Happy birthday to me

I'm 37 today. That sounds so old...

Science education fails again

Move around and live longer, study says:

CHICAGO - Elderly people who load the dishwasher, climb stairs or just keep moving are bound to live longer than their sedentary counterparts, a study said on Tuesday.

The study of 302 people aged 70 to 82 found those who engaged in more physical activity -- ?not necessarily formal exercise --? were much less likely to die than those who did not move as much.

"The message here is that for older adults, any movement is better than no movement and that this can come from usual daily activities," said study author Todd Manini of the U.S. National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Maryland.

Actually, the message here is that too many journalists fail to grasp the difference between correlation and causation, and too few educated people understand the scientific method.

An equally valid reading of this study is that people closer to death tend not to move around as much. Perhaps the study did correct for preexisting health differences among the participants. But that's nowhere in the story, and it's a question the reporter (or an editor) should have asked.

Needless to say, I will wait for a more definitive study before loading my dishwasher or climbing the stairs again.

The Ultimate Keyboard

This new keyboard from Microsoft looks promising. It's wireless, recharchable, has a sensor that knows when to backlight the keys (like most Apple laptops) and another sensor that lets it know when you're away so it can save power.

The only thing missing -- and I hate to keep harping on this -- is a volume knob. What could be more intuitive for multimedia keyboards?

I will never, ever again buy DRM-protected music

After reinstalling Windows XP on my home PC, I realized that I'd need to relicense music I bought a couple of years ago from MusicMatch. Problem is, Yahoo bought the company last year and no longer offers the music player I need to retrieve the license. Yahoo's new "Music Engine" won't relicense it either. So through no fault of my own, I need to re-purchase the album. You can bet that it won't be at another online store.

This is why so-called Digital Rights Management absolutely stinks. Where are MY rights to the music?

Vista Build 5456 not so bad?

This is a little reassuring after installing the slow and extremely buggy Beta 2. I understand that it's a beta and all, but the first public release of Windows XP a few years ago (a half-decade, actually) was much more polished and stable than this monstrosity. I hope Microsoft makes build 5456 publicly available soon, because I'm ready to ditch Vista and reinstall XP.

Killing grammar to death

Actual Reuters headline, as posted to MSNBC:

LOS ANGELES - Rock producer Phil Spector will go on trial in January on charges of killing a B-movie actress to death at his home, nearly four years after the fatal shooting took place, a judge said Friday.

I imagine it'll be fixed before most of you read this.

Box.net gets better

Box.net, a slick, free online storage and sharing site, has unofficially added Webdav support. That means you can put online folders right on your desktop, as if they were local files. In other words, downloading and uploading become a simple matter of dragging and dropping.

Box.net gives you a gigabyte for free and 5 gigabytes for $5 a month.

Now the question: why am I still paying $3 per month to MyDocsOnline for 50 megs?

Blogging as work

I just got word from my boss that reporters here may have to start blogging officially for the newspaper. Ugh.

The problem with newspaper blogs -- aside from being totally pointless in a media setting -- is that most aren't really blogs at all. Free of opinion, heavily edited and devoid of all spunk, most end up reading like half-baked news briefs. Let's hope IBD is willing to take some risks and do something really interesting with these.

Why I woke up at 7:30 on a Sunday

Why I woke up at 7:30 on a Sunday

Apparently, there was an important soccer game going on.

Dave Eggers on America and the World Cup. By Dave Eggers

Here's funny and insightful article by Dave Eggers on why soccer is such a popular youth sport in the United States, but not so popular as a professional sport:

The beauty of soccer for very young people is that, to create a simulacrum of the game, it requires very little skill. There is no other sport that can bear such incompetence. With soccer, 22 kids can be running around, most of them aimlessly, or picking weeds by the sidelines, or crying for no apparent reason, and yet the game can have the general appearance of an actual soccer match. If there are three or four coordinated kids among the 22 flailing bodies, there will actually be dribbling, a few legal throw-ins, and a couple of times when the ball stretches the back of the net. It will be soccer, more or less.

Jon Udell: Earth to Google PR

A nice smackdown of a very common PR practice.

SmackBook Pro

This is almost too cool. You have to watch the video to get it.

Why I'm seriously considering a Mac as my next laptop

Here's a YouTube video of someone using a new Intel-based MacBook and two software applications, Parallels and Virtue, to easily switch between MacOS, Windows and Linux at native speeds.

Pretty slick -- and handy, to boot.

ScienceDaily: The Most Realistic Virtual Reality Room In The World

Oh how I would love to play Unreal Tournament 2004 on this thing.

Lose the clown

McDonald's wants to look more like Starbucks, according to this article in BusinessWeek. I went to a McDonald's for the first time in years a few weeks ago, and have to admit that they've really managed to turn things around. Paying with a debit card was quick and painless -- easier than cash, actually -- and they've revamped the menu with somewhat healthier items. (Of course, I still ordered a Big Mac and fries.)

Still, the photos in the article make it clear that they're ripping off Panera Bread, not Starbucks.

Fixed the RSS feed

How embarrasing. My RSS feed had been broken for a year. A longtime friend I hadn't seen in years pointed it out today -- which tells you how many people actually read this blog.

Thanks, Matt.

Gates doesn't want to be world's richest man - U.S. Business - MSNBC.com

Gates doesn't want to be world's richest man - U.S. Business - MSNBC.com

I've got a solution! I'll be happy to take a few billion off his hands.

Awesome

A bunch of pranksters dressed up as Best Buy employees, befuddling workers and management alike. This is their story.

Yahoo Go for TV

This media-PC software looked kind of interesting, but my ultimate reaction is the same as Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg:

What I don't understand is why Yahoo is spending the time and effort to do this. Microsoft's already much further ahead (from what I've seen of the download) and offers much better out of the box experience. There's no reason that Yahoo can't offer the unique services it brings to the table, like Yahoo Photos or Music via the MCE interface. This is one of those things where it just doesn't make sense to re-invent the wheel.

I agree. And the same goes for Yahoo's Music Engine. Why couldn't this have been a plug-in to Windows Media Player. Like we need another media manager to install.

More evidence that newspapers are clueless about the future

From Poynter, where a reporter talks about trying to find a story online:

So I went to Philly.com and searched for it.

You guessed it: It's not there. Or at least when I searched for it in their search box, it didn't come up. (You can only search Philly.com articles for the last seven days.)

Next step? Google.

I typed in exactly the same search command, and -- yup, you guessed it again -- up comes the article. From Philly.com.

Is something wrong with this picture? Indeed.

Visual Studio Express free forever!

Microsoft has extended its one-year deal to offer stripped-down versions of its Visual Studio tools, along with some cool code snippets.

San Francisco/Bay Bridge Night

Cool picture.

Google Calendar is live

And it's pretty slick.

Yahoo Maps adds satellite imagery

I wonder where Yahoo got that idea.

Is there anything vinegar can't do?

The Vinegar Institute - Uses & Tips

Freedom is on the march

From today's USA Today:

A man in Afghanistan is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death after being charged with converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under the country's Islamic sharia laws, a judge said Sunday.

More Origami skepticism

From eWeek:
Ultramobile PC Is Already Teetering, Analysts Say

But, being neither a phone or PDA, nor a notebook is exactly the problem, Gartner analysts contend in a new report released on March 14. The first devices' mix of prices and features are not convincing enough to inspire wide adoption among consumers and businesses. Thus, unless changes are made that allow the devices to offer more features for lower prices, UMPCs could be destined for lackluster sales, the analysts wrote.

Light up animated Pac-Man bicycle wheels

Cool.

Origami: Buzz Killer?

Gadget Web site Gizmodo seems to agree with me about the first batch of Origami products.

Intel shows Origami-like device

So this is what all the fuss was about? The leaked promotional videos looked cool, but the reality falls a little flat.

Sure, who wouldn't want a lightweight, all-in-one "lifestyle" computer? I'd sure like a portable device that could do everything from Web-surfing to e-mail to GPS-enabled driving directions to games to music.

Oh wait, I already have that. It's called a Pocket PC. OK, the Origami would have been a full-fledged PC, something my iPaq is definitely not.

But the prototype device mentioned in the Cnet story gets just three hours of battery life, making it not too much more useful than today's Tablet PCs. The coolest Origami device Intel is showing gets just fifteen minutes!

Intel predicts all-day battery life within a couple of years, but lets get real. Laptops haven't increased capacity much in the last 20 years. And for Origami to be a breakthrough device, it would have to last a long time between charges. I mean, mobility is the whole point, right?

Microsoft isn't officially revealing Origami until Thursday, so maybe there's something more to it. Let's hope so.

MercuryNews.com | 03/06/2006 | Searching for an answer to Google Desktop problem

I didn't know this, but here's another reason to pick Windows Desktop Search over Google Desktop. Basically, if you dare move a file that has been indexed, Google Desktop loses track of it.

Google's solution, according to the Merc: uninstall and reinstall the program, then wait a few hours while it re-indexes the data. Despite what the Merc says, I have a feeling that just reindexing the data would do the job. But still -- what a pain. Even then, the time theoretically saved with faster file searches goes right down the drain. As brilliant as they are, it looks like the Google folks need a little more insight into how real people use their computers.

On the other hand, I just noticed that Microsoft is still forcing users to install the worse-than-useless MSN Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search. The "enterprise" version doesn't have this requirement, but it might be complicated to install (no firsthand experience, just looking at the install page).

Skype me

After playing around with the final version of Skype 2.0, I think I'm going to make it my main IM client, at least on my laptop.

First, it seems to manage memory much better than Yahoo At idle, Skype uses 4-5 megs, vs. 19 or more for Yahoo -- and once Yahoo needs more memory for a higher-end feature , it never seems to give it back up when it's done. Adding IM environments, animated gestures, Yahoo Music integration adds up.

Skype's voice calling features are still the best among the IM clients I've tried -- though I haven't played around with Google Talk's voice features yet. Being able to forward calls to regular phones and having a version for Pocket PCs are really handy features. Video conferencing (at least for Windows) just clinches the deal.

The one downside, of course, is that most of my friends are on Yahoo. If only someone made a Yahoo plugin for Skype...

IE 7.0

I finally got around to playing with the new beta for Internet Explorer 7. I'm not quite ready to switch back from Firefox yet, but it's a big improvement. I especially like the slick RSS features, such as on-the-fly keyword filtering.

It can automatically download updates in the background and attach files, even if IE isn't running. Downloaded into the right folder, that means Windows finally might support automated podcasts on Windows media devices. But if this is true, I don't know why Microsoft doesn't come right out and say it. I'll try setting something up tonight to see if it works.

The Web page thumbnails -- which work a little like Apple's Expose feature -- are also nice.

Ten Reasons to Buy Windows Vista

Here's PC World's list. I'm looking forward to the much-needed security overhaul and improved desktop search functions. I'm ambivalent about the Aero interface, because it might mean buying new computers -- not to mention taking another Windows UI programming class. And Firefox made Internet Explorer irrelevant a long time ago.

Dvorak: Will Apple Adopt Windows?

His argument is similar to one I've been making for years. If Apple sold Windows machines, it would become one of the top-selling PC makers overnight.

In rare flop, Starbucks scraps chocolate drink

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Chantico, we hardly knew ye.

Googling

Google has been busy lately.

The search giant has released version 3 of its desktop search software with a couple of intriguing new features:

- Search across computers. Basically, this lets you search for files on multiple computers. Basically, it creates a searchable index that is synchronized among all of your computers, letting you pull up copies of files on another machine. All the computers have to be using the software and signed in with your Google account, but the syncing takes place in the background, and unlike services such as Microsoft's FolderShare, they don't all have to be online at the same time. Privacy issues aside, this would be pretty handy in my line of work, where information is often scattered across multiple PCs.

- Integrated contact info. This integrates the desktop with Gmail and Google Talk instant messenger into the search sidebar, making it easy to share info with your IM buddies. And like the Google Toolbar, desktop search now suggests alternative spellings for your queries.

Speaking of Gmail, desktop search now makes a searchable index of your Gmail messages so you can find old e-mail even when not online. Apparently, this is an older feature I didn't know about until now. At any rate, it eliminates Web-based e-mail's biggest weakness, offline access to your messages. Suddenly, Microsoft Outlook isn't such a must-have.

Another soon-to-be-unveiled Gmail feature will integrate Google Talk with e-mail, letting users strike up IM chats with e-mail contacts and archiving copies of old chats.

Because of these and other nifty features, I would love to use Google Desktop as my main PC search tool. I love the fact that a Google search can pull up info from the Web, my e-mail and past stories I've written -- all on one page.

But alas, I am sticking with Windows Desktop Search. First, the Google version still doesn't index Microsoft OneNote files, which contain much of the information I need access to regularly. It's only second to e-mail in that respect. Second, the new Google Desktop requires 256 megs of RAM, which unfortunately is too much for my ancient laptop. The software is still in beta, so maybe that will change.

On the bright side, looking at Google's new offering did spark me to reexamine the Microsoft product. I'd forgotten how powerful it is, with tons of options to narrow searches. One of my new favorites is real-world terms I can use in queries, such as "sent: last week" or "received: December." Nice.

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » New News: Deconstructing the newspaper

Intersting crtitique of most daily newspapers and what they need to drop to survive.

Fear of a Skype Planet?

Uh oh. Looks like there might be a possible problem with Skype, the otherwise excellent IM/VoIP service. And it would explain why my router, a normally reliable Linksys unit, keeps crashing.

Gross

Gross
Originally uploaded by ken_brown.

As I suspected!

Missing Netflix? The mailman did it! - Cinematical

I swear this happened to me when I was a Netflix customer. The discs would turn up only when I sent them from Andrea's old neighborhood.

Google Pack

I'm not too impressed with this, especially after the big buildup. One conspicuous absence: OpenOffice, which Google and Sun were touting just a few months ago.

How I spent my weekend

After more than a couple weeks of cramps, lethargy and diarrhea -- with no improvement after a doctor's visit -- Tati finally ended up in the hospital all weekend with an extremely inflamed colon. As it turns out, was caused by an antibiotics-resistant bacteria called Clostridium difficile that's made headlines in recent weeks. Basically, this little bug is usually a normal part of the digestive system. But it can go out of control in people being treated by common antibiotics. The medicines kill off all the competing bacteria, leaving the Clostridium difficile free to thrive uncontested in the gut.

The funny thing is, just a few days ago I was just reading this article to Andrea, wondering aloud whether it's what Tati had. She was already taking antibiotics for other reasons when she arrived here. And her symptoms were almost exactly the same as the woman mentioned in the opening paragraph.

But because Tati wasn't taking the specific antibiotics mentioned in the article (fluoroquinolones), I dismissed it and didn't think to ask the doctor later.

The good news: we now know what it is.
The bad news: this can be very tough to treat.

Moral of the story? Don't be afraid to ask the doctor about something you read on the Internet. Learning about health, disease and medicine doesn't make you a hypochondriac.

New Year's resolution No. 1

Clean my keyboard at work.

Google responds

Along with a few other things, Google says:

Biased results? No way. Providing great search is the core of what we do. Business partnerships will never compromise the integrity or objectivity of our search results. If a partner's page ranks high, it's because they have a good answer to your search, not because of their business relationship with us.

What happens when you try to use laundry soap in the dishwasher

In my future niece's defense, the picture on the container did look sort of like a dishwasher. Sort of.

A in C

I got an "A" in my computer programming class! Of course, it was an introductory-level course at a community college, but still.

NY Times turns to Google Maps

This may be a first: The New York times has created an interactive graphic that ties into Google Maps. I've seen Google Maps mash-ups before, but never from a mainstream media outlet.

Will this be the start of a trend?

It's about time,

Senators members seek spying probe.

Time Warner to Sell 5% AOL Stake to Google for $1 Billion - New York Times

Microsoft more ethical than Google?

From the NY Times:

Google will also make a special effort to incorporate AOL video programming in its expanding video search section and it will feature links to AOL videos on the video search home page. These links will not be marked as advertising.

An executive involved in the talks said Time Warner asked Microsoft to give AOL similar preferred placement in advertising and in its Web index and that Microsoft refused, calling the request unethical.

The article doesn't say whether Google does this in other cases, but if money is being exchanged for links, clearly those links should be labled as advertising. Google is a media company, after all, and transparency with users is a hallmark of media ethics. You'd think that Google would have more appreciation for the value of user trust.

Another sign of the coming apocalypse

There's something seriously unbalanced in the global economy when the U.S. can afford to outsource video game-playing.

Coolest Christmas lights display ever

This guy obviously has a lot of time on his hands and perhaps a very understanding wife.

Skype has video!

Nice. This may be the feature I need to start using this nice little service as my primary instant messaging client. If only it had Yahoo interoperability.

Update: With video, Skype's memory usage has shot way up on my machine (to about 25K). Now I see why Yahoo Messenger hogged up so much memory compared with the old Skype. Of course, Skype 2.0 is still in beta, so we'll see.

A Recipe for Newspaper Survival in the Internet Age

A pretty interesting discussion on Slashdot about the future of my industry.

Poynter had a similar piece a few days ago.

I've been saying this for a few months now, but the problem isn't journalism, blogs or the Web. It's newspapers' inability to adapt its advertising model to the Web.

They've been too worried about how to get people to pay for the product rather than looking at how to capitalize on readers' migration to the Web. Google and Yahoo don't charge subscription fees for their basic services and still manage to make a bundle. Why can't newspapers?

The Poynter piece has two suggestions (among several) that I think are particularly on-point:

- Install Web analytics and ad-management systems that enable advertising managers to identify clusters of content (or clusters of users) that can attract the highest possible prices on a CPM basis.

- Hire people who can sell online advertising effectively -- as a separate buy, rather than bundled with print ads.

Free online backups

I'm not sure how the folks at Mozy are going to make any money at this, but it's a wonderful, easy-to-use service. Automatic continuous backups of up to 2 gigabytes of data. It's not something you'd use to mirror your hard drive, but it's great for your most important data -- in my case, OneNote interviews and Word documents.

I have yet to see any backup system -- paid or free -- that's so easy to use. I hope they stay in business.

Maybe they'll come up with a paid option. Or better yet, maybe Google will buy them.

Bad TV news

It looks like there won't be a fourth season for Arrested Development, the best comedy on television now and possibly one of the best in the last 10 years. Sigh.

(The Arrested Development news is at the end of the story.)

Visual Studio Express -- for free!

Microsoft is wooing developers with this one-year promo. This limited-functionality "express" version is perfect for beginners like me.

Yahoo Maps pranks Google

Funny.

Porn ads are showing up on my site!

Tripod apparently has no problem putting up links to "Jessica Alba naked" on my site, just because the site mentions her. And this is on top of the annoying popups and the sidebar stunt in IE.

I need a new Web host. Any good free ones out there?

Web site goodness

For you Firefox users, here is a very handy extension that lets you load IE-optimized sites in a Firefox tab. Nice for sites with ActiveX controls you need or for clueless designers that insist on making their pages IE-only.

And for all browsers, Yahoo has updated its map service to better compete with Google. Unlike Google, Yahoo uses Flash. It's a little slower, but has some nice features that make it easier to plan routes and find nearby points of interest.

One thing I don't like is that printed-out routes aren't as easy to read now (the old style had giant L and R circles that made it easier to see turns while driving -- I know you're not supposed to do that, but still!). It's still in beta, so maybe they're still working on the speed issue and route printout style.

I use my TomTom GPS software for that kind of thing now, but Yahoo Maps is still nice for pre-planning and finding places not in TomTom's database. And since TomTom updates its maps only when upgrading the software, Yahoo and Google are sometimes more accurate.

Tulsa Newspaper Carrier Admits to Killing Two Customers

As a former carrier for (now-defunct) rival Tulsa Tribune, I always knew those Tulsa World delivery boys were no good.

I want, I want

Assuming that the volume control is a real knob and not just a rotating disc like Logitech's past models, this might be the coolest keyboard ever.

Programming in the key of C

Well, I'm killing time in the DeAnza computer lab. My presence is required by my C Programming class even though I finished the lab assignment last week. I suspect the assignments are going to get harder later on in the semester.

I must say, I really like structured languages over the old version of BASIC I used in high school. I'm told more recent versions, such as Visual BASIC, are more structured.

Anyway, I'm wondering how long it would take to get a computer science degree, or at least enough of a background to get admitted into a CS-related master's program.

Looks like Google is up to something big.

Google Secure Access Installer

Earthquake!

But not the Big One.

Doubletalk

Interesting feature of Google Talk: you can be logged in from two machines simutaneously. If someone sends a message, you'll get it on both machines. Not sure how useful this is, but it's interesting, perhaps a feature of the Jabber protocol it uses.

Google fixed the bridge!

Apparently, Google Maps and Google Earth are using separate satellite databases.

The new Mill Avenue (Tempe, AZ) bridge (according to Google Earth):




The "old" bridge (according to Google Maps):


Speaking of Google Earth, the firm has posted some overlay imports showing Hurricane Katrina damage. Maybe this will get somebody in Washington off his butt.

How cool is this?

Skype now forwards incoming Intenret calls to a regular phone. You have to pay SkypeOut rates for the forwarded calls, but still -- very cool.

Google IM is live

Google has launched its foray into the instant messaging arena with Google Talk, its answer to Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, MSN Messenger and several other services.

While Google's entry is a nice, simple client with a clean interface and open protocols, I can't help but be a little disappointed. Usually when Google comes late to the party, it offers something unique. Gmail blows away the competition -- and I say this as a longtime Yahoo Mail user who pays $5 a month for a decent spam filter! Meanwhile, Google Maps really changes the game in online maps. I still use Yahoo Maps for the easy-to-read printed directions, ability to store frequently-used addresses and SmartView feature for finding train stations near meetings in San Francisco. But Google Maps has a much nicer interface; I hope Yahoo copies it soon. And finally, Google is just a much better search engine. Case in point: it's easier to get to a specific address on Yahoo Maps through Google than through Yahoo itself!

That said, Google Talk falls a little flat. It has a nice voice feature, but so does Skype, Yahoo and a few others.

To its credit, Google is going with open standards and a pledge of interoperability, which counts for a lot. Maybe well see cool third-party development that will propel Talk above the others. We'll see.

It plays Doom!

Apparently, my cell phone isn't the only diminutive gadget that can run Doom.

I'm a trendsetter!

According to this Slate article, I may have helped popularize the term "Meth Mouth."

Although users have been snorting, smoking, injecting, and swallowing methamphetamine in great quantities for more than 40 years, the phrase meth mouth is brand new. It makes its first Nexis appearance in Investor's Business Daily as an unsourced one-liner in a Jan. 31, 2003, digest of news: 'Methamphetamine's drying effect on saliva glands leads to tooth decay and gum disease, dentists say, a trend known as 'meth mouth.' '

More than two dozen different stories about meth mouth have appeared in Nexis since the IBD mention, but the majority of them fail to advance the story in any significant way. The better articles note, as IBD did correctly, that methamphetamine users suffer from dry mouth (xerostomia), which contributes to tooth decay and gum disease."

For the record, I didn't invent the term. The study I cited used it. But I did like enough to make sure it fit into the extremely limited space I had to write it.

And that's why my collegues now call me Ken "Meth Mouth" Brown. At least I hope that's the reason.

Google now has wildcard searches

Finally.

Free $4,300 Hawaii vacations for county employees

Paid for by me and other Santa Clara county taxpayers, of course. In her defense, Liz Kniss pointed out that she went to the same conference in Phoenix last year:

``They had been so questioned about whether they should be going to Honolulu,'' Kniss said. ``It was of great interest to the press. Nobody ever thought it was interesting when I went to Phoenix. It's interesting that people think Honolulu is more glamorous.''

Where would people get that crazy idea?

Story here.

Yahoo for Firefox final

It's finally done. I consider this, along with Google's toolbar, a must-have for Firefox.

Daily Kos: A**hole analysts rag on Costco

Funny. These were my exact thoughts when I read this story.

Some Wall Street analysts assert that Mr. Sinegal is overly generous not only to Costco's customers but to its workers as well.

Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club. And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."

No, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, almost anyone in a position to be a major shareholder of Costco is better off than a $17-an-hour Costco employee. Your statement is almost as ridiculous as the Wall Street Journal calling low-income Americans "lucky duckies" because they don't have to pay taxes.

I have more computing power in my cell phone than they do on the Space Shuttle

Actually, I'm not sure about that. But I do know that I just installed the original Doom on my Motorola MPX220 and it runs great. This is an old game, mind you, but I remember when you had to have a pretty decent PC to play it.

I also remember being amazed by the graphics and at how much better the game was than Wolfenstein 3-D. And how much better Wolfenstein 3-D was than the original Castle Wolfenstein, which was the coolest game in the school computer lab because the enemies shouted German.

Man, I'm getting old.

Something I wish I had in high school

Besides a girlfriend, that is.

I think this has been around awhile, but I just discovered it today. Microsoft's sarch page now includes something called Encarta Answers, which can solve problems with variables! Example: x^2 + 4x - 17 = 32. You need an Encarta Premium subsciption to use it to the fullest, but going through MSN search gives you a two-hour "pass" to some features. Pretty nifty, and a step up from the also-handy Google Calculator.

Anecdotal Leads for News Stories Reporting the End of the World.

If you enjoy making fun of "journalese," you'll find these fake news lleads hilarious. Ouch. Funny, but ouch.

Google Earth Hacks

Nice little forum with add-ons for Google Earth, including real-time weather maps, traffic and 3-D models of cities Google hasn't gotten around to doing yet. This is what's so great about APIs and a network of millions of people.

You might want to look at getting that bridge fixed

Tempe's Mill Avenue bridge, as depicted by Google Maps.

Download of the day

If you don't like/can't afford FrontPage or DreamWeaver and need something a little more full-featured than the Web authoring tool in Mozilla Composer, then Nvu might be just what you're looking for. Features of this free, open-source page design software include: WYSIWYG editing, tabbed editing, advanced CSS support, FTP publishing and more. Screenshots and a complete feature list here.

I love the Internets

Four cool things to write about, two from Google and two from Yahoo:

Google Earth: A free and improved version of Keyhole, a cool satellite mapping system that until now was available only by subscription (the service still sell premium subscriptions). Basically, this is an interactive mapping service that uses satellite imagery and 3-D perspective in a really cool way. If you've ever wanted to see what it would look like to fall to Earth from space, here's your chance. Recent improvements include 3-D terrain and buildings for major cities (rather than a perspective view of 2-D pictures) and fly-through driving directions, which actually might come in handy.

Personalized Google search: Now Google can (optionally) keep track of your searches to get a better idea of what you're looking for in future searches. I haven't actually seen the filter in action yet -- Google says it may take awhile to get a good search history. The results page will indicate whether the search has been personalized, for times when you want a standard search. And you can always turn off the feature permanently.

Yahoo Music Unlimited: I don't quite like the standalone player, but $7 per month, a nice selection of tunes and and 192-kbps encoding add up to the best subscription music service on the market. Yahoo has published the players APIs, which could lead to all sorts of cool add-ons. Someone has already created a taskbar mode that works a lot like the one for Windows Media Player. I hope this isn't a bug, but I can transfer protected files just fine to my iPaq, even though it's not listed as a compatible device.

Yahoo mail: I haven't seen the actual beta yet, but the company has announced a faster, easier-to-use e-mail service that makes better use of Web scripting and XML (for you techies, a set of technologies collective known as AJAX -- Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). If you use Google's Gmail or Google Maps, you already know why this is a big deal. Yahoo bought Web e-mail firm Oddpost last year, but this is the first confirmation they'll be using the technology for its free e-mail service. I still pay for Yahoo Mail Plus because of the excellent spam filter, disposable addresses and because it serves as my "permanent" address.

Andrea roars back from vacation

mercpage
Originally uploaded by Ken Spencer Brown.

This is her third front-page graphic this week for the Merc. This one is about people who commute by private plane to their Silicon Valley jobs.

The force is with us

This is the line for the midnight showing of Star Wars III - at the least popular theater in town!

OK, I'm officially a geek

I just bought my tickets for the midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith.

But most of the reviews show that this one is much better than the last two prequels. The New York Times reviewer says it's even better than the original Star Wars. So that justifies the midnight showing on a workday, right?

MSN desktop search final

Microsoft has released the final version this excellent desktop search tool, which in my experience is the best of the three big file search tools (the other two are Google's and Yahoo's. All three are very useful, but MSN is the only one of them that indexes OneNote files, which I use extensively. It has tangibly improved the way I work, eliminating the file- and email-hunting that used to take up so much of my day.

Why are these tools any different from the regular Windows search function? For one, they're faster than the standard Windows search, even othose aided by Windows' annoying indexing service, which many power users turn off. Second, the new tools search the contents of files, not just the names. So it's easier to find that Coxinha recipe, even if you don't remember whether you found it on a Web site, saved it as a Word file or got it in an e-mail. And all three tools set themselves in your Windows taskbar, so they're always ready to use.

If you haven't tried out the services, you should. They're free.

Lavarific

My lava lamp at work came back to life!

We're No. 1!

L.A., S.F. Lead Nation in Rush-Hour Delays

Test from cell

Did it work?

By popular demand

Seattle's famous Perpetually Vomiting Bear.

One more time, with a better size.

I saw this at the Computer History Museum (it's here,not in Seattle). My favorite feature, as listed on the box: "Displays all words." As a writer, I can certainly see why this would be helpful.

Mostly fixed

Well, I found an old version of my page, so I won't have to re-do everything. This whole mess stemmed from some new photos-on-the-go functionality I'm trying to add to the site so I can post text and photos from my phone and Pocket PC.

Yes, as you can tell from all this free computer time I have, Andrea is in Brazil. I'll be joining her in two weeks. Maybe someday I'll find a job that offers real vacation time.

Ooops!

Looks like I really screwed up my blog. I guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

I'm in Seattle!

Testing.

Hold off on that memory upgrade

From Infoworld (via Yahoo News): Need DRAM? Best Prices Still to Come

Who says you need a pricey laplop to surf the Web at Starbucks?

This guy doesn't.

Longhorn peeks

This blogger talks about his dinner with Microsoft's Jim Allchin and gives some cool details about the upcoming version of Windows.

Andrea goes to Spain: The San Jose Mercury News sent Andrea to this year's Malofiej (a Society for News Design conference) in Bilbao, Spain. Here, we can see her having trouble with my iPaq. More photos here.

One's man's trash is another man's Ladmo Bag

Someone broke into my car -- probably after I left it unlocked, as I tend to do -- rifled though everything, but apparently didn't find anything he liked. Which is kind of insulting if you think about it.

I had a very nice mouse and keyboard in there, a pair of headphnes, some home-burned CDs and a couple of framed prints I plan to give to Goodwill. My stereo, factory installed, separates the radio and CD player. This setup hides the CD player near the cupholder, which makes the radio look like your basic factory-installed radio. Of course, even if the would-be thief had seen the CD player, if would probably fit only in another Honda Civic.

Ha ha!

Of course, this is probably a good sign that I should get a car alarm and clean up the car so no one is even tempted to see if I have anything valuable. Sometimes I do leave my laptop int he trunk.

Real-life searching with Google

The jaugernaut continues as Google unveils its new map service. It's a slick offering, with a 3D look for pushpins and direction bubbles. And if you click and hold your mouse button, you can drag the map around on the fly. There's lots of other nice little touches.

The one thing that this doesn't have yet is the ability to save frequently used adresses for quick directions like Yahoo, which is the deal-killer for me. But Google being Google, I'm sure they'll add the feature in eventually.