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 Hi, checking in again after a few days of ... gasp! ... work. Work work work. Nothing like being un-self-employed to bring a little urgency, eh? Meanwhile, it's all happening...
Young Americans expect Obamacare to be repealed. They're being optimistic, but at the same time, this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, as young Americans are needed to support the whole house of cards. Personally I expect a long series of "corrections" which will make healthcare even more complicated and expensive than it was before. Sigh. 
 Grace Hopper. Awesome Goodle. Yes, she was the creator of COBOL, and also a commodore in the Navy. While trying to fix a computer she discovered a moth caught in a relay, and coined the term "debugging" :)
Microsoft: 'Oops' on Win 7 end-of-sale date. There's no question Win 8 is a "skip" release, like Windows Vista was. Let's just hope Win 9 saves the day, like Win 7 did. The stakes for Microsoft are even higher this time as desktop Operating Systems fade from relevance.
Loved this story: the triumph and tragedy of OS/2. Brought back some memories... I remember looking through the Presentation Manager manuals and thinking "yikes!" But I thought the PS/2 would be the machine to code for... IBM truly fumbled this ball over and over.
 So Time have named Pope Francis their 2013 person of the year. It's so strange, right? That a religious leader is still relevant. Also strange, that Time is still relevant. I wonder, for how many years will bloggers note their choice for Person of the Year?
Applebee's just killed the most annoying thing about eating out. I agree with the premise - waiting for the check IS annoying - but disagree with the solution, it's over complicated. A simple pager button would suffice...
 Snowy Sunday update... It's good! "Something really odd happened in the National Football League on Sunday: In a blizzard in Philadelphia, the Eagles and the Detroit Lions scored 54 points—but not a single one of them came by way of foot. No field goals and no extra points." But awesomely, on the same day the NFL's 43-year-old record for the longest field goal fell, as Matt Prater kicked a 64-yarder. Yes!
Learning from competition. Always a good thing to do. A subset of something even more important ... learning from customers. In emerging markets, non-adoption IS the competition.
 I loved this headline before I ever read the story: Groupon's brilliant response to Amazon's drones: catapults :)
BTW finished The Everything Store. Loved it. When teleportation of packages becomes possible, Amazon will do it first.
And yet, why Google's Cloud Platform may give Amazon fits. AWS is a huge play for Amazon, well executed. Can Google match it?
 This is soooo cool! Metallica play a show in Antarctica. Now why don't I have a Lear Jet so I could see this total eclipse? I should have known about this ... I am truly Unforgiven...
JPMorgan files patent on 'bitcoin killer'. Ha. That is the entire point of Bitcoin, it cannot be regulated in any way. Cannot wait for the lawsuits :)
Meanwhile: Coinbase. "A service that provides an accessible interface to the Bitcoin protocol." Hmmm...
 Here we have The 40-year quest for the perfect map. Who knew Africa was so big compared to everything else? (click to enbiggen!)
That map may enable you to find the place where they've never heard of cheese. Spoiler: it is on an island in the middle of the world's second largest lake, in the middle of Africa.
 Playing for the long haul: How many launches does it take to get to Mars? SpaceX successfully placed a large satellite into geosynchronous orbit, but that's just a small step toward the real goal, sending humans to Mars. I cannot wait to take a SpaceX flight to Titan :)
This is pretty interesting: Mars One is serious about one-way trip to space. In the old days, explorers could never be sure if they'd come back, whether it was sailing to the Orient or taking a wagon train out West. Or moving to Australia! It sure makes space travel easier when you don't have to come back...
 Thanks to the horse's mouth: Santa of the day.
On Blitzen!
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