That’s what Matt said after I dropped in on his Math 151 section this afternoon. But how could I not? If your good friend is teaching a weekly recitation, it’s almost your duty to see him at work. Even if it’s math.

What’s the hot Christmas gift this season? A stroll through a certain department store reveals plenty of players of the digital variety.

In fact, I counted over 230 DVD players on the top shelves — not the regular shelves, these were over and above those — with 112 of one Memorex model alone. That figure also omits the DVD+VCR players, though god knows why you’d want one of those.

I hope Target‘s (corporate) buyers are right and DVD is going to continue to grow. At this price point ($90s), it sure seems likely. Best Buy even has a shitty player for 58 bucks.

There was another paper due this morning at 9.30a. I drove down from Dodge about 5 yesterday and, as per usual, did everything but write it. I checked e-mail, remixed the JSP tree (old school version) and chatted with B.

I finally started it around 5, and wrapped just before 7 (wasted way too much time putting a digital version of my signature on the 6th page — long story.) I’d had a bit of a headache all day, but by that time it was raging. I couldn’t stand up or really move my head too much without throbbing pain — and coughing or sneezing was agony.

Fortunately, I have a formal headache abatement plan. The procedure is as follows:

1. Use all available materials (subject to energy and general laziness) to simulate cave-like darkness in sleeping area.
2. Consume a minimum of 3 analgesics with at least 20 oz. of water.
3. Remove contact lenses.
4. Retire to the sleeping area with a cold compress consisting of a damp washcloth with no fewer than 3 crushed ice cubes.
5. Sleep. Three hours is a start, a night is better.

It’s always worked well for me.

I think I’ve found a T-shirt that screams “B-don‘s X-mas present.” Alright, truth be told this is more his thing. (Its product code is even “B.”)

Also a little something that’s so Pech. (If you’re not Pech, you probably won’t get it.)

Plus, for the girl who saw Glitter with me (not named to protect you from embarassment), there’s this little lovely.

Of course, the home page of that store is a gift to me.

I forgot my laundry.

(I’m giving the built-in thumbnail/pop-up generation functions a try.)

I have a very extensive Amazon.com purchasing history. In the 2001 calendar year, I made an order every 11 calendar days, on average. I’ve been a customer since May 4, 1997.

Given this wealth of data, my recommendations are often interesting. Not that they’re always on the mark; sometimes I find myself confused at the correlation.

Take this Memento recommendation. Sure, it’s a good movie, and yes, I would consider buying it if my brother didn’t own it. But how does my ownership of The Handbook of Usability Testing predict of my taste in this matter? Do usability professionals dig indie film? Does Jakob love Y Tu Mama Tambien?

You got me.

A friend e-mailed me from London yesterday alerting me to the existence of The West Wing on DVD. All 22 episodes of Season 1 area available on a set of Region 2 discs, which of course are intended to play only on units in Europe, the Middle East and Japan.

It was the first I knew that the Wing was available on DVD, but I’ve long been aware that Europe is the place to go for American television on disc. For further examples, see Friends (US: through Season 2; UK: through Season 8), Ally McBeal (US: Season 1; UK: through Season 4), and South Park (US: Season 1; UK: through Season 4).

Now it does make a certain amount of sense that these shows would be more widely available in the countries that they’re not (prominently) shown on TV. While Friends is syndicated to the United Kingdom, the re-runs clearly don’t have the same value as they do here.

The nefarious part is when the studios try to maintain fat profit margins through artifical barriers erected to prevent interested customers from buying the discs. Region coding is an obvious example of this trend, but it’s only the most recent one. The technical differences amongst television standards in the U.S. (NTSC), most of Europe (PAL), and France (SECAM), is also something that was pushed for by “content providers” to make it much more difficult for an American to buy and play tapes from another country. With the advent of HDTV, the cycle is repeating itself.

I can (and do) bypass the region coding/television standard difficulties by using a DVD-ROM with modified firmware. Here again the entertainment industry pushed for draconian measures, advocating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to prevent anyone from thinking that one can use purchased items in any manner (s)he sees fit.

Somebody needs to stop ’em.

Well, the turkey’s finished. (As any sane American would do, I stuffed myself. That was hours ago, though, so now I wait for the soothing finishing touch: a little Ben & Jerry’s Triple Caramel Crunch.)

The idea of “giving thanks” doesn’t sit so well with me as a non-theist, so I think of today as BAD — Be Appreciative Day. (Yeah. Sad.) Lately, it seems tough to find things to appreciate. The slow-motion trainwreck that is this administration has brought us any amount of bad news, from pretend commissions to environmental insults to domestic spying.

That’s why, especially today, I’m thankful for those organizations that are fighting to preserve what’s left of our liberties, most notably the ACLU for civil liberties and the EFF for online freedoms.

I’ve already put my money (ACLU, EFF) where my mouth is on this issue, and I hope you will too.

Today and every day.

First, Happy Thanksgiving. Or whatever. I’ll maybe work that theme more a little later in the day.

Until then, something for all those TiVo owners who enjoy varied programs.

Did you know that tonight is the biggest club night of the year? No, forget your New Year’s Eve… apparently nothing goes with turkey like a hangover.

Those crazy Napervillians are hosting “Safari Jungle Night” at Zero Gravity. Mr. Radio Voice urged me to get down with “a 700 pound lion”, monkeys, “exotic birds”, and “exotic snakes.” The idea of dancing around caged animals is too hilariously stupid to contemplate. I guess I would spend all my time at the free bodypainting.

Schaumburg’s Alumni Club has another kind of animal to offer: “spinning live tonight… DJ Psycho Bitch!” (I think she was our next door neighbor a few years ago.)

I’m off to Chicago at about 10 to pick up my sister and brother (for T-Day, of course.)

I’d put in some sort of “miss me” message but I’ll be back Wednesday. So there.

Well, that was interesting. A few minutes ago a box popped up that looked very much like this (the number has been cropped out):

Note it’s a Windows dialog box, not a Web ad. Apparently, Windows Messenger spam like this is rising. I don’t really know how prevelant it is, because my router at the apartment would block this sort of garbage. If you don’t have a router/firewall, follow these instructions to prevent this lame message from interfering with your work day…or your whatever day.

(And if you find yourself hunkering for a diploma from a non-accredited university, ask somebody who has a laser printer to save you the trouble.)

Got a cable modem? Me too. How fast is yours? Mine is on the AT&T Broadband Internet backbone and the maximum downstream is 1,500 kbps — 1.5Mbps. Not bad.

But for $60/mo, certainly not great. That’s why it’s such a shame that Michael Powell‘s FCC is working to roll back the open access requirements for the copper wires your local telephone company currently controls.

Consider Japan. On that island, this company (classy photo, eh?) offers 8 times the downstream speed I get, for less than half the price. (That’s 12 Mbps for $26/mo.)

So-called “platform competition” (i.e. cable v. DSL v. satellite) is not going to do it alone — how many markets have just a cable company and a disinterested telco? We need legislation to force telco companies to provide non-discriminatory access to all comers at a reasonable rate, then watch the cost of bandwidth fall.

[This post was inspired in part by the almighty Lessig.]

Adam is in high dudgeon. Perhaps, in retrospect, it was to be expected.

Frankly, I’m already bored by the thing, and thus I offer the reader a choice. Choose either coddling JSP or smackdown JSP.

May the best page* win.

* Note to those on red alert: here, “page” refers solely to the two choices above.

In the spirit of the public autopsy recently performed in Great Britain, let’s dissect a blog entry. Our specimen:

So I’m driving home from the Springs tonight, smoking some Private Reserve black cavendish (that I had procured from the Stag Tobacco shop in the Springs earlier today) in my Danish-made “freehand” style pipe (approximately 2/3-bent), listening to John Coltrane, at 80 miles per hour up I-25 just outside of Denver. It occurred to me that this was who I was. All I needed was a glass of 17 year-old Scotch or a 16-ounce bottle of my pale ale and you’d have me to a tee. Just thought I’d share that with you. — a_blog

Before we delve deeper, what does the text tell us after a cursory read? It’s clear our subject is attempting to impress his audience, or at the very least engaging in some significant ego stroking. The subject is defining himself as:

• a pipe-smoker (of supposedly premium tobacco)
• a speeder
• a jazz enthusiast
• a drinker (of supposedly premium alcohol)

Note the subject attempts to equate his own homemade brew with a premium liquor, further reinforcing his delusions of grandeur.

Though the text supports a reading of the subject as wanting alcohol while driving, we’ll put that down to generally poor use of language. We have additional evidence of this: from a casual, conversational “So” beginning, it takes just a few words to hit a horribly convoluted and pretentious segment (“that I had procured.”) There’s strange use of tense (“It occurred…that this was who I was”) and inconsistent detail (“the Springs” (Colorado Springs) and “home” (Fort Collins) are presented without explanation, yet it’s somehow necessary to name the highway and general position.) Other details, such as the make, model, and condition of Mr. Refinement’s vehicle, are conveniently omitted.

Still deeper: what’s going on at a psychological level? Scientific research has shown that addicts refuse to give up their drugs of choice because they define themselves by them. (“Smoking is part of who I am.”) Intensely materialistic individuals feel the same way. Could both be at work here?

Knowing all this, let’s edit the passage to better reflect the writer’s goals:

I drive fast, so I’m cool. I smoke fancy plants in a fancy pipe, so I’m cool. I made beer plus I talk about stuff that’s old, so I’m cool. I listen to hip music, so I’m cool. Just thought I’d share that with you… because I can’t yet blow myself. That would be cool.