 |
| Adam (front) with Mike and lunch – PEI |
Lenovo registration fail
Why, oh, why does Lenovo require a salutation for their products?
It’s none of their frickin’ business my gender, marital status, or profession.
Further, they get it wrong. In standard English usage, Miss is not an abbreviation.
A sense of place
Americans are an unsettled people. Census records (PDF) show that a third to nearly half of us moved at least once in the previous five years. The period 2005-2010 showed the lowest rate, 35.4 percent, in the past 40 years.
 |
| Geographical Mobility: 2005 to 2010 |
Even though the unemployed have a higher mobility rate than the general population, the collapse of home prices seems to have kept people in place. Most moves, when they do take place, occur within the same county.
We still like to keep in touch. A study of our phone call patterns shows how frequently we call people within certain regions.
 |
| The Connected States of America |
Worcester makes a lot of calls within the Northeast, but has surprisingly strong phone connections to Florida and southern California and Arizona.
Americans aren’t the only ones to move, to shake off our past and plot our futures. A hundred years ago, we had a time of singular convergence. Although there’s no record that they ever met, we learn from a BBC story that Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin lived in Vienna.
 |
| BBC — 1913: When Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin all lived in the same place |
None of them was born in Vienna and all changed their names before making the 20th century.
The time is right
More than enough has already been said about yesterday’s bombings with much more to come. While it’s too early for us to know what it all will mean, it is the right time to reflect on the ways that good deflects evil.
 |
| For those who put themselves in harm’s way for our sake. |
More on passwords
When I went to BJ’s to create an online account, I dutifully created a password with at least eight characters, including at least one letter and one number. As standard practice, I also include a punctuation mark, making password cracking that much more difficult.
99.wharlG
BJ’s took exception to my choice. but did so only with a suggestion.
If a password should only contain alphabets (sic) and numerics, (sic+1) etc., then I would still be permitted to use punctuation characters against their advice. Grumble, grumble.
One of an occasional series.
A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we’d be Focused More-ons.
We wish you a Spammy Christmas. Please buy our watch.
It’s the first Christmas sale of the the new year. Granted, the offer comes from a suspect source.
But, hey, even spammers need to get an early start.
Fading snow
With temps climbing into the 60s today, I decided to tempt fate and move the snow blower from the front yard to its summer place by the sheds. The last chunk of snow, well, really, ice, is almost gone from our deck.
The corner of our yard, sheltered from the sun, is still snow-covered. At the camp, there’s still a foot or more of ice that’s been pushed into the cove by the strong northwest winds.
I’m guessing that it will take at least a week, maybe even two, before the cove is open. We’re still hoping to open up around the first of May.
Undisturbed
When we worked in cubeland and needed concentrate, we’d often put up a virtual door across the cubicle entrance. The door was a long piece of masking tape with a Do Not Disturb sign stuck to it.
Some people don’t even have a cubicle and so must become their own door.
 |
| via Boing Boing |
Best uses for old tech
You might not think that disk drives are obsolete. Increasingly, though, solid-state drives are replacing the types with spinning disks. The solid-state devices (SSDs) are faster, lighter, and consume less energy. SSDs are more expensive, but the other features outweigh the cost for sleek laptops.
In addition, you might have upgraded a desktop system, replacing an old drive with a higher-capacity one.
So, you’ve got an old disk drive sitting around. What can you do with it?
Make cotton candy, of course.
 |
| Turning an Old Hard Disk Into a Candy Floss Machine |
John C. Wharton, a candy maker, and William J. Morrison, a dentist, received a patent in 1899 for “certain new and useful improvements in candy machines.” (US Patent # 618,428). This bit of hackery builds on that patent with modern tech and spare parts.
via LifeHacker
One of an occasional series of best uses and reuses for old computer gear and related stuff.
Educational merry-go-round
Bill Cosby talked about how the grown-ups “improved” the playground by adding monkey bars and other malevolent inventions that were deemed fun for kids. He vowed never to play on any playground equipment that he didn’t see adults using.
He tried the merry-go-round once. “You sit on it and three of your friends push you around in a circle for five minutes and then you throw up.”
I was talking with a middle-school student recently. She said that she likes math but is terrified of the upcoming MCAS test.
Tracy Novick recently blogged that sixty percent of adults failed a Rhode Island math test required for high school graduation.
If testing is such a good way to prove that we’re competent, why don’t adults have to re-take the graduation exams to prove that they still deserve their diplomas and degrees? Why do we put kids on rides that we won’t use ourselves?