A friend of mine has a new company:

Jimmy Grewal’s Weblog » Pulse: hello world!
I’m pleased to announce the launch of the Pulse family of residential and hospitality automation products and the company behind it, Aspalis SAS.

Sounds interesting…

Rainbow cookies - a delight that I haven’t been able to find in California. They used to be more commonly available in New York, but not as much anymore. I have seen them in Boston though.

Here are two pictures of rainbow cookies from the Shop and Stop near my parents. (They’re not found at all Shop and Stop locations.) It’s $7.99 a pound and this is what they look like:

Here are some cookies from Saint Honore Pastry Shop in Port Washington.  They’re $10+ a pound (I think):

The ones from Saint Honore are distinctly lighter, but I do like the chocolate sprinkles on the Stop and Shop ones.

If you live in the West Coast, maybe you can order them from Bruce’s.

At Microsoft, when you’re out of the office, you’re OOF.

Which is strange because it should be OOTO instead.

So what does OOF stand for? Some believe that it stands for “Out of Office Feature” - e.g. the feature in Outlook where you can set your status and to automatically send notices that you are out. Others believe that it’s Out of OFfice. Finally, some believe that its just fun to say.

In any case, I’m OOF in NY. Today I was at the MOMA and I thought it’d be fun to take this photo:

Here’s a page that provides more information about this piece of art.

While I’m at it, here’s the info plaque for another very interesting piece of art at the MOMA - I couldn’t take a picture of the art itself. You’ll see why:

Earlier this year, late at night in the office, my manager came by to tell me that there was free pizza. My first question: “Where’s it from?” To which I got the response: “What are you? A pizza snob?”

It turned out it was from Domino’s. And no, I didn’t have any. And yes, I guess that does make me a snob. Around here, it’s Amici’s or bust.

Even though I fast forward through most ads on TV thanks to my buggy Comcast PVR - I still manage to see the Domino’s ad for Brooklyn Style Pizza. I think I roll my eyes every time. That said, I did wonder what it was like. Last time a major chain tried a “New York Style” pizza, they simply made it larger.

Fortunately, the NY Times investigates and reports back. Here’s my favorite quote from the review:

‘Brooklyn Style Pizza’ Meets the Real Deal - New York Times
The Domino’s pizza has an oddly sweet crust that somehow manages to blend the characteristics of cotton and rubber.

Youch!

Check out the review for more details on how a real pizza differs than the Domino’s one.

Last month, American Airlines introduced a new program (known as “Rounds of Applause”) where elite travelers would provided with coupons to give to employees that deserve recognition for providing excellent service.

Great idea! I’m all for it! There’s a gate agent in BOS that I would’ve given 2 to back in Feb of this year.

Unfortunately, this program isn’t off to a good start for me. This is what I got in the mail today:

1) My name isn’t “John Robert Casselman” (though the outer envelope had the right name)

2) Uh… what’s up with the paper? Is this a treasure hunt?

Sadly, even if I wanted to tape them together, they still wouldn’t look right:

Doh.

So…

1) If you’re John Robert Casselman and you’re reading this blog - let me know. I have some mail for you

2) If you’re from American Airlines - could you please send me a new batch of coupons so that I can use them when I go to NY in 2 weeks?

Thanks - can’t wait to present them to employees!

A fairly new USB Flash Drive was connected to a desktop PC at work today.

And then the drive never worked again.

Unfortunately, this was tried on another USB Flash Drive. And that drive never worked again.

One of my friends tells me that he had a laptop had a USB port that would always destroy USB Flash Drive.

Something to keep in mind.