The Mercury News reports on an amusing new consumer-focused web company, BabyPressConference.com that allows parents to set up a webcast for distant relatives to see the newest little addition to the family directly from the hospital.
Note: due to Mercury News policy, this link may not work after 3/24/2001.
The Mercury News has a so-so article (Many running out of options) today on the problems of "little people" here in Santa Clara county who've run into big money problems after exercising, but not selling, options they were granted at work. Having this problem, though to a much lesser degree, myself, I can sympathize with the trouble. AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) was supposed to make sure the wealthy paid their fair share to Uncle Sam but the law was passed long before tech employees were getting options across the board.
Unfortunately, AMT doesn't impact George W.'s pals, so no changes to it were included in the proposed tax reform bills under discussion in DC. Bummer.
As usual, this show comes from Europe but I'm sure it will hit the States before too long: Fat folks seek gold, stardom via Big Brother path. After all, Americans on average are much fatter than Europeans and, judging from a few episodes of Jerry Springer, we have no shame.
Hot on the heels of HotOrNot (the original) AmIHotOrNot and AmINakedOrNot.com comes the (apparently) anti-religious AmIAMoronOrNot. The Web really is becoming a place where anyone can publish anything. Heck, even this weblog is essentially free.
By the way, HotOrNot is turning into a matchmaking service too, with its MeetMe feature. To use it, though, you have to post a pic of yourself.
Help A.J. Get Game allows anyone to provide advice to further Anthony Junior's football career. Of course, filming is complete by now for the current season, so what use this "advice" might be put is a good question. Or just maybe the purpose is to show a few extra ESPN banner ads?
An overview of the tool I'm using to power this weblog, written by Eric Norlin at MarketingProfs.com.
I'm reading Core PHP Programming by Leon Atkinson to learn PHP for another part of this site (coming soon) and to dip my toes back into programming after five years of doing tech support and product management with NetDynamics and iPlanet Ecommerce Solutions, a Sun/Netscape Alliance. Currently on personal leave, my most recent assignment was product management for iPlanet Application Server
From SlashDot: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/06/1954213&mode=thread
"Dr. David Touretzky has done it again, posting a 7-line 526-byte Perl VOB descrambler on his ever-growing Gallery of CSS Descramblers. 'qrpff' was written by MIT Student Information Processing Board members Keith Winstein and Marc Horowitz for a 6-hour seminar on 'Decrypting DVD' taught at MIT in January-February."
Code takes awhile to read and understand but clearly shows the power of Perl.
From FEED: http://www.feedmag.com/templates/default.php3?a_id=1645
"NEXT YEAR, Rodd Millner, an Australian ex-commando, plans to one-up the American hero Chuck Yeager, the first person to travel faster than the speed of sound. In a stunt that will either redefine the boundaries of science or the boundaries of idiocy, Millner intends to don a space suit and ride a balloon 130,000 feet up to the edge of space. Once he gets there, he will jump."
This will either become the next rich boy hobby or a sad death that will be hailed as heroic and amazing adventure by those for whom life without excitement isn't living at all.
The Big Dance just started, with Kentucky vs. Holy Cross late in the first half on the tube. I may be making an easy pick here, but I think the winner comes down to Duke or Stanford. Stanford beat Duke in the Bay Area back in December but having seen a little of Duke the last few weeks (including their awesome win over North Carolina in the ACC Final without Carlos Boozer), I think it's too early to pick between them.
Update: Kentucky won by four.
ITA Software
Still in beta but a quick trial of the interface shows some definite improvements over Expedia/Travelocity.
From Wired: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.03/formula1.html
The intensity and passion of those involved, not to mention the world class paranoia, really surprised me.
After hearing that Rolling Stones members Keith Richards and Charlie Watts
are fans of The Sopranos, Warner Brothers has cast them for acting roles in
the mobster drama, reports the Sun. An unnamed source at the show says the
legendary guitarist and drummer ''might appear as themselves, but we would
like to have them play a pair of old-school British gangsters...We know they
love the show just like we love the Stones, so it's really a match made in
heaven.''
Plain old feed...
