Monday, August 07, 2006

I'm moving my blog I have decided to make the move to Windows Live Spaces instead of continuing on with Userland's Radio.  My new blog can be found here: http://psuthar.spaces.live.com/ 8:41:05 AM    comment []

Friday, July 14, 2006

Charmed woman marries cobra in India When reporters finally got the Cobra to comment on the wedding - he said "This village is full of idiots, but hey - they give me milk." 2:07:33 PM    comment []

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Cool Transformers CGI video [via Gizmodo] For someone who grew up watching Transformers - this is pretty cool. 8:28:28 AM    comment [] If Tech Companies Made Sudoku Sudoku is perfect. It can be as engaging, addictive, and flow-inducing as the flashiest real-time rendered, explosion-filled game on the planet. But I can't help imagine what would happen if someone like, say, Microsoft had designed it. Humorous and a little painful at the same time... 8:10:28 AM    comment []

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Mother's Day scam Yesterday I went to FTD.com (my floral provider of choice) looking to buy a nice tulip arrangement for my wife, mother and mother-in-law for the upcoming holiday known as Mother's Day.  I found what I was looking for at a reasonable price and being well versed in the holiday traditions for when the arrangement should be delivered - I set the delivery date for May 13th (Saturday).   Upon reaching the checkout summary page (the one you see before the missile is launched) I noticed the cost per bouqet was $X, and the delivery change per bouqet was $27!  That's right - twenty freakin seven dollars.  Times 3.  A total delivery charge of  $81!  So I hit the back button in my browser (thank goodness this wasn't an AJAX app - that would've really pissed me off) and got to the screen for delivery dates and changed it to May 12th (Friday).  Upon reaching the checkout summary page again I saw that the delivery charge per bouqet was now $9, for a total of $27.  Much more acceptable.    So I made the purchase and once again have asked myself not to succumb to this commercialized holiday (and Valentines's day) next year, as I do every year.  Hopefully there will be a new player in the flower delivery market by then that will charge reasonable prices. 8:02:34 AM    comment []

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Another racquetball match with Barron I had played Barron last week from a ladder match last week - he's pretty good and gave me a sound beating in two matches.   I had the chance to play him again this week - he's still pretty good and gave me a milder beating this time.  I held my own in the first match, where he was leading 10-1 and I came back to tie at 10's.  It was an incredible rally, and one that pretty much drained all of my energy.  Barron has this killer shot where he hits the ball downwards at the right side wall near the front wall and it just ricochets off of the front wall about an inch off of the ground.  He also has this unusual shot where he hits the ball high off of the front wall so that it bounces off the ceiling, continuing it path to the middle of the court and bouncing high to the back wall - it's a really disorienting shot that gave him a few points during the game.    Long story cut short - Barron had to fight for the first game, but I succumbed to fatigue early into the second match and he had his way with me. 8:18:01 PM    comment [] Warner Bros. to Use BitTorrent To Distribute Movies “If we can convert 5, 10, 15 percent of the peer-to-peer users that have been obtaining our product from illegitimate sources to becoming legitimate buyers of our product, that has the potential of a huge impact on our industry and our economics.” Well the ISPs better prepare for this in the event it takes off.  BitTorrent uses well known ports for optimal "sharing", and some ISPs attenuate/block these ports and prevent traffic as a [lame] method for preventing illegal downloading of copyrighted content.  The real big deal for some ISPs is that the upload streams would grow in size and frequency - this is a huge burden for asymmetric internet connectivity (e.g. cable modems).  Currently many of these ISPs limit the amount of uploading you can perform in a specified period of time, and if you exceed the limit, the ISP severly restricts your bandwidth (down and up) until you call the ISP and ask for forgiveness. 9:14:00 AM    comment []

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Wiring the Web presentation from Mix06 now online Matt Augustine and I did a presentation on Live Clipboard and Simple Sharing Extensions at the Mix06 conference, describing their value independently as well as when used together. tags: live clipboard 3:35:17 PM    comment [] Master Foo's Taxation Theory of Microformats "Complexity is like taxation.", Master Foo began. "Producers and consumers alike will always see a tax as unfair unless they can see benefits to themselves in paying it. XML - as classically articulated - suffers from the fact that the costs and benefits associated with its usage occur in different places in the value chain. As a publisher, I will definitely benefit from XML but as a consumer, I will only benefit from it if I have (a) technical expertise and (b) non-trivial integration requirements. If I just want to print or search or e-mail or copy/paste, the XML appears to be an unfair complexity tax to me." 10:11:57 AM    comment []

Monday, May 01, 2006

The myth of "keeping up" One of the things that is so great about working at Microsoft is that I get to learn about new technologies and meet with some sharp folks on a frequent basis.  There is so much to learn and absorb that sometimes I feel like that kid who is madly chasing the school bus that just pulled away from the stop.  Reading this article gave me a little perspective on the fact that I can't, nor should I try to be, knowledgeable about everything. 8:40:51 AM    comment []

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