Notes for 12/4/2005

I know I have become soft compared to when I used to live in Inuvik, but man is it ever cold out today! I could really handle a vacation to somewhere tropical right about now.

• I gotta say as far as remix albums go, Britney’s new one is pretty damn good. I especially like the new track, “And Then We Kiss”, which is a Junkie XL remix. Speaking of music, Lindsay Lohan’s new album is a much better effort than her last, I’m quite enjoying it.
• I finished reading Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near this week. I won’t say too much as I intend to write a proper review, but it is an absolutely fascinating book and I really enjoyed it! I have also started reading Freakonomics, and the first chapter was very intriguing. I also like that the authors maintain an active blog on the book’s website.
• As promised I spent a little more time playing with Dave Slusher’s AmigoFish. While I’m not blown away yet, it works fairly well. I really wish there was a way to eliminate podcasts that don’t publish very often. When I look at the predictions AmigoFish generates, I want to see podcasts that publish often, not once a month! I assume the algorithm would catch on to this eventually, but there should be a way to explicitly say “give me only frequently published podcasts!”
• I spent most of yesterday working with Visual Studio 2005 – learning the subtle differences, testing out conversions of old projects, looking at the designers, etc. I must say, I am falling fast and hard for VS2005 and .NET 2.0 (if I can say such a thing about a technology that is). I’m really impressed with almost everything! (It runs a little slow, but I guess my computer is getting pretty old.)
• Ah more music stuff! Ever hear of the band 10 Years? They are fast becoming my new favorite band. Their album is amazing! Unfortunately, they don’t have any upcoming Canadian tour dates.
• This past week saw the Conservatives offer to lower the GST here in Canada. Any predictions on what the upcoming week will bring? I hope there’s a similarly outlandish idea – makes for a good blog entry!
• As you are undoubtedly aware by now, I changed the colors of my site this week. Thanks for all the feedback! I may change it again for Xmas…we’ll see.