Flight tracking: where are they now?
Check it out at http://www.fboweb.com.
Brian2Brian
Saturday, January 01, 2005
U.S. labor statistics
I am such a policy wonk, that I was playing with the Bureau of Labor Statistics website when the New Year rang in.Wrong-way helmetless smoking cyclist
Today, while I was walking down El Camino Real, there was a helmetless cyclist riding on the wrong side of the road, but the same side of the road I was on. When a bus appeared suddenly in the lane, he jumped up the curb, right in my path. That's when I noticed that he was smoking a cigarette. So I figured there was no need to lecture him on risk assessment.Friday, December 31, 2004
Chicken rice is getting more expensive
The decline of the US dollar vs. the Singapore dollar is personally irritating.
Update: Or, perhaps the consequences are more far-reaching than my chicken rice budget.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
In other words, you are scum
What a cheery way to start off the year. LinkedIn telling me how few friends I have. According to my informal estimate, 30 connections puts me in the 75th percentile. The median LinkedIn user has 12 or fewer connections.
Dear Brian,
Your LinkedIn network has grown to 299,600+ professionals in just the last few weeks of the year. We hope you have had a happy and successful 2004.
However, there are 1,255,300+ additional hiring managers, business partners and industry experts on LinkedIn you cannot find or contact because you are currently only connected to 30 other people on LinkedIn.
Use our Find Contacts Wizard to quickly find all of your friends and colleagues who have already joined LinkedIn. It usually takes new users only a few moments to double or triple the size of their networks on LinkedIn by reconnecting with people they know.
Find out which of the people you know are already LinkedIn and be ready for the new year.
- Your LinkedIn Team
So while it would be advisable to first stop insulting their subscribers, somebody also needs to tell their marketing team that using their company name as an adjective could cost them their trademark claim.
Dilbert invents exactly what I need
It's funny, but depressing, when Dilbert figures out just what I need: an online dating service combined with an online job service combined with an online auction. Or I could ask people to post jobs, bids for my remaining stuff, and the phone numbers of eligible women here.
Science commons: for the intellectual property-inclined readers
Its mission is to encourage scientific innovation by making it easier for scientists, universities, and industries to use literature, data, and other scientific intellectual property and to share their knowledge with others. Science Commons works within current copyright and patent law to promote legal and technical mechanisms that remove barriers to sharing.A big pile of salt
Alex's blog has a photo of the world's biggest pile of salt, and also its tallest building.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Why the hell is my computer swearing at me?
I have many issues with the name of the Hello program that lets you send photos to Blogger for blogging, but having the word "hell" next to a flower/rising sun icon constantly on my screen is pretty high on the list.
Yankee organist Eddie Layton dies
Yankee Stadium organist Eddie Layton, inventor of now-classic ballpark organ riffs is dead at age 77. 50,000 watts of power, 56,000 fans a night. Not a bad gig.Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Main Street Coffee Roasting Company
How I deal with a broken coffee pot. Main Street Coffee Roasting Company is, of course, on Elm Street in Redwood City.
Speaking of urbane
The Urbane Cyclist (Toronto shop) has a TIG-welded fixed-gear frame with a lugged chrome fork. I am sure Brian has already told me about kevlar emergency replacement spokes.Our black counterpart?
Thanks to Teoma, I learned that over at http://members.blackplanet.com/brian2brian/, you can see another brian2brian blog. What do we know about the other other other Brian?
- Due to graduate in 2004. Sounds familiar.
- Interested in computers and eating out. I'd say this blog is about computers and eating out, too.
- Basketball, football, martial arts. These are three things I don't think I will get around to in this lifetime, but I'm glad some Brian somewhere is taking care of it.
- From Chicago. Milwaukee is pretty close to Chicago. San Francisco is a big city, too. I'd say we're pretty urban Brians, maybe even urbane.
Monday, December 27, 2004
Singaporeans speak English
Someone recently said that I said that English is almost the primary language of Singapore. The word "almost" set me off.
Actually, I believe I said that English is the primary language there, not almost a primary language. The one they use in the schools, government, and on road signs. The only language everybody speaks, in greater proportion than Americans speak English. I don't know why it's so hard to believe that Asians speak English as their primary language, but people think I'm joking when I tell them this. (They also think I'm being funny when I insist that Singapore's unit of currency is known as the "dollar.")
Official sources try to give equal status to the four official languages, and warning signs are in English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil, but that's not really an accurate picture. Yes, Malay is Singapore's "national" (ceremonial official) language, so the national anthem ("Majulah, Singapura," roughly, "Forward, Singapore") is in Malay. The population is 85% Chinese, but for only a small minority is their family's ancestral dialect Mandarin. Nevertheless, Chinese kids have to study Mandarin in school, as a language subject like we teach foreign languages here. Some Chinese kids grow up to speak Mandarin as adults, but many forget it as soon as they pass their tests. (It's a hard language for Asians, too!) It's hard to imagine getting by on just Tamil, but you do see people reading Tamil newspapers on the MRT. But you can assume that people speak English, even when there are no American tourists around.
Update: The other side of the coin: Westerners speaking Mandarin.
USGS: Asia Quake was 9.0
As devastating as the quake and tsunamis that followed are proving to be, I am personally hoping that this release of seismic energy means that Southeast Asia will be calm and peaceful for years to come. They say the ground along the fault moved 10 meters. This map is useful. I imagine this is all people are talking about in Singapore today. Even though Singapore is OK, the people have ties to Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, and all the other neighbors.
The USGS also asks Internet users if they felt the earthquake, and the map of those results is also interesting.
Burrito Real in Mountain View
Ramon's Burrito Real, 580 N. Rengstorff Ave. in Mountain View is my favorite place for burritos.