Science Addiction

Thanks to Digg, my article on the curious behavior of Microsoft towards their advertisers wherein Microsoft builds a web site for their advertisers that does not work for Firefox users. Cut out 10% of your potential advertisers before you even go in to business- that’s a great strategy. We have feedback from users, the blogosphere and Microsoft.

Today, two weeks later, the site is still Firefox-unfriendly and in fact, even more so:

It has gotten worse; it doesn’t even fail gracefully any more. It does not inform you that the reason the site looks wonky is that you are using Firefox. It looks the same in Safari- so that locks out all Mac and Linux users… but I am repeating myself.

Since the original article got on the Digg.com frontpage, there were many comments, on my site, at Digg and directly from Microsoft. Let me discuss a few: Read more »

Here are a few photographs of a recent trip to DC. I took hundreds of photographs, but these are some of my favorite.

This is fascinating

A mountain near the Montana-Wyoming border once moved 62 miles in a half-hour in a catastrophic scenario that could be repeated elsewhere, scientists say. Rock at the summit of Heart Mountain is 250 million years older than at its base. That suggests the top and the bottom have not always been together. The presumed migration to its present home has puzzled scientists for years. They have known the mountain moved, but no one has explained how it happened or how long it took.

Everyone has heard of the classic defense of every violation of our privacy, of every move towards a police state:

“If you aren’t doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?”

I hate that line, but there isn’t a comeback to it that is quite as cutting and apt. So here are many ideas from Bruce Schneier and, as an article, it is the perfect sledgehammer for that depressing slogan of the security over privacy brigade. Read more »

In a strange development in the aftermath of my article on lack of Firefox support in MSN adcenter Windows Live Beta Email has started supporting Firefox as of a few days ago. This is good news and a positive step from Microsoft. Lack of Firefox support when it came out of Beta would have been a horrible move.

UPDATE : It seems like I spoke too soon! They actually took the support away; apparently their last update- the one that brought Firefox support- broke some integral things and now they have gone back to fixing it. Fix it fast, guys. Everyone else (including Yahoo! mail’s new beta) supports Firefox without any problems.

UPDATE (5/31/06): And Firefox support is back. Thanks Microsoft (sincerely)- now can we have Safari support?

Linus Torvalds is on CNN this weekend and though the interview is largely unsurprising, he is always charming and self-deprecating- taking as little credit for the “revolution” as possible.

Timings for the interview on CNN International:

You can watch the Linus Torvalds interview on Global Office on CNN International at these times:
Saturday
03:30 ET/08:30 BST/1530 HKT/1300 New Delhi
09:30 ET/14:30 BST/2130 HKT/1900 New Delhi
Sunday
07:30 ET/12:30 BST/1930 HKT/1700 New Delhi
13:30 ET/18:30 BST/0130 (Monday) HKT/2300 New Delhi

The US population will hit 300 million in October of this year. The census bureau has a population clock and so does Gerber. Gerber, in fact, also says: Read more »

I just added a blogroll- links to blogs that I frequent- to the right sidebar, and I think I should introduce them to you. Read more »

Including cab drivers. Watch how the BBC mistakenly pulled in a cab driver to comment on the latest issues with Internet piracy, digital downloads and iTunes. He actually had some interesting things to say: Read more »

Microsoft has chosen the growth of IE over every other division in the company for 10 years now. Windows versions from 95 onwards have suffered enough. Now, the company’s IE-centric view of its business is hurting younger divisions of the company that have a chance of becoming a major force as the company looks to take on Google. Read more »

While this is in no way a complete list, these are some of my favorite plugins for WordPress- the software that I use to build my blogs. All of these make the job of maintaining and posting to a blog a lot easier. Read more »

Sometimes it seems impossible to keep up with everything Google throws at us; here are a few places you can look:

• A complete list of Google products ready for primetime
• My article on interesting ways of using Google

Enjoy!

Before I get in to this article, let me tell you a bit about myself- this will help you decide if you think my advice applies to your web site. There are many ways to make money off a web site and my methods have only permitted my web sites to pay for themselves. I run two blogs: this one and another one on film, WideScreen Glory and I have run a large Star Wars fan site since 1998, that makes up the bulk of traffic that I receive.

In a broad sense, there are three methods of advertising on the Internet: Read more »

You know what they say about beans- they make you… how should I say… flatulent. Well, a few smart scientists in Venezuela have figured out how to make beans ferment more before they’re cooked removing their undesirable qualitites. Nice.

Does anyone else remember the Jon Stewart moment? The single point that can be traced down to the hour when Jon Stewart suddenly took America’s entire cable news oligarchy to task on CNN Crossfire. It was the moment that Jon Stewart became relevant- and in that time, in the months leading up to the 2004 presidential election, probably became the most relevant of all. These were the few minutes on cable television that caused Crossfire to be cancelled, Tucker Carlson to leave the channel and become the Jon Stewart moment.

Well, last Sunday, Daily Show regular Stephen Colbert who lampoons O’Reilly style punditry every night on the Colbert Report had his moment. He hosted the White House Press corps dinner and with biting satire tore apart the press, the political status quo and the president who was sitting a few feet away from him. I don’t think anyone has done this ever before this close to the president with such drive, focus and humor. Read more »