My computer’s Valentine’s present to me was to have my Palm stop opening. All it would say “unexpected end of file.” Since this is where I keep my calendar and contact data, even now, this was not much of a present. I found this reference file on Recovering Palm Desktop User Data. It did the trick. I do now have double entries for my calendar, but at least I know what I’m supposed to be doing.
I got a solicitation to subscribe to Fast Company for $5. I think that’s the lowest price I have ever seen for a one-year subscription to a monthly, general-interest magazine. I’m somewhat flabbergasted by it; does any advertiser want to pay to be seen by people who paid $5, about the cost of a single issue? On the other hand, hey, it is a recession.
I took a 24-hour fast recently, limiting myself to water (and chewing gum). Since I’d already been counting calories as part of getting back on track after picking up about 10 pounds over the holidays, I can see that I ate probably a bit more in the meals before and after the fast (I fasted from 1 p.m. until 1 p.m.). What I didn’t expect to happen was the kind of hunger that kept after me for the next couple of days, when I found myself feeling almost compelled to eat more than I would normally eat. A kind of after effect of fasting, I guess. I wonder if that would happen every time I fasted, or if my body would adapt.
My second crack at Budget Hero. I chose not to create certain spending programs I wanted, like having the feds pay more for college. And I was more aggressive about certain kinds of taxes — I cut out a couple of business tax breaks I would’ve liked to keep, for instance. But there are a number I did not eliminate. Not that anyone will ever take my opinion, but I did stave off budget disaster until 2070.
Sort of. I played Budget Hero and managed to keep the country from going bust until 2060. But no one would ever elect me — I focused on making the government somewhat more efficient. So I cut farm subsidies, the defense budget, discretionary spending, ended earmarks and did not do much about healthcare or the public schools.
My good friend Kathy Kleiman had a great moment recently, when she and one of the early ENIAC programmers, whose memory has been kept alive largely by Kathy’s efforts, went to Silicon Valley for a couple of major events: the programmer, Jean Bartik, was given a Fellows Award by the Computer History Museum, and then spent a chunk of time at Google.
Here’s Kathy’s post about the event, complete with video. And a link to the ENIAC Programmers Project site, which Kathy maintains.
A funny little bit on Gawker about how people want copies of today’s New York Times as a memento of yesterday’s historic election. Can’t do that with an Internet headline, Gawker acknowledged. I am reminded that I once had a disk of the HTML files for the first-ever farewell Page One at my old newspaper, Copmuterworld. Even if I knew where the disk was (possible), I no longer have a way to read it.
Of course, electronic readers can’t protect the floor from a new puppy, either, but that’s just a market opportunity for the paper business.
I’m not sure when I stopped reading the funnies. True confession: they were the main reason I got the Sunday paper. (Then again, I no longer like playing in the rain, and only make snow angels for the principle of the thing. No wonder I’ve stopped reading the comics.) I get three Sunday papers and give the funnies to the kids. So it was pure happenstance that I saw the end of Opus.
“Bloom County” used to be one of my favorites, so I made myself go to the page on the Humane Society site where Berkeley Breathed said goodbye to Opus. (Don’t go to Breathed’s site — it’s so slow to load his tribute that it feels like accessing the Web on dial-up). Having to disconnect from paper to Web was annoying; but it was worse that it stirred nothing. I didn’t recognize the detritus that Breathed gathered to pull at the heart strings of loyal Opus followers, and thought the placing of him in Goodnight Moon was about Breathed, not Opus. I was happier seeing the sentiment in the eyes of Steve Dallas in the last panel in the paper.
Maybe I need to start reading the funnies again.
A lovely piece on Studs Terkel, who just passed away, or ‘checked out,’ as he would’ve said. I never met Terkel in the nine years I lived in Chicago, and for some reason never listened to him on the radio, though I read several of his books. After I became a journalist, I did buy a collection of his interviews on cassette, Four Decades with Studs Terkel, which is available used on Amazon.com and worth the entire penny, plus shipping. I listened in awe: Terkel was a master at turning an interview into an intimate conversation.
The update, Voices of Our Times, came out in 2005. It’s high time for me to upgrade, especially since I haven’t had a cassette player in years.
On Big Think I’ve posted a concise review of When Markets Collide, a book I think will cement the reputation of its author, Mohamed El-Erian, and place him among the most influential observers of the 21st century global economy.
I posted 5 Questions with Steve Weinberg, author of the new dual biography on Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller.
Finally, I’m experimenting with a Books Death Match, starting with two books on hiring.