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2 January, 2004
How Often?
Here's another in the continuing series of J-Walk Blog polls.
Previous polls:
If you have an idea for a future poll, put it in the Comments.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Cringely Predicts
Robert X. Cringely's 2004 predictions: Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back.
Here's one of them:
Despite new anti-spam laws, we'll still be plagued with unsolicited commercial messages, especially using Internet Messaging protocols. Look for new and unenforceable laws in this area, too. As for old fashioned spam, it will continue to cram our inboxes, making a good business for third-party anti-spam products and services while making e-mail pretty much useless for reliable communication. Microsoft will see opportunity here and propose new protocols to replace SMTP and POP3. They may even offer those protocols as Open Source, but there will be a catch. With Microsoft there always is.
New email protocols are definitely needed. I'd be willing to go with anything at this point, even if there is a catch.
He also summarizes his 2003 predictions. He did amazingly well.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Lawyers...
A blog about lawyers and law: Overlawyered.
Overlawyered.com explores an American legal system that too often turns litigation into a weapon against guilty and innocent alike, erodes individual responsibility, rewards sharp practice, enriches its participants at the public's expense, and resists even modest efforts at reform and accountability.
The site is done by Walter Olson, who is "perhaps America's leading authority on over-litigation."
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Jesus Doll
Toys for Christians: The God Squad.
Jesus comes 2 play! Hurry and buy now! He sings!... He wears a cross necklace!... He prays!
Only 30 bucks. And remember: His clothes and sandals are removable!
(Thanks Jay)
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Flying A Circoflex
An interesting type of kite called a Circoflex.
Having treated myself to Ron Moulton and Pat Lloyd's excellent Kites :- a practical handbook for the modern kite flyer I decided I just HAD to build one of these Circoflex things; a 'phone call to the nice people at Highwaymen Kites furnished me with a 10m roll of Mylar and four 2.5m lengths of 4mm GF rod for about twenty quid; a visit to Wilko's for some black duct tape and another 'phone call to the equally helpful Dave and Liz at Five-Forty for bridle and flying lines meant I was all set to start construction...
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Digital Media
From MP3 News Wire: The Digital Media Losers of 2003.
At the end of 2003 one thing is clear, that the trends in digital music are edging closer to stability. Legal issues have rendered a few more precedents on both sides, but the entertainment industries are realizing they can no longer wait for the courts to help them profit from the Internet's ability as an ultra-efficient distribution medium.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Stats Are Available
I signed up for a free account with Extreme Tracking. So now you can click the little icon at the bottom of the left-side menu to see the access stats for this blog.
I used to use WebStat, but it was overkill for what I need -- and very expensive. I think Extreme Tracking will work out fine, although I'm sure it's not as accurate as WebStat.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Richard Brautigan Poems
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Richard Brautigan. Here's a link to 51 Poems by Richard Brautigan. Here's one called Kafka's Hat.
With
the rain falling
surgically against the roof,
I ate a dish of ice cream
that looked like Kafka's hat.
It was a dish of ice cream
tasting like an operating table
with the patient staring
up at the ceiling.
I think I've read all of his books, but it's been a long, long time. Maybe I should dig up a copy of Trout Fishing in America. Or maybe Revenge of the Lawn.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
HTML Hell
Good stuff for Web site designers: Eric S. Raymond's HTML Hell Page. Of course he touches on one of my major pet peeves:
Unreadable text/background combinations
The world is full of clowns who think their text pages look better in clown
makeup, clashing colors galore (your typical garish-background idiot also pulls
this one a lot). The magic words these losers need to learn are "luminance
contrast". Your color sense is between you and the Gods of Bad Taste, but if you
don't stick to either light text on dark backgrounds or the reverse, you will
drive away surfers who like to be able to read without suffering eye-burn.
Even if you're not a Web site designer, you might find this amusing.
(Thanks Jody Cairns)
Posted on 2 January, 2004
More Referrer Log Spam
A few days ago I mentioned Referrer Log Spam. In that case, the spammer was Network Associates. Today I noticed three new URLs in my logs, all from starprose.com.
I checked the three referring URLs, and there are no links to my site. So, it must be referrer log spam. But here's what's interesting: One of the articles at this site actually discusses referrer spam. And here's a comment posted in response to that article:
Well, since I found your site in my referral log, and you don't seem to link to it (zenarchery dot com), I'd say you might be a pot calling a kettle black.
So, it seems pretty clear that StarProse is a spammer. Here is how the site describes itself:
"StarProse is a new website that offers a variety of products and services to its members."
Actually, I have no idea what this site is all about. They do sell something called Traffic Exchange module. The description starts out like this:
Anyone who is serious about making money online and desires a website that can help you become financially secure should consider purchasing our scripts.
Hey, that sounds just like the text of a typical spam message!
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Spamvertizing Email Addresses
A common type of spam message is a pitch to buy email addresses on a CD. The main target for this type of product is, of course, other spammers.
Here's an interesting analysis of one of those CDs, conducted by Rejo Zenger: A spamvertized cd with e-mail addresses.
I have been sent one of these CD's by Patrick de Bruin for what I dubbed "research purposes".
One would expect to receive a CD with lists of addresses that are cleansed of role-accounts, doubles, spamtraps, spamblocks and whatsoever in order to make a good impression. None of this cleaning was performed and it proves how polluted a collection of email addresses one would receive when taking up a spammer on such an offer. These CD's with addresses are of an extremely low quality.
There's certainly nothing surprising here. After all, nobody expects to receive high-quality merchandise from a spammer. But the level of analysis is commendable.
(via Slashdot)
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Random URL
How about some random web surfing? At the Random URL, site...
Click and a random word is culled from your 3 million word online dictionary, a .com is added and then...?
Most of the time you'll get nothing or a "domain for sale" notice. But you might get lucky and find a gem. I didn't. I tried about 20 times, and the most interesting thing I came up with was abortion.com -- which was not at all interesting.
Fortunately, they maintain lists of some of the good sites that were found.
(via Bifurcated Rivets)
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Great Software
From the Access Foundation: The
Great Software List -- "Advocating the great; ignoring the mediocre."
The software listed on this site are high quality programs that share most or all of the following features:
(1) Ease of use with a well-designed user interface;
(2) A generous array of keyboard shortcuts, preferably customizable;
(3) High degree of customizability; and
(4) Affordability.
And, best of all, the list includes my Power Utility Pak add-in for Excel (with a 5-star rating). Thanks, Zaine.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Jesus Is Everywhere
This is funny: Jesus is everywhere. It's a parody site...
Our artists will come to your establishment to pray for creation. Through their special prayer techniques, a Holy Visage will be invoked and made visible for all to see!
Here's an example of a success story:
A restaurateur on the East coast has sagging sales and needs a boost. He contacts IseeJesus.com. A week later, in full view of staff and customers, the owner �accidently' drops a bag of flour. The resulting flour cloud settles across a visible surface (wall or pizza oven). The owner stares oddly at the wall, walks over to it, takes a large breath, and blows off the flour. Suddenly, in the remaining flour on the wall, a holy face can now be seen. Word spreads and the restaurant serves as much pizza as they can make to those who've come to see.
(via Jeroen's Semi Blog)
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Blog Traffic in 2003
Currently, the J-Walk Blog attracts about 1,600 unique visitors every week day (and about half that number on weekends and holidays). The chart below shows the monthly visitors for 2003.
That big spike in June corresponds to the popularity of the 3rd Annual Nigerian Email Conference spoof. That little joke brought lots of new visitors, and many of them seem to have continued coming.
As blog traffic goes, these numbers aren't bad at all. But when you compare it to something like Boing Boing, things get a bit depressing.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Congrats To Pamn
Last month I posted a photo that Pamn took of her grandson.
Unbeknownst
to her, I submitted that photo to
Steve's DigiCams
Photo of the Day Contest. Guess what? It was selected as today's photo of
the day! Click
here to
see the full-size image.
Congratulations. That photo is now in the running for January's photo of the month contest -- and they even offer prizes.
You can see more of Pamn's photos at her gallery.
Feel free to leave a comment for Pamn -- either here, or at her gallery.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Willie's New Song
From CBS News: Willie Nelson Pens Anti-War Ballad.
Willie
Nelson plans to debut an anti-war ballad he wrote Christmas Day at a
fund-raising concert Saturday for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis
Kucinich at Austin Music Hall.
Nelson said he planned to record "What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth" this week in Nashville, Tenn., and rush-release it as a single.
Will it anger conservative country music fans? Willie says:
"I sure hope so. I don't care if people say, 'Who the hell does he think he is?' I know who I am."
Posted on 2 January, 2004
The Intelligence Authorization Act
From the San Antonio Current: With a Whisper, Not A Bang.
In December 13, when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush not only celebrated with his national security team, but also pulled out his pen and signed into law a bill that grants the FBI sweeping new powers. A White House spokesperson explained the curious timing of the signing - on a Saturday - as "the President signs bills seven days a week." But the last time Bush signed a bill into law on a Saturday happened more than a year ago - on a spending bill that the President needed to sign, to prevent shutting down the federal government the following Monday.
By signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds don't suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
The Model J?
From AutoWeek: Thunderbird Model J: Did the 'J-Bird' cost a CEO his job?
Confidential AutoWeek sources embedded deep within Ford Motor Co.'s design department last week revealed a production prototype that may have hastened the 2001 departure of former CEO Jac Nasser.
The product in question is shown here (yes, it has six wheels).
According to insiders, the Ford Model J represents a design amalgam of a 1960s Japanese cartoon with the biomechanical grace of a sow bug.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Chronicle Of The Future
Want to see what's in store for the future? Try Chronicle of the Future.
In bringing you tomorrow's news today, we have mapped a path from the already familiar landscape of life in 2000 through to the uncharted territories of 2050.
Your guides are scientists and experts whose ground-breaking work is already creating the new millennium. We do not have a crystal ball, but the research, intuition and imagination of today's leading minds can help us look into the future. At times we may appear irreverent - but never malicious.
For example, here's an excerpt from a story in 2010:
MULTIBILLIONAIRE Bill Gates last night won a state court victory in which it was decided that a child cloned from one of his hairs need not inherit his empire.
Laura X, who may not be named, a former Microsoft employee, had claimed that her six-month-old son was the love child from an affair with Gates which had ended when she became pregnant.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Get A Custom Novel
For $21,100, Norbert Klugmann will write a novel just for you.
"I want to do what artists have always done," explained Klugmann. "They paint a picture for a patron, who owns it thereafter. The artist gets a fee, providing an income. I want to do that for novels."
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Long Toes Gallery
Further proof that the Web has a gallery for everything. Here's the Moe Grits Long Toes Gallery. (Warning: it's a Geocities site).
In these web-pages we'll look over some prime examples of long toes, all of which will be female. You've seen them, but probably haven't given them much consideration. If you found this site in error, you're probably more confused than a Palm Beach resident stuck in a voting booth. Let's cut to the chase: long toes are sexy. They are a mark of beauty. The more the toes are like fingers, the more elegant they are.
Posted on 2 January, 2004
Google Zeitgeist
Check out the 2003 Year-End Google Zeitgeist.
The 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year's major events and hottest trends based on more than 55 billion searches conducted over the past year by Google users from around the world. Whether you are tracking the global progression of the latest news or learning about healthy searches in Japan, the 2003 Year-End Zeitgeist enables you to look at the past year through the collective eyes of the world on the Internet.
The most popular query for the year? I'm sad to announce that it was britney spears.
Posted on 2 January, 2004