Like a Poor Marksman

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“…after 12 years on the Internet and thousands of registrations and forms filled out, the advertising I am seeing still does not appear to reflect my tastes, interests, previous buying habits, professional background, academic background, or income level. They have yet to successfully target me …. Or else they are simply targeting the stupid, the ignorant, the weak, the innocent, and the naive, groups I from which I naturally exclude myself.”

– Mo Nickels, posting to Metafilter on the futility and stupidity of mandatory content registration.

Golly Gee Whiz

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Amy came to DC over the weekend, and we had a grand time viewing Sanford Gifford landscapes at the National Gallery, eating various Greek meats at Zorba’s while the remnants of Charley dumped rain outside, watching Superman II and Star Trek: The Slow Motion Picture over adobo with tomatoes and bagoong, and meeting up with Mr. (and Mrs.) Moon Pie at Screen on the Green to see Mr. Smith.

Turns out MrMoonPie is one of the notorious “HBO dancers” at Screen on the Green. And Mr. Smith Goes to Washington has one of the most abrupt movie endings I’ve ever seen.

(Note: Post title is just a reference to a phrase spoken by Mr. Smith.)

Rubbernecking.gov

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I note with some amusement that ever since the “Washingtonniene” story got popular, inbound links from ".gov" computers searching for “Washingtonniene” and “Jessica Cutler pictures” have steadily increased. So far I’ve had search hits from the House, Treasury, Dept of the Interior, and NOAA.

More, plus pertinent WashPost link, on Wonkette. Funny headline.

UPDATE, 09/01/2004: Those of you searching for nude Playboy photos of Ms. Cutler out on the web, please go here.

Ne’er

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Ne’er under heav’n have I sung a Christian hymn which treated the words “heaven,” “never,” “ever,” or “given” as having anything more than a single syllable. E’er.

MT3.01d

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Just upgraded to MT 3.01d. So far everything seems to have gone seamlessly. The new CSS interface is tight, and none of the new features gets in the way of the old, familiar workflow — except for one minor thing: the lack of a search form in the Manage Weblog screen.

I’m in concurrence with Jason Santa Maria on this: despite 6A’s increasingly corporate trappings, MT is still an excellent publishing tool, and I’m quite happy with the free version — at least for now.

(“Blogging grows up?” Didn’t they say that when Google bought Blogger? Isn’t it about time to acknowledge that weblogs have grown up, or are at least almost done getting past the clumsy adolescent stage; or are we going to see these trite “Blogging Comes of Age” headlines everytime something big happens to a weblog company?)

Lovely Summer Day

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Despite being the start of August, it hardly felt like summer today, with a brisk wind and temperatures dropping into the upper 60s and low 70s. Great day for a run along the Mall and around the Tidal Basin.

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Photos taken with a Sony Ericsson Communicam (on T300 phone).

reZire

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Based on popular demand [1, 2], I was just about ready to crack open my Palm and clean out the camera lens fuzz — if only lens fuzz had been the only problem to deal with. Now my Palm Zire 71 has fallen prey to a far more serious camera-related design flaw, detailed in this 1src.com discussion thread: frequent camera usage causes fraying of the internal sync/charge cable, so that with repeated movement of the Z71’s camera slider, the unit gradually loses its ability to Hotsync and charge from the Palm Universal Connector.

This, plus the lens fuzz issue, and a persistent, high-pitched whine from the color screen, have prompted me to abandon the Z71 for a much cheaper, simpler unit. My new Zire 31 arrived this week, and I’ve been up late gradually transferring data to it.

So how much do you think the old Zire 71 will go for, sold with its original CD-ROM and cradle, a free sync/charge cable, and a 32MB SD card? Aside from camera lens fuzz, broken HotSync, and a small speck of debris stuck under the righthand side of the screen, it’s fully functional, and can still take decent pictures if you “tap” the fuzz out of the way. Someone with hardware experience, some precision screwdrivers, a soldering iron, and a steady hand could even bring it back to youthful vibrancy.

More on the new Zire 31 soon.

God and Juice

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Last night, as Amy and I conversed about 1 Samuel, Sabbaths, and Old and New Covenants, she expressed mild bewilderment at the fact that, if God doesn’t change, why does he swing from ordering a Sabbath-breaker’s stoning to sanctioning Sabbath wheat-picking? Likewise, could it be the same God who said “no pork” and “kill and eat?”

My response was an analogy: mixing powdered juice. First, I pour the water, then I stir in the Tang. Between pouring the water and stirring in the powder, have I turned into a different person?

More on CARM.