Ramen-men from outer space

I just had an idea for a B-grade (C-grade ?) sci-fi movie - Hungry giant space aliens want to cook some ramen noodles, using Earth's oceans as their boiling pot. Now back to your regularly scheduled programing - Peace.

Now THAT'S Power

President Obama changed rush hour.

Admittedly, only for one day, but still, that's something. He was in Ottawa today, and his motorcade was driving from the Ottawa airport up to Parliament - a route that more or less bisects the city. This wasn't a major inconvenience this morning (I think) as most of the road closures were effected after the morning rush hour. But, his return trip (around 4 in the afternoon, I think), changed traffic. With the city more or less carved in two, everyone was leaving work early (myself included - don't worry, someone about three levels up the org chart from me authorized it - I wasn't playing hooky) - I left work at 3, and still had to ask an RCMP officer for permission to cross the street, and it was rush hour traffic for my entire trip home, well before one would expect rush hour to be. (I'd hate to imagine the security when Bush went to Iraq (and still got shoes thrown at him) - this was a visit to an allied capital, where Obama is popular). So, the President of the United States can change rush hour for a city of 1 000 000, simply by his presence. That's power. (And no, I didn't see the motorcade - missed it both times - though its got to be weird not to hear helicopters all the time after you retire from the Presidency)

Web Standards Incompatibility

So, Microsoft has released version 1 of a list of websites that won't run in "super-standards" mode in IE 8. Some highlights:
google.com
youtube.com
yahoo.com
wikipedia.org
ebay.com
facebook.com
amazon.com

And, my personal favourites:
microsoft.com
live.com

There were a pile more, some of similar calibre - I didn't bother scanning the whole list myself (there were a thousand or so). I suspect a lot of these were the sites making fixes for older, less standards-compliant versions of IE, in which case they'd be fixed shortly. But still, a bit crazy.

An Ode to Paper

The Gmail developers put up an interesting blog post today - talking about how they were trying to beat paper with their new Tasks widget for iPhone. They cite the following advantages for paper:

• Easy editing. Cross out with pen and write something new.
• Works offline. You can read paper even when your PC is not connected to the internet.
• Mobile. Fold paper and stick in pocket.
• Instant boot up. Just pull paper out of pocket -- don't have to wait for it to load.

I can add one more: its cheap - a fraction of a percentage of the cost of iPhone and data plan - I carry a pad of paper and a pen with me at all times, in addition to my (very basic) Palm PDA. Long Live Paper!