Butterfly Effect

I wanted to give somebody an e-book as a gift and have it delivered to his Kindle. Well, it looks like Amazon does not support this, even though they have all the pieces necessary to support this. When I asked customer service, they recommended me buying an Amazon gift card instead and then the recipient can buy any book with the gift card. A gift card – although seems to be a popular idea – defeats the purpose of giving a gift in the first place.

Amazon can gift wrap almost anything for you for an extra few bucks and even put a personalized message along with your gift. But the same approach does not apply to their latest gadget.

How hard would it be to provide a service that allows you to give somebody an e-book, an electronic magazine subscription, an MP3 album that is beamed to Kindle on the specified date with a personal message? It could save a tree or two and seems like a win-win for both customers and Amazon.

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day e-mail had a little surprise in it today. It looks like the pronunciation of invigilate is a little off. At least, I will not forget this word few minutes later.

We just found this 5.35 inches (13.6 cm) long centipede outside the front door. Fortunately, it was already in this upside down position and no longer posed a threat. (This is yet another indication that spending $40 / month on pest control service is a money well spent in this area).

This is how the announcement about Microsoft Network Monitor 3.3 is rendered in GMail.

I have seen this advertisement while checking my GMail account. Is this really the best ad line Google could come up with for their browser? Even if the program in question is in beta testing, is it too much to expect from a browser to be stable in the first place?

I got a copy of Merde in the mail (don’t ask me how they got my address – I don’t know). I giggled first, because it sounds funny to call a magazine sh*t even if it means that in a different language. From looking at the cover (see below), you would think that the editors have some understanding of the French language (since there is another cover story with French words). So, are the editors completely ignorant or was the name of the magazine picked by somebody who has no clue about its meaning? Judge for yourself. Here is the cover page of the 2nd issue for your entertainment.

I was caught off-guard when I read the news IBM could be buying my former employer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. There have been several rumors in the past about an acquisition, but they were never turned out to be true. I am afraid that lot of great engineering from Sun will be the matter of past just because Sun’s leadership failed to turn around this company.

I am sure that there are many Sun employees who feel pretty down about this prospect, including one on my Yahoo! IM buddies list as you can see on the below screen shot (his name/nickname has been removed for obvious reasons).

I am a big fan of the Daily Show. For real. It’s not just a figure of speech. I enjoyed the interview with Jim Cramer, but somehow felt that something fundamental was missing from the conversation.

That fundamental is that CNBC is a commercial network making tons of money from advertisements. It is owned by corporations that are mandated to increase shareholder value. To accomplish that, the network produces programs attracting the most number of viewers with minimum investment, and tries to maximize the revenue from commercials, infomercials.

In this scheme, it is inevitable that somebody – in this case Jon Stewart – will catch you with your pants down. Where in this scheme can you see and expect investigative journalism? CNBC is also a cable news channel, i.e. it did not get a free ride using public airwaves unlike the major networks.

Even Jim Cramer admits that – just like Jon Stewart -, he is in the infotainment business. If you were an investor, would you seriously believe whatever a guy throwing bulls in his show is telling you? Especially that you know that this network is making money from selling commercial time to companies that may very well be featured on the show. (There is at least one trader that did not believe so and that posting was dated more than 3 years ago).

Make no mistake. It is still shameful what Jim Cramer has done on his show. It is morally unacceptable. But he is only the small guy in this system.

In this upside-down world, there are folks whose primary source of news information is The Daily Show (excerpts: “The program has grown in popularity since Jon Stewart took over hosting, with organizations such as the Pew Research Center claiming that it has become a primary source of news for many young people, an assertion the show’s staff have repeatedly rejected“). I completely understand why the staff rejects this assertion. The show would be expected to apply the same journalistic standards as it expects from the “real” news media. I am still wondering how these folks are able to distinguish fake news from real if you only or primarily watch fake news.

Maybe I am too cynical and this is why I see some conflict between the photo and the commentary.

I always felt that there was something fishy about the sudden spotlight  Joe, the plumber received during this election season. He emerged as a folk hero of a self-made man who cannot advance his business because of high taxes.

My recent encounter with a particular plumber got me thinking that decent plumbers are usually hard to find, and plumbers, in general, don’t have a great reputation as reliable, helpful type of professionals. Reliable plumbers are hard to find and you have treat them as divas to get the job done.
Since I have not found a reliable plumber yet, I keep trying different folks based on recommendation. The last plumber I called is supposedly one of them. Well, he came once, but could not finish the job that day.
He promised to finish the job the following week. Since he did not call to reschedule, I left him a voicemail.
He did not return my call.
Then I e-mailed him.
He responded to my e-mail finally, blamed his phone issues for not returning my call and promised to schedule an appointment with me.
He did not call.
I bumped into him a few days later, because he was working at another house in the street. He could not avoid me and wanted to come to my place right away, because he was done with the other job. Well, I was on my way out and my wife was taking a rest after a difficult night with our newborn.
The he promised to come later that week.
He did not come.
He did not send me an e-mail.

I have had enough of this plumber. I guess I have to keep looking or fix the problem myself.

Joe, the plumber could not be a hero to me, I guess, even if I agreed with his critics of the tax policies of the incoming president. There is probably a better profession out there that could be a flagship of any movement about “punitive” taxation.