• Is iPod the Razor or the Blade?
• SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH BILL GATES
• Stewart Butterfield on Flickr

For the Softies out there, I use Firefox as my default browser, how do I get it to cache my work credentials so I don't need to login every time I visit an intranet site? Also, when I get home I can no longer post to HTML forms. Is there a way to fix that without going in and changing my proxies every time I switch on and off the MS network?
9:39:41 PM   []

Sources said the company would need as much as 1 million square feet, or about the size of a 50-story skyscraper. That could be spread out among several campus-style buildings if the company decided to relocate outside the downtown core.

Is Amazon going to be moving to the burbs?

(I hate working in the burbs and really wish I worked somewhere downtown that I could walk or bike to).
9:23:29 PM   []

The obvious answer is to buy an iPod but I started to question that mainly because I live in an increasingly Microsoft world :).

Here is my purchase criteria:

1. Cost
2. Smaller than the largest iPod: 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.69 - 5.6 to 6.2 oz
3. Greater than 20 gig capacity
4. Cool
5. Must be acceptable to use around the office

My primary uses will be:

• Car (so a car power adapter must be affordable)
• On the go: Commuting on the bus, maybe gym type activities (jogging)

What devices really compete with the iPod?

• Samsung YH-920. $249, 20 gb, 10 hrs, 2.42" x 4.2" x 0.65", 5 oz
• iRiver H320. $312, 20 gb, 16 hrs, 2.4" x 0.9" x 4.0", 6.9 oz, color display
• Creative Zen Touch. $250, 20 gb, 20 hrs, 4.12" x 2.7" x 0.866", 7.05 oz
• Archos Gmini XS 200. $240, 20 gb, 10 hrs, 2.9" x 2.3" x 0.75" and 4.3 oz
• Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra, $208, 30 gb, 14 hrs, 3" x 4.4" x 0.86", 7.9 oz

I think I'm leaning towards the Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra (which has a name almost as sucky as Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005).

Thoughts? Am I crazy not to buy an iPod? Will my friends and co-workers make fun of me if I'm totting around some unhip bulky but cheaper music device?

And after spending hours on Engadget it doesn't even look like there are any new MP3 players to look forward to. Hrmph.
8:17:45 PM   []

The continuing Larry Summers debacle has brought forward an old quote from Patti Hausman, a behavioral scientist writing in Science circa 2000, out of the woodwork...

"The question of why more women don't choose careers in engineering has a rather obvious answer: Because they don't want to.

"Wherever you go, you will find females far less likely than males to see what is so fascinating about ohms, carburetors, or quarks. . . . Reinventing the curriculum will not make me more interested in learning how my dishwasher works."

Back in college (doesn't that sound funny? it was really only a year ago, so it's not as if 'back in college' is 'back ten years ago when I was a boy') I gave some thought and did some reading on the declining enrollment of women in computer science/engineering but never read anything that proposed the answer to be so obvious.
7:46:06 PM   []

Friday night Lauren and Kevin flew in from Waterloo to hang out with us for the weekend. After meeting up with them at Ming's place we introduced them to our neighborhood bar, The Chapel.

Saturday after John and I went to hockey practice we all met up for breakfast (at 2pm) at Linda's. Then I got my haircut (at 4:30) or should I say textured? I then spent the evening cleaning my room while the Amazon crew went to the Amazon (post) Christmas party. Later in the evening (11pm) I met up with them at Patrick's party (and he, conveniently, lives next door). Even later in the evening (1am) a few of us headed to The Chapel while some headed to the casino.

Sunday after a night where no one got a lot of rest we convened for brunch at noonish at Kingfish. Then I took a few of the kids up to Redmond to check out the campus and to pick up a new Media Center while Ming and Benny went shopping for Super Bowl food. We then watched the big game and I must say that I'm finally, after watching my second Super Bowl/football game, beginning to understand how the game is played. After the game Ming fed us all and we were so full that we were unable to move and ended up sitting in front of the TV until 11pm.

Monday I worked until 8pm and then went and played hockey up in Everett (we won), tried to find food (at 11pm), came home, ate, worked some more, went to bed, woke up and went to work some more.

Yeah, that sums up the last few days/every weekend in Seattle.
7:43:36 PM   []

I just got an email from Amazon.com's Legal Department (via Amazon's Webservices Team) - which while not an actual "Cease and Desist" message, is just one step short of that. I have been asked politely to remove all external links from Amazon Light 4.0 to both Netflix and iTunes, and I have just finished doing so.

This is very concerning.
6:45:27 PM   []

At least the bus stop has wireless net access.
8:10:22 AM   []