Author Archives: Scott Blomquist

Out of love with Apple

I bought myself a Mac Mini the other week just so I could refresh my dreadfully obsolete Apple knowledge (last time I touched a Mac was probably in 1990). I literally asked the first salesman who made eye contact with me to show me the cheapest computer in the store. Maybe that’s where I went [...]

Work fewer weekends or your money back!

An article on siliconvalley.com that was talking about the recent class action settlement between video game publisher EA and some of its employees who were whining about being overworked has the following interesting thing to say: in November, EA’s Los Angeles studio tried cutting work hours with a process it called “Five Great Days,” which [...]

Windows Live Image Search Beta

[Long, rambly post follows. It may provide some insight into why I haven't been posting as much lately as I have at some times in the past.] Lately I’ve been working harder than I’ve ever worked before with some of the smartest, coolest people I’ve ever met on one of the most interesting projects I [...]

Fun with dice

Two really cool dice puzzles that have already been solved to death by bored mathematicians: Nontransitive dice Number three blank dice such that one of the dice (say die A) beats another of the dice (die B) more than half of the time, which in turn beats die C more than half of the time. [...]

Amazing Honda ad

Visit http://www.honda.co.uk/civic/ Click "Watch Civic". Enjoy.

Sergey "The Slaver" Brin

Absolutely stunning Sergey quote from ex-Google brand manager Doug Edwards on his xooglers blog: Sergey once asked a large assemblage of Googlers what our greatest corporate expense was. “Health insurance!” was one answer shouted back. “Salaries!” “Servers!” “Taxes!” “Electricity!” “Charlie’s grocery bills!,” came back others. “No,” said Sergey. “Opportunity cost.” He explained that the products [...]

Probably evil; almost certainly divisive

Tonight, I got an invitation to sign up on some website called http://www.officeballot.com. The premise is very simple: you sign up using a work email address and then get to rate your co-workers and provide written comments (good or bad) on them. It claims to promote meritocracy. I, frankly, can’t believe that there’s any possible [...]

The wisdom of Earl Hickey’s friend Philo

Tonight’s "My Name Is Earl" yielded a brilliant quote that I feel certain to be able to use someday: I don’t vote, I already have a religion, and I hate whales. Now, technically speaking, not all of those are true, but I figure it’ll stun the person on the other side of my screen door [...]

Google’s media halo is fading

Even if the tech press isn’t, the MSM is willing to call "hypocricy!" on Google’s recent behavior: http://www.cagle.com/news/Google/main.asp

How not to die while jump-starting a car

My friend Nick wasn’t quite sure how not to die while jump-starting his co-worker’s car. It’s pretty easy not to die, really. Here’s the skinny. I notice that he had two main concerns. The first was how not to get electrocuted. The second was how not to explode while attaching clamps to batteries. First: how [...]