Friday, September 23, 2005

Google Goes Las Vegas

Very interesting article about an experiment with Google AdWords. It seems if you try to mess with the system, the system will smack you down.

read more | digg story

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Water and the Grocery Store

So, can anyone explain mass panic to me? Gas stations are just packed, there isn't any bottled water (or bread) left at the grocery store, and people are just coming out of the store with toilet paper like crazy. WTF? We are in a staging area for evacuees, and yet it's like the storm is going to hit right here. The power will likely go out with the winds, but how long are people expecting it to go out? Update: In all fairness, I've met several people while out today that are hosting others from the coast, so I understand some of the activity out there. It has just gotten a bit out of hand, as several others I met are just caught up in the craze. I even found myself almost catching it. The local stores are well staffed. Apparently they've called in extra help. I talked with one cashier at a local wholesale store who was just happy to be there; he's getting paid overtime for all of this. I guess this is one way to drive up the economy.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Rita in Central Texas

So, I'm in Austin, and the news is just going nuts about this. They are telling us that we could still see a Class 1 Hurricane this far north from the coast on Saturday. Crazy. Update: Looks like the track is going further east. Update: Saturday, 8:36 AM CST All the rain has moved out of the forecast for the day. It's a bit more windy out than normal, but otherwise it looks quite nice. The Austin City Limits festival is still going on.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Do What You Love

I often see this little quote bantered about in motivational speeches, or business books. A little tidbit of wisdom. Lately, I've just been trying to figure out what that is. It's not as easy as it sound, especially when you throw the expenses of life around. I guess I have the problem of being good at several things, not all of which I like. About the only thing I've figured out so far is that I like starting new things. Not necessarily finishing them, which presents quite a conundrum if you want to follow the above advice. So, I just need to find a job where I can start a bunch of things, but then just let other people finish them. That doesn't sound like the clinching interview quote, does it? I guess the problem is that I am good at getting things done, but I just don't like the finishing part. Often I find myself smack in the middle of something when I've already thought out the rest of it in my head, found that uninteresting, and start thinking up the next task. So, does "Do what you love" really count for stuff like this?

Monday, September 12, 2005

del.icio.us

I've added my del.icio.us feed to the sidebar of this blog. This represents a good portion of what I'm looking at on the web. I'm using this is a bookmark aggregator, and so far it's pretty good.