While we crushed the hapless Jets.
User Interface: Electronic Road Signs
One nice feature of the Atlanta roadways is the electronic signs. Every few miles on the major freeways there is a large sign. It tells you when there is a traffic jam, an Amber alert, construction, etc. They are incredibly useful for avoiding big problems and re-routing traffic properly.
They have one small problem. They should only show something when there is relevant or new information. Often they have messages that tell me an exit 8 miles away takes me 8 minute to get to. In other words, they are telling me that traffic is flowing as it should. This is not helpful. It wastes my attention. It trains me to ignore the signs. The sign should only display information when that information is at odds with the normal situation.
Muttroxia: Best of 2009
Here are the best posts of 2009. The criteria? Whether I like ‘em.
- 25 random things about me
- I turn 40 and go for the bald look.
- Funny sounding towns in Mass
- The geek and puzzles
- Valentines Humbug
- Fun with people who really don’t understand Timezones.
- Ben Stein is an idiot.
- Hobby collection
- Burger King drink dispensers rule
- Free range children
- A few thoughts
- The Night Sky
- How to use Powerpoint correctly. Or at least how not to use it incorrectly.
- Civics (guest post from FunkSoulCousin)
- College Life
- Pink Floyd is weird
- Curious George
- I am so annoyed by the bathrooms at work. Motion detectors, patronizing health messages and frustrating flowers.
- Poker: After keeping meticulous records, here is the summary of one year of poker. I start Year 2 with an open question and get a barrage of advice. I win the neighborhood tournament of champions (I’m the favorite this year also), and give my favorite poker shows.
- Book recommendations, Fiction and Non-.
- Fun with the kids: The 3-year old and the weather, he turns 4-years old and accidentally discovers obscenities,the 6 year-old and Santa, and me peeing on the one year old
And as always, massive amounts of interesting links. Just search for “Links o’ Interest” and start clicking away.
LinkedIn Abuse
I just removed my first connection from LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is not Facebook. I do not need to be informed when you are traveling to Puerto Rico, Augusta, or the bathroom. I don’t need to know about the endless societies you are joining. It’s for professional and career updates. You haven’t had one of those this year but you told everyone you were traveling to Vermont. You’re out!
Family Fame
I opened up the New York Times today and my sister in law was there!
She’s the redhead in the second row, right next to the main person. (She’s also in the image two other times, see if you can find her.)
Links o’ Interest
Why men shouldn’t write advice columns
This dubbing made me giggle.
Incredible one-shot lip dub with a whole high school. And it’s filmed backwards!
Tower explosion conspiracy
The Iron Man 2 trailer is out
The D.E.N.N.I.S. system really works
Guitar hero for Christmas – great idea.
Religion 101 final
The Morgan Freeman chain of command
Tape measure man!
Greatest slap ever
The worst cover version ever.
2009’s best celebrity candid photos
Great best man prank, a twitter feed every time the newlyweds go at it.
House in action
Time to grow up
Man appeals traffic ticket to Supreme Court, and wins
The human cost of unemployment, a photo story.
Checkbox raindrops
NBA player ties shoes during a live play, holding the ball. Not one Bull tries to steal the ball.
A mathematically correct breakfast of linked bagel halves. I can’t wait to try this.
Racetrack stoopers
Thought for the Day
Whatever happened to The Strokes? I thought they were supposed to be the biggest band in the world by now.
Getting Older
The first night of Hannukah I got a tie. The second night I got a nice shirt. The third night I got matching pants. What do I think of getting clothes for presents?
“Allright! Just what I wanted! Thanks hon!”
Links o’ Interest
Darth Vader’s diary
The Muppets cover Bohemian Rhapsody
The dangers of a local Twitter feed
Man marries a videogame
The earth with rings. The cool part starts at 1:00
Gay-bashing woman humiliated for hideous skirt
Um, that’s not what really happened
Those are some strong magnets
Maybe putting social tagging on out customer support site wasn’t such a good idea
Dinosaur t-shirts. My favorite one.
One queen, 11 presidents
Paintless Coke cans
PhoneBooks made me smile
The Office is over
My dad is.. Charles Manson?
A good argument against cloning
Swimming basketball player
Devin Hesters ass
Bill Gates takes a support call
Neil Young with a groundbreaking classic
The space shuttle at the exact second it breaks the sound barrier
The Season’s First Holiday Card
Wow. It’s not even December, and we just got our first one. Hey, Curtis family, you’re making all of look bad!
Links o’ Interest
Billy Madison lives on (go to page 2)
You can’t afford to be skinny… ah, it was a different time.
Selection bias: Why your friends have more friends than you
35 Interesting Science Fair Experiments
101 best music videos of this decade
Enough clips of kids welcoming back their soldier Dads. What about the dogs!?
Joackim Noah critic eats his words. Literally.
Unclear on the concept: Hit the Bitch
How to play piano like Philip Glass
Hacked Roombas used to play Pacman
AMA changes its stance on medical marijuana, wants research
Even worse than Twilight: The Stephanie Meyer comic book
Pulp Fiction theme played on guitar and pencils
The making of a solider. Two years of photos of a young man becoming a solider.
Pictures from Afghanistan
Beijing’s underground city
Poker Update (it’s a good one):
Thanks to a nut flush and trips and not playing many hands, at one hour in I have 7,000 in chips (avg is 5000).
We’re at 100-200. With two raisers to 600 in front of me, I have a pair of 10s. I think the correct play here is raising, but I just call. Both blinds call. There is already 3,000 in the pot.
The flop is 10-J-Q. Hey, I hit my trips! But those are some scary cards. And the player two positions to my right instantly goes all in for 2,800. The player to my right calls the all-in. Ugh. It seems obvious that at least one of them has K-A for the high straight. Maybe pocket Jacks or Queens. I should fold, right?
Not so fast. If another Jack or Queen comes out, I have a full house. There’s around a 24% of that. It would cost me 2,800 into a pot of 8,600. I call. And it’s a good thing I did, the turn is another 10! I have four 10s! I have about 3,500 left in chips. I bet 1,800, which I think was the exact right amount to get a call, and then my all-in on the river is called. Boy, those were some fun cards to turn over! You don’t see quads very often, right?
On the very next hand, the player to my right gets four nines. Wow.
Four hands later I call a min-raise with pocket 3s. The flop is 2-3-x. There’s already 1,600 in the pot. Naturally I raise, I bet 1,000. I’m called. The turn is — yes, you guessed it — another 3. I have four of a kind with 3s. This is just ridiculous. Someone makes a comment about how Muttrox probably has quads again, and I completely lose my poker face. Half my mouth is twisted up, the other half is twisted down, my legs are bouncing all around, I can’t contain myself. Fortunately the person deciding whether to call me doesn’t know me well. I think he thought all my antics were to cover up a stone cold bluff. He called. On the river I went all-in. This time he folded. The table reaction to another four of a kind was priceless.
What an hour I had. Two hands later I had pocket 6s. Before the flop showed I was already deciding how to bet my set, I had no doubt that another 6 would come up. It did.
The rest was ordinary poker. I was monster stack, other people caught up, I got low, I won a coin flip (my K-10 paired up vs pocket 5s), found myself in heads up against a relative amateur. He didn’t raise my big blind with 5-2. The flop was 3-4-5, the Ace on the turn gave me the win.
Whoo. That was a crazy night. I played well, but with those cards coming it didn’t even matter how I played it.
Tonight: $145 ($25 buy in, $150 for first place, $20 in bounties)