Category: Random

A couple of weeks ago I lost the cap (earbud cover) to my apple in-ear headphones. Probably not worth the $40 I paid for them, but a lot more comfortable than the ones that come with an iPod, so I was disappointed to find that apple did not sell replacement caps.

Googling one day, I stumbled upon this page which indicates the ear sleeves from some high-end headphones would fit the apple headphones. Hooray! I opted for the more permanent flex sleeves rather than the disposable foam sleeves recommended there, and now they’ve arrived from amazon I’m pleased to say they fit, and work great. Makes the headphones have a lot more bass too. Maybe too much?

I did my taxes this past weekend, and had to laugh when I was presented with the opportunity to voluntarily pay a higher tax rate than I would otherwise have to (5.85 % instead of 5.3%):

You bet your sweet ass most people say no! I did some quick (read flimsy) research to see just how many people say no and turned up a page taking Kerry to task for not opting to pay the higher tax rate,
which also had the only numbers I could turn up. I think it was something like a tenth of a percent of taxpayers, netting the state something like $20k in extra revenue. Yay.

I don’t recall hearing about how Blockbuster’s fine-print laden no late fees campaign is paying off for me, but I can say that I do rent more movies now because I know that regardless of what the sticker on the box says, the real due date is in 7 days. Can’t make it back by Monday, no problem! I’ve got to wonder how that is affecting their bottom line.

For me there’s an interesting side effect. My membership is still associated with my parents’ house (for the record, I haven’t lived there since 2000), so they get little reminders in the mail when my movies are “late” before the real deadline is up. Then we can talk about said movies. Everybody wins!

Except those poor people waiting for the movie.

This morning I was walking down College Ave to catch the T in Davis, and an ambulance goes screaming by, sirens blaring. Next thing I know it sort of pulls over. Sits for a few seconds. I see the driver take a swig of coffee, and then the copilot jumps out and runs backwards up the street where some dude is standing. Talks to him a little while – meanwhile the driver’s coffee may have told him where they are because he gets on the loudspeaker (I didn’t know they had that sort of capability) and says “John, John <whistles to get his attention> lets go” – so “John” runs back and they fire up the siren and continue on their merry way.

I bet a an accountant and a lawyer got together and decided equipping the fleet with navigation devices would cost more than the expected value of any lawsuits from them getting lost and killing people by being too late.

If anyone is looking for an ambulance to get lost in, it looks like there’s a roaring trade in used ambulances.

I case you were having trouble creating brown and blue-colored web applications on your own, oracle has been kind enough to put a guide online!

If anyone can explain the mysterious “i’m gonna kill you” focus symbol (in addition to the selection column) in the “HGRID” spec here, then you’re a better man or woman than I.

Update: “Former coworker” mentioned Jakob Nielsen in a comment – so I clicked over there to find 2006’s best intranets. Guess who’s intranet isn’t on the list (hint: look at the guide above). Btw congrats to Brian/Rooney etc over in on demand workplace land for making the list.