Zombies & Bush:

Too Funny.....and the ending is perfect.

BookMooch

This is a site that lets you  "mooch" books (mooch: to borrow something without intending to return it). Post details of books of  that you are willing to allow to be "mooched" and earn points for every book posted. Create  "wish lists" of books you would like to "mooch" from others. 

Sending books to "moochers" earns you more points. Mooching books from others costs you points. 

Browse or search all the books available for mooching from other members.

The best part of BookMooch is the "moochbar". The moochbar lets you use Amazon to find books you want, then get the book for free from BookMooch (assuming it's available). Install the moochbar, then from within an Amazon book information page,  click on the moochbar. It will automatically check the BookMooch inventory to see if that book is available. If not, gives you the opportunity to add the book to your wish list.

 The upside of BookMooch - obviously - free books

The downside of BookMooch - you have to pay to ship your books to moochers.  Send them media mail (book rate) to save $$$ but it can still add up.

Therefore,  to make sure that BookMooch doesn't end up being a one way street (your books and money OUT with nothing IN)   you have to get books back.
(So it's also not so good for reducing your overal book inventory if, say, ones spouse keeps tripping over stacks of books and swearing and threatening to throw them out...... for an example)  

 
Which means that:

a) You need to find books in the BookMooch inventory that you actually want. Which can be a bit harder than you think. There are thousands of books, but chances are pretty good that *the one you want* ain't there.

and

b) You actually need to successfully "mooch" a book. For the good books, there is a lot of competition, so that's not as easy as you might think.  BookMooch will send you an email when the book you want shows up in inventory, but it's first come, first served and if others have the book on their list.....   Well, let's just say that patience is a virtue. 

As part of searching for examples of nice Web 2.0 implementations and examples to use - I stumbled on Schmidgets! Cute! Very cool.

I really like the SMS schmidget
and the Movie schmidget

It's all alpha, seems to work well. Got to check it out.

Forget about the ZFS Kerfluffle - ignore the iPhone - what you really need to focus on is the rPhone!

Yes, that's "r" as in "ARRRRRR me  hearties".....a Pirate phone.

Ok, yeah, I realize that Pirates are a bit *over done* these days - although I will use this as an excuse to post one of my fav pics of Johnny Depp

*sigh* 

Ok, so getting back to that rPhone - You gotta love it. It's a revolutionary steam-powered satellite phone.

Very steam punk - it shouts "This is the 18th century! (ok, all right, you purists out there... I realize that steampunk is more often associated with the 19th century Victorians, but humor me here). Includes a music box, satellite phone all in an 8lb  wood and brass package! Can't beat it for durability.

Watch it in action here rPhone.

 AAAARRRRRRRRRR!
 

 "Askville.com" - Beta - The latest from Amazon.com - "Real answers from real people". Post a question and get answers. You can search for questions that need answering or search by answers. Kind of interesting - we will see if it's useful or just a time sink. Check it out for a while and see what happens.

"What the World eats" - interesting to see what others eat - and how much it costs. Interesting the mix between pre-made/pre-packaged food and the basic ingredients.  http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html

One of the books I am reading this week (I am reading 3 but this one is the most interesting) : Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye

 Very funny and somewhat instructive as well.  This Brad Warner guy has written another book called "Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, & the Truth about Reality  which I have yet to read, but will probably  get. 

Check it out.

Ok, so thanks (I think!) to Linda Skrocki for pointing me off to "Widgetbox". I have been playing with adding widgets to my right nav bar ever since. Kind of a learning experience. So if you have seen crazy stuff showing up and disappearing - well, that's why. I had subscribed to "dog of the day"  - but one (a chihuahua) was so scary, I dumped it. 

So watch out, my right nav will be changing a lot with silly frivolous widgets!

 Right now I have the "top sci fi sellers from Amazon" - not a recommendation of these books on my part by any means - but it is interesting to see what's selling. The "Golden Compass" seems to be quite popular - probably because they are releasing the movie in Dec.  I saw the trailer and it looks really good. Hopefully it holds up.

I am also looking into "StumbleUpon" - will try that out as well and report back. I need to get back to work!

I just read this item on  /.   :

"The New Zealand Ministry of Education has declined to renew a licensing deal for MS Office on 25,000 Macintosh computers in the country's schools. The Education Minister has suggested that schools use the free alternative NeoOffice."
 
Read on and dig into a few links and you find that the reason for this action is a "row" over school funding. The MS Licenses cost $NZ 100Million and the Ministry of Ed is trying to save money.

More interesting is the fact that many people are quite upset over the change because they are worried about the "bugs and problems" in NeoOffice.  Still a lot of work to be done to educate people on open source software - how it works, how to get help, support, etc.  Personally I think that NeoO is pretty good, I seldom have any trouble and goodness knows that  my friends with MS O certainly encounter bugs!

Someone might also want to let these guys know that OpenOffice is porting to Mac (with the help of Sun) and possibly will be available later this year - and one can imagine that paid support contracts and support should be available soon after that.



 

I read on the Huffpo today that Microsoft has supposedly installed "Amnesty Bins" in the Zune headquarters in which to toss your iPod!  (see visual reference 1.0 below). 

Good Idea! because gosh, you know, dumping a few older iPods (probably early gens with crashed hard drives) is going to go really far to increase the market share of that Zune thing.

This almost seems like an  urban legend  and may in fact turn out to be a hoax, but  it makes for a good excuse to rant. 

Visual reference 1.0 

I just read an article on line about the death of a monkey at the Denver Zoo. The cause,  The Black Death .... (bubonic plague). Likely caught from a squirrel  which carried the fleas which, in turn, carried the yersinia pestis enterobacteria that causes the disease.

This may sound a bit weird, but I am fascinated by The Black Death. At a previous job, eons ago,we sort of had a "Black Death" reading group. We would find and read books on it (this was pre-amazon.com so it was harder then, we actually had to use the library!) have discussions at lunch (what a lunch time topic) and even get t-shirts. Ran into a guy in a bar that made custom t-shirts: "Celebrating 600 years of the Black Death" complete with a drawing of a rat in a party hat. Bought a couple. 

Apparently this was not that uncommon for the times, a co-worker at Sun belonged to a Black Death focused college organization:"Santa Rosa Junior College Students for Revival of the Black Death ". So I guess I am not the only one (thank goodness).

For those of you so inclined, there are a lot of great books on the topic - easily found on 'zon. The resurgence in interest is probably due to the recent SARs epidemic and all the fears around bird flu, etc.

 Some of my  favorite books on this topic:

 
Plagues and Peoples - In addition to an excellent discussion of the Black Death - it's also a discussion of how disease in general functions as a  biological weapon over the history of humanity. In the days before globalization,  popluations were relatively isolated and developed  localized diseases and immunities. There wasn't a lot of inter-regional population migration so that when it did occur (usually caused by wars, invasions or colonization), the invaders brought in diseases to which they were immune, but to which the invadees had no resistance. Disease would then kill as many or more then the actual battles.  The invasion of the Americas by the Europeans and the subsequent massive die off by the indigenous peoplse  is the classic example of this, but there are many others.  The Spanish flu of 1918 (much in the news because of its links to bird flu) was probably due to the massive population movements associated with WWI

 
More on this topic by Jared Diamond in the excellent book Guns Germs and Steel. Again, much discussion of how certain cultures had developed greater immunities and when exposed to more isolated cultures - resulted in their destruction.

 

 

 An outcome of reading on The Black Death was our discovery of other books -

The Secret Archives of the Vatican

which in turn led us down the trail of crypto-conspiracies around the Catholic Church, the Illuminati , Knights Templar and  people who wear "cowled clothing".

Umberto Eco and Foucault's Pendulum

I guess we were way ahead of Dan Brown and the Da Vinci code.  And then I think we all got into  Lovecraft ....but I digress.

 ......However I did read an interesting set of short stories last week that combined Sherlock Holmes with the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft:

Shadows over Baker Street.

 
I enjoyed it. But then I am the sort of person that reads books about the bubonic plague for fun.

 I'll stop now....

I am always looking for a new book to read....here's an interesting way - go to this page on Flickr and see stacks of other people's books. Find an intriguing title and 'zon it. 

here's a sample:

Add your own!   And don't be judgemental of others....!

The "Jose Ole Taquitos" - my kid and her friend decide to make a music video. Don't ask me where they got that name. This is what happens when you leave a couple of bored teenagers home alone with a video camera, an iMac and a bunch of "props" (hey.....I've been looking for that shirt!)

Ain't technology great.

Look, it's Steve Jobs Secret Blog! 
 

Privacy Alert - go "Google" your phone number. Go ahead. I'm waiting.

You might not like what you find - in many cases your name and address are posted!

Urf. Nice for a business, perhaps not so nice for a private residence.

 To "unsubscribe" from this feature, simply click on your phone number and then select "remove me from this list" - takes you through the process which takes 48 hours.

 Thanks to Dog Blog for pointing this out.



 

We spent Mothers day weekend in Yosemite with several of Sun's Open Source group - including Juggy the Java Finch and his "companion" Bruno Souza.  A great trip, fun crowd, too much time in the car, but the experience was wonderful.

Juggy was in his Generalissimo mode and wore his "El Presidente" uniform and sunglasses for part of the trip. Although a "Java" finch, he is from South America (Brazil) where there is a bit of a history of that sort of thing. Here he is next to "El Capitan". Rather appropriate	Simon Phipps and Juggy have a nap behind the Yosemite Chapel in the valley.	Liz Drachnik, Nick Drachnik, Eriwn Tehumberg, Bruno, Alex Drachnik, Simon. Juggy was off having a snack.

 

Ok, so maybe Sun blogs isn't the most likely place to write about this - but here goes.
 
Isabella Blow died last Monday. 48 (same age as me - urp ). Aristocratic & outrageous.   She had ovarian cancer, but died by her own hand - swallowed the herbicide Paraquat   (she suffered from depression and she took her own life by poisoning herself - just as her grandfather and father-in-law had before her.)

She was British, avant-garde, eccentric, a fashion icon and Muse (yes, with a capital M). She had an uncanny ability to spot a trend, discover supermodels and unearth new designers. She "discovered" Phillip Treacy (hat designer), Alexander McQueen (designer), Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl (both models and Sophie is herself related to Roald Dahl; author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory among others) .

She was kind of - well - plain? homely? Or perhaps more kindly - "non-traditional".  Her looks certainly would not "sell" in our US of A - where we value silicone implants/botox/size 00s & blondes.   Not that she cared. And good on her for that. 
She really was very British in her looks & her eccentricity and she fascinated me for it. 

She was known for her totally outrageous outfits, especially hats and her screaming bright red lipstick. 

Her hats were outrageous: hats shaped like lobsters  flying saucers etc. This was not a woman who wanted to be ignored - she wanted to be seen, to be the center of attention - no matter what.  She once went to dinner in a hat that was basically a set of antlers with a veil. When asked how she would manage to eat while wearing it, her response was "That is of absolutely no concern to me".

She was reported to have been very depressed following recent surgery for ovarian cancer. Pity she couldn't have found another way.

Well, it's Tuesday May 8 and I am NOT at JavaOne. No pass. Gotta share. Husbands gone to J1, but someone has to pick up the kids and find a spare badge to bum. Watched the keynote on the web though... As good as being there - better really as my seat was more comfortable and I could fold laundry at the same time. That's what Web 2.0 and Java et al give us -the ability to multi-task. Watch streaming webcasts and clean house at the same time while checking email. Someone tell me thats too pathetic.

 Interesting things found on the web over the last week:

Ekranoplanes! http://thrillingwonder.blogspot.com/2007/05/ekranoplans-showcase.html 
Giant airplanes that hovered and skimmed above the water surface at speeds of up to 250 miles an hour. Capable of carrying heavier loads of cargo and troops than any other  airplane. Also called "Wing in Ground" (WIG) .
Developed mostly by the Russians during the Cold War.  Some  were over 500 feet in length and had an estimated weight of over 500 tons! Despite the size and weight, they  skimmed over the waves  at high speeds, were able to negotiate stormy conditions, and flew "under the radar".  Based on "ground effect" -  where the compressed air between the wing and the ground becomes a "cushion" that gives the plane smooth gliding ability.
 

Includes a video - 10 minutes long - in Russian - but the guy says "Ekranoplans!" many many times so you can pretend you understand. Kind of cool even if they repeat a lot of the footage over and over again.  

Books: I am currently reading "The Dresden Files". Series of sorta sci-fi/fantasy books. Although I love sci-fi - I tend to avoid fantasy, I get tired of dungeons, dragons, vamps, swords, etc.  However,  this is about a wizard who lives in present day Chicago who deals with demons, vampires, missing persons cases, etc - so it's a bit different. . They made a TV show out of it on SciFi channel. I think I like the show better than the books to be honest. In my opinion, the books go too far in the "fantasy" realm whereas the TV show is a bit more interesting and "realistic" with a twist (the wizard bit).  The books are pitched as "Harry Potter for Adults". I guess. I actually don't know why Harry Potter is as popular as it is. There are lots of other books that are actually much better in that genre.

However, no matter what I think, JKRowling is the first person to become a billionaire based on writing.

I have also been reading "The Amulet of Samarkand" (Jonathan Stroud)  with my son. Considered "junior" sci-fi/fantasy, but  very well done. Bartimaeus the demon/djinni narrates the trilogy.

When I am not reading those, I am also reading "Yes, Your Teen is Crazy!: Loving Your Kid Without Losing Your Mind" because, well,  I have a teen and I was in fact losing my mind. Now I realize that she is just crazy and to not try and reason with her. I also realize that she is not as bad as she could be.

Finally, I am listening (on my iPod courtesy of Audible.com) to "Special Topics in Calamity Physics". Great title, good story. Modeled after the syllabus of a college literature course - which is somewhat lost on me as I am listening to it vs reading it.  Haven't finished yet, but good so far.  The tale of a teen girl who travels around the country with her itinerant professor father. She has a "impressive vocabulary and a knack for esoteric citation". They finally settle in one town for her senior year where our heroine becomes emmeshed with a group of "eccentric geniuses" and their ringleader Hannah Schneider. Turns into a murder mystery at that point. Still waiting to see how it all plays out. Recommended!