AC Capehart capehart

OK, /this/ is the kind of thing I expected to stumble across at SIGGRAPH and didn’t. But WOAH, this is cool: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

This link made the rounds at work today. I shared it with bk and Carolyn, my only (semi-)regular non-Linden workday correspondents, and Carolyn suggested I blog it. I won’t steal the thunder from the article to recreate it here, but it’s a short read and reasonably insightful if perhaps a little over-broad. It’s about the “tact filter” and its orientation between nerds and “normal” people. [[In an age where people have ‘(re)claimed’ geekness to the point where ‘athletics geek’ is no longer a completely laughable oxymoron, is there such a thing as a ‘normal’ person?

I guess this really has been a bay area weekend. Yesterday, we went down to Berkeley partly just to wander, partly to pick up a kid-sized table and chairs for Sam that Carolyn arranged to buy through BPN but partly to go to Half Price Books. We were seeking the third book in the Song of Fire and Ice series — A Storm of Swords. I gave up on the series after the first book — too much soap opera, too little fantasy, but it engulfed Carolyn like a raging storm (of swords?

The past 3 weekends have all been wet in some way or another. I went sailing on the bay on a 30′ Hunter a few weeks ago. Last weekend, we went to a beach that’s a 10-or-so minute drive pretty much due west of our house, and this weekend we went to the 36th annual NCMA boat show. It was great except that we got a late start so that we didn’t get much time there before we had to come back for nap time.

Last weekend, we were dining at our favorite local Thai restaurant and we had a seating neighbor who was fairly loud. Since we’re north of Berkeley (and in the San Francisco area), the fact that she was “naturally” dressed and appeared to be on a date with her female companion went completely without note. That she was on an easily overheard and extended rant about her neighbor’s behavior was a little bit annoying.

Dear Sam, It’s been a quarter of a year since I last wrote your newsletter! Thank goodness Mom stepped up to the plate. She also saved my butt this month as I have a “notes” email from her containing what could be considered “talking points” for this newsletter. Two thing really stand out for me in particular this month though: Jumping and Skipping. You really enjoy both of them. You also enjoy requesting them of me.

People have complained (or admired) Apple computer for its effective product launches and getting a great deal of excitement about upcoming or just released products. This has not escaped the watchful eye of the onion. Probably a quarter of the people in my office already have the iPhone. And yet truth is at least as strange as fiction as I saw this teaser at the top of another commuter’s paper today: “Apple ready to announce what’s next.

I’m pretty sure there’s a name for this — the discord between the name of something being an inaccurate description. You know several government examples like “The clean air act” or the “defense department”. Yesterday morning on my commute, I had a moment of disconnect until I realized that distinction again. I saw a van a lane or two over with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on it, and in big letters, “Bridge Painters.

I am a couple of months behind in reading Wired, and just came across Clive Thomson’s article on Twitter. Anyone who follows me (OK, just Yoz) knows how infrequently I update. It’s about like this blog. There are two bits of it that struck a chord with me: Productivity guru Tim Ferriss calls Twitter “pointless email on steroids.” I had a very similar reaction to it when I first stumbled across it.

Well, as you can see from the sidebar change, I added “Now Reading” rather than writing my own. That’s OK. I’ll find something else to geek out on soon enough. I’m wondering if I should generalize it to “Now Consuming” and add DVD’s we’re watching and games I’m playing.