Design Your Own O’Reilly Book Cover
[Via aaronland] O’Reilly has established itself as perhaps the primo publisher of technical books. But they have one of the plainest, most ordinary cover styles for like all of their books. Now Jay Link has posted a book cover generator. Another wonderful Internet toy. Mine is displayed here in all its glory:
Others are getting in on the game as well. Some of these people have an even more twisted sense of humor than me.
Micro-advertising experiment, day five
Wondering if the evening hours would do much, I waited until almost midnight to check the results. What were they? 21 total clickthroughs out of 1957 accumulated views for a ration of 1.07%. Very decent Tuesday with seven clickthroughs but very poor Wednesday with only two. Boo hoo hoo.
Human integration
Almost since there have been computers, and possibly longer, people have dreamed about directly connecting them to human beings. Augmenting memory, directly controlling machines, facilitating communications are just some of the forms these dreams might take. Personally I would be happy never having to type again since by the end of the day my hands always hurt.
In Scientists activate neurons with quantum dots, R. Colin Johnson reports that University of Texas scientists are making real progress in human-machine interaction. Their idea is to stimulate particular neuron clusters, non-invasively, using some kind of programmable stimulator. Such basic research is years away from being generally available but shows much promise of a feasible solution.
In A Chip ID That’s Only Skin-Deep, David Streitfeld reports on a company called Applied Digital Solutions of Palm Beach that is about to commercialize a very basic form of HMI. Their product is a simple and small implantable chip targeted at people with artificial organs and limbs. The chip can hold up to 60 words of relevant medical information but must be read by a special scanner. Another near-term potential application is a personal ID but this raises serious privacy questions.
The future, one might say, gets closer every day.
AIDS Ride: too expensive?
After eight years of partnering on the high profile California AIDS Ride bicycling fundraiser, a AIDS Ride management dispute leads to lawsuit, competing event. This is really sad to see but not too surprising. One of my friends has ridden the event the last four years and I’ve always given generously to support him. But I also felt that this was a very expensive way to raise money for a charity and not enough was going through to the beneficiaries. I hope the charities and organizers can resolve the dispute soon since the preparation takes so long but I have to come down on the side of spending less to run the Ride; perhaps the riders need to pay an entry fee to help defray the costs of sheltering and feeding.
World Cup ’02: Argentina early favorite
According to a Reuters poll of soccer writers, Argentina is a strong early favorite to take a third world crown this Summer in the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan. Getting 24 out of 40 votes, the South Americans will open in the ‘Group of Death’ with England, Nigeria, and Sweden. England got three votes, while defending champs France were second with seven; the US team got zero zilch nada no votes and will be lucky to get out of the first round after their miserable performance in 1998. With five or more Liverpool men slated to play, though, I give England my vote.
LotR: Building the One Ring
One more day. Or actually, about 7 1/2 hours since many theaters are having 12:01 showings. Will McCarthy, columnist for SciFi Weekly, looks at the feasibility of building the One Ring with technology available today. Let’s just say quantum dots will be very big in our lives before much longer. Can we do it? Almost, he almost makes it but not quite. Still, could be very cool. I like the immortality bit myself.
One Ring to rule them all, one Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
That would be a cool to have, who will front me the big cash?
Greetings from Florida
Fooled you, didn’t I? You read the headline and thought I was in Florida. I bet Boynton Beach, Florida (where the picture below was taken) is warmer than Mountain View, California, where I actually am sitting. Still, my friend Betsy sent in this recent photo of her new beau Steve and herself. Aren’t they a cute couple? Here’s a holiday wish that Betsy and Steve ‘take it to the next level’ sooner rather than later. Are you listening, Steve?
The Watchers get on the case
Well I’m glad to see the Zaphods finally got off their duffs and responded to Dave’s awards–can we call them the Fruities? Winerlog calls them “Dave’s Big Ego Awards,” “Dave’s ‘I have a Big Dick Awards’,” and “narcissim awards.” Their weblog entry also points out the incredibly obvious fact that “Dave just wants love and attention.” Don’t we all, guys?
Cam Barret, who writes the swell CamWorld, rants in response to his Blogger of the Year nomination. He wants nothing to do with the awards which “are nothing but a disgusting display of self-importance from the man himself. They are also a thinly-veiled effort to show off the somewhat useful, but hardly robust, content management features of Dave’s Manila software, which runs many of the sites nominated.” And of course the MetaFilter gang jumped in with gusto; got to give Winer credit, he did respond on that thread. Some of the folks there, though, are unfortunately just way stuck in the multi-culturalism virus that says everyone is equally good at every possible activity.
Don’t they all realize that BillSaysThis is the greatest weblog, no, heck, the greatest single piece of writing ever made by the hand of Man?
Micro-advertising experiment, day four
Not a great day, only two more clicks. 1163 accumulated views. 1.03% clickthrough ratio.
Who will watch the watchers?
When it comes to ragging on the man who takes himself just a mite too seriously, I depend on the Zaphods at WinerLog. But just when Dave comes up with an almost-too-easy target in the Scripting News Awards, they let me down and don’t have a pie in the face ready. The Romans had a saying which I’ve used to title this entry, “Quis Custodiet ipsos Custodes?”
Last night’s movie: The Seventh Stream
Usually I only write about theatrical films but some TV films are special enough to warrant it as well. Last night I finally got around to watching the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of The Seventh Stream (thanks Tivo) and I’m glad a friend asked me to record it, even though she ended up not wanting to watch it. Scott Glenn and Saffron Burrows star in this old Irish folktale of the Selkie, a seal come to human form, who brings a heart back to a distraught widower fisherman in the first years of the 20th century. Glenn must, of course, rescue the exquisite Burrows from a dangerous man and come to know her tue nature and needs from an old blind man since this is a mythic tale whose theme is the power of love to transform and redeem.
Writer-director John Grey wrote the script 15 years ago but only now was able to get it produced and a lovely job he did, filming the rocky cliffs and beaches of Tully, Ireland, using the rain almost as another character, light here, heavy there, letting the sky clear for short bursts. Anne Simpson, writing in the Herald, suggests that this film may be a portent of a turn to the gentler in taste after the violent, sexual outburst of the past decade. Perhaps, although if one considers the long line of action movie sequels in the pipeline, one would doubt her conclusion. (Terminator 3, Star Trek 10, X-Men 2, The Scorpion King, Jurassic Park 4, and so forth)
Micro-advertising experiment, day three
The Clickthrough Ratio is edging up to 1.35%, although that means nine clicks on 666 viewings. I left the wording the same as in the Blogger ad but I think I need to work on it for next time, if there is a next time.
Making money on the Internet
For almost everyone except eBay and PayPal, making money on the Internet has been beyond elusive. Even Yahoo!, which turned small profits in a few quarters, is searching for revenue beyond the banner and popunder advertising markets. One new twist, which shows someone is thinking, is selling analysis of search queries. Their new Buzz service, a basic version of which is freely available, scores the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Useful for market research, Buzz looks like a smart way for Yahoo! to make more out what is has.
Tonight’s movie: Ocean’s 11
I had been reluctant to see this remake of a less-than-classic 1960 Sinatra film once I read the reviews. But I got a good review from my sister and there was nothing else that seemed interesting so off we went. My sister was right and we enjoyed this film. Although director Steven Soderbergh would have been better off without the useless coda; I guess he felt the need to show Julia Roberts and George Clooney kissing. Why was Don Cheadle speaking with a Cockney accent? Casey Affleck and Scott Caan nearly steal the movie as a pair of bumbling brothers who take on almost all the crucial supporting tasks. Carl Reiner, still great at age 79, shows superb timing and delivery. Still, the point of the original was to give the Rat Pack a chance to work together and this crew doesn’t quite match the cohesion and chemistry, even if this film is better made. Recommended if you want to come out feeling good.
Get the quarterback!!!
Author’s note: this was just a headline but a few minutes later the Raiders made the first of three interceptions against Doug (I’m Old) Flutie. Which I predicted as the ball was being snapped–just ask the friend who was watching with me. Is the author cool or what? Hey the Raiders won, that’s what counts.
Ashcroft, others making me wonder
[Via Booknotes] Attorney General John Ashcroft has been widely condemned in the past few weeks for his ridiculous outburst that anyone who opposes his (the Bush administration’s) proposed changes regarding privacy and civil rights is only helping the terrorists. Add my voice to those who think he’s living on another planet. But just what planet might that be? As Alice Cherbonnier of the Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel writes, “AN IMPORTANT TENET of journalism is that you should always ask, ‘Who benefits?’”
Clearly, a large group of former Republican officeholders like ex-Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci (college roommate of current DefSec Rumsfeld), ex-Secretary of State James Baker, Fred Malek (George Bush the First’s campaign manager), and–presumably–George H.W. Bush himself are raking in the dough through The Carlyle Group, one of the largest privately held companies in the world. One which owns many companies feeding on the public defense trough. As Shannon Jones writes on International Committee of the Fourth International website, The Carlyle Group: ex-government officials cash in. Here’s one group of rich and getting richer Republicans who benefit.
And possibly our terrorist enemies as well. The bin Laden family owned a stake in Carlyle until just after the 9/11 attacks. When the FBI wanted to investigate members of the bin Laden family, the White House allegedly made the Bureau back off. Are we all living on the same planet?
Micro-advertising experiment, day two
Yesterday was a little better with five clickthroughs after 418 accumulated views (to use mefi’s term) for a 1.2% clickthrough ratio. Maybe it’s a momentum thing as the CTR has been higher today than yesterday and yesterday than Thursday. And I did have a nice email in my in-basket this morning from a woman who most likely came to the site through the ad and like my poetry. Of course the whole thing is one big woo-fucking-hoo, but still…
LotR: Greeting cards
More tantalizing Lord of the Rings tidbits five days ahead of the FotR release. Media Highway International’s RealGreetingCard site has a selection of LotR e-cards; I mention them because they were nice enough to search out my site and send a link request. I tried their site and there are no popup/popunders and they don’t appear to use the email information for spam, which is very nice. The NY Times went a little meatier into the subject with a special Tolkien site.
HP/CPQ: Rising to the absurd
Yesterday, Hewlett pere sent an open letter to the boards of Hewlett Packard and Compaq asking them to end the merger without a shareholder vote and HP and Hewlett Foundation board member Richard Hackborn resigned from the foundation, citing irreconcilable differences, though Walter Hewlett finds no such conflict and retains his seats on both boards. Also yesterday, The Register published an HP memo directing employees to “Be a Voice for the New HP” by allowing their names to be used publicly to show support for the merger. The result? Today’s SJ Mercury News has an article where several top execs do just that. One HP exec must have had advance notice of the directive. Good doggies.
Micro-advertising experiment, day one
Not so good so far. 108 impressions, zero clickthroughs. For better or worse, there doesn’t seem to be any way to change the text of the ad to see if any improvement can be had.
BillSaysThis 
