Are you as smart as Dilbert?

One of my favorite non-acquaintance blogs is by Scott Adams. His writing style is very readable and often “hold back the tears as you try to laugh silently because you’re at work” funny, as you would expect from the creator of Dilbert, but can also be about serious stuff as well (saving the planet, world peace, politics, etc). Some of the things he writes about are truly fascinating. Well, fascinating to me at least, but then this is the elementalgeek blog – what do you expect?

In this post he mentions that:

Dilbert has been used in several court cases where an attorney tried to demonstrate the date when obscure technical issues became “common knowledge” and therefore something that a reasonable person should know. The importance in the court cases is that a defendant couldn’t claim ignorance about something that is so widely known it can be included in a Dilbert comic without explanation.

It appeals to my inner geek that a comic strip has become a symbol of human knowledge but also nags at the back of my brain that something so pop-culture is becoming so authoritative. So what do you think? A) Neat, B) troubling or C) egeek has too much time on his hands?

Addicted to the deals

Not just one, not two, but three shining examples of impulsive, compulsive shopping at its finest. Any time I’m in front of a computer for any length of time I’ll be checking SteepAndCheep, WhiskeyMilitia, and ChainLove regularly.

• SteepAndCheep (“One killer deal,one item at a time until it’s gone”) features outdoor gear and clothes for hiking, snowsports, climbing, etc.
• WhiskeyMilitia carries stuff geared more toward surf/skate lifestyle. Shipping seems to run a bit higher than SAC.
• ChainLove is all bikes, all the time. Bike clothes, bike parts, bike accessories. I’ve even seen a high-end bike frame up for a couple minutes.

So far I’ve picked up a Crumpler messenger bag and a slick Oakley laptop bag for myself and Skull Candy headphones and a rockin’ pair of pink Oakley Wisdom goggles for egeekette, all at mega-markdowns.

All three sites work similarly: Each puts up an item at a huge discount. When it sells out, a new item takes its place. You gotta be fast – you want it, you better buy it quickly. If (when) you get totally hooked, each site features plugins or feeds to alert you when a new deal is posted.

Feed your shopping jones – check out SteepAndCheap, WhiskeyMilitia, and ChainLove. Just make sure your 401K is solid first.

Music has DNA?

The original concept for elementalgeek was to highlight mainstream tech stuff that I think is cool and possibly useful for others. While I definitely have geeky tendencies, I’m not exactly on the bleeding edge of technology so from time to time I’ll be featuring stuff that’s probably been out for a while but falls in the “it’s new to me” category that hopefully you’ll still find interesting.

I was recently introduced to Pandora Radio, a streaming music website. You start by choosing an artist or song that you like. Based on your selection, Pandora will play other songs it thinks you might like. You give each song a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to influence what plays next. What sets Pandora apart from other internet radio stations is that it’s not based solely on music genre or other user’s playlists, but rather the “DNA” of individual songs.

As part of the “Music Genome Project,” the folks running Pandora have broken down the attributes of songs into “genes”, properties that combine to describe what a song actually sounds like. When I’m in a pop/R&B mood, I apparently prefer “mild rhythmic syncopation, a vocal centric aesthetic, and a subtle use of vocal harmony.” On a rock day, it’s “hard rock roots or punk influence, minor key tonality, extensive vamping and heavy electric rhythm guitars.” Who knew?

What does this mean? Not surprisingly, starting with Paramore (OK, yeah I admit it…chick rock rules!) led to Evanescence, Linkin Park and Fallout Boy, but also to songs by Flyleaf and Fireflight, stuff that I doubt I’d have ever discovered on my own.

Initially, you may discover that Pandora repeats songs fairly often. You can broaden the range of songs that play by adding additional songs or artists to your base genome selection or simply ban songs temporarily by using the intuitive on-screen controls.

The next time you’re in the mood to listen to your favorite tunes, rediscover forgotten songs or explore new artists, give Pandora try.