Month: March 2003

Wal-Mart Atop Fortune 500

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

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.

“Cultural Fire Exits”

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

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. […]”

MobileTracker – Cell News

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

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).

Recipe: Mexican Muffins

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

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 ;).

OpenOffice.org 1.1 Beta Available

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

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.