Category: Random

One thing NASA ought to consider is which branch of the service they pull from. Instead of pilots, they should look at submariners. They are able to work in confined spaces and deal with the long term tedious routines needed for long-term space travel. Just a thought.>>

I generally use iGoogle as my RSS reader, as opposed to Google Reader (amongst the myriad choices). I prefer the reading experience in iGoogle, but have come up with one nuisance: adding feeds. I need to click on “add stuff”, then on “add feed or gadget” (not so easy to see, ½ way down the page on the left column), then I drop in the URL. Why not have this accessible from the Main screen, as it is on the Reader page? Just a thought.

I saw two blog posts about Yahoo! this weekend, Jeff Jarvis and at Liveside, so I wonder. Considering Jeff’s comments about the new Shine portal, which seems a rather weak offering (I am in complete agreement with Jarvis’ commentary), it doesn’t seem that Yang and co are in a place to truly fight back Microsoft’s bid. I find it similar to, let’s say, Landrover or Jaguar, fighting their takeover by Ford, decided to release an updated Yugo. You’d almost guess that they were trying the poison-pill approach; which always seems to be a daft move (unless you’re so narrowly focused on your short-term power-trip). Now, I don’t think that Shine is meant to make Yahoo! look less attractive as a brand, it just looks like a daft move by someone who doesn’t get the new internet business landscape. But, hey, what do I know?

Watch out, you’re being watched

As I develop more interest in security and its underlying systems, this story is both fascinating and disturbing. It boggles my mind that Homeland Security is monitoring random spots on the main freeway (north-south) through Washington (I5), and that they’re sensitive enough to detect radiation from a cat undergoing cancer treatment. I worry about the tighter net we cast, and, even more so, the underlying fear. Will we sell the soul of our society in a vain attempt to mollify our terror of terrorists? The thought that we’d, rather willingly, thrust ourselves into a Stalinist state rooted in distrust deeply saddens me.

Who wants to own WaMu?

A rather relevant question for me. I’ve had a WaMu account for decades, and my credit cards have become part of the WaMu family over the years through acquisition. And, as a passionate Washingtonian, I also care since they’re a local institution, at least in some semblance of the word. If nothing else, they originated here and are headquartered nearby. As they’ve gone from huge to mammoth, they’ve managed to maintain a local bank feel, at least in the branch I frequent most. Now, I’m a pretty low-demand customer. I LIKE banking online and via ATM. Heck, I hardly ever carry cash. But, when I do need to head into a branch, I’ve always felt welcome and speedily dealt with.

Anyway, so I have two core reasons to be concerned with the organization and structure of the Co. Certainly, I want the company to stay solvent. However, I don’t want it to become part of a megalith that’s so huge that the customers don’t even lightly blip their radar. Or, perhaps more properly stated, I don’t want to become part of Bank of America, er, part of a bank that supersized. I guess I’ll just need to wait and see what happens. If the Mu tanks, or gets absorbed into some amorphous corpoblob, I’ll need to decide how dissatisfied I am to vote with my feet. Gotta overcome that personal inertia, sad to say.

Deep Thoughts

            by Jack Handy

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is “God is crying.” And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is “Probably because of something you did.”