Quite an interesting read, especially since he’s debunking John C Dvorak’s Prediction that I posted about before. From B&B.
Month: April 2003
British Tax Dollars at Work
The University of Bradford and Bradford College are merging, and £20,000 (about $31,000) was spent paying consultants to name the new college. The three names they came up with: Bradford University, University of Bradford and The University of Bradford. And I agree with someone quoted in the BBC article: A six-year old could’ve come up with these names. I’d much rather see that money go to the school’s general scholarship fund than to lining the pocketbooks of over-paid “researchers.” Students of the University/college/whatever aren’t too happy with it either (thanks Neil).
Most inadvertantly inappropriate marketing — ever
We all know how SARS is taking over the far east, including Hong Kong, which is what makes this ad even more inappropriate.
Computers hate me today
Oh man what a day. First, I bought a used D-Link PCMCIA wireless card. Worked fine, but then I tried to check the version of the firmware using the tool provided by the company, something went wrong and it decided to attempt to flash the firmware instead. It went bonkers, and gave me the option to cancel, but it was too late — parts of the card had already been overwritten. So after waiting on hold for about 30 minutes with D-Link, I finally got through, only to be told that my card was FUBAR. Lovely… I just e-mailed the guy that sold it to me see if he has the original receipt so I can RMA it, but I’m not holding my breath.
And it gets even better. My left “alt” key on my keyboard has been cracked for about a week. Well, today it broke clean off, and so there was just the little nub left (it’s a laptop). I never realized how much I used that key until I need it back (our reservation system here at work, for example, uses it as a navigation aide). Regardless, the laptop’s getting repaired next week.
Anybody have wireless card they want to get rid of? I’ve got two wired PCMCIA network cards that work great that I need to get rid off, too.
Deadlines suck
I walk into work today (this is my “Monday” for anybody who doesn’t know that) and not only do I have about 150 e-mails that need to be replied to (out of about 300), but I get a note and a project sitting on my desk: “I need this by the end of the day.” Lovely…it’s usually a three-day project.
My day’s almost over, and I’m almost done with the project, but man what day. Back to blogging more tomorrow.
The news we’re missing while we’re at war
One thing that always happens during times of a major news event (like the war) is that there is always stuff that isn’t getting covered (but would otherwise). This column illustrates what we would be reading had the war not been taking all the front pages.
Drummer Resource
I’ve been looking for a good one-stop place for all things drumming (I’m a drummer, so this is handy to me), and I have finally found (thanks to ResearchBuzz) a good directory of drumming links (from instruction, music, stores, etc…): DrumminMen.com.
The Detroit Tigers are horrible
Six games into the season, the Detroit Tigers have had a runner on third base one time. Full Story.
And, if you’re interested:
Detroit Tigers Tickets, Team Schedule, Tigers Players, Detroit Tigers Stadium and Tigers History.
Stuff Magazine hires midgets to crash editor gathering
The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) was holding a meeting, dubbed “What Gives a Magazine Buzz?.” It was a prestigous panel: Glamour Editor in Chief Cindi Leive moderated the panel that comprised of Keith Blanchard, editor in chief of Maxim; Amy Gross, editor in chief of O, The Oprah Magazine; and Stuart Zakim, a spokesman for Wenner Media, which publishes Rolling Stone and Us Weekly. Stuff magazine’s editor in chief hired some “little people” to cause some trouble at the meeting. To quote the article I got this from, “The pint-sized pranksters started setting their cell phones off every few minutes and coughing and tearing open bags of potato chips, which they munched loudly throughout the panel discussion. Finally, Cindi Leive, the moderator, got up and said to one of them sitting in the front row, ‘If you don’t turn off your cell phones, you’re going to be asked to leave.’ And he said, ‘You’re just saying that because I’m a little person!’ Then Cindy said, ‘No, no. I’m a little person, too!'” Then the midgets started peppering the panel with questions. One asked O editor Gross, “When are Stedman and Oprah getting married?” Another simply bellowed, “Rolling Stone sucks!”
The moral of the story, according to the Stuff editor? “The moral of the story is that to get ‘buzz,’ you’ve got to do something unexpected.” And I agree. Talking about generating the buzz is nothing like actually getting it, which is why Stuff is so popular.