Archive for August 2007

Creepy Deja Vu

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So I was surfing the internet today, learning all the intricacies of Windows Movie Maker (don’t ask), when I came across a particularly disturbing ad:

Yet another search ad about eating spiders, this time from Microsoft. Seriously, stop it.

First thought: Eww, gross. Second thought: Wait a second. Haven’t I been asked that question before?

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Your Money is Now Our Money

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What a good time it was to see the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie in the theaters. Now that the DVD has been released, Facebook has an ad encouraging me to buy it, which says the following:

The ATHF DVD is full of exciting special features including an 80 minute alternate movie, music videos and a new intro.

I’ve heard of alternate endings, but alternate movies? Isn’t that just an additional feature film? Or could this be the next wave of DVD releases?

I’m Famous!

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Autumn pointed out to me that the Acropolis Meet the Team video has been posted to Channel 9. For those who don’t know, Acropolis is the team inside Visual Studio that I work with every day - and I even make an appearance in the video!

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Wrong Way

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A handy bit of feedback on the back of a letter I sent in a while back - if you put it in the envelope wrong, you get a nice message through the window:

An envelope with a window to the letter underneath that reveals Wrong Way

But I wonder: Will people check for the presence of text (and call it good), or will they read “Wrong Way” and fix the error?

Circular Sudoku?

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I like to play Sudoku at work I’m aware of a sidebar gadget on Vista that lets you play Sudoku. (Gotta be careful, my manager reads this. :)) One day when experimenting with this gadget (I was testing it, really…), I discovered a potential solution that, while technically correct, was counted as incorrect.

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Deleting the Baby With the Bath Water

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Windows Vista has a new feature. While it’s always been possible to remove your Recycle Bin from the desktop, Vista saw fit to bubble up the command into the context menu, shown here:

A screen shot of the Vista recycle bin context menu, with the commands Empty Recycle Bin and Delete circled

I circled a couple commands in that shot, because they consistently confound me (even though I’ve been using Vista for well over 8 months now). One removes items from the Recycle Bin, and the other removes the Recycle Bin itself.

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Learn Math With Toilet Paper

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I know that a lot of people dislike math, but are we in such a sad state that something like this is really necessary?

The back of a Cottonelle toilet paper pack, showing a single roll, a double roll = 2 single rolls, and a triple roll = 3 single rolls

Is this a case of having too much space to say something and not knowing what to say? Or do they really think that the majority of their audience will get confused in interpreting the difference between single, double, and triple?

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Who Loves Ya?

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What? What do you mean, not me?! Just cuz I tend to blog in waves, and had a bit of downtime earlier… gosh, you’re all so picky… Look on the bright side. I’m back blogging again, which means at least another 2 weeks of posts. Or… not. We’ll see what happens.

Actually, the correct answer to the question is Flickr. In what must be a new marketing move, I noticed a new, subtle message in the latest Flickr logo:

Flickrs new logo that says Flickr Loves You

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