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Friday, April 30, 2004

Hotlinks

Hotlinks from upian:

http://www.google.com/blog/ - Brief, but well written.

Wedding Dress Guy is partially a hoax.
"I'm not working anybody," he said. "All I want to do is make some people laugh and sell the freaking dress," he said. "I posted it last Friday and it went crazy."
But not really. He's just sisterless.

i2hub, the P2P app for Internet2 - you've got to be on a college campus to get it.

New York Times on Steve Jobs and Apple - from Tuesday, but I hadn't read it.

BrowseTV

demand media has video of a recent BrowseTV show.

It's a cable access show by a VJay with a laptop, a webcam, video chat, IM and the boundless resources of the Internet.

Cool.

BrowseTV Website.

How he does it.

The FCC, the First Amendment, and Howard Stern by Jeff Jarvis


F*cked by the F*CC:
And there's the real question: If the government is going to regulate speech, where's the line and who's going to draw it? Is it at the least-common-denominator that makes all media safe for 5-year-olds? Is it at the church door that makes all media safe for church ladies? Is it at my car door so I can still listen to Stern? Is the line going to be drawn just on broadcast or will it extend to cable and satellite--and the Internet? Will the censored be just shock jocks--or newsmakers or bloggers?
He said church lady. Ha Ha.

My iMix "College Radio" has been published in the iTunes Music store

My "College Radio" iMix [ iTunes Music Store Link ]
This is pretty cool.

A new feature of the iTunes Music Store lets you press a button to publish one of your playlists to the iTunes Music Store.

Then people can listen to excerpts and buy songs.

My actual playlist had 171 songs in it, but the iTunes Music Store only has 19 of them online.

Hopefully they'll get more independent music up there soon.

Skunk Works

The original was Skonk Works?
A small group of experts who drop out of the mainstream of a company’s operations in order to develop some experimental technology or new application in secrecy or at speed, unhampered by bureaucracy or the strict application of regulations
Interesting history behind the phrase "Skunk Works."

I just started one up. Shh. ;-)

Google registers to go public

Google Form S-1.

Here's an excerpt from the "Letter from the founders":
Our business environment changes rapidly and needs long term investment. We will not hesitate to place major bets on promising new opportunities.

We will not shy away from high-risk, high-reward projects because of short term earnings pressure. Some of our past bets have gone extraordinarily well, and others have not. Because we recognize the pursuit of such projects as the key to our long term success, we will continue to seek them out. For example, we would fund projects that have a 10% chance of earning a billion dollars over the long term. Do not be surprised if we place smaller bets in areas that seem very speculative or even strange. As the ratio of reward to risk increases, we will accept projects further outside our normal areas, especially when the initial investment is small.

We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google. This empowers them to be more creative and innovative. Many of our significant advances have happened in this manner. For example, AdSense for content and Google News were both prototyped in “20% time.” Most risky projects fizzle, often teaching us something. Others succeed and become attractive businesses.
There's a lot of good stuff to read in here.

I want an easy way to distribute video.

Adam Curry has a great post over on his weblog about getting developers to listen to his requirements.

I made a comment, listing out my requirements for distributing video over the net:
I want an easy way to distribute video.

I'm told that I should be looking into BitTorrent, but am concerned about opening up my system to the world.

The problem is, what if a video I put up there becomes so popular, that it exceeds my monthly bandwith allotment.

Also, the people at Macromedia are camplaining about my use of QuickTime for the video and want me to use FLASH with a front end that requires me to learn a bunch of new stuff and set it up on a server.

I could spend that time learning all that, but it'd be much easier of my weblog tool of choice, TypePad, had a button that allowed me to upload QT, FLASH, and MPEG4 files, that they would then host in nice looking wrappers.

There.

Maybe someone will listen to that.

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Information <--> Junk

This website is cool because it has a link to Bill Murray singing Star Wars.

All I really remembered of it was the part where he goes, "Star Wars, beautiful Star Wars," and I'm not even sure that those are the right lyrics.

I also am a big fan of Murray's "Close Encounter Me, Close Encounter You, Close Encounter We!"

Apple iBook G4: Sweet Deal

iBook G4 800MHz 12.1" $895 after rebate over at Amazon.com.

This is the kind of deal I was looking for earlier in the week!
via [ jjeff ]


Try before you buy a Content Management System

opensourceCMS:
This site was created to give you the opportunity to "try out" some of the best open source and free php/mysql based software systems in the world. You can log in as the administrator to any site here, thus allowing you to decide which system best suits your needs.
via [ Shimon ]

Take 2, Chyron, check it out.

Channel 11 to air behind-the-scenes audio on Web site:
Beginning Thursday, Channel 11's late newscast will provide Web surfers a behind-the-scenes offering for the tech- and news-curious -- an audio feed of what transpires in the KHOU control room.
WHDH in Bosotn should do the same.

Design Eye For The Startup Guy Contest Entries


Entrepreneur and Biz book author Guy Kawasaki has a new book coming out called "The Art of the Start."

He had a book cover contest:
We were overwhelmed with entries to the "Design Eye for the StartUp Guy" book cover design contest. We ended up with more than 250 entries. Due to overwhelming demand we're giving everyone an advance peek at the entries before Guy picks the short list.
Cool.

via [ MovieJuice Weblog ]

Cick Pepsi to get Ben and Jerry's free iTune

I got a free iTunes song by clicking on the Spread the Vote link I posted yesterday.

So I went to the iTunes store to redeem it based on the instructions in the Ben And Jerry's email:
Once you arrive at the iTunes Music Store, enter the Download Code shown below, and follow the onscreen directions to receive your music download!
Your code is valid until June 25, 2004.
Well guess what?

If you click on the Gift Certificate link, the code doesn't work.

If you click on the Allowance link, the code doesn't work.

If you click on the Prepaid Cards link, the code doesn't work.

You've got to click on the REDEEM SONG icon that shows the Pepsi logo wearing headphones.

Makes no sense and it's not intuitive.

How about showing an ice cream cone wearing headphones? Now that would make more sense. ;-)

So I redeemed my song, Falling, off Joey McIntyre's new 8:09 CD, which was just released yesterday.

Nice tune. Pop with a Beatles sound.

Who is this guy?

Robby Road Steamer won the comedy contest at the MilkyWay Lounge and Lanes last night.

He was amazing.

I had a camera with me, as I usually do, and out of the 20 or so comics, I took one photo, of him. He was different.

He was outrageous.

Loved the interaction between him and his keyboard player. Classic.

That routine reminded me of the first time I saw Bobcat Goldthwait at the Comedy Connection in the early 80's.

The main though that I had then and relived again was, "What the heck is this guy doing?"

Gregg ThibideauThibodeau also had a good set and killed me with this joke:
I picked up a chicken hitchhiking the other day.

He got in the car and I asked where to?

He said, "Make a U-Turn, stop and let me out."
Ha!

Spread the Vote!

[ Paste text here ]
I just took the Ben & Jerry's Oath to Vote and I am planning to Rock the Vote this year!

Two voices are louder than one so please join me by:

1. Visiting www.rockthevote.com and registering to vote.

2. Visiting www.benjerry.com and taking the Oath to Vote. You can also enter for a chance to win a trip to Vermont to be a Ben & Jerry's Flavor Guru for a day, plus a new iMac® and iPodTM from Apple®. The first 50,000 entrants can also earn a free music download from iTunes®.

3. Visiting the polls on November 2nd and casting your vote!

Free, open-source rich Internet applications for your blog.

The BlogBox Project.
I'm going to try some of these out.

They're free.

They're rich.

And they're for my personal blog!
via [ Marc ]

Why your 600 pixel wide banner is offset in TypePad

It's those pesky 15 pixels of padding:
This layout is 600 pixels wide. A banner image automatically has a 15 pixel border in a basic template, this is the green area that you see around the banner. The color of the border is set on the Design > Style page for the template, in the Page Banner element with the "Background" color.

To create a banner that fits perfect, you would subtract the 15 pixels for each side border (30 pixels total) from the width of the layout, creating a banner that is 570 pixels wide. The height will adjust automatically.
Here's a message from tech support about it:
Currently the basic template has an automatic 15 pixels of padding around it, to create a frame. There's an example in the above link.

We're planning on adding the option to adjust this in the basic sets, but to remove it at this time would take an advanced template.
More info here.

Monday, April 26, 2004

How do you connect to the Internet?

I went in to CompUSA today to take a look at the new iBooks for my mom.

TVs in a Computer Store?
On my way to the Macintosh part of the store, I walked by the TV section. It was strange to see TVs for sale in CompUSA. I used to work at a CompUSA in Woburn when they first came to the Boston area. Back then there were no TVs in the store. I was in corporate sales and ended up with all the Boston corporate accounts. It was a sweet deal.

Memories of Corporate Sales
Things were going fine, until they opened up the Brighton store. My manager came in and told me that there's an old saying in sales, "You don't own your accounts, you only rent them." What he was telling me was that all my accounts were being transferred to the Brighton store and I was going to have to start over with all new accounts.

It turned out that by having fewer accounts I could focus on them more and it ended up being fine.

HDTV is sweet!
So back to today, as I walked through the TV section, I saw a 50" Plasma HDTV. Whoa! Dude! You know those guys who are staring at the HDTV in the Best Buy ads? That was me in CompUSA. The Celtics game just came on and it was amazing. That TV was even on sale for $500 off. Only $9,499. What a deal. If I ever got a TV like that for my house, I'd need to build another room to fit it.

The Mac Weight Test
So I finally left the TV department ansd went over to the Mac area. I was doing a weight test on the Macs to see which one my mom could lift.

eMac - NO.
iMac - NO.
iBook - YES.

So I'll keep that in mind.

Welcome

Then a sales man approaches and asks if he can ask me a question. How do I connect to the internet? Cable modem I tell him. He says that's great because AOL Broadband can be added on top of my cable subscription to give me a whole world of entertainment. I told him to save his breath for someone who might be interested. I said that in a nice way. It might seem harsh written here like this, but I was kind.

Getting a cable modem finally freed me from the grip of AOL. [ Goodbye ]

An Aquarium without any of the hassle
On my way out I saw this cool aquarium on a Macintosh. It's probably been around for a long time, but this was the first time I'd seen it.

It's cool. You can download a free three fish marine aquarium demo. It has bubbling water and everything!

My wife is going to be so mad when I leave it running.

Hundreds of thousands march on Washington for abortion rights


Ali G is there:
British comedian 'Ali G,' played by actor Sacha Baron Cohen (L), interviews a pro-life demonstrator during a march for women's rights in Washington, April 25, 2004.
That's great news!

Content Management Systems for alternative media

I'm looking into systems to set up an alternative media website.

Here are a few that I found today:
The independent media center uses Mir is an Open-Source content managment system.

The Boston Indymedia Center runs on dadalMC.
dadaIMC also sports a new "license" section, allowing the author to specify a distribution license, selecting from public domain, standard copyright, or one of the Creative Commons licenses.
The Wes Clark Community Network used Scoop. Here's an interesting one, publicaccesstv.net.

Hey look, demand media runs on Scoop too!

DV Guide at dv.open4all.info:
The goal of this project is to create a content sharing platform consisting of contributors and corerspondents recruited from young audiences and students distributed throughout the global mediascape who are engaged in direct reporting via collective production of Internet and broadcast news clips.
via [ unmediated ]

Rob found The Free Network Project.

Jeff Jarvis informs us that goskokie just went live. It uses geeklog.net

Marc Canter says Drupal is his CMS of choice.

Do you have an open source content management system that you like?

I'm looking for one that would allow for the uploading of articles, photos and video.

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Win the war, lose the peace

Jason Vest writes in this week's Boston Phoenix, Bad days ahead:
AS THE SITUATION in Iraq grows ever more tenuous, the Bush administration continues to spin the ominous news with matter-of-fact optimism. According to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Iraqi uprisings in half a dozen cities, accompanied by the deaths of more than 100 soldiers in the month of April alone, is something to be viewed in the context of "good days and bad days," merely "a moment in Iraq’s path towards a free and democratic system." More recently, the president himself asserted, "Our coalition is standing with responsible Iraqi leaders as they establish growing authority in their country."

But according to a closely held Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) memo written in early March, the reality isn’t so rosy. Iraq’s chances of seeing democracy succeed, according to the memo’s author — a US government official detailed to the CPA, who wrote this summation of observations he’d made in the field for a senior CPA director — have been severely imperiled by a year’s worth of serious errors on the part of the Pentagon and the CPA, the US-led multinational agency administering Iraq. Far from facilitating democracy and security, the memo’s author fears, US efforts have created an environment rife with corruption and sectarianism likely to result in civil war.
This is bad news.

ONE-MINUTE TUTORIALS...on Photography

Jack Driscoll: On Photography:
Ed Fitzgerald was a well-known photographer who in his later years became a wire service and newspaper photo editor. He was considered an expert on which lens to use when. But there was another major factor that enhanced his prize-winning photos: lighting.

Most photographers realize that shooting an image from the correct angle is crucial to the creation of distinctive photographs. Fitzgerald took it one step further, making sure that the light on his subject was just right.

One day he was assigned to cover baseball slugger Ted Williams who was working out at the ballpark after recovering from an injury. Williams tended to be antagonistic toward journalists, but Fitzgerald engaged him in conversation about camera shutter speeds while maneuvering Williams to a spot on the first-base line where, in mid-conversation, Williams took picturesque practice swings with his back to the field. More importantly the lighting was perfect at that spot.

On the way back to the office, Fitzgerald stopped his car in the middle of the street in front of city hall, having spotted an old man with a white beard sitting on a low wall reading the paper. The noon sun was glancing off the newspaper, illuminating the facial image. Fitzgerald crouched, snapped the photo and jumped back into the car. That profile photo appeared in newspapers around the US and won another major contest.

Fitzgerald was an artist who saw images in the right light.
That's just one of 11 tutorials.
MIT Media Lab Offers a Simple Recipe for Publishing Homegrown News.
Veteran journalist Jack Driscoll's research group has teamed up with senior centers and schools around the world to teach would-be journalists how to write and publish community news. The program gives participants simple online publishing tools -- and a few key lessons in how to be reporters and editors.
I followed a link to the Silver Stringers site that had a neat page on how to be a journalist.

Somone asked that question of a reporter in one of the BloggerCon II sessions, but it couldn't be answered in a few sentences.

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Secret Garden


The Jamaica Plain Garden Club held it's first meeting of the season on Saturday April 24th.

It was a field trip to the Forest Hills Cemetery Greenhouses.

We were taken on a tour by Brian King. Brian showed us around the greenhouses that were built in 1899. Inside the greenhouses, we saw many types of plants that were being propagated for Spring planting.

Here's a photo album of our tour!

Hey, there's a NetFlix on my Tivo!

Netflix to deliver films via web in 2005
"We're not interested in downloading to the computer," Mr Hastings said, but rather expanding wireless connections in the home from a broadband Internet connection to the TV.

Another option would be to send digital movie files to existing set-top boxes like TiVo. TiVo chief executive officer Mike Ramsey serves on the Netflix board.
Hmm.

Friday, April 23, 2004

to Joss Whedon

Bonjour Joss.

It's hard to be in touch with you so I try with this web page. Perhaps I'll be lucky !
I'm a french filmmaker (I produce, direct and sometimes act). You can watch the video To Joss Whedon, a special message for you, and À travers elle, my last short movie with a scene tribute to Buffy.

In France there aren't show like those you produce. I admire your work very much and I'd like to join your team for any job.

Please if you have time, watch my videos and send me a message at chloe@tojosswhedon.com.

Chloé Micout
That's Gold! Blog Gold!
via [ Jack ] who knows what I like: Hot Girls and Video Blogs.

Rock Against Bush


The "Rock Against Bush Vol. 1" features 26 of the most influential rock bands in America right now uniting mainstream and underground rock to speak out against the Bush Administration. It includes bands like Offspring, Ministry, NOFX, Social Distortion, Pennywise, Descendents, The Ataris, and many more.
Rock on.

Doonesbury: Banned in Boston!


The Boston Globe did not publish Doonesbury today.

Boston Globe fails to provide a link back!


The Boston Globe, along with many other newspapers, published photos of military coffins in their papers today. The paper edition of the Globe also had a story, but neglected to give credit to the website that got the photos released. This story is all about he power of the internet to allow citizen jounalists to get the truth out. The Globe does a disservice to it's readers by omitting the URL of the site, The Memory Hole.

All the Globe says is:
A website published dozens of photographs... The photographs were released last week to First Amendment activist Russ Kick... After Kick posted more than 350 photographs on his website...
The online site of the Globe, boston.com, doesn't have the print version of the story yet. They have a photo with a caption.

Here's part the caption:
...The photo was released to a website by the Air Force on April 14 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Hey, how about a link back?

Here at Off On A Tangent, we posted a link to the website, The Memory Hole, yesterday at 7:54 AM.

We beat Drudge, who posted it at 11:38:18 ET. He didn't post a link back either. Drudge says, "Hundreds of photos capturing flag-draped caskets carrying dead soldiers from Iraq have hit the Internet."

That's just bad manners.

UPDATE:
The Globe responds:
Dear Steve Garfield --

... I will plead guilty to (and apologize for) bad manners on the Globe's behalf. More important, I will ask the news desk to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Thanks for writing.
Chris Chinlund

Globe Ombud
Thanks!

David Lawrence helps you legally download digital music that rocks

An Open Letter to Music Pirates and "DVD Jon":
No doubt you've all heard by now that you have a new tool you can use to pirate music, this time by stripping away the copy protection used by the iTunes Music Store. It's called QTFairUse, and it was created by the same misguided punk, Jon Johansen, that created DeCSS to crack DVDs. The title would seem to indicate that there is something in the fair use section of the Copyright Act that is relevant to the creation and use of QTFairUse.

Um, no.

You, Jon Johansen and others may have deluded yourselves into thinking that this tool is about fair use, but you're engaged in fantasy and mass rationalization. It would be helpful to the debate if you would stop such behavior and fortune-telling, and consider the actual facts.
He wants people to respect intellectual property rights.

Cory Doctrow had an iTunes horror story.

I don't think people should pirate music.

I think artists should get paid for their work.

I don't like copy protection that hinders my ease of use of media that I have paid for.

TypePad's got a new logo based on a lily pad


They's also got some new features like a File Manager and a more direct way to add images.

16 hours Baseball Time Lapse

For people who think the game of baseball is too slow:
PF Bentley created a great Timelapse Movie of the California Angles Baseball Park - including a full Baseball Game. The total time was 16 hours with a frame capture rate of 3 seconds compressed in 55 seconds.
You gotta love the seventh inning stretch.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Call Drew Carey Cobra

Channel 101 Prime Time Shows.
Check out Episode 2 of 'Call Me Cobra' starring Drew Carey.

What kind of car do you drive?

Jobs, Apple shareholders talk marketshare:
A shareholder to criticize Jobs' comparison of Apple and BMW: When marketshare numbers are released, the perception is that Apple has a small percentage of the market, even though they may have a large percentage of particular markets, like education.

People don't avoid buying a BMW because they are worried about BMW's marketshare, suggested Jobs. "Ultimately what we have to do is be successful," said Jobs.

Jobs asked the shareholder, "What kind of car do you drive?"

"A BMW," she said to loud applause and laughter.
Ha.

Freedom Of Information: Photos of Military Coffins

Score one for freedom of information and the public's right to know.
The Memory Hole filed a Freedom of Information Act request for photographs of American servicemen and women who died in Iraq. After an initial refusal, the request was granted.
via [ Metafilter ]

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Run, Steve, Run


I'm in the process of editing all the footage I shot on Marathon Monday, of the 'Run, Steve, Run' footrace.

Here's a short trailer. [ QuickTime ].

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

When is 8oz really 16oz?


The recipe calls for 20oz of Cabot Sharp cheddar all natural shredded cheese.

BUT, when you look at the package, it says, "NEW WT. 8 OZ." and then over on the right it shows a little picture of two measuring cups and underneath it says "2 CUPS."

What is the deal?

How am I supposed to figure out how much I need to buy for a recipe that requires 20oz?

The safe play would be to get (2) packages.

Well, it turns out that one package is enough, even though it is 4oz short.

I guess it has something to do with the difference between weight and volume.

Maybe I should have paid attention in High School Cooking class.

Hey, wait a minute! I never took that class.

The Price of War

In past wars, this photograph by Tami Silicio that ran in the Seattle Times would be just one in a series. Previous administrations had to contend with the reality that such pictures would be published. Inevitably, the public would stop thinking about dead soldiers as statistics in some remote video game, and wake up to the fact that the soldiers were, in fact, real people who died following orders based on decisions made by our leaders. If the cause was deemed just, the public accepted the human and economic toll. If it wasn't, there would be hell to pay.

Since the 1991 Gulf War, the Department of Defense (populated by many of the same decision-makers as the current regime) implemented guidelines that prohibit photographers from shooting flag-draped coffins. I have yet to hear a reasonable explanation for this rule as there are no identifying markings that would invade the privacy of a fallen soldier. It's just a way to wage war on the cheap. No flag-draped coffins equals less public outrage.

Take a good hard look at the image. Shouldn't we, as a free society, have access to what is happening in our name?
via [ 1115.org ] by way of [ Romenesko ]

UPDATE:
Woman loses her job over coffins photo.
via [ Random Abstract ]

Make it Progresso instead


CAMPBELL¹S CELEBRATES ANDY WARHOL TOMATO SOUP CANS
Nearly 40 years after Andy Warhol transformed Campbell¹s soup cans into art form, Campbell celebrates the pop artist with limited edition soup cans bearing his colorful renditions of the classic tomato soup label.
Why can't Progresso celebrate Andy Warhol?
via [ boing boing ] who got it at [ WOW ]

Lens, Lens, Baby

The Lensbaby makes edges blurry:
Craig invented the Lensbabies Flexible Lens Mounting System (Patent Pending) in an effort to replace his Holga™ film camera with its digital equivalent. After getting enthusiastic feedback from fellow photographers longing to create unique imagery for their clients, Craig decided to make Lensbabies available to everyone.
It'd be cool to get one of these for a video camera.

What digital camera should I buy?

Mastering Digital Photography and Imaging, Chapter 1: Essential Digital Imaging Equipment. Pt. 1.
If you've ever wanted to buy a digital camera, this guide demystifies the world of digital photography and imaging - a must-read whether you're a photography enthusiast, a gadget lover, a novice photographer, or anybody who regularly works with images.
This article explains everything you ever wanted to know about digital cameras.

Sunday, April 18, 2004

I forgot that 24 was on tonight! Arggggg!

But lucky for me FX Gets Encores of 24.
FX will rebroadcast "24" at 11 p.m. ET Monday and 6 p.m. ET Tuesday, three hours before the show returns to its regular spot on FOX.
Stupid Bush.

Vote Kerry.

He won't pre-empt American Idol or 24.

RSS Feeds Now SHORT

For all of you reading my weblog via an RSS reader, I just wanted to let you know that I just changed my RSS feed from FULL posts to SHORT because some web sites were using my content in violation of my Creative Commons license.

I wish I didn't have to do it.

Links from BloggerCon

The Iraq War Reader.

Wendy's Blog.

PubSub.

Jay Rosen - Press Think
- "I only understood 50% of what he said, so I filled in the rest". [ pause ] "That was a joke."

- "Teach people to be interacting citizens."

- "Interrupt Automatic Thinking."


(Journalism <-> Blogging) = Gangs of NY

Christopher Lydon likes I.F. Stone, the genius.

bloglines - people seem to like it.

Best Comment from the Personal TV Networks Session - "I'd like to see a Steve Garfield Channel."

Weblogs Inc.

Bang It Out - A Kosher Comedy Community.

adrants has ads that are like posts - AdverPosts.

Star Wars Kid - The official unofficial Ghyslain website.

Amy's New York Notebook - She's got a photoblog on top of her weblog!

megastyles.

The Blogbook - A guide to legal blogging.

Buzznet.com - A photoblog community.

Andrew Grumet's Weblog
The highlights for me were learning about Steve Garfield's videoblog and John Perry Barlow's surprise session on "the emotional life of the blogosphere".
Thanks Andrew!

Uncertainty

Elin over at BloggerdyDoc writes:
I wanted to see him all week. His e-mail declined a movie date we had agreed on earlier.

My week is a bit crazy but I hope to see you soon.

Later in the week there was another e-mail.

Are you doing anything fun this weekend?

I replied, but he never followed up.
Elin has some remarkable writing on her site.

Makes me want to write something that shares the personal details of an awkward encounter. Maybe I'll experience something worth writing about this afternoon?

Steve Garfield: The Movie

Jason Scott interviewed me in Ferbrary of 2002 for his documentary on BBS's.

Back in 1984, I used to run a BBS called MacBoston. It was a time of 1200 baud modems and dialing into bulletin board systems that people set up on extra phone lines. Many were single line systems, but some supported multiple users. Jason recalls interviewing me about my first encounter with someone else on a multiuser system.
Steve's enthusiasm about the subject comes off pretty handily during the clips I've garnered from the interview, including a really incredible one about the realization of being online in a multi-user environment. In a nice story about bumping onto someone online, he really captures the feeling many people might have with adjusting to meeting a real person across the computer.
He's got a new trailer for BBS: The Documentary up on his website.


John Perry Barlow's Desktop: The Barlowettes


The Barlowettes.

I sat next to John Perry Barlow at BloggerCon. That's the picture he had as his desktop wallpaper.

Sounds like he lead an interesting session. More here, here and here.

Here's John Perry Barlow's Blog.

Saturday, April 17, 2004

The Cyberguy on WB56 isn't local

I just watched a report by The Cyberguy on WB56.

He's not local.

The Accordion Guy


I shot some video of The Accordion Guy while at lunch during BloggerCon II today.

It was a great day and I took a lot of notes. I'll post the highlights tomorrow.

Why is fasbnet.com using my complete Donald Trump post on their web page?

Here's the page:

http://www.fasbnet.com/people/Donald-Trump.htm

They also took my complete Fantasia Barrino post too.

They are violating the rules of my posted Creative Commons License.

I just asked them to remove the content.

UPDATE:
They are removing it and said:
Sorry about that Steve,

It wasn't deliberate, and I will remove the information as soon as possible...

But you do realize that when you post material via RSS you are actually SYNDICATING it, and it will wind up
in people's RSS aggregators, readers, etc. I Actually got your content through an RSS SEARCH ENGINE,
Feedster(http://www.feedster.com), or Daypop(http://www.daypop.com), rather than your site
directly, (I haven never even visited your site) so I believe you are the one sending your information out
for the world to see and use.

RSS by it's nature is "freely syndicatable", and for education purposes was started by netscape and inteded
for webpages originally. "Readers" and "Aggregators" came afterward.

Copyright law has a "fair use" clause, and IMO, when someone has a button that says "Syndicate this" i.e.
an RSS or XML button (I'm not saying you do, but your site does show up in an RSS search engine) then using
that material is "fair use".

Once again Steve, I didn't deliberately take your material, it's already out there for the world to see
and/or use. If you want to restrict your information, take it out of the search engines, or password protect
it or something.

Sorry about all of this.
Shouldn't my Creative Commons License carry through on the RSS feed?

I own my content, right?

Comments please.

Friday, April 16, 2004

BloggenCon Kickoff Dinner

I ate dinner at Durgin Park with a great group of people who are going to be at BloggerCon tomorrow.
Here are some of them:

Ralph Poole of What Ralph Knows who tried out for Joe Mozian's My Life is a Sitcom. His wife Barbara is an artist.

Shimon Rura, who has frassle, a weblog stream of collective consciousness thingie that I need to delve into.

Jessica Baumgart, also known as J of J's Scratchpad. Librarians are sexy and funny. She gave me her business card.

Hei Lun Chan who is part of a group blog, Begging to Differ.

JR took pictures.


Halley wondered if I fit enough words on my name tag.

Sooz says I can wear the nametag for 98 hours and then I have to take it off. She took some pictures too.

Impeach?

Journalist Shares War Secrets.
"President Bush, after a National Security Council meeting, takes Don Rumsfeld aside, collars him physically and takes him into a little cubbyhole room and closes the door and says, 'What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq?' What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret," says Woodward.

"...The end of July 2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War, which Congress has approved. ...Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this.
Tune in when Bob Woodward discusses his new book, which reveals secret details of the White House’s plans to attack Iraq, for the first time on television in an interview with correspondent Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, Sunday, April 18, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
via [ Atrios ]

Bush Secretly Ordered Iraq War Plan: Discussion.

The Apprentice winner seems to be a bad driver

Bunsen writes about Bill's final ride in Apprentice Friday: Finale Edition:
Bill hopped into his new Chrysler Crossfire and drove off into the night, triumphantly accelerating into Midtown Manhattan gridlock, hardly noticing the car's top was down in the middle of a chilly April downpour.
Bill also forgot to put on his seatbelt AND didn't look to see if any cars were coming before pulling out into the street.

Chumworth doesn't know how he'll fill up his empty Thursday evenings:
Now I'm forced to fill that awful gaping, sucking chest wound of a void in my Thursday night TV schedule.
Dave Pell enjoyed Trump's every word:
OK, now that the details are out of the way, we can go back to talking about what really makes the show The Apprentice a hit. ... It's The Donald. At no time was that more clear than last night when the boardroom walls were swept away to reveal an enthusiastic studio audience to which Trump responded by repeating what I think should be the new trademarked tagline of the show: "Settle Down!"
Beth makes a comment over at buzzmachine:
I found it fascinating and telling that the one person on the show who had worked in Washington was the worst at business and best at lying, dogding responsibility, and self promotion - Omorosa.
The Apprentice: Guest Starring George W. Bush.

Jesse Ventura for President 2008

Jesse Ventura Eyes 2008 Presidential Bid.
One of his first acts would be to try to abolish the income tax in favor of a sales tax, which Ventura says is a better indicator of wealth.
Run, Jesse, Run!

Thursday, April 15, 2004

When is a sale at Stop & Stop not a sale?

I went in to Stop & Stop this afternoon and bought the Special K that was on sale.

It was on an end cap with a big sign that read, "BUY 3 and SAVE $5."

I used to work in retail and know that these kinds of signs just want you to buy more than you really want. You usually still get the sale price when you buy one.

So I figured that if I bought one, I'd still get the sale price.

How much do you think one box of Special K, regularly priced at $3.69, ended up costing me?

A. $2.02
B. $3.69
C. $ .86

If you answered A, you calculated the same amount as me, but I wasn't charged that amount.

If you answered C, you are using a calculator with Polish Notation and keyed it in wrong.

If you answered B, you figured out what it cost me.

It seems that Stop & Stop would only apply the sale price to your purchase, if you bought three boxes of Special K.

I don't think that's right.

UPDATE
Consumer Relations at Stop & Shop responds:
The sale was to buy 3 and at the end you would get 5.00 off. I am sorry that you thought that if you purchased 1 you would still get the sale price. I am sorry for any confusion you experienced. Please accept our sincere apologize for any inconvenience you had.

FREE mp3's from Boston College Student Musicians

MP3'S from the Music Guild

Hear original compositions--acoustic folk tunes, electric guitar riffs, power pop--by members of the BC Music Guild, a student-run network of more than 250 musicians on campus.
If you find anything good over there, post a comment.

Ear Candling

What To Expect During An Ear Candling Session:
During an Ear Candling session you lie on your side with your body in a straight alignment. A special conical candle is inserted into a protective plate . . . The candle is lit and slowly begins to burn. The small tapered end of the candle is gently placed into your ear canal. The ear candle -- by its shape, design and length -- draws ear wax and fungus deposits from deep inside your ear canal.
Get eight people together on Hanukah and have and Ear Candling Hanukah party!

Upload Your Desktop


Desktoproject is an online collection of desktop shots from people all around the world.

The OC Desktop.
via [ Popcultablog ]

BitTorrent TiVo?

Cult of Mac tells us that:
TV Torrents tracks BitTorrent's streams of TV shows and includes an RSS feed for automatically downloading specified shows.
Interesting.

I've already got enough Cold Case episodes stacked up on my TiVo, so I won't be downloading any TV shows to my Mac, but I'm sure others will be interested in this news, especially Adam Curry.

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Michael Moore on the Minutemen of Iraq

Heads Up... from Michael Moore

I've been holed up for weeks in the editing room finishing my film ("Fahrenheit 911"). That's why you haven't heard from me lately. But after last night's Lyndon Johnson impersonation from the East Room -- essentially promising to send even more troops into the Iraq sinkhole -- I had to write you all a note.

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush? You closed down a friggin' weekly newspaper, you great giver of freedom and democracy! Then all hell broke loose. The paper only had 10,000 readers! Why are you smirking?
Hmm.

A Dial-A-Cheater Testimonial

Schedule a call to your mate when they least expect it
"I wanted to pick a time that my husband would be really surprised to hear from his assistant. So I had Dial-A-Cheater call him on Sunday morning right around the time we go to church. When the call came in, we were in the car together. He looked at his phone and when he saw the callerid his whole face changed. He turned all red and quickly hit the end button to send the call to voicemail. I didn’t say anything at the time. But then in the middle of church he ‘excused’ himself to go to the rest room. I knew he was going to call her. So when we got in the car to go home, I asked to see his phone…there was a huge fight…eventually he confessed. We’ll see how much he likes going to church with the tramp, after I take the Lexus from him!"
Cool idea.

Oops.

Gotta go answer the phone.

Oh, It's just a client.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Ending for About a Boy

I was watching About A Boy on TiVo, and with 20 minutes left, the screen went blank. I'm assuming that the cable went out and not Tivo.

But I just had to know.

Does the boy make a fool of himself on stage?

Does Hugh Grant end up with the cute girl?


So I found this cool website Runied Endings, that had the Ending for About a Boy.

Whew.

Now I feel better.

Better, for having watched the movie instead of George Bush.

It got me through a night without American Idol.

TurboTax Errors for 2003

Here's a quick summary of hte errors I encountered while using TurboTax for the Mac this year:

All my pdf icons turned into little TurboTax hats!
Stupid TurboTax!

After installing turboTax, all my pdf icons turned into little TurboTax hats!

The way to change them back to Preview Icons is to select a pdf file, choose [ Get Info ], then under [ Open With ] choose [ Acrobat Reader 5.0 ], then select [ Change All ] , then go back and select [ Preview ] , and choose [ Change All ] again.

That sets your pdf icons back to the Preview application.

Stupid TurboTax!

There are no FAQs
When you click the FAQ button, TurboTax says:

Requested Help Not Available

Wasn't MacInTax a really old Mac product?
In Tax Help, TurboTax says:

"MacInTax determines"

TurboTax needs an English Grammar lesson

In Tracking Down Your Basis, TurboTax says:
"you has been using TurboTax..."
"you has been using TurboTax..."
"you is not sure..."

Ha!

In Retirement Plan Distributions, TurboTax says:
"Because you is over 70 1/2, you is required..."

D'oh!

"put in System Folder"
This year there's a folder on the install disk that's called "put in System Folder"

Sounds simple.

When you drag the folder into the System Folder you get an error saying that the System Folder can not be modified.

What's up with that?

So I went over to the Intuit web site for help.

Unfortunatly, the help page references 2002. :-(

The Morning News Reports: The Apprentice

Reality's Apprentice
Reality TV may seem a world away from real life, but what happens when Donald Trump?s The Apprentice moves in upstairs? Worse, what happens when it seems to be a sham? Keith Hollihan reports with a fascinating account of his life?s surreal intrusions.
There's a lot of noise.

U.N. Into Iraq

Just got an email from MoveOn.org with this:
The effort to stabilize Iraq is out of control. It's time to face the facts squarely, and recognize that America, acting alone, is no longer capable of reaching the hearts and minds of Iraqis.

We've got to transfer management authority over Iraq to the United Nations, to enable a real transition to peaceful Iraqi self-rule.
And John Kerry wrote this in today's Washington Post:
The United Nations, not the United States, should be the primary civilian partner in working with Iraqi leaders to hold elections, restore government services, rebuild the economy, and re-create a sense of hope and optimism among the Iraqi people. The primary responsibility for security must remain with the U.S. military, preferably helped by NATO until we have an Iraqi security force fully prepared to take responsibility.

Finally, we must level with our citizens. Increasingly, the American people are confused about our goals in Iraq, particularly why we are going it almost alone. The president must rally the country around a clear and credible goal. The challenges are significant and the costs are high. But the stakes are too great to lose the support of the American people.
Thoughts?

George Bush: You're Fired!

Jason details George Bush's excess absenteeism:
Enough is enough. In a normal employment relationship, the worker gets canned for not showing up to his job. Isn't it about time we set the same standards for the highest office in the land?
Yes.

NewburyOpen.net Releases New Website


TechSuperpowers has a shiny new version of it's NewburyOpen.net website which promotes free WiFi:
Our new website highlights the past and current achievements of our free wireless network, with an emphasis on spreading our vision for the future of WiFi to everyone.
How about setting up on Centre Street in JP?

Monday, April 12, 2004

You can't get there from here.

How do you get from Logan Airport to the North End?

Do you take the Government Center exit?

Yup. You do.
Take the Sumner Tunnel. At end of the tunnel, stay to the LEFT and follow the signs to "Government Center/Route 93 South". At the top of the ramp, turn sharp right onto Hanover Street.
They just want to make it hard for you by leaving NORTH END off the sign.

Typical.

Bake Back the White House!


It's a big bake sale for John Kerry!
On Sat., April 17, all across the country, thousands of people will organize bake sales to raise money for MoveOn PAC's campaign to Take Back the White House.
Mmm...baked goods.

The new Time Magazine's here!


I'm featured in the article, See Me, Blog Me:
Boston-based music-video producer Steve Garfield, 46, is no ordinary blogger. Instead of simply posting his thoughts online in a chatty weblog like millions of others around the world, he links a Canon GL2 digital video camera to his laptop and uploads short clips of protest rallies, traffic short-cuts and even news events onto his personal Internet site.

Garfield belongs to a small but growing legion of video bloggers, or vloggers, who are turning the Web into a medium in which someday anyone could conceivably mount original programming, bypassing the usual broadcast networks and cable outlets. "My last entry was a news story about a local ice rescue, and this July I'm going to cover the Democratic Convention," says Garfield, who posts one or two new clips every month. "With cheaper digital cameras and cell phones that can also shoot video, more and more regular people like me will start becoming citizen-journalists."
First the phone book, now this!


My Videoblog

The Joy Of Easter

J-Walk's favorite holiday.

He explains:
Of all the holidays, Easter is my absolute favorite. It symbolizes death, re-birth, eggs, and dead rabbits.
Read on.

Sunday, April 11, 2004

Things I Learned at Easter

DONUTS
Krispy Kreme Donuts can be reheated in the microwave for 8 seconds. Someone called the house asking my sister-in-law for this important information.

BASEBALL

Red Sox broadcasters, who are paid by the team, tend to refrain from critisizing the players.

For example, when Bellhorn drove in that runner from 2nd, why did he stop at first when he knew that the ball was being thrown to home to try and stop the run from scoring?

My brother-in-law should be broadcasting the Red Sox games, unless he gets the managers job.

Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 4, 12 innings

SMARTRAVELER
Dial *1 on a cellular phone to get traffic information.

I Demand Curb Your Enthusiasm

I went to watch the last few episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm on Comcast On-Demand last night.

They weren't there!

All I saw was Season One.

Am I doing something wrong, or are they?

UPDATE:
Dear Steve Garfield:

Our On Demand team is aware of the issue and is updating the On Demand
content around the state. We expect all areas will be updated within the
week. We apologize for the inconvenience this error may have caused.

If there is anything else we can help you with, please contact us.
Thank you for choosing Comcast.

Sincerely,

Craig
Comcast Electronic Customer Care
It was them.

Dinner at Stephanie's

We ate dinner at Stephanie's and I had this.


Weird huh?

It's a Sheppards Pie.

Everyone in the bar was talking about it.

The Albino Squirrel: Photographic Proof!


Caught a picture this morning of the albino squirrel that has been previously sighted at Jamaica Pond.

I think I'm going to name him Lou.

Lou Albino.

Captain Lou Albano - Th Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame page.

White Squirrel Wars.

The Albino Squirrel Preservation Society.

I am going to be in theatres on July 30th


Garden State Movie Trailer [ QuickTime ]
This is why:
First, It's got music by Frou Frou.
Second, It's got amazing visuals.
Third, It's got Natalie Portman.

Dan at Irrational Films suggests watching it over, and over.

Gotta go watch it some more.

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Thunderbirds Kids?

Thunderbirds Trailer [ QuickTime ]
There's a new trailer up at Apple.com for the Thunderbirds movie.

Looks good until all the adults are kidnapped and it's up to the kids to rescue them.

Please!
via [ Sore Eyes ]


Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow [ QuickTime ] looks better.

Tim McIntire is that way because of the laughing gas


Tim McIntire is hosting the NEW Laughing Gas comedy night at The Milky Way in Jamaica Plain, Monday April 12th at 8:00.

Nick A. Zaino III's Globe article from yesterday.

It's great to have local comedy in Jamaica Plain.

Friday, April 09, 2004

Spring Has Sprung


It's starting to look like Spring at Jamaica Pond.