My head is still spinning a bit. On Tuesday, a local employer was referred to me. I interviewed with him on Wednesday, and started work Thursday.

MailMovers is a local mailing house. During my interview, I found that the mail industry, to a large extent, runs on FoxPro data. This has put me in an interesting position. For years, I have have been writing code that would be used by other people. Some of this was when I worked with software houses such as MicroKnowledge (in Bangor) and UNICOM (in Providence), and some of it was writing snippets for customers when I worked in Microsoft’s Product Support Services. For the first time, I’m using VFP as a tool, rather than a programming enviroment. And I’m loving it. :-)

Here’s a neat collection of anecdotes about the development of the Macintosh.

I’m surprised he didn’t manage to work the Ballroom into this description of how to survive the immersive 3-D virtual experience that is… IKEA.

Erin and I were in Seattle today, and we stopped in for the next-to-last day to actually shop at FAO Schwarz. Inside I noticed a sign indicating that they had auctioned off the bear in front of the store. When I asked, it turned out that it went for $11,800.

Now _that’s_ an expensive teddy bear.

Cory@BoingBoing points us to a neat Java app which allows you to type in a zip code, and zoom into the region of the country where it’s located, digit by digit.

Ha! I just watched the Governor of California walk into Mission Control for the Opportunity Mars landing. Hmmm, wonder if he’s interested in Mars for some reason…

There is something in the 1984 ad that wasn’t there when it first aired 20 years ago.

Of course, you could assume that it _was_ there, and that Steve Jobs had a decades-spanning master plan that’s now bearing fruit… ;-)

Good grief, it’s depressing as all get-out when instead of letting you end the game as a loser with some territory left, your opponent decides they have to completely crush you, removing every single one of your pieces.

Guess I have to pick my opponents on the Kiseido server more carefully.

One of the coolest board games I have played is Cosmic Encounter. When the Brown Fantasy Gaming Society taught it to me my junior year, I promptly became addicted. Unfortunately, it’s hard to play with fewer than four people, so I don’t get to play very often.

Until now.

Some enterprising programmers wrote an online version, and allowed free play. I expect to join the ranks of paying customers soon, though.

See, Cosmic allows every player to break the rules! Each has one (or more, offline) alien powers that break the rules in creative ways. For example, if you’re AntiMatter, you’re trying to get the low score in a challenge instead of a high one. You can negotiate a settlement instead of battling, and form temporary alliances (which can result in all players except one winning the game). I’m SarekOfVulcan on CE Online, so if you see me, let me know.

(BTW, I’m Herewiss on Disney’s ToonTown Online, so if you play there too, send me/ask me for a secret.)

bStats gives me lots of hits for “March of Cambreath”, because of this Usenet post I reproduced last year. The actual spelling is “March of Cambreadth“, which shoves me a lot further down on the search lists. :-)