papsrus

yes.

If found this revealing, as far as how he viewed his own fate. In a speech delivered to Stanford University six years ago, Jobs said, "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Probably the most visionary business leader of our time. RIP.

Ah well. It was fun while it lasted. Good luck to the Rangers. Wouldn't mind at all seeing them get to the WS. Baseball Tonight crew did a good job of illustrating how Beltre kept launching bombs on pitches up in the zone, apparently a sweet spot for him. Makes you wonder if that was bad execution on the part of Rays pitching or bad scouting.

I'm following along, but trying not to jinx anything (which I probably will with this post). And I've been hanging back from the internets in general lately anyways. Amazing end to the season. Absolutely crushing for the BoSox, and I can certainly understand why Dan is disheartened. May take a while to repair that club. But they have the wherewithal to do it. As solid as Francona is, the stories dribbling out about how he lost the clubhouse, or parts of it, indicate that he probably did need to go. Big loss for them, for sure. And maybe a big loss for some other team as they shop for a new skipper. Rays are playing out of their minds, and for a team that has basically been in playoff mode for the better part of a month now, they seem really loose. By all accounts, a great clubhouse (the opposite situation to the BoSox). There's some magic happening with them, so far. Looking forward to seeing how it plays out. And go Tigers (not that I think they'll be an easier opponent for whoever wins the Rays-Rangers series. Quite the opposite).

Sounds wonderful. Good luck and enjoy!

It's because they spend the money, too. Or so they tell me.

DVDs, like CDs, are a dying medium. Or one that will appeal only to an ever-smaller consumer base. Streaming is the future. Netflix realizes this and is moving as fast as it can in that direction. I'm guessing they want to either let the DVD side of the business fade, or sell it. The last few months have been a PR disaster for them though, no doubt. I'm a recent Netflix streaming subscriber and love it so far. Never did I even contemplate subscribing to the DVD in the mail thing. They do need to focus now on expanding their streaming library.

Happy birthday Dan. Enjoy!

Getting punched over $50? Times are tough.

You could go the cod liver oil route. One tablespoon = 340% of the daily recommended value. Course, if a prescription was required, I'm guessing the dosage is pretty high, or its time-release, or something like that. (did the pharmacist recommend any alternatives?) On an unrelated pharmacological note, I was recently 'prescribed' 1500 - 2000 mg of niacin per day. (elevates low HDL). The side effects of that stuff are nasty. Aspirin greatly mitigates the flushing and itchy rash that can result. Still kind of a drag. One of the only other alternatives is to take up heavy drinking (apparently alcohol raises HDL, too).

Exciting finish. Not going to bash the defenses too much. College kids. You get what you pay for. The offenses were just chucking it up and seeing what would happen at the end, like a playground game. Most impressive team I saw Saturday was Alabama. Those fellas are going to be tough. I don't care where Penn State is ranked, you don't walk into Happy Valley and throw those guys around like rag dolls for 58 minutes or so (last Nittany Lions drive was kind of a throw-away.)

It sounds like the power company (and/or phone company/cable company) may have fixed/replaced/upgraded something outside your house.

I didn't realize Prime had additional charges for new releases, small though they may be. And they certainly sound fair. But suppose you watch one new release a week at an average cost of $1.49 -- (.99 + 1.99)/2. That's an additional $77.48 per year on top of the $79 annual subscription fee. So it's really about double the cost of the subscription fee if you want new releases. And with the estimated cost of watching new releases once a week factored in, amazon works out roughly to $156.48 per year vs. Netflix at $95.88 per year. A difference of $60.60. Probably worth it if newer/current releases are what you want. Maybe not if you just want an inexpensive way to dial up Casablanca whenever you like. Hopefully, the content on each will expand and improve at an accelerated pace over the coming months/years. Maybe just as importantly, I think it's almost inevitable that these lower-cost, on-demand alternatives to entertainment will break the current, much more expensive cable company/satellite company models for delivering entertainment. Particularly with the emergence of tablets. And that's really what content providers like Starz are afraid of. They can still get (maybe) a premium price for their content from cable companies that bundle it with a bunch of garbage we don't want then charge us more to access it, OR they can get ever-growing exposure through Netflix and Amazon and whoever else (Hulu, Lovefilm, etc.) But I think Netflix's refusal to pay up for Starz content means that content providers won't be able to have both. Not for long, anyways. Entertainment on demand is a much better alternative than 500 channels from your cable company for a high monthly fee, 490 of which feature mostly a parade of preachers, infomercials or cooking shows. Me thinks.

Yeah, the way I look at Netflix is, there's a big universe of films and even if the library isn't stocked with newer releases, there are enough attractive choices to make the $7.99/month subscription cost a pretty darn good deal. After just an hour or so spent checking it out over the past few days, my queue has over a dozen items in it that I'm interested in viewing.

Beautiful. Fly-by footage is really something.

I've got a one-month trial subscription to Netflix for streaming only to my computer. Watched Woody Allen's 'Manhattan Murder Mystery' last night. Stream was pretty good with wireless router. A couple of lags here and there, but only a few, and only for a fraction of a second. Not Netflix's fault, but rather due to my cheapo wireless router. I'm going to take Amazon's Prime service (with free streaming) for a test drive as well. I took a quick look around their movie choices last night and they seem to have more current releases available for streaming, compared to Netflix. For example, I've been wanting to see "Barney's Version" and it's available for streaming at Amazon while Netflix only has it on disc. And Amazon is slightly cheaper (Netflix is I think $7.99/month and Amazon Prime is $79/year. Plus with Prime you get the added benefit of lower shipping rates with faster delivery when purchasing Amazon discs). On the other hand, I like the Netflix rating system and the way it generates suggestions after you rate various films you've seen. Not sure if Amazon has the same thing, but if they don't they surely will before long. So, do any of you Organauts subscribe to either of these? Any preference one way or the other? Thoughts on the respective libraries?

It might have been more refreshing had she had the gumption while still working with them.

I'm still coming to terms with the notion that jazz sucks. I can understand those who might be interested in this from some historical/social perspective. Beyond that, it matters not.

Nice. Thanks for the links.

Jazz sucks again? Damn.

Like Dan says, if you're in the direct path of the center of this thing (and some folks will be) you're likely in for a serious wallop. If you're not in the direct path of the center of it, but many miles away from the center, you may still experience high sustained winds, much higher gusts, and some flooding, but relatively little damage to personal property (leading you to conclude, wrongly, that it was all hype). If you're anywhere near the center of one of these things, it can be a frightening deal. With no place to go. I can recall throwing a mattress in the bathtub back in 2005 2004, I think it was, when hurricanes were crisscrossing Florida one right after the other. Charley caused the worst damage, in this area. And it was pretty compact, compared to Irene, which looks like a freakin' monster.

So ... how'd it turn out? We returned that dog to the adoption agency, and adopted a different pup (lab/spaniel mix). It's like night and day... this guy mouths a little, but doesn't bite. We can actually play with him. He does the usual puppy things - chewing on furniture, climbing onto furniture, jumping, erratic housetraining - but is much more along the lines of the dog we want. In retrospect we probably should have been much pickier about the dog breed. Guy Thanks for the update. Glad you have found what sounds like a great match!

So ... how'd it turn out?