Friday, January 27, 2006

Lance Knobel: Economics reading list. 

Scott Beale's photolog of last night's dinner.  

JY's new blog is a bit on the minimal side.  

Gizmodo reports that the networks are making bags of money off iTunes video downloads, which suggests that they might program for the medium. I wonder if then someone might pick up the West Wing, what if the users just paid for it? I totally want to watch the Santos Administration take over the White House. I wonder how much an episode costs to produce? Would the actors be willing? 

A receipt for $3,030,000.00 from Comcast for last month's cable and Internet service. At least it indicates that I paid that amount (as opposed to asking me to pay that amount). I called, they say it's a glitch in their system. I asked for a refund. The operator laughed. I said it was not funny. This crazy system we're building is going to melt down one day.  

Matt Terenzio: Remote OPML Enabler WordPress plugin. 

New header graphic. A tram in front of the Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in Dam Square, Amsterdam, taken in February 2000. I like the way the tram is a blur, but the people are in focus. I also like the color. I moved the original picture over to Flickr to see the metadata. 

Last night's dinner was fun, but we still haven't hit the right formula for these things. Not enough circulation, not enough opportunities to talk with a variety of people. The best dinners have been small enough so that the room isn't so loud so you can hear everyone, including people on the other side of the room (Alexandria, Feb 2005) or in a food court so everything is informal. I think the next one in Berkeley will be at the Shattuck Hotel, which has an excellent Afghani restaurant that seems to always be empty. It's an old kind of drafty hotel, I wouldn't stay there (I have, one night, it wasn't an experience I'd want to repeat) but it's got the right configuration for one of these dinners, and it's very close to BART for people coming in from SF. People coming from the South Bay just can't get here for a 7PM dinner, maybe by connecting with BART they can. Crossing the bay by car at rush hour is just too slow. The people who came from the other side didn't get there until 8PM.  

Last year on this day: "If you live long enough the dorky things that Mom used to say start meaning more." 

Six years ago: "Welcome to Davos!"