Google Maps has added a "Katrina" button which appears when viewing maps of New Orleans. It looks like these images are different from the NOAA satellite photographs, which are even higher resolution (e.g. the Superdome).

Earlier this month, Propellerhead Software released ReBirth RB-338 for free. I finally got a chance to install it and play around with it today. (Installation was a bit problematic, as the installer didn't like 2GB of RAM; I had to boot to a lower memory profile in order to get through it. Fortunately, ReBirth itself has no problem with reasonable memory sizes.)

It's a neat little package; it emulates two Roland TB-303 Bass Line Synthesizers, a TR-808 drum machine and a TR-909 drum machine — all pattern-based machines from the early '80s. Within minutes, I had Karen clapping with delight. "You're making Eighties music!" she beamed. And then, "Severin would like this." But I think that last bit was sarcasm.

I was Googling for information on who actually runs Wikipedia, and came across this forum. Disgusting that people like this actually exist in this day and age.

Does anyone reading this have personal experience with Invisalign, or know someone who's used them?

In the past year, my teeth have started to crowd towards the front (despite the fact that I recently had my wisdom teeth out, which makes no sense to me — there's plenty of room in the back). This is causing my upper front incisors to tilt to the sides; the formerly flat bottoms are now at a noticeable angle, and I'm developing a diastema between them. I find this distressing, rock band names aside.

I'm the kind of person who scoffs at infomercials and laughs at the people who believe them — but now I'm starting to at least understand why they'd phone away for crap they hear about on TV. I don't want braces (for starters, they'd look ridiculous on a person my age), so those Invisalign things are actually starting to look attractive. Except, as it turns out, they're more expensive than braces, and apart from some scattered testimonials on Teh Intarweb, I can't find any evidence that they actually do what the company claims. (Indeed, the entry on Wikipedia suggests that some of the company's claims are in fact false.

I could always try some home orthodontics — I've already got all the casting equipment and the acrylic resins that real orthodontic appliances are made of — but I'd probably just end up making things worse.

Arrgh.

So, does anyone know from experience whether they're worth the dough?

Gotta stop playing this game. I've got so many other things that need doing. But if you like Whack-A-Mole, give it a shot. It's so much more than the usual version.

Though it's been years since I've seen any of them, there are a few episodes of The Odd Couple I'll always remember. Well, tiny bits of them, anyway: Oscar asking if tuna fish was supposed to go "crunch". Felix lecturing on the meaning of the word "ASSUME". But above all, the time Felix decorated the apartment in Postmodern Kitsch.

The whole room was just absurdly tacky, but what grabbed my attention the most was the clock: a seemingly random pattern of brightly colored dots in a black face, which everyone could instinctively read, except Oscar. This clock (the "Model I"), to be precise. I wanted that clock. I lusted after that clock. It was from that episode's forehead that my love of weird timepieces sprang fully formed. Well, that and Gerry Anderson's Doppelgänger.

And of course there's a modern version of the dot clock. But at $600, it'll have to get in line behind the Nixie Tube clock. Damn it, why are all the nifty toys so expensive?

My company's new slogan is Strength through Unity. Is it just me, or does that sound a little Orwellian?