David Brin, whose works have never sounded all that interesting to me in the first place, sounds off against Tolkien, and his Lord of the Rings, as Romantic, racist, Naziesque,…
David Brin, whose works have never sounded all that interesting to me in the first place, sounds off against Tolkien, and his Lord of the Rings, as Romantic, racist, Naziesque, anti-Enlightenment fables.
Do we tip because of good service? Not so much (so these studies say). It’s more about guilt, shame, touching, squatting, and candy. Squatting – Two studies showed that waiters…
Do we tip because of good service? Not so much (so these studies say). It’s more about guilt, shame, touching, squatting, and candy.
Squatting – Two studies showed that waiters who squatted next to the table when taking orders and talking with customers increased their tips from 14.9% of the bill to 17.5% of the bill in one study, and from 12% to 15% in another study. Apparently, the eye contact and closer interaction creates a more intimate connection and makes us want to give the server more money.
I usually use 10% as the minimum acceptable service reward (and, yes, I have occasionally done significantly less). Good service gets 15%. Outstanding service (beyond expectations) hits 20%. I don’t particularly care for either touching, or squatting, nor is giving candy something that wows me enough to increase my tip — I think.
Heh. A goof, I think, at Amazon.co.uk. At least, I don’t think those look like fighting Shaolin monks. Though some of that monk stuff is kind of inscrutable. (For when…
Heh. A goof, I think, at Amazon.co.uk. At least, I don’t think those look like fighting Shaolin monks. Though some of that monk stuff is kind of inscrutable.
(For when they finally fix the page, here‘s what it looked like for a while. The screen grab doesn’t include the video description, though, which is also, ah, un-monk-like. The “more in category” is messed up, but the “also bought” “browse for more in” stuff fits the movie title. Odd database glitch.)
(via BoingBoing)
Google has published it’s 2002 Year-End Zeitgeist, using the queries placed through the massive search tool to track what people were interested in. There’s too much fascinating stuff to quote…
Google has published it’s 2002 Year-End Zeitgeist, using the queries placed through the massive search tool to track what people were interested in.
There’s too much fascinating stuff to quote here. Check it out yourself.
The Segway folk have certainly been cutting a special deal with Disney, because we saw several of the personal transports at WDW. One was being demonstrated at the Innoventions pavilion…
The Segway folk have certainly been cutting a special deal with Disney, because we saw several of the personal transports at WDW. One was being demonstrated at the Innoventions pavilion at Epcot, but we actually saw one souvenir vendor riding one, festooned with various goodies to sell to the folks before and after the big fireworks show.
Watching her effortlessly maneuver it around, stand it still, and weave through the crowd made me very envious and desirous of one, even though I have no real need for it. Still, it was tres cool.
And, if anyone wants to buy me one … well, I’ve put it in my Wish List.
The RIAA keeps yelling and ranting about how their sales are in the dumps, and it’s all fault of music pirates. “We’d be fixing prices and raking in the dough,…
The RIAA keeps yelling and ranting about how their sales are in the dumps, and it’s all fault of music pirates. “We’d be fixing prices and raking in the dough, if it weren’t for you darned kids!”
The problem is, the numbers from the RIAA itself don’t add up. Or, rather, they add up funny — because one reason why overall sales are down is because the music companies are publishing less product — but they’re making more per unit than ever before.
Feh.
So what happens when (a) the Christmas cards you ordered don’t arrive, (b) your evenings in November are full of family and or management visits, and (c) you slack off…
So what happens when (a) the Christmas cards you ordered don’t arrive, (b) your evenings in November are full of family and or management visits, and (c) you slack off while taking a vacation the second week of December?
The obvious answer is that you rush around like a maniac the third week of December in hopes that the cards you send out will get there the fourth week of December.
Yeesh.
So last night I pounded out fifty-odd Christmas cards for our nearest and dearest. The quite-not-so-near-or-dear might not get any this year, dagnabbit. Yes, I know that’s a big Christmas card list (for some — for others it’s tiny). But we both have large families and extended friends that need at least that annual communique …
Oh, frell. Didn’t do the 3rd Annual Hill/Kleerup Christmas Letter. Oh, well — let ’em read my blog archives.
So, anyway, I got most of the ones that have to go out done. But the ones that go to local folks who also get an invite to our Twelfth Night party in January couldn’t go out yet. (Yes, because the November and December insanity is not enough, we’ve decided to extend it another month. Or two.) That’s because I didn’t have the invites finished, which I did this morning, so tonight I get to do more cards, with invites.
(And why is it that so many people ask me what the heck Twelfth Night is? I mean, I give a little explanation inside the invite, which nobody reads, but you’d think someone would remember the Twelve Days of Christmas, or have heard of the Shakespearean play or something. Or am I being more pendantic than usual?)
Of course, at lunch I need to go out and by frelling stamps. Not looking forward to that. Not that the lines will be too long, since I don’t expect to get out to lunch until about 1, and I have a number of other errands to do, too.
And perhaps I should pick up some more cards, too, because there are probably fifty-odd more folks who really should get one from us.
(I am the Card Sender in our household. Margie never prioritizes it up as compulsively high as I do, but she always thanks me very nicely when I get them finished.)
Of course, card/invite work this evening will be highly constrained, since I have my church vestry meeting tonight, and we have to debate and vote on the budget, which I suspect will mean a long evening. Bleah.
We have some things we need to mail/send/ship, too. I don’t have them with me, which will probably mean a separate trip to the post office, or else a trip out there in California to send things after the fact.
And, yes, I know I’ve now passed the Dreaded Deadline after which the USPS doesn’t guarantee that the cards will arrive before Christmas. I don’t care. If they arrive sometime before the end of the year, I will have done my Annual Duty.
In addition to our cards, and invites (and now I have to figure out who at the office to give invites to — my contact with the local operations over the last year has been seriously reduced, but some folks I know want them, and I can’t give invites to them without giving invites to some other folks), we have our Generic Gifts, which are basically things we give our office mates (they have sometimes extended out to other local folks, but not this year, due to various other gifting plans). We have done zero shopping for the Generic Gift this year, but fortunately we had some parts left over from previous years, so Margie could cover her office (this is her last day in), and then spend her lunch shopping for parts for my office mates.
Have I mentioned we go back out of town on Thursday night?
Oh, well, two bits of good news. First, I got the DVD drive on my notebook working again. I think that’s a good thing. And, second, I just found out I have a phonecon on Friday morning at 8, which will mean no sleeping in, but will mean I can (and will) not chew up any vacation time that morning …
2,800-year-old frozen microbes revived. Yeah, because if this were a movie, that would work out really well for everyone concerned….
2,800-year-old frozen microbes revived.
Yeah, because if this were a movie, that would work out really well for everyone concerned.
Yikes. There’s a D20 Sourcebook coming out based on Jon Norman’s Gor series? Yeesh. I was hoping that particular body of fanboy bodice-ripping sex slave fantasy “literature” had been buried…
Yikes. There’s a D20 Sourcebook coming out based on Jon Norman’s Gor series? Yeesh. I was hoping that particular body of fanboy bodice-ripping sex slave fantasy “literature” had been buried under a crossroads somewhere. Even if it makes for great parodies.
Though as Ginger notes, D20 Gor it might be a useful screening tool to see what players (or GMs) you want to stay far, far away from.
If only we could find a lot of extra American money to inject into the economy, it would lower prices, increase investment, and, could even be used to erase the…
If only we could find a lot of extra American money to inject into the economy, it would lower prices, increase investment, and, could even be used to erase the national debt.
Wait … we’ve known for some time where to find that extra cash!
Spotted it on Anne’s page, so had to play catch up. It’s this last week’s Tuesday This-or-That….
Spotted it on Anne‘s page, so had to play catch up. It’s this last week’s Tuesday This-or-That.
Tess offers her advice for driving on ice. I particularly like #5….
Tess offers her advice for driving on ice. I particularly like #5.
Remember how the music industry was successfully found to have been fixing prices on CDs? Now you can claim your slice of the settlement ($67,375,000). Simply affirm, under penalty of…
Remember how the music industry was successfully found to have been fixing prices on CDs? Now you can claim your slice of the settlement ($67,375,000).
Simply affirm, under penalty of perjury, that you bought a CD, tape or (gads) vinyl record at a retailer between 1995-2000, and you’re eligible for an award of between $5 and $20, depending on how many folks file.
If too many people file for the money to be divvied up that way, then the settlement goes to “not-for-profit, charitable, governmental or public entities to be used for music-related purposes or programs for the benefit of consumers who purchased Music Products.” What can you lose?
(via BoingBoing)
Since I had a statistical universe of a whole week, here is a breakdown of the spam I received. Note that this is about two thirds of it; the rest…
Since I had a statistical universe of a whole week, here is a breakdown of the spam I received.
Note that this is about two thirds of it; the rest didn’t get filtered into the Junk folder and just got manually deleted.
Investment opportunities: 4
Credit repair/re-fi/mortgage/job ops/insurance: 26
Health/drugs: 19
Adult stuff: 9
Mailing lists to send my own spam to: 2
Security and anti-virus: 11
Computer supplies: 2
Septic tank supplies: 1
Miscellaneous: 16
Unknown based on subject line: 15
Some of my (repeatable) favorites:
I mean, who could resist?
The RIAA, the folks who want to get laws passed to dictate to hardware manufacturers what sort of technology they can produce, aren’t filling me with much confidence that they…
The RIAA, the folks who want to get laws passed to dictate to hardware manufacturers what sort of technology they can produce, aren’t filling me with much confidence that they understand anything about technology.
Yesterday [the RIAA] issued a press release announcing a piracy bust in New York which unearthed 421 CD-R burners.
Only there weren’t 421 burners, but “the equivalent of 421 burners.”
In fact, there were just 156. How did the RIAA account for this discrepancy?
“There were only 156 actual burners, but some run at very high speeds: some as high as 40x. This is well above the average speed,” was the official line yesterday.
Riiiiiiigghhhtt.
Not exactly the most “intellectual” of Intellectual Property folks, are they?
(via InstaPundit)
Doyce quotes Bujold on the new Two Towers movie, which she got to see in advance. Short, non-spoiler review: Oh. Yes. Longer version: This was very fine. […] As with…
Doyce quotes Bujold on the new Two Towers movie, which she got to see in advance.
Short, non-spoiler review:
Oh. Yes.
Longer version: This was very fine. […] As with the first film, I could spot quite perfect renditions of elements from the novel, over and over, just as described, which always made me want to cheer. It still stuns me that they managed to get anything this good past the Hollywood system.
Jackie offered to sit for Katherine if we wanted to go see it on Wednesday night. It is a sign of my passion for this that I am actually considering the offer, even given that we fly out of town on Thursday night, and I’m tied up Tuesday night, and we’re so frelling busy this week …
UPDATE: While, thank God, the nattering nitwits who accused the studio of “exploiting” 9-11 by releasing a movie with the obvious rip-off title of The Two Towers have pretty much quieted down, my fingers keep typing “Twin Towers” instead, anyway. Caught it this time, but I know I’m going to slip, dagnabbit.
Okay, with both Lileks and Anne weighing in on pizza experiences, it’s time for my own opinion on the blessed disks. Like Lileks, I like lots of sauce. No, not…
Okay, with both Lileks and Anne weighing in on pizza experiences, it’s time for my own opinion on the blessed disks.
Like Lileks, I like lots of sauce. No, not so much that everything slides off the slice when you pick it up to eat it — though that usually happens because of too much cheese. But enough so that it’s a primary component, not a flavoring, of what you’re eating. With all due respect to Anne, sauce that is “spread out in a thin spiral from the center of the crust, so that the coverage is complete, but you can see the barest hint of creamy dough peeking out from beneath it” is called “skimping” in my book.
Oh, yeah, and it should be tasty and spicy, not just canned tomato sludge.
On the other hand, if you have a really thin layer of sauce, than a very thin crust is appropriate. Actually, I tend to like thin over thick crust in the context of most generic pizza delivery pizzas, just because too many of them use big pads of dough to make you think you’re actually getting something for your $25-plus-tip, when what you’re actually getting is bread with a bit of flavoring on it. Bleah.
I appreciate a crust with edges that are tasty, but it’s the least important part of the pie.
Cheese? I’ll agree with Anne here, in that too many pizza places slather on the cheese such that it ends up pooling all the grease from the other ingredients (or from itself), and ends up tying all the pieces together such that you loose the toppings from your slice when you try to remove it, pick it up, or bite it.
Pepperoni, by the way, should be nicely crisped on the edges from the pizza oven.
Man, I gotta get back to Chicago some day.
That was Professor Michael Bellesiles’ reaction when Columbia University, for the first time since the establishment of the prize in 1948, announced it was revoking the Bancroft Prize for Bellesiles…
That was Professor Michael Bellesiles’ reaction when Columbia University, for the first time since the establishment of the prize in 1948, announced it was revoking the Bancroft Prize for Bellesiles now-scandalously-discredited book, Arming America.
They want the prize money back, too.
So I’m back in the office today, and one of the techies tells me my new notebook computer is ready for me to take ownership. I really want this unit….
So I’m back in the office today, and one of the techies tells me my new notebook computer is ready for me to take ownership.
I really want this unit. I really do. But …
… it’s the first of this model that these guys have configured, and we’re still pretty new on XP.
… this is going to be a very, very, very busy week, so taking the day or two to restore and reconfigure the machine to my liking is out of the question.
… Thursday night I’m going to be flying off to California for two weeks, which means any problems I run into, I’ll be at the mercy of other offices’ tech support, including one office which, ah, doesn’t have the best of reputations.
I think I’ll stick with what I have until the new year.
Well, I’ve continued to be pleased with security at DIA, with short lines, and friendly but thorough screeners. But … … evidently at least one of those is going away,…
Well, I’ve continued to be pleased with security at DIA, with short lines, and friendly but thorough screeners. But …
… evidently at least one of those is going away, as the TSA works to free up some resources to deal with other critical items like baggage screening (DIA being one of the major airports that won’t have 100% baggage screening until nexst fall). Staffing levels at the security points will be reduced to allow for a ten minute wait on average, rather than at maximum.
Which, I suppose, is not too great a burden, especially if the friendliness and thoroughness continue.
The other upcoming security change (which, like the one above, will occur after the holiday rush, mercifully) is requesting folks leave their luggage unlocked, so that baggage screening can, if need be, inspect the insides. That seems reasonable, even necessary, but, having seen that security camera footage in the past of airport baggage handlers ransacking luggage for loot, I wonder whether theft rates will increase again — even though I’ve never been one to lock my luggage.
