I took a stroll around Stanford this morning. This happens to be “admit weekend,” so the campus was awash in a sea of prospective freshmen. I saw them, and I suddenly felt very old.

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)

I’m writing this on the world’s most unusable keyboard, so this will be very short.

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)

Determined not to learn from history, Microsoft is pushing a new barcode called HCCB, which will allow about 3.5kbytes to be encoded in a square inch of multicolored waste. It seems that somebody over in Redmond thought that consumers would want to go through the hassle of scanning/photographing those patches just to see “promotional material” — probably some form of advertising.

Sorry guys, consumer-oriented bar codes have been done numerous times, and the markets have always rejected them. Remember the CueCat? How about the Cauzin Softstrip? Didn’t think so.

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)

Woke up. Clock said 4:30. Couldn’t sleep, but wasn’t uncomfortable. Mind was a sea of a thousand ideas. Blamed quadruple-shot of espresso from night before.

Got up. Took shower, then ate breakfast. Fiddled with Rails. Answered email.

Watched sun rise. Got dressed, chose new shoes.

Looking forward to the day.

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)

A few days ago, TED released videos of a number of talks that were previously unavailable to the public. Of the one hundred now on the web, all very high quality, I have watched only eight so far. Everything I have viewed has been excellent, but I found a special attachment to these three:

• Chris Bangle on cars as art
• Jeff Han showing off his multi-touch screen
• Richard Dawkins on atheism; specifically, militant atheism

I should like to attend TED in person someday.

(This post is part of the 100/100/100 challenge)