archive: bryce.weblogs.com

A Late Night

There is something fundamentally wrong with looking at the clock and noticing that it is 11 p.m. and still being in one's office. In order to make my marathon work session more bearable, I have been listening to flashfm.com, a London-based radio dj dance music station. It's not perfect, but it's much more lively than classicfm.com, the UK classical station that usually gets me through things like this. And the lack of DJs reminding me just how miserably late it is is a good thing. Unfortunately, nothing is totally safe. The last song? "Four O'Clock In The Morning" by Lazard. I think I gotta get home before it becomes 4 a.m. G'nite.

MeasureCast Morphs into SelectMetrics

A few weeks ago a friend tipped me off that things were changing at one of Portland's budding internet companies. Today it's official:  

"MeasureCast Inc., a small, privately held company founded at the crest of the internet boom to measure internet radio audience size and demographics, has marked its change in focus with a new name: SelectMetrics Inc. Today, SelectMetrics has 11 employees, down from a peak of about 35. The company is no longer focusing exclusively on internet radio audiences. Instead, the company has licensed its streaming audience measurement system and other related assets to Arbitron Inc., and is now focusing on developing new internet audience measurement products and services."

Good luck, everyone.

Oregon. Things Taste Different Here?

Today, the Portland Business Journal is reporting that Hood River Distillers is introducing "Spudka," an 82-proof spirit that is debuting in Oregon and will launch nationally in 2003. According to the article:

Although it's commonly believed that most vodka is made from potatoes, Hood River says that only 1 percent of vodka produced in the world is actually made with spuds and less than a handful of those are made in the United States. The vast majority of vodka is made from low-cost cereal grains such as corn. On average, it costs five to six times more to produce potato vodka than grain vodka, but according to Ken Kossler, vice president of sales for Hood River Distillers, the result is well worth it. "Once you experience a well-crafted potato-based vodka, you realize what great vodka really tastes like," he said.

So, now you know.

on Privacy

The Economist on Privacy: "A society capable of constant and pervasive surveillance is being rapidly built around us, sometimes with our co-operation, more often without our knowledge."

This is one of the better discussions of privacy I've seen in a while and definitely an article I would recommend reading. ("No Hiding Place," From this week's 01/23/03 print edition).

News Clippings

BBC on Iraq: "It seems particularly apt that on the day France and Germany celebrated their friendship with ceremonies at Versailles, the British Foreign Secretary was flying to Washington."

New Scientist on Privacy: "A US court has ordered an internet service provider to reveal the identity of a user accused of illegally downloading hundreds of copyrighted songs. The ruling is a landmark for the music industry." While I don't condone large-scale piracy, I wonder where this is going to stop. What's next?

A Fateful Loaf?

Nearly two years ago now, Hannah taught me how to make bread. Monday night, Moira recalled that night in telling Holly's friends how Hannah and I met. Who would have known? Last night, Hannah surprised me with a freshly baked loaf. I never knew bread would play such an important role in my life. 

Quick Life Update

If you're wondering why my blog hasn't been updated in over a week: I've been busy lately. And, as much as I love to keep my blog filled with intriguing and engaging tidbits culled from the world's news media and my own life, I don't get paid to do so. So the blog takes a back seat to things that help me pay the bills and maintain my sanity from time to time.

Lately, I have been working hard at work. For those who like forecasts, I predict this will continue through the end of January. I have also been busy putting my life back together. I'm a big believer in balance and, well, quite frankly, it had been missing of late. So I'm inching back into balance. There's still time for the blog in my "new" balanced life, just give it some time.

Oh -- and lest you think all I've been doing lately is work -- I had a great weekend. Hannah and I went snow shoeing on Mt. Hood under brilliant blue skies (e-mail me to see pictures), my sister and I solved all the world's problems over coffee and a long walk, I found a new pair of glasses that I love, and I even went out to see some live music on a week night. Gasp, I know.

It's nice to be living again.

Good Things

I have been listening to my entire music collection, alphabetically since August.

Moira

News Clippings

Oregon's new governor, Ted Kulongoski to Silicon Valley: 'We're open for business'

A Better Way to Spot Trends in Excel Data

Okay, I want to take a moment and praise a feature in Microsoft Excel: Conditional Formatting. I had a plug-in for Excel 97 that used to do something similar and I loved it. Now it would appear that Microsoft has the functionality built right into the box. And I love it. I just set up a spreadsheet that automatically flags good, mediocre and concerning data by changing cell colours to either green, yellow or red. The interface isn't very robust and you can only have 3 conditions per cell, but for most applications, this makes routine trend analysis way easier. Using Colors: the next thing.