Excite News - Fiery Crash Collapses Bay Area Freeway
What a mess this will be tomorrow.
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29Apr
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29Apr
I will re-edit this and add credits, etc..
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26Apr
Have I ever mentioned how much I like driving a convertible?
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24Apr
Scientists unearth Superman’s ‘kryptonite’
Text (Reuters):
LONDON - Kryptonite, which robbed Superman of his powers, is no longer the stuff of comic books and films.A mineral found by geologists in Serbia shares virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from outer space, used by the superhero’s nemesis Lex Luthor to weaken him in the film “Superman Returns.”
“We will have to be careful with it — we wouldn’t want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!,” said Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London’s Natural History Museum.
Stanley, who revealed the identity of the mysterious new mineral, discovered the match after searching the Internet for its chemical formula — sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.
“I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film ‘Superman Returns,’” he said.
The substance has been confirmed as a new mineral after tests by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London and the National Research Council in Canada.
But instead of the large green crystals in Superman comics, the real thing is a white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and isn’t radioactive.
The mineral, to be named Jadarite, will go on show at the London’s Natural History Museum starting tomorrow.
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23Apr
I worked for a great company for 11 years, starting as a product manager and getting promoted to marketing manager. I was offered a choice back in 1997 or so to either be a product manager for a mainstream product or to help launch a new cool project. I chose the cool project. There was a team of 5 of us and we re-located our office in a separate office in the same building as the big company to give us some entrepreneurial freedom. This product/project was a ‘thin client’ network product that interfaced to a server via Ethernet.
The product came from Japan and they would keep changing how it looks and works and didn’t always listen to our US marketing efforts. By the time the product was ready for sales, no companies could afford it. This was 2000 and 2001 and the economy was going down fast. We had marketed this product to family restaurants, baseball stadiums, and other similar places but no one would commit. We even hired a company to come up with a product name for the thing and after about $10,000US we had the name Zeleon.
We even owned the domain zeleon.com and .net. Japan was funding the project 100% and everything was great, except for the lack of sales. Then 9/11 happened and set the economy heading down fast. In early 2002 I was needing to meet with my boss for things and he called one day and asked me to meet him “tomorrow at 2PM” so I said OK. I walk into the little conference room and there is my boss, and a rep from HR. So, I was let go, with a 3 month severance and a letter of recommendation from my boss. They also provided a 3rd party to give outplacement help - which was TOTALLY USELESS.
So, I send out 100’s if not 1000’s of resumes for another good job and have about 4 interviews, with no offers. I even took a job with Picture People taking photos of little kids, just for the fun of it. I had to wear a vest and a beanie hat with a propeller on it, but it was good photography experience.
Then in 2004 I took a terrible job with a terrible company and started there as a temp, and was converted to full time after 3 months. This place was so poorly run, when I was switched from temp to perm, I received an email from the head of HR stating “my conversation to full time”, really! I met a guy there who was an executive type person and we became friends. He only lasted about 6 months, but he joined this software company in Irvine. Once he was stable he mentioned to me that he could use some help, so I sent my resume to him and landed this great job.
I started here in April 2005 as a Product Manager, earning just under what my last salary was with that big company. I helped this guy with all of his presentations, brochures, data sheets, and webinars. Last November, our company was purchased by a big equity company and was instantly merged with a smaller competitor. The products that my friend was working on were cancelled and the entire group was laid off. I stayed for some reason, and have been doing less and less on a daily basis. Last week, I converted a word document into html. Really, that was about it. I have been here two years already, each day I commute 50 miles, each way…
Today, I have done nothing but write this. Oh yeah, 2 weeks ago I received my yearly raise, and am now earning more than I did at the other company, (except for the bonus). So, it is hard to realize how difficult it really is to do nothing all day. I expect Mr. Pink Slip to visit me any day now… Me depressed?
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19Apr
My wife works at the front desk of a dental office and a patient just happens to have a 2 month old Australian Shepard puppy available. It probably looks like this:
Or,
Or probably like this:
The patient said the puppy has just been ‘fixed’ and will bring the puppy to the office tomorrow so my wife can look at it. I bet, if my wife sees it, we will have a puppy tomorrow!!! I do miss Lucy daily…
The patient brought the dog back to the office today!! This is a cellphone shot:
My wife said she “submitted an application” whatever that means! I thought it was a private party, more later…
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17Apr
Incredible, I “need” to upgrade my software, but all at once?? Adobe has finally come out with CS3 and I “need”, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, with the new versions of Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, and Acrobat. For the low low upgrade price of $1,599.00.
I also “need” the new Apple Final Cut Studio v2.0 to get updates to Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Motion, and DVD Studio Pro for the low upgrade price of only $499.00.
Then Microsoft comes out with Office 2007 which should run faster on my daughter’s Intel based Mac, that cost isn’t set yet for Macs, but it should be around $400 or so.
So,
$ 1,599.00
$ 499.00
$ 400.00
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$2,500 FOR “UPGRADING” SOFTWARE????????????????????????????
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