Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Category: Culture

  • Famous People

    If you live in NYC, you will occasionally see famous people. It’s just the nature of the city. I’ve always said that either through bad luck or (more likely) flagrant lack of paying attention that I never see famous people.

    I said this the other day when it dawned on me that this relatively famous person’s son takes swimming lessons at the same time as my daughters, so I see him every Saturday.

    He’s quiet, always reads a book, is nice when people approach him but looks like he’d like to be left alone. So I’ve never actually talked to him.

    But I think I have to stop saying I never see famous people…

  • BrewDog

    I haven’t tasted any of their beers, but this quote

    We found that turning up at the bank wearing a suit whilst pointing at a series of useless numbers on a spreadsheet is the best way to get a business loan.

    made me laugh. Maybe it was the use of the word “whilst”…

  • Better Than The Onion?

    That is truly high praise, but c’mon, this stuff is gold…

    Newscorp Acquires Entire English Language

  • The Last NY Times

    Google has announced it will begin splitting data transmitted via the Real 4G protocol into four “flavors”—Smart, Dumb, Retarded, and Banana-Strawberry Blast.

    The whole thing is hilarious…

  • Missed the Wedding

    This was the scene I missed this morning, right outside my office as hundreds of Brits gathered under the Manhattan Bridge to watch the royal wedding.

    dumbo-arch-01.jpg

    Sleep was better…

  • The Wedding

    While I do actually know someone who is invited to the Royal Wedding (he actually dated the bride), strangely my invitation was apparently lost in the mail.

    But no worries, there is an outdoor public viewing under the archway  under the Manhattan Bridge about 100 feet from my office. It’s at 5:30, so I’ll definitely be there.

    Wait, 5:30 AM? Seriously? Oh, never mind…

  • Filming in Dumbo?

    There are always film shoots going on by my office in DUMBO. It’s a funky neighborhood, very warehousey (is that a word?), near the river overlooking Manhattan. It’s a natural for movies, tv and/or photo shoots. I kind of like it. Today there was a funky fashion shoot right outside my window and yesterday Law and Order was filming (didn’t see anyone famous though).

    Apparently, some folks like it less.

    From that angle, if you removed that No Parking sign, you’d be looking right at my office…

  • Conscience and the NY Times

    I like the NY Times. For all of its flaws, I still believe it is the best newspaper in the country and The Grey Lady is truly “the newspaper of record” in the U.S.

    And I am a generally honest person. I’ve even been accused of being honest to a fault.

    So why am I stealing the NY Times online?

    It’s an interesting conundrum. I have a hard time paying for content on the web because the precedent has been set. I’m used to getting content for free and I expect to see ads.

    But the Times is premium content. And I appreciate the quality. Under some circumstances, I’m sure I would pay for this content. Yet I’m circumventing the paywall. Why?

    Truthfully, a big part of the reason is how ridiculously easy they made it to get around the paywall. If my favorite musician gave a concert and charged $20 which I would gladly pay, but left the side door to the concert hall open and some front row seats vacant and unwatched, I’m sorry, I’m going in the side door.

    It’s bad enough that if you see an article you want to read (all the main pages are free) you can just Google the title and read it via the search engine (yes, there’s a cap on search engine links, but there are lots of search engines). If there’s a columnist you like, you can just follow his/her twitter stream and get unlimited articles via Twitter (no cap on Twitter links that I’m aware of).

    But the fact that the NY Times spent $40 million developing a paywall that can circumvented by three lines of javascript is the clincher. As a technologist, that is basically saying to me:

    You must pay for the NY Times.

    Unless you are stupid.

    Dude, I’m not stupid…

  • Romeo and Juliet

    I mentioned the new Crocodile Rock version in my last post. This song comes from the new movie Gnomeo and Juliet, which is presumably an animated gnome take-off or Romeo and Juliet (I’m guessing with a happier ending).

    Danielle wants to go see the movie, so I explained the pun in the title and described the plot of Romeo and Juliet. That led me to explain that it is such a famous story that tons of other stories/movies/plays/etc. are based on it.

    Which then led me to West Side Story. Have I mentioned how awesome YouTube is, when you have kids?

    Instead of just describing how West Side Story is this amazing modern rendition of Romeo and Juliet with great music and dancing, I just go to YouTube and start showing clips of all the songs.

    And really, if you haven’t watched West Side Story in a while, it’s still amazing. Some of the best music ever, great dancing, 10 Oscar awards.

    The only proof I needed was an eight year old, completely entranced…

  • Dance Party

    Tonight we were watching something on the Disney Channel and a music video comes up with Nellie Furtado singing Crocodile Rock as a duet with Elton John.

    So of course, I have to point out to Danielle that it was his song originally and that the original version is better. But then I realized that I have the original on my iPod (Greatest Hits 1970-2002) so I could show her.

    Of course Danielle wants to watch the end of the show first, but after that I play the original Crocodile Rock. There’s me, Danielle and Tori dancing like fools to old school Elton John. I follow up with Benny and the Jets and every other up tempo Elton John hit.

    It was a big fat old school dance party with my girls.