Apparently it is time to renew my Microsoft Alumni Network membership. $130. The only value I get is employee discounts on software. It is increasingly hard to justify this, there is darn little I want at the store. If I view the $130 as prepay on software, I have to buy a lot to make the savings add up to more than $130. Used to be I had relatives and friends asking for software a lot but that activity has dried up largely.

Way too much work for a jack o lantern but still cool – instructables : Jack-O-Laser of Doom

Various bits of advice on basketball photography:

* From a pro – The Seattle Times: Photography: Best Seat in the House – 70-200mm f2.8 lens (set at 100mm), ISO 200, 1/250 sec @ f5.6 with strobes – not sure this would work for me ex strobes * From Canon forums – 70-200mm f/2.8…85mm f/1.8…50mm f1.8/1.4 all auggested

In the Science of Love premiere last night, science won. This is classically trashy summer reality TV, but for some bizarre reason we were all captivated with it last night. The guy didn’t seem like much of a catch but that was just part of the appeal of the show.

blog.pmarca.com: The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 4: The only thing that matters _In honor of Andy Rachleff, formerly of Benchmark Capital, who crystallized this formulation for me, let me present Rachleff’s Law of Startup Success:

The #1 company-killer is lack of market._

Starting to think hard about Halloween. First step is to document last year’s efforts – 2006 Documentation in Halloween 2007 Plan – and from this I can start to create a delta list of things to change.

My Sony - Reader broke, Brad Feld has documented my support experience. Thankfully Sony was responsive and finally got it right, I have a brand new reader now and can get back to using it. I really like the device, and hopefully Sony will get the whole purchase and support solution right for everyone.

Marginal Revolution: Strange maps – i love maps. here is a whole blog of strange ones!

A set of three reads about the nature of the universe and our lives:

* “The Trouble With Physics”:amazon by Lee Smolin. Turned onto this by rich, an interesting walk thru the state of physics and the physics establishment. Comes out pretty strongly damning the conservatism of the current establishment and encouraging more risk taking. Intellectually punishing at times for a non physicist but interesting. * “Cosmic Jackpot”:amazon by Paul Davies. A very different review of modern physics, Davies dives headlong into the “what does it all mean” issue and fully explores the various views held by scientists. A full embracing of the various anthropic theories that purport to explain why life exists. Not as rigorous as Smolin and more philosophical. * “I am a Strange Loop”:amazon by Douglas Hofstadter. I loved “GEB”:amazon back in the day but this book just leaves me cold. I can’t get past chapter 5 – I found myself doing the monday NYT crossword instead of reading the book, and that says a lot. The pace is just too slow in the book.

* The Kwikset Smartscan. Ok I am not sure I really want this. What I’d really like is a lock that could be programmed to respond to my car’s fob. I have to carry the car thing around anyway, why can’t it open my house too? I don’t want my thumb to be the identifying device, I don’t want to encourage anyone to chop off my thumb. * Crystal Weather Station. Looks cool. Why not available in US? * Another doohickey to let you use your dremel – this time as a plunge router * A Drobo storage robot. Sounds way cooler than “hard drive enclosure” * Ceramic Jellyfish – awesome looking

* Welcome to tapemonster.com – some glow in the dark tape up here, might be useful * Lunabrite rope light. probably not that useful for halloween projects but still cool.

* Rahul discusses new features at Judy’s book – New Features on Judy’s Book at Starting Up by Rahul Pathak * Oh and also at couponlooker – looks pretty useful * Rich is obviously a mac convert with a million mac postings – for example finding a beyondcompare equivalent * Also rich gets turned onto HDR * Press for melodeo’s new itunes streaming feature * Rich also finds another virtual cd drive program. i’ve never found any of these to work that well (and do any of them work for dvd games??) but maybe worth looking at * Rich on 3rd party lenses for canon. * I’m way late on recognizing this post re biopassword

Formula Drift - Professional Drifting Championship – this looks like fun. Way more exciting racing than what we typically see on broadcast TV.