Majel

My wife just got an iPhone and we love playing with the Siri app. It has been surprisingly good at voice recognition and the results have been both fun and useful. (Although Siri did have a fit when were asking "what color is Paddington Bear's hat?")

I can only image that competition will make the tools even more useful in the near future. Bonus points to Google for using Majel as the name for their app. It has immediate geek cred and works on several levels.

Word Problems

From a NYTimes e-mail alert:

"Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 -- 1:19 PM EST
-----
Republicans in House Reject Deal Extending Payroll Tax Cut
House Republicans on Tuesday soundly rejected a bill approved by the Senate that would have extended the payroll tax cut for most Americans beyond the end of the year and allowed millions of unemployed people to continue receiving jobless benefits.

The House vote, which passed 229 to 193, also calls for establishing a negotiating committee so the two chambers can resolve their differences.  Seven Republicans joined Democrats in opposition.

But the Senate has left town for the year, and Democrats say they do not intend to call it back, putting continuation of the tax cut in jeopardy and leaving a shadow over many unemployed Americans as the holidays near.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/us/politics/house-republicans-move-closer-to-rejecting-payroll-tax-cut-deal.html?emc=na"

Emphasis is mine. Talk about your basic FUD job. I know doing word problems confuses people when they do math, but how much of a tax cut do unemployed people need? I say raise taxes on the unemployed. That will fix the deficit problem. Tax them at 10,000%! So the average unemployed person making $0.00 would owe... hmm, carry the 3, multiple then add, hmm... zero dollars!

If I give the NYT the benefit of the doubt, then that sentence is still poorly phrased.

The Democracy Will Cease to Exist

It may be new t-shirt time again. The http://www.brickolore.com/2011/04/t-shirts.html was for the Galt/Taggart 2012 and Taggart Transcontinental. I like wearing those shirts as it isn't too in your face, but if you are in the club, then my views can easily be guessed. This one is a wee bit more direct:

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Stability is Speed

I'm really bad about having a bunch of tabs open. Even in Chrome it seems like one tab can cause the others to come to a screeching halt. And having a slow internet connections makes it even worse.

harrymccracken I'm at the point where almost the only thing I care about in a browser is stability when many tabs are open. Everything else is secondary.Sat, Dec 17 21:13:47 from web

Things I didn't know

Obviously not a short list, but some of these are mind blowing. For example, "If you properly shuffle a deck of cards, in all likelihood, the resulting deck has never been seen before in the history of the world."

ataussig On @Quora: What are some of the most mind-blowing facts? 159 Answers: qr.ae/7xuNPTue, Dec 20 07:30:22 from Quora retweeted by msuster

I, for one, welcome our new Facebook overlords

Facebook represents about 95% of the time that people spend on social networking. Around 52% of the sharing is on Facebook as well. Not bad for a little web page used to connect college kids.

Via Business Insider Chart of the Day and AdAge

Christmas Music - When the River Meets the Sea

Since I had all of about 125 hits in December last year, I thought I would repost about my fondness for John Denver & The Muppets - A Christmas Together - especially "When the River Meets the Sea." I still don't know what makes me like this song so much, but I do.

Heads Up Display

Puts my RunKeeper and all the running watches/apps to shame. The cool factor is off the charts.


Recon Instruments Fall 2011 Product Lineup from Recon Instruments on Vimeo.

"Recon Instruments passionately leads the innovation of customized solutions for direct-to-eye communications. We integrate Micro Optics Display systems with state-of-the-art sensors and GPS technology, providing real-time access to navigation, communication, and performance-based information. From Skiing to Moto…Trust Your Instruments.

MOD & MOD Live are the world’s first GPS enabled head mounted displays for alpine use. Track Speed, Altimeter, Jump Analytics, Distance, Vertical, Odometer and Temperature stats in real-time.

MOD LIVE also connects with Android smart phones to bring buddy tracking, MP3 playlists, navigation, wireless camera connectivity, SMS and caller ID apps to the dashboard. MOD and MOD Live can be snap-fit into any Recon-Ready goggles using the simple snap-fit process. Goggles not included."

I just need a Storm Trooper outfit to go with it.

Via Adventure Capitalist and Uncrate.

We are winning.

When my wife is pointing out jewelry like the "Ladies Night Out," I feel like we are winning. When I find out her friend posted the link on Facebook, I know we are. Love the caption.

Christmas Music - 12 Days by Straight No Chaser

This video from 1998 predates some of the current A cappella craze and these guys have a lot of fun with a Christmas remix. I really like the "Carol of the Bells" section.