Just for the record:

People making guesses about Apple’s Intel strategy have focused on two possibilities for OS X on Intel:

One, that third-party application vendors would have to re-compile their code for the new architecture. Two, that Apple has developed or will develop a reasonably fast PPC emulation layer.

I think there’s a third possibility: that Apple has developed a layer which will, upon the first attempt to execute an incompatible application bundle, dis-assemble, roughly translate, re-assemble, and save the binary for the new architecture. Admittedly, I’m not really qualified to assess how impossible a task this is. Since we’re looking at a pretty constrained set of binaries, compiled for known APIs, and with known toolchains, it seems like writing a really smart disassembler wouldn’t be quite as difficult as writing a really fast emulator.

A fourth possibility: some kind of internet-based distribution mechanism for binaries. Vendors supply Apple with new binaries, or Apple builds new binaries itself, somehow. Since the binary itself makes up such a small chunk of the application bundle, why not a mechanism which checks for a simple hash in an online database, downloads, and updates the relevant bundle?

Just throwing it out there.

Last month, I found a letter on the streets of Evanston, Illinois. I’m sorry, dear reader, that it took me so long to scan it in and make it available to you. It’s dated September 22, 1988, and it’s addressed to a ‘Gingy’. I have no idea if it’s authentic, but I’m pretty sure it was printed on form-feed paper by a dot-matrix printer.

If this letter is yours, and you’d prefer that it be kept private, please let me know.

Let us now speak of Jamba Juice. First, the Jamba Juice menu:

Acai Supercharger ™, Matcha Green Tea Blast ™, Turbo Tropic ™ Strawberry Nirvana ™, Mango Mantra ™, Berry Fulfilling ™, Tropical Awakening ™, Protein Berry Pizzazz ™, Orange Dream Machine ™, Jamba Powerboost ®, Coldbuster! ®, Kiwi Berry Burner ®, Banana Berry ™, Strawberries Wild ®, Razzmatazz ®, Berry Lime Sublime ™, Cranberry Craze ®, Orange Berry Blitz ™, Citrus Squeeze ®, Orange-A-Peel ™, Caribbean Passion ®, Aloha Pineapple ™, Mango-A-Go-Go ™, Peenya Kowlada ®, Peach Pleasure ®, Chocolate Moo’d ®, Peanut Butter Moo’d ™.

Please note that the name of every single item is some kind of trademark. Why? Because it’s stupid. Especially note the purposeful misspelling of Pina Colada to allow for this trademarking.

Now, these things are all commonly known as smoothies. Are any of them named “smoothie”? No. Are any named “freeze”, “shake”, “blend” or “frappe”? No. They all have stupid names that it pains me to even consider saying. Is this for legal reasons, so that they can be trademarked? Is the very word “smoothie” owned by some other corporation? Has some consultant advised Jamba Juice that in addition to having a company name that people with any amount of self respect have trouble speaking aloud, they need to give each of their drinks a soul-crushing name?

God forbid you walk in there and shuddering at the sight of the menu, try to order a “Kiwi-Strawberry Smoothie”. You’ll get such a blank, cow-like stare from the brainwashed drone at the register, you’ll wonder if you can ever be happy again. Of course you’ve already guessed that small, medium, and large are not options at Jamba Juice. Here, they’re Sixteen, Original, and Power. POWER!

Internet, I ask you: where have all the sane, sober people in the world gone? Why does everything have to be silly?

Ebert picks the highest rated season since the inaugural, and the youngest season ever. Also the first season without a musical.

From the BBC (via BoingBoing):

Mystery shoe saga stumps couple

Pairs of shoes are being left in mysterious circumstances outside a remote farmhouse in Lincolnshire.

Jason and Claire Foster, who live near Market Rasen, do not know who is doing it or why they have left as many as four pairs of shoes at one time.

The family have video footage, which shows an elderly couple driving by in a green vehicle depositing the shoes.

Mrs Foster said that although it was scary at first, she was rather hoping some of the pairs might fit.

Okay, this was weird, and about the entire content of the Boing Boing link/article. But the last half of the article is what really caught my eye:

East Lindsey District Council are investigating the incident as a case of fly tipping.

“Sometimes it’s odd ones, sometimes it’s a couple of pairs. But they’re of all shapes and sizes. There has even been pairs of roller blades,” a council environment official said.

“There must have been more than 30 pairs so far – it’s been going on for months.”

He said the maximum penalty for a first offence of fly-tipping was £20,000, but it depended on its severity.

Fly tipping — now there’s a usage you don’t see much in around these parts. It turns out that fly-tipping is what we would call “illegal dumping”. It’s a great little phrase: “fly” in this case is related to “flee”, and “tipping” is what dump trucks and wheelbarrows do. Maybe we’d call it “dump-and-dash”, or “chuck-and-run”. Not quite as English, though, is it?