Thursday, August 30, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Currently the best ever candybar...
We recently starting carrying the 3 Musketeers Mint at our store and they are GREAT! Find them and eat them. You'll love em.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
This is a discussion with the late Richard Feynman. He is the author of one of my favorite books (QED- Quantum Electro Dynamics) and was an amazing teacher of all things scientific.
The Worth of a Water Buffalo
When what the last time you made someone cry from happiness? When was the last time you did something for someone they could never have done for themselves?
Friday, August 24, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The Enemies of Reason
I have tremendous respect for Richard Dawkins. As I am a biologist by nature, I admire the way we can speak on the topic of biology with a respect and excitement that till now, I've only seen in the religious when speaking of their faith. Dawkins is not admired by everyone, in fact he is targeted by many as an enemy to their religious beliefs because he makes no compromise to his views to make them more comfortable. I actually respect that, because NOBODY should have to compromise their beliefs to make another comfortable. (With respect for Rachel's recent post I must point out this is only the case when the beliefs of one do not cause unavoidable harm to another human) I understand there are religious people in this world, and I understand there are non-religious people in this world. And saying that, I think they can co-exist just fine once they both start acting like adults.
Here is Dawkin's latest program shown on Brittish Television: The Enemies of Reason (in two parts)
Part 1
Part 2
Here is Dawkin's latest program shown on Brittish Television: The Enemies of Reason (in two parts)
Part 1
Part 2
Semester opening, the Christmas season of the campus.
Instead of ornaments and wrapping paper its binders, varying subject notebooks and "USED" stickers peppering the book spines in the crowded text isles. This semester was like any other fall semester in the country. Thousands of new students with wide eyes see campus for the first time, while the returning students have met up with already established friends and make straight lines from building to building in an already familiar campus.
Seeing a semester opening at the University of Utah surprises me every time. We always think we are completely prepared, and we never are. Professors missed adoption time lines, this means the books they want does not make buyback, which means less inexpensive used books are available, meaning the bookstore gets criticized. (By the way, if you want to complain about expensive books write a letter to Barnes and Noble, who averages 50% on their margins, not a college text department that makes <25%). This year, something was messed up in the enrollment system. Either that or students waited till the last minute to enroll in every class. Since we use this information to buy books for the class, we depend on history patterns and 'intuition' to make sure we don't order too many or too few books, in which both cases the cost of the books are increased either because we have to rush more books in, or pay to send extras back. This time, every class was short on books. My math class had no homework this weekend because our book was sold out and the sorry asses who didn't bother to get the book till it was too late complained to the teacher.
Just a day into semester opening the credit card system went down. I found out by email it was a front end processor back east that crashed and 140 college store were affected. Imagine that, 140 universities across the country during the busiest season of the year have NO credit cards and no debit cards. This lasted all of Tuesday. I'd have to say our staff was AMAZING though. Everyone stepped up, everyone helped every customer, I even heard one customer started to get annoyed at the number of times he was offered help! haha. There were jokes made to keep the mood light. Everyone showed their amazing talents, and we all made it through the tough spots, even if a little delusional from the experience. At one point I was taking a stack of books from the service desk back to shelve in the text section. I wanted to arrange them on my way in order of section I knew I'd be walking through when I lost my coordination on two of the big texts crashed to the floor. Once I noticed the book that landed face up I started laughing out loud. It was the text "Motor Control".
I will try to update this post with more. Till then, happy Fall Semester!
This semester opening has been fun.
Seeing a semester opening at the University of Utah surprises me every time. We always think we are completely prepared, and we never are. Professors missed adoption time lines, this means the books they want does not make buyback, which means less inexpensive used books are available, meaning the bookstore gets criticized. (By the way, if you want to complain about expensive books write a letter to Barnes and Noble, who averages 50% on their margins, not a college text department that makes <25%). This year, something was messed up in the enrollment system. Either that or students waited till the last minute to enroll in every class. Since we use this information to buy books for the class, we depend on history patterns and 'intuition' to make sure we don't order too many or too few books, in which both cases the cost of the books are increased either because we have to rush more books in, or pay to send extras back. This time, every class was short on books. My math class had no homework this weekend because our book was sold out and the sorry asses who didn't bother to get the book till it was too late complained to the teacher.
Just a day into semester opening the credit card system went down. I found out by email it was a front end processor back east that crashed and 140 college store were affected. Imagine that, 140 universities across the country during the busiest season of the year have NO credit cards and no debit cards. This lasted all of Tuesday. I'd have to say our staff was AMAZING though. Everyone stepped up, everyone helped every customer, I even heard one customer started to get annoyed at the number of times he was offered help! haha. There were jokes made to keep the mood light. Everyone showed their amazing talents, and we all made it through the tough spots, even if a little delusional from the experience. At one point I was taking a stack of books from the service desk back to shelve in the text section. I wanted to arrange them on my way in order of section I knew I'd be walking through when I lost my coordination on two of the big texts crashed to the floor. Once I noticed the book that landed face up I started laughing out loud. It was the text "Motor Control".
I will try to update this post with more. Till then, happy Fall Semester!
This semester opening has been fun.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Dynamic Photo Re-sizing (Scene Carving)
I can see a lot of practical applications for this technology.
Friday, August 17, 2007
I'd love to work here:
Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri and Vimeo.
Why can't more companies be like this? I guess its another reason being a nerd pays off.
The CV Office from Jon Feldman and Vimeo.
And of course there is the Googleplex
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Ban di-hydrogen monoxide!
We MUST ban di-hydrogen monoxide! Watch this video to become INFORMED
This brings up an interesting point.. are people more interested in supporting a cause than the cause itself? As a buyer in the retail world, I learn that if you attach a cause to something, people participate. If you order any color shoulder bag and try to sell it, you rely on the functionality of the bag for people to weigh cost vs. need vs. want. Order a shoulder bag with a little pink ribbon on it, and tell people its for breast cancer awareness, and all the sudden the equation changes. The cost is less of an issue, the need is unchanged, and the want increases. People buy it, regardless of how much actually makes it to the cause!
It makes me less likely to respect the validity of the infamous "Save Tibet" bumper sticker. What is complaining about saving Tibet on your Prius's bumper going to do about it? Raise awareness? NO. Make people think you are world conscious? Thats the idea. Forget the fact that China has brought food and organized education to Tibet. Or the fact that previous to occupation Tibet was pretty much in feudalism with the religious power oppressing a serfdom of laborers. But in the words of Penn and Teller on the subject, "the lesser of two evils, is still evil".
My point is, people need to stop and think about what they actually support, and what they are willing to do for it. Here is another example of how easily people are taken advantage of:
This brings up an interesting point.. are people more interested in supporting a cause than the cause itself? As a buyer in the retail world, I learn that if you attach a cause to something, people participate. If you order any color shoulder bag and try to sell it, you rely on the functionality of the bag for people to weigh cost vs. need vs. want. Order a shoulder bag with a little pink ribbon on it, and tell people its for breast cancer awareness, and all the sudden the equation changes. The cost is less of an issue, the need is unchanged, and the want increases. People buy it, regardless of how much actually makes it to the cause!
It makes me less likely to respect the validity of the infamous "Save Tibet" bumper sticker. What is complaining about saving Tibet on your Prius's bumper going to do about it? Raise awareness? NO. Make people think you are world conscious? Thats the idea. Forget the fact that China has brought food and organized education to Tibet. Or the fact that previous to occupation Tibet was pretty much in feudalism with the religious power oppressing a serfdom of laborers. But in the words of Penn and Teller on the subject, "the lesser of two evils, is still evil".
My point is, people need to stop and think about what they actually support, and what they are willing to do for it. Here is another example of how easily people are taken advantage of:
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