We just picked up our bibs for tomorrows half marathon and a number of our friends (ok, that number would be one) asked if they could track us somehow on the run. One of the cool little applications I have on my google phone is a GPS tracker that will allow you to track us. So, I'm going to carry the phone while we run, and you can follow us (hopefully) at http://www.instamapper.com/ext?key=6207536769144993735. We start running at just about 730a pacific time (that'll be 1030a for those of you on the east coast), so feel free to watch.
Speaking of the google phone, Patricia and I are about 80% of the way through writing a tech book on the Google phone. If you're curious, click on through and buy it.
We put in an offer on a house. Offer has been accepted. Now, we wait for the survey.
If you know us, you know we've been searching for a house for quite a few months now.
We're suddenly faced with four houses that, as opposed to the ones previous that had 1 or 2 big obstacle, all have 1 or 2 little obstacles we (think) we can deal with.
We want to know if anyone has any opinion on any of these houses. If you've already given your opinion to Patricia, no need to reshare. We have reasons for loving all of these, and they are all different reasons. Ping me one-on-one and I can break down the reasons for each, but I'll let you just think on what you see first.
The wife and I are really doing great things over at http://www.cooklocal.com. Seriously. Come over there and check it out.
One of my favorite webcomics right now is the completely random chainsawsuit. I love Kris' work in general, Starslip Crisis and F Chords both have great ongoing storylines, but for a bit of randomosity, it really fits the bill. If you've listened to the Webcomics Weekly podcast, you've heard a lot of Kris and, in reading chainsawsuit, you can really hear Kris just pulling out all stops and throwing stuff at the strip that a traditional narrative could never hold.
I received the following email. Can you spot the inefficiency in action?
John, when you get in can you stop by? There are some places where I have found some data that you did not on these hosts. I’d like to share the source with you.
If you follow my shared item feed, you know I read a lot of webcomics.
Well, hell, you know I read alot.
So, to follow the current meme of 'pointing to three webcomics I follow':
Wondermark - David Malki ! does some amazing stuff. He documents the process he follows here, but you may want to take that with a grain of salt. David gets extra points for his alt-text captions which oft-times are the second punchline to the strip (and occasionally funnier than the 'easy' one).
Cat and Girl - I'm not sure I know how to summarize Cat and Girl, but the fact that they have a bumper sticker that says 'My Other Car is a Pynchon Novel' might help clarify.
Nedroid - Harder to summarize than Cat and Girl. Just go read it.
As I look at it, what all three have in common is, well, pretty much no coherent storyline. For instance, I couldn't tell you to go read Goats now because of how awesome it is because, well, there's a veritable shit-ton of history in the strip and I have trouble telling you to pick it up right now without expecting you to read a good 3 years worth of strips. But Wondermark's are generally one-offs and Nedroid and Cat and Girl, while they have mini-arcs, are generally pretty standalone. Sure, the characters are what they are and stay in the strip (in other words, it isn't The Far Side), but it's also pretty... well... you don't need to read too far back to get it. Tho I really recommend digging into the archives for fun.
Now, maybe if you're nice and leave me some comments, I'll actually post all the webcomics I follow. =)
Follows is an email detailing this past Saturday's funtimes that I sent to Consumerist.com. Enjoy!
So, here's a fun story, one that I'm willing to accept some blame on.
Last week, Toys R Us had an ok little sale where you could buy one Xbox 360 game and get one at half price.
Not an *awesome* sale, but good enough.
I put off buying anything because, well, money is tight, but, near the end of the week, the wife convinced me that the two new games would be ok to buy.
Well, great, I've been looking at finally getting The Orange Box and, since it was $30 online, finding something else to get equally "inexpensive" in the store.
But, when we got to the store, The Orange Box was list price of $60. Well, I'm not a complete idiot, I knew that I'd save more money if I went to the online store and bought it there, since the sale was valid both online and in the brick and mortar store.
So, we head home and try and figure out what the other game we want is. In the end, around 915pm Pacific Time, we decide that Lego Indy calls to her more than Assassin's Creed, so, I go and place the two games in my online cart.
Lo and behold, no sale price. I knew it should be reflected because it had earlier as I was moving things in and out of the cart trying to figure out which to buy. I look at the clock and realize 'The fools! Their shopping cart is on east coast time!'
So, I head up and fire off a quick email to their customer support: Hi, I headed out to a Brick and Mortar store today to pick up a couple of Xbox 360 games to take advantage of the Buy 1, Get one half off sale. I was surprised to see that the game is $60 in store, while only $30 online. Obviously, even with shipping and handling, I knew that it'd be cheaper to get the game online rather than in store. My wife and I discussed what game to purchase and, around about 9:15p, I went to place my order. Imagine my continued surprise to see that the sale is off, despite it still being 8/23 here on the west coast. I can only imagine that the servers are located on the east coast, thus my 9:15p is really Sunday morning and thus post sale. I'd really like to purchase Item#: 31331 and Item#: 775937 at the buy one, get one half off sale price. Is there any way we can make this happen?
Now, I realize this is partially my fault for waiting til the last minute to purchase, so, I'm completely fine with either of the two answers:
"Sorry, we can't give you the sale price, but, this is indeed an issue with our servers so we're going to try to fix it for future customers."
or
"Sorry that happened, since it's such a specific sale, call in to ###-###-#### and we'll place your order and make sure you get the sale price *and* we're going to try to fix this so future customers won't have this problem"
Perhaps you can see the common thread between the two acceptable answers: We will fix this problem for future customers.
The answer I got, however, was not acceptable:
Mr. Eddy, I do apologize that there is a difference between on-line and land-based stores. I am sorry for any disappointment and inconvenience this caused you.
The sale times are on Eastern Standard Time. I am sorry that we cannot get these products at the sale price. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.
If you have other questions, Mr. Eddy, please call 1-800-<redacted>.
Thank you for contacting Guest Relations.
So, does this mean that the sales in the Toys R Us brick and mortar store in Hawaii end at 3pm? Is this worth fighting (iow, any experience trying to fight the Giraffe)?
Or, is this common that a website sale is specific to the location of the server and not the customer? I mean, sure, if it was a European based store without a local B&M, I might not expect the sale to still be on at 9p at night, but, this is a store with a B&M about 1 mile from my house. Shouldn't I expect the sale to still be on at 9p? And, ultimately, why do I feel really put out that they're requiring me to call up to continue questions on this issue rather than email?
So. We have a couple free tickets about to expire on Jet Blue. We're thinking a November trip to the Caribbean is in order.
But we're stuck.
Aruba?
Nassau?
Puerto Rico?
We have two requirements.
Good food.
Not a strip mall.
Thoughts?Subject: Generic Babbling
In DataHour 11, you get substantially more things happening than happened in DataHour 10.
So, you want to figure out which particular data point might be bulking up to give you more records.
So, you effectively do:
SELECT datahour, a, COUNT(*)
FROM table
GROUP BY datahour, a
for each field A, B, C, D, E and F, hoping to find the particular field where it went from low to high.
There's got to be a term for this type of data analysis, but I can't figure out what it is.
Forget the old website example. This isn't particular to websites. Or emu births. Or lottery tickets sold. Fields A-F could just as easily be 'Client IP, UserAgent, CountryCode, etc' as it could be 'Weight, Height, Eye Color, Hair Color, Payment Type, etc'.
Recently, I came across the following ad on craigslist:
HENCHMEN NEEDED (London, but planned worldwide expansion)
Reply to: job-783766933@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-08-05, 2:34PM BST
20-30 henchmen needed for moderately-sized supervillain organisation with large expansion potential (fortresses built into geological structures, corruption of government officials, possible genesis of 'nemesis' vigilante). Electrical theme.
Applicants must be willing to learn new skills, including but not limited to operation of specialised 'lightning guns'. Applicants will also be required to wear specialised uniform when at work (functional rubber suits with my logo on front), except in cases where deception is required (posing as hostages in order to ambush vigilantes, etc).
Desired (but not necessarily required) in applicants:
-interesting deformations/obsessions/powers(?) giving rise to interesting nicknames (e.g. Claws, Pyro, Buzzsaw, and similar)
-unwavering loyalty
-being a corruptible government official
-ability to work as part of a close-knit team (unless interesting obsession is of the 'lone wolf' variety)
-grudge against any well-known vigilante
-flexible moral code
Equal opportunies employer. Both henchmen and femmes fatales absolutely welcome.
Great promotion opportunities - right-hand-man position constantly being unexpectedly opened. Would look good on any future supervillain resume/CV.
Send an email with details of any prior henchman work, or details of what is driving you to join the ranks of a supervillain organisation. Will reply to all serious applicants. Hope to hear from you, and with luck, welcome you into a rewarding and promising career!
- Jacque (The Zapper) Zerapi
* Location: London, but planned worldwide expansion
* Compensation: £20,000pa starting salary, with added commissions based around success of supervillain operations. Contracts negotiable depending on applicant's personal skills/powers.
* Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* Please, no phone calls about this job!
* Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
I, of course, needed to apply.
Greetings,
I would like to apply to the position of Henchman as posted to craigslist.org.
The majority of my career has been involved with a major evil corporation, based in the Pacific Northwest, whose end goal was to not only ensure that every household had a computer, but that their particular software was going to be on that computer. As naught but a cog in the machine, I toiled and toiled at the hands of unseen masters to help achieve this goal.
Luckily, all was not lost. I found a position in the belly of the beast at which I excelled, helping to run the online communities which tried to provide a sense of transparency into the organization. While the hint of hidden beauty is often far better than what you see when it is stripped naked, true evil is best seen clearly.
What is truly driving me to join the ranks of your supervillain organisation is that I have spent years toiling for an established organisation. I wish to be employed in a startup, to help that fledgling group become the true evil that it can become.
Do I have hopes and dreams of becoming a supervillain in the future? No, that would be stepping both too high and not high enough. My goal is to become the person behind the scenes, the one that the transparency never quite reaches to, hidden in a back office, whispering plans into the welcoming ear of the charismatic leader, or whoever will pay me enough to hear my devilish machinations.
Thank you for your time and for this opportunity. A more detailed resume and/or evil plan samples are available upon request.
One of my passions is finding/discovering/searching out new things. If you've known me for a while, you know I love finding new authors, new bands, new movies, new restaurants. I'm always on the lookout when driving around for places I've never been, be it a hole-in-the-wall BBQ shack, or a home salvage place.
But I can't come up with an encapsulating term that describes that.
I've penciled in 'exploration' but that sounds a little too Captain Cook and the Hawaiian Islands...
