Blog Posts

June 2007

• 2007-06-14

  Noise cancelling headphones

  I’ve been doing quite a bit of traveling lately and have been experimenting with those noise cancelling headphones. Actually I couldn’t convince myself to spend $350 on the Bose headphones who, by reputation anyway, set the standard. I spent about $50 on a pair of Sony noise canceling headphones (at RadioShack no less.) My assessment: I give them a solid “B”. They do cancel noise, but not all of it. And having nothing to compare themm with, I am always wondering how much better the better ones are.

  So, today, in David Poque’s column in the New York Times comes this article: ...

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• 2007-06-11

  I love Madrid!

  I just returned from a very brief visit to Madrid (4 days) and came back enamored of the city. Madrid is beautiful and vibrant, always busy with people that seem to be having constant good time. People seem to be eating constantly and yet no one is fat 🙂 And the weather is fine! It seems (see AP photo to the left) that I didn’t experience everything that was going on this weekend though 🙂

  #places
• 2007-06-10

  I have many friends

  A funny article in the New York Times the other day: “[…snap] I HAVE reached a curious point in life. Although I feel like the same precocious know-it-all cynic I always was, I suddenly am surrounded by younger precocious know-it-all cynics whose main purpose appears to be to remind me that I’ve lost my edge.[snap…]” from ‘omg my mom joined facebook‘

  I too joined Facebook about a year ago, for ‘research purposes’. My experience was similar:

  ...

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• 2007-06-09

  Marc Andreesen with a simple lucid explanation…

  This is an explanation (part 1 of 2) of why and who should seek VC for their new business. From what I know of the way the world is and works, I generally agree with his article. Heres a bit from the this post in blog.pmarca.com: ** "[snip…] Startups that have a credible potential to be sold or go public for a 10x gain on invested capital within 4 to 6 years of the date of funding should consider raising Venture Capital.Most other** startups should not raise venture capital. This includes: startups where the founders want to stay private and independent for a long time; startups where there’s no inherent le...

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  #business
• 2007-06-05

  Robin Good checks out BlogBridge micro publishing capabilities

  Today a major review came out in Robin Good’s influential Master New Media blog. It’s great to see this kind of detailed information about the work we are doing over at BlogBridge. Thanks Robin and Michael! Here is what they say: “The result is a streamlined, easy-to-use, cross-platform feed reader. Now that it has also taken on publishing capabilities Blogbridge is going to save bloggers a lot of time spent copying and pasting data from one post to another. Joining the conversation just got even easier.” (from ...

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  #blogging
• 2007-06-05

  “Icons: What are they good for?” — “Absolutely Nothing!”

  Jeremy Wagstaff, in his regular “Loose Wires” column tells some truth about icons in software: “One day, probably quite soon, people are going to look at the little icon in their software program that denotes “save” and say, “What the heck is that supposed to be?” That’s because, in most cases, the icon in question is a floppy disk — one of those plastic-enclosed disks some of us still use to store and transport data. And, of course, one day there will be computer users who have no idea what a floppy disk is.” (from “...

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  #design
• 2007-06-04

  Curaçao’s Historic Synagogue

  Recently I visited Curaçao to participate in the celebration of the 275th anniversary of the building of the Snoa. This is from an article written by Sam D. Gruber (who I met there) “As evening fell in Willemstad in Curacao on April 16, scores of well-dressed people headed to the narrow Hanchi di Snoa, and into the courtyard of the Snoa — Curacao’s venerable synagogue built in 1732, home to Congregation Mikvé Israel-Emanuel, the oldest surviving synagogue in the Americas, and one where no Sabbath or major holiday has gone uncelebrated in 275 years.”

  Read the whole article ‘A Birthday Celebration for Curaçao’s historic synagogue.

  #places #life

May 2007

• 2007-05-31

  Blind to Bargains, part deux

  I follow Chris Pirillo’s blog and other writings religiously. Two recent, contrasting posts really caught my eye because I think they reflect the popular bias against software. That is, people are glad to pay a lot for hardware gadgets at the same time as they feel really unhappy about paying even a pittance for software. Today, in “I Purchased an Optimus Maximums keyboard”, Chris says:

  ‘No matter, I’ve placed an order for what will likely be known as the most expensive keyboard in the history of the world.

  “Why?!”

  I keep asking myself the same question.’ (...

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• 2007-05-28

  AllOfMp3 saga continues

  Regular readers of this blog know about AllOfMp3.com, a Russian music site that sells music of all kinds for a ridiculously low price. It’s kind of like the iTunes or EMusic store, but at a fraction of the price. Every so often there is news that they are about to be shut down because they are fraudulently selling copyrighted music. They say that what they are doing is strictly legal by Russian law.

  I don’t know who is right. But as they say, “If it seems too good to be true, then it probably isn’t true…”

  Anyway, from time to time their ability to be paid via credit card (like Visa etc.) is disabled....

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  #culture #politics
• 2007-05-25

  Check out Website Grader

  You might find find this interesting and/or useful. WebsiteGrader does an SEO analysis of your site and gives you ideas on how to make it better. According to their site: “Website Grader is a software tool to help measure the marketing effectiveness of a website.”

  #blogging
• 2007-05-25

  [STERN INSIDE BASEBALL] Wild day on Howard Stern show

  Hey Stern fans, can you believe what kind of a day it was today? What a soap opera, but riveting. I heard it in bits and pieces as I was driving between meetings today, and I was waiting either for Artie to quit or for Howard to fire him.

  And then I read now on the Stern web site that indeed Artie says he is leaving the show in January.

  “Artie would end up leaving the show…Artie agreed with him. When Howard asked if that was true, Artie said yes, he planned to leave in January. He went on to explain that he had gone to the doctor recently and decided he was burnt out based on what the doctor told him so he was going to take at least a 6month break from everything starting in January.”

  As I say, a soap opera for sure, but riveting.

• 2007-05-23

  How many languages can you fit in one email?

  Here’s an email I received recently. How many different languages do you count? “Danki pa e artíkulo d Sam. Mi a haña un email di dje siman pasá kaminda ela kontami ku pronto e artíkulo lo sali i ku e lo manda mi e link. Maar jij was veel sneller. Avery a gusta e artikel hopi (mi tambe trouwens). Lo mi skibi Sam. He is a good writer. Trouwens su mama a muri in the meantime (ela skibimi).

  Chag Sameach (Shavuot)”

  #places #life
• 2007-05-21

  Shamless self-promotion: Improv and moi mentioned in PC Magazine

  PC Magazine’s newest issue has a retrospective of their past 25 years and LotusImprov gets mentioned for one of the big deals of 1993. And yes, you can see a bad picture of yours truly back in those days. “Innovators: Pito Salas

  // Set slideShowSpeed (milliseconds) var slideShowSpeed = 3000 // Duration of crossfade (seconds) var crossFadeDuration = 3 // Specify the image files var Pic = new Array() // don\’t touch this // to add more images, just continue // the pattern, adding to the array below Pic[0] = \’http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/17/0,1425,i=175286,00.gif\’ Pic[1] = \’http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...

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  #business
• 2007-05-16

  A funny classic

  

• 2007-05-15

  Leaving my friends – Twitterspam

  I’ve been de-friending one person after another on Twitter. Why? Because many of them are A-listers who ‘generously ‘accepted my friendship and are now spamming me via Twitter with their latest exploits. Dull. As I said in a previous post, this “Friends 2.0” phenomenon isn’t doing it for me. My advice for Twitter users: only ‘friend’ people who you really know and at some weird level care whether they are having a ham sandwich.

• 2007-05-14

  Interesting (not good) news from Venezuela

  You know that I follow what’s going on in Venezuela. Here’s an interesting article from the Washington Post about the latest developments: “For years defenders of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have harped on what they described as the domination of the country’s independent media by his opponents — proof, it was said, that Ch?vez was no dictator. Two weeks from today that argument will lose all credibility. By then, Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, Venezuela’s most popular television network, will almost certainly be off the air — on Chavez’s personal order.” (from Dead Air in Caracas – Washington Post)

  #politics
• 2007-05-07

  Fad 2.0: Is Twitter just another PR channel?

  You’ve seen and heard of Twitter, haven’t you? If not, congratulations for being immune to the latest Fad 2.0. Other than the occasional “I just had a delicious hamburger”, many if not most of my tweets are an announcement (read traffic bait) of one thing or another, usually including a link.

  Why would I subscribe to that? Maybe I have the wrong kind of friends.

  I think if your twitter friends are really people who are actual friends (Friends 1.0) and not quote friends unquote (Friends 2.0) then you might actually care about them having a delicious hamburger.

  But do you know that actually has 350 friends (1.0?)

• 2007-05-02

  This has got to be a joke: “Appendectomy through the mouth”

  Check out this post from Boing Boing: ** David Pescovitz**: Physicians are now removing appendixes by entering the body through the mouth. The procedure, called Natural Orifice Translumenal Endosurgery (NOTES) involves the insertion of tools down the throat and through an incision in the stomach lining. Once the appendix is cut loose, it’s pulled out of the mouth. Apparently, there are other variations of the technique, including gall bladder removal through an incision made in the vagina. One big benefit is that these surgeries don’t leave any visible scar. Advocates say NO...

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  #life
• 2007-05-01

  Something I’ve been looking for: Finder Window Manager

  Check out this post from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): This simple utility allows you "to save and restore your window placement and view options via Window Sets." You can have different Window Sets for different purposes (e.g. different projects, etc.). Just arrange the Finder windows as you’d like them and take a snapshot by creating a Window Set; later you can easily restore these settings through the menubar item (right). There are also a bunch of window management options in the Utilities submenu, such as stacking and tiling, etc.

  (from: Finder Window Manager)

  #computing

April 2007

• 2007-04-30

  Using a cell phone while out of the USA

  Lately, for some crazy reason, I’ve found myself, multiple times, in Toronto, Canada, and Willemstad Curaçao. My Sprint phone doesn’t work in either place. As luck would have it, my Sprint contract is about to expire and so I am trying to figure out whether I should change carriers. If you are in the same boat, here are some very handy links that I came across:

  T-Mobile International Cell Phone Service Information Verizon International Cell Phone Service Information Cingular Wireless International Cell Phone Service Information Sprint International Cell Phone Service Information

  From reading these, T-Mobile seems to be the right choice for me and where I live. Do you use T-Mobile? How do you like it?

  #places