December, 15, 2001 archives

the most brilliant part about the google catalog search is how it is obviously just a showcase for some wicked-cool technology. i wonder what the real application will be.

i can't say i've read the legislation at all, but even on the surface, the recently approved (federal) plan for public schools sounds dumb. then again, anything built on a foundation of standardized testing would sound that way to me. i bet the only people that will benefit from this plan are the companies that will develop the tests, and the companies that will develop the textbooks that teach to those tests.

i wonder how long it will be until i can search for 'plate of shrimp' at google and it will pull up the appropriate scenes from repo man. probably never, since i don't think hollywood has a good sense of shared metadata. (ever notice there's not really an equivalent of isbn codes for movies or music?)

if it weren't long distance, and i weren't positive it is a scam, i would call 214-615-3448. the caller-id identified this as "win 10000 cash." the phone only rang twice (just long enough for caller-id info to be transmitted).

number slate is a knock-off of netflix. one common complaint about netflix is the slow turnaround for east coast customers, and these guys appear to be kansas-based. it's a shame they didn't take the time to design their own site, and just ripped off netflix, though. (via puppet press journal.)