Michael Anthone Jacobs: "I'm not cut out to be a criminal, I'm just a nice, cool guy." In a heist attempt earlier this month, Jacobs dropped and broke his fake gun at a Walgreens' drugstore. Then, "He stopped, picked up the pieces, and ran out." At least he cleans up after himself, he's got that going for him in court.

I was reminded today of The Time I Used a Roto Tiller. So there you go.

Self-Serve Ads: Small Is the New Big. My article about micro advertising is up at Web Review. Note: Metafilter TextAds are actually $1 per 1000 impressions. (The price was lowered after the article was submitted.)

FOXNews.com: Celeb Web Logs: Too Much Information? "While sometimes amusing and insightful, more often these Web logs fall into the too much information category."

Plan B is a movie about a bookeeper (Diane Keaton) who thinks she's killed three mobsters and is thusly promoted by her boss (Paul Sorvino) to be a hitman. It screens tonight in Los Angeles—Greg, Lisa, and Bill will all be there, so I can begin to implement various strategies that depend on their future whereabouts. Good luck you three!

The Opposite Effect: Netflix emailed to ask if I wanted to upgrade my account. I wanted to find out what the upgrade was and discovered that I could actually downgrade to a cheaper version of the service. So I did! Nice.

According to investigators, Greene was enjoying a lap dance when disaster struck: One of the strippers, Kandy Kane, got too into her performance and suffocated the man. And here's the real deal on the Bust 'n' Strangler.

TiVo rules, but mishaps can happen. That's why I ask my TiVo to record something while I'm watching it—just in case. I think I lost my TiVo remote in the move, which means I can't set it up. Must continue to search.

"Synesthesia, the phenomenon whereby one sense is stimulated and another also responds i.e., when words have colors or tastes have shapes is not newly discovered (Rimbaud, Liszt and Nabokov were famously synesthetic), but the condition has hardly been discussed, much less systematically researched." That's why I put a link to Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens: How Synesthetes Color Their Worlds above. Buy the book! It's weird stuff.

The Quietline Laundry System is a washer dryer combination that hooks up to your sink. It uses half the water and saves energy. Genius Labs needs one of these pronto. Update: The Quietline costs $969 plus shipping. The lab my have to continue using coin-op.

Roger Ebert wants people to record their own DVD commentaries. While we're at it, lets lay a new soundtrack for Ladyhawke. More on this at Metafilter.

"Blogger Pro™ is for users who are willing to pay for increased reliability, higher performance, new tools, and advanced features and flexibility. Regular Blogger will continue to be available and free." It'll cost you $35 if you get in early. If you're wondering what it looks like on the inside, here's a mac IE 5.1 screenshot of Blogger Pro's editing interface in action.

A friend sent me some French Market Coffee from New Orleans. Strong stuff. I drank some and built permalinks into my weblog. If I have that every day, I might get more done.

I put a Blogger Pro button at the bottom of my page because it's good stuff. As soon as I get my camera out of my soon-to-be-junkard-scrap Isuzu Trooper, I'll use the upload image feature to post some funky pics. Here's to our future selves!

Free Winona! "This gives people an expression that is radical and at the same time meaningless." I like it.

I saw a sign on the outside of what looked like a house that said "Little Art Cinema" a block away from our new place. There was a guy unloading reels off a truck and he said it'll open in a month or two and I could go up and check it out. It was so cool! A tiny little movie house that can also be used for live theater. I'm psyched to catch some movies there this spring. I love that kind of place.

Kmart bankruptcy: "They could reemerge as a smaller, more competitive company with stable cash flow." I went to a Kmart the other day. The MSE stuff is fantastic. I say, ditch everything in the store except the Martha stuff and I'm there.

I'm testing out Blogger Pro right now. It's very nicely arranged in here. I know where everything is, I feel like a Pro. Nice! Among the features I'm looking forward to: email posting and email publishing. Good stuff.

My 1989 Trooper broke down on me today. I managed to get it to a mechanic in Manchester who said he couldn't fix it, I couldn't leave it, and I shouldn't drive it. So I drove it (kind of) to a mechanic in Gloucester who told me to leave it with him so he could fix it. Then I walked home. A sign read "Rockport 5." Then, three miles later, it read "Rockport 5" again. Phantom miles? Conspiracy? Signs on wheels? Only time will tell.

I was using some spackle today (not my fault this time) and I happened to read the back of the tub. It said "not for internal consumption." It's a good thing I read that because I was starting to think it looked delicious.

Curator of the notorious Egyptian collection in Turin, Italy says, "There is no doubt a perfectly rational explanation" why people are passing out when they enter the room housing the sarcophagus. Yeah, it's the Pharaoh's Curse!

Screenwriter Lisa Lutz has taken up residence at Genius Labs. She's new to blogging, but she's already writing about "legal" gambling, football, and law enforcement personnel. She knows things.

The SCI FI Channel has given the green light to begin production on Children of Dune, a six-hour miniseries sequel to its Emmy-winning Frank Herbert's Dune. The miniseries begins production in Prague in April 2002 with friend of Genius Labs Greg Yaitanes directing. It is the general consensus, here in the lab, that this is the coolest movie Greg has ever signed on to direct. Stay tuned for future details!

One bedroom apartment plus boyfriend. "So here is the deal: you have a great smile and a heart of gold, and you also need to have curtain rods and hopefully a good floor lamp." Found via Celeste's weblog.)

Professor Martin Lowson of Bristol University who previously worked on the moon-landing space program is at it again. "The Urban Light Transport scheme involves driverless cars taking passengers around the capital on a dedicated track." Nice!

I finished watching Ken Burns' Mark Twain last night. That guy had some seriously shaggy eyebrows and a mostly miserable life. Are those two facts significantly related? I'm looking into it.

It's Barnes and Noble, not "Nobles" and it's Norm Abram, not "Abrams." I met a guy on New Year's Eve who said he works at Beldens Jewelers. I pointed out the fact that people in the Boston area like to add an extra S onto certain words. It turns out he's been working at Belden Jewelers for the last three years, not "Beldens." It's okay, it's only his night job.

My review of Adobe Altercast is up at Web Techniques—and in print at finer bookstores featuring extensive collections of various fancy magazines. I think there's a picture of me in there too. I have to check on that.

One of the reasons we took this old barn in Rockport is because it had a fenced in back yard. The fence blew over yesterday in a freak storm. I forgot what it's like to live in New England. "Windy enough for ya?"

In Massachusetts, you can't get car insurance without a title number. In California, Chase Automotive Finance has "never heard of" a request for a title number. It seems that I am at an impasse. Can I fool them by making up a fake number? How about this: AG100056789-D. Convincing?

I didn't fall in the harbor, so I'm still alive. And it's a good thing I didn't eat any euro notes too. I'm doing well.

I'm in my new place now. It's echo-y and it needs paint. The last tenant had a Ye Olde English Tavern type of thing going on which is fine, if you're into that kind of thing but I'd rather have it a little brighter. We're gonna walk down to the harbor and check it out. If I fall in, this will be my last post—Jay, you can have my TiVo.

I haven't written much lately because I've been moving around a lot. I'm finishing an article on on self-serve advertising this weekend though. So email me if you're running a self-serve advertising program. Then, I'm working on a big writing project starting the end of January—more on that later. I'm moving into a barn tomorrow, wish me luck.

Cool, TiVo Inks Pact With Real to stream online content into your series2 digital video recorder. (from Evhead).

We're moving into a converted barn in Rockport, MA on Friday. Glass atrium, enclosed sleeping loft, cathedral ceilings, and a spacious fenced in yard—cheaper than New York or Los Angeles—and it's right next to the water! The commuter rail goes into Boston in 35 minutes but I don't have anything to commute to so I won't worry about it yet. I guess it's time to bust out the aerobeds again.

"Instead of looking like the old iMac, it should look like a sunflower." They're busy updating the Apple Store because the crazy new iMacs are here.

Note to self: don't stand behind the dugout while Marine Corps helicopters rehearse for presidential visits. Brookline can be dangerous.

We're looking at two apartments tomorrow. We hope that we love one of them and move in shortly thereafter. I'm researching the origins of the light bulb right now—it's a saga riddled with controversy and strife.

The air molecules at your local Dunkin' Donuts might be smaller than ordinary molecules. This would explain their unique ability to permeate even the seemingly unpermeable plastic of a bottle of spring water. You may read about this later in the New York Times, but you read it hear first!