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Good Friday! Happy Purim, Eid, etc...

But unlike some holy days — say, Christmas, which some non-Christians in the U.S. observe informally by going to a movie and ordering Chinese food—on this particular Friday, March 21, it seems almost no believer of any sort will be left without his or her own holiday.================This is a pretty cool and interesting article about the convergence of many holidays. And although it doesn't mention Ostara, which can be anything from a day to a week long covering the Vernal Equinox, it wasn't specifically excluded.This quote from the article is my favorite: "Kumar is convinced, however, that 'a new generation is emerging that is more pluralistic and they don't feel threatened just because someone is from another religion.' " Go, Generation Pluralistic! Let's have some fun :-)

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Video Programming in Barnes & Noble - Thirteen Years Late

Jesse Kornbluth and his partners submitted an idea to Barnes & Noble in 1995. 13 years later, B&N has announced a new multimedia plan for their stores... oddly enough, it looks similar to the plan that was rejected years ago. This is Jesse's version of the story.=================I have heard this story multiple times because I work with one of Jesse's partners. When B&N announced their idea to start actually implementing this innovative idea, I certainly heard about it and the entire office was in gales of laughter. I hope this idea is successful. I would love to find out that B&N could've beaten Amazon.com if only they had done this from the beginning.What would truly be awesome, pettiness aside, would be that new authors could be found and people may start reading again. It would be especially interesting if they decided to reserve pods on other websites, tv stations, and/or Current_ tv where they could play portions of the interviews, or perhaps entire segments.With the availability of various media for presenting authors works these days, I can see many possibilities for people to start reading again. (and yes, audio books is reading too.)Good luck, B&N! I hope this works!Check out Barnes&Noble.com's Quamut for their new How-to wiki/social network as well. It is raw and untested, but promises to be something extraordinary.

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Rubik's Magic Puzzle

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akTMgttBUBg

 

When I was a kid, the commercial for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akTMgttBUBg" target="_blank">Rubik's Magic Puzzle</a> captivated my attention and I totally had to get the product.  I begged and begged  my family for it and, finally, one day it was given to me.  It was one of my favorite toy/puzzles for years.  I have to admit, I was never smart enough to figure the solution out.  But I LOVED playing with it all the same.

 

It traveled with me to Holidays at relatives houses -- usually leaving my hands to travel amongst the cousins.  It went on car trips with me -- usually ending up occupying a brother or two when they got antsy.  It sat on my desk at home while was in grammar school -- usually in the shape of a chair, puppet show, or house and holding a figurine or two -- ready to play with while I did my homework.  It even ended up going to High School with me.

 

At some point it disappeared. I thought I had lost it and sighed because it wasn't available for sale anymore.  Whenever I visited a toy store with my baby brother, I would check the shelves and clearance bins.  I would walk by Garage Sales, etc and try to find a new one.

 

This is before internet people.  Yes, I AM being serious.

 

One day... about a three years after the last time I saw my Rubik's Magic Puzzle. I was going through my closet.  There was a leak in the wall and stuff had to be pulled out and of course I took the opportunity to go through the boxes, etc.  Yup, you probably guessed correctly.  I found my puzzle.  It wasn't lost, simply misplaced.

 

But now it was creaky and I was scared to move it too much because of the noise.  I didn't want my favorite puzzle to break.  So I moved it into an object shape and used it for a figurine display.

 

When we moved, it went into my 'Stuff' box.... and there is sits in storage for these last few years, waiting for me to be able to take all my stuff and put it all in one place.

 

Ah, but the days of Rubik's Magic were some great days.

 

"I dare you to link the rings." ~ Professor Erno Rubik

TWIP - This Week In Photography

This Week in Photography is a new podcast and blog focusing on anything to do with photography. From taking the photo through editing processes and tips.

I ran across this site by listening to MacBreak Weekly with Leo LaPorte. I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but the tips on the blog are promising. Check it out at: http://www.twipphoto.com

How to Use Trackback

So I decided to figure out how to use trackbacks and found this article that tells me everything I wanted to know about it. So as both a sample and a trial, I am linking to it.

"Still Alive" played on Rock Band by Jonathan Coulton and a band of Geeks

If you click the link, you can go to the blog of Veronica Belmont (of Mahalo Daily) to watch a video of Jonathan Coulton playing his song "Still Alive" on Rock Band with a band of Geeks: Merlin Mann, Leo LaPorte and Veronica Belmont.

Originally, I just thought it was cool that a Jonathan Coulton song made it into something so freaking cool! But by the end of the episode of "This Week In Tech #133" I realised that it was much cooler.

Seems that "Still Alive" is the song Jonathan wrote for the guys who made Halflife and Portal. It is the ending Credits song sung by the computer in Portal! Which made me understand what was actually happening in the song and made it so much more over the top cooler!

For those who will not be checking out the video, allow me a quick review:

The person who recorded the segment did an excellent job, but I suspect that he was a professional, so not too surprising. Jonathan pulled down the screen and people cheered. Jonathan introduced "The Band" and people cheered. The music started and Veronica played the guitar fantastically. The crowd cheered the sounds and Jonathan started singing. Merlin Mann on drums seemed a bit flummoxed and made mistakes when his part came in, but he did fairly well all told. Then Leo came in. Leo in his stylish western wear and his bass guitar. It was quite a show. He knew he was making the mistakes and he became a showman on the stage while Jonathan sang the song perfectly right beside him. Each time Leo failed, he would toss his hands out and the crowd would groan and cheer at the same time. The Song failed with 99% completion, but, seemingly according to the crowd, that stat was off a bit. The crowd loved it and, so -- it seems -- does the internet crowd.

I for one did.

Thanks guys! and thank the makers of Portal for a) a fantastic mind-bending logic game and b) for hiring Jonathan Coulton for writing the end song.