I talk about Flashdance, Vinnie quotes the Dire Straits).
Update (6/14): What a timing! Read Scoble’s piece: Oh, and my brother wrote MS-DOS.
This must be Dire Straits week, read Jeff Nolan here.
Finally, a flashback to Flashdance (should the embedded player not work, watch the video here)
Time to Load up on Flat Panels?
Posted on June 12, 2006 ·
DisplaySearch reports that “LDC desktop monitor market seasonal decline was greater than had been forecast for the first quarter of 2006….As LCD panel production continued to ramp in the quarter, LCD monitor panel inventories continued to build“
Hm, sounds like a buying opportunity… I want to see hot flat screen deals 
Talk about deals, Dell p***ed me off. Not in the personal way they did with Jeff Jarvis, just with their print promotions. The May catalogue arrived in the last days of the month (this is by design, Dell prints delivery date of May 24-26 on it), with travel and everything it took me a little while before checking it, but by now the promo codes are not valid, and the deals online are far worse than in the catalogue.
Now, I understand sometimes “hot online deals” only last hours… but shouldn’t print media promotions last a few weeks? Oh, well, I am not getting a Dell.
Update (6/13): Read Techdirt on Dell.
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