Let Fry Commence

Stephen Fry's nascent blog is taking its first few steps. And what steps they are - simply amazing. Unlike this humble blog (I am ashamed to use the word in any proximity to mention of Mr. Fry's blog), I am left in awe by his wit, humour, clarity, and lengthy prose. I complain not of length or quantity, and will never complain of quality. Every entry is a gem, as evidenced by the delightful anecdote below.

Lord Reith, founder of the BBC, legendarily fired off an angry memo to his staff after a broadcast in which someone or other was described as “the famous lawyer”. The memo went like this: ‘The word FAMOUS. If a person is famous it is superfluous to point out the fact, if they are not then it is a lie. The word is not to be used within the BBC.’ Way to tell them, Scottish guy.

[Via Stephen Fry].

The EFF' "Test Suite" for Fair Use Videos - includes "The Vader Sessions"

The EFF has prepared a suite of videos for testing against automated "copyright infringement detection" software. Among these videos was the excellent "Vader Sessions" below. I don't think I can watch the first Star Wars movie in quite the same way again.



[via Boing Boing]

Hiro is an OLPC ambassador

Masi Oka (Hiro of Heroes) ...

has now signed up to be OLPC's "ambassador" to really flesh out his resume. The guy majored in Math and Comp Sci at Brown University, and did odd acting gigs while working at ILM programming special effects, so he's no pretender to this nerd throne.

[Via Engadget].

Yay Apple Store! They really do listen to their customers.

So today I come across the story of Apple's VP for retail operations exercising stock options and netting $100M+ in the process. And less than ten minutes later I get a phone call that makes me very pleased to hear that news. It was the local Apple store calling me about a bad experience I had reported. I had been treated in a very condescending and insulting manner by a cashier. This was the day after the Leopard launch, and I suspect the poor guy was simply frazzled and impatient. I suppose he could have been covering up his embarrassment by getting aggressive and angry at me (apparently for not handing him my ID as quickly as he'd have liked). Well, I left the store stunned, and feeling very foolish for liking the Apple stores as much as I had until that point. When I got home I found an e-mail with my receipt, and a link to a simple feedback form. I felt bad enough about the experience that I clicked the link and described the experience, and how it had been bad enough that I really didn't want to go to that particular store again. I figured this would go into the database of complaints and surveys, to be mined in the future for internal auditing and evaluation purposes, my feelings on the matter relegated to a minor nameless contribution to a performance statistic. So getting a call and a personal apology from the store manager within less than two days (and timed at a considerate hour) just leaves me speechless and very happy with the Apple Store. All is well with the world again ... and I feel the VP for retail deserves every penny. Thank you Mr. Johnson, and thank you local Apple Store. I'm still a big fan.

Weird Al Wednesday - Eat It!

It doesn't matter what you had for lunch, just ...


[via Revver]