When pondering something, it’s usually a good idea to get some varying perspectives, so that you can make a better decision. According to Inge, my perspective is carnal:
You can look that word up, if you’re unsure of the definition. And now, I’ll return to the darkside.
I still haven’t decided if this story should make me laugh, or make me question the firm the poor woman worked for:
A Taiwan stock trader mistakenly bought $251 million worth of shares with a misstroke of her computer keyboard, meaning her company is looking at a paper loss of more than $12 million and she is looking for a new job.
Okay, on the one hand, the woman made a mistake. On the other hand, the computer systems were brand new, and there is no mention of whether she was given proper training or not. Maybe she was just thrown into using the new system? Who knows.
I can also see why she’d be fired – the company lost money. Or did they? Here’s what one executive for the firm said:
“However, with a good outlook for stocks in the second half, there are no plans to sell the shares in the near term.”
Profiting from an employee’s mistake – now that’s making the most of the situation.
Read: CNET News.com
In a recent post, Jason Kottke (who by the way, blogs for a living) raised a very interesting question, one that I had not pondered before:
Are you worried about the future glut of obituaries in national newspapers? Because I sure am. Think about it: because of our networked world and mass media, there are so many more nationally known people than there were 30, 40, or 50 years ago.
I had never really thought about that before, but I suppose it’s true. I know far more people who are considered “celebrities” than my great grandparents probably did back in their day. Jason goes on:
Frankly, I don’t know how we’re all going to handle this. Chances are in 15-20 years, someone famous whose work you enjoyed or whom you admired or who had a huge influence on who you are as a person will die each day…and probably even more than one a day. And that’s just you…many other famous people will have died that day who mean something to other people. Will we all just be in a constant state of mourning?
No, I don’t think we will. I mean, just because someone famous dies, doesn’t mean that there are millions of people who will mourn for that person. Indeed, just as celebrities enter our lives out of no where, I see no reason they cannot exit the same way. Take for example, Luther Vandross. He died at the age of 54 on Friday, and yet for most people, it’s just another news item. This is a man who released 14 albums and had each one reach platinum or multi-platinum status. Millions of people included him as a part of their lives. And yet, millions of people are not mourning. If four other people with similar levels of fame died today, would the world be any sadder? I doubt it.
Basically, there is only one Pope and personally, I think the mourning done for the Pope was extravagant, to say the least. There will always be those people who have reached a certain “celebrity” status that will be mourned by many people, but I think they will remain rare, no matter how many famous people we have.
Thinking a bit further, shouldn’t we expect the number of “celebrities” to normalize? I mean, if so many people are getting famous now, you’d think that in 15 years, it would be harder to be considered “famous”, and thus there would be less famous people.
Read: Jason Kottke
Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians and blue-state-residents! While my day wasn’t as interesting as Megan’s I’m sure (she’s in Ottawa), it wasn’t bad. I just got back from watching the fireworks, and while they certainly were nothing to write home about, they were better than previous years. I especially like how they ended with a barrage of red and white sparkly ones, looked very good. Sure didn’t last that long though. On the other hand, it could have been pouring with rain, so I suppose I should be happy we got any fireworks at all!
Earlier today I was in Millwoods, volunteering with Students For Literacy. It was really quite funny actually! Imagine a nice green park, with a small amusement park across the road, and food, face painting, bubbles, games, hay rides, music, and toys everywhere inside the park. Then imagine a small tent dedicated to reading. Where would you go if you were a little kid? Exactly. Needless to say, we weren’t that busy, but it was still fun. The kids that did come seemed more interested in making their own story than reading, which was just as well!
Afterward, Sharon and I went for dinner and coffee. We decided to go to BP’s, and because of the wait, we sat in the lounge which as of today is by law, smoke free! To us it smelled kind of like they used some powerful cleaner last night to try and get rid of the smoke smell. And then we went to Starbucks. Very un-Canadian I suppose, but I just can’t resist a Caramel Macchiato.
In other news, Happy Birthday to Jenn (heifer!). Oh, and did you see that Google Canada replaced the first “o” with a maple leaf? I’d say that was great, but they could have done more – you can bet that Google.com will be more dressed up in three days time.
The folks over at Podcasting News were at Gnomedex last week, and they were kind enough to post a little something about our robot:
Podbot is built around a tablet pc with WiFi connectivity, allowing it to be remote-controlled wirelessly. Podbot runs a piece of software called Podcast Wizard. The software, combined with the custom hardware, makes it possible to remotely control and record podcasts, save them to Podbot’s hard drive, and upload them to a web server.
They’ve got a really nice write-up, so check it out. If you’re interesting in checking out the Podbot, it may be making an appearance at the Podcast Hotel in September – with a few upgrades of course.
Read: Podcasting News
I dunno what it is, but for the last couple days now I just keep finding music I like! The latest is Bif Naked’s new album, Superbeautifulmonster. And damn, that’s a catchy album title, especially spelled the way it is.
The first single, which you’ve probably heard, is called “Let Down”, and it’s what I would call “classic” Bif Naked. Has the power and emotion that reminds me of “I Love Myself Today” from the Purge album. Some of the other tracks on the new album that stuck out for me are “Ladybug Waltz”, “The World is Over” and “Abandonment”.
One of the best songs on the album is actually a remake. Bif Naked does “Nothing Else Matters”, originally by Metallica, and it actually sounds really great! I hate it when an artist redoes a song and completely changes the way it sounds. Fortunately in this case, it’s evident that “Nothing Else Matters” a Metallica song. It’s interesting to listen to the original and the remake – same song, different gender for the lead singer.
I really enjoyed the album, and if you’re looking for some good girl rock music, you might too.
Read: Bif Naked
I don’t think there is much to this story, but it’s interesting enough to mention. Apparently Chairman Bill Gates was recently asked in an interview if Microsoft would consider allowing third parties to manufacture Xbox units, and he gave a very open answer. Now, some people think that Microsoft is looking at paving the way for Xbox clones:
“Clearly, everyone at Microsoft is thinking out of the box to increase sales. I mean look at the nontraditional way of introducing the Xbox on MTV,” [JupiterResearch analyst Michael] Gartenberg said. “It sounds like they are just testing the waters with a hybrid of the (white box) PC model and the (proprietary hardware) video game model.”
I can see the reasons why such a move would be considered – Microsoft makes far more money on games than consoles, so increasing the market for their games is a good idea. On the other hand, I am not sure if this would fly with end users. Even if Microsoft kept the base standards for a console very strict, one of the best things about consoles is that everyone has the same stuff – the playing field is level. I suspect that hardcore gamers would not react favorably to a clone culture.
Read: CNET News.com
The design for the new Freedom Tower to be built in Lower Manhattan was announced yesterday, and you’ve got to admit, it’s quite impressive. The new tower is built to last, with a base that is just incredible when you think about it, but it will also have reminders of the two World Trade Center towers:
The newly configured building would have no occupied space other than the lobby for its first 200 feet. It would be set at least 40 feet farther away from West Street-Route 9A, a heavily trafficked state highway. Many of its windows would be tempered, laminated and multilayered for extra protection against explosions.
“The tower we have now is even better than the tower we had before,” [Daniel Libeskind] said, congratulating Mr. Childs, with whom he famously quarreled two years ago over the first Freedom Tower design. “It asserts what the site is all about. The tower relates to the memorial, and rises in a symbolic way.”
The only unfortunate part about the building is that because it had to be redesigned, it’s construction has been further delayed, and is not expected to wrap up until 2010. I can’t imagine having lost someone in the famous attacks of 2001, but I suspect that having the new building up and complete would help close the book on that dark day.
Read: New York Times
Tonight the Edmonton .NET Wizards (don’t bother clicking, the site is horribly out of date) which Dickson and I manage hosted an event talking about Whidbey, or Visual Studio 2005. We had John Bristowe come up from Calgary to tell us all about the new changes in C#, VB.NET, the IDE, and the framework itself. The talk went very well, and it was really nice to finally meet John in person and have a chat.
The stuff I am most looking forward to is SQL Server 2005 and ClickOnce, two technologies we only had time to touch on tonight. They will probably affect my day to day development most. Hopefully we can host another talk on those topics in more detail some time in the future.
If you came to the event tonight, be sure to watch John’s Blog for more information, and check out the Visual Studio 2005 site at MSDN. And if you’re interested in the user group, rest assured we’re going to fix the website. It might be as simple as a Wiki, but it will be much easier to use and update than it is now!
Read: John Bristowe’s Blog
The latest version of my favorite news aggregator, NewsGator Outlook Edition, was released last night! I’m really happy with the way it works. Here are some of the new features, as described by Greg Reinacker:
Read/unread/deleted status of individual items is now synchronized between Outlook edition 2.5 and NewsGator Online (and all other applications using our system – more on that in a bit). Folder hierarchy is now synchronized between Outlook and Online. It’s all as it should be. As someone on the beta said, “it all worked exactly as I expected it to.” Nice.
There are lots of under the hood changes too, so it runs pretty fast, and very stable now. If you’re like me and you spend a lot of time in Outlook, there is no better aggregator than NewsGator. And with the purchase of FeedDemon, it’s only a matter of time before that application is also integrated into the new synchronization platform.
You can read the official announcement, the update Q&A, and download the new version.
Read: NewsGator
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