Rotten day.  Up early, tired, couldn't get anything "done", to-do list kept expanding.  Wasted time on frivolity and regretted it.  Tried to ride my way out of it, but then had a crummy dinner.  Blech.

The only bright spot in my day was reading Thirteen over dinner.  I'm really enjoying it.  Also discovered yet another virtue of the Kindle; in a dim restaurant you can make the font larger.  Try that with a book!

Brock Tully spreads goodwill on solo cycling trips.  Good for him.  "Most importantly, I need to be the change I want to see in the world."

In case it is of use, and so I can find it later: Fifty extremely useful PHP tools.  One of the great things about using PHP is that you're not the only one.

The New Yorker find more good news about red win: Mouse au vin.  "Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human lifespan, researchers say in a new report that is likely to give impetus to the rapidly growing search for longevity drugs."  Excellent.  Bad times call for good wines.

So, we have a new President, and he wants to "fix" healthcare.  What should he do?  The problem is Getting There from Here.  A great overview, it asks more questions than it answers, but at least they're the right ones...

Reminds me of The New New Thing, Michael Lewis' great book about Jim Clark, who at that time had just started Healtheon, which was formed to "fix heathcare".  That company busted its pick on the problem; it had a successful IPO in 1999 and merged with WebMD, but it never "fixed healthcare".

Apple just announced record results for 08Q4, and COO Tim Cook noted "AppleTV sales were up three times what they were during the year-ago quarter".  They still describe the Apple TV as a hobby, but Cook noted, "We think there’s something there."  Prompting John Gruber to observe: "Double here, triple there, and next thing you know they’re going to have something. You wait and see."  I think that's right.  In my house we've all but stopped going to Blockbuster, and Netflix never really got any traction.  The AppleTV definitely hits the spot.