Apture

Apture is a service that allows content producers to link to media without sending users away from their site. So, if you want your readers to check out a cool music video, or learn a fantasmic new word, or get background information on an obscure figure, you could provide links which pop up smallish windows that keep the readers on your own site.

The editing magic is really in a widget added to blogger that allows you to easily embed/link to content while you are authoring a post. All you have to do is highlight a word, and click the apture button which is located on the blogger editor box along with the standard "bold", "italicize", and "insert link" buttons. An apture modal window pops up with a search box that is already populated with the highlighted text. You can search for all available content, or click on tabs for different media types, like pictures, video, audio, etc.

When you are done picking the media, apture creates a standard hypertext link with an "id" attribute that is prefixed with "aptureLink", which some apture javascript processes.

That javascript is contained in a sidebar widget which Apture adds to your blogspot. However, I removed the sidebar and just added the <script/> to the botton of my page template.

Cool stuff.

Retroactive taxes on bonuses are not a help

I just read http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/business/20bailout.html?_r=1&hp

I think this is really awful.

For those who do not work in finance, I know it may be hard to feel sorry for those who make over $250k, but consider that people may have made financial planning decisions based on money that has already been in their bank accounts for months! The decisions may have included spending that the economy desperately needs on college tuition, homes, cars, electronics, and, well, anything else. I don't even understand how this is going to work. If the money is already spent, will the government foreclose on their homes?

I think the payout of large bonuses is outrageous, but forcibly recouping the money is not going to be any help to the overall economic situation. We should be mad, but maybe it's worth asking government why they didn't attach any terms up front?

I also know that the TARP funds were force fed to few banks on the list, not because the banks were in real need, but so that there would be public perception that the government was backing up the banking system. It is especially unfair that their employees should be punished.

--Disclosure: I do work for Goldman Sachs, a TARP funds recipient, but am not at the level that would be affected.

Netflix: Sex and Lucia

My netflix queue is around 25 movies long and contains a variety of big hollywood movies, foreign films, tv shows, and indie films. It's not uncommon for me to receive a disc in the mail and have no recollection of why I added it to my queue. So, when I found Sex and Lucia in my mailbox I was curious to delve into this innocent sounding spanish mystoria:

In an attempt to get over losing her novelist boyfriend, Lucía retreats to a quiet Mediterranean island. It's there, in the sun-soaked refuge, that the erstwhile waitress begins to examine both the passionate beginning and the darker details of their relationship. Fact blends with fiction and time bends in unexpected ways as her memories unfold.

Well, despite what the wholesome title and benign description may lead you to believe, this movie is probably best classified as soft core pornography. This may be good or bad, depending on your expectations and with what sort of company you plan to view it-- best for a first date or a quiet night with the extended family.

Outside of the provocative sex scenes, I thought the movie was actually pretty boring and didn't make it all the way through. Maybe there was too much of contrast between the slow paced plot line and heart thumping bed action? This could be why most porn movies don't bother with elaborate plots, or so I've heard.

Zak convinced me to blog

Under the encouragement of my friend Zak I am going to start bloging about the mundane experiences of my life. I will not purposefully pick the most dull things to write about, no, I will try to pick the most exciting and interesting things, but I'm not sure if those things will break past the mundane horizon of the average blogstrian.

So, given my pessimistic sentiments, how was I convinced to do this?

Well, I checked out my friend Jeff's blog, and I have to say that I found reading it pretty entertaining. I think most of the value came out of the fact that I know Jeff pretty well and I could easily picture him becoming very animated about the things he writes about. It might help that Jeff is a good writer-- he did go to J-school at columbia (which he notes quite a few times).

I also checked out Zak's blog , which is much lighter on verbal content, but was again pretty entertaining due to my personal connection to Zak. The limited content that does exist also spurred a small amount of thirst for Fiji water, which, apparently, is pretty tasty stuff.

So, basically I'm writing this for my two or three friends who might possibly care enough to read it. I hope I can provide some amount of entertainment to them, or at least garner some sympathy in a pathetic attempt.

I told harold about the blog

Harold is not the most computer savvy person, but he was quite intrigued to learn about the ways of the blogger.