A glance at a WSJ sitting on a desk, which in turn was reporting on a site ballyhooed using something called blogging pointed me to Backpackit.com.

It feels like a very elegant (elegant == Good) response to the world of CRM apps that want you to customize your workflow to their database design.

Backpackit lets you create bunches of web based to-do lists in a wiki format.

I'm trying it out...

There's something to finding originality on the web in a phrase that has never been used before, at least according to google.

Here's "Forensic UI Design".

Enter Spring

After a week of sogginess in the fifties, it even looks like spring.

Charging the iPod

The airport express works great, considering the USB ports in my laptop are dead.

moral equivalency

I'm sick of all this posturing over the defense of zygotic life. Mr. President, when, I ask of you, will you be dealing with the far larger issue of tangled iPod headphone cords?

Day after day I deal with a tangle of white cords. The productivity lost must be immeasurable.

Come now. Surely at least a Blue Ribbon Commission.

My left hard contact snapped in two before I put it in my eye.

I did not put it in my eye.

grrr.

Where's the cheapest place to get an eye exam in NYC?

Any recommendations on hard contacts?

After cursory research, the Boston XO lenses show ridiculous oxygen permeability - which is good, right?

The Cafe WiFi backlash:

I also just found a (non starbucks) cafe a couple of blocks from me that also seems to have WiFi and a wine list.

Coffeeshop Turns off Wi-Fi on Weekends: "

It's too early to say whether it's a trend, but Victrola Coffee & Art in Seattle shuts down its free Wi-Fi on Saturday and Sunday: I spoke to co-owner and co-founder Jen Strongin today after a colleague tipped me to the fact that this lovely, single-shop coffee establishment had decided to experiment with taking back its culture by turning off the Wi-Fi juice on weekends.

Strongin said that the five-year-old cafe added free Wi-Fi when it seemed their customers wanted it a couple of years ago. It initially brought in more people, she said, but over the past year 'we noticed a significant change in the environment of the cafe.' Before Wi-Fi, 'People talked to each other, strangers met each other,' she said. Solitary activities might involve reading and writing, but it was part of the milieu. 'Those people co-existed with people having conversations,' said Strongin.

But 'over the past year it seems that nobody talks to each other any more,' she said. On the weekends, 80 to 90 percent of tables and chairs are taken up by people using computers. Many laptop users occupy two or more seats by themselves, as well. Victrola isn't on the way to anywhere; it's in the middle of a vibrant stretch of shops and restaurants on Capitol Hill's 15th Ave. It's exactly the kind of place that you want to sit down in, not just breeze through.

Worse than just the sheer number of laptop users, Strongin noted, is that many of these patrons will camp six to eight hours--and not buy anything. This seemed astounding to me, but she said that it was typical, not unusual. The staff doesn't want to have to enforce the cafe's unspoken policy of making a purchase to use the space (and the Wi-Fi), and on the occasions that they approach a non-buyer about a purchase asking, 'Can I get you a beverage?' the squatter often becomes defensive, explains they've bought a lot in the past or just the day before.

'It's just really really difficult. We've had so many heated debates about it. We want people to linger at the cafe. We're not a fast-food coffeeshop. We want people to feel comfortable staying here as long as they please,' Strongin said.

They've gone two weekends with no Wi-Fi, and so far, they're pleased with the results. The staff 'loves it,' she said, and regular customers are 'coming up to us and thanking us.' They have received a few nasty emails. But Strongin said that last Sunday was one of the best revenue days they've had on the weekends in a while. 'It was kind of a bold move.'

Strongin says that Victrola isn't interested in charging for Wi-Fi as a tool to limit or moderate use, and still thinks that free Wi-Fi is a great amenity that they can offer their customers at the right time. They have no plans to remove it entirely.

But, she said, 'I don't like going into a cafe, any cafe, including my own, and just seeing a sea of laptops and people not interacting.'

"

(Via Wi-Fi Networking News.)

Democratic Foreign Policy.

I forgot if Clark had an e at the end of his name today.

So sad...

The benefit of a liberal arts education.

Slashdot bans its own rss feed

A note on "unmarried and had no children" in the obituaries of gay men who have partners.

Rasputina at Southpaw, Wednesday

So we saw Rasputina tonight at Southpaw in Brooklyn, a venue comparable in tenor to venerable Blind Pig. (I also saw a Pig being carried across Union St in Brooklyn tonight, but that's another story.)

The concept of rock with cellos is a good one. Adding a witty front girl with cowboy boots and a headband with a feather sticking out Indian style, better.

Then you add a sidekick cellist in dreads and make lots of "Oh Look at Me, I'm anti-Bush" comments and you start to lose me a little.

It was quite an energetic show (coming nowhere near that of Amy Ray) but still fun. We had a lovely medley (sp?) thrown at us (more medleys please...) and also a very nice cover of Barracuda immediately preceded by the promise to go classical now, by which they indicated was playing music with class, such that class might rub off on the audience.

As if playing cellos already isn't classy enough.

Zing.

Power Outage in Moscow

In an event harkening back to Soviet Russia, there is currently a
massive power outage in Moscow, causing major disruptions to Russian
internet traffic.

A poster on slashdot points out that luckily for all of you, http://
bride.ru is still up.

Cheney has a Posse

I'd like to take this opportunity to entirely concur with my now distant colleague Antonia on this matter:

Woof woof, it's sausage time!

Speaking of sausage, I discovered a quaint little Hungarian Meat Market (take that as you will) between 84th & 80th on 2nd Ave. I saw some sausage there (take that as you will) that quite poignantly reminded me of the sausage from Budapest Duty Free so brazenly confiscated by US Customs at JFK...


[Edit: The day finally arrived when my roommate chastised me on spelling. Lordy lordy. Thanks. (problem now corrected.]

There's a very very good article here on Law Professor Lawrence Lessig and the American Boychoir School.

Laura Bush is traipsing through the middle east congratulating despots on their support of democracy.

Anybody who had any problems with Hillary Clinton while her husband was in office should step back and get some context...

The exercise of power to destroy a church.

It is exactly as I had expected.

Most Excellent

For the second time in ten years, I have read the term consilience in a book.

This makes me happy.

Catblogging

Catblogging
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

The new firefox alphas have the code name of "Deer Park".

Hmmmm. I'm seeing some Nugent cross promotion here...

sage words on episode 3 from a slashdot thread

However, to look at this and see that as the overriding point of the trilogy is to miss the point: the one critical mistake that could've averted Anakin's fall and the empire's rise. He didn't use a condom. If Padme/Anakin had used proper birth control, Luke/Leia wouldn't have been born but more importantly Anakin would have lost his biggest motivation to go to the dark side.


So remember kids, for the sake of the galaxy, use proper contraception.

By the way, if you haven't seen it already, Episode three really is
That Good.