Hand Coding

For the second year in a row, Wal-Mart is #1 on the Fortune 500 (GM, ExxonMobil, Ford and GE round out the top 5).

None of that was particularly surprising to me, but I wasn’t aware of the lead that Wal-Mart held over the runners-up. Fortune offers these hypothetical cases that could occur to oust Wal-Mart from the top spot.

By this time next year, it plans to be another $26 billion higher, bringing its revenues to $272 billion. Assuming it hits that goal, is there any scenario in which Wal-Mart is not No. 1 next year? Improbable but not impossible is that oil prices rise—yet not so far that SUV drivers stop filling up—pushing Exxon Mobil into the lead for a year. Barring that scenario, here’s the best we could do:

• All the defense companies on the list (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and four others) merge to form Military Industrial Complex Inc. Total revenues: $162 billion. Not even close.
• Antitrust regulators bless the creation of ExxonMobilChevronTexaco: $182 billion + $92 billion = $274 billion. The winner by a nose.
• General Motors and Ford join hands: $187 billion + $163 billion = $350 billion. A new No. 1! Unless ...
• Average coffee consumption spikes from 1.6 cups per day to 284 cups. Starbucks leaps straight to the top.

Wow, capitalism at work.

There’s all kinds of goofy stuff said on IRC, much of it hilarious — and that's where Bash.org comes in. They collect humorous quotes from IRC. This one from their latest quotes section amused me in particular:

<zoweee> i’m holding out til the next election. if it goes against us, i’ll seriously begin looking for my cultural fire exits.

“There are exits at the front and the rear of american democracy. Please take this opportunity to familiarize yourself with the nearest exit. In the event of a theocratic american hegemony, lights will appear on either end of the aisle, marking the way to your exit for you.

“in the unlikely event of the repeal of Ammendments 1-5, your seat cushion may be used to purchase carriage across one of our more porous borders.

“should there be a depressurization of america’s historical tolerance for diversity, bibles will drop from the overhead compartment. please read your own copy before assisting small children.

“please do not read pirated versions of the bible, as this may give aid and comfort to terrorist organizations. […]”

I ran across MobileTracker on MovableType’s list of spotlight sites. In a nutshell, it’s a blog on cell news, such as new phones and new services. I didn’t expect it to be that interesting, but it’s surprisingly well written and the entries are brief but not curt.

My current phone is a Nokia 3390 — which is fine, I suppose. However, it has areas of improvement: no color screen, monophonic ring tones, and no network connectivitiy. And that last one gets to me most. If you’re lucky, your cell phone might have Bluetooth. Or, if not that, there’s a decent chance your phone has at least a data port (though a special cable may be required). This phone has neither.

So, I’ll have to remedy that with my next phone (though I can’t afford a new one quite yet). A recent post on MobileTracker mentions the Nokia 3650 which almost resembles something out of The Jetsons ;). Still, the Sony Ericsson P800 also looks very tempting (but, it may never make it to North America for all I know).

I saw this recipe on the WhatsInTheFridge mailing list (and I would have linked to the specific post, but it seems that archives are only viewable by subscribers).

Mexican Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 pkg. (1 1/4 oz.) Taco seasoning mix
• 1/2 c. water
• 5 English muffins, split
• 1 c. grated Cheddar cheese (4 oz.)

Preparation

Brown beef; drain well. Add seasoning mix and water; simmer 15 minutes or until lliquid is absorbed. Place muffins on baking sheet; top with meat mixture. Sprinkle cheese evenly over tops. Bake at 350° F., 10 minutes or until heated through.

Serves 5.

Note: For a Mexican hamburger, substitute hamburger buns for the muffins. Do not bake.

At first, the idea of a Mexicanized English-muffin seemed a bit odd to me, but I think I’ve warmed up to the idea. Of course, I’m now also contemplating whether guacamole & sour cream would improve the dish or if that would overdo it ;).

I saw on OpenOffice.org’s announce mailing list that OpenOffice.org 1.1 Beta has been released. New features include:

• Many new import/export formats like PDF, Macromedia Flash, DocBook, several PDA Office file formats, flat XML and XHTML
• Support for Complex Text Layout (CTL) and vertical writing languages, such as Thai, Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew
• Enhanced integration with Java, with up to 10 times better performance
• Support for Accessibility throughout the entire suite
• Support for add-on components
• Initial support for recovering damaged OOo files
• Support for a new data source type - MySQL
• Improved online help

And, that’s just from the e-mail announcement. There are some interesting gems from the complete list as well:

• The splash screen now has a progress bar.
• Additional property pages for OpenOffice.org file types in Windows Explorer.
• A new java-native-uno bridge with up to 10 times better performance.
• New FTP file access component.
• […]

OpenOffice.org is already pretty good, but I look forward to trying this new version.

Smooth scrolling has been implemented in Mozilla. To see it in action, just download a recent nightly build and add this line to your prefs.js file (while Mozilla isn’t running).

user_pref("general.smoothScroll", true);

If you’re not familiar with the feature, smooth scrolling slides text up pixel-by-pixel during a scroll, instead of a chunk at a time (IE also has this feature). This didn’t initially sound very useful to me, either, but this thead on the gtk-devel-list (for GTK development with Linux) conveys that smooth scrolling allows for scrolling & reading the text at the same time.

Sure enough, smooth scrolling does make it easier to scroll and read text in quick succession. The physics of the current implementation isn’t perfect yet (gravity, velocity, and so on), but I still consider it an improvement over regular scrolling.

I was reading on HealthCentral.com about a study of a new fast-acting nicotine gum. The big news is that this new gum “gum provides peak nicotine levels in five to 10 minutes, compared to 15 to 20 minutes for Nicorette”. However, what struck me were the testing methods:

Niaura and his colleagues recruited 319 current smokers for this study. In the lab, they gave the smokers their favorite cigarette and told them to light it, but not to smoke it. Then, half the group chewed the rapid-release gum and the other half chewed Nicorette for 30 minutes. The smokers completed 10 craving assessment surveys during that time. […]

I’m not a smoker, but I can only imagine how tough that must have been on the participants. If someone were to hand me a warm and gooey brownie but told me not to eat it, I know I’d have a hard time holding back.

I recently ran across MegaWiki for Palm, linked from FreewarePalm.com. For those not aware, a Wiki basically is a collaborative hyperlinked forum. If that doesn’t make sense yet, browsing around the StartingPoints page at the C2 Wiki may clear things up.

In the case the Palm, MegaWiki links between applications instead of web pages:

Put a name on a To Do List item, and then just tap to jump to the Address Book entry for that name. Manage a project from a memo page with links to bunches of To Do items. Have a list of important dates? Just tap one to go to that date in the Date Book. […]

That alone interested me, but their implementation is also very easy to use. Here’s an example from the MegaWiki QuickStart page:

• Activate the Palm Memo Pad application — either by choosing it from the Palm application icon or by pressing the physical Memo button (if you find yourself editing an existing memo, tap the 'Done' button)
• Tap the ‘New’ button to create a new, empty memo
• Give this new memo a name of OneMegaWiki by entering that text on the first line (note that text case is important — stringing together capitalized words creates a WikiWord)
• Tap the ‘Done’ button and create another new, empty memo by tapping the ‘New’ button
• Name this memo TwoMegaWiki by entering that text on the first line
• Move down a line or two and enter the text OneMegaWiki
• Now tap the word OneMegaWiki with your stylus and you will find that you have jumped from the TwoMegaWiki memo to the OneMegaWiki memo!

I could see myself getting some real use out of this. For instance, I could have a general memo for SXSW which then linked to more detailed descriptions for various panels. Or, I could have a shopping-list memo linking to other memos with store specials

MegaWiki is freeware, but I’m still not sure I want to try it ;). The only downside is that the authors are not optimistic on whether MegaWiki can bre successfully ported to Palm OS5. And, since I plan on upgrading my PDA to a Palm OS5 device once my employment situation improves, I wouldn’t want to beceome engrossed in an application only to not be able to use it after the upgrade.

Faking It is a new show on TLC. I first discovered it after returning to my hotel room after a night of partying at SXSW. I was flipping through channels before bed and ran across it.

On the show, regular people assume the role of a new profession. They get a few weeks training and then go before a panel of experts to see if they can spot the fake. For instance, the episode I saw had a union carpenter faking it as an interior designer.

David Dougherty has no idea what he’s getting into. He’s a gum-chewing, cap-wearing couch potato, and proud of it. “I probably spend six to 10 hours a night watching this tube, and loving every minute,” he says. This trip is only the second time he’s ever been away from his family. […]

With Dougherty they start from scratch. Their doubts about whether Dougherty can pass the design taste test begin when they see photos of his own lovely apartment, showing two bars, six TVs and a life-size picture of Elvis. […]

I find it fascinating what a few weeks training and a moderate level of confidence can achieve. Faking It airs Fridays on TLC at 10/9c.

Looking at the overhead tvs at the gym, I’ve seen some of the commercials for Intel’s Centrino. For those that haven’t seen them, it features a desk & laptop working in unpopulated areas such as a meadow or the middle of a stadium with the tagline that it’s “mobile technology”.

And, from all the fanfare, I was guessing that it was based on a nationwide cell network or something (like the Sidekick from T-Mobile). But, nooo — it’s just integrated 802.11b on the chipset. That’s it. Built-in Wifi — where have I heard that before?