Goodbye, Netflix!

We'll always have Boston.

(That's where we met and I watched a lot of DVDs.)

Google me surprises me

I just saw my name on a website I didn't realize I was mentioned on and wondered if it was the top Google result. So I Googled my name. (Doesn't sound so lame when I explain it that way, right?)

I was really surprised. For the longest time the results were always related to my participation in KU's Engineering Student Council. But now they're actually related to my participation in my research community. Kinda neat, kinda freaky.

The results accurately depict my activities of late, except the PHP stuff – those were youthful days... five years ago!

More than I could ever say in my own defense

Alan Carter defends my goblin-ish low level lighting habits.

On Truthiness

Regarding "telling the truth", my friend Emily says

I have a question: how can you be sure that the truth that you experienced is the truth? Is truth the same for everyone?

I can only suppose that's something that the two of us would work out as we talk. The differences between our truths would remain until they day we tried to tell the truth to one another. And it's helpful to know those differences.

I'd say some truths are the same for everyone, but it gets subtle for sure.

Advice is tricky

Randy Pausch is stunning. Adrienne sent me this WSJ article a while ago (weeks? months?).

One piece of advice Dr. Pausch has chosen to pass along to his children stuck out to me.

Tell the truth. All the time.

This is about the only rule I'm sure about in life. It doesn't (ever) keep things simple, but that's not the point. Telling the truth – all of it – comes from respect. I respect you. And I respect that I am incapable of determining what you do and do not need to know. Only you can do that, so I opt for fully-informed cooperation.

Needs a new name...

SynchroSpot is marching its way towards the Android cell phone platform.

I almost bought a new iPhone, but two things stopped me.

1. Confounded spacetime! It comes out July 11th, not June 11th. My current contract ended yesterday and I was happy to see it as an obvious omen. Mission from God.
   
2. 3G doesn't reach Lawrence. The verbage on AT&T's link to their "3G Coverage Viewer" was confusing. Turns out you have to turn on the the 3G overlay. Linwood? Tonganoxie? Basehor? De Soto? Of course they're covered! How could those bastions of culture not have 3G?

The biggest reason I wanted the iPhone was actually for what SynchroSpot does – location-triggered reminders.

Ding! You're near the grocery store: you need more of that foamy hand soap!

Ding! You're leaving Lawrence, do you have your Father's Day card?

Since the iPhone has a GPS unit (my current phone doesn't) and a well supported development platform (strike two), I thought I could finally implement my plan for outsourcing large parts of my brain.

Now I'm just going to wait for the Android phones later this year. No turtlenecks. No dancing to show I know who I really am.

No celebrity for the NCSE

My dad sent me this. It's a response to the intelligent design movie I talked about earlier.

The counter-argument shows how some particular IDers were acting a fool. However – to me – that approach takes for granted that the viewer already understands why supernatural beings have no place in the science classroom. If the viewer doesn't, then the existence of some silly IDers "caught in the act" probably doesn't sway any opinions. I suggest that the (weak) distinction between ID and creationism isn't meaningful to most people. But it apparently is to the Supreme Court – whence the tomfoolery they exposed.

BRILLIANT IDEA: Why don't local religious communities and the local science teachers coordinate to (respectfully) talk about human origins at the same time of the year in the appropriate places?

Suck on that common sense.

Ira Glass on stickin' it out

From the host of NPR's This American Life, a nice hope nugget for those of us with creative aspirations.

From my friend Rory's Google Reader shared feed. Beware the volume.