More on the Disk Space Tracker

One other thing on the disk space tracker is around how there are actually a lot of them out there that do something similar, but this is free and has a nice UI. This is a lot rarer than you would think. I've always been shocked that people wanted to charge $29.99 for such a simple piece of functionality. On the other hand, I've always been stunned that MS hasn't put something new in their OS that does this in a useful way.

D

You're Really Not That Good a Story Teller

Name dropping is one thing, but there’s another behavior that annoys me much more.

My fiancé and I were in a bar recently and we happened upon a guy I'll call Johnny McStoryteller. We were sitting around listening to this guy and something struck me. It wasn't just that he kept dropping names, cause he generally didn't (though he must have mentioned at least three famous people in ten minutes). What he really kept dropping was proper nouns (a super set of just name dropping).

For example: the right way to start a story –

"I was recently in a bar late at night in NYC and I was talking to a girl with no-arms...”

Wrong way –

“I was at the Tunnel on the Lower West Side of Manhattan having a Mojito and I was chatting up this girl in a Chanel blouse who had no arms…”

I mean I understand the whole thing about setting the scene, but this is too much. I think I suffer from this a little bit as I always reference magazines or books I was reading by name when I mention passages or articles, but I’d like to blame that on my academic upbringing (always mention your sources) more than anything else.

I must give credit to my fiancé on this one for being a significant part of naming this behavior. We’ve agreed to call it “Proper Name dropping”.

D

Note To Self: Graphic Design in Germany Through the Rise of the Nazi's

Read this: Graphic Design in Germany: 1890-1945 (Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism) (Hardcover)

I've always been so fascinated with how popular culture or communication (advertising) mimics the underlying subconscious of the populous. I mean, you'd think there'd be some barbershop ad in this book that will list "All Arayan since 1903" or something similar. It's amazing to me the difference in style of communication when someone is just forwarding an idea (as in an opinion piece) vs. forwarding communication designed to agree with you subconsciously with a clear drive to action (as in a piece of advertisement that implores you to buy a consumer product good).

D

Live... REALLY Live Data

I guess this is what live information is all about. I'm at MiX 06, and during the MySpace.com demo during the keynote, someone yelled out "Give us some OpenAPIs please." Thought it was interesting, but thought no more about it.

Now I'm sitting here browsing through the Technorati postings on Mix06 and I not only find out who it was (Marc Canter), but I also can track his blog. Now that's pretty impressive. One person in the crowd identified him, and that was enough to make the knowledge widely known. Neat!

Just as an experiment, I'm going to drop the Technorati tag on here to see what happens. ,

D

1st Hybrid Sedan

I recently bought a car that is way too big for my britches (an Acura RL), but in the process it was a nice refresh on what the car industry had to offer me. My next car will probably be a hybrid, and it's nice to see they're finally getting around to making Sedans.

Toyota rolls out 1st hybrid sedan under Lexus brand

I don't really care if it's a hybrid or not, I just like the fact that it gets 14.2 km/litre (33 MPG). Gregg Easterbrook had a great piece on this... it's not that engines are getting less efficient, it's that they're more efficient from a horsepower/mileage ratio, but the horsepower is increasing faster than the gas mileage. Ah we Americans, we love the fast (whose commercials I absolutely love).

It is striking, now that I'm back from Europe, how different the average car is there. I don't think it's anything about being enviro-friendly, it's just there's no parking ANYWHERE. Plus, those little Audi A3s are absolute demons.

Note To Self: Hitler History

In addition to being a random dumping ground, I'm going to try to use this blog as nothing more than a nice place to remind myself to read/watch/whatever stuff that catches my eye. Anyhow...

Caught an article in the New Yorker about a movie called Downfall that got nominated for an academy award. It's about the last days in the bunker for Hitler. They listed a couple of others that sound interesting:

The Last Ten Days (1955)
The Last Ten Days (1973) starring Alec Guiness
The Bunker (1981) starring Anthony Hopkins

I just find it so interesting to watch these portrayals, though the critic apparently didn't like any of them. It's always the inflection points that I find to be the most intriguing. When something is just on its way up... when it's just over the peak ... and when people realize it's over.

D

Google Toolbar Begone!

I was keeping the Google toolbar around for just one button. One button only. Blog this. I know there were Javascript hacks to get it in your link bar but, for whatever reason, I couldn't get them to work. Now, SILENTLY, they have removed that from my toolbar. Bastards!

Whelp, that's the last reason for you to be there, and now you're gone. Smell you later. Smell you later forever.

D