Anastasia... and Billy?

I sat watching Anastasia tonight with my four year old on my lap. As the opening music played, I couldn't help thinking I'd heard another song with that same melody. Then it hit me, Billy Corgan's "Thirty Three" off Mellon Collie...

Check it out. The similarity is profound.

clipped from www.imdb.com

evhead: Twitter Track

evhead: Twitter Track

This is an interesting development within twitter. Now you can be informed when folks twitter something you want to hear. Rumor mills, gossip queens, and eavesdroppers can now put their proverbial ears to the tracks and listen for what strikes their fancy.

I thought of a possible use, if a bit ultra nerdy: I wonder if the OED people know about this? Could be a nifty way (or a hard way) to grab citations - at least in short bursts up to 140 characters - for known net neologisms. Just Twitter Track a set you want to collect and voila! Examples come to you.

Uncle Junior was his flight attendant

Uncle Junior was my flight attendant, originally uploaded by Jack Warman.

I would ask Junior for a club soda with a lime and tip well.

Tagging on Live Search... probably not in our Livetimes

I'm a fan of tagging. I'm also a fan of social bookmarking and responsible networking features for certain web services. I would hope that this remark isn't the official stance and is just out of context or wrong. Maybe MS knows something we don't about these new fangled web 2.0 features? I rather doubt it. Perhaps MS needs to hire some 15 year olds as product managers. Get some green interns. New life. New ideas. New something.

clipped from blogs.zdnet.com 4. Speaking of subsequent releases, Microsoft is sticking to its plans to do a major spring and a fall release every year of Live Search, with incremental updates coming in between. The spring release, according to Live Search General Manager Derrick Connell, will bring enhancements around “community.” (He wouldn’t elaborate.) This doesn’t sound like tagging/social bookmarking kinds of stuff, as Connell told me that Microsoft decided those features appealed to too small a percentage of the potential user base. Maybe we’ll see more peer reviews/recommendations across areas beyond shopping…? Just a guess…. And what about rumors I had heard regarding Live Search allowing users to search their Outlook e-mail? “There’s a tie-in there,” Connell said, and Microsoft will have more to say about it later.

Fearless Flyer

Fearless Flyer, originally uploaded by Jrome.

I took a flyer today and rode to a store where I saw this sign. Loaded up on good stuff then went home and hung out with friends. Life is good. This weekend was great. Can't beat the weather.

World Carfree day

From a recent email... quoting wordsmith's daily.

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. -Iris Murdoch, writer (1919-1999) [World Carfree Day is Sep 22:

http://www.worldcarfree.net/wcfd/

Money making, money money making

One business that could create a nice Facebook application and make some money out of it: Wowio.

Any major publisher could pump the long tail into Wowio and catch a windfall in Facebook. At this point in time I severely doubt a PDF version of a book is going to dissuade any reader from buying a paperback for that long holiday weekend coming up at the end of November. But a PDF... might be handy to try out those couple dozen titles that always seemed really interesting in the bookstore, but just never on payday. Know what I mean? Or maybe test drive a few books on the ole notebook on the transcontinental flight home on break.

Now, in this paragraph, if it wasn't clear above, I clearly exhibit signs of smoking crack (aka thinking outloud with the mute button disabled): A link to Wowio downloads on librarything.com book pages. For instance:

A link to the Wowio download on Google Book Search or Windows Live Book Search. A link on publishers' book store pages for every out of print book. (Why not list them? Even if POD pays somebody's salary, couldn't Wowio buy that guy a sushi lunch every week? I think so.)

What Wowio lacks: 1. better site search and 2. much better browse functions. (It's almost like they don't want people to see everything they've got.)
3. Dreamy content. They lack it. (Example: Computers & Internet category.) They've got some good stuff, but not awesome stuff. It's like a used paperback store in some small town north of Tampa, FL. Everything is a dollar, but it's hard to find what you're looking for, and it's all kinda ho-hum. Like it left the shelf of someone who never really cared what they read... and then died... then someone had to get rid of it, but couldn't throw it away... 4. A social network of readers. Maybe not enough people actually read the titles they download...dunno. Wonder if they keep stats on that. Then maybe they could really do something in Facebook. Oh, wait, Facebook could provide the social network... hmmm. Now you see how I got to the top of this blog entry.

clipped from money.cnn.com The real IQ test, of course, is figuring out how to create an app that takes off and makes money. So what defines a killer Facebook app? Senior platform manager Dave Morin says the stickiest applications are those that tap into the "social graph." That's Zuckerberg's oft-quoted term for the web of connections between users and their friends. "Most apps are only interesting if there is much more content below that widget," Morin says. "It needs to take you someplace different, do something more."

Non-ordinary

I've never seen anything like this. Slalom used to be guys in tight pants on 210s on a double black diamond, or those skater dudes who used to (probably still do) line the road up past the conservatory of flowers in GG park with little orange cones. Except they would knock them all down to the reggae beat. This is different. Watch.


Amazing Freestyle Slalom On Rollerblades - Watch more free videos

Oscar

I never surprises me that an animal should recognize signs that are otherwise imperceptible to us humans. Anecdotes of this sort can't be rare. Can they?

clipped from content.nejm.org A Day in the Life of Oscar the Cat Oscar the Cat awakens from his nap, opening a single eye to survey his kingdom. From atop the desk in the doctor's charting area, the cat peers down the two wings of the nursing home's advanced dementia unit. All quiet on the western and eastern fronts. Slowly, he rises and extravagantly stretches his 2-year-old frame, first backward and then forward. He sits up and considers his next move.

Cheapness

I've probably commented on this camera before, but I should mention it again. Cheap as it is, it's fun to haul this little thing around and shoot where you are. It's so much easier than a $100+ digital camera. I toss this in my bag without thinking. No case? No problem!

I just bought another one to use in my home office with Tokbox, which I'm giving a try. I'm on the cheap webcam plan, since my corporate-issue Dell lacks the built-in. I told them a MacBook was the way to go....

clipped from www.aiptek.com
	Mini PenCam 1.3 + Free Webcam Accessories Code:R-PCM13 Price: $9.99 Quantity in Basket: none : More Photos : Color Option - Blue
The new Mini PenCam truly is the smallest mega pixel camera on the market. At just over 1 inch x 1 inch x 3 1/2 inches it can easily be completely concealed in the palm of your hand. It's also light enough for you to wear around your neck with the included lanyard. It's a fashion statement and digital camera all-in-one! Marvel at the technology of this amazing new gadget.

eBooks almost ready for prime time

There's a solid intro article on some fancy reading materials coming soon to the computer nearest you. Or that handheld device you've got. Or that phone. Or that new e-Ink device. Or that print out. Or that web browser. Or that toothbrush. Or that car stereo. Or that iPhone. Or that...

clipped from www.nytimes.com