Another FridayFive

Another FridayFive:

1. What is the greatest video game you have ever played, and why? If you aren't a video gamer, give me some other type of game and keep it clean.
   I'm a big fan of Tempest, the old vector-based standup game made by Atari in the 80's. But I've been accused of being video game impaired, so I don't have a lot to choose from.
2. If you could force Google, Microsoft or any other software company to build a custom application to fit a specific need, what would you have them do?
   A really good mother-of-all-todo-list-calendar app. Preferably web-based so I can access it from anywhere. Maybe incorporating some of the principles of Getting Things Done methods. Plus some of the elements of this program and a good note taking app.
3. What is the greatest sporting event you have ever been to and why?
   The bar is awfully low for me on this one, so I'm going to pass.
4. Please send a shout-out to the most menacing bully in your lifetime. Change the names to protect the not-so-innocent so as to avoid prosecution.
   Well there was that John kid that dragged me down the hall by my hair in the first grade. But that didn't have most of the elements of a really good bully drama. I'll pass on this one too.
5. What is your NFL lock of the week? Meaning, which game do you think you can guarantee a winner? Give me that winner. Tell me why.
   What's with all the sports questions. Fuck, I dunno, how about them Seahawks?

Cingular Text Message Scam?

I'm nearing my wits end with these guys. For the past two months they've been charging me one minute per text message. I had thought that that was just for overage, but looking at my current bill online (with its $20/month 2500-message add-on), it looks like this is for all text messages. So be aware that any time you send or receive a text message through Cingular you're being charged 1 minute. Their phone rep basically said that they weren't "real" minutes and that I should wait until I get my bill and see if I get charged for them. But they sure seem to want "real" money at the end of the month. Unfortunately their North America plan is almost too good to pass up. But if this keeps up, I'm gone. Update: It turns out the minutes listed online aren't in fact "real" minutes. So basically their website sucks, which isn't great, but isn't inexcusable either. It also turns out that I've turned into something of a chatterbox, and that that's where most of my usage charges are coming from. Unfortunately, I can't upgrade because they've discontinued their North America plan, and I've only still got it because of some sort of grandfather clause. Guess I'll have to learn to shut my trap.

FridayFive

I thought for once I'd join in a FridayFive, so here goes:

1. If you owned a restaurant and you had to put a signature item on the menu that would really set your restaurant apart from the rest, and increase your chances for success, what would you add?
   Mom's red cabbage. You never see red cabbage in restaurants, and the stuff is always a hit at the potlucks. Or at least people pretend to like it.
2. Pretend you are Arnold Schwarzenegger and you are .. THE ERASER. You must erase one actor/actress from Hollywood, who would you erase and why?
   Does the Encyclopedia Brittanica kid count?
3. A robber walks into a bank and proclaims that not only is he going to steal all the money, but he is going to kill people one at a time until everyone is gone because he is a sociopath. There are 30 people headed for the Great Gig in the Sky. Would you want to be first to go, last to go, or somewhere in between? Why?
   I'd want to be number two, assuming death was certain. I've never seen someone die, so I suppose it'd be worth seeing before I go. At the same time, I don't think I'd like it, so I wouldn't want to see it 29 times.
4. Over your lifetime there have been a lot of great inventions. If you could have discovered one, and received all the acclaim, fame and riches that came along with it, which invention would you like to claim as your own discovery?
   The World Wide Web, because I've always dreamt of being a knight.
5. The desert-island top 5 album list is getting old and we are in a faster paced world now. So, please give me the album that you would like to take with you while you are on the show Survivor for roughly a month. This is the only album you will get to listen to over that time period. No mixes, no IPods and no sharing with other survivors.
   In terms of something I could listen to over and over again and get only minimally sick of, I'm going to have to say Achtung, Baby. One can quibble about the quality and what not, but it was one of the first CDs I bought, and so it's racked up quite a few (mostly good) associations over the years.

Clearwire: Second Impressions

A short followup on Clearwire: Still good, still cheap, at least for Web and email. YMMV if you're running BitTorrent and whatnot. I haven't noticed any problems with slowdowns, outages, or anything along those lines. I'm getting 4-5 lights from every part of my house that I've tried the thing in. If you can get a good signal, it seems to be a good alternative to DSL or cable.

Saber

Not as in a sword, but as in the Spanish/Portguese infinitive "to know."

This is a really fascinating example of a complementary currency. The idea is that you hand out these special banknotes to seven-year-olds. They're valuable only in that they can be used to pay university tuition.

You're probably thinking that the idea is for the seven-year-olds to hoard them until they go to college, but that's not it at all. Instead, the idea is to encourage older students to tutor the younger students in exchange for the currency. In fact hoarding is strongly discouraged by making the currency demur at 20% per year.

From what little I've read, it works quite well: giving university students a $1 billion discount in exchange for about $10 billion worth of teaching.

Stein’s Law

“That which cannot go on forever, won’t.”