February 03, 2006
Can You Go Home Again?
The coming weeks will be interesting and exciting ones for Hikaru at Darkest Blue.
How do I return to a home I have never known? The house in Saigon is not there anymore, I hear. My mother went back several years ago. There is only an empty lot. The communists took everything and the house was burned down, they say. She will never go back again.(snip)
I am returning to Vietnam after thirty years. I am going in a week, just after the start of the new year. I imagine meeting a parent I’ve never had. I look at them and see similarities, but the face is still an alien face. The voice is still an alien voice. Is this really where I come from?
I am going back with my foster brother, who is eleven years older and still remembers the house where he grew up. His mother worked there for my family before she died. We are staying with friends he had from primary school, friends who were not forced to leave, and did not choose to leave. We will visit my grandmother’s grave. This is an alien world to me.
We look forward to reading your impressions once you're there.
TAGS: Vietnam,
Posted by Brian at 07:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 03, 2006
So You Wanna Fight?
Have someone you would like to smack upside the head without worrying about getting arrested for assault?
Scott at Laughing Squid has just the thing for you.
This just in from an anonymous source…making its US debut, a massive Pillow Fight is being planned for 6pm on Valentine’s Day (February 14th) at San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza (at Market and Embarcadero). Here’s more on the history of Pillow Fight Club.
Scott also includes five rules for pillow fight club... one of which is apparently not... never talk about pillow fight club.
TAGS: Pillow Fight Club, Laughing Squid,
Posted by Brian at 07:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Living in a Sexless Marriage
I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying the new BlogHer blogs... with posts from some of my favorite local bloggers.
TBAiT favorite Susan Mernit writes today on Blogher about a guy named Matt who is living in a sexless marriage after his wife "became bi."
Susan says:
This is the kind of blog I find really compelling--a real person, writing about real issues, trying to figure out what's going on--and what's next. Hang in there, Matt!
Also check out the comment from another TBAiT favorite, Liz Henry...
TAGS: BlogHer, Bisexualityr,
Posted by Brian at 10:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Dave Has a Dream
About 15 years ago when I was still living in my hometown of Dallas, Texas, I took two weeks of vacation and got on a train. I went from Dallas to St. Louis to Chicago to Spokane to Seattle to the Bay Area to LA to El Paso and back to Dallas. It was great. The thing about taking a long train trip is that you see the most beautiful countryside and the ugliest parts of the cities.
Dave at Chicken or Beef rides Caltrain occasionally... but he still dreams about trains.
Yet somehow, I seem to dream, on a pretty regular basis, about trains — being on them, waiting for them, dodging them in switchyards. The switchyard theme is a new one: it has become gritty, industrial, and rainy in my subconscious. My inner world has moved to Gary, IN*.(snip)
Which brings me to my interactive blog question of the month: any dream-themes of interest out there? I’ve always found it intensely fascinating to hear about the locales that other people’s subconsciouses live in.
Let's hear it... what do you dream about?
Posted by Brian at 10:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
What's Next? A Mohammed Action Figure?
It's hard to imagine this not very well drawn cartoon is causing riots all over the Muslim world. I saw video this morning from Jakarta where crowds burned the flag at the Danish embassy out of outrage that someone would draw a Mohammed cartoon. The Danish are refusing to apologize, something Angie at Ang's Weird Ideas agrees with.
Good for them! They shouldn't! It's a political cartoon, like the millions floating around out there. Those causing a commotion act as tho there is an issue, when they are the ones making an issue.(snip)
Someone commented on one of my posts, In Islam we're not even allowed to draw pictures of the Prophet peace
be upon him. ... well then you don't, but dont' expect others to follow the rules you set for yourself.
Fiat Lux is also applauding the Danish decision.
They're not flattering, but they're not in Der Stürmer territory either. The Danish government is completely correct when it insists it has nothing to apologize for.
TAGS: Islam, Mohammed Cartoon,
Posted by Brian at 09:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
My Apologies
I think this is the longest I've gone without blogging on weekdays since we started the project. I apologize for being away so long but I've been battling the flu. That's right, I've been physically ill as opposed to the sickness you're used to out of me!
Out of respect for my co-workers I'm staying at home again today to avoid infecting them. I will take some time to do some blogging as well just so that you don't have to go a half a week without some aggregator goodness.
Posted by Brian at 08:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 31, 2006
Let's Roll
John at the California Conservative has just been watching Flight 93 on A&E;
For you Lefties out there, you friends of the Islamo-fascists, watch this movie. Watch and remember. And then tell me you think it wrong to hunt them all down and kill them. Tell me there is another way to deal with these people.The hatred and anger brings back the clarity.
I doubted the war in Iraq was the way to go. Hell, I still doubt it. But the war has brought our enemy to that place like cockroaches to a dirty kitchen. If nothing else, we are going to kill a hell of a lot of them. Maybe some other good will come of it, like deposing that, in the words of Patton, “paper hanging son of bitch,” but for me I see it as the chance to destroy the enemy, and destroy them we must.
TAGS: Flight 93, September 11th Attacks,
Posted by Brian at 05:41 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
How Do You Spell Flickr?
How cool is this? Grass at Grass Shack Events and Media points us to this cool new site that lets you spell just about anything using images from Flickr.
TAGS: Flickr, Spell With Flickr,
Posted by Brian at 04:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
All Yesterday's Parties
I really enjoyed seeing lots of existing (I won't say old) friends and meeting some new ones at last night's Blogher Shindig. Some of my all-time favorite bloggers were in attendence including Grace Davis, Liz Henry, and more.. and of course all of the fabulous Blogher peeps including Lisa Stone and Elisa Camahort....
I took a cab over to the Thirsty Bear since I didn't want to have search for parking over in that part of town. Joi Ito also attended a party last night.. but no cab driver could have found the right location.
Yesterday Larry asked me if I could go to a Creative Commons party with him. "Sure!" I said. "Hamlet Linden has the details. It's at 1PM in Second Life." I showed up in Second Life around 1:30PM and messaged Hamlet who teleported me to a beautiful tree house. Everyone was in kilts dancing. I clicked the play button on the music and my room was filled with the music they were dancing to. I was looking kind of drab in my semi-default gear, so I was quickly handed a kilt. Then I clicked the dance ball and I was dancing around with the rest of them.
I have a Second Life account but to tell you the truth I'm usually way to shy to actually talk with anyone else on it. Instead I just go to the heavy metal club and sit around engaging in e-licit behavior.
TAGS: Blogher, Second Life,
Posted by Brian at 03:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
E-Mail of the Future
On one of the many e-mail lists I subscribe to, there was recently a very interesting discussion about the future of e-mail. Some say it will be more pull like RSS than push as it is now. Others argued technology would solve the spam problem.
On the same Business 2.0 page that I referenced in the previous post, there's indication that AOL may soon be about to start charging some e-mailers for the making sure you hear the dude say, "You've got mail."
(Soon) commercial email senders must pay a fraction of a cent per email to make sure their messages go through. As an investor in a rival to the company AOL is using to do this, venture capitalist Fred Wilson is hardly an objective observer, but he nevertheless argues convincingly that this amounts to selling access to AOL users' inboxes. "The spammers have won," he says. "They have turned email delivery into a business that can be bought and sold for the highest price. And AOL is leading the way. Of course."
Speaking of e-mails, Johnny at Intellectual Poison was probably not going to renew his Blogrolling account. But the e-mails sealed the deal.
But the final nail in the coffin for Blogrolling? Sending me a reminder email every day for the last couple of weeks about my pending account expiration with no means to stop the emails. Sorry but that's (snip)ing rude and annoying. You're charging for a service that I can get better for free elsewhere. Good luck with your business model.
TAGS: E-Mail, AOL, Blogrolling
Posted by Brian at 02:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Who Knew About Google?
It's been a tough week or so for Google. The Mountain View company has been embroiled in a fight with the Justice Department, controversy over Chinese censorship, and now the stock that never fails didn't meet earnings.
The AP reports:
CEO Eric Schmidt told analysts during a Tuesday conference call that the fourth-quarter results topped the company's internal projections. Management has steadfastly refused to publicly project its earning potential, making it difficult for analysts to reach the calculations that investors depend on for appraising a company's value.(snip)
Google's fourth-quarter letdown marks the first major test of Wall Street's appetite for a stock that investors had been hungrily buying while the company churned out an uninterrupted string of pleasant earnings surprises.
The company's earnings had exceeded analyst estimates by at least 14 cents per share in each of its previous five quarters since its much-ballyhooed IPO. Google's quarterly profits had at least doubled in each of those quarters, too.
So who predicted this? As it turns out, as Business 2.0 reports, Yahoo muckety-muck Amr Awadallah suspected this was coming weeks ago.
Business 2.0 says:
Awadallah, who clearly has an inside view on the business of search, notes that pageviews at Google aren't growing fast enough to make that number without a notable increase in how much Google gets paid per ad.
So far no comment or crowing on the Awadallah blog since the results were made public.
TAGS: Google,
Posted by Brian at 02:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 30, 2006
Another Cultural Highlight I Love
Having just told you all how much I love Death Metal, it should probably surprise few of you to learn that I am also a big fan of Arena Football. It's a much faster game than the outdoor version and just about everyone on the team goes both ways.
No, not like that.
They play both offense and defense.
Well, Eric at And the Family Buick decided to test out Arena Football by attending a San Jose Sabrecats game this past weekend. Somehow I don't think Eric will be back anytime soon.
Arena Football's got more sexual tawdriness and none of the self-awareness or occasional restraint seen in the NFL. They use a smaller field and have modified the rules to encourage much more scoring. They use cushioned sideboards to contain the action like in hockeTAGS: Katrina, y and give the bloodthirsty fans the thrill of collisions that sound much worse than they are. A crowd of nearly 14,000 weirdos including us mostly filled the place. The overly-featured cheerleaders (the SaberKittens) line both end zones, even when the offense is looking to score on the goalline. Cannonfire and other audio assaults pour over the crowd constantly. A handful of facepainters and strangely-dressed suburban rebels sat in the best zones for inadvertent TV coverage fame.We bought scalped tix outside and ended up in the 6th row on the 20-ish yard-line next to a creepy Dad with binoculars trained on the SaberKittens while his 8-year-old-ish son tried to make sense of the confusing spectacle. On the other side of Sockie sat a hefty pair of high-fiving, freakishly-involved fans. People in the rows ahead of us acted as if they somewhat knew each other, like they'd met last season at a truck pull and lapsed into this poorly-trained posse.
TAGS: Arena Football, San Jose Sabrecats,
Posted by Brian at 12:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
A Black Metal Birthday
Yesterday was my 44th Birthday (don't send presents, just sing a public domain version of Happy Birthday out of tune softly to yourself and I'll be happy) and to celebrate I attended a wonderful musical experience... In Flames, Trivium, Devil Driver, and Zao.
Fortunately the show was at the Fillmore (where I've had troubles in the past but yesterday the staff couldn't have been nicer or more helpful) where I interviewed Trivium and then enjoyed the show.
The reason I say good thing it was at the Fillmore is because if the show had been in Malaysia, we would have all been arrested.
Friskodude posts about a story that got picked up in BoingBoing this weekend about a new decree that says "black metal" is at odds with Islamic law.
Carl at Friskodude says he's not a fan of the music but is opposed to the ruling.
Black Sabbath seemed more appealing to suicidal depressives who smoked way too much pot, and that wasn't my thing.But I've always supported the right of those who want to rock, so I find the latest Islamic ruling from Malaysia more than disturbing.
TAGS: Black Metal, Happy Birthday, In Flames, Trivium, Devil Driver, Zao, The Fillmore
Posted by Brian at 12:09 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
A Great Way to Meet Women (Bloghers)
The excitement is alredy building for this year's version of Blogher after all of the fun we had last summer.
Lisa Stone on the current Blogher site writes that a week from today they will be unveiling a whole new web site with lots of great Blogher resources. I certainly look forward to that.
Also a bunch of Bloghers will be getting together tonight at the Thirsty Bear in San Francisco for a little get-together. If I can get all of my KRON work done in time, I plan to be there.
KRON and TBAiT are proud to be supporters of the Blogher movement. Get involved. It doesn't matter how many Y chromosomes you have.
Update:
As Elisa points out in the comments, the new Blogher site is live now. No, you don't have to wait until after the Super Bowl because the big game of Blogerism is now in operation. Check it out. It's quite beautiful.
TAGS: Blogher,
Posted by Brian at 11:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
January 27, 2006
Scambaiting
I may soon be able to quit my job and live a life of luxury. That's because I keep getting e-mails from people who want me to hold on to their millions of dollars in ill gotten gains, if I'll just send them my bank account information. (That's assuming they didn't already steal my information off the ATM on Market Street.)
Dave from eMusings at Chez Goodman links to a great post from a fellow named Don Perreault who recently got back at one of the scammers, with a little help from his Rotweilers. (I promise, the story is non-violent.)
Don was selling his video camera on Amazon's auction site... when he started getting e-mails from people asking him to ship them the camera in Nigeria. They even sent fake receipts that they had paid for the camera. Finally Don decided to have some fun and play along. He convinced Mr. Henry Roop that he would ship the camera if only Roop would pay for a FedEx pick-up.
My dilemma was, what was I going to put in the box that I shipped to Mr Roop? It didn't take me long to come up with a rather insulting item to put in the box… I would fill it with the excrement from my 2 large Rottweilers. Because the GL2 was being shipped out of the country the first attempt at pickup from Fedex resulted in the driver not having the proper documentation. The Fedex driver stated that he would have to return the next day with the proper documentation. Somehow the GL2 was not picked up until the following Monday and during this period Mr Roop contacted me numerous times in attempt to get the camera shipped ASAP. A transcript of our email correspondence can be found here. I am of the opinion that anybody exchanging monies or goods is a target of thieves. I also believe that it is in the interest of the internet retailers to keep the publicity of the fraudulent activity to a minimum to avoid loss of business. I would hope that retailers are doing their best to keep fraudulent activity to a minimum.
Hooray for Don...
Believe it or not there's actually a term for what Don did. It's called "Scambaiting." One of my favorite sites of all-time is called 419Eater and they show you how to do it without getting yourself in trouble. Even if you don't want to try it yourself, the trophy gallery is worth the price of admission. (It's free, unless you want to send me your bank account number in which case I will deposit the money that my father stole when President of Fernando Poo)
TAGS: Scambaiting,
419eater,
Posted by Brian at 03:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Eye-Roh-Knee
TBAiT friend Anne Mitchell has a brilliant new site out that I recently added to the aggregator. It's called That's Ironic and features things dripping with irony. It's quite im"press"ive.
Today, Anne looks at Oprah's shock at James Frey's inaccuracies.
I’m not actually sure which is more ironic - Oprah being shocked to learn that an addict had lied after she had boosted him to national bestseller status because she believed the book to be true, or publisher Nan Talese of Random House telling Oprah that “while the Random House legal department checks nonfiction books to make sure that no one is defamed or libeled, it does not check the truth of the assertions made in a book.”
One of the fun things about the site is that you can choose the level of irony for yourself with Anne's brilliant Iron-O-Meter.
TAGS: That's Ironic, Iron-O-Meter,
Posted by Brian at 02:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 26, 2006
Google China's No Joke
If you're looking for a really corny joke, don't go to Google's new Chinese site.
Declan McCullagh from Politech writes about the restrictions you wouldn't expect on searches today on Cnet News.
Google's new China search engine not only censors many Web sites that question the Chinese government, but it goes further than similar services from Microsoft and Yahoo by targeting teen pregnancy, homosexuality, dating, beer and jokes.
No beer and no jokes...
Amy at the California Conservative can't quite believe Google is abiding by the dictates of the Chinese Government but not the U.S. Justice Department.
So let’s see…..Google won’t cooperate with the US government to protect children from porn on the internet, but will cooperate with Communist China in censoring information to the Chinese people for profit.
SFist Chuck thinks Google is balancing things as best as they can.
People like to paint a picture of the company as Champions of Truth and Defenders of the Common Man, when the reality is a lot more practical: it's a business, one that exists to make money and give people access to information. It turns out that the two aren't always mutually exclusive, and the company ends up doing good more often than not..Google's not the superhero who's going to fly into China and stick it to the Red Menace. It's just a company that has made billions and billions of dollars by doing things well and looking out for its customers. And that's even more impressive
We would advise Chris Null not too try too many jokes at FilmCritic.com
I'm happy to report that filmcritic.com is NOT banned in China! (Yet.)
Alan at E tenebris, lux dormiens quotes from a post in China Tech News:
"Chinese history is filled with tales of foreigners coming to the Middle Kingdom with money, but leaving the country poor, confused and embarrassed."
Alan adds:
I think, as long as Google remains so flexible, that it will be able to adapt. It all depends on how xenophobic the Chinese population may be. If the Chinese government will let Google have access to the vast literature and writing of China, over 4,000 years of it, I willingly bet that Google will organize that information and conquer it. If the Chinese people mistrust that company, as Japan and France are wont to do, then that is life, not some silly uniqueness that they brag of themselves.
Oh yeah, the Chinese people do seem to have access to TBAiT.
TAGS: Google China,
Posted by Brian at 03:53 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Blogging Craig While Waiting to Interview Him
This is one of those through the looking glass moments that the 2.0 world seems to offer sometimes.
Craig at Craigblog (who you know from Craigslist fame of course) apparently let Jake Tapper of ABC News cool his heels for a while before sitting down to an interview for nightline.
So what did the network correspondent do while waiting? Blog about it, of course.
Am sitting at the desk of Craig Newmark, whom you probably know better as merely "Craig" from craigslist.org.He's tending to customer issues and complaints right now. We're working on a Nightline spot about how much he's changed the world of the internet and affected journalism -- many newspapers blame his free classifieds for their financial woes.
I'll look for Craig on that "other" TV station, if I can stay up that late.
TAGS: Craig Newmark, Craigslist, Nightline, Jake Tapper,
Posted by Brian at 01:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Let Me Speak to the Skinny Doctor
Big Guy at Chewin the Fat says it's 2006 so it only makes sense to be reading blogs for information instead of magazines.
BG has just come across a blog from a "fat doctor" who doesn't talk down to those of us who shop at the big and tall stores.
Many of us have become to be suspicious of the medical community and their knee jerk reactions to plus-size patients. A common complaint amongst plus-size patients is the doctor only sees fat. “I went in with the flu, he told me to lose weight!” That and the fact that the weight loss pharmaceuticals can be very lucrative to physicians.Fat Doctor is a relatively new effort, but I too like what I am reading.
TAGS: Fat Doctor,
Posted by Brian at 01:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
January 25, 2006
Dogs Costumed in Buns
Remember the Opening sequence from NYPD Blue with all of those subway trains whizzing by?
Well, I'm not suggesting that NY is the "American City" Kurt of Other People Exist is visiting although apparently if I buy a pony blanket, Todd will autograph it for me for free. Nonetheless Kurt is finding all sorts of interesting things in this unnamed city.
As you might suspect, ultimately Kurt turns to costumed animals...
This time he's addressing dogs dressed in a costume called "a bun". Now I don't know, (or want to know) what exactly floats Kurt's boat... but he seems to find this attractive. He calls them "Hot Dogs"
Hot dogs prices are on the rise, though. Dogs retails for about $1.00US per unit throughout the metropolitan area, but some vendors have recently upped their price 50%, to $1.50 per dog. This is the largest recorded price increase of anything ever.Nutritionists tell us that the hot-dog-in-a-bun, with its balance of protein and carbohydrates, is a "perfect food." And adding mustard satisfies your daily requirement for condiments. Sodium nitrite, a preservative in hot dogs, is carcinogenic and has been linked to death, so the National Hot Dog And Sausage Council recommends keeping your consumption of dogs under 100 lbs per annum (about three units per day).
More information can be found at the NHDSC's web site at hot-diggity-doggone-dog.com
TAGS: Hot Dogs,
Posted by Brian at 03:52 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
IdiotCamp '06
We won't go into details here but suffice it to say I did something outrageously stupid this morning with just the click of a mouse.
(Hint: When replying to e-mail, make sure your message goes to the person intended and not the 3,000 people on a major e-mail list.)
Still, as dumb as my unnamed mistake was, it ain't nuthin' compared to the gems Om Malik points us to in this year's Business 2.0 Magazine's list of the "101 Dumbest Moments in Business" for the year.
Om's favorite example is also my favorite
The Technology Dumbest Moments.“If there’s a burglar in my home, maybe I send an e-mail or a text message to the police instead of making a call.” – Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, on his VOIP service’s lack of 911 access.
One of Om's commenters suggests using the money you save using Skype to buy a burglar alarm.
Anyway, my dumb moment this morning prompted response from lots of people on the list that they too must be idiots since they've done more or less the same thing (with hopefully less inflamatory content) so we've decided to hold IdiotCamp '06. If you would like to sign up, we've set up a kiwi.
TAGS: Dumbest Moments, IdiotCamp,
Posted by Brian at 03:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)