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Sunday, December 04, 2005 |
What Scott Adams said.
"There are a lot of jobs that I wouldn’t want, and “third highest ranking al-Qaida leader” is right at the top. But I can tell you for sure that if I ever got that job, the first thing I’d do is narc out one of the top two guys so I could move up a notch. Apparently one of the perks of being in the top two is having a really, really good hiding place. The number 3 through 10 leadership guys are pretty much scurrying between mud huts and looking at the sky a lot." [rexblog: Rex Hammock's Weblog]
7:05:17 PM 
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Print your own Monopoly money.
 Hasbro has downloadable PDFs of spare Monopoly money for you to print and cut -- no more buying commercial spare Monopoly bucks at the game-store! It'd be great to mod this to produce, I dunno, Cthulhu/Mecha monopolybucks, dripping with ichor and such. Link (via Digg)
[Boing Boing]
1:52:27 PM
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Martha Stewart Living, indeed.
 Fresh out of prison, Martha Stewart has designed the ultimate consumer product: an entire Martha Stewart subdivision.
The omnipresent domestic diva has extended her brand yet again, partnering with developer KB Home to create a New England-style neighborhood of 650 houses in [Cary, NC, an ] affluent Raleigh suburb.
Notice how she made sure it is nowhere near her Hamptons estate.
The article continues:
[Potential buyers] will be able to choose from 12 models in townhomes and single-family dwellings... Three house designs are based on homes Stewart owns in Maine and New York state, and options for interior features in all models -- from wainscoting to light fixtures to paint colors and flooring -- were chosen by Stewart's design team.
The above is shortly followed by:
"When they're making their decision in a homogenized landscape, you have to have something that sets you apart..." said Rick Ohmann, vice president of sales for St. Lawrence Homes.
Yeah, so homeowners can choose from the Everyday Rustic layout in peach, Green Tea, or Ivory... I know I'm taking this out of context and all, but isn't selecting a Martha Stewart house to avoid homogenity like fighting fast-food chains by buying up all of their burgers?
Even though Martha World will be in an affluent suburb, the homes -- priced from $150,000 to $400,000 -- are considerably cheaper than others in the area. So, like Stewart's K-Mart line, the subdivision is geared to the lower-budget crowd...which, um, I guess includes me.
(Thanks to Germaine Fodor for the tip!)
[Stay Free! Daily]
1:51:53 PM
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Roland's Sunday Smart Trends #87.
Here is my weekly selection of articles that were not mentioned here -- except if I missed them.
Retooling after 9/11, the CIA starts to blog
In a bow to the rise of Internet-era secrets hidden in plain view, the agency has started hosting Web logs with the latest information on topics including North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's public visit to a military installation (his 38th this year) and the Burmese media's silence on a ministry reshuffling. It even has a blog on blogs.
Source: Susan B. Glasser, The Washington Post, via the San Francisco Chronicle, November 27, 2005
Ad dollars threaten bloggers' rebel reputations
When Anita Campbell started her Web log about small-business trends two years ago, she thought it would simply be a service for her clients and help her consulting business grow. Instead, she said, the blog "just took off," attracting more readers than she had dreamed of. Then, companies offered to pay her to post advertisements and product mentions on her site.
Source: Louise Story, The New York Times, via CNET News.com, November 27, 2005
Thieves put car security system to test
BT's new vehicle tracking system found its first stolen car before the system had gone live. The car, an Audi A4, belongs to David Thomas--project manager for the new BT Trackit system. It was stolen outside his house on Nov. 2 and was recovered, undamaged, the same day. Thomas was alerted to the theft by BT's Secure Operating Centre. Using satellite-based tracking technology, the car was pinpointed and the local police were informed and were able to recover the vehicle.
Source: Colin Barker, CNET News.com, November 28, 2005
RFID Rolls For Bike Rentals In France
JCDecaux said Monday it will add 100 Cyclocity self-checkout kiosks for the city of Lyon, France and the surrounding suburbs where cyclists can rent bicycles with a swipe of a contactless, pre-paid card with radio frequency identification technology (RFID) inside. The transportation project initiated by the city of Lyon kicked off in May and already JCDecaux is boasting 10,000 subscribers.
Source: Laurie Sullivan, TechWeb.com, November 28, 2005
Online Maps: The Next Generation
"GeoDec is designed to enable an information-rich and realistic three-dimensional visualization and/or simulation of geographical locations, such as cities or states, rapidly and accurately," said Cyrus Shahabi, who specializes in databases and information management. "The technology has a similar look and feel to the new, high-powered interactive mapping tools, such as Google Earth and MSN Virtual Earth."
Source: University of Southern California news release, November 21, 2005
Taking the pain out of sharing
[Glide Effortless is] a personal Web site to which you can upload your favorite photos, MP3 files, video clips and even Word, PowerPoint or PDF documents. (A companion program lets you drag and drop big batches of files at once.) Once everything's posted on the Web site, you can do two things with it: manage it or share it.
Source: David Pogue, The New York Times, via the International Herald Tribune, November 30, 2005
SNARFing your way through e-mail
[Microsoft] this week released a free utility that aims to sort e-mail in a new way: It can organize messages not just by how recent they are, but also by whether the recipient knows the sender well. The program, known as SNARF, bases its approach on the fact that people tend to interact more with messages from those they care about.
[Note: SNARF is an acronym for "Social Network And Relationship Finder."]
Source: Ina Fried, CNET News.com, December 2, 2005
'Hotspots of the world unite,' says Fon
Fon calls itself a movement. It has a manifesto and uses words like solidarity and revolution. The design of Fon's Web site is reminiscent of Soviet propaganda art. Fon comes complete with its own lingo, with participants known as Foneros, Bills, Linuses and Aliens.
Fon, an organization launched in Europe in early November, aims to be a global community of people sharing and using each other's Wi-Fi hotspots. "We create a global Wi-Fi cloud out of what used to be disparate hotspots," said Martin Varsavsky, the organization's founder. "We take this Wi-Fi mess and turn it into a Wi-Fi network."
Source: Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service, December 1, 2005
See you next week... [Smart Mobs]
1:51:21 PM
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