• The child singer at the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremonies was dubbed. The fireworks were also faked for broadcast. But, opening ceremonies have been faked for a while now. The 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics used white sand instead of snow because it looked more like snow on TV. SPOILER: Some things you see on TV are not real.
• The 20 Most Addictive Browser Games. How did I miss 18 of these??
• The 2009 Bubble Calendar is pretty cool, but a little pricey at $50 (via k10k). I think I’d be better off with the $12 Cute Overload Page-A-Day Calendar anyway.

Two things. Individually pretty tasty. Together, worth a try, but probably just a sometimes food.

Vosges Haut Chocolat: Mo’s Bacon Bar.

• Were I still in Troy (or any of those smaller cities southwards on the Hudson), I would probably go to Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea. via Laughing Squid
• Hello! You There!, an anonymous letter writing service. via Veer Ideas
• Franz Kafka’s missing papers. And his missing porn.

I just finished reading The Mythical Man-Month. Overall it’s an interesting take on the field of software engineering that still seems to apply today, with a few exceptions. The author mentions that it took some criticism for not being technical. To me, that’s a little bit ironic, since the technical parts at this point are totally obsolete and not helpful, but the larger sense of how to build software, schedule, etc. still seems accurate.

My personal favorite part was a chart of exciting products.

Who knew Fortran was so exciting? Certainly not I, but it says so in a book, so it must be true.

Rosie tagged me to answer this book survey.

MEME Rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book of 125 pages or more.
   Eh. Bad timing. This one’s a bit… difficult.
2. State the title and author of the book.
   Walden by Henry David Thoreau.
3. Find page 25.
   Okay.
4. Type in the first 5 sentences.
   

   The luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another. On the one side is the palace, on the other are the almshouse and “silent poor.” The myriads who built the pyramids to be the tombs of the of Pharaohs were fed on garlic, and it may be were not decently buried themselves. The mason who finishes the cornice of the palace returns at night perchance to a hut not so good as a wigwam. It is a mistake to suppose that, in a country where the usual evidences of civilization exist, the condition of a very large body of the inhabitants may not be as degraded as that of savages.

   This guy has quite a chip on his shoulder. g-r-u-m-p-y.

5. Find page 100 and type in the first, second and fifth word on the page.
   some, and, in.
6. Tag 5 people
   There are probably about five people who look at this site except for Rosie. Soooo, have at it. You know who you are.

I’m back in SF, by the way.