When I was hired to sell hi-fi almost 20 years ago, I figured I knew my stuff and I knew audiophiles. <I>How hard could selling good gear be?</I> I wondered. Phenomenally hard, it turned out. I began to learn how to sell and the crux of it wasn't trickery or fast-talk, but actually listening to what people wanted (and, granted, sometimes hearing stuff they weren't actually saying).
Get Internet Explorer! ROTFLMAO
<I>Artnatomy</I> is a really cool tool—for learning to draw faces, of course. I can't even draw a stick figure for Hangman, but stuff like this makes me dream about unleashing my (extremely) inner artist.
I spent perhaps a total of ten hours in my apartment this weekend, and for about eight of those, I was asleep. So, unfortunately, I didn't have the time to make any real comparisons. I faced no problems, however, in disconnecting the Arcam Solo and bringing the A3.5 units into my little system. It was an easy-breezy piece of Key Lime pie. I didn't even feel bad about it; the Musical Fidelity pieces are so attractive, I couldn't wait to get them going. Though the setup required merely sticking the AC cords into the appropriate sockets, making the simple connection between the integrated and CD player, and hooking up the speakers — black to black, red to red — I felt some small amount of pride for getting it all done without a hitch. Anyone could do it, really.
I'd try this myself, but I expect that Huckleberry's revenge would be severe.
'Fess up—you've always wondered about that butter side down thing.
This online dialog between Neal Stephenson and the readers of <I>Slashdot</I> isn't new, but I'd never read it before. There's good stuff on money, copyright, and his three deathmatch battles with William Gibson.
<I>The Inquirer</I> goes medieval on DRM's butt. This rant is passionate and incandescent. Wish I'd said it, but linking to it is pretty satisfying, too.
San Francisco's wonderful Jon Carroll points us towards <I>Regret The Error</I>, a compendium of error correcting slugs that have run in newspapers and journals.
I link to this review of David Crystal's <I>How Language Works</I> not so much because it is deeply informative—I'm pretty sure I want to read it, but the review doesn't make that compelling a case—but rather because of my admiration at the way John Humphrys manages to work one of my favorite grammar jokes into the review.