Bruner Blog
All Bruner, All the Time
Really Stupid Counterfeiters Foiled
A bunch of really dumb con artists were busted for trying to pass off a $100,000,000 bill. Who do they think they are, Dr. Evil?
- 8/3/2002
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Tricked Out Mailtos
Friend Mark points out you can make your mailto commands fancier with tricks like populating the Subject lines and Body fields (like this) with a set of simple code, described on this page.
- 8/2/2002
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Seeking Cheap Digital Camera
I'm soliciting recommendations for a decent digital camera for under $200. I'll eventually get a better one, but for now am too broke to break that budget. Got a big reunion to attend in two weeks, so I need to move fast. Better yet would be to find a good used higher-end camera. Been looking to upgrade and wanna sell your old camera?
Here's a reminder to me to check Craig's List for the next few days.
- 8/2/2002
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Multi-Billion Dollar Pooh
Interesting piece, by Amy Wallace, channeling A.A. Milne, in the Los Angeles Times, about the lawsuit between Disney and "The Pooh Lady," an 80-year-old grandmother who licensed the rights for Winnie-the-Pooh to Disney back in the early '60s, a deal that's been disputed in the courts for years since. Stakes are incredibly high. The two sides don't agree on exactly how much Disney earns annually on Pooh products, but the range is between $1 billion and $6 billion, or 4% to 25% of Disney's gross revenue. Poor little bear.
- 8/2/2002
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Sick & Twisted Films at Midnight
Attention stalkers: find me watching roof-top films in Brooklyn tonight.
- 8/2/2002
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The Great Blog Paradox, or the Bathroom Humor of Our Time?
As I sit here whiling away more precious work hours puttering with my beloved Bruner Blog, an essential conundrum of blogging occurs to me. Who's the bigger time-wasting slacker: me, for spending all this time composing this mindless twaddle, or you, for reading it?
Reminds me of a piece of bathroom graffiti I remember from high school:
Those who write upon these walls
Roll their shit in little balls
Those who read these words of wit
Eat those little balls of shit
It's worth mentioning that my mom has apparently started reading the Bruner Blog of late, and she finds it's humor sometimes runs a bit "immature" for her tastes. What can I say...?
- 8/2/2002
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Rick's Spam Filters
I've managed to cut out about 75% of my spam, or more, in the last couple of months with 12 Subject-line filters in my email program. Details on ExecutiveSummary.com.
- 8/2/2002
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Consumers Will Pay for Online Content
Not only will they, they do, to the tune of $675 million in 2001 and growing rapidly. This according to a study that I play a key role in for the Online Publishers Association. Details on my other blog (a Lexus), ExecutiveSummary.com.
- 8/2/2002
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Squirrels Like Nuts
Could this photo possibly be real?
- 8/2/2002
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$1 Bn for Saddam's Head
A clever essay that argues for offering a $1 Billion bounty to any mercenary who can product Saddam Hussein dead or alive, suggesting that it would be much cheaper than warfare. Here, meanwhile, is an op-ed piece from the New York Times on what a war with Iraq might cost.
- 8/2/2002
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Understanding Interest
My old friend Dan was telling me how he's gotten his financial house in order in recent years, and he shared this pearl of wisdom:
The quote was from a calculus professor I had at the University of Montana. We'd been discussing how a curve is responding to particular influences at a particular point in time and were using the compound interest formula as an example. In the middle of all the mumbo jumbo f(x) crap, he stopped and faced the class, took off his glasses and said
"Those who understand interest collect it. Those who don't, pay it."
Probably the most useful tad of info I gleaned from that class, and I didn't even have to write it down.
Wow. Did the room just get a little bit brighter, or was that just me?
- 8/1/2002
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Bring It On!
The photo we've all been waiting to see:
- 8/1/2002
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The Question on Everyone's Lips
Jay responds:
What's The difference between a teacher and a train?
A teacher says spit out your gum. A train says "Choo Choo."
- 8/1/2002
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FBI Returns to Prime Anthrax Suspect
I am pleased to see the FBI is once again investigating the home of Dr. Steven Hatfill, the former Army scientist from Fort Detrick who has long been the prime suspect in the anthrax case.
- 8/1/2002
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Okay, I'm Not So Bright Myself
I still contend that Microsoft is stupid, but I finally got Messenger to recognize Internet Explorer as the default browser, only to realize I already did have a Passport ID -- namely, my Hotmail address (thus my whining about not wanting MS to know more about me was moot, as they are already all-knowing). So I'm now MSN IM-able, tho I don't care to hear from every last freak among you via IM, so drop me an email if you'd like any of my handles (now a royal flush: MS Messenger, Yahoo! and AOL/AIM).
I'm experimenting with Trillian again, which integrates IM accounts on all those platforms and more into a single interface. Thanks to Olivier Travers for reminding me of it.
- 8/1/2002
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Web Bubble Gum Page
Another weird fetishist site from Jay (a bubble gum blowers' photo gallery, in this case). I don't know, Jay, what is the difference between a teacher and a train?
- 7/31/2002
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Retro Future
Interesting futurist page (thanks to Jay for the tip).
- 7/31/2002
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Too Much Cake
I'm bloated. Adi's out of town for two weeks, and I have lots and lots cake left over from the party. I may soon no longer be buff.
- 7/31/2002
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Time for Europe to Go Its Own Way?
I've been out of town a couple of days, so I'm late on this, but Nick Denton, who frequently tries to offer a European point of view on American issues (and in this post admits to being a "European nationalist"), offered this interesting "Declaration of European Independence" on Monday that's worth reading. A couple of excerpts:
First, the US rightly suspects that European multilateralism is a devious way to inhibit its power; it might better respect open rivalry. The aversion to armed conflict is deep within the European psyche; it is time for Europe to exorcise the ghosts of the two world wars. Finally, the US has become complacent and arrogant: a bit of real competition would do it good.
...
People say that Europe doesn't have the will or resources to build up an independent military, but it doesn't need to match US military spending. Remember that the majority of US military expenditure goes on expensive toys for spoilt airmen, and bases in the districts of influential congressmen. By starting from scratch, a common European defense force could achieve substantial efficiencies. For a blueprint, just take some of Rumsfeld's more radical notions, which will never make it through the military-industrial complex in the US. So here's the plan...
- 7/31/2002
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Einstein 'Too Jewish' for China
Nick Denton points out this piece in the NY Post saying:
Israel has canceled an Albert Einstein exhibit in China after Beijing officials insisted there be no reference to his being Jewish or a supporter of the Jewish state, a government spokesman said yesterday.
- 7/31/2002
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Blogging Is Totally Uncool
After hanging out with bloggers intensively for the last month or so, I can assure you that bloggers are not cool, as Jeff Jarvis observed recently (thanks to Elizabeth for the tip).
Elizabeth and Jeff are among the bloggers I've been hanging out with frequently of late, and I mean them and the rest of the gang no offense. It's just..."cool"? I don't think so. And bear in mind, I include myself in the category. I like these people, which is why I am hanging around with them of late, but they're pretty much like the nerds I hung out with in high school, only older and frequently drunker.
This lack of cool was in evidence last Saturday at Adi & Miki's birthday party at our house this weekend. The bloggers, about eight of them including several "well known" bloggers (I'll spare the who's who), were the first to arrive (how cool is that?) and spent virtually the entire night talking about Dave Winer whinings and other recent bloggossip. With only one gratefully acknowledged exception, none of them danced. And the Hungarians (who, simply by virtue of their European-ness and the fact that they are a generally beautiful breed, must be recognized as having some greater "cool" status) were observed at least once to be mocking the bloggers for our blog talk.
No, we bloggers aren't cool, not since the 25th writing of the "blogs are neat" story in the mainstream press. But I'm happy to contribute the Bruner Blog to the blogosphere and hang out with my NYC blog posse on the weekends nonetheless, because that's just that kind of middle-to-late early adopter kind of nerd I am.
- 7/31/2002
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Microsoft Is Really, Really Stupid
Here is another example of why computers and the Internet are just too hard to use, or rather, how incredibly stupid and dysfunctional Microsoft is.
I am not a great fan of instant messenging, but a friend has been bugging me to get MSN Messenger. I already have Yahoo's and AOL's IM tools, and I generally think Microsoft has too much control of my life already, but he's hung up that MSN Messenger is the best, so I relented and decided to install MSN Messenger today after he bugged me about it again. So I download and install it and am prompted for my .Net Passport password, thusly:
Again, I'm not thrilled about giving Microsoft any more information about me, but I've got to register to use it, so I click the link that reads "Don't have a Passport? Get one here" and I am met with this error message:
It's telling me I don't have a browser installed. I'm using Microsoft Explorer 6.0 and Microsoft Windows 2000, and Microsoft MSN Messenger can't find a browswer on my computer? I've searched throughout the settings in IE to make sure it's the default browser, but I can't find any such. Besides, though, it's the only browser on my machine. I can even generate the error message starting in the browser, selecting "Messenger" under the tools menu and then try to create a new Passport that way. How absurd.
Sorry friend, you'll just have to call or email me.
An Update
- 7/31/2002
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Russian Tea Room Closes
This is a sad comment on the economy. I remember when I was a kid in Northern Jersey and my older sister would go into NYC to the Russia Tea Room as a teenager, I thought that sounded really cool and sophisticated. I never actually made it there myself.
- 7/31/2002
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NY No-Call Telemarketing Removal List
Is it just me, or have telemarketers gotten even worse since the collapse of WorldCom? I've had the same phone number for three years, but telemarketers have been on a bananza in recent weeks. After two calls so far this morning, I finally got around to signing up on the NY No Call List, which, thanks to Pataki's legislation a couple of years ago, means they're liable for a $5,000 fine if keep you on their lists after you're registered with this service of the New York State Consumer Protection Board.
- 7/31/2002
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Goodbye Cameron
So long, and thanks for all the fish. NY loves you. You're not far, just a Fung Wah ride away, come back for the good parties.
- 7/31/2002
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William Safire on Blogs
The NYT's respected language columnist William Safire has a column today about blogs, calling the word "a useful addition to the lexicon."
- 7/28/2002
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