Is it GIF (as in gift) or GIF (as in jif)

Over the years as a graphic designer and web developer, I have heard many people pronounce the file format GIF as 'jif'. It makes my skin crawl and spine tingle when I hear that but apparently other people are not so bothered by it. I have been thinking about this all morning and have not been able to find another word that starts with the letter 'G' that isn't followed by an 'E' that is pronounced like a 'J'. If that last sentence wasn't thoroughly and completely confusing, I don't know what is. But my point is that GIF is pronounced as GGGGGGif as in GIFT!!! Stop screwing it up!

Novi Split at the Lava Lounge April 27th 2006

Video of David playing a the Lava Lounge in L.A.

Universal Music trying to find Elliott Smith

According to an article on harpmagazine.com, the bean counters are Universal Music, who owns Elliotts Smith's former label, have been trying to find him. They did not know that the Elliott had died nearly 2 and a half years ago. They wanted to pay him the royalties he and Neil Gust earned from the cover Jimmy Eat World did of their song 'Not Half Right'. Alex Steininger was the person they contacted and he had to break the bad news to them. Their response was simply that it wasn't their job to know whether or now someone was alive or dead. They just wanted to give them their money. This reminds me of that scene in Office Space where Milton continues to be paid his salary years after he was officially fired. It's not really the same thing but it just shows you how little people care. They just want to get in and out of their jobs which they hate without drawing too much attention to themselves so they don't get fired.

Dennis Quaid lunching in Ventura, CA

I had lunch today with Marlene and her coworker/friend Brenda at a local Mexican restaurant called Ruby's today. As we were sitting around just chatting about nothing, this guy gets up from his table and walks by with a truckers hat pulled pretty far down below his brow along with a hot young blonde. They leave the restaurant and get into a new BMW 750i that's parked outside. I look over to Marlene and said, "That was Dennis Quaid." It's not too unusual to see celebrities walking around downtown Santa Barbara, but a little local Mexican restaurant in Ventura? Maybe that's a sign that we are on the up and up.....

Google rejects a more democratic shareholder voting system

The three head honchos of Google, Schmidt, Page and Brin hold a special class of stock in their company. Although they've sold a large sum of their shares and diluted even more by cashing out to the open market, they still hold over two thirds of the voting power. One of their shareholders who own over 4700 shares of their class A common stock propose that they remove the voting restrictions but they would shot down. What a way for these three guys to have their cake and eat it too. Not only was it enough that they cashed out billions worth of cash last year, they still want the ability to over rule their thousands of shareholders whenever they wish. People are sheep.

 

Link

Failed suicide results in hefty fines

This story really sucks. A man tried to commit suicide by jumping in
front of a train and fails. You would think that is a pretty safe bet
that you will not survive. On the same level as a shotgun in the mouth
or falling from a skyscraper. But he did. Now the Munich authorities
(Where this took place) wants him to pay for the train repairs (he fell
through the window of the train into the conductor's lap) and the lost
wages from the conductor being too freaked out. Why do they even bother?
If he didn't have a good enough reason to kill himself before, they just
gave him another. Good luck collecting on that fine, Dieter.

Link

Ventura in CommandN

There is this online video tech podcast called CommandN. (For those in
the know, that is the Macintosh command for creating a new file.) I've
been watching it off and on for awhile. Just yesterday I decided to
checkout their latest episode and I was surprise to hear the host
mention my town Ventura, CA. It was related to a new Website called
www.turnhere.com. It has little short films people make and submit from and about
different locations in the U.S.. Don't know why CommandN use Ventura as
an example since they are based out of Toronto, Canada and Ventura only
has one little 4 minute video on the site. Nontheless it was pretty
cool. Check it out....

TurnHere.com: Ventura Surf Spots