Link of the Day [11.23.08]

broderic on November 23, 2008

This should also be quote of the day, but since I’ve already got a quote of the in the queue, I’ll just let it introduce the link of the day as it does in the link of the day.

In the narrative that has governed American commercial life for the last quarter-century, saving companies from their own mistakes was not supposed to be part of the government’s job description. Economic policymakers in the United States took swaggering pride in the cutthroat but lucrative form of capitalism that was supposedly indigenous to their frontier nation.

Through this uniquely American lens, saving businesses from collapse was the sort of thing that happened on other shores, where sentimental commitments to social welfare trumped sharp-edged competition.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/20/business/20fail.php

Link of the Day [11.22.08]

broderic on November 22, 2008

I’m in the middle of crafting my model of the IJN Yamato. I’m hitting a decent stride spending about an hour a night pulling the pieces off of the sprues, hitting them with some primer, and then painting them. I’m learning the ins and outs of this fine scale modeling thing and have found out some things.

First, put the pieces as you get them off the sprue in a easy to find place. I would usually put them on a sliver of masking tape. The small ones are easy to lose. I’ve already lost some. The small ones are also very fragile. I’ve broken a few pieces already.

Next, you don’t have to follow the directions exactly. I really want to get the big parts connected, but unfortunately, there are too many small parts to do before I get to the big pieces. I just jump to their usage.

Anyway, I’m further along in this endeavor, but not enough to see some well done progress. Here’s an awesome site about the Imperial Japanese Navy. I’m using this post as another of my infamous bookmarking sites.

http://www.combinedfleet.com/

Quote of the Day [11.21.08]

broderic on November 21, 2008

"That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older,
they stay the same age."Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey), Dazed and Confused

Link of the Day [11.21.08]

broderic on November 21, 2008

This’s what’s great about those crazy libertarians. It almost looks like real, legal tender, but the government shouldn’t be controlling the minting of currency. It’s bad enough that the do it on paper, but their money doesn’t have sound backing in gold reserves! What we need is to allow anyone to strike some coins as long as they’re backed by some kind of precious metal.

And I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

http://www.libertydollar.org/

Browser Metrics

broderic on November 21, 2008

Browser metrics @ browsermetrics

So, I’m creeping up the hit chart on google for the search term “browser metrics.” You can find the fake browser metrics at mozilla.org’s wiki. They only showed up several years after I had coined the term. They are stealing my thunder which I should’ve trademarked or copyrighted a long time ago.

BTW, the story of the name BrowserMetrics comes from my time at Shore Studios. I was sitting around joking with my co-worker AT about how to know that the web sites we were building were optimized to load quick. Was the jpgs and gifs and html we writing going to be quick when served up? Remember this was the time of the ubiquitous dial-up and probably around the 24.4 to 56k crossover. I hit on a scheme to figure out the load time of pages. I was developing some mathematical formulas to describe each and every element on the page and how they contributed to load times. But then I quit that job and the internet became all about the broadband, so now its just the name of the blog.

Link of the Day [11.20.08]

broderic on November 20, 2008

Today’s Thursday and I want to make you cry. Not some sad song of lost love or lost youth. Not some lamentation for a forgotten friend or for the young man cut down in the prime of his life.

No, I got some sadness that’ll grow hair on your head. Make you crawl back to bed. Look to upping your Xanax dosage.

The US auto companies are asking us for their help.

A couple of years back, I was at Barnes and Nobles on a Friday night. There was a lady wandering the parking lot with a sad story to tell. She was crying, blubbering about her daughter. She asked me for some money for the bus to get to her. “Sure,” I replied and gave her a five to help her on her way. The next week I run into her again. She’s crying again giving the same spiel. “I heard this one last week, lady,” I say angry that I was suckered the week before.

That’s just sad. Like the woes of GM.

http://gmfactsandfiction.com/

Yay! Crazy Shrine Girl!

broderic on November 20, 2008

Just had to post this to continue with posting opening credits from the anime I am watching. You’ve seen Haruhi. This one is pretty stupid. I hate it too, but oh well.