BusinessWeek published an article on the top global brands this year. It’s interesting to see who made this list – some of them are pretty obvious (e.g. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon). Others make total sense, but I probably wouldn’t have guessed them (e,g, Heinz, Burberry).
And it uses Silverlight! Bing Visual Search enables you to search the web using images as your “keywords” (as opposed to well, word keywords). Check it out here.
Yesterday, I went to my second Sounders game. I grew up on baseball and tennis – and have been pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy soccer games. My one real complaint is that both games I went to ended in ties. I found out the rationale behind why they don’t just force a shoot-off (to reward defensive playing), but… it still seems weird to have a sport where there isn’t a winner. 🙂
It is… HOT… here. Record heat & sun this summer. Ridiculous snow storms this past winter. Ah, climate change! That said, I’m LOVING the sun. (Though my apartment was so hot last night, I honestly considered sleeping on my balcony!) Update: We hit 102F, breaking the 1994 record of 100F.
My last day in Paris, I went to Cafe de Flore to channel Sartre, soak in the atmosphere, and write in my journal. I was especially excited when I ended up sitting next to a certain well-known New Yorker staff writer!
After hearing that Jude Law was portraying Hamlet on the West End, I really wanted to see it. Because Jude Law is ridiculously hot. I mean… because Hamlet is my favorite Shakespearean play. 🙂 (Actually, both statements are true.) The show had been sold out for weeks, but the theatre made some seats & standing room tickets available each day at 10am. After queuing (note British term usage!) on Friday for 90 minutes, I failed to get tickets by 6 people. Arg! The next day, more determined, my friend and I got to the theatre earlier. And, we managed to …
Silverlight 3 is out in the wild!! (team-signed poster in my office) Links to all the good stuff: Developer Runtime (pc, mac) SDK (link) VS Tools (link) Expression Blend RC (link) July Toolkit (link) Some of the new Silverlight 3 features include… Perspective 3D Out of Browser Validation UI & DataForm H.264 Navigation Framework DeepZoom Smooth Streaming* SaveFileDialog WriteableBitmap Pixel Shaders DropShadow/Blur Built-in Effects ChildWindow BasedOn Styles MultiTouch Input* ClearType* Hardware Acceleration Many New Controls UI to UI Binding New REST Networking Stack* Animation Easing Functions SEO Optimizations & Deep Linking ItemsControl UI Virtualization* Mouse Wheel Support* Multi-Select ListBox * …
I am a “wee” bit behind on my stack of New Yorkers. However, on the plane this past weekend, I finally had a chance to read a few. Jonah Lehrer’s article, “Don’t! The secret of self-control,” about Stanford Prof. Walter Mischel’s Marshmallow Experiment was really interesting. In a nutshell, Mischel told a bunch of unsuspecting 4 year: You can eat ONE marshmallow now. Or, if you sit here quietly while I leave the room for a bit, you can eat TWO when I get back. Turns out, kids only lasted on average 3 minutes before they gave in and ate …
I don’t know about you… but I will admit to often forgetting the importance of Memorial Day. It’s not just another 3 day weekend – especially given the current state of the world. While in Miami this past weekend, I stumbled on an incredibly poignant memorial. Along Ocean Drive in South Beach, thousands of paper tombstones commemorated those who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan (4,985 to date). Each tombstone had the handwritten name and age of a fallen veteran. Each tombstone was written by a different person. The simple symbolism, especially with the juxtaposition of South Beach during “Urban …