I did not know that

Win + E opens Windows Explorer and More. Put that and Launchy together, and the XP experience is a little more polished. And once you get it that way, here's how to make XP last seven more years.

Facebookengeist

DAS BUBBLEBATH, LOL!

The Big Cheese

Cowgirl Creamery / Library of Cheese

Where's WALL-E

Pixar's in-jokes and self-references.

Pear Budget

I've been working an Ebenizer Christmas eve, going through my finances, and I've found Pear Budget a handy excel worksheet template. The ghost of Christmas past pointed out that their web 2.0 announcement has been up for awhile, so I think their progress there has tapered off a bit. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my plans to build a large vault/swimming pool for my future Krugerrands.

Read the book

I read "No Country for Old Men" on the plane to visit the folks, and I liked it better than the movie and I still like the movie. That said, although the Coen's followed it the story fairly closely, they left out some things and changed others that made a difference. For one, I think the Sheriff's war story makes a big difference in how you view him. Another is Chigur's speech with Moss's wife (and the ending there is explicit, which also makes a big difference in what his accident later means), etc.

It's a good book, even if the lack of quote makes and apostrophes gives it a James Ellroy affectation.

Way more than six degrees

You'll want your bacon warmer than that: Bacon flowchart.

Do you think you can talk Death into playing checkers?

Science Magazine's top ten breakthroughs

Perfect Checkers: A team of Canadian computer science researchers proved that a game of checkers, if played perfectly, will end in a draw—no matter what. This proof is the culmination of 18 years of research and represents "the most complicated game ever 'solved'." In a game of US checkers, there around 5x10²⁰ possible different configurations. Drawing from a database of 39 trillion possible arrangements of 10 or fewer pieces on the board, the researchers found which would lead to a win for red, a win for black, or a draw. They then demonstrated that a specific opening sequence, played perfectly, would invariably lead to a configuration that ended in a draw.

...and some other stuff.

CAFE au lait

Who'd thunkit, there's more than meets the eye: A) Cali et al are going to sue the government because they can't make their own regulations anymore, and B) CAFE MPG != EPA MPG >= MPG.

B) is just asinine, and should be stopped. Let us buy and sell and regulate with real-world numbers.

I'm way less informed on A), but my feeling is that states with stricter-than-the-fed emissions controls are spending other people's money for their preferences/needs. What they should do is just impose a carbon tax (gas) within their own borders to both reduce their local emissions and pay for some sort of remediation otherwise.

Anyway, I hope that diesel emissions standards would be more European than Californian/NYish, because I want to get one someday.

Free energy for everyone!

I'm pissing into the wind here, but let me note that mandating 35 mpg fleet averages could increase the total amount of gasoline burned per person because it could increase the car's marginal utility. (I think I know what those words mean) [previously]

Maybe we've already saturated that effect, although I might start towing an extra car to work, just in case the first one breaks. Either way, I doubt the energy policy will have the intended consequences. It most definitely will have unintended consequences.

Briefly noted

I can think of at least two things wrong with Apple's so-called "Genius Bar".

RIP

Goldfishes #1 and #2 have shuffled off this mortal coil. I'm guessing it's because the water treatment pills didn't quite treat the water enough. Darn it. On the other hand, no gold fish blogging... Maybe their suffering had a higher purpose.

That son of a bee

Because you Kan't, you won't, and you don't stop

Metaphysical attack ads. Back in school, the stop signs were tagged with "Kant" every Spring, which is just the inevitable outcome of making four hundred Freshpersons slog through (partsof) Critique of Pure Reason in a week. Nietzsche wasn't popular because of his ideas. Nietzsche was popular because he was easy to read.

Gift Horse Dentistry

When someone gets a prize on a game show, say a $900 ceramic dalmatian, or a new Pontiac, why doesn't the show or contest include enough money to pay the taxes as well? Well, I know why, but shouldn't they?