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A Brand New Monkey

"Exciting!" I replied. "I was hoping you’d say this."

"I love it," he said. "It's one of my favorite parts of the job, but it's really difficult."

***

I wasn't taking notes, and it's been four days and fifteen coffees since, so I can't give you all the special little details and all the perfect words, but what's causing John DeVore all the trouble and excitement is a brand new monkey — a new loudspeaker, that is, in his Gibbon line, to fill the obvious gap between his $4000 Super 8 and his king of the jungle Silverback, and to be introduced at the 2007 CES…

Monday Cat Blogging

"The Cat Attack uses the latest research in chaos theory and complex systems to emulate the movements and personality of a cat's favorite prey. This "virtual mouse" technology utilizes algorithms based on a six-dimensional coupled nzmap system modeled on the neural network of a real mouse. What that all means is that the Cat Attack's "virtual mouse" will become your cat's new best friend!"

A sample will be procured and we shall see if it survives the Huckleberry test.

The Trouble With Truffles

The Amateur Gourmet received a press release promoting Alain Ducasse's $320 white truffle prix fixe menu. He wrote back that neither he nor his readers could afford that, but he'd gladly come taste it and report on his experiences. Ducasse said sure and TAG posted his report, as promised.

Well played, sir.

Via Grow A Brain.

Symbolic Logic

Jeff Wong sends along a link to the Oxford University Press's "Ask the Experts" page. I like the "Jargon Buster" grammar feature, but this page on symbols is cool, too.

Reverse Dictionary

Ever been stuck for a word—say, you know exactly what it means, but you just can't remember le mot juste? A good reverse dictionary can help.

MIT's Bruce Brisson showed me the first printed reverse dictionary I ever encountered but now Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools has hipped me to One Look's online version. Definitely going on ye olde tool bar.

Rhymes with iPod

I was excited to receive news of YG Acoustics' new compact loudspeaker line, the Kipod. Designer Yoav Geva says, "In small-to-medium sized rooms [cue wood floors and exposed-brick walls &#150Ed.], and wherever a high 'Spouse Acceptance Factor' is required, the Kipod is a perfect solution."

Is he talking to me? I've learned recently that this SAF or WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor), as it is sometimes called, is a very real thing. My sweetheart, though incredibly discerning and tech-savvy, still trips over speaker cables and says curious things like, "I just don't…

Love to Hate You, Baby

Why we love to hate Paris Hilton—not that most of us would behave any differently had we been given the chance to grow up entitled and ignorant.

Years Ago in Germany

"In [Daniel Kehlmann's] first novel translated into English, the 31-year-old literary wunderkind's breezy, sometimes charming and ultimately inconsequential work follows the actual lives, careers and eventual intersection of two of Germany's brightest scientists: explorer, geographer and naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt and the astronomer and aptly crowned 'prince of mathematicians' Carl Friedrich Gauss."

"Breezy, sometimes charming and ultimately inconsequential"? Sounds 100 times deeper than Paris Hilton. Add it to my queue.

I've Suspected This For Years

What? The writers who post blurbs on book covers haven't actually read the books? I'm shocked, shocked.

Of course, book collector Jeff Wong has regaled me for years with tales of inscribed copies of first editions (given as thank-yous for blurbs) going for peanuts in the review copy section of the Strand.

ViaBlog of a Bookslut.

Get Up, Stand Up

Imagine that—Microsoft is touchy about negative reviews. The interesting thing is that it thinks it can prevent negative reviews by preventing the use of its logo.

That's right, its logo comes with a EULA (end user lisencing agreement), stating: "You may not display the Logo(s) on any site that disparages Microsoft or its products or services, infringes any Microsoft intellectual property or other rights, or violates any state, federal or international law."

RocketBoom quite rightly had a problem with this. You go, Drew.