my uncle, my grandparents and i went to the newish national museum of the american indian on the mall this past weeked. having lived in wyoming most of their lives, my grandparents never failed to educate us on western issues and history, so my siblings and i grew up with an above-average knowledge of western north american native americans, dinosaur digs and rodeos. we even went to their friends' buffalo ranch one time and drove around in a truck, happily leaning out over the bed and feeding the ginormous beasts some leafy things with no disregard to the possibility of death by buffalo hoof. i have some pretty distinct memories of watching dance circles, learning about reservations and dropping in on some teepees. also, i've seen "dances with wolves" multiple times, so i'm practially an indian expert.

anyway, overall we liked the museum. i think the architecture is pretty stunning. the inside of the building is comprised largely of a huge dance circle that rises four storeys in an open air space. there are three or so permanent exhibits that deal with indians from the mayans to the lakota, stretching from peru to ontario. we also saw a few current exhibits on former congressman ben nighthorse campbell's jewelry making (his stuff is absolutely gorgeous), and a space showing two native american indians' modern art (i've forgotten their names, but i took a few pictures of their stuff).

the washington post has a great section on the museum here.

Via Hack-a-Day and Slashdot, an enterprising geek named Shadowmite has completely redefined the capabilities of one particularly hot smartphone, the Treo 650.

The 650 is a pretty sexy piece of tech -- produced by PalmOne (henceforth Palm), it's a cellphone/PDA that people actually like. Integrated keyboard, a nice color screen, not-too-big size... it's a good product, even if it was a step backward, in some limited respects, from the 600. However, one thing has always bugged Treo users: the device has an SDIO slot. Folks make SDIO wifi cards. And similar Palm devices -- specifically the Tungsten C -- support wifi. So why can't the Treo? "Interference with the cell phone antenna!" cried Palm. "Impure thoughts from the user! The fundamental cruelty of the universe!" Basically: we tried, it's not our fault.

Now ask yourself: would I be telling this story if the corporation came out looking like the good guy?

Sorry for the light blogging this week. We've got the official corporate Intern/Child-Of-The-CEO's-Best-Friend in town during her holiday break from college, and somebody's got to begin the lengthy process of breaking her freewheeling collegiate spirit, in order that she might be better prepared for a lifetime of drudgery. So I'm teaching her some programming stuff. Also, laptop briefly dying, applications... hell. It's a mess. Next week I should be back in my PJs, on the couch, and in the mood to entertain.

DCist clues me in to the report that marion barry isn't satisifed with his title of councilman; he wants to be called mayor-councilman, which, for the sake of convenience, would have to be shortened to mayor. additionally, barry said he would also respond to the title Your Supreme Dark Overlord.