Postverbindungen: March 3, 2010

Some random links from recent internet travels:

• I can only hope that the Zoolander sequel lives up to the original, which still makes me laugh just thinking about it. No word yet on whether Owen Wilson will reprise his role as Hansel, but Jonah Hill is reportedly in talks to play the villain. Justin Theroux (who played the break-dance-fighting "Evil DJ" in the first film) will write the screenplay (his other writing credits include Tropic Thunder and the upcoming Iron Man 2).
• From what my friends tell me about the after-work life of the South Korean salaryman, it's no wonder that scientists in that country are at the forefront of hangover reduction research. Stay thirsty, my scientist friends, or you might find yourself trailing the Japanese, when they begin studying the vodka-snorting phenomenon mentioned by the first commenter on the linked article.
• Meant to post this a while back, but here's a crazy video from the security cameras of a bus whose driver fell asleep and wreaked havoc on a Taiwanese freeway.
• John Gruber pretty much sums up what I have to say about the Apple-HTC Patent Thing. In short, I don't believe that software patents are a bad idea in principle, but the current system is broken, and so it is unfortunate but understandable that companies would stockpile patents for defensive purposes. It's when companies use them offensively (pun intended) that a bad taste is left in everyone's mouths. A friend of the site, Joz, was lamenting recently that Steve Jobs — and, by extension, Apple — would be looked upon much more fondly if he rested on his laurels of good design and constant innovation, rather than always picking fights with or making snide remarks about people/companies/technologies. Unfortunately, life is rarely so simple, and we have to take the bad with the good.

Finally, I'm a sucker for a good Rube Goldberg machine, so I'm happy that OK Go and Synn Labs put in the effort to make this one (available in HD):

Update: Forgot about this video, which may be of some interest to the Japanophiles and yo-yo-o-philes among the Hydrans:

Next time you have a 6,000 person layoff ...

... just say that you are "aligning your cost model with the global economic climate", like Sun Microsystems.

That will make it sound so much better!

Update: More euphemisms, via Fortune:

American Express — "re-engineering"

Fidelity Investments — "cost improvement"

eBay — "simplification"

Yahoo! — "become more fit"

Tap'dNY

Some coworkers/fellow-Hydrans and I were joking one day at lunch about taking the pretentiousness out of bottled water and just marketing a product called "tap water". Then, along came a link to a product called Tap'dNY (blog). I'm not 100% sure that it's a real product, since the site is so thoroughly tongue-in-cheek, but it's close enough to our idea that I'll say they beat us to market. The "Refills Available at Any New York City Tap" line and the custom Sigg bottles are particularly clever.

Garfield Minus Garfield ... The Book!

A few months ago, I'd posted a link to Garfield Minus Garfield, and followed up with a comment pointing to a New York Times article in which Jim Davis called it "fascinating", "flattering", and funny.

While one might argue about how funny Mr. Davis himself has been over the past 30 years, he's nothing if not a shrewd businessman. He's taken his love for the strip one step further, and is helping turn it into a book:

Now, thanks to the awesome generosity and humor of Jim Davis, Garfield Minus Garfield is going to become a book and I’m absolutely honored to be part of it.

Things I Didn't Know, December '07 Edition

Here are some of the things I've learned over the last couple of months:

— Phil Knight, founder of Nike, has been taking writing classes at Stanford, and is a good classmate.

— Nintendo has some excuses for its (mind-boggling, IMO) inability to meet the demand for Wii systems, as elaborated in Wired and in the WSJ.

— Bill Bellamy is Shaq's cousin (link to FHM, so maybe NSFW).

— There's a documentary about CalTech basketball called Quantum Hoops.

— PCs with some Award/Unicore BIOSes will, seemingly at random, play classical music to signal problems with CPU fans and power supply voltages!

— Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was created as an advertising gimmick for Montgomery Ward. His creator's brother-in-law wrote the now iconic song about Rudolph, sung by Gene Auntry, for a Max Fleischer cartoon.

— Speaking of Christmas music, there are tons of cover versions of "Last Christmas", Wham's gift to the world.

— The Ten Mafia Commandments.

— An expert Scrabble player would not have set the highest Scrabble score ever, given the same circumstances in which it was achieved.

— The first three-way tie in Jeopardy history (where everyone came back) was a true act of generosity, and the guy who made it happen planned it that way.

Intel version of an iPhone like device

http://www.myitthings.com/nathan18/Post/tech/It_Device/Intel_shows_off_iPhone_competitor%21/86920200722357490.htm

Anyone who owns Apple stock Sell! Sell!! Sell!!!

Turkey Soda Anyone?

Being a former shareholder of Jones Soda I still sometimes keep up with articles about the company. Here is a cool interview with CEO Peter van Stolk. I don't normally follow Motley Fool but an interview is an interview.

Memorable quote:

The silliest thing that people do, in my opinion ... is they market before the product is on the shelf. It feels good and everybody gets excited, so I do a marketing campaign before I am on the shelf. I spend a lot of money, get people all buzzed about it, and then consumers go to find it, and they can't see it. And then I don't have any revenues to justify doing it again, and I look like a complete moron. That is real.