An interesting design magazine (online and in print) called Before and After.
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In response to my link about anticompetitive trade secrets in the auto industry, a reader who worked in that industry for several years sent me an interesting email going into some depth about that segment of the auto industry. The upshot is that the codes aren't kept secret for trade-secret reasons, but rather because the manufacturers are afraid of liability if someone hacks their car's computer module and something bad happens (like, say, the car explodes).
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Fog Creek Software's CityDesk is an excellent web-content management application that would be perfectly suited for maintaining a weblog, especially for those of us who don't have full control over our web server (which rules out MovableType). However, its price of $299 is much too steep (for me, at least) to use for maintaining a personal site, especially when the main competition is Blogger (free) or MovableType (free, but would require an $8/month upgrade to my hosting service). FogCreek would argue that their application is superior to those, and this is certainly true; however, I would think that the price point for personal use is in the $90-$100 range. Perhaps FogCreek has made a deliberate decision not to go after that market. BTW, they do offer a free starter edition that only works on sites of up to 50 files (far too few for my use), and once you download it, they give you a 25% discount on the full version. The discount is weird, though: It's only good for 72 hours, which is hardly enough time to look at the starter edition, and certainly not enough time to get invested in it. (Update 4-15-02004: I just noticed that they once did have a Home edition, but axed it, so presumably I shouldn't hold my breath for its return. So sad; I love the product, but at that price, I'll have to go with one of the alternatives.)
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Saturday, April 10, 2004
Many countries have a very clear brand with respect to the products they produce. Japan, Sweden, Germany, China, Taiwan---we have a very clear idea of what to expect out of products from those countries. I wonder if people overseas have a strong idea of the U.S. brand, and if so, what is it like? (Bear in mind I'm talking only about a brand for U.S. products; it's clear that the U.S. brand overall is weak and mostly negative overseas.)
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Friday, April 09, 2004
One of those "you know you're getting older" moments: I had a younger coworker in the car, and was listening to a CD by the excellent 80's band Missing Persons. She asked who it was, and I said, "A band called Missing Persons who you've probably never heard of." She replied, "Oh, I've heard of them. They were my fourth-grade teacher's favorite band."
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Monday, April 05, 2004
It's funny when a recommendations engine such as Amazon's makes a phase change. I just added Bester's The Stars My Destination--a classic that somehow I've never read--to my wish list, and suddenly the recommendations Amazon gives me, previously devoid of 'classic' SF, are teeming with Roger Zelazny, Theodore Sturgeon, P. K. Dick, and Ursula LeGuin. It's as if it said, A-ha! You're one of those!
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Newsmap presents the news in a very information-rich 2-D format. I know I'm way behind the curve on this, but it's really damned cool.
The ACM programming contest finals results. Virginia Tech places 59th?!? We placed 3rd and 8th the two years I was on the team.
Coffee really isn't much of a diuretic after all. I'm not dehydrated because I drink too much coffee, it's because I don't drink enough coffee!
The Paradox of Choice examines the phenomenon where having more choices actually makes you less happy. I experienced this recently when I bought a new Toyota Sienna; between different trim levels, different option packages, and different colors, there were many hundreds of distinct van configurations. Contrast with the Honda Odyssey where, exclusive of color, there are exactly four different models.
Get some plush microbes for the kids who have tired of their bag of plagues.
Michael McDonough's 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School. I'm particularly trying to decide whether I agree with #2. Certainly the principle is correct, but I don't think it's as bad as 95%.
A fully mechanized parking garage.
10socks is a good idea; we just bought some similar socks for our kids that have one, two, or three stripes across the toes. However, $7.80/pair is pretty steep for socks.
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Sunday, April 04, 2004
I wonder how obvious something has to be before it is deemed unnecessary to provide instructions with it? On the other hand, I guess the incremental cost of printing these instructions is pretty close to zero.
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