Category: Uncategorized

  • Peace descends on the Miller family home

    I was going over our phone bill the other day, and considered for a moment what we were getting for our $50/month contribution to AT&T for our home phone service.  I realized we were essentially paying for the benefit of a relentless onslaught of telemarketers and pollsters intruding on what precious little time I get…

  • Watermelon Martini

    Another drink discovery from the lobby bar at The Roger. 2.5 oz vodka3-4 watermelon balls 1/2 oz St GermainDash of agave syrupDash of lime juice…into a shaker, served up, garnish w/ more watermelon ball “olives” Finally, a use for a melon baller. You do own a melon baller, right?

  • Big bad data

    A few months ago, I noted that LinkedIn seems to have a simple and not very thoughtful algorithm for recommending job opportunities to me.  Ebay similarly seems to be using their Big Data capabilities like a blunt instrument. Blunt Instrument – …it was 3:30 in the morning, and he thought he heard the opening of…

  • Cocktails in Paris – La fin de la sécheresse

    Order a Martini in France and God only knows what you’ll get. The only certainty is that it will not have 8 parts gin to 1 part dry vermouth. Over the years when traveling to France, I can content myself with excellent glasses of wine, champagne and even the beer is quite good. But sometimes…

  • Hello LinkedIn, “Have we met?”

    Sometimes, the use of profiling and big data on the web can be kind of creepy.   Like this morning when I happened to search some news about a class action suit against Coach for demanding customers’ email addresses.  Googled “Coach lawsuit” and followed a link to an ABC Local News article, and there was…

  • Scariest thing invades our house

    The kids were still awake when I went to bed last night. Before my head hit the pillow, I heard a shriek down the hall. I jumped out of bed to see what was the problem. The girls were trapped down at the far end of the hallway, unable to get down the stairs to…