But after spending $20 million in marketing, Lions Gate has taken in only $17 million at the box office. Lions Gate executives privately say the white viewers they were counting on Starbucks to deliver never showed up in great number.

...

Starbucks maintains that the campaign resonated with customers, although it did not conduct polls to determine how many people saw the movie.

"How we measure our success is not always in terms of box-office receipts but our customers' reception," said Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment, who will remain in Seattle.

[ Starbucks Hires Music Veteran - Los Angeles Times ]

Starbucks is apparently making so much money off coffee that they can count a tremendous failure as a success. I had hoped that Starbucks had learned its lesson, because I go in for coffee, sometimes food, never CDs, or marketing, or lifestyle, or any of the other crap they're trying to shove on me.

Wait, what the freak is a dibs?

Dibs ... is a common convention used among friends or siblings to reserve or declare full or partial ownership of a community resource, such as a chair or communal food. As an example, when deciding who gets prime seating in front of a television, if there is one chair that is particularly desirable, an interested party can call "dibs" on that chair; as long as no one has previously called the chair, then it is agreed that the caller is entitled to sit there.

[ Dibs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]

OK, so we now know (since we've all read that wikipedia article) that more rules and thought went into "dibs" then any of us could have cared for, but where does that word come from?

Most writers seize on what seems to be the most relevant older use of dib as a word connected with childhood. This refers to an ancient and very common game known by dozens of other names (jacks, fivestones, knucklebones, hucklebones; pentalithia in classical Rome), though the name dibs is recorded only from the early part of the eighteenth century.

[ Q&A: Dibs ]

Oh, pentalithia! I love that game. Wait, never heard of it. Cool Words points out that pentalithia means five stones. But if it is the pre-cursor to jacks, where did they find the rubber stone?

Wikipedia is the greatest frickfracker that a squankus could hope for:

A placeholder name is used to refer to an object whose name is either irrelevant or unknown in the context which it is being discussed. These placeholders typically function grammatically as nouns—and can be used for people (e.g. John Doe), objects (e.g. Widget), or places (e.g. Timbuktu). They share a property with pronouns because their referents must be supplied by context.

[ Placeholder name - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]

I expect that Billy would recommend it, but I recommend setting aside enough time to really explore the janke.

Someone's got to have done the work for me, right? I just want to have the ability to tweak my Today screen font color so I can read it against the wallpaper of the minute. Didn't take too long to find this:

TdyScheme Changer is a Pocket PC application to change the today scheme colors. It is also able to change the color of the taskbar and soft keys for Windows Mobile 5.0. It is also possible to remove the gradient effect of the bars and set the colors to black.

[ Mobile-SG.com :: Vicott's Pocket PC Applications ]

And free is hard to beat.

Two of the things that most impress me about Indonesia is its diversity and its Pancasila:

On June 1, 1945, during the final months of the Japanese occupation, a young Sukarno delivered a speech that sought to provide the foundation for a new independent nation. He defined the five principles as nationalism, humanitarianism, consensual democracy, social welfare and belief in one God.

[ The Jakarta Post - Petition seeks to reaffirm Indonesia's diversity ]

Sure, Indonesia has had a bit of a rocky road, but what democracy hasn't?

Apparently, I do now.

There are plenty of Task Managers available for Pocket PC. However if you are still searching for the right one, try this software.

[ Magic Button - Pocket PC Task Manager ]

I had been using WisBar Advance, because it skins, and I'm a sucker for that, but even after suspecting that WisBar had less than stellar performance issues, and could have possibly been interfering with normal phone functions, I continued to use it do to the task management capabilities. I rather dislike the WM apps minimizing all of the time, and not closing like I want. So I went looking, and what I found was Magic Button. It works great. My phone is now much quicker and more stable, and thus I am happier.

Nate did point out today that lack of WisBar means lack of cascading start menu, so I went looking again, and I'm now trying out ProgramMenu. So far, so good, but we'll see.

When you distribute an Office document electronically, the document might contain information that you do not want to share publicly, such as information you’ve designated as “hidden” or information that allows you to collaborate on writing and editing the document with others.

[ Download details: Office 2003/XP Add-in: Remove Hidden Data ]

I am not of the habit of typing things in documents that could cause any issues, but I will sleep more soundly (like I ever have a problem sleeping, thank God) knowing that no one else "hid" anything suspect in a Microsoft^® Word™ document that I forward to a client.

5 Realistic hi quality fart sounds,ringtones or notifications for your pocket PC, wind your workmates up with this brilliant soundset

[ Handango Pocket PC Software: 5 FART LOL Ringtones and Notification Sounds by Touch Tunes ]

386 to go.

Great Falls Park, a site that is part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, is an 800 acre park located along the Potomac River 14 miles upriver from Washington D.C. The park is known for two things, its scenic beauty at the head of Potomac River fall line and the historic Patowmack Canal.

[ Great Falls Park (National Park Service) ]

Since I can't remember who asked me, this is how you dance like Sailor Moon:

Let me just say that the Ikea in College Park is abso-freakin' huge.

[ KooshMoose : Whodathunkit? ]

Mr. Moose, All Ikea's are huge. It is sort of a hallmark of the Ikea organization.

Kid's play area? What the heck?

[ KM ]

It may surprise you, but I have taken trips to Ikea without looking at any furniture or having any intent to purchase. For quite a few years Iman and I would travel to the Ikea so I could have a pastry and coffee for breakfast, she could have the 99¢ kids breakfast, and then she could play for the maximum time allowed.

If, like me, you had no idea of how bed spreads work these days, there's this "new" system where you buy a quilt and stuff it into a quilt cover. GENIUS!

[ KM ]

You should head back up to the showroom and look for the couches that do the same thing. Mine is the Karlanda. I have the sofa and a "bench" (like the sofa but with no back or sides). Both of them have canvas covers that come off completely, just like the pillows, and all can be tossed in the laundry. No expensive upholstery cleaning, and it all fits in a standard machine, not even requiring a laundry mat's super size machine.