Jordan's next book

Book 11 info at Dragonmount... and I still have to read Clash of Kings.

SOURCE: Amazon ad

Spoiled rich (or hardworking) kids

Students are sharing details of their Mac hardware/software setups on TUAW. They range from the humble 12" iBook to the Dual G5 PowerMac + Powerbook combos. Pardon my characterization of students using macs as the ones I know are mostly of the latter type, but I'm just jealous (deadly sin).

My mac 'rig' is a graphite iMac G3 400 MHz with slot-loading DVD player and 384 MB of I-don't-know-what-kind RAM with a puck mouse and no-name USB keyboard. It took me approximately 40 minutes to build Adium using Darwinports (Fink didn't have it) and it didn't even work for some reason. I'm pretty proud of it, nevertheless.

UPDATE 1:40 AM EST: After looking up the definition of envy and trying to convince myself that I didn't harbor resentment towards mac users (!), I feel bad about my generalization and do apologize. It's like criticising people who drive BMWs or otherwise nice cars. I think what I do feel resentment for is people who have everything but take it for granted. Like me in many ways, if I wasn't me.

DISCLAIMER: Even though I will not further edit the title of this post, I acknowledge that in many cases, possessing luxury items does not mean you are spoiled. Furthermore, I do not believe that Mac users are either hardworking or spoiled and rich. One can conclude, however, that I consider myself to be either not spoiled, not rich, or not hardworking.

There were lots of people at the MoMA

Today was another trip with Kathae into the city. She wanted to take me to the Museum of Modern Art even though she's gone a billion times. First, we went to eat lunch (first customers) at El Faro where we had tapas, which are small dishes of food, downed with a half-pitcher of sangria. I'm not a fan of red wine, or wine in general, but it was so diluted it was almost refreshing. My conclusion from the trip is that stuff is egregiously pricy... deli meat was priced by the half-pound!

Some of the most interesting exhibits for me was of course the floor with industrial design pieces including an EYE BEE 'M' print donated by the designer and, well, the iBook and iPod. I hesitate to comment on the other art we saw, but it was a fun experience basking in the artistic and often pointed accomplishments of our century.

Broken Google Desktop news...

Version 2 of Google Desktop Search is out. Now with Google Sidebar! Features include search as you type, and massive cramming of features into a sidebar reminiscent of a screenshot I saw of an old prototype Longhorn sidebar. Now, if only I had my PC set up.

SOURCE: MarketWatch

Panda baby

Check out the live feed from the National Zoo (or the mirror on Animal Planet). Hope it grows big and strong.

SOURCE: Washington Post

Packing sucks

I seem to have an emotional attachment to objects like plane tickets and movie tickets and letters, etc. I think it's because I'm so distracted and unthinking usually that things like objects trigger memory recollection. Anyhow, that's why it's so hard for me to throw things away. I forget things. I find things that help me remember. I don't want to throw them away and pack/file them somewhere. I forget. Unfortunately, these things rarely get reviewed and I might as well have thrown them away. All the while, I'm missing out on all the memory review I should be undergoing on a regular basis.

What doesn't help is that it all happens when you're packing at the last minute AND you have an irrational aversion to adding things to landfills.

Pre-wrap-up

Wow, that was a bad post. In any case, here's another. Came home for parent's anniversary (finally got a pay for dinner for once WITH CASH), used American Express Express Pay (now the name makes sense) at CVS to buy some cranberry juice (no signature necessary, but I forgot that I wanted to keep the magnetic strip immaculate because I'd already used it elsewhere). Said goodbye to david (is good with computers), Lori (email author), Cameron (who taught me how to floss), and Alex (who organized the paintball trip). Most of the rest of the goodbyes will be easier... My project partner will be at Rutgers and my new roommate (since Roy got his apartment) will probably be glad to be rid of me.

This is starting to sound like a Jehangir post. Anyhow, went to BN and added Freakanomics and Clash of Kings to my stack (My Life, Blink, The Right Man), had Apple stock hit another record high, got a crazy chance to see more opportunities in the company (for the first time, I can actually say gothank you, affirmative action), and oh, played some ping-pong/table tennis with Elande after work.

Will I ever organize this? Maybe not.

SOURCE: The swirling void

A day in the park

Last weekend I went to the picnic/BBQ Will McG organized and had a good deal of fun. After Mike B drained a couple (2?) of cups of water over my head (and conveniently over my shorts), Will McG splashed water into his crotch area in such a way that could only result from a real accident to show his solidarity with my wetted state. I did get Mike back by getting him in the face with a paper towel drenched with diluted sweat.

Noteably, I learned to play Ultimate Frisbee after being stuffed with a hot dog and three cheeseburgers. Volleyball stung, kickball was fun except for the man temporarily down part. Eventually, the day ended with a bathroom adventure into the CS building, or as Jehangir calls it an "inefficient trip around rutgers looking for an open building to use the bathroom". BTW, this was a draft post started at 11:44 PM EST on August 7, 2005. It will likely be further updated about 20 times.

Apple/Google iTunes rumor

I'll use a term I first heard used by my freshman year roommate... this is bull crap:

According to market chatter, Apple is set to announce a deal with Google (GOOG:Nasdaq - commentary - research) calling for Google to offer Apple's iTunes music store through its own site. The rumored deal would pair the nation's leading online music store with its leading search engine.

The most I could see happening (could be wrong) is sponsored iTunes links for searches for music...

SOURCE: Yahoo Finance

Movie reactions

So this summer, I've seen more movies than perhaps I did all last year. Today, I saw Bewitched at a discount place and damnit I ended up with a collection of small impressions that don't link up into a cohesive one.

Same thing with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. One of these days... more tomorrow?

UPDATE 8/6/05 11:49 PM EST: I guess that didn't make a whole lot of sense. I posted this at the end of a moderately long day from my pocket pc right before going to sleep. I guess, the point was top mark my wonder at the quantity of movies I'd seen (totally relative to my viewing history) and the lack of coming up with a proper reaction.

I can't really remember what I wanted to follow up for this post, but I can finish last sentence. 'One of these days', I want to be able to write a good movie review.