2008 mid-year link clearance
Time for the semi-annual link clearance.
-
Lucy Kellaway
campaigns against management jargon.
Last November, she
railed against
a phrase
I too had ridiculed:
going forward.
-
Scott Adams blogs about going forward.
I found it fascinating that of the four ways he thought blogging would
be rewarding, only the last one held true.
And I can definitely feel for the predicament
that every blog post reduced his income.
-
So you're ordering something from
Amazon
and you're just a smidge short of the $25 necessary to get
free shipping.
You could either fork over the $8 for shipping or use the
Amazon Filler Item Finder
to find something (like say a pack of batteries for 87 cents)
that will get you free shipping.
-
So you're bidding on an item on
eBay
and the seller has a 99.5% feedback rating (which by some
people's reckoning is "barely acceptable"),
and you want to see what those five negative comments were,
because if they were just weenie complaints,
then you'll bid on the item.
Since it's hard to find those negative feedback items via eBay's
interface, you can turn to the
eBay negative/neutral feedback finder.
-
The forensics of trying to reunite a digital camera with its owner
based solely on the photos found inside it.
-
The New York Times finds
uncomfortably high mercury levels in tuna from several
New York sushi restaurants.
The response from Japan:
Meh.
-
It opened during the cold part of the year,
but now that the weather is nice, you can visit the new
Fremont Peak Park.
And while you're there, stop by some restaurants I like,
such as
The Asteroid
and
Blue C Sushi
(powered by RFID¹),
because sushi tastes better when it's moving on a conveyer belt.
-
atlarge.com
tracks free WiFi access points at airports around the world.
-
A dead-on parody of Microsoft PR-speak.
-
YouTube is cruel.
-
The Ballmer Peak.
-
Joel Spolsky explains
why the Microsoft Office file formats
are so complicated.
-
Benjamin Supnik
explains why
the default answer to any rendering setting is
"all the way up."
-
Music for 18 (Cornfed) Musicians:
A group of musicians at a comparatively unknown Midwestern college
undertake
the landmark work.
-
Improv Everywhere strikes again:
Standing frozen in time in Grand Central Station.
(Earlier coverage of their antics.)
Their efforts inspired
similar events around the world.
Even
Taco Bell got into the act.
-
Ken Levine
explains
why he doesn't film in front a live audience on Friday nights
and
what you do with your weakest episode of the season.
-
Earl Pomerantz
wrote for many hit television shows from years past,
and his storytelling skills are still top notch.
He can take
the simple task of changing a light bulb
into an enjoyable diversion,
manufacture
a radio interview with a giraffe
(best line: "No, the ice cream truck is coming."),
or
reminisce about working with (or perhaps against) Tony Clifton.
-
If you get your television signal
the old fashioned way,
then starting in February 2009,
you may need a converter box in order to watch television.
You can apply for a $40 coupon online, while supplies last.
(The coupon expires in 90 days, and many people
can't find a store that stocks converters in time.)
The Washington Post explains.
-
David Pogue
teaches
how to disable the email-to-SMS feature on your mobile phone.
-
Those crazy Germans
have struck again:
They've invented
PowerPoint Karaoke.
(Coverage in English.)
-
The
Annals of Improbable Research
is now
available online in its entirety.
-
When geeks have children,
they have to be geek parents.
Geek Dad
plays paleontologist and
reconstructs a chicken from bones.
-
My rich neighbors are broke.
Those rich neighbors of yours? Maybe they're not.
-
You can't ignore compatibility just because it's a Web feature.
When there's a conflict between Google Maps Windows Mobile
and Windows Live Search Mobile,
Windows Live voluntarily takes the back seat.
And, as always, the obligatory plug for my column in
TechNet Magazine:
Footnotes
¹Yes, it isn't literally powered by RFID. I was spoofing
marketing-speak. I apologize to those for whom this did not require
explaining.
