Happy Holidays
A very Merry Newtonmas to all our readers, both new and old.
Kathy Sierra has a blog
Kathy Sierra has a blog, Creating Passionate Users. Like everything else she writes, you should go read it.
OTOH, I think that she's over-generalizing in her post, "If you're over 35, do you have a clue?" We're both in our 40's and we're much hipper than our teenager. But that could also have something to do with the way we parent, too.
Secret Santa disappoints
Sigh... last month, I wrote:Yes, it's late November again, so it's once again time for Secret Santa.
I have habitually been the person in the gift exchange whose name never got put into the hat, or the person who drew my name didn't bother to buy me a gift, or the person did get me a gift, but it was a white elephant piece o' crap that they'd gotten from someone else where it was clear that no thought about my likes/dislikes had gone into the gift decision.
And then, there's the annual Secret Santa exchange from these folks. This will be my fourth year as a participant, and so far, it's always worked out simply and easily (which is why I keep participating). You should go sign up too, and maybe I'll draw your name!
I guess going for a fourth year in a row was asking for trouble, because once again, I'm back to my usual Secret Santa Situation: whoever drew my name didn't bother to get me anything. That bites.
Too Much Information
Today officially started with my falling over one of the machines at the gym and beating both my legs to hell. One immediately swelled up to the point of looking similar to a Christmas tree ornament, while the other is just black and blue.
So, I'm trying to stay off my legs today with ice on the bad one, but the problem is that I recently ate something that disagreed with me, and I'm finding that I'm having to constantly get up and run to the bathroom. Which, you might expect, is not a lot of fun when both your legs hurt when you walk.
On the top of that, the plumber's here... to fix the two toilets in the house, both of which are acting up. Nice timing, eh? So it's not just a matter of running, but I have to be careful of where I'm running to.
And those are the reasons why you're not getting the backstory to yesterday's post which I'd intended to write today (it did successfully prove something that I had suspected), and instead, I'm just telling you to go read The Graphing Calculator Story. It's worth your time, and between feeling faint and naseous, the chances are that what I'd want to say wouldn't come out the way I intended.
And finally, I want to add that Tom is a wonderful person, and I owe him a big "Thank You" for taking Sean to the airport. There isn't a chance in hell that I could have done 3-4 hours of driving today, and he volunteered to do it at the last minute, overruling my weak, "I think I can do it, honey..." Tom, I'll make it up to you when I feel better.
"Backup Brain" is us
I'm starting to see it more and more, and while I'm not a lawyer, my understanding is that we need to nip this in the bud. If you read our What is Backup Brain? page, you'll see that we claim "Backup Brain" as a trademark, and have for quite some time.
If you want to use the phrase "backup brain," and in particular to use it regarding weblogs, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd reference or link to this site in some way. For instance, this is the right way to do it. OTOH, this is not.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Judicial Fascism Approaching
Now that it looks like Bush will get to name someone to the Supreme Court, it's instructive to see what he considers to be a good current Court example. He's spoken approvingly many times of Scalia and Thomas. Now, Scalia, aside from being a terrifying right-wing ideologue, at least has some intellectual cred. He's evil, but brilliant. Thomas, who asks questions so rarely during oral argument that it is actually noteworthy when he wakes up and does so, is a considerably dimmer bulb. It's widely believed that Thomas is an at-best mediocre judge who is under the sway of his clerks and Scalia. But what do they actually believe, that Bush thinks is so great that the Court needs more like them? The Center for American Progress knows: Ten Things President Bush Doesn't Want You To Know About Scalia and Thomas. Read it and be afraid.
Macworld Expo goings-on
Time flies when you're having fun (or working hard, in our case), but between this MacDevCenter article on O'Reilly Happenings at Macworld SF and this TidBITS article on Macworld Expo SF 2005 Events, it's kind of hard to miss that it's nearly that time of year again. So, here's our schedule and recommendations for that week:
- For the 2nd year in a row, we're staying at the Hotel Palomar. Last year we chose them because they're close, they have broadband 'net access, and compared to some of the other hotels, they're not outrageously expensive. This year we chose them because, on top of everything else, they were just darn nice. We've stayed almost everywhere within about a five block radius of Moscone, and they're now the only ones we even consider returning to. Highly recommended, and no, we don't get anything for saying that.
- Want to go to Macworld Expo but don't want to pay to get in? We couldn't agree more. Peachpit Press and Borders Books have teamed up to give away free Macworld Expo passes, yours just for the asking-for. So go do it.
- Tuesday, Jan. 11: Tom will be at the Peachpit booth from 2:30-3:00 pm.
- Wednesday, Jan. 12: Tom and I will be in the UG Lounge from 3:00 - 4:00 pm.
- Thursday, Jan. 13: Tom and I will both be at the Peachpit booth from 2:00 - 2:30 pm. We'll also be part of the Users Conference, talking about Mac OS X Unwired from 3:30 - 4:45 pm (a conference pass is required for this).
Besides that, we'll be spending a lot of time wandering around and hitting parties, so if you know of any good parties, drop us a line, please? See you there!
Lying to get the sale
Scoble wrote in a post today:I just got back from Fry's in San Jose on Hamilton Ave. (the store down the street from eBay's headquarters). While there, we met Steve, a Creative sales associate. He was helping out at a table of Creative Technologies' stuff. Seemed pretty busy.
While there, I overheard a customer ask for the Zen Micro. "Sorry, we're sold out of that," Steve answered.
When I got my turn I asked him the hard question: "why should I buy a Zen Micro instead of an iPod?"
He pulled one off of his belt. "You can replace the battery, you can't do that on our competitors." (He never used the iPod name again, just positioned it as "our competitor").
As I wrote in Scoble's comments: Any time a salesdweeb starts off with something that's a clearly a lie, I stop listening. Either he knows he's lying, or he doesn't actually know anything about the competition; in either case I can't trust what he's saying.
Nobody needs to tell lies when what they've got is clearly the best product. It's only the second and third-raters that have to lie to make you think that they've got something that's worth your money.
Later note: yeah, there's also been lots of hoohah about how you can't get iPods because they're all sold out for Christmas. Again, I'm calling bullshit. As of right now, Amazon will guarantee Christmas delivery on the 60 Gb iPod photo, the 40 Gb iPod photo, the 40 Gb iPod, the 20 Gb iPod (it's from HP, but there's no real difference), and the 4 Gb iPod mini in Pink, Silver, and Gold. Doesn't sound anything like sold out to me. But it's always fun to pick on Apple, right?
All entries © 1999-2009 Backup Brain, LLC