Iris and Fern, fluffy tailed kitty sisters instruct the average cat on how to put up a Xmas tree.

http://www.fluffytails.ca/christmas.asp

Today is the last day of voting for round 1 of the Canadian Blog Awards. I have one blog up for nomination in the category of Best Sports Blog. Please take the time to vote for me today thanks. Step-by-step instructions follow.

1. Go to http://cba.myblahg.com/
2. Click on Best Sports Blog header
3. Select Game Certainty radio button
4. Click Submit Vote button

Thank you very much!

An interview with Blogger of the Day, Jason Schramm of  Shiwej.

iBt4iM: Tell my readers who you are.

Jason Schramm: I am a 20.58 year old computer and technology enthusiast in my third year of college. I design websites in my spare time and I am always thinking up new ideas and ways to succeed in life. I have also been obsessed with everything Google for the past few years, but I am always open to trying out anything new.

iBt4iM: What's your blog? What's your blog about?

Jason Schramm: My blog is Shiwej (http://shiwej.com) and it was a combination of some of my previous efforts in web publishing. I started it up with a few articles I had written for my old site Tech Help Center (which I renamed to Infohuts). I also folded in my failed webcomic Slugshed to the comic section. The site was mostly Google news, but it has since evolved into a place to post technology related news I find interesting or I think others will be interested in. I also use the site as a proving ground for some of my little web projects such as the Acronym Creator and iPod Love.

iBt4iM: What secondary blogs do you have? Linkblogs? Moblogs?

Jason Schramm: I maintain AppleWatch (http://apple.blognewschannel.com/) for the Blog News Channel. And I recently started up a personal blog with ruminations about college life at jasonschramm.blogspot.com.

iBt4iM: Why do you blog?

Jason Schramm: I blog because I have to; I am compelled to post. I read so much tech news that it would be a shame not to share it with the world. It also forces me to stay involved with what is going on in technology because I blog about it. This way I always know what are the new and emerging technologies that I should start learning or at least have some experience with.

iBt4iM: What are your favorite blogs?

Jason Schramm:

• Google Blogoscoped (http://blog.outer-court.com/)
• InsideGoogle (http://google.blognewschannel.com/)
• John Battelle's Searchblog (http://battellemedia.com/)
• Jeremy Zawodny's Blog (http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/)
• Om Malik's Blog (http://gigaom.com/)
• SiliconBeat (http://www.siliconbeat.com/)
• Mark Jen's Blog (http://blog.plaxoed.com/).

iBt4iM: What do you do when you are not blogging?

Jason Schramm: I either attend classes, program something for those classes, sleep, watch television, or attempt to make another of my ideas into a reality.

iBt4iM: Thanks for taking the time to tell my readers about yourself. You are the Blogger of the Day.

Note: We are interviewing one average-Joe great-blogger every few days (we hope). If you want to be the Blogger of the Day, then email me. Previous Bloggers of the Day; Marcel Marchon, Rajesh Setty, Dave Taylor, fotoUR, Ozh of planetOzh, John of Freshblog, Aimee Evans, Allen Searls, Steve Michel, Jon Watson, Dave Walker, Oleg Dulin and Miel Van Opstal.

Another YouTube fix. Thanks Wade!

http://www.youtube.com/?v=5U2HYRIk_3w

Business 2.0: Based on recent high-profile Web content deals, the value of a unique monthly website visitor currently hovers around $38.

Randy: Hmmm! I get between 200k-300k uniques per month. That would be a valuation of $7M to $11M. USD. Last valuation had be around $1M, 1000% increase. Still not enough. Holding out for $1B, but all bids will be considered :-)

Jason Calacanis: What you would make off an a really loyal who came back all the time is around $1-3 per year or 1/10th of the $38 a user number.

Randy: That's no fun! That's not even close to $1B. That's only $200k-$900k.

PR: A 37-year-old Canadian entrepreneur wants to pay for his wedding - and walk away debt-free - by selling listings on his del.icio.us account for $20 per listing.

http://www.tagdirectory.net/

Randy: His goal is to raise $250k and he's raised $300 to date. That's no normal wedding. $250k is a super wedding. I remember how much I spent on my wedding. -$3,000. Yes, that's a minus sign. Cash gifts exceed total costs.

I just voted for Joey deVilla (best), Photojunkie (photo), Alec Saunders (business) and Mark Evans (media) in the Canadian blog awards. I also have a blog nominated in the Best Sports Blog award; Game Certainty. Any votes would be tremendously appreciated. You can also vote everyday. Spread the word.

http://cba.myblahg.com/

Update: And Chris Nolan was nominated for Best Personal blog. Adding Chris to my daily voting routine.

CNet: Then a few years later, along come bloggers--and, heaven forbid, some have the audacity to make a buck or two from their writing, an outrage that leads the traditional media to question their motives and independent spirit.

Cynthia Brumfield: The truth is that aside from some boldface bloggers, the chances are slim to none that a blog can cover its costs via AdSense or any of the other ad syndication tools out there, which is a shame given that folks like Mark Evans, and even our own site IP&Democracy, are well-read by the right people.

Randy: Strange. Hosting cost totals $15/m for all my blogs. My top three blogs generate more than 20 times that amount. A couple others, just starting, are on their way. I guess I'm lucky. You wanna get lucky too and have a blog idea, maybe you want to drop me an email.

Huh? After the bling, the blong stops.

1. Be Narrow
2. Be Different
3. Be Casual
4. Be Picky
5. Be User-Centric
6. Be Self-Centered
7. Be Greedy
8. Be Tiny
9. Be Agile
10. Be Balanced
11. (bonus!): Be Wary

http://evhead.com/2005/11/ten-rules-for-web-startups.asp

Microsoft will host your entire domain email for free. There are some limits; 20 e-mail accounts and 250MB storage per account. I've created a rule in my hosts software that forwards all my domain email to my Gmail account. I've been pretty happy with Gmail. I don't have a need here, but I'm certain some people will, especially small businesses with less than 20 employees.

http://domains.live.com/

I was playing PokerStars the other night and I noticed that my chips were decreasing rather quickly. I started watching my chip count and found that it was going down by 150 chips per game. I fired off an email to PokerStars support and they answered.

In the later rounds of the tournament, starting in round 8, we introduce "rolling antes" in addition to the blinds. They start at 25 chips, but when the blinds reach 1500/3000 the rolling ante's will be 150 chips.

Now, I don't play much poker, but this seems completely wrong. Is this done in tournaments? And since most users would be completely unaware of this rule (it's never mentionned in the course of play), they are playing at a big disadvantage.

I've often been asked for an OPML of all the blogs on KBCafe. This is still a subset, as there are many blogs in testing or that I don't want to publicize. And you can use this link to quickly subscribe via email to the entire group.

http://www.kbcafe.com/opml.xml

I didn't attend all the day activities, but my brief time there was very fun! Thanks go to David Crow for pulling this off.

• Photos on Flickr
• Tag is TorCamp

http://barcamp.org/index.cgi?TorCamp

RedFlagDeals: Are you a ShoppersDrugMart.ca Optimum Points collector?  Then check out this survey.  You’ll be rewarded with 1000 FREE points for doing so.  You may also be interested in this offer, where you can get 20X Optimum Points on $50+ purchases, as well as 1000 points for each referred friend that does so.  Lastly, spend $50 on November 26, and you’ll be given a FREE $10 Gas Card. 

http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/main.php/weblog/tbp_nov_24_shoppers/

Last night, I attended the opening night of TorCamp. Alec Saunders was there. Albert Lai was there. David Crow was there. And at least 20 other Toronto geeks. Today, they are meeting at the TeehanLax space. I won't be there during the day, I have a company x-mas party that my kids are forcing me to attend. I'll be arrive between 5PM and 6PM and stay for a few drinks.

http://barcamp.org/index.cgi?TorCamp

I compiled a list of the most authoritative blogs on Google as an OPML reading list. Did I miss anybody? I want to eventually turn this into an automated meta-blog on Google.

http://www.kbcafe.com/google/opml.xml

CNN: After a 10-year moratorium, Gilmore in 1977 became the first person executed following a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that validated state laws to reform the capital punishment system. Since then, 997 prisoners have been executed, and next week, the 998th, 999th and 1,000th are scheduled to die.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/11/24/thousand.executions.ap/index.html

Randy: I think I was a naive idealist against executions when I was 20 something. Now, I prefer to call it by another name.

RedFlagDeals: Are you a World of Warcraft subscriber?  If so, you’re eligible to buy three copies for friends for only $19.99 each!  Go to WorldOfWarcraft.com (PDF), and print the rebate coupons.

Tonight is the opening night for TorCamp, 7PM at The Social Bar, 1100 Queen Street West.

http://barcamp.org/index.cgi?TorCamp

About: Flirty Girl Fitness is a women's health and fitness company inspired by the sensual movements performed in pole dancing, striptease and other exotic dances. We've combined these erotic movements with elements of yoga, aerobics, and strength training to provide a total body workout that builds core strength while increasing flexibility and sexuality…all the elements of a phenomenal workout!

http://www.flirtygirlfitness.com

Randy: Could I join? Sounds cheaper than the For Your Eyes Only.

I find that Memeorandum has lost it's flavor. The problem is that people are reading and linking to articles at the top of Memeorandum. Some link because they find it interesting, but other are simply linking to get there blog names on the Memeorandum homepage. The net affect is that everybody is blogging about the same things.

In response, I've created a completely automated blog that uses link counts to determine what the most linked news article on the Web in the last 24 hour period. It then compiles a brief of the article and points to at most 24 other instances of the conversation. I call the blog Best of the Blogosphere. You can read it and click-thru to the referring articles, but once the entry is posted, it's static, which means linking to that same article won't get your name in lights. I hope somebody enjoys it.

http://www.kbcafe.com/best/

Mirror: President Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals.

Randy: I remain unsurprised. Both the U.K. and U.S. governments have refused to confirm or deny this memo. In this proves to be true, then tac another nail in a coffin made of nails.

cross-posted

In an attempt to find out why people die, KBCafe has conducted a thorough study and found the following facts.

• Approximately 2% of astronauts who have flown in a U.S. Space Shuttle died during the flight.
• An astounding 100% who were in a U.S. Space Shuttle that exploded died during the explosion.
• Additionally, 100% of all humans who lived underwater for more than a day died of dihydroxide poisoning.

We've drawn the following conclusion from these finding.

• 200% of all humans who lived underwater in a U.S. Space Shuttle died.

Guess who is sponsoring this former milk-from-eye squirting record holder?

http://www.milkmanmike.com/

He's back. I'm getting excited. Can't wait to tell my son.

http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/supermanreturns/teaser/teaser_hi.mov

Red Flag Deals: UComics.com has a FREE e-book by Scott Adams.

http://images.ucomics.com/images/pdfs/sadams/godsdebris.pdf

BlogPulse is reporting a sudden interest across the blogosphere in Turkey.

http://blog.blogpulse.com/archives/000483.html

Maarten Schenk: I [cut] would like to participate in Thank Your First Commenter Day.  Wherever you are now, Mark Edwards, thanks for this one.

http://maarten.typepad.com/brusselsblog/2005/11/thank_your_firs.html

Randy: I long deleted my original blog and moved the content here. I didn't try to move the comments, but whomever it was, you are thanked.

Event reminder. TorCamp is this weekend. I'll be there. Will you? If so, then add yourself to the attendees list.

http://barcamp.org/index.cgi?TorCamp

University of Washington TV's Colloquium Lecture Series has a great video of a lecture by an x-UofW student and employee at Google, Jeff Dean.

http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.asp?rid=2459

Chris Garrett: Here are ten proven post formulas to get your creative juices, and your traffic, flowing.

1. How to
2. Lists
3. Campaign
4. Interview
5. Review
6. Case Study
7. Research Results
8. What's new, trends
9. Attack!
10. Ask the audience

http://performancing.com/node/169

Coolz0r and Jason Schramm interviewed the author of the Inside Google blog, Nathan Weinberg, on the subject of linkage and credits.

Nathan: Always link. Link to who I quote, link to whom I get information from, link to who linked to that page, link to who sent me an email pointing me in the right direction. I always link, except when dealing with anonymous sources. There was one incident where I refused to link to a page because it had messy popup ads, but for the most part I link anywhere, even into a bad neighbourhood, using the nofollow if the site is doing something illegal.

http://blog.coolz0r.com/posted/nathan-weinberg-on-linkage-and-credits.html

Is your child having trouble with bullies? If si, then here's the toy that should be under your x-mas tree.

http://www.mrandmrswheatley.co.uk/deathspider.html

Steve Jobs introduced 3 new increasingly smaller iPods that hold up to 8,000,000 songs, play high definition video and hold calendar entries 7000 yrs into the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=TP1--XImb1Q

Google: Google is looking for software engineers to join us in our collaborative development efforts with the Mozilla Foundation on the Firefox browser.

http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=29553

I added Video Search to the KBCafe search engine. Very cool!

http://www.kbcafe.com/videos.aspx?q=whales

An interview with Blogger of the Day, Marcel Marchon of  lazytom's blog.

iBt4iM: Tell my readers who you are.

Marcel Marchon: Hi, I'm Marcel Marchon and I've been doing websites and writing software for and on the Internet since about Netscape release 0.9 (those were the days when we had almost daily releases of the Netscape Browser). I'm in my early thirties, was born in Switzerland, but have been living in California for the last two years.

iBt4iM: What's your blog? What's your blog about?

Marcel Marchon: Well, I guess I'd have to say that my personal blog is lazytom's blog. (lazytom is just my nickname or alias - don't ask me how I got that). There, I occasionally post stuff about things that I see or things that I'm doing. You'll also see announcements about new websites or new features on my existing websites. I must admit I'm not a very frequent blogger there - I just don't have the time to post every day.

iBt4iM: What secondary blogs do you have? Linkblogs? Moblogs?

Marcel Marchon: I have two other blogs that I maintain - California Bits (in german) which is mainly a photo-/eventblog for the folks (friends and family) back home in Switzerland and TrainBlog, where I post train-related stuff that interests me.

iBt4iM: Why do you blog?

Marcel Marchon: Almost from the beginning, I've had a personal homepage of some sort, where I've posted stuff that interested me (the same things keep coming up - mostly trains and software). So my blogs for me are really just another form of personal website - a place to express myself.

iBt4iM: What are your favorite blogs?

Marcel Marchon: I read blogs about topics that interest me - these days, since there aren't that many train-related blogs out there, this is mostly software/technical stuff. I try to keep up with developments in the RSS and search related worlds and also .NET programming. And then there are also some blogs of people that are friends of mine. Here are maybe the Top 5 (the first two are german language blogs):

• Beobachtungen zur Medienkonvergenz
• nutzbar.ch - der Usability-Weblog
• The RSS Blog
• Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO
• Jeremy Zawodny's blog

iBt4iM: What do you do when you are not blogging?

Marcel Marchon: Apart from work and family (got two little girls) I spend the little time that's left fiddling around with my other web-related projects - mostly I do these to support my other websites and/or to publish my interests on the web. So here's a selection of other sites that I'm currently working on (or not): FeedJumbler, Photobloggr, RailroadPictures. The easiest place to see what I'm really up to at the moment is this site: marcel.marchon.org (it's got a listing of all recent postings whereever they may be, courtesy of FeedJumbler).

iBt4iM: Thanks for taking the time to tell my readers about yourself. You are the Blogger of the Day.

Note: We are interviewing one average-Joe great-blogger every few days (we hope). If you want to be the Blogger of the Day, then email me. Previous Bloggers of the Day; Rajesh Setty, Dave Taylor, fotoUR, Ozh of planetOzh, John of Freshblog, Aimee Evans, Allen Searls, Steve Michel, Jon Watson, Dave Walker, Oleg Dulin and Miel Van Opstal.

Fred Wilson: Google is lame.

http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2005/11/google_is_lame.html

Randy: Google is definitely lame when your portfolio is taking a big hit by their innovation.

Steve Rubel: After about 20 minutes the word came back - negative. There was no cancer.

http://www.skincancerblog.net/2005/11/mohs_surgery_co.html

Coolz0r is selling his conscience on gBay.

http://base.google.com/base/items?oid=2069761189407889050

Mark Pincus: WHEN ARE WE ALL GOING TO WAKE UP AND REALIZE THAT NONE OF US COMPETE WITH EACH OTHER? WE ALL COMPETE WITH GOOGLE, MSFT AND YAHOO. the only chance we have of enabling an independent industry is to come together, leverage s resources, create and protect a level playing field. otherwise, we are all in the business of creating great products in the hope we can sell to them before they build it. how fucking boring is that?

http://markpincus.typepad.com/markpincus/2005/11/is_google_going.html

Cooz0r points use to the new iBuzz, a sexual accessory for the iPod.  And The Register points us to a Bluetooth vibrator that activates when you receive an SMS. Pack one in the morning and SMS yourself all day. Apple really missed a big market opportunity here.

An interview with Blogger of the Day, Rajesh Setty of  Life Beyond Code.

iBt4iM: Tell my readers who you are.

Rajesh Setty : Thanks for this opportunity Randy. I describe myself as someone who EATs with Passion! I am an Entrepreneur, Author and a Teacher and I love to be involved in all the three activities. As an entrepreneur I am currently the chairman of CIGNEX Technologies, Inc, a company that I co-founded in late 2000. CIGNEX builds and implements enterprise class open source solutions. I am also involved in the advisory capacity of multiple technology companies and non-profit organizations. As an author, I wrote my first book (a novel) when I was nine and got it published when I was thirteen. I got six of my books published before I was sixteen. I didn’t write a book for the next nineteen years (oops dating myself there.) My recent book “Beyond Code: How to distinguish yourself in 9 simple steps!” (Foreword by Tom Peters) was published in October 2005. As a teacher, I have been involved in sharing through my speaking engagements, blog and writings. I am happily married for twelve years to my beautiful wife Kavitha and we have a seven year old son Sumukh.

iBt4iM: What's your blog? What's your blog about?

Rajesh Setty : My blog is called “Life Beyond Code”. I started the blog as a companion to my book “Beyond Code” back in February 2005. The blog has of course evolved into something bigger. I write about topics that are of interest to white collar professionals. Some of the key focus areas are:

• How to distinguish yourself
• Leadership 
• Innovation 
• De-commoditization
• Technology trends

iBt4iM: What secondary blogs do you have? Linkblogs? Moblogs?

Rajesh Setty : I don’t have any Linkblogs mainly because by simply linking to something, I am not contributing much. I have to add some value that provides a context to what I am linking to. I tend to provide my opinion in almost all the blog posts. In fact, I may be a bit of an extremist on this topic. So, even for the “Great Quotes” section where I post an insightful quote, I write about why I think the quote was insightful.

iBt4iM: Why do you blog?

Rajesh Setty : I love to write and I have always loved writing. Being an “eternal student”, I am very curious on several things. One of the main focus areas of my blog is the topic of de-commoditization or how (individual or business) one can “stand out” from the crowd. I love this topic and am always thinking about this and I have a lot of ideas to share. I would be lying if I don’t say that blog helps me to gain a lot of visibility and in turn helps my book “Beyond Code”

iBt4iM: What are your favorite blogs?

Rajesh Setty : I love blogs that provide a high ROII (return on investment for an interaction.) In other words, I have to get the highest rate of return for every minute of my investment (time) I spend on that blog. There are several that are out there but I will list a few of my favorite ones here:

1. Tom Peters
2. Seth Godin
3. Robert Scoble
4. Brad Feld
5. Worthwhile Magazine

iBt4iM: What do you do when you are not blogging?

Rajesh Setty : Fortunately for those of us in the technology business in Silicon Valley work has never been an issue. In fact, I am sure Silicon Valley has the largest concentration of workaholics in this world J

Here are some things that I will be involved with when I am not blogging

• Evangelizing open source for my company CIGNEX
• Reading – I read about one book a week or about 60-70 books a year
• Meeting people – learning and sharing 
• Writing – I am working on two other books – takes away a lot of my time 
• Advising startups and non-profit organizations 
• Spending time with family and friends 
• Movies – We watch movies in five languages. Sometimes we watch the same movie in multiple languages L
• Teaching – speaking engagements

iBt4iM: Thanks for taking the time to tell our readers about yourself. You are the Blogger of the Day.

Note: We are interviewing one average-Joe great-blogger every few days (we hope). If you want to be the Blogger of the Day, then email me. Previous Bloggers of the Day; Dave Taylor, fotoUR, Ozh of planetOzh, John of Freshblog, Aimee Evans, Allen Searls, Steve Michel, Jon Watson, Dave Walker, Oleg Dulin and Miel Van Opstal.

Dave Winer: I usually don't quote flamers here, but these comments by Mitch Ratcliffe, in a rather longish response to Jeff Jarvis, Staci Kramer, Om Malik, Doc Searls and myself, says everything wrong about who I am and what I do.

http://www.scripting.com/2005/11/13.html#audibleAndItsConsultant

Randy: I guess I'm not a-list enough for that list. Mitch's post linked to Jeff Jarvis, Staci Kramer, Om Malik, Doc Searls, Dave Winer and me. Why did Dave leave my name off that list? Ouch!!!

Update: Dave answered my email and said Mitch didn't mention my name. Argggg! Forever a d-lister.

Coolz0r and Jason Schramm interviewed Mark Jen on linkage and credits. Mark is infamous for getting fired by Google for blogging.

http://blog.coolz0r.com/posted/mark-jen-on-linkage-and-credits.html

Here's some a-list reporting from the c-list blogger.

http://vidiot.typepad.com/telescreen/2005/11/plagiarism_at_t.html

Liberal Cowboy: We rank the 10 most powerful women in the blogging industry...

1. Ana Marie Cox
2. Heather Armstrong
3. Jen Chung
4. Xeni Jardin
5. Wendy Cheng
6. Elizabeth Spiers
7. Jessica Coen
8. Joi Ito (wow that's impressive, since he's not a she)
9. Mena Trott
10. Shai Coggins

http://jackofallblogs.com/blogging/10-most-powerful-women-in-blogging/

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Canadian Heritage: In 1931, Parliament adopted an Act to amend the Armistice Day Act, providing that the day should be observed on November 11 and that the day should be known as "Remembrance Day".

http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/jfa-ha/action_e.cfm

Randy: Today, we remember that nearly 100 years ago there were two great wars and that many brave Canadians and peoples all around the world sacrificed their lives so that we could live as we do today. The day is fixed, because the 1st Great War ended on November 11th, 1918 at 11 AM. Thanks!

Red Flag Deals: Points.com is offering free points to those who sign up for their service!  If you sign up, you have the option of getting 2500 free HBC points, 25 Aeroplan miles, or a number of points from many more. 

The Game of Risk implemented with Google Maps.

http://www.ashotoforangejuice.com/gmrisk.html

John Sims: We are proud that the Company produced another quarter of respectable year-over-year growth.

http://www.724.com/news/details264.asp

Randy: It's called easy comparables. Revenues are actually down more than 60% from its highs.

Scott Adams: My new plan is to live long enough to slowly disappear. It will be a lengthy process, I hope, but within the next five or six hundred years, I hope to fit inside a matchbox and have a pet beetle named Skippy.

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2005/11/immortality_pla.html

Randy: If you are not already Subscribed to Scott Adams, then please get off your computer and give it to somebody who appreciates the Web.

Dave Winer published the full text of a recent Bill Gates email and Ray Ozzie memo. Honestly, I find it quite boring. I mean, it's an internal email, they tend to talk about boring things. And quite honestly, other than .NET and the XML-ization of MSN search, Microsoft has been quite boring of late.

http://www.hypercamp.org/2005/11/09

I pissed my pants laughing at the end of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=J9h3YtWrE0M

 Google is throwing unhandled javascript exceptions today! Everybody sucks today.

While I'm pissed, I might as well get these negative posts out of my system. Yahoo! Desktop Search is by far the best desktop search, but even it sucks sometimes. About half the time I go to use it, it simply hangs and quite often I'm unable to get it started, even with a reboot or kill process. I've been in contact with Yahoo! about the problem, but they've never been able to fix it. The problem happens on two different computers.

I've always hated Bell Canada, because their customer service is ridiculous. I ordered high-speed Internet from them once and before I found the time to connect, they started leaving automated messages threatening to bill me if I did register. My home phone was also disconnected once and they were not able to reconnect it for 4 days.

Nowadays, I'm starting to hate Rogers too! Rogers is my local cable provider and because I hate Bell Canada so much, I've transferred most of my services to Rogers. Basically, we have two monopolies for wired services (cable and phone) and you can pick between the two (no other choices yet). Today, my Internet connection (and cable) was cut. Guess who did it? A Rogers technician. This is the 3rd time in 3 months. This time, when I tried to call their technical support, the phone simply disconnected after one or two rings. It's pretty hard to run a company when the Internet is so unreliable. Last week, I was having trouble with my hosting provider, who didn't understand basic hosting concepts. BTW, my hosting provider is one of the best.

This is the private version for Republican insiders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=ivq0VTp0xt8

Scott Adams: Behold the winners of the 2005 Weasel Poll.

http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/shop/html/weasel_poll_results_2005.html.

Randy: Winners.

• Weaselist Organization went to the White House with the Republican Party a distant 2nd.
• Weaselist Country went to the U.S.A. (includes Iraq) with twice as many votes as any other country.
• Weaselist Company was really close with Oil Companies as a group edging out Halliburton.
• Weaselist Professional was dominated by Politicians (what was the point in polling?)
• Weaselist Individual was George W. Bush with almost three times more votes than 2nd.

Flash. Not work safe, a.k.a. very good.

Cory Doctorow: There's a children's hospital in London that owns a weird, perpetual copyright in Peter Pan. That's right, instead of funding it through the NHS and traditional charity drives, the UK government has opted to fund this one by giving it an arbitrary perpetual monopoly. [cut] Now this hospital claims that Google Print will harm children by depriving it of royalties that it uses to heal kids. [cut] Bill Thompson points out: "Project Gutenberg already has Peter Pan online as it's not copyright outside the UK."

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/05/hospital_google_prin.html

The best part of living in Ontario is the fall colors. This picture, of our backyard, was taken by my daughter from her window. One tree in our backyard is beet red. Its leaves just started falling. The tree on the right is green, purple and pink today. You can also see two bird nests (top left). Check out the entire set of fall pics we've taken.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rvdad/sets/1313515/ 

About: Amazon Mechanical Turk provides a web services API for computers to integrate "artificial, artificial intelligence" directly into their processing by making requests of humans. Developers use the Amazon Mechanical Turk web services API to submit tasks to the Amazon Mechanical Turk web site, approve completed tasks, and incorporate the answers into their software applications. To the application, the transaction looks very much like any remote procedure call: the application sends the request, and the service returns the results. In reality, a network of humans fuels this artificial, artificial intelligence by coming to the web site, searching for and completing tasks, and receiving payment for their work.

http://www.mturk.com/

Randy: The possibilities are endless! I'm gonna spend some time figuring out how good this is. Looks like a potential gold mind. The concept is amazing. The implementation I'll investigate.

What to Drink when you're Chasing Beaver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=9H-RYf7R2jo

Are you a Simpson's fanatic? If yes, then you might also be a millionaire. As you can tell from the background music, I'm a Simpson's millionaire ;-) 

http://www.fetchfido.co.uk/games/simpsons-millionaire/simpsons-milionaire.htm

Scott Adams: I just visited an airport Men’s Room that only had warm air blowers to dry your hands – no towels. [cut] I know there’s some scientific principle involved whereby the movement of the warm air will, in theory, hasten the drying process. In practice, I’m fairly certain it’s nothing but evaporation plus the placebo affect combined with a process I call “giving up” and walking out with wet hands.

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2005/11/hi_jean.html

Randy: I can't believe I was so busy telling my Website host, they are stupid, that I didn't have time to post on this blog yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=hVJ2JTPaX5w

Randy: Great story about a local Toronto entrepreneur making it internationally. My brother-in-law works for this company.

Scott Adams: I spent an hour trying to do that, but the web site kept melting down at different points until I finally gave up and called their 800 number and handled my transaction in an efficient manner using their speech recognition system. Well, technically, I spent 15 minutes crawling through the automated menus

Randy: If you are not already Subscribed to Scott Adams' new blog, then you are not a happy geek.

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/