Steps for Computer Security

A report today on the BBC noted that many small businesses don't take adequate precautions to make certain that their computers were safe and secure: Small firms fail security checks

What steps do you take?

Do you use passwords? Make certain that you have the most up-to-date virus definitions for your anti-virus software? Do you even have antivirus software? Do you scan your system regularly? Do you scan attachments in emails before you open them?

Do you make backups of your data on a regular basis? Remember, software can always be reinstalled, but once your data disappears, it may be impossible to retrieve it.

If you're connected via broadband, you may not want to keep your computers on when they aren't in use. That connection to the web is a bit of a security risk.

Software patches aren't uncommon, especially from operating systems manuafacturers. Check regularly for security warnings, and updates and patches from those manufacturers.

I'm fond of Zone Laboratories Zone Alarm. It's a software firewall program, which can help you avoid intruders on your computer. If you connect to the web, seriously think about a firewall program like that.

Emails? Set your reader to read them as text rather than html. Shut off preview panes in email readers. Don't open attachments on emails from people you don't know. Don't open attachments from people you do know unless you've been expecting the attachment. If you do receive one, check with the person first to make certain that they sent it.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology have plenty of other ideas and suggestions listed in their Computer Secutiry Division pages, such as encryption for communication, and security for local area networks.

Lawsuit Limits

What makes a corporation a responsible social entity? My opinion is that it starts with how the treat their employees - all of their employees, and not just the top level of management. The next is how they treat their customers. Are they people they provide goods to real flesh-and-blood folks, or are they numbers in a cost-benefit analysis?

Can we get an idea of a corporate philosophy of a company by how much they talk about civil lawsuits and how they would like to see tort reform efforts take place? Maybe.

I'm not a big fan of limiting lawsuits and trying to keep consumers from trying to have a day in court. A civil justice system is supposed to set the standards for our society, and if the average ordinary citizen doesn't like the results of the cost-benefits analysis that many large corporations follow when assessing risk, then they should bring a suit.

This article looks at why the corporate complaints are getting listened to a little more than in past years: Robin Hood is alive in court, say those seeking lawsuit limits

There are businesses who care about their employees and happy customers.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal noted that Costco shareholders might be getting harmed because the company treats employees and customers so well. I think that is a myopic view, especially considering the much lower turnover rate of employees at Costco. And happier customers.

I was visiting with my parents last weekend, and they actually mentioned Costco a couple of times, and how much their like their food, and the way they prepared some of their items at the store. When ordinary consumers start conversations talking about how much they like a store, the store must be doing something right.

Can MSN compete when there's no competition?

Microsoft seems poinsed to take on the world of search, making blogs, news, and web sites its target. Ready to launch this summer, can MSN carve a niche that needs to be filled. I'm not sure that bloggers really need MSN.

Things they never taught me

Why is it that lessons learned the hard way are often the ones that stay with us the longest? It's so much easier learning from the mistakes of another. Things such as "never start your business two weeks after the Yellow pages ads need to be submitted when your business relies upon that advertsing as a primary way of gaining new customers."

This list is priceless: Michael McDonough's Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design School. It's scope goes way beyond designing.

Techno Lawyers need Apply

I've been wondering lately if lawyers are going to soon outnumber software engineers at Microsoft.

With 600 attorneys working in the legal department, and at least 3 dozen current law suits pending, they're a mighty litigating group.

Meanwhile, I purchased a monitor at a corporate surplus sale on Tuesday for $10.00. It was the last piece I needed for a linux server system that I'll be setting up (for my own personal use) at home, to help me figure out if I like Linux. I don't know if I'll need much of a legal background to run it correctly.

The largest new force for education in China

Sometimes it's difficult to remember how powerful cartoons can be. Here's an example to put them in perspective.

There are more than 95 million children under the age of 5 in China. A Bejing publisher has been awarded the rights to bring "Noddy" to them. The cartoon character will be used to inftroduce children to language skills. See: Noddy motors into Chinese market

Things not to do to your web site, part 3

Third in the series, this one is as important as any of the others. OK, I know, that sounds like a variation of the first rule or warning I gave, that when you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing. A slight variation of that is when you prioritize everything, nothing comes first.

Avoid being everyone else.

This one isn't the first step that you would take in putting together a business plan or marketing plan,. but it is a vital one. What is different about your company? What is unique? Can you state it in a single statement?

Interestingly, you can apply a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to a nonprofit, information-only site, too. It's not a mission statement or a motto. What is your site's USP?

more keywords

On Saturday, I discussed keywords a bit in the first of the things not to do to your website. I came across a good article this evening which has more good points on the subject: Seven tips for writing better keywords

Things not to do to your website, part 2

Don't hide in plain sight when you want something back from your customers.

If you want someone to share their name, address, telephone number, and credit card number, you should make that information easily available to them. Let your customers know who you are, and build a level of trust.

Credibilty is a very important part of succeeding when you want to engage in commercial activities on the web. I heartily recommend a visit to the Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility There are some great suggestions there. Keep in mind that you have a couple of purposes behind disclosing information about yourself to your potential customers. One is that you want to prove that you are trustworthy. The second is that you want to have people believe in your expertise.

This page from Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox is also worth looking over: "About Us" -- Presenting Information About an Organization on Its Website

Things not to do to your web site, part 1

Learning by your own mistakes is a mistake that you should avoid, if you could.

It's much easier to learn by the fumbles and foibles of others. I've decided that the few hundred errors I've learned since the mid 90s might make good fodder for this blog. It's salvation to realize that what you are doing is wrong. Much better than continuing to do it incorrectly. Learning that you are making mistakes, or how to avoid those of others, is good.

One of the most important rules to keep in mind when it comes to the birth and care and feeding of your web site will be repeated here more than a couple of times. It goes like this:

When you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.

Today, I'm going to write about that in terms of something I've seen referred to as keyword flooding. There was a time when keywords were an important part of every web site. You would use a meta tag in the head section of each page, and include a list of words in there, separated by commas. Those words would be words that you expected people to use to find your site, or that you hoped they would follow and find your site.

How would having these "keywords" help people locate your pages? Well, a search engine such as Altavista would come along and index those keywords and associate them with your online endeavor. Altavista liked keywords, and indicated that people should use up to 1024 characters in their keyword list. That would fit a lot of words.

But, there are problems with keywords. One of the more interesting articles I've found about the weaknesses of the meta tag and keyword approach is Cory Doctorow's Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia.

The search industy seemed to catch on the the problems described by Boing boing blogger Doctorow (the article was written back in the pre blog days.) A clear indication of the decline and fall of meta tags was the recognition of their demise by Search Engine Watch commentator Danny Sullivan, in Death Of A Meta Tag.

Most people who developed the habit of writing a list of meta tags for their web sites continued to do so. I do, too. But, I no longer try to make the big, big, lists of the past. Keep it to a handful of words, normally the words around which the page was built. When you build your site for a particular market, one of the most important things you can do is know your market, and your targeted audiences, and build the site around the ways that they will use to find the site, and include on the site words that they expect to find.

Those keywords will likely be in the body text of the site, in the description, in headlines, alt-text, the site title, and others.

What does this have to do with the rule I cited above, "when you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing?"

Well, I've seen people put what looks like half the dictionary in their meta keywords tag. Every word that they might believe someone would use to find your site. It does not work like that! Under the old rules of the keywords, every word was important, bt less important if there were more words. By including so many words, you diffuse the value of each word.

So? How important is this tidbit of seemingly useless information if keywords are no longer used?

Maybe they are, and maybe they aren't. People have been claiming for quite some time that Google no longer uses them. But, only the scientists working at Google know for sure.

And Google isn't the only search engine on the web. People do use different search engines. Yahoo used to serve Google results. That has recently changed.

On the Yahoo page How do I improve the ranking of my web site in the search results?, we see this: "Use a 'keyword' meta-tag to list key words for the document. Use a distinct list of keywords that relate to the specific page on your site instead of using one broad set of keywords for every page. "

It appears that the reports of the death of meta keywords are not true. At least for now.

But use them carefully, and don't consider them an opportunity to show off how many words you know about a specific industry.

fear of flying

My father travels quite a bit more by plane than I do. He told me that he has taken to driving instead of flying when the trip is 300 miles or less. He said that the hassle at the airports really isn't worth taking a plane.

There's a brute force, everyone is a criminal, mentality settling in that is fairly well described in articles like this one: Fines Against Passengers Draw Fire.

treading down the sword

I enjoy reading books about other cultures, though I wonder if it's wise to read books about one thing, such as martial arts, and try to adapt their philosophies to another, such as business.

I've been skimming through a translation of Miyamoto Musashi's A Book of Five Rings. It's difficult to read the whole thing in one sitting. There are a lot of small sections, and it reads like a bunch of blog entries.

One of my favorites was called in the translation I'm reading "stomping the Sword." I found an online version (linked above), which gives it a slightly different name, but a similar translation. Are there folks who practice business in the same manner, and with the same passion that a samurai from the 1600s did?

I suspect that it does happen.

Here's that section:

'To tread down the sword' is a principle often used in strategy. First, in large-scale strategy, when the enemy first discharges bows and guns and then attacks, it is difficult for us to attack if we are busy loading powder into our guns or notching our arrows. The spirit is to attack quickly while the enemy is still shooting with bows or guns. The spirit is to win by 'treading down' as we receive the enemy's attack.

In single combat, we cannot get a decisive victory by cutting, with a 'tee-dum tee-dum' feeling, in the wake of the enemy's attacking long sword. We must defeat him at the start of his attack, in the spirit of treading him down with the feet, so that he cannot rise again to the attack.

'Treading' does not simply mean treading with the feet. Tread with the body, tread with the spirit, and, of course, tread and cut with the long sword. You must achieve the spirit of not allowing the enemy to attack a second time. This is the spirit of forestalling in every sense. Once at the enemy, you should not aspire just to strike him, but to cling after the attack. You must study this deeply.

The evolution of digital thought

I didn't start out as a nerd, intrigued by circuit boards and technology. But I did have a thirst for knowledge when I was young, and read everything I could get my hands on.

I've got a couple of degrees, though none of them have anything to do with computers or technology. Then I found myself entranced by databases filled with information, and it was a quick slide towards geekdom.

A friend helped me build my first computer. Now my world is littered with used computer parts that friends somehow believe belong in my hands. Must be the smile on my face when they give that spare graphics card, or network card or dvd player.

Every so often, I get to take a collection of those bits and pieces and make a machine out of it. And I can't help but think of Tracy Kidder's Pulitzer prize winning book, The Soul of a New Machine. The Wired article I point to is a look at the twenty years since the book was written. Anyone interested in project management or starting a small business, or working in the technology field could find a lot worse ways to spend their time than read the original. After you've done that, I'd recommend revisiting the link from Wired.

I also felt a bit of the same excitement, following a link from blogdex, in reading A History of Apple's Operating Systems. Makes me want to break out the old system seven machine I used for a while.

Rewarding Fridays

To every week ad beginning and an end. I'm excited about getting started on Mondays, and thrilled to make it to Fridays.

I've been thinking that a reward incentive plan for Fridays is a good idea. Not happy hour at the end of the day, but something, anything that acts as a pat on the back for a job well done, and a week of fine, fun-filled effort.

One of the nice things about Friday is the ability to spend sometime over the weekend thinking about it. If I come up with some good ideas on how to implement this plan, I'll post them here over the next couple of days.

Defining and Revising Measures

There's an old saw about supervision and running a business that goes, "You can't manage, what you can't measure."

But what is it that you should be measuring? How do you come up with a grasp of the difference between success and failure?

One start is to carefully define your business objectives. What did you write in your business plan? Your marketing plan? Do you have one of either? If not, consider putting one of both together. If you haven't reviewed your plans in a while, consider taking them out, dusting them off, and seeing how you might need to update them.

I was thinking earlier today that it's easy to get stuck in a rut, to buy supplies from one vendor without checking to see the prices offered by others because you've grown comfortable with the relationship between you and your salesperson.

Likewise, it's simple to go forward with business as usual, without checking the cost of doing business.

One of the most difficult things there is to do is to take a step or two, or three back. The day-to-day concerns sometimes obscure the bigger picture.

How much of a profit should your business be making? What types of benefits should it be able to afford you? How do you know that your customers are happy? Consider ways to define the measures you use.

NASCAR and the Fortune 500

An old time favorite, it's hard to believe that it's been a little more than a year since Slate ran Fortune 500, Meet Daytona 500 - What NASCAR can teach us about business. Interesting stuff, it examines the role of cooperation in competition. Highly recommended.

The problem with problems

The greatest and most important problems in life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown.

-- Carl Jung

Note to self: Painful but true, and something to carefully reflect upon.

Work is hard, learning to work should be easy

I remember training someone once, and telling them that, "work is hard." I'm not sure what impression it made initially, but I wanted to impress upon them that sometimes it takes an effort, and commitment, and an ability to rise to challenges.

I've trained quite a few people, actually. I'm getting better at it as I go. I try a number of approaches in showing someone how to accomplish a task, and have learned better to figure out whether or not I've gotten through to them and achieved some type of understanding.

Recognizing that different people learn in different ways is a good start. Some folks need discussion, and others want printed manuals. There are those who have to experience something first hand, and get those hands dirty in the process. Demonstrations, combined with discussions, and hands-on learning tend to work well for a number of tasks.

For instance, if I want to teach someone how to use a computer program for the first time, I'll set some goal, or a series of goals, and break the training down into a number of tasks. The repetition, and frequent usage can help the person gain experience and confidence.

I'll start by telling them what we are going to do, and explain the steps in the learning process. First, we'll start by me showing them how to perform that task by myself, with them looking over my shoulder. Then they will try it out with me telling them what to do step-by-step. We can discuss the process, and the reasons for it some more during that stage. Then, they try again, with me just watching, and present to answer questions if they have any.

Then, we repeat as necessary. The next day, we go over it again, just to make sure that they feel comfortable.

Work can be hard, and training someone to work can be hard, but helping someone to learn how to work can be easier if you have a good method to follow. The one I described works for me.

Tiger and the Oscars

One of the best things happening on Oscar night were the commercials. And one of the best of those was Tiger Woods playing a groundskeeper, trying to get rid of a bothersome groundhog. The story line was based upon the movie Caddyshack, a homage perhaps, to Bill Murray's nomination as best actor.

The scruffy looking Tiger ends up getting a little help capturing the rodent with the help of an exterminator who plays the song "I'm Alright" to lure the critter out of hiding. He tells Tiger that, "It works everytime."

As for the winners of the night - Congratulations New Zealand.

It's not all fun and games, evidently

An article on the challenges of Game Development goes into depth, and provides a perspective that you might not have expected. Game development is work.

just who are these people writing oline?

The Pew Internet & American Life Project takes a good look at online users, writers of blogs, webcam operators, and the demographics of content creators.

Pinging services for your blog

A nice list of Pinging services. Should you be pinging these sites?

Giving out your business card

You're at a convention, or a trade show, or a business mixer at the local Chamber of Commerce, and you've started talking with someone. You think they might be an excellent client for your services. It's tempting to offer your business card, but you don't want to appear too pushy. What to do?

Well..

Ask for their card. People will often ask for yours in return.

Hostility and Takeovers

If you can't beat them, join buy them. That's the underlying philosophy behind a hostile takeover. Often, the strategy works, too. This allows folks to step into their competitor's contracts, and to sell off unused assets.

There are often personnel that can be let go, where duplication of job functions comes into play. How many Presidents do you need anyway?

Sometimes though, just as you think that you have your competitor where you want it, the Justice Department attempts to intervene. As in this Oracle Corp. attempt at rival Peoplesoft.

Adhesion Contracts

More nasty business. Take it or leave it. Those are the words that would accompany the phrase "Adhesion Contract" if the world had its own set of subtitles to describe legal terms. (Maybe it should.)

I like Wikipedia, and am tempted to expand their definition of Adhesion contracts. Seems like a good idea. It's the closest we may have to that set of subtitles.

What is the harm in an adhesion contract? Well, one party has all of the power and decision-making authority, and the other has nothing. There's no give-and-take exchange of responsibilities or obligations.

No negotiation, or alternatives. Terms that only benefit the company in a position of power. Often leading to a large profit. This type of contract is most frequently seen in a deal between a corporation and a consumer, and rarely does anything to make businesses look good.

Small businesses often use customer service as their unique selling proposition to attract customers. It's something that large businesses can do also. But, many of them seem to grow too large, and reduce the value of customer service in their business models. It's an oversight that has cost many companies their customers. It's also within that context that we see adhesion contracts arise.

Another phrase that you might see when the words "adhesion contract" come up is the term "dealing at arm's length." That means that both parties have a say. It's often much better to be able to deal at arm's length. If a company doesn't offer you the opportunity to deal at arm's length, but would rather feed you an adhesion contract to sign, consider working with someone else, if it is an option.

Tortious interference with Business Relations

A quick series this week on dirty tricks in the business world. (OK, that's an ongoing theme of these pages, but sometimes less so than others.)

Sometimes businesses use their relationships with vendors as a weapon against other businesses. For instance, the machine shop that might make parts for your equipment may possibly work with your competitor too.

But, what if your competitor threatens to take their business elsewhere if that machine shop continues to provide you with services? Is this something that could happen? Is there a remedy short of physical violence?

Some jurisdictions have recognized a civil wrong of this nature and given it a name. It's often called something along the lines of "tortious interference with business relations."


Just what does that encompass? A Dallas law firm has a nice description on their page about Business Relationships. Unfortuantely, you'll note afterreading their description, that there is a gray area where the court won't take action. You'll find similar ambiguity in most places. It's not always easy to tell when a business has crossed a line.

Best way to respond if you think that this has happened to you? Talk to an attorney.

Corporations and Integrity

I'm a firm believer in business organizations as social entities, with responsibilities to their customers, and to their neighbors. It makes sense on so many levels to deal fairly with others. Yet, there are so many businesses that aren't. Most of them want to treat us badly and yet still want us to give them our money.

Frank Perdue tells us:

If you believe in unlimited quality and act in all your business dealings with total integrity, the rest will take care of itself.

Heroes and Villains

Verisign won a UK award as the Internet Villain of the Year for their sitefinder "search engine" tied to "page not found" results. Congratulations, guys.

Spam no more

Be careful that your web site doesn't look too much like someone elses. That is what happened when a site took on the appearance of the national no-call registry.

Customer Service Shenanigans

Is the Recording Industry (RIAA) filled with gangstas? That's what some law suits are claiming. I'm firmly convinced that calling 70 million people thieves has never been a wise business practice.

Maybe they should be exploring alternative distribution methods for their music.

Search me is just a figure of speech

The Transportation Security Agency is doing a wonderful job of making the average American want nothing at all to do with air travel. There was a recent news story indicating a trend towards avoiding air travel for business trips of less than 300 miles. Now, we also have to be careful about what we carry in our luggage, because it might just bring TSA fines.

I think our government might be broken.

Race to the Bottom?

Are American magazine covers doing a quick spin dive towards mediocrity? That's what the Design Observer is stating.

I'm not so sure. I like visiting my local News and Magazine shop and looking through the periodicals for the unusual and the obscure. I really haven't noted a decline.

The smell of spam in the morning

Is it quite ready for prime time - a device that allows people to add smells to emails? The BBC reorts on E-mail tries out a sense of smell.

I'm not sure that I want to explore the possible spam implications of this device. But, yes. You could get spam that smells like spam.

Was safety really ever a consideration?

The New Yorker takes an upclose and personal look at the SUV. Are they really safer, as they might appear to be? Big and Bad: How the S.U.V. ran over automotive safety

In the summer of 1996, the Ford Motor Company began building the Expedition, its new, full-sized S.U.V., at the Michigan Truck Plant, in the Detroit suburb of Wayne. The Expedition was essentially the F-150 pickup truck with an extra set of doors and two more rows of --and the fact that it was a truck was critical. Cars have to meet stringent fuel-efficiency regulations. Trucks don't.

What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

When the cost of chips become affordable, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is poised to take off like a rocket. Inventory control and product tracking will become infinitely more easy with this technology. But what steps should you take beforehand if you are considering harnessing this technology. This article might point you towards a helpful direction: Approaching RFID with your business head on

Gone Fishing

Best title of the year for a business related topic in the media: The Business of Ethics Immanuel Kant and the Namibian Fishing Industry

Set small goals and the large ones take care of themselves

Just as success often happens step-by-step in small increments, the same is often true of happiness, of obtaining goals. As Benjamin Franklin said:

Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.

If you need a little light-hearted amusement to start off the day, get yourself a cup of hot steaming coffee and give a visit to Pathetic Geek Stories.

Compassion has a Place in Business

For President's Day, a quote from Theodore Roosevelt:

There is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.

Troublesome Occupations

During times when fishermen can't afford to perform needed repairs, Shrimping Is A Nasty Bit of Business

Makes you wonder how many other people in other industries are taking similar risks.

Henry Ward Beecher tells us that:

No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.

♥ ♥ ♥ Economics is indeed the dismal science, and the Economist takes a close look at the science of love ♥ ♥ ♥

What browser do you use? What if there was a better one, and it was free? See: 13 Reasons To Use Firefox Over IE.

Don't let a fear of the number 13 stop you.

A nice look at poison pills on Professor Bainbridge.com. I wonder if he has posts on Golden parachutes, white knights, and other fun-filled anti-takeover strategies?

Sad news as Lycos restructures, and lets a number of employees go, including the wonderful webmonkey folks.

Normally, I don't care much about the distinction between democrat and republican, nor does my mind turn towards bashing whomever might be president. But,when the US Department of Education gets tough on the hard of hearing, I'm about ready to exercise some sign language on the decision makers. Unfortunately, the best of those I know are obscene, which is somehow appropriate under these circumstances.

From the does-the-fantasy-world-of-dolls-have-to-imitate-real-life department comes news that Ken and Barbie are breaking up. Frankly, I'm floored.

Eleanor Roosevelt has today's quote of the day. Maybe it's about war, and maybe it's just about sharing one world:

We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.

There's just something about the old school black-bound daily scheduling calendars that I like much better than an computerized scheduling program. Sorry Outlook.

Maybe it's the touch and feel, or that you can scribble all over it's pages. Just be careful not to spill that first office cup of coffee on it!

Sadly, for the sake of ecommerce, too many sites fulfill the complaints found on Tog's list of the Top 10 Reasons to Not Shop On Line

As if I wasn't confused before, there's a bit of dueling standards to contend with for syndication. I noticed this, but hadn't paid much attention to the struggle. I suspect that I'm not too different from most people. Atom or RSS?

Out of nowhere, Comcast goes acourtin' Micky Mouse Is Disney worth $66 Billion?

Today's thought, via Robert Frost:

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get into the office.

Sincerely, I'd rather fly naked then have my privacy stripped bare.

Micky Mouse is a RSS man.

And I might be one soon, too. I'll have to think about it a bit. The owner of the Blog Business World Blog suggested that it's the wave of the future in a comment earlier today. I guess if Mickey can do it, I can too.

I've always wondered if those automated phone messages were listening to me hurl expletives at them.

It appears that they will, and they will do something about it.

Eye candy and good css all rolled into one: Web Standards Awards

Rudderless. Directionless. Somedays that's the way it feels when you've got a lot of decisions to make, and no notion of which ones are best.

Where do you find direction? What inspires you, and motivates you thoughout the day?

Here's one to keep in mind from Theodore Roosevelt:

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly, I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.

Remember Verisign's sitefinder? It looks as though VeriSign hasn't forgotten

Powerpoint is a tool. It is only a tool. It is not the presentation. Jeffrey Veen has some excellent recomendations about presentations: Seven Steps to Better Presentations

Why is public access to public records so hard?

I'm not surprised that a school district is refusing to grant work study credits for work at Hooters. A learning experience it was, though.

I started to learn CSS in 1997, and gave up in frustration. Have things gotten better? What about The IE Factor

Very well written undercover piece from Edmonds: Confessions of a Car Salesman

I'm reading about atom and site feeds in the Blogger Forum - Forum, and wondering if it's something that I need to do here, or want to do.

Chami.com FavIcon Generator

Nice article at A List Apart on The Perfect 404

The Medieval European Knight vs. The Feudal Japanese Samurai

Who says that a Cat and Bear can't be best friends?

RIAA raids reminiscent of police busts

Can you hear me now - a history of speech synthesis machines

new speculation about settlers of North America

The Fax machine was invented in 1843, and it's still going strong: Fax - the technology that refuses to die

What you watching tv when you should be watching the road

Do people remember brands?

I like the word "expunged". It's a favorite. As in, let's expunge the words on this Banished Words List!

I like these CSS mini tutorials. This one is the easy way to Liquid layouts.

Congratulations, Sir Tim

Will people answer a plea from wikimedia? I hope so.

Is it an ever eroding Microsoft marketshare?

I haven't really looked over or studied in detail the USA PATRIOT Act, the sequel. Unfortunately, I'm guess that most Congressmen share that lack in common with me. They have no excuses.

This blog really hasn't been as nasty as it wants to be.

I suspect I'm not even going to get a bag of coal for christmas this year.

The next year will be much brighter. Count on it.

The first step will be a new template. Soon appearing on a web site near you.

Information just wants to be free in Coffee-houses

From the helpful folks at blogger comes another in their line of creative tutorials How To Get A Book Deal With Your Blog

Development of frozen light

Thursdays are the third best day of the week.

notestips.com :: The benefits of a fixed width design

There are some really excellent suggestions made in Jakob Nielsen's article on Automated Email From Websites to Customers

How many Patents do you have to pay a license upon if you start an internet video store?

Hamlet - The Text Adventure

FDR should stay on the dime

Kind of fun... The American Package Museum

I've felt like I was trapped in a snow globe all day long, with the translucent walls slowly closing in. The first snowstorm of the year will do that, I guess.

Three times is one more than twice as nice? Bubba Bubba Bubba

It will be a cold, cold day in hell before I believe that the United Nations should oversee the running of the internet.

This is wrong:

'Standardization is one of the essential building blocks of the Information Society,' reads the most recent draft of the WSIS Draft Declaration of Principles. 'There should be particular emphasis on the development and adoption of international standards.'

The mass homogenization of ideas is what impedes growth and limits innovation.

We're getting close to Christmas, and I haven't done a bit of shopping yet. I have a feeling I'm going to hurt my credit cards this year. Ouch!

Ancient Roman 20-sided die

If this new Spam Bill passes, I'll be forwarding every spam I receive to local, state, and federal governments for enforcement, and encouraging others to do the same.

The winners of the Visionary Design Awards will be announced on December 2.

really small guitars