OK the missteps that Google has made with Buzz this week are well chronicled. They jammed a product out without really thinking it through.

That doesn’t hit me that much as a user. But today using the iphone map app I am getting continuous errors – here is the map of “drugstores near my current location”:http://twitpic.com/13st7z. Not unique to me, I’ve heard of this from many folks today.

And I’m looking at the ESPN boxscore page for “Purdue/OSU right now”:http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=300480194 and first the google toolbar tells me it is in Portuguese, and now in Catalan, and asks if I want a translation.

One wonders if Google is spreading itself a little thin.

* “Freedom(TM)”:amazon by Daniel Suarez. Not as mind-wreckingly good as his prior, “Daemon”:amazon but a very nice conclusion to the tale. 3.5 stars, Amazon says 4.5 stars but that I think is carryover from the first book. * “Give Me Liberty”:amazon by Naomi Wolf. Nice nonfiction complement to the above. Does a nice job of illustrating how our rights have been eroded, and admonishing us to do something about. Amazon says 4.5 stars, well, it is a fine book, but I’d stop at 3.5 * “Judas Unchained”:amazon by Peter Hamilton. Vaguely remember the prior book but it has been a while and this book does not stand alone. Amazon says 4 stars, I am hard on books today, I’d say 3 stars * “The Forgotten Man”:amazon by Amity Shlaes. History of the Depression, interesting although some of the details could have been left to an appendix. Roosevelt’s level of power was amazing. The story of the transformation of government into a very active role is told well and is clearly not an unalloyed good. The abject failure of monetary policy is well told and a good lesson for today. And my impression of Hoover from high school history as a total bumbler changed, he was incredibly competent prior to his stint as president. Amazon says 4 stars, I’ll say 3.5, and with tighter editing could have been a 4.

• Douglas Preston knows entitlement – http://bit.ly/b24Fzr #

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“Preston is exhibiting that he knows deeply what it means to feel ‘entitlement’“:http://chamberfour.com/2010/02/11/on-the-word-entitlement/. My reaction when I read Preston’s quote was exactly the same as this writer. Fortunately his books are throw-away fluff, and not even good throw-away fluff, so I will miss nothing if I never buy one again.

Just discovered “Cramster”:http://www.cramster.com/. Awesome. If they have coverage for the text used in your class, this is super helpful.

Finding that Wolfram Alpha is also becoming more useful. Easier to run to it to figure out the integral of x^2 sinx sinhx than spinning up mathematica or maple or matlab.

Almost all the holiday cards we got this year were produced/printed at various websites. The ones we liked the best came from http://www.tinyprints.com/. Placeholder here for next year…

* “Magimix Vision Toaster”:http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2010/01/magimix_vision.php. Our current toaster works just fine but this one just looks so awesome. * “Wood Alarm Clock”:http://okthestore.com/gallery.php?id=73. I hate your typical alarm clock, this is pretty atypical. * “Magisso Cake Server”:http://design-milk.com/magisso-cake-server/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+design-milk+%28Design+Milk%29&utm_content=Google+Reader. Don’t make that many cakes but this is a reason to start. * “Shattered Glass Table”:http://blabitalia.com/en/products/b-glass/impact/ is awesome looking. Sign me up. * “Suitcase Chairs”:http://design-milk.com/suitcase-chairs-by-katie-thompson/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=Google+Reader&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+design-milk+%28Design+Milk%29&utm_content=Google+Reader. Don’t love this color but love the idea. * “Found lumber staircase”:http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2010/01/gelitin_palais.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ch+%28Cool+Hunting%29&utm_content=Google+Reader. There is something about this I love. * “Canisters”:http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2010/01/airscape_airtig.php. Ok what I really want is the indestructible French press mentioned. * “Glass pendant lamp”:http://www.scandinaviandesigncenter.com/Products/usd0/Trademark/New+products/10627/One+pendant&VariantId=02&Image=img2. Dust will make me regret this but it looks awesome * “Canvas Clock”:http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20100207/real-tim-canvas-clock-shows-current-time/. I think everyone else in the household might barf on this one. * “Flask salt/pepper shakers”:http://www.modestudio.co.uk/products-mode-earl-salt-and-pepper.php?g=earl. No idea if functional, but nice looking.

• Cannons! – http://theludwigs.com/2010/01/cannon-roundup-emp-cannon-shock-cannon-vortex-cannon/ #
• RT nice job skewering MacMillan @charlesfitz: [Blog] Priceless Indeed http://bit.ly/clodIi #
• Amazon vs Macmillan vs you – http://bit.ly/aoZvPg #
• Now I’ll know exactly how much my iPhone battery sucks http://bit.ly/cR5M4V #
• USC Lax kick off this weekend – http://bit.ly/alSFfW #

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* Lifebook MH380. Japan only right now. For some reason this netbook just looks cool to me. * “Netgear 200mb powerline ethernet”:http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/xavb2501.aspx – I might actually need this, one spot in the house where I would really like a wired solution and running cat5 is inconvenient. * “Moxi DVRs”:http://moxi.com/us/home.html intrigue me, especially the moxi mate for additional rooms. Wonder if I should flip away from Tivo… * “Ambient WIFI harvester”:http://www.ohgizmo.com/2010/01/09/ces2010-rca-airnergy-charger-harvests-electricity-from-wifi/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ohgizmo+%28OhGizmo%21%29&utm_content=Google+Reader. Wonder why just wifi. Curious what the power spectrum of EM energy around us looks like. * “80 Port USB charging hub”:http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/02/04/80-port-usb-charger-board/. I wish it could charge my iphone 80x as fast. * These “Micro 4/3rds cameras”:http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2010/02/olympus_pen_epl.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ch+%28Cool+Hunting%29&utm_content=Google+Reader are just screaming my name. I know I will be disappointed in shutter lag time. But man I am pulled.

“USC Lacrosse”:http://www.usclacrosse.com/ kicks off the season this weekend, Sunday 11am home against UNLV (“complete schedule”:http://www.usclacrosse.com/schedule). “Roster up here as well”:http://www.usclacrosse.com/roster. Next weekend in Seattle, yay, to take on some Northwest opponents. Fight On!

OK so Amazon’s “move against Macmillan”:http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/01/all-the-many-ways-amazon-so-very-failed-the-weekend/ was seriously ham-handed and Amazon is “still caught up in their own undershorts”:http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/01/seriously-now-theyre-just-being-dicks/. Some Amazonians deserve some serious reprimands, this is just not the way these things are handled. Now Amazon has created even more problems for itself.

That said – we are talking about 4-5 days of inconvenience Amazon has caused readers and authors. Stupid but fixable.

As “Charles points out”:http://www.platformonomics.com/PricelessIndeed.aspx, Macmillan is trying to put the screws to all of us big time and for the long run. They are grabbing for more dollars out of out pockets at a time when book costs are heading down. Now, if Macmillan was passing all this on to authors, I might be OK with it, but I suspect it is being absorbed by a bunch of corporate suits.

Who is our real friend here? Shame on Amazon for being so clumsy, but greater shame on Macmillan.

• Stunning – Men feel less guilt than women – http://bit.ly/cUBoxD #
• Recent books – http://bit.ly/cshSaw – Child 44 was the best #

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* “EMP cannon”:http://www.physorg.com/news183296601.html. Mount one of these babies on your trunk and eliminate that tailgating problem. * “Shock Cannon”:http://www.physorg.com/news183142646.html and here is how to get that solicitor off your porch. * “Vortex Cannon video”:http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/07/gas-powered_vortex_cannon_as_big_ba.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890. Probably a bit more powerful than I ever thought about building at Halloween.

* Soundhound way better than Shazam on the iPhone. recognition much faster, lyrics support nicer * Stunned that Windows Home Server doesn’t support the generic network adapter on a whitebox computer from BestBuy. Supported under XP, Vista, &, and Ubuntu, but dead in the water under Windows Home Server. Stunned. * Word 2010 beta seems to support Latex parsing for equations tho buggy as hell. Cool tho. * “Steam up to 25M users”:http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/01/29/steam-steams-ahead-to-25-million-users-205-percent-increase-in-sales/. Steam is so awesome. Why isn’t all Windows and Mac software distributed this way? * Conversely, Apple app store has so much crud in it with no real quality editorial voice. Trying out Chomp and app.itize.us.

* “Child 44”:amazon by Tom Rob Smith. Excellent tale of a Stalin-era security officer in Moscow trying to unravel a series of murders while his own loyalty to the state is under question. He comes to grips with his own morality, his relationships, and his family history as he pursues the case in the face of increasing personal costs. 4.5 stars on Amazon, really an excellent tale. * “The Hidden Family”:amazon and “The Clan Corporate”:amazon by Charles Stross. Stross has written some good books but these are not it Choppy. A protagonist who is alternately wickedly competent and incredibly dumb, as the plot demands. Sloppy. Mailing it in? The Amazon ratings on this series is declining and I’d have to concur. * “At Empire’s Edge”:amazon by William Dietz. Barely in and it reads like a bad Star Trek script. Why did I buy this dreck. Amazon says 4 stars, must be Dietz’s mom rating over and over again, this is not readable, 0 stars. * “Wolf Hall”:amazon by Hilary Mantel. Stilted, awkward, dull. Applies to characters and prose. No idea why people like this book or why it wins awards. Amazon says 3.5 stars, I’ll say 1 – readable but dull as dirt, I gave up. * “Fragment”:amazon by Warren Fahy. Crichtonesque romp on a remote jungle island. Engaging and fun. Amazon says 4 stars, a very solid piece of entertainment.