the season of giving

Grok Headline matches for the season of giving

Flu Season! Wabbit Season!

Flu Season! Wabbit Season! 12/02/2003 01:03 AM
Everybody in southern California seems to be falling ill, so I'm sure it won't be too long before I'm KO'ed as well. Perhaps if I keep enough green "liquid death" (read: NyQuil) coursing through my veins, the bugs will remain at bay? Taste is the first thing to go when I get sick - which would explain my sense of humor as of late. I've moved my home office mini-television into the bedroom in preparation for the inevitable. Even if I don't become the next witless victim, I'll be able to fall asleep to Drew Carey reruns and wake up to Battlestar Girlactica promos. With red hot Wi-Fi, I'm also able to stay connected while under the covers. Adventure Elf, here I come!...

tis the season: II

tis the season: II 12/25/2004 05:20 PM
So here's something cool that I'm happy to be able to announce. Five years ago, I published Code. It's time for an update. But rather than update in the old fashioned way, Basic Books has agreed to the following: Beginning in February, we'll be posting Version 1 of Code to a Wiki. "Chapter Captains" will then supervise updates and corrections. Depending upon the progress, sometime near June, I will take the product and edit and rewrite it to produce Code, v2. The Wiki will stay live forever (under a Creative Commons license). The edited book will be published in the fall. I have donated my advance for Code, v2 to Creative Commons. All royalties beyond the advance will be donated as well. At this point, we're collecting "Chapter Captain" (CCs, of course) volunteers. CCs should be expert in the subject of the chapter, and willing to work through the Wiki to produce an updated chapter. (Here's the table of contents.) My aim is not to write a new book; my aim is to correct and update the existing book. But I'm eager for advice and expert direction. If you're interested in volunteering, email me at this address. I am grateful to Basic Books to allow me to try this experiment. I worked very hard five years ago to learn enough to write Code. I'm extremely eager for the book to gain from the collective wisdom of at least part of the Net. No one can know whether this will work. But if if does, it could be very interesting.

tis the season

tis the season 10/29/2003 12:11 AM
yes i've been good yes i've been naughty and nice but i'm told that's in this year so it's...

Tis The Season

Tis The Season 12/29/2003 08:30 AM
onegoodmove

onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/001109.html
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this the season: I

this the season: I 12/25/2004 05:20 PM

"I'm just a student, so I don't have a lot of money to blow, but I donated $165 to EFF, Public Knowledge, and Creative Commons."

So writes Michael-Forest Meservy in an email, inspiring the following plea: I'm extremely honored to serve on the board of five extraordinary organizations: Creative Commons, EFF, Public Knowledge, Public Library of Science, and the Free Software Foundation. If you can follow a student's lead, I'd be grateful. These are five amazing organizations that need your support. Ask yourself this: How much did I give to the monopolists this year? We'd be happy with 1/10th of that.

Best o’ the Season

Best o’ the Season 12/29/2004 01:23 AM
A Prairie Christmas, with illustrated remarks on snow, cows, and why the Internet is such a dangerous place...

Who's giving to who?

Who's giving to who? 07/08/2004 03:41 PM
You can probably guess who people like Janeane Garofalo and Ben Stein have given campaign contributions to. But how about Jennifer Garner? Reese Witherspoon? Siegfried and Roy? Karl Malone? The Newsmeat Hall Of Fame has the answers.

giving away

giving away 04/05/2005 04:12 AM
TechSpot Apr 5 2005 8:34AM GMT

Season of mists

Season of mists 03/20/2003 07:44 PM
T he Moon mating of the coral has begun. So it's time for a little Autumn magic. The fag us is turning, our dev ils are beginning their mating marathons and our fat little fairies have all the jumpers they need. The Scribbly Gum website celebrates some of nature's seasonal events in Australia.

Compliments of the Season

Compliments of the Season 12/24/2004 01:14 PM

« Hauskaa Joulua / Merry Christmas / God Jul »

For everyone whom I would have liked to send a Christmas card to this year but didn't, Happy Seasonal Non-denominational Greetings. Well, except for the Santa and the Hauskaa Joulua bit. :) I like sending snail mail cards as it's the one time of year that I have a reason to put something in the post to everyone I know. I'm not big on Christmas, but the season does have a few bits worth having. I found a lovely tiny book about 37 pages long in Hagelstam's bargain bin a few months ago on the history of the Christmas card titled Compliments of the Season which you can read here. It's short and covers the rather recent tradition of the cards which first appeared in 1846. The book is old enough to find the writing style and language also very interesting. The Victorians are to blame for many things but they did get a few things right. I wonder what they would make of the dreaded, and usually dreadful, family update christmas letter many US families put into the mail every year. Perhaps channeling Jane Austen might improve them.

We set the date for getting the puppy; 16 January, which seems like an eternity away. The breeders have taken to calling him Jarmo which is a fine name but a bit too close to Jarkko I think as it's difficult enough at times to keep man and beast distinct in my mind. Fortunately, Jarkko doesn't shed. :)

Surfing through the season

Surfing through the season 12/17/2003 11:51 PM
Sunday Times South Africa Dec 17 2003 10:18PM ET

Tis the Season to be Dishonest

Tis the Season to be Dishonest 12/07/2003 04:48 AM
What is it about the holidays that inspires deception? I am, of course, speaking of the millions of parents that lie to their children about Santa Claus.

Start of the Season

Start of the Season 11/14/2003 01:45 PM
It is believed the decorated Christmas tree originated in 16th century Germany. In Italy, children place their Christmas letter under their father's plate. Lucy wants real estate for Christmas in 'A Charlie Brown Christmas.' Nutcracker figurines originated in Germany in the 1700s. 'Jingle Bells' was originally called 'One Horse Open Sleigh.' December 25 was chosen for the celebration of Jesus' birth by Pope Julius I in the 4th century. Just a few random facts from the 'Sounds of the Seasons' channel on digital cable, which will be on in my office for the next month and a half. I can't help but love this stuff! There are a billion religions on this planet, so I'm "forced" to celebrate the pop culture aspect of these winter holidays - so as not to offend anybody. Don't be a Grinch! My stocking will be full this year, and I can't wait....

The Euphoric Season

The Euphoric Season 06/06/2005 12:08 AM

« Suomenlinna at sunset. »

A busy week and nice weather make for a dull time around here, even more dull than my 'cookery' and 'flikr crap photos' that my dear friends here complain about. :) I think we've already had more nice weather in the past few weeks than we've had in the past two years combined so the season is more manic than usual with everyone doing everything all at once, except cleaning house and sitting in front of the computer any more than one has to. :)

Season over for 'phishing'?

Season over for 'phishing'? 07/15/2004 10:10 AM
President Bush is set to sign into law a bill that mandates minimum sentences for ID fraudsters, including Net-reliant "phishers."

Six Feet Under Season 3

Six Feet Under Season 3 03/11/2003 11:49 AM
Six Feet Under - Season 3...

Apple season

Apple season 10/29/2003 11:27 AM
With the launch of iTunes for Windows, the success of the iPod in the digital music device market and the release of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, Apple has of late been the darling of the press, from technology websites to local newspapers. Adding Microsoft's well publicized and continuing failure to secure its Windows operating system from the viruses that plague its users, a problem which doesn't exist in the Macintosh world, and Apple is not only becoming a household word, but a...

Pilot Season

Pilot Season 04/30/2004 10:01 PM
It's pilot season! Each May the networks announce their fall schedules. Here are the many, many shows battling for a prime time spot. (continued inside)

Season One DVD to be most popular ever

Season One DVD to be most popular ever 11/05/2003 01:18 PM
From the "Bound to Happen Sooner or Later" department: Mary Carey to host reality TV show in which 28 women will complete for the grand prize of a one-year contract in adult video.

The prince who keeps on giving

The prince who keeps on giving 08/05/2004 02:04 PM

Giving away the index

Giving away the index 06/05/2005 11:35 PM

My final year project is due in two weeks, and I'm going to be running on silent for most of them. I have, however, upgraded to Tiger and playing with Spotlight has given me plenty to think about.

Giving away the index

The great benefit of having an electronic version of a book you own in dead-tree format to hand is that you can search it. Publishers generally don't hand out free digital copies because, well, they want you to buy the books, not freely distribute electronic copies.

The thing is, you don't need a digital copy of a book to be able to search it; you just need a full-text index of it (if you don't understand what this means, go and read Tim Bray's series O n Search). An index isn't enough to reconstruct the book, but it is enough to answer questions like "on what pages of Eric Meyer on CSS are float layouts discussed?"

Imagine if technical publishers made binary full-text index files of their titles available for download, for free in some kind of open standard format. Readers could query them using Spotlight or similar technologies, and gain the ability to search the titles they own all without needing to rely on centralised, artificially limited services such as Amazon's Search Inside the Book.

O'Reilly, I'm looking at you.

Full-text phishing

On a darker note, one thing about Spotlight that has given me pause is the immense ease with which it can uncover passwords saved amongst my email. Lost password reminders, new account details, invitations to sign up for services - they're all hidden away in my mail archive. Spotlight makes it trivial to dig them back up again, and offers the APIs for applications to do so as well. Combine this with a piece of spyware / some trojan horse and you've got the ultimate vector for phishing attacks.

This problem isn't limited to Macs either; Google and MSN's Desktop Search engines could be used for much the same purpose, and full-text search is bound to end up built in to Windows sooner or later. For the moment, the safest thing to do is either delete those pesky emails or move them to a folder that is excluded from Spotlight's index. Somehow I doubt many people will think to take such precautions.

And with that off my chest, it's time to get back to my dissertation.

Giving Ecto a try

Giving Ecto a try 02/10/2004 02:44 AM

Just downloaded Ado's update to Kung-Log, called Ecto. Seems to have a nice and easy set up, and the posting interface appears pretty clean. Automatic spell-checking is there as well, which is a nice feature too. If only it wasn't only available for this lousy Mac hardware. I've said it before and I'll say it again: If IBM and Apple teamed up and released OSX on a Thinkpad T40, I'd buy one in a heartbeat.

Anyway, that's not Ecto's fault. Kudos to Adriaan on a job well done.

Giving It Away (for Fun and Profit)

Giving It Away (for Fun and Profit) 04/22/2004 01:25 PM

Andy Raskin wrote a long, detailed piece about Creative Commons for the May 2004 issue of Business 2.0 magazine entitled "Giving It Away (for Fun and Profit)." The thrust of the artice is a look at what the future landscape might look like for artists that license their work under Creative Commons. The article also talks about ways current artists are making money and what types of future economies might be built around the licensed work.

New-age strategy on giving

New-age strategy on giving 01/01/2004 11:05 AM
San Jose Mercury News Jan 1 2004 8:04AM ET

Spammers are giving up, AOL says

Spammers are giving up, AOL says 12/29/2004 08:44 PM
National Post Dec 30 2004 12:44AM GMT

Giving the Gift of a new PC?

Giving the Gift of a new PC? 12/24/2003 07:07 PM
Thanks to Slashdot for the good link. If you are giving the gift of a new PC then you need...

Giving Up On The Internet?

Giving Up On The Internet? 01/03/2005 02:58 PM
For all the stories of spam, scams and spyware online, are some people deciding that enough is enough, and logging off completely? The article just has a single anecdote, of one person who has disconnected her modem, and then uses the rest of the article to highlight all of the problems that have been discussed way too many times already. There have been a few similar articles in the past as well. It's pretty clear that there isn't a widespread rush to shut off the internet, but it is definitely true that some users just don't want to bother with the constant security patching and making sure their anti-spam, anti-virus, anti-phishing, anti-hijacking and anti-spyware software offerings are all up-to-date and working. It still seems like most average users expect their ISPs to handle all of this for them, but the ISPs are afraid to take on the role, knowing that it's quite difficult to manage. There's a real market opportunity if anyone could figure out a simple, no hassle way to handle all of this -- but clearly, we're a long way off from that.

Surviving the Political Season

Surviving the Political Season 09/07/2004 02:41 PM
I've been completely frustrated with the level of political discourse this year here in the US. With only two months left in the election, neither candidate has come forward and provided a detailed plan for what they'd like to see happen for the future. "I'll put more money in the pockets of the working family" really isn't helping me make any decisions. However, there are a couple of good sites online that can help you cut through the misleading statements that the candidates are making in their bids to snow their way into office.

Continue reading "Surviving the Political Season"

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Lawmakers: Phishing season is over

Lawmakers: Phishing season is over 07/15/2004 10:11 AM
ZDNet Jul 15 2004 2:15PM GMT

Arsenal eye unique season

Arsenal eye unique season 04/26/2004 04:47 AM
Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein insists the club must crown their title triumph in style by remaining unbeaten.

New Hurricane Season 's New Fears

New Hurricane Season 's New Fears 05/15/2004 12:57 PM
CBS News May 15 2004 4:10PM GMT

‘Tis the season to cash in those rebates

‘Tis the season to cash in those rebates 12/27/2004 03:21 PM
As the dust begins to settle on all the shiny new gadgets purchased this holiday season, the time has come to dig out the paperwork and apply for one of the many rebates being offered by more and more companies to lure customers to their products. The use of rebates is at an all-time high, especially when it comes to computer and consumer electronics purchases, finds The NPD Group's recent report, Rebates: A Consumer Perspective. Almost a third of consumers surveyed (32 percent) purchased a technology product that offered a rebate during the past six months. A closer look at those consumers' responses shows more than 25 percent of computer hardware product purchases included a rebate and 8.5 percent of respondents used a rebate to buy a consumer electronics product. The clear benefit of rebates in consumers' minds is the price reduction offered. More than half of those surveyed said rebates "made the product more affordable than expected." Rebates also spurred consumers to buy products sooner than they expected (21 percent), to buy more expensive products than they would have without a rebate offer (17 percent) and to purchase brands they would not have without a rebate offer (9 percent). While rebates are very popular, the NPD study indicates the redemption process is still a source of frustration for many consumers. The most common reason for dissatisfaction was "prefer instant cash" (35 percent). Another 25 percent said rebates are "too much work for the money" and 17 percent said they forgot to mail in or go online to redeem their rebates before the expiration deadlines. Additionally, 15 percent said it was difficult to know what to do to redeem rebates and 13 percent said they didn't have enough time to complete and submit the forms necessary to redeem their rebates.

Interactive Marriage Season

Interactive Marriage Season 07/16/2004 11:48 AM
The interactive marketing industry is gearing up by buying each other out.

'Sopranos' to Air Its Fifth-Season
Finale (AP)

'Sopranos' to Air Its Fifth-Season
Finale (AP) 06/02/2004 07:52 PM
AP - Poor Adriana: Scuttling on all fours across dead leaves in a forest until Silvio, Tony Soprano's consigliere, popped her with two shots. That was Adriana's ghastly end on the most recent episode of "The Sopranos," underlining how business is business in a mob family — even for Ade, a terribly reluctant FBI informant whose own fiance, Soprano soldier Christopher Moltisanti, set in motion the hit Tony ordered.

Conference season begins

Conference season begins 09/08/2004 08:45 AM
Ah, the sweet smell of fresh looseleaf binders and the snap of glazed plastic covers being fitted to dog-eared textbooks that have bludgeoned the curiosity of generations of school kids tell us that Conference Season is upon us. It begins today with a private meeting to get back into the swing of things and is followed immeidately by Friends of O'Reilly, the getaway weekend for unwashed geeks. (Hey, the temporary showers are cooooold!) Better check my Conference Kit: Power strip? Check. Careful selection of t-shirts with expressions that capture my inner essence, to be worn under my shirt so no...

F1 Championship Season 2000 1.0.4

F1 Championship Season 2000 1.0.4 03/06/2004 01:48 AM
A Formula racing game.

'Tis the Season for Google?

'Tis the Season for Google? 08/03/2004 02:14 PM
WebProNews Aug 3 2004 6:36PM GMT

Silly season googlebombing

Silly season googlebombing 05/24/2004 09:01 AM
Some GOPers are googlebombing John Kerry's site with the word "waffles," and Kerry's supporters are fighting back with a Google AdWord buy for "waffles" that goes to a page on Bush's waffling.

I think that this googlebombing stuff is highly overrated. For starters, who googles the word "waffles?" What should be the canonical link for "waffles?" It's really self-reflexive: the nominal point of a googlebomb is to hijack a common search-term to misdirect searchers (i.e., the neo-Nazis who bombed the string "jew"), but in fact, a single-word query for "jew" is a pretty weird thing to punch into Google: "Hmm, I wonder why my neighbor takes every Friday night off and lights a candle. Wonder if it's cos he's Jewish? I know, I'll type 'jew' into Google and see if there's anything about Friday nights and candles in the top ten results."

In fact, the point of a googlebomb is to acheive the googlebomb and then publicize it: "Look, if you search for 'more evil than satan,' you get the Microsoft home-page, hardy-har-har." But those who argue that they've scored some kind of victory here are nuts: no one searches for "more evil than satan" -- unless someone tells them that there's a funny googlebomb on the other end.

When I was a kid, we had all these "calculator games" -- addition, subtraction and multiplication routines that would yield a string on the LCD, that, when inverted, would spell out a word. I remember one "dirty" one that spelled out "BOOBLESS" (55378008). At the time, it felt like we'd really gotten one in against The Man, by somehow convincing a pocket-calculator to kinda-sorta spit out a word we weren't allowed to say in polite company, but the joke got old fast. For starters, "BOOBLESS" isn't a (very) dirty word, and more importantly, it just didn't make the calculator dirty to get it to spit this out.

By the same token, "WAFFLES" isn't that common a naked query, and convincing Google to spit out John Kerry's homepage (or an AdWord for an anti-Bush page) isn't gonna score you any points with the people looking for info on waffles -- the most it can acheive is the (very) faintly humorous spectacle of the Kerry homepage coming up on this improbable query.

Hardy har har.

The campaign has purchased Google AdWords, sponsored links that come up beside results when certain words are searched. The short links also refer to Kerry's website, but suggest users "read about President Bush's Waffles."

"When we heard people were linking the word 'waffles' with John Kerry, our thought was, 'This is ridiculous,'" said Morra Aarons, Internet grass-roots coordinator for John Kerry for President. "But our solution was to fight fire with fire."

Link

Offer Season Gets Into Top Gear

Offer Season Gets Into Top Gear 12/24/2004 12:17 PM
TechTree Dec 24 2004 2:23PM GMT
Grok Description matches for the season of giving
GrokA matches for the season of giving

the season of giving

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