Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

• Although I created a Twitter account back in November, I haven't done much with it until a day or so ago. I've begun posting what amount to instant Odd Lots on Twitter, so if you were waiting for me to do something useful before following me, well, the wait is over.
• Twitter has been using its own link shortener t.co to shorten all links in tweets since 2011 or so. It's automatic and requires zero additional keystroking. Why, then, do tweeters still use services like bit.ly and goo.gl?
• The FCC may change the definition of "broadband" today, which could demote tens of millions of people (mostly DSL users) to some weird limbo between dialup and broadband. Most of the DSL connections I've used have been hideous, some providing measured speeds right down there with 1994 dialup, along with weird lockups and general bit-mayhem.
• Update to the above: Yup. It happened. Next on the agenda: net neutrality.
• NASA's New Horizons probe is now waking up. We're about to get our first close-in views of the last (known) un-visited planet in the solar system. Pluto and its gigantic moon Charon are only 12,000 mles apart and orbit one another in 6.3 days, so I'm expecting that some of the upcoming images will be startling, to put it mildly.
• Your coding style gives you away. Mine certainly does--all my reserved words are in uppercase. Why run with the pack?
• Wired tests five wine-stain removers. $18 a bottle? I dunno. At $3.50 or so, Spray & Wash Resolve Stain Stick always works pretty well for us. (Me, actually. Carol drinks white wine.)
• Apple's app store billed more than Hollywood's entire box-office take last year.
• It's easy to say "We're going to tie health-care payments to health-care outcomes. It's a lot harder to measure those outcomes objectively.
• This thingmajigger--called a "Panjandrum"--is almost certainly the silliest weapon in 20th century military history. I invite you to nominate competitors, but I warn you, it's a tough act to beat. (Make sure you scroll down to the video, even if you don't read the whole thing.)
• Finally, from the Global Vaporizing department: 2,960 degrees in Cave Creek. Boy, it didn't get quite that hot back in the 90s... (Thanks to Bill Roper for the link.)