Couldn't pass up passing this along:

Looks like the Internet has reached self-consciousness.

And hey! This is my first blog in a while. Weeeeee!!!

This is what eXtreme Programming looks like when it goes wrong with way too many index cards or in this case Post-It notes:

I got an HP/Compaq catalog the other day. It had a pretty nice looking Compaq laptop in it that I decided to check out the full specs of the machine. I had to see how much the one I wanted costs, so I played with the customizer to get a price. As usual, I managed to double the price from $699 to over a $1000. The only place I manage not to double the price is at the Apple store, and thank God I don't there.

This got me thinking: what if McDonald's priced their hamburgers like most computer companies price their laptops?

McDs advertises their hamburgers at fifty cents. It's just meat on a bun. Obviously you want something more like a BigMac, so you add (note: all prices are arbitrary):

• cheese for 30 cents
• another patty for 40 cents
• ketchup and mustard for 15 cents
• lettuce and tomato for a quarter
• and that BigMac middle bun for 15 cents

Adding that up you now have a hamburger that costs $1.75.

That's not terrible since food is cheap, but what if they only listed on their menu board and in their advertisements was the fifty cent hamburger? What if in your mind you always thought of them as being cheap and affordable because their burgers are only fifty cents? If you and most people always ended up with a $1.75 hamburger, would their marketing somehow be dishonest?

I'll mail some laffy taffy to the first person to name the source of that, so leave an email.

I was going through some /. posts and commenting about them through Jabber with Justin Kirby. Some were worth sharing so here's tonight's Slashdot commentary:

Clickers in the classroom

They look like a TV remote, but are marketed for the digital generation. Sorry guys but I don't want a fracking remote for my lesson. I'm not part of the TV generation. Give me a laptop or a PDA with Wifi and lets colloborate in the digital and physical planes of existence.

Video Gaming: Chasing the Dream

While reading that I was recalling my experience with playing San Andreas with my nine year old cousin. You can stop gasping just because I didn't rip it out and suggest playing Crash Bandicoot. What I noted was:

it's funny too w/ san andreas. i'm more interested in the action of killing and running from the cops whereas he likes the adventure side w/ stats, clothing, and stuff

A little while later this got produced:

<Me> hmm...why don't we rate books?
<JK> its not visual <JK> so its not 'shocking' to the soccer moms
<Me> hehe
<Me> and when they get home they'll pick up their copy of verbal porn

That's all for tonight's Slashdot commentary. Perhaps I'll follow up with some more in the future.

I went to the GNU Arch homepage since they made a new release. I was kind of struck by their logo shown above. I find it kind of disturbing that they chose an excretion for GNU Arch.

Arch's developers should memorize this: excretions make disgusting logos.