Financial services collapse, SNL premiere, salad dressing

What a week (so far) in the financial services industry! We’ve had Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch’s sale, AIG’s $85 billion bailout by the Federal Reserve, the SEC’s new rules against naked short-selling (thus reining in that particular criminal playground), and other fantastic economic disasters. Question: Are corporate bailouts the new rate cuts? Can this […]

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WordPress 2.6.1 upgrade (and Paul McCarthy)

Today spiral::notepad was upgraded to WordPress 2.6.1 (released yesterday). Everything basically looks the same, but now I’m current again with bug fixes, security patches and enhancements. Except I had to disable post revision in WordPress 2.6 (and disable/delay autosave), because all of that version tracking-related database clutter/bloat drives me crazy. Of course I still haven’t […]

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Corporate Graphic Design Guide

This morning I want to share one of the greatest GraphJam flow charts ever, especially if you’re a (cynical) graphic designer or commercial artist. See, it’s not just your soul that’s being crushed. It’s everyone’s! The joys of design by committee are limitless. One early GraphJam comment says: “And if the committee fails to destroy […]

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The Prisoner, retro ball chair, web and uniform designs

Ever seen The Prisoner TV series? A friend recommended it, so I’ve started watching the episodes. I think some YouTube clip called it the “most discussed and controversial cult TV series ever made.” Well, perhaps not, but it is certainly interesting. The set designs are very 1960s, with lava lamps everywhere and mod furniture inspired […]

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The Dark Knight, Flash programming, YouTube

Last weekend we went to see The Dark Knight at the Dallas Motor Vu Drive-in. It was a double feature that started with Journey to the Center of the Earth. We were there from about 8:30 PM to 2:30 AM. There aren’t a lot of drive-in theaters around anymore. It’s fun to go to a […]

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Christmas in July and lost bungee cords

I have two weird and useless anecdotes to share. One is about the United States Postal Service’s lock box and one concerns finding lost bungees on U.S. highways. Christmas presents in July The first anecdote is how the U.S. Postal Service just delivered a couple of packages containing Christmas presents to us – like, last […]

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Random technology, sports and humor

I’ve been so busy working, playing tennis tournaments and looking into houses to buy that I’ve forgotten to post. Anyway, here’s a quick list of things I’ve found interesting or funny over the past two weeks. If you’re in the IT industry, this is awesome: The Website is Down. Also, here are a couple of […]

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Tennis shoes, aliens and Wimbledon on Independence Day

The Oregon State University Nutrition and Exercise Sciences office is collecting old shoes this month to benefit kids in the local area through the Congressional Reuse-A-Shoe Drive. The goal of the drive is to collect as many worn-out athletic shoes as possible, which will then be recycled and turned into donated sports and play surfaces […]

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Giving in to Doritos: The Quest

Well, the Frito-Lay marketing ploy worked for a second straight summer. Today was grocery-shopping day. I hadn’t bought a bag of Doritos in over a year, not since the X-13D Flavor Experiment . . . which of course turned out to be the oddly compelling but ultimately quite gross Cheeseburger flavor. Now, today, I couldn’t […]

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Purple potatoes, Sparks, Martini Ranch music video

This week a guy I know was walking around with a bowl of purple potatoes for lunch. I don’t mean purple-skinned potatoes, but the radioactive-looking purple-all-the-way-through kind. The only question is whether he was eating a normal, terrestrial species of potato/yam (Peruvian or similar) or perhaps somehow got hold of a starchy product of the […]

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