I just found one of my favourite bits of the German TV show “TV Total” – host Stefan Raab meets his all-time favorite artist and idol, James Brown, and performs with him on his Ukulele.
Must see (even if you despise Raab for his often cheesy, cheap humour)…
Neulich, in einer technischen Fachbuchhandlung nahe der Technischen Universität Wien:
Kundin: „Guten Tag, haben Sie Literatur zu diesem Web 2.0, von dem man so viel liest?“
Verkäufer: „?!“
Kundin: „Wissen Sie, ich bin Personalistin, komme gerade von der Firmenmesse an der TU, und da reden alle über Web 2.0, jetzt wollte ich wissen, was das ist, um in den Job Interviews mit Kandidaten entsprechend gerüstet zu sein… Jeder redet darüber, es gibt einen ziemlichen Hype…“
Verkäufer: „Tut mir leid, da kann ich ihnen nicht helfen.“
Ich war hin- und hergerissen zwischem verächtlichen Mitleid und amüsierten Soll-ich-sie-aufklären-Gefühlen…
I just had an iPod touch in my little hands for the first time.
Honestly, this is one of the most beautiful pieces of industrial design I have seen so far. Thinner than I expected (though pretty much everything is thinner than my old 3rd gen iPod), the display very sharp and looks almost printed in a strange way (and I remember the first time I saw the display of Sony’s PSP, and I was impressed. Not anymore).
I confess – I am a Derren Brown fanboy. Derren Brown, as in the British magician and mentalist, with his own TV shows.
Years before he really went famous, he produced a magic video. Here is a snippet – the conversation between Derren Brown and the presenter, Peter Clifford, after the explanation of a brilliant close up miracle:
DB: “… and it’s lovely.”
PC: “Lovely!”
DB: “Splendid!”
PC: “Excellent.”
DB: “Superb!”
You just don’t get that kind of conversation from your typical L&L American Performer.
Besides, where and on whom do you read biographies like that:
Derren was born in 1971 in Croydon. It was a difficult birth: his mother was in Devon at the time. [...]
Derren went to study Law and German at Bristol University and fell in love with the city. This was still at the time when marriages between man and city were frowned upon, so rather than risk public derision, Derren decided to just live there after graduating and vowed never to leave. [...]
In 1999 he was asked by what was then Channel 4 to put a mind-reading programme together for people’s televisions. Their first choice, Cheryl from Bucks Fizz, had turned out to be shit at it. [...]
In October 2003 Derren caused an international furore with ‘Derren Brown Plays Russian Roulette Live’. This secured his notoriety with the public and his big apartment in London. “Bristol can shove itself”, he said. [...]
He gets several letters of complaint a week from psychics and Christians. He is sensitive to everyone’s objections, but knows that at least the latter group will forgive him.
And so on.
If you have not checked out his book yet, I strongly recommend it. Oh, and of course there are tons of clips of his performances on YouTube, if you happen to have no idea whatsoever who I’m talking about.
Do yourself a favor and look at Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby.
Do it, now! Take a look even if you are not interested in Ruby, or don’t have any clue about programming languages (quoting a current colleague studying Psychology and working only parttime in my engineering department: “I’m happy that i’ve learned something proper…”).
It is really very strange, funny, disturbing… for a text teaching you a programming language. Bruce Eckel, way to go!