Happy Monday! megnut's all about the smiles today, because today is the start of the week in which I'm going on vacation. Vacation? What? You didn't know? Yes, on Friday I'm going to Kauai for a week. Woo hoo! I've never been to Hawaii, so I'm very excited, and I can't wait to wander around the island, snorkel, go for long strolls along the beach, read and laze around, and be unplugged and away from work for seven days. Which means, no megnut updates from me. But, I didn't want to leave you hanging, so I've arranged for a guest host. Yeah, I know it's not an original idea or anything, and others have already done it. But I thought it would be neat, and more interesting than no updates at all. I toyed with the idea of writing a whole bunch of stuff in advance and asking someone to post it for me, but that seemed odd. And I toyed with the idea of writing fake updates pretending to be from Hawaii but really written in advance in SF. But that seemed silly. I also thought of inviting other people named Meg to participate, or having a "why I want to update megnut for a week" essay contest, with the winner receiving updating honors. But I was afraid no one would enter. So I've arranged for a secret guest host whose identity will be revealed right before I leave. The secret guest host doesn't have a site right now. And the secret guest host isn't someone you'd know from the web either. Isn't the suspense killing you already?
One of these new-fangled cars is parked in front of my house, and damn, it's cool! It's dark green, so I'm especially partial to it, and it's parked in the smallest spot on the block, a spot so small that the curb is painted red because no car can really fit there without hanging over into people's driveways. It looks sort of like those cars you see in Europe, but somehow, it's cuter. It's the anti-SUV, and I want one!
July has almost passed, it seems, before I got through my list of things to get done in July, and I'm sure before we know it, it will be Thanksgiving and then the inevitable questioning of how one's to celebrate New Year's Eve will begin, and the year will slip away, as it has so many times before. But before that happens, I'd really like to get some more stuff accomplished, because heck, the end of the year means my birthday, and then I'll be 29, and I'm not ready to be 29 yet. I don't have any kids, I'm not even married, and I always thought I'd be married and have kids by the time I was 29. And my books, the books I'd always thought I'd write, not even one is done yet! Crap, worse than that, not one is even begun. And the house that I'd own, well things are moving slowly on that front, since my house-down-payment account is in the red at the moment. At least I have a car. My PhD is behind schedule though, way behind schedule...but it's ok. It's all ok, because there are things happening that were never on my schedule, that I never planned on, never expected to happen this year, or ever, in my life. And when these things swirl together to create my life, I realize that there's no other way it could ever be.
Um, The Beach stunk, and even Leo couldn't save it, cute as he is. It didn't really address the difficult questions that are inevitable when a group forms it's own distinct and isolated society: how do we govern ourselves? How do we choose a leader and delegate responsibility? And it seriously suffered from Gilligan's Island-itis: men and women, stranded for six years on a tropical island, and no babies. And no mention of birth control. And please don't tell me they weren't having sex, because that is absurd.
Yesterday someone asked me if the dot-com slowdown/fall-out had affected me. I said, no, not really. Little did I know how soon that statement would come back to haunt me. As I checked out last night at Kozmo, I was told, "Kozmo has a five dollar minimum order." This was news to me, there'd been no message on the front page to tell me their policy had changed. Last time I ordered, several weeks ago, there'd been no minimum. I guess keeping a staff on hand to deliver movies to my door at $3.99 a pop isn't as viable as they thought. (I know they really didn't think it was viable, right, they were just hooking me in, but what they didn't realize is that it's all about the videos for me, not about the instant delivery of any random item. At least, not yet.) They suggested I buy a Coke for $1.25. I rented a second movie instead. Perhaps it's time to bite the bullet, buy a DVD player, and switch to Netflix.
I [heart] XML. I really do.
Ken from Boston writes: "The Eminenya tune is being played on WBCN here in the Boston area. I heard it on my way home tonight." Wowzers! I hope this leads to an Eminenya later this year...I think I'd consider paying to hear it live, wouldn't you? (Ok, maybe I wouldn't.)
Have you ever been sitting in your chair at work, moved slightly to the left, and had a sudden rush of fear because you hadn't buckled your seat belt, only to realize that you're in a chair *at work* and that your office chair doesn't have a seat belt? No? Oh well, I guess it's just me then.
Some days I just wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
megnut's weekend list of things seen: a man catching a fish (a fairly big fish), a momma raccoon and six babies crossing a street (kind of cute even though I usually don't like raccoons), a baby bunny eating grass on the lawn a few feet from where I sat drinking my soy latte (reminded me of the traps I used to set when I was little involving the placement of a carrot beneath a cardboard box propped up on a stick, never successful), run lola run (excellent, recommended), the iron giant (again, so good, again), a pesky bee (wanted the food being cooked out on the grill, yummy burgers and such), and real pretty sky filled with pink and purple and clouds so big and puffy and sky so long and high and trees and grass so green and lush you can't remember what dry looks like.
Anil points out that Eminenya has made it's way to inside.com as well (towards the bottom of the page). When will the madness stop?
Big J Dog 22: hey
megnut72: hey
Big J Dog 22: wow
Big J Dog 22: you answered
Big J Dog 22: who are you
Big J Dog 22: like what is your website about?
Big J Dog 22: sorry if i am being weird
megnut72: i answered because i figured you knew who i was and that you'd found me via my site
Big J Dog 22: thats it
Big J Dog 22: but i dont know who you are
Big J Dog 22: who are you?
megnut72: is this some sort of existential question?
The following books are precariously piled high next to me on my desk: JavaScript, The Definitive Guide; VBScript In a Nutshell; Java and XML; The Mythical Man Month; The Project 50; Learning Java; and The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. What do those books say about me, I wonder?
I have a Sprint PCS phone and because I'm afraid of my car and its mechanical shortcomings, I have Roadside Rescue. Which means if my car ever breaks down, all I have to do is remember the special phone number and call them and they'll tow me to a garage. The other day when my car acted up, I realized that I had no idea what the special phone number was, so once I got home again, I looked it up and thought: I'll add this to my phone's phone book and never worry again!. Brilliant. The number is #ROAD. So I created a new entry, entered the number, and hit OK. "You must enter a seven digit number" said the phone, and it wouldn't let me save. So I added some extra 5s until it was satisfied that the number was "valid," smarty-pants phone, grrr....
Which leads to several thoughts: I hate it when devices assume they're smarter than the user. Of course devices don't think they are smarter, they're just programmed that way. They are programmed by people who think they're smarter than the user, programmers who make assumptions about the way the user will interact with their system ("Windows won't ever hang during shut down, forcing the user to manually cut the power, therefore if the machine isn't properly shut down from the Start menu, it's the user's fault, and I'll tell them that when they reboot"). And often they assume the user is stupid. (Hey wait, maybe this has to do with trust, maybe they just don't trust the user to be doing the right thing? Hmmm....)
What's interesting in the case of the cell phone is that my phone knows it's me every time I use it. So why doesn't it just add the Roadside Rescue number to my phone book? Or as an option on my menu? Even though applications have access to more information than before, they continue to be programmed in a manner which fails to take full advantage of that data. I've been thinking about this in terms of Blogger as well, which is a hard thing to do, as I'm often the programmer making assumptions about the user (though I have the benefit of being a user as well, like a hair club president and client). So I'm beginning a quest for smarter software: to build smarter software and to use smarter software, and I invite you to join me. If you can think of what this might mean for Blogger, or even web apps in general, feel free to send your thoughts to me at: smarter@blogger.com.
I've had it with almond croissants, had it! I swear at one point they had this sweet gooey almondy filling, the way chocolate croissants have chocolate filling. But lately every time I get one, it's just a plain croissant with some powdered sugar (good) and almonds (ick very bad) on the top. Where's the inside part? Huh? Is there some anti-almond croissant filling conspiracy afoot? I suspect there may be...
The web continues to make me laugh, this now available: PayMyWater.com. Yes, for all those troublesome bottled water delivery bills that are pilling up hither and yon, the web makes payment easier. Wait a second, I only have one bottled water delivery bill a month...and if I were to pay it online, I'd probably pay via my bank's website while I pay the rest of my bills. Or I'd pay at the water delivery company's website, while placing or changing my order. Why would I want to remember another url? Oh, but this one isn't hard, because when I'm sitting at my desk thinking, I've got to pay my water, I'll naturally think PayMyWater.com! Yes, that's exactly how my brain works. Thank you world wide web! Thank you thank you thank you.
Lots of good suggestions and thoughts about implicit trust, keep them coming, I'm going to try and write something up about it this evening.
I've been thinking lately about the assumption of trust in society, and how very little there seems to be of it. While innocent until proven guilty may be our constitutional right in the courtroom, the behavior outside of it seems to be more of the "we're going to assume everyone's going to attempt to do something bad" variety, especially when it comes to shopping. If you go in most clothing stores, you're very often asked to check your bag. The assumption: you'll stick merchandise in your bag if they don't take it from you. How about when you try something on? You're given a number so the attendant can count how many items you bring in to the changing room and how many you return with. And those plastic security tags, ugh, how many times have you tried something on and can't get a sense of the fit because a bulging piece of plastic is adding two inches to your hip? Or you've arrived home, only to discover that a salesperson failed to remove it? (Good luck trying to get it removed by returning to the store: "Uh yeah, they forgot to remove this..." Glaring salesperson: "Really. Do you have the receipt?" "Uh, no, I never keep track of those." Sirens wail in background...)
Anyway, I've been thinking of this lately because the other day as I was walking down the street, I observed someone purchasing a newspaper from a street machine. And I realized that those machines work exactly as they always have: once you put in the coins, the door is released and you grab the top paper from the pile. You could take all the papers, if you were so inclined. The assumption: people will only take one paper, for a variety of reasons. Now if you think about what I'm saying a little more, you realize that the cost per paper, and the potential loss, is far less than the potential loss to a store when an item of clothing is stolen. And that perhaps all the security measures are simply based on economics: the higher the value of the item, the more effort expended to prevent its theft (speculation: that's why there's very little security in the supermarket, although I think they have barriers to exit that are quite high. Ha ha, get it? Barriers to exit? Have you ever tried to get out of the supermarket without going through the checkout? It's damn near impossible!).
Conclusion and my original point: I like the implicit trust associated with the newspaper dispenser. I'd like to see more of that in society, but I fear we're going in the opposite direction, and the assumption that we're thieves to be thwarted is predominating our interactions. Can you think of more examples of implicit trust, or distrust, in our everyday lives? I'd love to hear more.
Some nights as I lie in bed, I think I'd prefer the sound of crickets to the sound of sirens.
So it turns out that not all EW's have the special Internet section. I think perhaps only people that subscribe get it, meaning the one I bought at the store didn't have it. I thought I was going insane, I kept flipping through, looking at page 18, re-reading the emails I'd received. Anyway, in case you even care at this point, here's a scan of it, sent in by Denise. Thanks Denise! [note: you'd think with all the Napster/mp3 rage afoot these days that EW would know the difference between QuickTime and mp3. I mean heck, they link right to the file, which has the extension mp3. Duh.]
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