Tales of Hoffman

The Obligatory New Year's Meta-Post

I know. I know. You are NOT supposed to post about not posting. And saying you are going to post more right around New Year's Day (as a cyber-New-Year's resolution) may just be the most cliche'd post you can post when you are posting right around New Year's Day.

So I won't.

But....um...I will. I think.

I've got a bunch of backlogged things to point to in my Bloglines account. And I do want to get back to the discipline of posting a few times a week.

But, then again, see this from almost exactly a year ago. That's just plain embarrassing.

Oh the screaming!

Please make it stop!

OMG Hannah Montana

Probably no more 2007 than posting to your blog using an iphone while waiting for the start of the Hannah Montana concert. Special props to the NY Islanders for the open wifi.

now I just need to figure out hot to post a picture...

Checking Out the Hulu Embed Function

Al Gore on 30 Rock was pretty funny. Enjoy!

Totally Useless? Totally Overpriced? I Must Have it.

OK, so let's just take a little inventory:
- Mini Geek? Check.
- Music Geek? Check.
- Gadget Geek? Check.
- General, every day run of the mill Geek? Check.

I fulfill all the necessary requirements in order to officially lust after this totally useless and overpriced thing (hey, isn't that the definition of "Art"?). Picture the package....A special domed case opens to expose four 12-inch vinyl records (Vinyl, oh how I've missed you!). The records are picture discs, so each one has some kind of hippy, trippy design on it. The content of the records are audio art, rarities, music and spoken word from the likes of David Byrne, Courtney Love, Michael Stipe, Adam Horowitz (Beastie Boys), Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran), Karl Bartos (Kraftwerk), Danger Mouse and Malcolm McLaren.

I can hear you saying, "Sounds great, but my turntable is buried beneath the detritus of many decades." Ah, they've got that covered. The kicker to all of this is that it comes with a cute little model of the brand, spankin' new MINI Clubman that actually has a needle and speakers in it. Put the MINI on the record and let it "drive" around and around playing the content of your new objet d'art.

It's all a production of Visionaire, which apparently does this kind of thing all the time. And you can order one right now for the low, low price of $250 from Amazon. Hey, no one said Art was easy. I MUST have it....

What if 24 First Aired in 1994?

(via Silicon Alley Insider) This is incredibly geeky humor, but the funny folks over at collegehumor.com envisioned what it would have been like had 24 aired back in 1994 (Jack Bauer using AOL and Windows 3.1?). Being the loser that I am, I found it hysterical.

Go Get Uncle Mark's 2008 Gift Guide

I link to it every year -- and at the pace I'm posting, entries about the Uncle Mark Gift Guide will soon represent about 34% of my total output -- but there's a reason for that. It's because after reading all the flashy, slick gift guides out there, the practical, pragmatic advice of Mark Hurst is a breath of fresh air.

It's a particularly good read for non-techie parents (or grandparents) who can't figure out what the heck all these gadgets are and what's a good one to get for thier children or grand-children. And, come to think of it, any of the recommendations in the guide go "both ways". I don't remember one that would not be a good gift for the parent or grandparent in your life who needs to move into the 21st Century.

I can't speak to his recommendations to new parents (8 years since I've had a newborn in the house, wow!), but...in Mark I trust. The Uncle Mark 2008 Gift Guide & Almanac: it's free, it's useful and it's a good read. Go get it.

Wine 2.0

Hey you oenophiles out there, now you can stop crying that you've been ignored by the Web 2.0/social networking/tagging/searching/whatever sites out there. Head on over to Snooth (yes, stupid names are a requirement in this space) and check out the wine search engine, recommendation engine, social network for people just like you.

Seriously, just a bit of quick looking around and I have to say that it's a pretty interesting site. I'll probably wind up using it again.

From a usability standpoint, though, what's with the "retrieving results" Lightbox effect (where a lot of the screen just goes a bit dim, except for the message that you are getting me more results). I understand that this kind of "web-appy" look is de rigeur for all self-respecting "2.0" sites, but when going from one search result page to the next? That's overkill. Just load me a new page of results already! If I see that effect on every pageload, you guys are going to drive me to drink! ;-)

Martin Short Wins Nobel Prize for Physics

Canadian comedian-actor Martin Short shocked the entertainment world today by being named the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for a discovery that lets billions of computer users store reams of data on computer hard drives.

The technology "can also be considered one of the first real applications of the promising field of nanotechnology," which deals with extremely small devices, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its citation.

When asked for a comment, Short stated, "I am so totally honored for this great recognition...I must say, I must say..."

OK, OK, he didn't REALLY win. I just thought this guy, who did win, looked just like him!

LinkedIn Reminds Me Who I Am

Can someone explain this one to me? If I go to LinkedIn and look at the connections of one of my connections, I get the list and then where my name appears, I see an icon that reminds me what my name is. What is that all about? Every time I see it, I chuckle...just can't help it. Thanks for the identity check there, guys.