To tell you the truth, I’m scared to try Singlefile, a new online database service that lets you keep track of the books you own. If the reviews from reliable sources are true, then I’d probably like it. That means a huge time suck, as I have a lot of books that would need to be entered.
According to this CNN report (granted, a couple of days old) AOL TimeWarner is rolling out test versions of their AOL online service that has Gecko (the Netscape web browser layout engine) at the core, instead of Internet Explorer.
They also seem to be playing with the idea of running their servers on Linux, which would explain the (apparently unfounded) hoopla over AOL TimeWarner buying Red Hat, Inc. a few months ago.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has put out an alert re: congress’ call for public participation on digital music issues. [link via Punk Princess]
I’ve eaten a whole dozen in a sitting with only a modicum of regret.
Even more awesome: I’ve picked up a dozen hot at the Alexandria store, polished off three or four immediately, stopped at Five Guys on the way home, had a burger the way I like it (cheese, bacon, grilled onions, sauteed mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, mustard), and topped it off with another few for dessert.
This is true. I have a witness.
The Anasazi were a tribe of Native Americans in what is now Arizona that disappeared around 1300 A.D. A group of archeaologists have turned to computer simulations of societies to try to determine what happened to the Anasazi. That’s the hook for an interesting article from The Atlantic Monthly that goes on to look at the larger idea of growing artificial societies in computer simulations. Another simulation shows how a society “tips” (there’s the Gladwell connection again) from being corrupt to honest. This is fascinating stuff that makes me want to take a math class. :-)
After years of making its users eat the Alpo called AOL Mail, AOL TimeWarner gave its employees a mouthful of its own meaty chunks. But trying to standardize 82,000 AOL TimeWarner employees on AOL mail backfired. [link via 37 Signals]
Duh. Who would have thought that a dumb-downed email interface aimed at your grandma and people who are scared to click the right mouse button for fear of blowing up the monitor and a filtering system meant to keep kids from sharing bootleg copies of Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones via email would work for corporate email? One size does not fit all. If I gave out awards for dumb-ass stuff, this would get one.
Celine Dion should really have stayed in retirement. Her music is even more vapid and unoriginal than ever. Gads, Cher too. Isn’t she dead yet? She sure looks it.
Criminy, where’s Sheryl Crow when I need her? I really must turn off VH1.
Apparently, the anti-Scientology pages are back in the Google database. The anti-Scientology site in question, Operation Clambake, the nexus of all this controversy, is a must read.
I used to live a few blocks from the Church of Scientology headquarters here in DC. Twice, when I loitered too long on the street in front of the “church,” someone came bolting out of the building and tried to recruit me. As a former teacher of rhetoric and critical thinking courses, I was very intrigued by their tactics. Two really stuck out.
#1: They ask you a lot of questions to which the answer is always “yes.” E.g., “You want to be happy, right?” or “Helping drug addicts kick the habit is good work, right?” Almost always phrased as a statement followed by “right?” The result is you find yourself nodding and saying “Yeah, sure” a lot …which puts you into a receptive mood for their message. Classic technique.
#2: They’re slippery. Push on one edge, they shoot out the other direction. The whole science/religion cross-over bit is a clever trick. If you start to question the spiritual side of things, they claim they’re a “science” (biofeedback, blah blah). If you start to question the validity of their pseudo-science, they start asking you questions about your soul. If you question the business aspects — e.g. paying to get to the higher levels — they retreat back into science (”You pay for other technology, right?”) or religion (”We can accept ‘offerings’ just like any other church, right?”). The duality of it — especially a duality based on typically incompatible concepts — allows them to dodge complaints by hopping back and forth over the fence between science and religion, using whatever counter is most effective for the argument at that moment.
What I learned: if nothing else, Scientologists are master rhetoricians.
My morning VH1 addiction pays off finally No, Sheryl Crow’s not marrying me…yet. I just saw a video that made me spontaneously applaud: Star Guitar by the Chemical Brothers. Unfortunately the Chem Brothers have one of those crappy bandwidth-hogging all-Flash sites (death to Flash), but I managed to find an honest-to-god HTML page with links to the video. You’re welcome.
The video is the view from a train window. The song is an electronica track, and the images that pass by the train window are synched to the song. Remember the Volkswagen commercial where the actions on the street were synched to the music. Like that, but better. For example, the same building passes by the tracks with every snare hit, and when there’s a snare roll the building passes by for every hit in the roll. It’s an amazing bit of video work, because it is so utterly seamless.
Man, the “Church” of Scientology is creepy. Microcontent News has an article on How the Church of Scientology is forcing Google to censor its critics. Once again, Scientology warps copyright laws (in this case the Digital Millenium Copyrigh Act) to bash opposing ideas.