Daily Links 10/7/08

Chrome Revisited - I've stopped using it. Looks like a lot of other people have too.

Weird Al Releases - Weird Al will be releasing songs as he finishes recording them instead of waiting for the whole album to be done.

Losing Control - Losing control of your life may lead your brain to some silly thoughts.

Apple Stinks - Yet another reason you shouldn't use a Mac.

Turing Test - Six computers compete to complete the test.

Comics Collection - 50 things every comic collection needs.

Geeky Cakes - Just in time for my daughter's BBirthday. She's going to love this.

The All-Pistachio Diet

I know how to time the market. You can set a clock to it. I launched BBspot.com shortly after the Internet bubble burst in 2000. I wanted to make sure I missed out on all the easy money made in the early days. Now, as the launch of The BBook of Geek approaches the market is tanking again. I know there's a difference between correlation and causality, but the next time I launch something you might want to hedge your bets by shorting the market.

My only hope is that people will be so depressed they turn to humor books to raise their spirits. Of course, they may have to collect pop bottles to raise enough cash, or burn the pages for heat this winter, but one can hope. Right?

I'll be sure to give plenty of warning to you when my son and I launch of flying car brand in 2015.

Mrs. BBspot made it to Iran without incident. It's not something I was worried about, but it's always nice to know a long journey went well. My usual order for a suitcase of pistachios will go unfilled as I don't want to derail my diet, and Iranian pistachios are not something I can resist. Someone suggested that it might be OK if I go to an all-pistachio diet, but I've tried that before and it didn't go so well.

That's all I've got for now. Stay geeky!

Daily Links - 10/6/08

Inverted Bookshelf - Something to freak out your guests with.

Five Great Science Books - I haven't read one of them. Looks like my reading list has expanded.

12 Million Digits - You probably already know the answer to this question, but what can you do with a 12 million digit prime number?

Future Shocks - 10 future shocks for the next 10 years.

Man Meets Whale - I'd be scared.

Heart Attack Grill - For reals.

Geeky Business Card - Put a web server on it. Can't get much geekier than that.

And Then There Was One

So this new Palin site that I conceived and launched in the space of a few hours spent most of the day on the front page of Reddit.com. I love getting hits, it's like smack to a junkie for a web master. It's a little disheartening to see a site I threw together in such a short time get over 60,000 page views in a single day, when a site I've worked on for eight years got a third of that. I know the site doesn't have much staying power though. The election is in a month, and Palin will fade from the national psyche. I also know that BBspot has had bigger days than that, so I'll muddle through.

For those curious about how much money the Google ad pulled in on the Palin site yesterday, it was $15.55. Not that much, but it paid back the $10 investment I made in the domain name. I'm not going to get rich that way, but if I wanted to get rich I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.

I got confirmation from my publisher that I can purchase BBooks directly from them and resell them on the site. I'll be offering signed and unsigned copies. You'll probably be able to get a better deal at Amazon, but many people have asked where they can purchase the book so I make the most money. A direct purchase would be the way to go. I'll be posting the details here and the BBook's site when I've got everything set up.

And then there was one. We have one surviving goldfish now. Yesterday, I spent a great deal of time trying to figure out what was wrong with the guys. Testing water, searching on the Internet, but I wasn't able to find a solution in time to save Goldy. It's not looking good for the remaining fish either. My son was upset this morning over the loss of the fish. He'll make it through though.

Mrs. BBspot heads off to Iran tonight for the next ten days. That means one thing, my regulating force between work and real life won't be available. It's likely I'll be spending even more time in the BBasement. Let's hope I don't go all Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Luckily, I don't have an ax handy, and I'd probably hurt myself with it anyway. Have a great weekend everyone. See you on Monday.

That's all I've got for now. Stay geeky!

Daily Links - 10/3/08

Watching TV - A way to watch Hulu videos if you're outside the US. Should work for other US only sites as well.

Math is Hard - Especially these 23 tough problems.

October Madness - A handy chart for following the bank failures this fall.

Watch Instantly - The watch instantly service from Netflix just got a whole lot better. Sweet.

Old School Animation - Stop motion animation done the hard way with new technology.

What's a Book? - I get the feeling that future generations will have this conversation about books all the time.

Real Life Superheroes - Some people might use a word other than superhero to describe them.

Do the Bartman

I want to thank last.fm for making me smile this morning. I'm listing to "My Recommendations" station and "Do the Bartman" popped up on the playlist. I haven't heard that song in ages, and forgot it even existed. The '80s references in the song took me back. Thank you last.fm.

You might have noticed that no new story popped up in the center column today that doesn't mean I wasn't busy yesterday. We got an idea for a Sarah Palin site, and the domain was available so I went to town with it. The site is called Things Palin Can Name, and pokes fun at Sarah Palin for her gaffes during her softball interviews with Katie Couric. I used Wordpress to create the site, and I'm amazed at how quickly I could have a site up and running. I thought about posting it on the main page of BBspot somehow, but since it isn't geek related, I decided against it. However, if you're politically inclined I encourage you to check it out, and tell your friends about it. Thanks.

The next ten days starting tomorrow are going to be challenging. Mrs. BBspot is heading off to Iran for ten days. While I have no worries about my abilities to shoulder the burden of being a single parent, it'll raise the degree of difficulty up a point or two. The worst part is that I always become less disciplined in my sleep habits while she's gone, and as you've read before, that's an issue for me. Please remember that when you're reading the BBlog for the next couple of weeks, that incoherent rambling has a reason.

Just an update on my weight loss. I'm down about 10 pounds from my peak and the first two digits on the scale have read 18 instead of 19 for a few days now. The next couple weeks will be a challenge without my partner in crime, but here's hoping I don't regress too much.

That's all I've got for now. Stay geeky!

Daily Links - 10/2/08

Google 2001 - Google brought their index from 2001 back on line. BBspot is there.

Working Tricorder - The future is now.

Lay Siege - Full-size, working siege engine for sale on eBay. I gotta get me one of these.

Geek Car - The geek is strong with this one.

Whiteboard TD - Whiteboard tower defense.

Old Skool - The things you can do with an 8088.

80s Movies - Movies from the 80s that shouldn't be remade.

A Call for Help! Avoiding Inheritance

I can't believe how well I slept last night. I was asleep by 10 PM and didn't wake up until the hour of six. It has to be the longest uninterrupted session of sleep I've had in months. Hopefully, I can replicate what I did last night on successive nights. I know many of you think my sleep patterns are bizarre, but if you heard about Mrs. BBspot's you'd have flashbacks to that Star Trek:TNG episode where no one got any REM sleep. Seriously, you'd be saying WTF in all 62 point font.

I once again lost the summer reading contest. My son finished a book in the last days to narrowly squeak out a victory for the kids (I would've gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling kids). The reason I bring this up again is that my nephew has requested the books he'd like for his prize. He wants the Inheritance trilogy (Eragon, Elder, Circumcisor). Strangely enough, many people have nominated this series as the worst books ever in my call for worst books ever. I know that books that seemed awesome at 12 don't quite hold up to rereading in adult hood. I read my fair share of crappy books as a kid (Piers Anthony anyone?). I'd like to steer my nephew to some better books if I can, so any alternative series that might be better, please let me know. Sometimes I have to use my powers for good you know.

I have to admit that I'm back to using Vista on the laptop. Too many irritations starting popping up on Ubuntu, which tilted the cost-benefit ratio of dual-booting back in favor of Vista. I didn't remove Ubuntu though, so I'll continue keeping it updated and checking on the progress regularly. Strangely, last night Vista reminded me that it had an update ready to install. Not one to install updates automatically without checking them out, I noticed that this was Vista SP1. For some reason I assumed that I already had SP1 installed on this machine. Luckily, the install went without any issues. I haven't noticed any differences in the 12 hours I've been using it, but it's been reported as better. We'll see.

For those of you eagerly awaiting the next installment of Random Comix, it's been posted. This installment introduces another character in the Random Comix cannon, Joe. Random Comix is a brand like Marvel or DC. I believe there are four or five different series. Also, my son has eschewed programming his own games with embedding games from Miniclip. It doesn't have anything to do with comics, but it's exciting for fourth graders to have their own Web site with games on it.

That's all I've got for now. Stay geeky!

Daily Links - 10/1/08

Pocket Drive - A USB thumb drive with 64 GB. What will they think of next?

TiVo PC - A kit to turn your PC into a real Tivo.

Will Sing for Money - Ars interviews Jonathan Coulton.

Stallman Warning - Keep your head out of the clouds.

Moneygami - Much cooler than I thought it would be.

Top 20 Simpsons - The top 20 Simpsons episodes according to some random person on the Internet.

Zoom Zoom - So much for 3G services. Why can't I live in Baltimore?

Sleepless Days and Nights

Sorry for no posting yesterday. I woke up at 1:30 am, and didn't sleep for the rest of the day. It made functioning a little difficult.

I'm hoping for a launch event at Border's #1 on 11/11, a nice binary date. I should hear back from them soon. I'll keep you all informed. Also, I'm working on getting set up to offer the BBook of Geek for sale on BBspot (signed and unsigned) copies. I'm going to try to come up with some other promotional items I can throw in with the book.

If you know of any podcasts, publications or any media place that might be interested in interviewing me for the BBook, let me know or better yet, let them know that I'm available. Thanks. And yeah, for the next month and a half you're going to be hearing a lot about the BBook. Sorry.

That's all I've got for now. Stay geeky!