Archive for July, 2004

A book I don’t want to end

Sometimes you read a book that you can’t put down. It grabs you and makes you want to finish it as soon as possible. Those are the really good books. I think the last book I read like that was A Storm of Swords.
But every once in a while I’ve come across […]

Lycos sells for pennies on the dollar

If you didn’t know it already, yet another sign that the Internet bubble has completely burst–Lycos has apparently been sold for a pittance–$75 million.  Terra paid $12.5 billion for the damn thing just four years ago.
Of course the Terra buy in 2000 was stock, whereas today’s sale is apparently for cash.  But still that’s an […]

SF weather in Kentucky

Last couple days have been really weird weather-wise here in Louisville. It’s been positively San Francisco-like, cool and overcast. Very much a July day in San Francisco (especially out near Golden Gate Park) but very much not what you’d expect in Kentucky in July.
In fact I’m told this summer has been incredibly […]

Painting the basement sucks

I can’t afford to finish my basement right now, so I thought I’d at least paint the walls and floor to make the space a bit brighter. Turns out painting concrete is a pain in the ass.
I picked a nice pastel green for the walls, similar to the green I had in my old […]

Will Olympic’s ratings suck?

It’s of course way early but it’s a fun game to speculate how the Olympics coverage will do next month. The recent US Olympic trials, many held in prime time, did pretty poorly for NBC. Of course the actual Olympics are bound to rate higher than the trials, still it may show a general lack […]

I gotta take up biking

On a tough uphill climb thru the Alps, Lance Armstrong averaged 14.5 mph. I have trouble reaching that speed on a flat straightaway.
Which reminds me, I really need to get a bike.  I haven’t had one since forever.  And according to the manual, most bikes will fit right inside the rear compartment of my new […]

Was caving to the terrorists the right thing?

The Filipino hostage was freed today, after the Filipino troops withdrew as promised earlier this week. Of course I’m happy for him and his family, I do wonder what long-term damage this has caused.
On the one hand I’m angry at the US government–they keep saying the Philippines should not cave in to terrorists. […]

I love my Shop-Vac

One of the best things about owning a house is that you get to buy all sorts of cool gadgets. I mean, when I was living in my tiny little condo near San Francisco I would never have needed a Shop-Vac. But now with a house that has a basement and a garage I decided […]

Google buys Picasa, CNET buys WebShots

What exactly is the big deal all of a sudden with image editing? This week there was action from two companies–Google bought Picasa, and my employer CNET bought Webshots.
Now the Google deal makes sense to me. Picasa has features to make it easy to blog your photos, and of course Google already […]

The vagaries of the discount movie theatre

The Pitch Black sequel, Chronicles of Riddick, is already coming to the dollar theater here in Louisville. That’s really fast–the thing just opened in regular theaters last month.
It must have really tanked, plus I guess there’s a crowd of new movies opening this weekend. That probably accelerates the departure of under-performing flicks.
What a […]