Holiday Inn | Towel Amnesty Day

The Distributed Library Project

CD-Recordable discs unreadable in less than two years

BBC archive to come online, free for all?

Should the internet have a President?

saving women's lives

Next time I have to do laundry, I'm going to keep some images in my head from the antique washing machines museum. I think it will make the whole job a bit more palatable.

Images of Native Americans : The Bancroft Library

We're all geeks now

Devastation, Hope in Iraqi marshes.

An interview with Dave Shea, the CSS Zen Gardener

Sometimes the trees strike back

Ten reasons why you should never accept a diamond ring

Monster Cards of the 50s and 60s

Highlights from Liquid Candy: How Soft Drinks are Harming Americans' Health

spam broke the email?

Don Park raises some very good points about how spam is undermining a major communications channel at his Daily Habit. I wonder how many emails I discard because the heading is poorly written, I don't recognize the name attached, and I don't check carefully on all of the ones I'm discarding because they are spam.

100 Oldest .COM domain names

There was a time when you could count them all. But not anymore now that we've been Mooned repeatedly. Just how many moons are there in the solar system?

Accessibility: Build it, and They Will Come

Just what is an Interaction Architect?

Harlan Ellison's misguided, and forsaken television serices, The Starlost sounds like a heck of a lot of fun in theory. If only it turned out that way. (via metafilter.)

I've never really been bothered by Christopher Hitchens until his recent article titled Hopeless - Did Bob Hope ever say anything funny?: Hitchens concludes, "Hope was a fool, and nearly a clown, but he was never even remotely a comedian."

The article is filled with displays of a kind of wit that many of us exhibit and abandon before we leave elementary school. And what is it that makes Mr. Hitchens such a fine judge of wit?

I'd rather watch one of Bob Hope's Road movies that read one of Mr. Hitchens columns.

The idea of a 'Sesame Street' type program for adults, to teach life skills is a good idea. Sort of reminds me of the computer boot camp for executives / cruise adventure that I'd like to start. It would be a fun way to pass a winter of three. And teaching can be fun and financially rewarding.

The Key to a Successful Freelance Career: A Diary

Great points, made extremely well: Burningbird: On Identity and Edits

Business lessons from the donut and coffee guy (kottke.org)

A fun article in the Washington Post about those Messages in a (Snapple) bottle. My favorite story was the wedding proposal.

The veil between what's real, and what exists solely in the realm of science fiction and comic books is becoming increasingly opaque. Wired magazine looks at ten capabilities that mimic abilities that one might be very tempted to call Super Powers.

Suspending constitutions for budgetary convenience? I imagine that there are legislatures that conveniently ignore constitutional provisions all the time. But, it's amazing that a State Supreme Court would so blatantly urge a legislature to do this.

How much do musical choices reveal of your personality?

The mainstream media is catching on to something that some on the net have been proclaiming for a while: Google cache raises copyright concerns

The Village Voice tells the tale of how, upon visiting the wizard of Oz, Big Brother Gets a Brain. Should have gone for the heart, instead.

What the world needs is more art like that of Granny Artemis

I'm going to have to try out the demo for this: iRider Web Browser - Wymea Bay

File swappers try before they buy

Where do your new ideas come from? Why New Ideas are Both Disruptive and Necessary

I wonder where else this advice might apply -- Copycat waitresses get bigger tips. The act of mimicking back what a customer says could have the effect of increasing the amount of a tip that a waitress receives.

Patent Bending -- How business method patents harm innovation and society.

I like the way that Professor James Paul Gee thinks -- read his take on the the importance of video games

It's good to see the Dixie Chicks Strike Back, in front of the Senate, about the power of too much media in too few hands. Thanks Emily, Natalie and Martie.

What is privacy worth when no one has any? Should those who would strip away other's privacy be the first to feel the loss? That's what a couple of researchers are asking, as reported in boston.com: Website turns tables on government officials

This is good -- E-Mail Mobs Materialize All Over The internet is showing promise of being a means of uniting grassroots activists and allowing them to engage in constructive and meaningful protests.

A Small Victory: Tales from the courthouse: What not to say in ex parte letters

Flann O'Brien: A Biographical Introduction

Unbrand America

NASA to study man who survives on liquids and sunlight - smh.com.au

Libraries Planning a Meeting on Filters

BBC NEWS | Business | Workmates' habits 'drive us mad'

Levitated | Walking Things

Some very expressive old mannequins... definitely an improvement over the dummies of today.

taking pictures of fireworks - Tips for Better Pictures

(Almost) to Cuba by Outrigger Sailing Canoe

One of the best Pirated sites on the web. Covers Buccaneers and Marooners, too. Arrrrgh!

Behold the pentaquark

Unspoken of Groups

The Green-Eyed Monster

musicians say no

Building A Home Network From Scratch

censors make us stupid

Beethoven's mysterious Ninth

Pixels turning 50

Shirky: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Looks interesting... World's Smallest and Most Flexible Mobile Printer

by the pixies

I thought the word pixilated had something to do with pixels. It appears that it originally had more to do with Pixies. See: Pixilation: A Type of Movement, A Way of Perceiving; The Uncanny

Some interesting articles and images on Stephen X. Arthur's site, including an article on the history of Fine Art Animation that I liked a lot.

I wasn't familiar with the standards that are used to create forms that work with autofill. Now that the new blogger toolbar has a wallet section, I might consider getting cozy twith the standard so that I can use it in forms. See: ECML v1.1: Field Specifications for E-Commerce

The world’s biggest dam floods the past

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 to 1834

Microsoft Word bytes Tony Blair in the butt

Bill would require customer notification of hacks

I'm siding with the whales. Navy to Defend Sonar in Court

Michelangelo masterpiece goes online

The Matrix Reloaded in Tokyo

Can a single driver make a difference? See: SCIENCE HOBBYIST: Traffic Waves, physics for bored commuters Is there a lesson here that can be applied off the highways?

A Mozart brainteaser

The Greatest Album Covers That Never Were

The Hartford Advocate wonders just how you get back in touch with the Office of Homeland Security

Giant Robot Costume

How the watermelon got its slurp is an interesting look at the fruit.

Motorcycles of the 20th Century

The Road to Oceania:

I had a valuable secret in 1984, though, one I owed in large part to Orwell, who would have turned 100 today: I knew that the novel I had written wasn't really about the future, just as '1984' hadn't been about the future, but about 1948.

So says William Gibson in a fine editorial about Orwell, technology, and an over intrusive government. For all that, there's a sense of optimism to it -- we have the power to make decisions and control our future.

EFF: Breaking News:

...the dinosaurs of the recording industry have completely lost touch with reality

The music industry needs to change. It needs to change quickly.

Master of Design: The CEO of IDEO describes the interplay between technology and design

Lawrence Lessig:

Count this as great news, and spread the word: there are two great souls on Capitol Hill. I’ll see if I can find some more.

Godspeed to Professor Lessig in his attempts to fix the public domain.

Pure Content:

After months of secret negotiations, several hundred secret ballots, and a weekend retreat with Vice President Dick Cheney in his secret mountain bunker, a Class Day speaker was chosen, and it was me. You obviously have made a grave error. But it's too late now. So let's just go with it.

Will Ferrell doesn't sugarcoat it at the 352nd Harvard Commencement...

Web privacy policies confuse Net surfers | CNET News.com:

The dense, legalistic documents that many commercial Web sites post to explain their data-collection habits are more likely to provide false reassurance than clarity to Web surfers

A really good first step is to rewrite the darn things in language that a sixth grader could understand.

If you create a position of Privacy Officer for your company, are you allowed to tell people who the person who fills the position will be?

Those fancy business cards that you've been parsing out to precious cutomers and potential leads.

There's another use for them. Check out how to Make Business Card Cubes

And, if that works for you, there are plenty of other ways to fold paper.

Major in games, minor in work

It was difficult choosing a major in college. I know lots of people who were "undecided" a lengthy amount of time into their education. I also know others who switched as they went along. Sometimes more than once.

If I had it all to do over, I probably would have chosen a science over the liberal arts degree that I elected. But, would I have majored in video games? Maybe. If only it was offered.

Joel on software takes a look at Venture Capitalists, in an article called Fixing Venture Capital. Excellent. It's recommended reading.

A public service announcement, with guitars

You have the right to free
Speech as long as you're not
Dumb enough to actually try it.

-- The Clash, Know Your Rights

You should know your rights.

Especially when you have a camera.

There's a new link in my blog roll -- to plep. Totally fascinating.

Captology: A Primer looks like something that I should spend a little time learning about.

There's a temptation to create my own 'bot and set it loose. Of course, I could be a bot. How would anyone know?

Ok. Ok. I haven't updated in a while. I could plead that I got caught up in the playoffs. I could claim that I've been so busy that I haven't had the time or energy to up date.

I could divert your attention with a quick link to the Cyber Telephone Museum

It's only a game. But, I love the NBA playoffs.

They're eating into my blogging time, my work time, my almost everything else time. It's fun watching a team prepare. Seeing people pick up their games, and carry their team mates is amazing.

Halftime is over. Have to get back to the game.

One of the promises that I made myself when I restarted this blog was that I was going to allow my words to fill the screen. I was going to become expansive. Self-imposed limitations and attempts to censor and edit as I went wouldn't prevent me from indulging in stream of conciousness type posts.

So far so good. It's not easy to write something everyday. It's not easy to let go of expectations that are extremely high. My best writing comes with pages and pages of filled sheets of legal pads condensed down to a fraction of their original size. I'm used to throwing out twenty words to keep one good one.

That can be a bit wasteful, and time consuming, but I've always been pleased by the results. But it doesn't hurt to strive and try, and see if you can get better, and I'm using this blog as the vehicle by which I will arrive at a more economical use of words.

Big companies win by sucking less than other big companies

- Paul Graham, Hackers and Painters

Exactly what goes into the process of creativity? Make sure that you read Paul Graham's article. Graham takes his experiences as the maker of beautiful software, and puts them side-by-side with his attempts to make wonderful pictures.

As someone else who also refused to hold his pencil the way that they showed him in elementary school, I say bravo!

Some fast takes, just because I want to mix things up:

If I were a gambling man, I don't think I could lose eight million dollars in ten years.

The baby picture project is a sterling example of the best of the web. And there's nothing to buy, nothing to sell, and I'm not being treated like a consumer when I visit.

Sometimes, even Mark Pilgrim won't help you. It's for your own good. Swear to God. The lists he mentions are excellent ones, by the way.

Somethings are enough to make you lose your temper, even after fifty years. The McCarthy Hearings easily fall into that category.

And, yes, I'm fully in the camp of those who believe that Cinco de Mayo should be a national holiday in the United States.

I've drifted completely away from the niche I set up for this site. Feels good. Have to do it with frequent impunity. Bye for now.

Ever wrestle and struggle with writing the Terms of Service of a website? It's an interesting exercise, and I'm not certain that I would recommend it for the faint of heart.

Some preferable endeavors: Jump from a bridge attached by a bungee cord. Launch yourself out of an airplane and glide to the ground with a patch of silk and strings. Ride a wild bronco at the rodeo. I'd write more, but I suspect you get my drift.

To some degree, you're either reiterating, or describing for the first time, the business objectives of an organization, and the anticipated interaction between site visitor and site owner.

Wow! Looking at the published entry, it just struck me now how long it's been since I made an update. Amazing that time could pass so quickly. Hibernation time is over.

I seem to have fallen off the face of the planet. It's what happens when you wander too close to the edge. I like the idea of this blog too much to give up upon it, so I will be resuming regularly scheduled updates. Even if they aren't the fully formed entries that I would like them to be. Sort of like this one.