Category Archives: Uncategorized

While weblogs and e-books may be seen as personal publishing to some, there is still a large market for publishing-on-demand books. Gayle Feldman of the New York Times takes a look at new ways book publishers are focusing on smaller authors for publishing-on-demand. For $499 the Borders Professional Publication will get you an International Standard Book Number (ISBN), a listing on Amazon, and 5 copies made available on Borders’ shelves….

Last night I met Scoble for dinner at Jing Jing in Palo Alto. Don Park and Al Nevarez were also in attendance. Interesting conversations about the past and future of weblogging. Many people seemed to have tried out the trend, but the quality writing seems to have decreased. We discussed better methods of peer review and aggregation. Micah Alpern joined us at University Coffee Cafe. We talked about ways eBay should be preparing for Windows Longhorn. Reputation came up again, this time related to service reputation linked to a friend of friends or community. Does a weblog add eBay reputation?…

Apple’s new flagship San Francisco store opens tomorrow morning at 10 A.M. Since May 2001 Apple has opened a new store every 13 days. An average of 1000 people visit each Apple retail store daily. Over 50% of purchases are from first time Mac buyers. Employees are trained for 3 to 7 weeks before they come to an Apple store. Apple had 1,352 applicants for the San Francisco store, and hired 70. 35 of these employees are trained in Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and similar software. 20% of the people who come into an Apple store visit the Genius Bar….

Showa Shinzan International Yukigassen, the de facto world snowball-fight championship, takes place yearly in Sobetsucho, Japan. Sebastian Moffett profiles the tournament on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal. Players wear white jumpsuits and strap on a helmet for protection from the regulation snowballs between 2.56 and 2.76 inches in diameter. The game is combination dodge ball and capture the flag. Some teams practice year-round….

Microsoft has a new site online covering the security changes in Windows XP SP2. I installed the new build on my Tablet last night and started poking around. Included in the SP2 builds are Tablet-specific improvements to handwriting recognition as well. When you start the computer for the first time you are presented with an Automatic Updates screen before you even see your desktop. On boot there is a window front and center (similar to Windows Tour) reporting on your computer’s current firewall, automatic updates, and anti-virus setup. Security Center is a new control panel, as is Windows Firewall….

President Bush announced this morning that he is calling for “an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife.” Some choice quotes from his speech: “After more than two centuries of American jurisprudence, and millennia of human experience, a few judges and local authorities are presuming to change the most fundamental institution of civilization.” “The union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught humanity that the commitment of a…

PassMark Security is a new company founded by Bill Harris, former CEO of Intuit and PayPal, to tackle the problem of phishing, or emulating a trusted site. Their approach is to show you a picture you selected at registration to be your relationship identifier. If you choose a horseshoe and receive an e-mail without that horseshoe picture, you know someone is trying to trick you. You can personalize your PassMark or choose from stock images, similar to an instant messaging program’s buddy icon. Mr. Harris serves on the boards of Earthlink, Macromedia, eOne Global, Yodlee, XTec, MyVest, and LowerMyBills….

Kim Zetter of Wired News interviewed Viet Dinh, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy, and primary author of the USA Patriot Act….

Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times writes about large video screens making their way into some concert halls. A 15-by-20 foot video screen cutting the orchestra in two while they play Wagner and Brahms. How does this make the symphony more user-friendly? “[T]he younger generation is more responsive to visual stimuli” says Benjamin M. Rosen, a Philharmonic trustee who spearheaded and financed the experiment….

I spent my entire weekend at CodeCon here in San Francisco. Most presentations seemed to focus on the different ways we present ourselves to the world. ZeroConf to help others find what you have to share. Social software to define relationships and grant privileges based on those relationships. Anonymizers to hide you from the world. Versioning systems to track your steps. The highlight of my weekend was talking to Donald Knuth on Friday night at the Google party. I also had a chance to talk to Craig Newmark about his ReplayTV battles and his blogging experience….