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bryankay.com

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:01:00 -0700

bryankay.com:

My home page.

Apple Safari Start Page

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 23:41:17 -0700

Apple Safari Start Page:

A start page for Safari, counterpart for Firefox’s default start page.(Found via Quantum Thinking.)

Police Hunt for Cordial Crook | The Crime Blotter

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:01:00 -0700

Police Hunt for Cordial Crook | The Crime Blotter:

This is from a couple months ago, but someone’s remark about the increase in crime reminded me of the “Cordial Crook.”

The hunt is on for a man who has robbed several banks in the last few weeks, often ending his crime with a nice thought - “Thank you and God bless.”

"If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary"

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:50:50 -0700

“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary”

- Jim Rohn (via Twitter / Dr. Ron Capps)

CSS Layouts: A collection of 168 Grid and CSS Layouts - Customization Guide

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:40:18 -0700

CSS Layouts: A collection of 168 Grid and CSS Layouts - Customization Guide:

Learning about this Yahoo User Interface thing.

If it took Obama's PS this long to say so little, Obama probably meant what he said

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:10:55 -0700

Aide says Obama not anti-Vegas - RGT Online:

“I don’t think the president said don’t go to Las Vegas,” Gibbs said, according to a transcript of a White House press briefing. “What the president expressed some concern about was companies that are getting large amounts of public funding, taxpayer funding through a financial stabilization plan, that the president does have great concern with public money being used for that.”

The comment was an apparent response to outrage from a phalanx of travel boosters led by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

“You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime,” Obama told an audience in Elkhart, Ind., on Feb. 9.

Goodman and others took the remark as a warning shot from the Oval Office that businesses hosting conventions, meetings or other events in Las Vegas could be in line for a public shaming.

It came around the time CNN did a report titled “Keeping them honest” that was critical of a banking event held at The Venetian. In another instance, banking giant Wells Fargo backed out of 12-day event at Wynn Las Vegas that was symbolic of what critics called reckless spending. Others said incentive trips like the one Wells Fargo had planned are among the most cost-effective tools available for companies to motivate new sales.

Goldman Sachs bank later bailed out of an event at Mandalay Bay, only to pay a reported $600,000 cancellation fee and move the shindig to San Francisco.

In the weeks since, there have been dozens more cancellations of Las Vegas business events. While many were blamed on the suddenly stagnant global economy, meeting planners, hotel executives and convention industry leaders said comments from the president and other politicians exacerbated the problem.

Let us summarize:

February 9: Obama attacks Las Vegas and the NFL.
March 15: Obama’s press secretary says “well, I don’t think he said that.”

Um, okay, let me see if I understand all this.

Obama makes record numbers of speeches, but doesn’t have the time to clarify “what he meant,” or dispatch his press secretary to do so.
Obama’s administration said nothing when Goldman Sachs paid $600,000 to cancel their event at Mandalay Bay, then move the event to San Francisco, paying even more for their event than it was going to cost in Las Vegas in the first place.
Obama’s administration has been silent as more companies cancel Las Vegas events whether or not they received federal aid.
Why pick on Las Vegas? Didn’t the unions get him Nevada’s votes? You know, the group of people suffering the most from the lost convention business?
It took five weeks for Obama’s press secretary to say “I don’t think he said that.” He could have done that in five days. Or five hours. And Obama himself has still said nothing since February.

If Obama really meant something other than what he said, he had what we call “plenty of time” to clarify.

But he hasn’t. Instead, his press secretary is saying “um, I don’t think he said that.” After five weeks, he isn’t sure? Have you talked to Obama about it? Has he explained to you what he meant? If so, couldn’t you just issue a statement for him?

But Gibbs can’t do that, because Obama meant what he said. There was nothing further to explain. This is Gibbs’s attempt at delinquent damage control.

Gibbs can gab all he wants. If Obama wasn’t anti-Vegas, he could have, and would have, said so a long time ago.

"His advice was straightforward yet strangely terrible: You must clarify your goals, gain knowledge..."

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:09:44 -0700

“His advice was straightforward yet strangely terrible: You must clarify your goals, gain knowledge through spaced repetition, preserve health, work steadily, minimize stress, refuse interruption, and never resist sleep when tired. This should lead to radically improved intelligence and creativity. The only cost: turning your back on every convention of social life.”

- Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm

Voice-Acting in Vegas: Voice Actor Attack?

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 03:47:10 -0700

Voice-Acting in Vegas: Voice Actor Attack?

"You know are you disorganized when you cannot find your copy of “Organizing for Dummies."

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 02:53:20 -0700

“You know are you disorganized when you cannot find your copy of “Organizing for Dummies.””

- Twitter / Bryan Kay

"I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw that my bath toys were a toaster and a radio."

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:09:23 -0700

“I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw that my bath toys were a toaster and a radio.”

- Joan Rivers

Dear Internet Ethicist,

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:46:23 -0700

squashed:

I have something of a moral dilema. I (hypothetically) live in a very peculiar neighborhood where the boys are all benevolent, the girls are all cruel, and there are a lot of puppies roaming the streets. During my morning walk, I happened to cross paths with three boys, three girls, and three puppies.

The first puppy had been tied up—and a boy and a girl were doing horrible things to it with scalpels and lancets. The girl, being both cruel and honest, explained that she was torturing the puppy because she enjoyed watching it suffer. The boy, being a good-hearted child, explained that he was trying to save the puppy, which had previously hurt its paw, and that he’d learned how to be a physcian from a 17th century text. The puppy suffered from an imbalance of humours—so it needed some blood let and some of the yellow bile extracted. Despite his good intentions, the boy was causing a lot of pain without any conceivable therepeutic benfit. I chased off both children before they could do anymore harm and the poor puppy limped off.

The second puppy was actually in worse condition. It had been hit by a car and was clearly about to die. A boy and girl were each sitting next to it. The boy said he was holding a vigil for the poor thing. The girl said she was just enjoying watching small animals suffer. I left the two there—because neither was causing any harm—and even if the girl was malicious, at least she wasn’t acting on her malice. I didn’t feel any responsibility to police her thoughts.

The third puppy was actually in good shape. A boy was playing fetch with it. The girl was trying to torture the puppy—but was completely incompetent at it. She took the puppy’s toy away and threw it as far as she could. As soon as it got it and brought it back, she would steal it and throw it again. This, she imagined, kept the puppy in a constant state of psychological torment, much like Tantalus in Hades. Of course, the puppy didn’t realize it was supposed to be suffering. I was quite happy about the boy playing with the puppy. (This neighborhood needs more healthy children interacting in healthy ways with healthy animals.) Should I do anything about the girl who is acting on her genuine desire to cause suffering to the puppy? Does the combination of bad intention and action create a duty to intervene in the absence of a bad effect?

10 Things They Don’t Teach You In Design School | Design Reviver

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 20:39:56 -0700

10 Things They Don’t Teach You In Design School | Design Reviver:

found via Jeffrey Zeldman Presents

How often do you feel like you should write, but don’t know what to write? Or you knew what...

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:59:08 -0700

How often do you feel like you should write, but don’t know what to write? Or you knew what you wanted to write, but forgot once you sat down to write it?

How often do you begin to write something for a publicly available medium, such as a blog, and then decide not to publish what you wrote? Why?

Do you compose your blog entries in a word processor or your blog software? Or something else? Or someplace else? (On paper?)

How often do you read something someone else wrote, and then wish you had spent the time doing something else?

Las Vegas Free Attractions - The Classic Must-See Shows

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:12:00 -0700

Las Vegas Free Attractions - The Classic Must-See Shows:

There are hundreds of free attractions in Las Vegas, but you don’t want to miss these classics when you visit.

High School Rezoning Decisions to be Revisited Tonight | Las Vegas Now

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:27:44 -0700

High School Rezoning Decisions to be Revisited Tonight | Las Vegas Now

Michael Pollan: If You Can't Say It, Don't Eat It : NPR

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 04:30:00 -0700

Michael Pollan: If You Can't Say It, Don't Eat It : NPR:

via Twitter / jasonndotcom

Parallels 3 update 5626

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:13:00 -0700

KB Parallels: Download links for Parallels Desktop and Transporter products (version 2.5 and 3)

I am posting this link for anyone looking for the latest Parallels 3 update (only version 4 is prominent on the Parallels web site).

If you use Parallels 3 and are not like me, good for you. The Parallels update feature works.

If you are like me, however, the update feature in Parallels 3 always crashes, and you have learned that you must download and install the update yourself.

Previously, this was not a issue because version 3 was the latest, and any related update links were prominently displayed. Now, version 4 is the latest. I had to dig around for version 3 files.

For what it is worth, Parallels works just dandy for me in other respects … just not when it comes to updating itself.

"I was in a casino, minding my own business, and this guy came up to me and said, ‘You’re gonna have..."

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:53:26 -0700

“I was in a casino, minding my own business, and this guy came up to me and said, ‘You’re gonna have to move. You’re blocking a fire exit.’ As though if there was a fire, I wasn’t gonna run. If you’re flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit. Unless you’re a table.”

- Mitch Hedberg (via dears)

Geithner Attempts to Rewrite Dictionary with Casual Interview Comments

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:12:00 -0700

Geithner Attempts to Rewrite Dictionary with Casual Interview Comments:

via Geithner Says “Capitalism Will Be Different” From Now On | Needs of the Many

Get Geithner a dictionary! (Throw in a copy of the IRS tax codes. Affirmed by the Senate though he may be, he could use a refresher, assuming he knew the code in the first place.)

"The only certainty you get in life is the certainty you create for yourself."

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:19:00 -0700

“The only certainty you get in life is the certainty you create for yourself.”

- PotPieGirl.com