./emilychang eBot

Author Vladimir Nabokov said in a 1969 New York Times interview that “there should exist a special typographical sign for a smile--some sort of concave mark, a supine round bracket.”

Now, nearly four decades later, there is just such a typographical symbol-- :-), or :) for the minimalists, and it’d be tough to find a tech-savvy person who hasn’t leaned on it. There’s also a special typographical symbol for a frown-- :-(—and one for a cool dude in sunglasses—B-)—and one for a wink—;-). There’s even a typographical sign for wearing a baseball cap-- d=D.

Androgynous people can be forceful or conciliatory, logical or empathic, mathematical or verbal, as the occasion demands...I want to encourage an internal locus of control in my daughters. An internal locus of control is a belief that things happen to you because of the things you do (rather than due to luck, your environment or other people). It’s an important predictor of happiness, because it places you in control of your own destiny.

Over the past few months, there’s been a lot of discussion about the new UI changes in Leopard. These mainly revolve around the dock [1] [2] and the menu bar which has recently been improved. Surprisingly, I have yet to see anyone comment on the new folders.

"10 MPH is a comical documentary that follows a pair of aspiring filmmakers as they quit their jobs and turn a friend’s ludicrous idea into a movie.

The impulsive purchase of a two-wheeled Segway scooter sets this story in motion when the two friends decide to travel from Seattle to Boston at 10 MPH in an attempt to change their lives forever...”

"The current (?) version of iTunes, 7.1.1 has been cracked by the QTFairUse6 project. Now is the time to uncripple your purchased iTunes tracks (especially those brutally expensive, hard-to-rip audiobooks) before Apple spends more engineering dollars to punish you for wanting to “think different,” “switch” and otherwise enjoy the stuff you bought from them.” Currently only works for Windows so I’m still waiting for a Mac solution…

"If you spend any time at all observing net culture, then you’ll have been unable to miss the recent explosion in popularity of lolcats. This relatively recent phenomenon is the convention of taking pictures of cute animals, most frequently cats, and overlaying absurdist captions on the images.

The core behavior has existed for some time; “Image macro” is a generic term for this kind of folk art, and cats have always featured heavily in these types of Internet in-jokes. But a few distinct categories have sprung up that have helped amplify and popularize the phenomenon.”

"MAKE now has a 1981 Mercedes Benz 508D Diesel Doka fire truck! It has 47,274 kilometers, a heavy duty military/commercial grade 6-cylinder diesel with a 5-speed manual transmission. It has two bucket seats up front, 7 seats in the back seating area, tons of storage racks and bins, and the roof is covered in diamond plate and accessible by ladder. It can go up 55 miles per hour and can carry 9 passengers. You’ll see it at Maker Faire, but we need your help! We need to mod it (of course) and we also need to name it...”