George V. Reilly

Rube Goldberg San

Via Win Tech Off Topic, an amazing collection of Rube Goldberg devices from a Japanese children’s TV show. 13 minutes.

It reminds me of the famous Honda ‘Cog’ Ad, which can be viewed here.

Your President Speaks

It’s no secret that Bush is ap­palling­ly vacuous and incoherent whenever he has to answer a question that he hasn’t been prepped for. Here are a few excerpts from his recent appearance at Johns Hopkins University:

The Presidency Is No Place for a Smart person

We’re a in­flu­en­tial nation, and so, therefore, many problems come to the Oval Office. And you don’t know what those problems are going to be, which then argues for having smart people around. That’s why you ought to serve in government if you’re not going to be the President. You have a chance to influence policy by giving good rec­om­men­da­tions to the President.

Return of Complete, continue.

ViEmu: a vi and Vim emulator for Visual Studio

Vim vs. Visual Studio

I’ve been an obsessive vi user for more than 20 years. Vi keystrokes are indelibly burned into my muscle memory. When I have to use Notepad or Word or Visual Studio, I feel crippled. I have to work harder to do simple things; I have to type too many chords with Alt and Ctrl; I have to take my hands off the home keys to use the cursor keys and the mouse.

In the mid-90s, I adopted Vim (Vi IMproved) to the point where I became a sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tor, writing a big chunk of the Win32 code.

While I was at Microsoft, I hardly ever used Visual Studio. I edited continue.

Two-upmanship

Here’s (left) a video of Chris Bliss doing a pretty amazing juggling routine to the ac­com­pa­ni­ment of the Beatle’s Once There Was a Way.

And here’s (right) a video of Jason Garfield doing the same routine with five balls instead of three.

(Each video is about 4.5 minutes long.)

The Media's Chance at Redemption

In The Media’s Chance at Redemption, Russ Baker ably takes the MSM to task:

When, oh when, will the U.S.“main­stream media” finally stop hemming and hawing, parsing and un­der­stat­ing? When will they simply go for the jugular to confirm what any thoughtful American has already learned from “less reputable” but in­creas­ing­ly relevant al­ter­na­tive in­for­ma­tion sources: that from the beginning of the Bush ad­min­is­tra­tion, invading Iraq has always been as much an article of faith for the president as, well, promoting faith over reason?

…-

The Times report was full of throat-clearing and arcane notations that, while the memo had previously been reported, it had never been as fully reported, or that a particular passage continue.

God's Own Party

More on the Ta­l­abap­tist front. In yesterday’s Washinton Post, Kevin Phillips on How the GOP Became God’s Own Party.

Theocracy in Action

Rolling Stone magazine profiles Senator Sam Brownback in God’s Senator. It’s a scary look at the Christian far Right.

Business Week Covers Atlas On Demand

The latest issue of Busi­ness­Week covers Atlas On Demand, the product that I’ve worked on for the last six months, in a piece called TV Eyeballs Close-Up

Ever since the advent of commercial television, ad­ver­tis­ers have wondered exactly what they get for the megabucks they spend on 30-second spots. After all, the networks and cable companies offer only a crude ap­prox­i­ma­tion of who is watching what. With such thin in­for­ma­tion, ad­ver­tis­ers can’t target specific neigh­bor­hoods or consumer tastes. As for converting ads directly to sales, well, that’s virtually impossible. Yet the Web, with its so­phis­ti­cat­ed per-click metrics, does all of that billions of times a day. "The problem," says Yankee Group analyst Aditya continue.

Emma now blogs

Emma now has a personal blog.

That infestation of rats was the best thing that ever happened to us

Via James Wolcott and Jane Espenson, a pilot for a sitcom called Depressed Roomies by Charlie Kaufman.

Funny stuff.

Previous » « Next