Posted on August 29th, 2008
Seriously? Sarah Palin? Democrats would have gotten some yucks over Kay Bailey Hutchinson (she’s had a few Texas-isms in her time), but at least she’s politically competent with years of experience. Carly Fiorina would have been a terrible choice; but she was the CEO of a huge corporation, even if she nearly killed it. Heck, even Meg Whitman has some good organizational credibility as former CEO of eBay. But Sarah Palin? Seriously?
- She’s facing investigation for corruption in Alaska.
- She has no foreign policy experience.
- She has no experience! She’s been governor for two years - since 2006. Prior to being governor of Alaska, she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska with a population of 5,470!
- And with all of this, she will be one step away from the presidency.
Wow. Just wow. I’m stunned. I try to keep this blog mostly politically neutral, and I’m stunned enough to write this here. Wow.
Posted on August 26th, 2008
It’s rare to find a typo in the New York Times, especially in the headline of all places. This recent one in an article about removing Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is incredibly egregious:
His hearing for removal will precede what? The reading of the minutes? Business of the city?
“Let’s vote to remove the mayor, and then we’ll take up zoning requests.”
[Update: Looks like it got fixed. My screenshot shall live on.]
Posted on August 22nd, 2008
I have been insanely busy this week at uTest. We had our General Availability launch and got a lot of excellent coverage from around the world for our software testing services. Some of our highlights include:
There’s more on our uTest news page, and here’s a link to our press release as well. Or see what we’re up to in the uTest blog.
Posted on August 12th, 2008
I wrote before about the newly kindled battle between Canon and Nikon in the professional camera segment. Nikon has launched some incredible new products lately, but Canon has countered by promoting their long standing success as the camera of choice for sports photographers. Now Luminous Landscape has found an amazing new photo from the Olympics:
All of the gray lenses are Canons while all of the black lenses are Nikons. I count 21 lenses - 13 Nikons and 8 Canons. Unbelievable! Canon is in serious trouble! The photo comes from Stern.de, and a larger version is here.
Posted on August 10th, 2008
I’ve been pretty busy with the move and all, but I thought I would share photo I took a little while back of sunset over a pond in Haverhill, MA. Hope you like it:
Posted on August 8th, 2008
Congratulations to Rackspace for their IPO! I wish all you awesome Rackers the very best!
Here are some news posts:
Also, here’s a link to their stock ticker: RAX.
(Note: I do not own any Rackspace stock or options.)
Posted on August 6th, 2008
I have this weird problem with Coke Zero (that’s the American Coke Zero, which may be different from international branding). This version of Coca Cola differs from Diet Coke because it contains a different sweetner: Acesulfame Potassium (also known as Acesulfame K) instead of Aspartame. The problem is, it tastes like lime to me.
To put this in perspective: for me Coke Zero tastes and smells like Lime Diet Coke. Seriously. I can’t tell them apart. I’ve also tasted this effect in Diet Coke with Splenda, another drink that contains a different combination of sweetners that includes Splenda and Acesulfame K. It’s like Diet Coke with a slight limey flavor.
I can think of a couple of reasons for this. One is that Acesulfame K really tastes like lime to me for mysterious reasons. I’ve never tasted the sweetener alone, so I don’t know for sure. The other possibility is that I can’t taste Acesulfame K at all, meaning I’m picking up too much of the other acid flavors in the drinks.
Anyone else have experience with this?
Posted on August 3rd, 2008
I recently wrote about a trip to Wal-Mart where I noticed their pricing in the soda aisle was a little wacky. Today I saw something even more egregious. Take a close look at the two packages of deodorant below (click for larger). One is a single pack and the other is a “Twin Pack” with the words “Special Value” written on top. See the problem?
Check the price at the bottom. The single stick works out to be $13.10 per pound while the “Special Value” twin pack is actually more expensive at $13.80 per pound. The privilege of having Unilever wrap two sticks of deodorant in some decorative cellophane will end up costing you an extra $0.22 over just buying two of the individual sticks.
