Saw this in Chapleau this week:
Speaking of Chinese, it’s the Lunar New Year. I celebrate the new year by unconventional means – digging around my hard drive to make the annual New Year’s picture, a tradition that’s been running for eight years or so. I look forward to the 12th anniversary when I don’t have to make them anymore and can just recycle them! 😉
There are several reasons for the prevalence of “pursuits.” First, L.A. has a strong car culture. Its residents spend so much time in their cars that they’re like second homes, and nobody likes to be told what to do in his own home. Second, the county has some twenty-two thousand miles of highways and streets, and this gives a suspect the illusion of endless escape routes. Third, local police forces have been much quicker to initiate pursuits than many municipal forces…And then there is Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca’s theory: “We have more idiots here than anywhere else.”
– Tad Friend, __New Yorker__, on the art of police pursuits
I am now playing __Need for Speed: Most Wanted__, the eighth sequel in a franchise that stretches back eleven years. EA’s stance on videogame sequels is similar to that of the Roman Catholic’s stance on child-bearing: no regrets and keep pumping them out.
Intriguingly, EA seems to also be starting a soap opera serial of sorts, as you reprise the silent, nondescript character from __Need for Speed: Underground__ and __Underground 2__.
Once again, evil and presumably moustache-twirling rivals have once again deprived you of your car, which without it you are even more nondescript than usual. There’s a new, well-textured city to drive haphazardly in, new cars to drive haphazardly in, and a fresh female population to impress with said haphazard driving. But this time, you have to deal with the local law enforcement.
All in all, it’s a well executed package. The madcap police chases, complete with roadblocks, police chatter and smashy-smashy is worth the price of admission alone.
But some lingering questions remain. What is with your allure for mechanically and mammary inclined sidekicks anyway? How do you do it? Perhaps it’s the size of your cupholders. I had originally suspected that you were, in fact, a woman, but all the new graphical enhancements have put that rumour to rest: you can see yourself inside the car! Unfortunately, you look like __Star Trek__’s Odo, but in a hoodie.
And how do you fuel your racing habit? Perhaps you work at one of the many Burger King or Best Buy establishments that plague the landscape. Perhaps we will find out in the next installment.
Now I know why No Name products at No Frills supermarkets have that damn ugly yellow packaging: it’s all part of the sales strategy to pander to the thrifty consumer while scaring away the better heeled, ego-conscious customers who wouldn’t be caught dead skulking under the bare flourescent lamps of a discount grocery.
Such is the case of the unadvertised small cappucino at Starbucks. The small cap is more authentic (everything in Europe is smaller, go figure. Except for their men. Sorry.), stronger, and cheap. It’s also not listed on the board, because ol’ Bucky wants to keep its well-heeled customers’ eyes on the bigger, pricier Venti size. The Small is to garner business from the pennysaver. (At least according to “dismal science” writer Tim Harford; baristas posted on Slate’s message board argue otherwise. They to point out that the fault lies not in the Starbucks but in ourselves: for North Americans, bigger means better, traditions be damned, and they want a calorie-ladened Venti overdosed on sugar and milk.)
Whether the Caffeine Mermaid pricing conspiracy amounts to a hill of beans or not, the economic theory is sound. I remember a clever article written by Joel Spolsky on software pricing. Ever wonder why Windows XP comes in two virtually indistinguishable flavours, other than the “Professional” version is 33% more? Now you know.
Google’s recent release of Google Pack, got me thinking about the digerati dilemma; unless you feel like wading through tens of thousands of programs listed on software libraries such as Freshmeat or Sourceforge, it’s nearly impossible to find the free, good stuff. Google Pack is basically just a grab-bag of quintessential freebies with an intelligent auto-updater thrown in, and yet it’s ingenious in its simplicity in giving users what they want, pronto.
It made me think of the other resources I use to find free, good Windows software. Some of it is open source, some of it is freeware, but they’re all great and the price is right. Here they are:
* TheOpenCD.org – A CD compilation of only the creme de la creme of open source software. They aren’t kidding either – they carry less than 20 titles. They make up for it though with their friendly CD install wizard user interface that comes complete with detailed descriptions of each piece of software.
* The OSSwin project – A comprehensive list of links to the best open source software in dozens of categories, from programming tools to educational software to CAD designers.
* Software For Starving Students – Seems to be more for starving arts students who like to procrastinate, considering its emphasis on music ripping, video editing, graphics design and arcade games, but still a good compilation. Besides, you can download this CD-ROM compilation easily via BitTorrent.
* Neowin’s Freeware Alternative List – A rather lengthy link list updated by the Neowin community. It’s unique to the others above as it contains many little handy one-off tools and programs you may otherwise may never have known about.
UPDATE Jan 26th: Lifehacker posted their own list of free quintessentials as the Lifehacker Pack.
For my own sanity, and everyone else’s, here’s my modified Diggler extension that is compatible with Mozilla Firefox 1.5. I only changed the maxversion value. Everything else is the clever creation of former Netscaper Adam Lock.
Instructions:
1. Download Diggler 0.91
2. Drag it into your Firefox window to install.
3. Enjoy! It will automatically upgrade your old Diggler version if you have it installed.
UPDATE: I understand that Diggler has some sort of conflict with Tab Mix Plus v2.0. Since I’m not an extension developer nor do I use Tab Mix Plus, I can’t really say what the fix would be (maybe a shared variable name?). Besides, Diggler was released first.
UPDATE #2: Extension maxversion has been tweaked to support Firefox 1.5.0.1 onwards to v1.6.
UPDATE #3: Diggler is now compatible with Firefox 2.0. Please go to this entry to get it.
My sister gave me this over the holidays – a penguin-shaped chocolate from L.A. Burdick’s, a chocolatier in New Hampshire. Check it out:
L.A. Burdick pays hommage to the flight less, tuxedoed birds of the artic with our hand-piped ganache of dark chocolate and lemon with almond arms, dressed in dark chocolate and accented with white chocolate.
I bit its head off before I realized what it was shaped as.
Have a problem picking up groovy chicks that think you’re far out? Well, not us, but maybe a friend…? Here’s an MP3 from an old LP entitled Picking Up Girls Made Easy. As Silverlotus said, it’s a lot of good advice combined with horrible advice. [via The Old New Thing]
Use it’s techniques and you will later HAVE SEX WITH HUMAN BEINGS.
Then, send us snacks and money.