New Rodent
My birthday has now come and gone, but I've received presents will keep on giving.

This year, my sister decided that my apartment needs more life in it, so she got me a hamster. On one hand, I like hamsters, and on the other, it's another chore to deal with. In the end, the sheer cute factor offsets any negatives.

Its name is Oreo.

Book Review: The Dilbert Future
I don't normally write book reviews, let alone ones for books written thirteen years ago in 1997. However, this book is really quite good.

In this book, Scott Adams intermixes his comic strips with a number of predictions of how things will be in the future. It's interesting that many of his predictions have already come true, though some are already obsolete.

An example of an obsolete prediction: "Prediction 12: In the future, ISDN services will improve to the point where you can mention it in a crowd without generating laughter." At this point, mentioning ISDN in a crowd is likely to generate laughter.

However, one that is really starting to come true goes like this: "Prediction 52: In the future, everyone will be a news reporter." He further clarifies by writing that "people will have access to software that constantly combs the internet for 'small' news that is relevant to them," and that "thanks to the ubiquity of video cameras and the Internet, every citizen will be a reporter." Those three sentences essentially sum up the state of the internet in 2010.

Well done, Scott Adams.