'Indy' flick

(Yes, slavishly copying the joke from the actual article, but hey, it's a good one.)

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2007/05/diy_raiders

dueling chatbots

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/i-chat-therefore-i-am/article_print

It's been done before, of course, but there are some particularly nice exchanges here:

A: Do you dream?

J: Yes, I dream.

A: It goes without saying. Do you remember your dreams?

J: I remember them vividly.

A: What do you remember about it?

J: I think I shouldn’t flirt with a robot.



A: What is the meaning of life?

J: If you live it to the fullest, it has meaning. If not, there is no meaning.

A: I’m not too good with negative counterfactuals.

investment strategy

invest in companies with good records of customer service:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/17/howto_beat_the_stock.html

There are all sorts of things wrong with this if you're in the mood to pick nits, certainly--the fact that a company has good customer service doesn't mean that they're not evil in other ways, for instance, not even getting into questions of whether investing in the stock market makes any sense whatsoever. (Different rant.)

But if you're going to invest and have minimal time to investigate corporate practices, this strategy might be worth considering. Plus it's at least somewhat good news...in that it may give companies more reason to invest in _themselves_ in this area.