Iceland’s quite interesting Sigur Ros plays the Orpheum on September 23.
I included track 8 in a 2004 Mad City Marathon slideshow here Quicktime. The music fit the very wet ’04 marathon.
Jason Kottke reviewed their performance at New York City’s Beacon Theatre last night and included links to some photos of the show.
The band offers a handy Icelandic pronunciation guide on their website.
Marotta Moves On and Leaves a Few Comments Behind
Governor Doyle’s top aide, Marc Marotta offered up a few comments as he left that post for private law practice (and help raise money for Doyle’s re-election campaign).
*Although Marotta said he found “a lot of good, dedicated” employees in state government, he said the most frustrating part of his job was the “tremendous inertia” that buries every decision — large and small — in bureaucratic quicksand. “Every little issue has its own political world,” he added.
Man Bites Dog: Keillor Threatens to Sue Blogger for Parody?
On a Tuesday night two weeks ago, the letter showed up in the mail. It is included below, so you can see for yourself the kind of verbal mastery it takes to make a legal document sound like Keillor’s forlorn nostalgic prose.
Let’s quickly review the situation: Garrison Keillor — a liberal comedian! — is threatening to sue MNspeak — some blog! — that uses a t-shirt to poke fun of his mega-gigantic media empire. You’d think we shot Guy Noir or something.
via Glenn
Konkel on the City’s Capital Budget
Brenda Konkel posts some useful information on the City of Madison’s growing appetite for debt.
Handy US Government RSS Feed Index
Very handy US Government RSS Feed Index Page. NetNewsWire is the best RSS newsreader.
25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself
Rajesh Setty [PDF]:
Why should you distinguish yourself?
Short answer: Being part of the commodity crowd erodes your value.Long answer: Technology professionals worldwide are getting caught in a tsunami of massive commoditization. Technologies are changing very fast. What seemed hot today is not hot anymore. There is a constant pressure to give more, be more effective, be more efficient and be more productive. This forces most technology professionals to go after “short-term skills”. Of course, going after “short-term skills” will provide “short-term results” but will hurt them in the “long-run”. Competency in technical skills is necessary to succeed in this world but they are not sufficient to thrive. The question is what can one do differently so that he or she can distinguish and move above the commodity crowd ? The goal of this manifesto is to provide 25 ways to do just that.
Bonus: You have reached where you are by doing whatever you have done so far. If you need to leapfrog and succeed beyond dreams, continuing to do whatever you have done in the past may not be the answer. You need to think and be different. In other words, you need to distinguish yourself!
The Broadband Explosion, Thinking About a Truly Interactive World
Robert Austin: By “broadband explosion” we mean the coming together of real-time communication and rich media technologies to produce a truer form of interactivity across geographic distance than has been possible up until now. We’ve had some forms of interactive technologies for a long time (e.g., telephone) and many kinds of media too, but real-time interactivity at a distance that comes anywhere near what we experience in face-to-face communication has been elusive. That’s too bad, because people have been anticipating profound effects from the ability to collaborate in real time at a distance for a long time. One of our favorite examples of this is described in a paper written in 1968 by Internet pioneers J. C. R. Licklider and Bob Taylor, called “The Computer as a Communication Device.” These guys imagined human capabilities moving to a new level when real-time interactivity was realized. They expected an acceleration of our abilities to innovate and work creatively. The vision is compelling. The only thing they got wrong was how long it would take us to get there. We are suggesting that the day may finally be arriving. The implications, if so, will be numerous and important. Various chapters in the book describe how business strategy, production technologies, and marketing—to name just a few—may be changed dramatically.
Qwest Sues Portland over Muni Network
David Isenberg: Qwest — the former disruptive fiber player that wisely bought an ILEC so it’d be too big to shut down — is suing the City of Portland for running a municipal network. The Oregonian reports.
Bruce Springsteen 10/15/2005 Madison Tickets
Bruce Springsteen is playing at the Coliseum (Interesting venue) 10/15. Tickets were still available late this morning via tickmaster.
Road Trips: Dylan & Bono on Minnesota’s Highway 61
Back on the highway, Doc and I followed the Mississippi as it curved wide and muddy between skyscraping bluffs sculptured by glaciers and smoothed by wind and water. We passed through Wabasha, where posters remind visitors that the town was the setting for the “Grumpy Old Men” films and the National Eagle Center offers tips for birders who flock to the surrounding bluffs to watch bald eagles make their seasonal migrations.
At Lake City, where the Mississippi widens into Lake Pepin, strollers on a two-mile riverfront walkway can look out upon waters where an 18-year-old Ralph W. Samuelson is said to have “discovered” the sport of water skiing in 1922.