Totally Geek Cool!

http://www.sinn-los.de/blockedme.html

Thanks Chris! :-)

1. Cats. Write about cats. A lot.
2. Always mispell your company's name, just in case someone else is savvy enough to use (a) a search engine or (b) a keyboard.
3. When you talk about your co-workers, pretend you're writing about a magical far away land of gnomes. Give them names such as "Whitey the Clumsy" or "Snitchbug."
4. If you must post at work, find a blog template that looks a lot like a word processing document.
5. Should someone use the word "blog" in the office, tilt your head to the side and tell them that you don't speak German.
6. Require your readers to use the Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Badge to interpret your posts.
7. Learn to love garlic, as it will repel pesky co-workers (as well as the ocassional vampire).
8. At the water cooler, start talking about your Internet-savvy twin who has a similar job in a similar company in a similar city in a similar state in a similar country.
9. Through memes, avoid inadvertently constructing a comprehensive social profile from your string of likenesses. For instance, if you register as the "Rose" character from NBC's The Golden Girls, change your answers slightly so that you're more like "Sophie." Anybody who knows you, knows you're more like "Rose."
10. Don't host anything at ihatemyjobandmyboss.com.

Unfortunately, this is flash, so I can't link directly, but I'm telling you it's worth a look. Click here. This is Coke's new Cola Zero Website. Ignore all the javascript errors. click Chilltop. Enjoy. After the video, you can check out the original by clicking on hilltop.

http://www.cocacolazero.com/

Randy: Someday, someone is gonna hire this guy for another job. I pitty them.

http://www.kbcafe.com/game/?guid=20050729123012

click image for explanation 

NewScientist: An object possibly twice the size of Pluto has been found - hiding in plain sight. [cut] On Thursday, an email with the subject, "Big TNO discovery, urgent" was sent to a popular astronomy mailing list. The message described the discovery of a "very bright" object that was creeping along slowly beyond the orbit of Neptune - making it a Trans-Neptunian Object, or TNO.

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn7751

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/07/bush-flips-press-finger-yesterday.html

John Godfrey (Dow Jones Newswire): I was in the scrum of reporters at the event. Bush did not flip anyone off. He was clearly giving a thumbs up in response to a question shouted from the crowd.

Some crazy Star Wars fans made their own Star Wars movie called Revelations. I'm downloading it now. Finding a download that worked was difficult, not to mention it's gonna take the good part of an hour.

Also...

• trailers and teasers, behind the scenes, interviews.
• poster
• news
• premiere

All the add-ons of a normal production film, but this was produced entirely with volunteers and is not legally saleable. There's tons of material here for those that are bored.

http://panicstruckpro.com/revelations/revelations.html

Review: Wow! That's pretty amazing for a low budget sci-fi film.

• Viruses Instability Spyware Trojans Adware
• Vaunted Imminent Scoble-Touted Application

Richard Snelling: First we have to decide what the right thing to do is; then we’ll think about the politics.  Otherwise we’ll just confuse ourselves.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/FeldThoughts?m=521

CNN: The piece of foam fell from Discovery's fuel tank during the shuttle's ascent into orbit on Tuesday. [cut] Discovery's crew is in no apparent danger, but NASA said Wednesday it won't launch any more shuttles until engineers solve the problem of foam falling from the fuel tank.

Video.

Randy: It would seem, this is the same thing that caused the last shuttle to burn up. Fortunately, this time, with luck, no damage and the astronauts should be safe to return home. Can you believe, they spent 2.5 years trying to fix this problem and it happened on the very next shuttle flight? We use to look up to the NASA program.

Engadget has some great pics of Motorola's Q, the Treo and Blackberry, side-by-side.

http://engadget.com/entry/1234000000051949/

iRobot: iRobot Corporation today announced that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of its common stock.

http://www.irobot.com/news_central/news_press_release_detail.cfm?id=55

Randy: These guys produce both consumer and government robots. A little bit of patent protection and these guys might have a strong future.

What is the boy on the right with the white shirt thinking at this very moment?

1. On a Southwest flight (SW has no assigned seating, you just sit where you want), passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced, "People, people, we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!"
2. On a Continental Flight, with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."
3. On landing, the stewardess said, "Please be sure to take all of your belongings. If you're going to leave anything, please make sure it's something we'd like to have."
4. "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane."
5. "Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."
6. As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Ronald Reagan Airport, a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"
7. After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Memphis, a flight attendant on a Northwest flight announced, "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."
8. From a Southwest Airlines employee: "Welcome aboard Southwest Flight   245 to Tampa: To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised."
9. "In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your favorite."
10. "Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you or your money, more than Southwest Airlines."
11. "Your seat cushions can be used as a flotation device; and, in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments."
12. "As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. However, please do not leave children or spouses."
13. And from the pilot during his welcome message: "Delta Airlines is pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!"
14. Heard on Southwest Airlines just after a very hard landing in Salt Lake City: The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, "That was quite a bump, and I know what y'all are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault, it was the asphalt."
15. Overheard on an American Airlines flight into Amarillo, Texas, on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain was really having to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the  Flight Attendant said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Amarillo. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"
16. Another flight attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal."
17. An airline pilot wrote that, on this particular flight, he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, smile, and give them a "Thanks for flying our airline." He said that, in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment. Finally, everyone had gotten off except for a little old lady walking with a cane. She said, "Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no, Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?" The little old lady said, "Did we land or were we shot down?"
18. After a real crusher of a landing in Phoenix, the attendant came on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Capt. Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we'll open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal."
19. Part of a flight attendant's arrival announcement: "We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think of US Airways."
20. Heard on a Southwest Airline flight. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing and   if you can light 'em, you can smoke 'em."
21. A plane was taking off from Kennedy Airport. After it reached a comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Flight Number 293, nonstop from New York to Los Angeles. The weather ahead is good and, therefore, we should have a smooth and uneventful flight. Now sit back and relax.....OH, MY GOD!" Silence followed, and after a few minutes, the captain came back on the intercom and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so sorry if I scared you earlier. While I was talking to you the flight attendant accidentally spilled a cup of hot coffee in my lap. You should see the front of my pants!" A passenger in Coach yelled, "That's nothing. You should see the back of mine

Randy: Thanks Wade!

Coolz0r redesigned his blog. Looks awesome!

http://blog.coolz0r.com/

CNN: The space shuttle Discovery roared into the skies over Florida Tuesday morning as NASA returned to manned space flight for the first time since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Video.

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/001779.html

Cory Doctorow: What the Promise does is grab the entire broadcast TV multiplex -- all the channels being broadcast in the UK -- slices them up according to the free, over-the-air electronic programming guide, and stores an entire month's worth.

http://promise.tv/

Randy: Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah! He-he-he-he-he! Cool!

Rick Segal: As most of you already know, MSN’s Virtual Earth Beta is live. There is supposed to be some big announcement Monday morning with all the normal stuff that comes along with a Microsoft style announcement. It’s probably Virtual Earth but I don’t know as I’m not involved in any of it.

Simple test: open both in new browser windows and for location type “Toronto”. In Google, you get Toronto, Ontario (Canada), in Virtual Earth, you get a bunch of Toronto USA places but no option for Canada.  Even if you put the full Canadian address into Virtual Earth, it is ignored and you are sent to Texas or wherever.

Randy: We (us Torontonians) voted on whether it was worth fighting Microsoft on this one and came to a unaminous decision that although we'd likely win in court, by the time we won, Microsoft would already have found another way of moving us to Texas. Thus begins the mass pilgrimage from Toronto to Texas.

Update: The Windsor-Detroit tunnel got clogged with Torontonians, so we turned around and went home. If Microsoft wants us to move, then they'll have to arrange the logistics.

Two of my favorite terms combined to make great ideas greater.

http://www.cbc.ca/aih/features/2005/open_source_beer_20050721.html

Dave Winer: There's something strangely beautiful about Canadian cities.

http://archive.scripting.com/2005/07/22

Randy: Dave, you gotta take your OPML roadshow to Toronto.

Snopes.com: You will receive a message on your answering machine or your pager, which asks you to call a number beginning with area code 809.
[cut] If you call from the US, you will apparently be charged $2,425 per-minute. [cut] A victim might realistically be taken for $25 to $100, but not thousands of dollars. 

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/809.asp

Randy: Thanks Uncle Frank!

BBC: Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank is introducing fruitmachine-style games of chance which run while the ATM processes its more mundane transactions. Get three sevens, and your withdrawal fee is waived; three golds promise a jackpot of 1,000 yen (£5; $9).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4700053.stm

RedFlagDeals: With this coupon, you can save $10 off purchases of $40 or more.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y188/itsfatboy/25290250.jpg

http://enclosures.chrisnolan.ca/00000519/TO_Deleted_Opening.mov

No comment!

Shhhh! Don't tell anybody, but my friend, Chris Nolan, is a real-life Jedi.

http://enclosures.chrisnolan.ca/00000517/Lightsaber_3.mov

BBC: The minor explosions - two weeks after blasts killed 56 - involved detonators only, a BBC reporter said. There was one injury.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4703777.stm

Randy: If you haven't already heard. More terrorism. The good news is nobody died this time.

http://mail.icerocket.com/

Steve Michel: It's sad to see that James Doohan, Star Trek's Scotty [cut] is gone at 85.

Randy: :-(

Note: 5203 is the build#, not the year it will ship. Longhorn is scheduled to ship in 5202, not 5203 :-)

http://flexbeta.net/main/comments.php?catid=1&shownews=13839

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mschulz/sets/619716/

The Joys of Flickr.

Channel9 guy gets drunk and has a threesome with Channel9 girl and some chic. Too funny! Video.

AP: An unrepentant Eric Rudolph [cut] sentenced [cut] to life in prison for setting off a remote-controlled bomb at an abortion clinic that killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse. [cut] Rudolph faces sentencing Aug. 22 in Atlanta for the Olympic bombing, which killed one woman and injured more than 100 other people, and for 1997 bombings at an abortion clinic and a gay bar in Atlanta.

Randy: The nuts are everywhere; Iraq, Atlanta, Afganistan, London, Montreal. I'm having second thoughts on capital punishment.

Oleg Dulin: I am getting married today!

Randy: Lost another great blogger to marriage.

Skype: On SkypeOut Gift Days you’ll be able to redeem 10 minutes of credit for SkypeOut calls and it won’t cost you a thing. It’s free.

Randy: You heard that right. You can SkypeOut today, for FREE, for 10 minutes. SkypeOn!

Google is expanding beyond our little planet Earth. And don't forget to zoom right-in for a big surprise from Google. The moon is made of cheese.

http://moon.google.com/

GearLive: Check out how Google Maps saved me some serious cash - and points on my license! [Link]

ZDNet: Opening a new chapter in its rivalry with Google, Microsoft on Tuesday sued the search giant and a former Microsoft executive who has been tapped by Google to run its China operations.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5795051.html

Clasione: Has anyone noticed yet that it seems Google has lost on their trademark application for the mark "GMAIL".

http://searchen.com/forum/t454-google-has-lost-tm-battle-for-gmail.html 

Beer and hockey. Together again.

http://www.zoomcom.ca/beerleague/

Every once in awhile, I get really pissed off. Today is such a day. I've had to re-write R|mail about 3 times this month to escape SPAM filters. The problem is SPAM. I'm now setting out on a new mission to destroy SPAMmers. Yes, that means you!

Marketwatch = SPAMMERS

All SPAMMERS MUST BE DESTROYED

P.S. Sounds like the calling of a new blog.

Of late, I'm getting about one social network SPAM email per day. Two companies are responsible for this recent SPAMming of the Web. GoBigNetwork dot com and OpenBC dot com (no Google Juice for you). These networks import your LinkedIn.com contacts and SPAM them with invites. If you have an account with either, than close it, or you are contributing to the SPAM problem.

Investigating further, the invite came from Tyler Ransburgh, an employee of Go Big Network. He has 594 connections on LinkedIn. I guess he's randomly inviting everybody on LinkedIn and then using those accepts to invite them over to Go Big Network.

Go Big Network = SPAMMERS

All SPAMMERS MUST BE DESTROYED

CMSWire: IBM has announced an agreement to acquire PureEdge Solutions, Inc., a privately held e-forms company based in Canada.

Randy: Argggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg! I'm having a bad day.

This is an experiment for a  non-clickable interface. I see one major problem, the click was replace by onHover, which means you don't get any onHover behaviors, like tooltips and status bar messages.

http://dontclick.it/

Mark Pilgrim: Uninstall Greasemonkey altogether. [cut] I would think that whoever is in charge of addons.mozilla.org should immediately remove the Greasemonkey XPI and post a large warning in its place advising people to uninstall it. [cut] And I'm posting a big red blinking warning on every page of diveintogreasemonkey.org advising visitors to uninstall it, until all of these security holes are closed. 

http://mozdev.org/pipermail/greasemonkey/2005-July/004033.html

Amazon:  Save $120.11 on Kodak EasyShare DX6490 4MP Digital Camera with 10X Optical Zoom - Only $279.88

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000203PBY/kbcafe

I think I broke my camera during the house move. It was a 3MP and 3X optical zoom. It cost $350-400 less tha a year ago. Mind you, if you don't need a good zoom, you can get a 4MP 2X optical zoom for $170.

SeattlePI: Arfa, a promising software programmer from Faisalabad, Pakistan, is believed to be the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world. Arfa received the certification when she was still 9.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/232514_msftarfa14.html

eMarketer: Many of the people who claim to hate spam are supporting the practice by buying products from spammers. The survey found that 11% of users purchase products and services from spam e-mails.

Randy: I often have the discussion with Web surfers of what exactly is SPAM. SPAM is unsolicited emails, but many Web surfers think that SPAM is irrelevant unsolicited emails. They don't realize that unsolicited emails that are relevant to their lives is also SPAM. For instance, if you're a big New York Yankees fan and you receive an unsocilited email selling tickets to Yankees games and you buy the tickets thru the unsocilited email, then you are contributing to the SPAM problem. You see, the SPAMmers sent that email to 10 million address of which maybe a thousand thought it was relevant to them and clicked-thru. Did you think the viagra emails were relevant. The tampon emails? They were to somebody. Cost of sending an email? Close to $0. There's no pain in SPAMmers sending more email SPAM.

STOP CLICKING

Bambi Francisco: In a bid to build an Internet media network, News Corp. grabbed the wildly popular social-networking site MySpace.com by agreeing to acquire majority shareholder Intermix Media for $580 million in cash.

Randy: Wow! GOOG IPO + About.com + MySpace.com = the Internet Bubble is back.

Frank Arrigo: MGB is held annually at the start of a financial year and usually in one of the warmer locations in the continental USA.  [cut] We all pile into a big venue [cut] and we hear from a number of senior leaders within the company [cut].  Generally Bill Gates opens the day and Steve Ballmer closes it. It's a pretty intense, tiring, motivating and inspiring day. 

http://blogs.msdn.com/frankarr/archive/2005/07/18/439831.aspx

Dave Winer: Only one problem, my laptop was delivered with the OS pre-installed, and no CDs. Am I missing something?

Randy: Yes, the CDs. I have more Windows licenses and CDs than computers. I buy computers like my daughter buys candy. My daughter throws away the wrapper, but I keep the licenses. Are you buying computers without the wrapper?

NYT: "Beware of the 'Halli-bloggers,' " warns that if blogs get the same legal protections as traditional media outfits, then companies like Halliburton [cut] could end up sponsoring blogs to promote their interests.

Mark Evans: Firefox's share of the browser market climbed to 8.71% in June from 8% in May, while IE's share shrank to 86.56% from 87.23%. Netapplications, which monitors 40,000 Web sites, said Firefox has been adding 0.5% to 1% of market share a month since the beginning of the year.

http://evans.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/7/16/1036128.html

Plan 9 from Outer Space, a classic low budget film worth seeing. The Internet Archive seems to be unusable today. Is this how it is everyday?

http://www.archive.org/details/Plan9FromOuterSpace

• $10 off $50 - CATLSP051050
• $5 off $50 - CATLSP050550
• $15 off $100 - CATLSP051500

http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/main.php/weblog/tbp_jul_4_ebay_paypal/

Great blog entry by Charles Star on Cokethics. Reading thru the links, it's quite apparent that Coke has a corporate ethics nightmare in their future. Via the Blogosphere? By the way, no Coke is drank in writing this blog.

http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/07/id_like_to_teac.html

PR: Apple shipped 1,182,000 Macintosh units and 6,155,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 35 percent growth in Macs and 616 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jul/13results.html

Randy: I sold 1 iPod last quarter. The revised total is 6,155,001.

New Scientist: A society of virtual "agents” - each with a remarkably realistic personality and the ability to learn and communicate - is being crafted by scientists from five European research institutes who hope to gain insights into the way human societies evolve. The project, known as New and Emergent World models Through Individual, Evolutionary and Social Learning – or NEW-TIES – brings together experts in artificial intelligence, linguistics, computer science and sociology.

New-Ties: The NEW TIES project is growing an artificial society using computer programming that develops agents--or adaptive, artificial beings--that have independent behaviours.

http://www.new-ties.org/

AP: [Bernard] Ebbers wept as the judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison. He was sniffling and dabbing at his eyes with a tissue as the judge ordered the 63-year-old to report to prison in October.

Randy: Why October? Since he's likely to die in jail, he might as well take the money he's got left and have a great big 3 month party.

ClickZ: A Microsoft staffer, who asked not to be identified, characterized the end of the talks as driven by concerns about a PR fallout that could follow a Claria purchase.

Erick Schonfeld: The blogosphere has spoken, and Redmond is listening.

http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3519521 

Chron: The raids by police and soldiers in a mixed-race neighborhood in Leeds suggested that the bombers were British-born young men who had been radicalized.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3263920

ScanIAm: It is annoying to have to click through multiple times to find an article simply because the technorati circle-jerk squad wants to up their Google score.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=87611#87611

Internet News: The problem is the "captcha," the distorted letters that users must decipher and type into a box before they register for a service. Google uses captchas during registration for the many betas and non-search offerings, such as Blogger.com and Gmail. Captcha is an acronym for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart." Developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, they're used to separate the humans from bots in Web site registrations, preventing large-scale automated registrations that can then be used to send spam. But captchas are gotchas for the blind.

http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3518741

NYT: In preparing the case, representatives of Earley Follmer used the Wayback Machine to turn up old Web pages - some dating to 1999 - originally posted by the plaintiff, Healthcare Advocates of Philadelphia.  Last week Healthcare Advocates sued both the Harding Earley firm and the Internet Archive, saying the access to its old Web pages, stored in the Internet Archive's database, was unauthorized and illegal.

Read the entire article.

mozilla: Firefox 1.0.5 is a security update that is part of our ongoing program to provide a safe Internet experience for our customers.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/releases/1.0.5.html

BBC: This site [cut] lists projects developed by the BBC where the source code has been released as open source.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/opensource/

Randy: BBC is standing in line with FeedBurner as top developer community karma providers.

NYT: Which of these punishments does he [Sven Jaschan released the Sasser worm] deserve?

1. A 21-month suspended sentence and 30 hours of community service.
2. Two years in prison.
3. A five-year ban on using computers.
4. Death.
5. Something worse.

The Independent: This week the BBC will announce there have been more than a million downloads of the symphonies during the month-long scheme. But the initiative has infuriated the bosses of leading classical record companies who argue the offer undermines the value of music and that any further offers would be unfair competition.

BBC: The Beethoven Symphonies downloads service has now finished.

Randy: Darn!

New and severely improved version of Meetro software ready to be leeched? :)

Download

Chris Pirillow covers the hurricanes form thousands of miles away. Funny and worth a listen.

http://chris.pirillo.com/blog/_archives/2005/7/10/1013300.html

BK: Beginning on or about June 27, 2005, purchase [limited selection based on location] at a participating Burger King restaurant and receive one (1) Cash Card, while supplies last.

Randy: Cash cards are worth $1 to $10,000 (USD and CDN).

GM: Fill out the short survey below - it shouldn't take more than three minutes, and you'll get $10 in GM Card Earnings and a chance to win $5000 cash.

http://www.gmcanada.com/static/english/lmpforms/G120825/

7-11 PR: 7-Eleven has launched a month-long celebration of Slurpee’s 40th birthday. [cut] 7-Eleven is giving away one free music download on all standard Slurpee cups.

Slurpee.com: Come in and get a free Slurpee drink on July 11th.

Randy: That free Slurpee is today. Happy Slurpee day! 

Joey deVilla: The video is safe for work, except for the fact that your co-workers will think that you've gone off your rocker.

http://www.pizazz.info/pizazz.mov

From Cairo with Love: We already know how mindless sick bastards those terrorists are. But I have one question, what the hell have Bush and Co. been doing for the last few years? Four years fighting that alleged war on terror, making us live hell in the process. And our Ambassador to Iraq has just been executed today. Boy, do I feel safer now! I hope he doesn't go occupy Syria now, and threaten Iran in order to rid the world of the last remaining evil regimes which are breeding terrorism (as if North Korea does not exist). Its obvious who's breeding terrorism, and its not Syria, nor Iran. Not even Iraq. Or maybe they can bring Saddam out of his cell and beat the crap out of him, take naked pictures of him, and flush the Quran in the toilet so that he admits that he had links with the London terrorists. Americans, can you please impeach your idiotic president.

Randy: I added the bold and removed paragraph breaks. Mohamed, from 10 thousand miles away echos my own thoughts.

Robert Scoble: We just had a short chat with Steve Ballmer in his office (we filmed the interview today, July 7, at 1:30 p.m.)

• Why does Microsoft care about developers?
• 01:11 Why does Microsoft have an evangelism team?
• 01:48 What is your call to action for developers right now?
• 02:44 Why did you allow blogging?
• 03:38 Can you give us some examples of where Microsoft is innovating?
• 05:42 If you were in my position what tough questions would you ask Microsoft's CEO?
• 07:22 Qhat would you say to all the Microsoft employees around the world?
• 08:48 What do you want to be remembered as?

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=85529

Randy: I'm amazed that Ballmer put himself on the line like that. He was really upfront and wasn't afraid to act silly (a.k.a. geeky).

k001!

http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/

Ryan Block: Listen up, Google’s sick of you slowing up their operations with your dialup service, making their servers wait around to send the results of the 800 searches you each perform every day. So they’re stepping it up by dropping $100 million into Current Communications Group, LLC (along with The Hearst Corporation, and Goldman Sachs), who are apparently England’s biggest broadband over powerline company. Take that, NetZero.

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000287049646/

Randy: That's so funny, I just subscribed to Engadget. I'm such a hypocrit.

Spiegel: "Rejoice, community of Muslims," the letter states. "The heroic mujahedeens today conducted an attack in London," it continues. All of Great Britain is now shaken and shocked, "in the north, the south, west and east." "We've warned the British government and the British people time and again," the letter adds. "We've kept our promise and have carried out a blessed military operation."

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,364134,00.html

Randy: When I read this, all I hear is "W failed us."

1. Visit - This one may seem obvious, but to support your favorite blogger, visit his (or her) site.
2. Comment - When you visit, why not leave a comment?
3. Link - If you have a website or blog of your own, link to your favorite bloggers every now and then.
4. Encourage - Encourage your favorite blogger every now and then.
5. Prayer - This is the support bloggers receive that they may never know about.
6. Clicking Advertisement -Randy: Click fraud? Not encouraged.
7. Affiliates - Many bloggers have affiliate accounts with various companies. The most popular of these is Amazon.
8. Products - Many bloggers offer products through their sites.
9. Tip Jar - Many bloggers have what is known as a tip jar. These are the little buttons on their site that say "Donate," "click to give" or something similar.

http://www.challies.com/archives/001128.php

BBC: News of the suspected terror attacks across central London has quickly spread across the net as people try to get information about the chaos. [cut] An Islamist website has posted a statement - claiming to be from al-Qaeda - saying it was behind the attacks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4659679.stm

Randy: Technorati is down.

BBC: Two people have been killed and scores have been injured after at least seven blasts on the Underground network and a double-decker bus in London.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4659093.stm 

Randy: Thanks to Coolz0r for the link.

Update: al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility. People on the ground are claiming that deaths number around 90. Many commuters are reported to be trapped underground [CNBC].

Amazon: Purchase a RIM BlackBerry 7290 with new service activation and data plan from T-Mobile and get a $150 gift certificate to spend at Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009OIJDC/ref=nosim/kbcafe

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. -unknown

Anil Dash: if you're new to pitching bloggers, or if you're just dumb, you'll want some pointers.

1. Get my goddamn name right.
2. Make sure it's at least in the realm of possibility that I'd want the product. [cut] Or if you want people to try things out, send 'em a freebie. Randy: Or cash :-)
3. Don't be web-stupid.
4. Don't talk like a database.
5. Lead with the link.
6. Don't deliberately antagonize me.

http://www.dashes.com/anil/2005/07/05/dont_be_a_bad_

According to Heiss Online, Google is not longer handing out Gmail accounts in Germany, in an attempt to avoid a local trademark dispute over the Gmail name. Rather, they are handing out GoogleMail.com accounts.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/61369

Fritz Schneider: Hey Googlebar folks, long time no talk. I thought I'd drop you a note to give a heads up on something Google will be releasing next week: a version of our IE Toolbar for Firefox.

Another blogger moves to a comment system that requires registration. Total comments left on his registration required comment system = 0. Total comments I'm going to leave on any registration required comment system = 0. Lost another reader?

forums-at-olegdulin

Dave Winer: In Virginia they don't have smoking sections in the restaurants. People smoke everywhere. Ashtrays on every table. Reeks of smoke.

Randy: In Toronto they don't have smoking sections in the restaurants either. But no ashtrays. For some reason, nobody smokes ($fine).

PR: 724 Solutions expects to report total revenue of approximately $4.6 million. [cut] The Company reaffirmed its previous guidance for GAAP cost of revenue and operating expenses ($6.4 million to $6.7 million).

Randy: $2 million more down the drain. How much money do they need to lose before John Sims is fired?

This guys created a Google Adsense blog back in December 1969 (I was 7 months old). Talk about foresight, not only did he anticipate blogging, but he also anticipated Google, Adsense and blog SPAM.

http://google.corpblog.org/

This is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Somebody put me in a movie trailer.  Thanks, whomever it was, much appreciated :-)

http://www.weddingcrashersmovie.com/crashthistrailer/index.htm?id=5263

Update: Thanks to the anonymous reader that created this, I'm getting massive hits in response ($$$).

3m: Most people agree that Duct Tape can save you money on costly repair bills but did you know that you could create a wallet to hold all of the money you’ve saved?

dt_wallet.html

Randy: Thanks Kevin!

A animated map depicting the rise of the U.S.A.

http://www.animatedatlas.com/movie2.html

419 Eater: So what is scambaiting? Well, put simply, you enter into a dialogue with scammers, simply to waste their precious time and resources. Whilst you are doing this, you will be helping to keep the scammers away from real potential victims.

http://www.419eater.com/

Steve Rubel: This is inexcusable behavior given that Jeff Jarvis is an A-lister.

http://www.micropersuasion.com/2005/06/jarvis_puts_del.html

Randy: I thought the blogosphere gave everybody an equal voice? Turns out, some of us are more equal than others.

Coolz0r, community manager of R|mail, is also starring in a soon to be released movie. Check out his trailer.

http://www.weddingcrashersmovie.com/crashthistrailer/index.htm?id=3995

http://www.weakgame.com/?show=1234

Must see podcast. Subscribed.

http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/archives/2005/06/rb_05_jun_29.html

Lawrence O'Donnell: I revealed in yesterday's taping of the McLaughlin Group that Time magazine's e-mails will reveal that Karl Rove was Matt Cooper's source.

Randy: The total corruption of the Bush administration reveals itself more with each day. These guys make the CDNian liberals look like saints.

Cory has a blog on his homepage. He's been writing in it for several months now. Subscribed. IT Conversations talk with Cory.

http://www.craphound.com/

Update: According to Cory's RDF feed, he's blogging several days into the future. I'm guessing the clock on the craphound server is a little fast :-)

The Register: Microsoft and IBM can be friends again - or at least less bitter partners/rivals after Redmond agreed to hand over an $850m antitrust apology.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/07/01/ibm_ms_settle/