A Whole Lotta Nothing

Pardon my dust

I'm in the process of moving my blog from an old server to this new one, and in the process I'm moving from one backend technology to another (CF to PHP). As a result, the many bits and bobs I built the original site with are going away, and I'll have to rebuild them by hand. What this means is that the site will likely appear in a rather drab default Movable Type template for the new week or two, until I work up a new design.

links for 2004-10-30

• How to move SQL Server from one computer to another
  I seem to need this info every 9 months or so
  (categories: serveradmin sql utilities)
• Bush team talks tough about finding weapons (quicktime mov)
  this clip from Uncovered is pretty incredible, and something I hadn't seen before
  (categories: bush internetsvets politics wmd)
• Iron Circus: Official November 2004 National Geographic Appreciation Station.
  Best. National Geographic. EVAR!
  (categories: biology creationistwackjobs darwin)
• Folks with Hispanic-sounding last names have votes questioned in Georgia
  "In fact, many of the people challenged were born U.S. citizens and pointed out that they are never challenged when they come to pay taxes."
  (categories: politics via-dangerousmeta voterfraud)
• DRM as Business Diagnostic: The Three Laws of DRM
  Bad code obeys all three laws
  (categories: badcode consumerrights drm)
• No Draft If Bush Reelected Say Al-Queda Officials
  heh.
  (categories: bush comedy draftdodging politics)
• Security hole in Gmail
  Shit, this isn't good. I got a gmail password request email last night I didn't ask for.
  (categories: gmail google security via-dangerousmeta)
• V-O-T-E
  Do it for Walter, just this once.
  (categories: 2004 election politics vote)

Bad Phish

Phishing has been around a while and shows no signs of letting up, if my spam is any indication.

I've seen a steady stream of fake emails that are supposedly from paypal, citibank, and ebay, but check out this latest paypal phishing attempt.

Would you know that was fake the first time you saw it? I'm incredibly wary of these kinds of emails but even this one made me do a double take. If you didn't fall for it, try out this phishing quiz. I didn't score perfectly on it.

When even experts like me are almost falling for this stuff, I shudder to think what most less technical members of my family are falling for.

These phishing assholes are getting good.

links for 2004-10-29

• MyPollingPlace.com
  find your polling place here
  (categories: 2004 election politics)
• 2004's Scariest Halloween Costumes
  hilarious. My favorites: nancy reagan and the littlest prisoner
  (categories: comedy halloween politics via-waxy)
• PARK SERVICE STICKS WITH BIBLICAL EXPLANATION FOR GRAND CANYON
  I once hiked the grand canyon with someone that thought it was formed "in about two weeks after the floods two thousand years ago." They could not explain why we found fossils half way up the canyon.
  (categories: creationistwackjobs nationalparks religiousright)
• The ban is back: Beach runners can't wear LiveStrong bands (HamptonRoads.com/Pilot Online)
  WTF? Schools banning a freaking yellow rubber band for charity and disqualifying athletes? Did I wake up in bizzaro world again?
  (categories: asshats livestrong stupidschools)

Happy Birthday Internets!

Today is the 35th Anniversary of the Internet and it's hard to believe just five years ago I was working at UCLA and attended the 30th anniversary.

links for 2004-10-28

• 'dooced' makes WIRED's jargon watch
  heh
  (categories: bloggingmilestone dooce wired)
• the stranger and the dude
  I want an enormous poster of this wrapping the wall of my office
  (categories: lebowski photo thedude)
• Chicken Costume
  If I had a toddler, I would totally make them a chicken this year
  (categories: children costumes halloween martha)
• Amazon.fr: Livres: Blog Story
  Le Book du Blog (I can't speak french but apparently this is a book about blogs of some sort)
  (categories: bloggingmilestone books french)

The GWB edition of the iPod

(The GWB edition of the iPod, originally uploaded by mathowie)

links for 2004-10-27

• The Frank Gehry Furniture Collection
  I like these organic plastic pieces better than Starck's outdoor plastic couches.
  (categories: backyard furniture modern)

links for 2004-10-26

• Orange County's eSlate voting hardware/software
  I saw this in the Orange County airport tonight. You use the wheel to select from candidates then push the button next to it to vote. I doubt anyone over 50 could understand and use this successfully.
  (categories: democracy e-voting potentialfraud)

links for 2004-10-25

• Ashlee Simpson's band was trying to save her
  heh
  (categories: badmusic lipsync snl)
• It is good to be in a band. (not safe for work photo)
  If you can get past the nudity, this is the essence of rock 'n roll. The entirety of Almost Famous summed up in a single photograph. All the rebellion, fandom, and sexuality inherent in rock 'n roll.
  (categories: groupies nsfw photo rocknroll)

WIRED and Creative Commons

I've been waiting months to say this: Go get your copy of the November issue of WIRED, complete with this free CD. It's a good CD and you're free to remix and file-share the songs to your heart's content. The entire issue is filled with CC-friendly articles that point to a new way of sharing songs online, even including Hilary Rosen singing the virtues of CC.

I'm also happy to note the newly redesigned Creative Commons site, re-architected with the help of Adaptive Path and featuring lovely icons from Doug Bowman. A big push for rethinking the site was knowing thousands of visitors would arrive fresh from their copy of WIRED, looking to know more and try it out. Through testing, prototyping, and testing again, we came up with a new approach to both helping people find good stuff that is licensed, and in walking people through the licensing of their own work. I'll be writing up the entire process soon over on the CC weblog, if you're interested.

For now, I suggest checking out a great music CD that also comes with the benefits of the CC sampling license, and the new website. I think you'll be pleased with both. If you need me, I'll be snoring in the corner, sleeping off the past three months of long nights.

links for 2004-10-23

• Eliyon Technologies
  Search for your site, employer, or name. I think it's scraping LinkedIn and Google for results. Kind of annoying.
  (categories: business dotbomb search)
• Lie Girls... call 212-875-7000
  phone sex parody of the Bush admin, probably the funniest political thing I've seen online
  (categories: bush comedy politics)

More on podcasting

I forgot to include a demonstration of what I meant in my last post about podcasting.

I don't listen to much radio but I absolutely love Fresh Air on NPR. It's my favorite interview show period. Once a month or so I go to the site, skim the archives and listen to the shows that sound promising. Recently I found out they even have an RSS feed, so now I just read the titles in bloglines.

Now that I see the daily shows, I get to skim the archives constantly and I find that I click into about 1 in 10 segments and probably listen to half of those. I love Fresh Air, but the interview subjects are all over the map and many times aren't that interesting.

Imagine if they converted to a podcast stream. I'd be sucking down hundreds of Mb a week that I don't even want to hear. It could get so bad that I'd be hassled by having to delete them constantly.

Now do you see why I'm saying defaulting podcast streams to download absolutely everything may be a design flaw?

It seems like adding a new tag called "preview" could contain the 30 second preview track as an RSS enclosure, and the full track could be a link in another tag. This way, I could "skim" the downloads by listening to them and clicking on the ones I liked. Intelligent software could handle my list of ones I wanted to hear more of, and could pull down and transfer those to my iPod.

links for 2004-10-22

• Joss Whedon visits WHEDONesque
  We should call this "breaking blogging's fourth wall"
  (categories: bloggingmilestone blogs whedon)
• Center for Consumer Freedom - Disinfopedia
  The group behind the Soup Nazi commercials is a front for alcohol, tobacco, and hotel companies
  (categories: evil lobbyists via-metafilter)

Podcasting's weakness?

I don't want to start or jump into a flame war and I'm sure someone somewhere has talked about this (I haven't seen it though), but I've been hearing about podcasts for a few weeks now, and while I was reading a few blogs by folks doing this, I noticed some complaining about going through their monthly bandwidth in a matter of days. Someone said Adam Curry is moving 40Gb of files a day off his server now.

Then I looked at the specs and it looks like it'll download everything in all the feeds you subscribe to. Isn't that a design flaw from the get go? Not everyone publishing their audio files has access to a monthly terabyte data transfer, and it seems like it could be prevented with preview tracks. Audio takes effort, time, and bandwidth for both the producer and the listener, and preview tracks seem like the way to eliminate the bandwidth problem.

Why not load up enclosures by default with 30 second previews? Think excerpts for blogs, thumbnails for huge images, or how the iTunes music store works today. You listen to a clip, and if you like something, you can flag it and download the rest on demand, or later in a queue (build software to make this easy).

Seems like it'd solve the bandwidth problem for most folks, as they could subscribe to more feeds and sample before downloading.

Keepin' it simple

This week, I've heard half a dozen democrats say they were supporting Bush for election based on a single issue: security. They all have the same story, pretty much in disagreement with everything else Bush stands for, but they believe he'll kick more ass in the middle east.

In the debates, Bush made it clear that his plan for keeping us secure at home was simple: always be on the offensive. He got a lot of play from it and a lot of support. But the idea of starting wars to be safe defies logic to me.

Let's say you're on a long road trip, looking for a bite to eat and a drink so you pull into an unknown bar. The place is pretty rowdy and you're kind of concerned for your safety. So you go on the offensive.

If you walked around the bar starting fights with half a dozen of the largest guys, do you think you'd be safer?

Now, I'm not saying wimpering in the corner, crying softly before you leave is a better idea, but certainly a rational person might do something in the middle between those extremes? Because that's what "always on the offensive so we can be safe" is -- it's an extreme.

links for 2004-10-21

• The Car Blog: Rants and opinions about the world of automobiles.
  Amazing looking new blog about cars. For such a popular subject, I'm surprised that a) the denton and calacanis car blogs are boring and b) there isn't an existing 5 year old blog about cars
  (categories: blogs businessblogs cars)
• Kerry watching the game - Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos
  You can almost hear a "wicked pissah" and "don't be retaahhhhhded" coming from the room
  (categories: kerry sox)
• FINELIVING: Dwell
  My favorite magazine just became my favorite show. 30 minutes of weekly modern architecture porn.
  (categories: architecture dwell modern)
• Who holds the copyright to the Universe?
  Great back cover of the Public Library of Science Medical Journal
  (categories: copyright creativecommons science)

Do it for Buckner

I can dream, can't I?

I watched Allie Pelosi's presidential race documentary on HBO the other night and remembered fondly back when Dean was king and Edwards was running. Then I remembered back when Edwards blogged at Lessig's site for a week, taking feedback and comments from all.

And as I was watching the news tonight and hearing about a tie or slight lead for Kerry I started thinking about Kerry's possible cabinet if he wins.

Then the idea hit me: Attorney General Lawrence Lessig.

Think about it. Would he want to expand FBI, CIA and Homeland Security monitoring of your life? Would he wage first a war on porn, then a war on civil liberties, a war on (some) drugs, and a war on intellectual property? Heck no.

And picture this: no more press conferences. AG Lessig would give weekly PowerPoint presentations that would blow everyone away.

Ok, so maybe he's not ready to be an AG, with so little public litigation experience, but maybe an even better idea would be this: FCC Chairman Lawrence Lessig.

Imagine a FCC that doesn't spend its time regulating what you can and can't say on the airwaves. A FCC that actually cares about having open, unfettered spectrum for the people, since they actually own it, instead of auctioning off every last megahertz to the highest bidder. Imagine a FCC where TiVo doesn't have to ask first before they create a new feature.

Seriously, this isn't just a suckup to Lessig, I think this country needs a shakeup and if we get that shakeup I hope the folks behind the Kerry Edwards campaign think about putting someone with the interests of average americans in charge of the laws that affect them.

Yea, it's like 1918 in here...

("Yea, it's like 1918 in here...", originally uploaded by nedward)

best title ever for a sox bar photo

links for 2004-10-20

• Bohemia The Punjabi Rapper
  badass outsourcing of hip hop is going down
  (categories: hiphop india music)
• Film Strip International: "you're an asshole"
  Great use of Jim's Big Ego song and filmstrip format in Flash
  (categories: comedy politics)
• Republican Switchers
  this blog is on fire with a ton of great resources for mainstream republicans and centrists in general still undecided
  (categories: bush kerry politics)
• Clampdown on Photographer's Rights in New York City
  "Put the tripod away, tourists can’t use tripods, only professionals can use tripods and you have to have a permit."
  (categories: dumblaws photoblogs photography thisisbroken)
• Rove jokes about suicide
  I heard about this joke, but didn't know there were photos.
  (categories: asshats politics rove)
• adaptive path: metadata for the masses
  Peter waxing about folksonomies
  (categories: ia organization peterme taxonomy)
• telescreen.org: Lies, Damn Lies, and Sinclair Broadcasting
  More than you ever wanted to know about the Sinclair broadcasting flap: remember when journalists used to write stuff like this?
  (categories: asshats citizenjournalism politics)

Crap, not stuff

It's not everyday that I'm the lead in an article, but I just wanted to point out a few things from it. Other than these points, it's a good article and I sincerely hope Newspaper publishers are listening to the cries of annoyed users everywhere. We're trying to send you a message, and I hope you're listening.

1. The author attributes my most heated comments to the NYTimes, but it was the LA Times I was talking about. Look at their insane registration screen, which is the most invasive news site I can think of. The little red "required" asterisks are on almost every option, including your annual income. That's downright hostile to your readers, and why I used to always avoid LAT, but more recently I use bugmenot if I it's a must-read. I remember specifically telling the reporter that the NY Times catches a lot of flak for their registration (they were one of the first), but that it's largely unfounded since theirs is innocuous compared to morons at the LA Times.

2. I don't recall saying I hadn't registered at anything in two years. I probably said something more along the lines of "I hadn't registered for a news site since bugmenot came out" but I don't think that's two years, and I register for discussion boards and e-commerce sites all the time.

3. In this quote:

Thanks to the shared information, Haughley avoided the bother of registering again. "Who wants to fill this [stuff] out," he says. "I just want to read your dumb story."

Anyone that knows me personally knows what I said in place of stuff. It's my favorite word. I say it all the time, and use it as a non-specific noun in almost every sentence. It's crap. Crap, crap, crap. I think you can handle it.

links for 2004-10-19

• Mozilla Extensions created by Jeremy Gillick
  lots of badass extensions: tinyurl, bandwidth tests, and you can even put Google's stock price in your bottom bar at all times
  (categories: firefox mozilla plugins utilities)
• Google Search: site:metafilter.com "I bet you"
  This is only an exhibition, this is not a competition, please no wagering
  (categories: comedy gambling mefi)

links for 2004-10-18

• Traffic Analysis for 10 -- 207.40.144.245
  watching my server go nuts on crossfire bandwidth
  (categories: EV1servers bandwidth utilities)

Oregon: home of nerd-friendly voting

When I first moved to Oregon, one weird thing I learned was that voting is only done by mail. At first I wondered if that was a good or bad thing, as I've grown accustomed to the social interaction of finding my polling place, meeting neighbors, and voting. It always felt like I was actually doing something but I understand it's a pain to break away from work, track down your location, and actually go through with it. On the other hand, I'm pretty lazy about answering mail and if you don't have a permanent address you can't really vote in Oregon.

Now that I've been through a couple of elections here, it seems easier on citizens to do it via mail since you can vote in your free time during the preceding 2-3 weeks before election day and you can look up candidates online while you vote (my favorite feature, it's essentially nerd-friendly voting). I got my ballot in the mail today, spent an hour looking up various propositions and folks running for office, just voted, and will drop it off Monday morning at the local courthouse (it can be mailed in, but I like to do at least some part of it in-person). I'm thinking more states should adopt this vote-by-mail method -- there's no need to worry about touchscreen system snafus, there are no carpools needed to get the vote out, and your only worry is that the ballot gets mailed successfully and it gets counted properly. I bet more people would vote if they had this kind of flexibility.

links for 2004-10-16

• founditemclothing.com
  Awesome: Real Genius replica t-shirts on american apparel no less
  (categories: movies shirts via:boingboing wishlist)
• heather powazek champ, Unexpected, Market Street
  Incredible photo. Perfect lighting, perfect capture of everyone's shock, but there's an odd peace about it. It's like a modern photo of a greek tragedy.
  (categories: greatphoto photoblog)

The battle of the bulge

Everyone's aware that the bulges are clearly a bulletproof vest, right? Why are people still thinking it's a wire in all seriousness? Look at any website selling concealable body armor and you can see what would cause such a bulge. And why aren't people hammering on the white house for lying about it not being a vest? Does the white house consider it a sign of weakness they don't want to fess up to? I think everyone can understand why a sitting president would be wearing a vest (wouldn't you?), but I don't see why they'd flat out lie about it. It seems like a tiny blip that could blow up into a major story if they're not careful.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

Thanks to Leonard, here's a mirror (35Mb wmv) of the Crossfire segment with Jon Stewart from earlier today.

It's tough to watch this as it goes on. It's clear how desperate Jon Stewart seems to make a point that Carlson and Begala are part of the problem, and how he wishes it was a show with healthy discourse instead of a war of talking points. Neither Carlson nor Begala want to give him an inch, and while I considered Stewart's interview with Kerry to be pretty forgetful, it's interesting to see Tucker use it as a way to try and discredit The Daily Show. It takes a while for Jon to give up the fight but the eventual "you're as big a dick" is like icing on the cake.

links for 2004-10-15

• John Eisenhower: Why I will vote for John Kerry for President
  Eisenhower's lifetime republican son is voting for Kerry
  (categories: bush kerry politics)
• Gay time with Cheney book
  someone should scan Lynne Cheney's hot out of print book and put it online
  (categories: bush debates kerry politics)
• Andrew Sullivan on Mary Cheney
  great points all around
  (categories: cheney debates gaymarriage politics)

links for 2004-10-14

• Critical Section - The Tyranny of Email
  great tips on how to work with email, not against it
  (categories: email geekculture productivity)
• U.S.Businesses File Four Times More Lawsuits Than Private Citizens | Metafilter
  The endless cries of "end frivolous lawsuits!" will result in cost savings of 1-4% max, if passed. Is it worth it?
  (categories: election issues malpractice)
• 1,049 federal rights depend on marital status [Scribbling.net]
  Sing it, sister!
  (categories: gaymarriage humanequality turningtheothercheek)
• Pink Martini | Hang On Little Tomato
  they finally release the album they've been talking about for four years
  (categories: jazz music portland)

Great propaganda poster

(Patriot (Act), originally uploaded by b0)

links for 2004-10-13

• - = * g r o u n d * k o n t r o l * = - > NEWS
  Oh shit! A fully functioning retro 80s arcade in Portland? I am so there!
  (categories: arcade pdx retro)
• WSJ.com - Folksy No More, Blogger Firm Taps Big Clients
  Ben and Mena in the WSJ *but* they also got their own illustrated heads. That's probably the biggest news milestone ever by any blogger (better than a photo in the NYT, or being on the cover of a magazine).
  (categories: WSJ blogging sixapart)
• Juris my diction crap from Ben Hammersley's Dangerous Precedent
  The USA hates freedom too. It's now illegal for Americans to consume anything Cuban *anywhere* in the world. Did they just outlaw the Buena Vista Social Club? Makes me want to go to Havana and live it up.
  (categories: asshats cuba politics redscare)
• Mighty Goods: Shopping Blog
  There are so many good things here I'll just point to the main site
  (categories: buybuybuy clothing gadgets wishlist)
• FLIGHT 001: watches
  oh god, so much timepiece porn here I don't know where to start
  (categories: clock watch wishlist)
• The Empathy Belly Pregnancy Simulator Homepage
  heh
  (categories: baby empathy goofy)
• Business 2.0 - October 2004
  Very slick way to view the magazine that isn't PDF
  (categories: business2.0 ebook magazine)
• How many times do you use a towel before washing it?
  Jeez, I had no idea people had strong opinions on this. I go at least 2 weeks between towel washings, sometimes over a month.
  (categories: askmefi bestofmefi laundry towels)
• What words or concepts don't exist in English?
  Great examples of all the weird little things you can't quite explain in English
  (categories: askmefi bestofmefi language)
• But how does it end?
  Every movie ending ever gets joked about here
  (categories: bestofmefi jokethread metatalk)

links for 2004-10-12

• Geographic Index to Flags of the World
  handy reference to questions of "which country's flag has the lion snowboarding on it?"
  (categories: flags utilities world)
• Myhotel London : MyHotel Bloomsbury London
  looks like a nice simple hotel in London, about 150 quid a night though
  (categories: hotels londontrip)

Freedom of marriage in jeopardy

As I was driving to lunch today, I noticed a teen getting into a 10 year old small Honda civic covered in snowboarding stickers, but there was one fresh new sticker that said "One Man. One Woman. Yes on 36."

Then I thought back to the eighties, back when snowboarding was just hitting the mainstream and how it caused such a ruckus in the world of skiing. Almost every ski resort banned them, citing imaginary excuses such as "they'll chop up the snow and make our runs bumpy" and other such nonsense. Snowboarders were instantly made into outcasts, weirdoes, and troublemakers as they tried unsuccessfully for years to gain acceptance. Over the years though, ski resort operators noticed that they started losing money by turning snowboarders away, and when a few resorts broke ranks and began raking in the cash, eventually most resorts complied. By the mid-90s, snowboarding was widespread, popular, and became an Olympic event. Today the number of snowboarders rivals or surpasses skiers on most mountains, and all but one or two holdouts allow them on the slopes.

Then I thought back to that teen snowboarder, getting into his car plastered with a sticker forbiding gay marriage and just how ironic it all was.

links for 2004-10-11

• So long, superman (image)
  Rest in peace, Mr. Reeve
  (categories: comics images superman)

A metric assload of Journey tunes

Seeing this gallery of NYC folks in headphones, I was reminded of just how many little white earbuds I saw the last time I walked around New York City. During the morning rush near Times Square, I could have sworn at least 1 in 10 people walking around had an iPod going.

Then the thought occured to me -- if 1 in 10 people have an ipod in the morning, and there are hundreds of thousands of people going to work, and each iPod has anywhere from 5 gigabytes to 40 gigabytes of storage, what's the estimated total temporary storage of music, across all of Manhattan each and every morning?

Are we talking many, many terabytes? Or are we talking even petabytes of music storage?

Freedom costs a buck oh five

The folks at Paramount sent me a couple tickets to Team America: World Police, which is cool in and of itself, to note that bloggers are worth getting the word out.

I was a huge fan of their South Park movie. I recall laughing at the "unkle fucka" scene for hours after I first saw it. Heck, I even liked their old movie Baseketball. But Team America was just kinda ok. Funny in parts, but dumb in other parts where the humor was totally juvenile. And while South Park featured fart jokes, at least those were funny compared to jokes about asians saying the "L" sound as "R" and jokes where the punchline was the word "fag." It's not offensive, just not funny for anyone over the age of 12.

I've heard interviews with Trey Parker and Matt Stone about this movie, and how they aimed to have it make fun of everyone, and I'd say the came close to the mark. It's not a Bush bashing movie, but it does kinda poke fun at gung ho action movies. It pokes fun at anti-war celebrities as well. Interviews also mentioned they threw the movie together in a very short period of time, and it shows in parts.

The highlight of the movie, and what saved it and made me still glad that I went were the songs. I'm a big fan of Trey Parker's goofy mock rock ballads that end up in South Park episodes and their previous movie. I'll buy the soundtrack for the glorious tunes.

The whole puppet thing never stops being a source of humor, though I kind of got over it after the first fifteen minutes.

Overall, a fairly funny movie, but it kind of feels like the script was rushed and could have been a lot funnier.

links for 2004-10-09

• Electoral College Graph
  woot! Kerry back in the lead!
  (categories: chartsandgraphs electoralvote politics)
• Sanrio Hello Kitty 25 Airstream Trailer - Yahoo! Auctions
  They should throw in a pink truck to tow it
  (categories: auctions hellokitty wishlist)
• Need Sum Wood?
  Bush sells wood on the internets and doesn't know it
  (categories: bush comedy debates politics)

links for 2004-10-08

• Bill O'Reilly talks straight to kids
  You can't write comedy this good. O'Reilly's book for kids reads like a parody of the man himself
  (categories: comedy oreillyfactor politics shutupshutupshutup)
• day 95: celebratin' on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
  Snowdeal Eric's preemie baby may be going home. If you've followed the progress these past three months, this is an amazing triumph
  (categories: baby hospital miracle snowdeal)
• Fatboy Slim - Slash Dot Dash video
  A techno song about SlashDot? I can't wait until DJ Spooky drops a track about MetaFilter. Also, dude -- it's dot org, not com...l4m3r!
  (categories: fatboyslim music musicvideo slashdot)

Better late than never

A couple days ago I was surprised to see Ev was leaving Google and Blogger after all these years, but I'm happy for him. I got to see it all happen from ground zero, back in 2000 at Pyra and those were some of the best days of my life. We just knew we had a winner on our hands and that it was a matter of time before it blew up and changed the world. After a year of dwindling cash reserves, I started to think that maybe I was like every other kid coding in some San Francisco startup, thinking everything was world changing when so much of it wasn't, but I knew someday the app would make its mark on our culture.

I remember back to an eleventh hour discussion of how to get the company back on track, and at one point the idea of charging a small fee for Blogger was on the table. Ev was strongly against it, and despite making Blogger free forever meant no more paychecks for me, I knew that was the right move to make, in the long view of things. Unfettered and free publishing to the world wasn't just a lofty goal, it was the only way to reach the masses. Ev made a lot of difficult decisions while I was there, but most all of them were the right ones in hindsight. And after slogging through year after year of struggle, Ev pulled through, took it to Google, and really raised it to a whole other level. Blogger is now a juggernaut, and rightfully so.

I believe Blogger really has changed the world. It has given a voice to millions and every day seems to seep further into popular culture. And a big reason for that is Ev, Meg, and pb, for making the first really easy to use blogging app that was taken up by the masses.

So while I was surprised by the news, I'm happy to hear it, as I believe Ev deserves all the success he'll get after sticking with it all these years. It sounds like he'll be taking a six-month long bender of travel and fun, but I really can't wait to see what comes next. I've watched a few friends and friends-of-friends get to a point where money isn't a limiting issue when launching new ventures, and it really allows them to innovate. Blogger made the web a place where you didn't just read, you also wrote. Pyra the project management app came out about six years ago and vanished soon after, but there still doesn't seem to be anything equal to it. What comes next is anybody's guess, but I can't wait to see it.

The Long Tail

Two and a half years ago, I wrote this thing about music that was mostly about how a small time musician could exploit the easy distribution benefits online and find a fanbase across the globe willing to buy their music.

Re-reading it tonight, I kind of feel like a physics professor at a small college toiling away at some specifc problem while Chris Anderson's WIRED story "The Long Tail" would be equivalent to a Nobel Prize winning Universal Theory of the Universe.

It's a great article that talks about how emerging businesses are finding the unlimited selection and storage aspect of internet music and book stores allow them to sell very deep into their catalogs, even rivalling their sales of first-run items, all thanks to the easy distribution the internet offers.

links for 2004-10-07

• [rdfweb-dev] Plink
  Whoa, one of the only FOAF apps out there being taken down due to the non opt-in nature of FOAF freaking folks out
  (categories: foaf semanticweb socialsoftware)
• Brad Choate: delicious tip of the day
  delicious power feature I didn't know existed: boolean operators in the URL space
  (categories: bookmarking delicious tips)
• Banana Republic index of "tall" products
  My ape arms are the bane of my fashion existance. BR's size L/Tall stuff is the only vaguely stylish stuff that fits.
  (categories: clothing metrosexual wishlist)
• TO BE OF YOUR GREAT ASSISTANCE DEAR SIX APART
  this showed up in the Trott's email box. Frankly, it might be a scam
  (categories: 419 sixapart weblogs)
• the law of averages: Veep-stakes
  "Gee, we really should recognize their relationships once they hit their death bed." -- spot on analysis of Edwards
  (categories: asshats edwards gaymarriage politics)
• Skinning Gmail with a Custom Stylesheet [persistent.info]
  Awesome "CSS zen garden of gmail" hack
  (categories: css gmail hacks)

Paypal becoming a killer app? Some insomnia-fueled rambling.

I buy a lot of t-shirts and other sorts of goofy little trinkets online, and I realized the other day that I abandon every site selling funky stuff when they use a real credit card processing system instead of paypal.

It didn't seem right at first, as I wondered why I avoid yahoo stores and off-the-shelf payment systems in leiu of Paypal, a payment service that's got its fair share of very rough edges.

But then I realized the real reason: I'm lazy. If I want to buy one of your custom shirts off your site using paypal, it's about three clicks and a quick login that my browser already knows. It goes like this: 1) I want it! 2) hit checkout 3) login and 4) paid! It doesn't matter if I have money in paypal or if it just gets pulled from my credit card on file, it's still just a few clicks and I'll have a shirt in tomorrow's mail.

When I hit a full-on shopping cart payment system, I see forms and forms mean tedious work, and I know I have to dump my credit card into yet another database that I blindly trust won't get compromised anytime soon, but mostly it's the work involved that diminishes my impulse buy. Impulse buying is all about respecting the customer's impulse and not getting in the way of a sale. We're talking about cool looking $20 t-shirts here, which are pure impulse. No one plans a purchase like that -- it's one of those things you see and instantly want and a minute later you can live without it.

By the way, I remember when Amazon's one-click thing came out. It was so good at what it was designed for, I had to go in and turn it off in my account, after buying several DVDs and books I didn't have time to second guess.

This also reminds me of something else: I sat in on some user testing last month, where half a dozen regular folks that use the web (no one had a site or a blog or anything) were interviewed and one weird data point was that every single one of them had a paypal account that they used on ebay to buy stuff, and some bought things online with it. This behavior crossed all boundaries across testers. Young, old, blue collar, white collar, everyone was comfortable with Paypal. Seems like Paypal is already past the tipping point if this many people showed up for testing that used it.

This entire entry was inspired by this shirt site, which to its credit offers paypal as an alternate method. I found a shirt I liked, hit the checkout and was just about to close my browser before I noticed they did offer paypal, and thanks to that they got the sale and I get a shirt.

Also, as an FYI, if you're into these sorts of things, Josh Rubin's site is a very dangerous thing. Read it for a couple weeks and you'll be lusting after limited edition sneakers and shirts printed from someone's apartment in Brooklyn.

links for 2004-10-06

• Dealership: All The Kids video
  great use of t-shirt cutaways, really professional looking low budget video. bubble & speak is doign some great work
  (categories: dealership music videos)
• Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting: Digisette
  brilliant! a flash-storage based personal player that also works in decks
  (categories: clever mp3 music personaldevices)

Not Very Damned Many

"And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam Hussein worth? And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait [in 1991], but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq..."

-- Dick "Fuck Yourself" Cheney, 1992 [via dm]

Mt. St. Helens erupts, go back three spaces

(Volcanoes may halt your progress, young hobbit, originally uploaded by mathowie)

Filed under "Things I never thought would impede my journey home in the 21st century"

links for 2004-10-04

• The Power of Many: Christian Crumlish on the living web (with a little help from his friends)
  I never heard of this until the allconsuming.net bot dropped me an email about it
  (categories: books socialsoftware wishlist)
• New Sony Ericsson S700i
  someone wake me up when I can get this badass camera(phone) for like 200-300 bucks
  (categories: phone phonecam wishlist)
• Thousand Robots: Jeopardy category: Blogs
  holy crap, blogs on Jeopardy!
  (categories: bloggingmilestone blogs trebeck)
• Neiman Marcus Online: American Airlines AAirpass
  lifetime unlimited flights in any class, on any American Airlines flight for $3mil
  (categories: airtravel via-girlhacker wheniwinthelotto wishlist)

You are so off my buddy list

(Funny geek t-shirt, "You are so off my buddy list" seen in Terre Haute, ID, originally uploaded by gruntzooki)

heh. I would totally buy this.

weekly review roundup

I should probably just do these once a week. Anyhoo, stuff I liked this week:

• I loved Garden State. Fantastic soundtrack and great character study. The plot is a pretty basic love story, but the writing is terrific and the actors make it come to life. It reminded me of how much I loved The Station Agent for similarly strong characters amid a basic story.
• I'll admit that I kind of equate Greg Palast with Matt Drudge in terms of how often he is right, and how often he is blowing something minor out of proportion in order to gain publicity. When someone sent me his new documentary DVD Bush Family Fortunes, I didn't have too high of hopes for it. I finally watched it and although it re-tread over a few topics I've already heard plenty about (the 2000 election), it contained a number of choice bits I've seen nowhere else. Especially damning was a section on Bush getting into the Air National Guard. Several officers and military brass are shown in interviews explaining how insanely difficult it is to enter the air national guard. It requires lots of experience, an impecible record, and has a waiting list thousands of guys deep, but Bush got through it all. Since Bush insists he had no special treatment, hearing military personel explain how unlikely that was definitely drove the point home.
  
• Even though I recently had a crappy time at an American Apparel store, their shirts are still by far the best fitting and softest t-shirts I own. I'm constantly on the lookout for designers that use AA shirts, and Protoculture is on my list of places to watch (esp. the "Please mess with Texas" shirt). NerdNYC is another outfit printing most of their designs on AA that I own, as well as most of the TV without pity stuff.
  
• I bought my first pre-assembled PC in about 8 years (I've always built my own) after my 18 month old workstation PC fried its nice ASUS motherboard. For $600 I got an HP with half a gig of ram, a processor that was twice as fast as my previous one, a DVD writer, and a 200Gb hard drive, all stock. It was an incredible bargain and aside from backing up my old disks for a few hours, the transfer to a new machine was smooth and painless. I love that all my browser bookmarks are at delicious instead of my local browser -- it made it that much easier to get back up and running.

links for 2004-10-03

• Jeffrey Veen: Peter Hughes and the Five Tools
  my kind of rock star.
  (categories: mountaingoats music veen)