News of the next generation

Last night, Matt had his movie debut in his uncle's movie, The Third Date:


The glory of stardom doesn't, as we know, confer immunity. This morning, Matt had surgery on his right hand. He broke his finger in a football game a couple of weeks ago and needed some help to heal properly. He'll be ok.

Lily is celebrating her 8^{th,/sup> birthday today with a swimming party. Lily is establishing herself as a formidable swimmer in local competitions. Happy Birthday, Lily.}

The iPod Death Clock

This site will give you an estimate of the amount of time your iPod has left: The iPod Death Clock - iPodMechanic.com

Mine has

Country’s Top 100: All-Time Best Songs

Lists such as Country’s Top 100: All-Time Best Songs make life interesting because you really have to exercise your imagination to understand what planet these people are coming from. Patsy Cline's cover of Willie Nelson's Crazy at number 34?! Come on.

If you can listen to Will the Circle Be Unbroken by the Carter Family with dry eyes, you'd better get some duct tape because there's a hole in your soul.

Google Turns 9

A special thanks to friend Patti , who, quite a few years ago, alerted me to Google. Patti and I had worked at DEC when AltaVista was the first great search engine. AltaVista was built pretty much a bunch of spaghetti code that showcased the power of DEC's hardware. Had DEC understood what it had in AltaVista, we'd probably still be working there and there would still be a there there.

We shouldn't be sad, though. Google turns 9 today. The rest is searchable history.

On the road again

Marley and I brought Sandra to Logan Airport this morning. She's flying to California for a friend's 60^th birthday; she and Sandra have been friends since they were three. It was my first time in a long time driving in rush-hour traffic. It hasn't changed much. If anything, it seems that the drivers were better behaved. With the Big Dig and Williams Tunnel complete, the ride to the airport is easy and quick. Even with traffic, it took us an hour and fifteen minutes.

So, the bachelors are back at home, looking at the wide-open day. The weather is steamy with clearing showers forecast for later today and tomorrow. Marley's found a place in the sunshine and is snoring quietly. There's plenty to do, fun and otherwise.

The recent news that Microsoft is trying to buy a piece of Facebook led me back to the social network for a closer look. There are 122 people in Facebook with my last name, only one of whom I know (grandson Mike). I'm not the only graybeard in the crowd, but, well, .... One of the offers in the Marketplace section is a bit dodgy: *** 120% unique gift for you and your friends***. You get to create a doll that looks like you.

I've also spent time on the web site for Mike and Matt's high school. The site offers a fairly sophisticated system for managing calendars for the various sports teams. In addition to seeing a calendar of upcoming games on the site, I can get email, SMS, and RSS updates. I've not been able to get the synchronization with Outlook working yet.

Escape from Cubicle Nation: 8 Strategies to get the most from painful or awkward life transitions

A friend used to tell me that I'd look forward to the hard times for what they'd have to teach me. I can't say that I always look forward to the hard times, but I usually manage to believe that I'll learn something important.

Escape from Cubicle Nation: 8 Strategies to get the most from painful or awkward life transitions

Y'see, this is what Eddie Van Halen is supposed to sound like

Complete with the wise-ass grin: FARK.com: Fark YouTube Player (3092347) Vintage Eddie Van Halen - "Eruption" guitar solo (live)

Exploration - Canada at Scale: Maps of our History - Exhibitions - Library and Archives Canada

This one, Exploration - Canada at Scale: Maps of our History - Exhibitions - Library and Archives Canada, is for the map nerds. It's a nifty collection of old maps of Canada, including a 1765 map of Prince Edward Island, known at the time as St. John's Island.

Hello, Rangoon!

It's probably not a bad idea to have a reference source such as Wikipedia or the CIA Factbook handy when watching the news. As we learn about the protests in Burma/Myanmar, we also learn that each media outlet has a policy regarding the name of that country. Using the name Myanmar implies that we believe that the junta in charge of the country has enough legitimacy to change the country's name. Naturally, the U.S., most of its allies, and many publications use Burma. In almost all cases, there's some qualification such as "The country formerly known as Burma" or "the country now known as Myanmar."

This is not all that uncommon, differing names for people and places. The capital of Finland, for example, is Helsinki, except in Swedish, where Helsingfors prevails. A few decades ago, China (once known as Cathay) changed the transliteration of many names, giving us Mao Zedong instead of Mao Tse-tung and Beijing instead of Peking. And, if then there's what's-his-name, the guy who heads up Libya.

So, now, Duane Ingalls Glasscock (RealAudio link) have to sign on with the cry, "Hello, Yangon!"

Ghoti

More commonly heard as fish:

gh as in enough
o as in women
ti as in vacation

"There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge"
- Bertrand Russell, philosopher (1872-1970) via