Science Addiction

The screenwriter John August has a great little example of why Google’s Adsense is not the solution for all seasons. Anyone referencing his article on the use of air ducts/vents in films as a poor plot device on their blog/site, finds ads that try to sell you air vents or ducts. Which are completely besides the point of the article- nobody reading an article about good screenwriting is going to suddenly say to themselves “Wait a second. Reading about that scene from Die Hard reminds me- I’m supposed to buy Air Vent shafts!”

You can see an example of this in the article I wrote about August’s post. Sad. Like the time I saw Yahoo! ads selling cow hide on a Flickr photograph decrying cruelty to cows.

On the other hand, Google Ads to work tremendously well when they are on generic, well targetted and crafted content. They work on my Star Wars site pretty well.

ThinkSecret is reporting, only a week after my article on Apple’s mea culpa on Aperture, that a good portion of the Aperture team is being axed. This is a good news/bad news kind of situation, because it probably means that Apple will have to do a lot of soul searching and rebuilding of the product. The good news is that it may actually help v2.0 be the kind of application Apple was hoping for in the first place- one that would help sell Macs.

Yahoo! has quietly introduced Yahoo! Go for TV, a free DVR and media center software for Windows PCs. This software is a re-branded version of Meedio, which Yahoo! bought earlier this month and is tightly coupled with Yahoo’s own services.

This is a great entry in this area and should prove to be a significant challenge to Microsoft’s Media Center, if it is marketed and packaged well. For me, the trouble is that it is Windows-only and so would be an option only if it proved to be significantly better than MythTV or Front Row. Fun stuff- it seems like everyone is getting a head start on Vista, including those who were never really in competition.

[Via GigaOm Via John Battelle ]

While eBay has offered fixed price sales under its Half.com banner for many years, for the first time eBay has announced eBay Express, which allows buyers to buy an item without the auction process. It also features a single shopping cart and check out process for items bought from multiple sellers.

This puts them up in direct competition with similar services from Amazon and to a certain extent, from Google (with Base and Froogle). I’ve used Half for years now and actually prefer it over the auction format because some things are not always in demand. Sales that are not time-dependent (unlike auctions, which are) allow you to have something for sale for a long time; so a potential buyer can find you days, months or years later if you still have that item for sale.

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. – William Pitt, House of Commons, 11/18/1783

The NSA wiretapping story is close to becoming forgotten (read: Valerie Plame), or worse, old news (read: Bolton) or worse still, political (read: everything else). I can deal with forgotten- this article should help- but if this story is slipping into either of the other two categories, we are in trouble. Read more »

In Ray Troll’s own words:

A few months ago I received an email from my friend Dr. Ted Daeschler at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia telling me about a new lobe finned fish fossil that he and his colleague Dr. Neil Shubin had unearthed in late Devonian rocks way up in Nunavut, Canada. One of the many extraordinary things about this new fish is that it looks almost exactly like an amphibian, except that it has fins instead of legs…. I wrote a song called the ‘Devonian Blues’. I drew pictures of Charles Darwin ( AKA Chuckie ‘D’ ) embracing it.

The song and video are fantastic- and in case your wondering, Devonian is a geologic period of the Paleozoic era.

With lyrics such as Your momma was a Lobefinned Fish. My momma was a Lobefinned Fish. and Thinking ‘bout my mama and I’m thinking ‘bout you. Got those Sarcopterygian Devonian Blues. This is the stuff of viral internet legends!

Considering the rate at which Google introduces new features to the public and the small amount of publicity they afford each of them, it’s no surprise that most people are unaware of the many different ways to use Google.

To start, here is a list.

Here are some of my favorite Google power-user tips:

• Music – People are not aware that you can search Google for all kinds of information on artists, albums, songs and more using Google Music Search.
• Movies – Then try searching “movies” in Google or let me do it for you. That gives you showtimes for your area!
• Strange Stuff – Try searching ford escape and Google suggests where you can buy one. Or homes for rent or maybe homes for sale.
• Books – Similar to music and movies, there is Google Book search.
• Phone Book – Try putting in someone’s (or your) lastname, city and state in Google. Like this.
• Q&A – And sometimes just gives you the answer to your question. Like the population of the USA and the birthplace of George Bush (which one?).
• Fedex, Patents, UPS, more – Seach for information on Fedex tracking, UPS tracking, USPS tracking, patent, VINs, UPCs, FAA codes and a lot more using Google numbers search.
• Finance – Google Finance is a fantastic tool for casual study of stock quotes though it doesn’t have the depth of Yahoo! Finance yet.
  And of course, there is a lot more stuff you can do with Google here.

The question is, why are liberal blogs more popular than conservative blogs? Granted my sources are not perfect, but according to technorati and Alexa liberal blogs get more traffic and are linked to more than conservative ones. DailyKos and Common Dreams march ahead with MyDD and The Huffington Post not far behind.

One suggested reason is that more liberal blogs have comments and promote individual blogs, participation and more which bring more repeat and continuous traffic. Also, it is possible that progressive/liberal and anti-war blogs are read in countries other than the United States; this may not be as likely for the conservative ones. The other theory is that the party in opposition has more to complain about, strategize about and work on than the party in power. In that case, I will revisit this article if things change in November of 2008 :).

Dharmesh Thakker is one of my favorite photographers on Flickr and this is his best yet. He has an eye for using shadows and light to give the old mills and temples of India a very Noir look.

Take a look at Dharmesh Thakker’s other photographs and leave him a few comments of praise.

In my second month at Apple Matters it has been much tougher coming up with things to write on a weekly basis- but such is life as a part-time freelance writer (I use that phrase when I can- it evokes more mystique than it should).

Here is what I put out in March/April: Read more »

• Review: Google’s GMail for Your Domain (13242)
• Fetch Your Netflix Ratings (651)
• 9 Firefox Extensions I Actually Use (356)
• Season’s Givings (195)
• The Essential Guide to Selecting a Domain (141)

Two of those articles are in a post-slashdotting haze.

Apple has released a public beta of Boot Camp, that allows you to install and run Windows XP on your Mac. It provides a GUI for the entire process and will be integrated in to the next major release of OS X, Leopard.

This is a major development and we will be hearing more about it soon. An interesting piece from the Bootcamp page:

Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it’ll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes.

A few interesting stories from around the blogosphere:

• Via DownloadSquad – Google’s beta for their Web Accelerator product, which had been revoked after a short beta and had sparked privacy concerns, is back for download and use for Windows users. It supports IE and Firefox and judging from past experience, may not be available for long.
• Via T. Longren’s blog I came across this interesting blog statistics tool which may make life easier for bloggers everywhere.
• Via Les Jones’ blog there’s a cool Windows (yes, that other OS) setting for making text look clearer called Cleartype.

It seemed as though yesterday was an overactive April Fool’s day; maybe because it was a Saturday or because I was actively seeking pranks. And I found many.

Some of my favorite pranks for this year: Read more »

Some cool things to check out regarding the total solar eclipse on the 29th of March.

• Some interesting information from Scientific American:

  Such a total eclipse is relatively rare—the next one for observers in the U.S. will not happen until August 21, 2017—because the moon must cross our planet’s orbital plane exactly when it, Earth and the sun are aligned, and its nighttime side faces us.

• And then a lot of stuff from NASA- pictures, information, videos, audio.
• And finally, some spectacular photographs of this (and past) solar eclipse at Flickr.

Some links via Accidental Blogger.