Conservative not republican.

With a peppery dash of little-L libertarian.

-XC

Facebook isn't getting it from google, a third party ad exchange is using it to serve you ads all over the internet. Turn cookies off and install an ad blocker and you won't see any of that.

If you want to tweak a friend google something seriously weird, like "adult incontinence" a bunch of times on their computer. They'll get odd ads for weeks.

-XC

Ha, not specifically, but the word "olympic" is restricted in copyright in every country that participates in the olympics. So if you see "Olympic pizza" it predates 1976 or whatever the year was that Congress threw yet more copyright law under the bus.

-XC

Excellent - another tech geek....

Oh, wait, I wasn't there but....

Back in the day (1983?) at Nortel I went to a bachelor party for a guy in our group the night before the wedding. At about 11pm I was done and took a cab home - they were headed out to an all night club.

11am ceremony, ya'll.

The next day, we show up at 10:40 or so and are met by a groomsman saying that the ceremony had to be moved but the reception is going to be on time and to just go there and hang out until the bride shows.

Note: not the couple, the bride. Hmmmm.

So I go hang out with my date, all is confusion, they let us in around noon, the bar is open, we're having a few adult beverages and waiting and waiting and waiting. Around 2pm they bring out the food, we fall on it like zombies in a schoolbus. (Sorry)

Around 4pm the father of the bride comes out and tells us the ceremony is complete but the groom is "unable to make it."

I figured he was passing out drunk and they just did the necessary offline and that was that.

Nope, later I find out that his buddies took him to the airport and put him on an 6am flight to DFW. At around 8:30 am the nice flight attendants in DFW put him on a flight to ... Alaska. So he got married "over the radio" from the cockpit.

But wait. At some point his "friends" took all his clothes off and painted his entire body from wrist/neck in ... blue with fountain pen ink.

So on their honeymoon to the Cayman islands, well, I'm sure the pix were interesting.

He actually changed jobs within a few weeks after basically not talking to anyone in the team after getting back.

I was so glad not to be part of that.

_XC

I handed a friend a green pepper (think pencil shaped/sized) on a stick in a nice middle class Indian cafe and said "eat this." We were the only two white guys in there and before any of the more sensible people with pepper reference could stop him - chomp, chomp, swallow.

Four of five mano lassies later he could talk. He said bad words.

Two years later at my going away party in a different place, with 100 of our team there, he handed me a similar pepper and everyone chorused "eat this." It was horrible.

_XC

Well, all internet arguments end in "Nazi."

-XC

We need a filter on that, or keywords or something.

Because I do NOT want to turn on my internet news and see a social security protest.

Just saying.

-XC

There are tons of 'em. Especially in India, Eastern Europe, and some of the America's - we hired a ton of great Brazillan female programmers.

Nothing like a majority, but a lot more than when I was in the biz. I remember at Nortel we had one black female engineer. One. Amusingly she got promoted so fast she never did any real engineering work.

-XC

Well, with video skype you can kind of avoid the trip alltogether for most things....

I guess the other thing to consider is: what can you do on the journey. With in-air wifi the airline trip has dropped to only a few hours of non-work time. So in some ways the 8+ hours to go to the other coast only has a "cost" of two or three.

-XC

Do what US presidents and legislators do when caught out: make a fake but real sounding apology and stay on message no matter what.

Footballers may have different tactics, I dunno.

-XC

Thanks SO much for including that bit about goal direction.

I liked the music - the guys running car-talk should see you and juice up their stuff.

-C

PS - My only suggestion would be to consider interleaving the interviews for contrast.

Better snacks.

You can count to 144 easily using your hands - thus the importance of "gross" in every society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk0hO4oDnzo

There are several ways to do this sort of counting. I like this guys, but that is not actually how it is done in most places.

Use your power wisely, always for good, never for evil.

-XC

1> The idea that rights are inherent and protected by government, not bestowed by it.

2> That man and god do not require an intermediary

3> Discovery of the scientific method

4> Development of Romantic love

5> Alcohol (see <4>)

6> Games: Sports, board

7> Practical math - bookkeeping to calculus

8> Written history

9> Orderly cultivation - plants and animals

10> Birth Control

I believe order is relatively unimportant when you're condensing a few millenia into a list of 10 things. :-)

On another note, my son (16) recently gave me an essay of Corey Doctorow's to read on copyright. I'll find a copy online and post it up - if you haven't seen it then it will probably resonate.

-XC