Fresh Blogs

"Blogs seem more addicting to people than crack nowadays so I feel that I might as well join the bandwagon. I'll probably just review recent movies and videogames." That is from Sam's blog where he wraps up one of his videogame reviews with, "Samurai Shodown II rocks your face. Play it today!" Seems like sound advice to me.

Thank You

There was company meeting today and after a bunch of questions had been satisfied someone walked up to the microphone and just thanked Larry and Sergey. There was a standing ovation. Everyone went back to work as usual after the meeting but that ovation was awesome. Those two guys rock Natick.

Google IPO

If you haven't heard the news yet, we're going public. Reuters.com: "Google Inc., whose name is synonymous with Internet searches, on Thursday said it planned to go public by selling $2.7 billion in stock."

ScanThis!

I don't care what everyone else says about him, Jason Shellen is a cool guy. He donated a really nice Agfa SnapScan to the secret branch of Genius Labs that was not acquired by Google last year. In exchange for GL stock options, of course. But basically free. Thanks Shel1en!

Gmail Updates

Gmail fans may be interested in learning that we have updated our privacy explanation page FAQ to include some of the things that Google does to protect Gmail your privacy.

• HTTPS access


• Spammers don't know you clicked through


• SSL-encrypted login


• External Images blocked (optional)


• Blocked transmission of executables

So yeah, Gmail rocks Natick. Okay?

Um, Yeah. Thanks.

My mom just emailed me:

Are you going to watch that movie Sunday night about the 10.5 earthquake that's going to hit California?

No, I'm not. But thanks for the email, it's nice to stay in touch.

Gmore?

I'm fresh out of Gmail invites. I've honored hundreds of requests one by one and now I know how George Jetson feels after a day's work. If I was able to send you one, enjoy! To everyone else: Gmail will be available to everyone eventually. That is the game plan after all.

A Whole Lotta Something

A Whole Lotta Nothing has a photo strip powered by Flickr. How'd he do that? I didn't know Flickr could do the strip. I love the strip. Clearly there's a lot going on in phriendspace. (Not very catchy.) But I am new to the technology of the camera and all its wondrously connective abilities when it's um, connected. So I must learn more.

An Idea

Instead of a heated blanket, how about a cooling sheet. If you don't have (or can't afford) air conditioning, then why not a fitted sheet infused with thin, icy veins of liquid coursing through it so you can sleep comfortable and cool even when it's oppressively hot? It should only cost about thirty dollars. This could also work well with aerobeds somehow. Nice. I'll get started in the Lab.

Free Gmail Invites

So I just ran out of my original batch of Gmail invites. I'll see if I can dig up some more at the office on Monday. There's still a bunch of requests in my inbox. In the meantime, you can try asking one of these guys but they're not as easy as me. They want you write them poems and junk. Have fun!

Neighbor Search

Neighbor Search: "Use the location search (on your home address) to find those who live near you that have made presidential campaign contributions. You can also search for friends or celebrities by name." Wow, you can see names, addresses, and dollar amounts. (Via Big Rick.)

Gmail Safari

We got Gmail working on Safari now. It might still tell you that it doesn't support your browser but you can sign in anyway and it works good for me. Still beta and all that but this is great. I am psyched.

It takes a while to dawn on me that I just did "It." I look around. I'm sitting in a near-empty internet cafe in Lawrence, Kansas and I don't have anyone to tell. What? "It," in this case, is getting Gmail working on Safari. Nice.

Excellent work, Chris.

Save The Elephants!

The Associated Press is reporting that a second elephant has died at the SF zoo. They're working the elephants to death to sell a few more zoo tickets per year. That sucks considering they've been there for about a decade, they're middle aged now, and worst of all, there's an organization that has offered to bring the two survivors to a plush sanctuary where they can live out the rest of their lives happily. I thought San Francisco was full of hippies. What's with the enslaving? Weak. Update: Today's story in the SF Chronicle.

Note To Self

If you are driving down the 101 in California and your registration and insurance are expired; and you moved from Massachusetts months ago, then you're not in a good way. When you do get pulled over by the CHiPs, it is also not a good idea to fumble around for you black, gun-sized eyeglasses case while the officer is approaching your vehicle. Got that? Okay good.

Wellesley College President's Announcement

President Diana Chapman Walsh '66: "I am deeply saddened to report that the body of a first year student was found this morning on campus. Our prayers and our hearts go out to her family and to those who knew her best. Wellesley has suffered a great loss."

Amazoning the President

Presidential Candiates at Amazon.com: "Amazon.com takes the friction out of grass roots contributions to presidential candidates. A 1-Click payment is the easiest way to make a contribution -- from $5 to $200." Amazon is getting political with this attempt to make contributions to presidential candidates as easy as buying the latest Harry Potter book. Wow. How about a Wish List while they're at it?

Extra Gmail Invites

Update: I'm all out of invites! I found some extra Gmail invitations lying around if there are any geeky Genius-heads out there who didn't already get one from within the Blogger interface or what have you. Supplies are limited. But yeah, I've got some extras.

Gmail Tips and Tricks

Gmail Gems: "Welcome to Gmail Gems You will find tips and tricks of Gmail here. Got tips and tricks of your own? Submit your tips and tricks to us for inclusion on this blog."

Gmail for Bloggers

So yeah, we put a Gmail invite inside the Blogger interface. Not everybody will see it because we limited the invitation to a subset of users deemed "active." Don't ask me how we figured that part out. When I get near numbers strange things happen. In high school algebra I would come up with stuff like 8=2.

Good Stuff

Nerds On Site has some cool free stuff for bloggers. I may have to investigate some of these deals. I like the Refer-A-Friend thing.

Instasellout

Glenn "I don't do advertising" Reynolds has a new design up at Instapundit and that sidebar is chock full of ads. It's good, he should have ads. I'm just sayin', a little birdy told me he said he wasn't going to do advertising. Nevertheless, those are some high quality Henry Copland BlogAds and it's all good.

Nice Templates

Blogger Templates: "Welcome to Blogger Templates. Here you can find original skins to personalize your own weblog." Some of these are really nice. Good work.

Cops Stop Shovel Protest

Livia and her grass-roots cronies made today's San Francisco Chronicle: "Police swiftly seized the shovels Monday of animal-rights protesters who had just begun to plunge the blades into a grassy courtyard above underground animal-research labs at UC Berkeley." She said the police were super nice and even interested in what they were trying to call attention to. Although, they did confiscate their shovels. Livy's in the photo too, right above the dog. Nice.

RSS and Atom Explained

Many in the blogosphere have debated the issue, but most people don't know what RSS and Atom are. Well, let me just clear it up for everyone. If you support RSS then you support the fundamentalist Hindu party that thrives on communal politics. However, if you support Atom, then you are for a tiny piece of anything. Aw. That's so cute. Atom sounds better. Plus, I'm trying to get in shape so I really should go for the tiny pieces.

Forensic Epimemeology

A meme is a contagious idea and it's quite at home in the blogosphere. Forget CSI, the kids today are going to want to be forensic epimemeologists when they grow up. What's cooler than sussing out the origins of an idea virus? Check out this action packed autopsy of the Page 23 Meme: "I was able to trace p18s4 as far back as April 2nd where we first start to see a spike in infections." Do you see how I'm right about that?

For The Discriminating Lunatic

tfh - tin foil hats: "It's common knowledge that aliens or the government or something is beaming harmful signals throughout the universe nonstop, 24/7. This is what makes almost everyone mindless hypnoslaves, forced to conform to society's norms. But not you, for you are wisely covering your head with dynamic space-age metal, the only substance known to repel those hypnowaves: tin foil. With your homemade tin foil hat, your brain is safe."

Tracking

I had a dream last night that I was using an rss reader to track the movement of some real world object. Maybe it was something with an RFID chip in it. Could have been my PowerBook because I also dreamed that a bunch of us where keeping our stuff at Ev's place and it got robbed. In the dream, I didn't think it was Noah's fault even though he was in charge of locking the door. I was mostly upset about losing my new camera. I love my camera. All I had to do to get it back was wake up. I'll have to remember that trick in the future.

Partner Friendly Design

I wrote this article about partner-friendly design back in 2001 and I stand by it, dammit. Even more so now with all the social networking and photo sharing type sites.

Case Notes

It turns out Livia's volunteer work with the Gorilla Foundation is right up the street from Eric Case's place so I dropped her off and paid a visit. We had breakfast and he took me down to Half Moon Bay to check it out. Good stuff. I may go back when I have my full body wet suit handy. Thanks Case!

Filing After April 15th

Filing After April 15th: "If you didn't file by April 15, you are not alone. Last year, according to the IRS, 8.2M taxpayers needed to file for an extension."

A Few Words from Our Sponsor

Gmail And Your Privacy: "Google takes your privacy very seriously, and your trust is important to us. That's why we feel it's important to shed some light on what Gmail is - and what it is not."

Carbs

Why I'm drinking light beer with my mashed yams I'll never know.

Theories of Life

Theory #48: "Counting has been useless since the advent of the calculator. Since graphing calculators, only extremely advanced math cannot be done on a calculator. Therefore, math is useless."

Secret Amazon Skunkworks

A9.com, Amazon's Fancy New Search Technology has launched and it's gonna be a big hit in the blogosphere first, then traditional media next. It'll be fun to watch everyone get excited about it. Go try it out and see. "A separately branded and operated subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., A9.com opened its Palo Alto, California, doors in October 2003. A9.com’s technology will power search on Amazon.com and other web sites."

Google: An Explanation

An explanation of our search results: "If you recently used Google to search for the word 'Jew,' you may have seen results that were very disturbing. We assure you that the views expressed by the sites in your results are not in any way endorsed by Google. We'd like to explain why you're seeing these results when you conduct this search."

Neat Google Trick

Jason Sutter blogged a neat Google image search trick. You can do a site-specific image search to see all the pictures posted to a site. Here's mine. Cool!

Cake?

We are now accepting callers for these beautiful pendant keychains.

Caltrain

I took the Caltrain to work today. Not a bad alternative to driving. They should put a cafe car on that thing, they'd sell lots of coffee. To me.

A Visit From Jack

You never know when Jack Nicholson is going to stop by so you gotta be ready with the audioblogger! Here's Jack brought to you by audblog. Update: It's weird how Jack doesn't sound like himself on the audblog.

Lost In Translation 2: IKEA

Via BoingBoing: FARTYG bathroom wall spotlight, FARTFULL work bench, and the JERKER computer table. Now if IKEA gets Bill Murray to do the late night infomercials, I will buy these products.

A Thin Schmear of Meme

The Memespread Project: Spread this Meme!: "What is the Memespread Project? I am conducting an experiment about the spread of memes and information flow on the Internet. By analyzing where a link has been injected into the blogspace and then watching the ensuing hits to that site, the temporal and spatial spread of this piece of information can be measured." It's really good spread on a nice piece of Matzah.

Being Jennifer Garrett Is Not Easy

See how I'm right about that? "Apparently, you should not drive over traffic cones. Who knew? I run into the house to try to regroup and think this one out logically. Luckily, Jen and Pam are home, and Pam thinks this is the funniest damn thing she's ever heard, so she's more than willing to come outside and (stealthily) help me with the cone. I back up, she pulls. I drive forward, she pulls. I get out of the car and we both pull together. No dice. Now Jen is outside with the dogs, and she is laughing her ass off and insisting I take a picture of the cone sticking out of my wheel so I can post it to my blog. I pull some more and say, 'This is not going on my blog.'"

Molly Says

The Relationship Between Humans And Computers Is Coming of Age: "I don't think anyone could have properly envisioned the social explosion that weblogging would become. Now, technologists and designers are becoming aware that the tools being developed for the weblogger offer real solutions to real web design problems far beyond the vanity plate of a weblog and are in fact part of the social networking phenomenon." And she mentioned my book! Nice.

$14 Steadycam

Detailed instructions for building your very own $14 Steadycam. Via Shellen. Nice!

Shh!

Note to self: Don't ask Kevin Fox for Gmail screenshots while simultaneously telling him something I want to keep quiet.

Kinja, The Weblog Guide

So here's what I'm doing now. When I see that someone has visited my blog from a Kinja account, I go check out that account and read all the posts on the page. In this way I get to read fun new bloggers. However, I'm too lazy to click over to any of the actual blogs so if the post doesn't fit in whatever the Kinja word limit is, then I miss out. That's what I do and there's nothing I can do about that.

Betsy's Books

Betsy Says: "Book conditions are VG (very good-plus), VG (very good), G (good) and F (fair). Postage will be slightly extra." If you see something you like, just go ahead and email her. This Blogger-powered site is not a blog but Betsy doesn't care; it's a free web site and she's got books to move. Six bucks for a pulpy paperback from 1982? That just can't be beat. Amazon, you've been warned.

The Observer

New Kids on The Blog: "It seems that blogging is what the internet was invented for." Nice story on blogging with lots of personal examples. Good stuff.

Reading The Signs

143, 160, 182. Wired magazine is getting fatter. Good stuff.

Ev, We Got Your Back

Ev wanted to announce G*Spot on April 1st but we're looking out for our fearless leader. I love Noah but whispering sweet stupids in Evan's ear ain't gonna make a late-afternoon half-ass April fool's gag funny. On the other hand, Type*Spot, full support of RSS over Atom, and "Biz Stone swears off caffeine." Now that's quality humor. We could take that material on the road. Laugh our geek assess all the way to the bank. Cosby? Seinfeld? Lewis? Morons.

This Just In

Livia got a job. Woot! She's going to be Communications Director for a non-profit called In Defense of Animals. They're an international organization dedicated to ending exploitation and abuse of animals. There's a magazine, a website, campaigns, investigations, grassroots activism, hands-on rescue, educational and celebrity-type events, and all kinds of other stuff that needs directin'. Nice!

Major Privacy Concerns About Yahoo! E-Mail

Evhead has breaking news that the Yahoo! Mail team is "filtering" our personal email and somehow deciding what types of email are acceptable. What kind of crazy world are we living in? Howard Stern is being taken off the air and Yahoo! is somehow scanning and deciding what email should be kept from me? Have I no privacy? Am I not capable of deciding what email is okay to read? This is unbelievable. What an outrage. Or maybe I'm overreacting. Perhaps people are not reading my email? Maybe these computers have access to my email because, um, that's how they are able to show it to me? Or they are spies!

The Chatbot with A Google Brain

It's ALICE's crazy sister. Pretty funny and I agree with the assessment: "If every time someone asked me a question, my brain was surfing through 4,285,199,774 Web pages to help assemble an answer, I'd seem pretty nuts too." Ah, the strange future of online intelligence. I look forward to it.

What Is TiVo?

What Is TiVo? Slowly but surely I want to dust off some of the essays, product reviews and other stuff I wrote a while ago and put them back up on my site. I love essays. Once I finish my book, I'm gonna write a ton of essays. That is a good time right there.

Gmail Me

Nice, I got my biz.stone (at) gmail.com account today and just in time too, my bizstone.com email is down today. Now I've got two personal email accounts and one work account. My normal email routines are beginning to change in strange and unusual ways and I think I like it!

What This Is

BezBlog: "What this is: The worlds greatest blog. Period. I have stuff from news, to science, to technology. All bases are covered, and it's just getting started." I love how the hit counter is preceded by "Popularity." World's greatest blog. Good work.

Lunar Google Is No Joke

I'm not supposed to talk about it but the Google Copernicus Center really is hiring. I have been to the Googlunaplex because we're probably going to have small Blogger division there too and it's rad. The place is totally futuristic. They had to make the announcement for various legal reasons and they did it on April 1st so everyone would think it was a joke. Oh man, PR is gonna kill me for this but I had to share. The moon is so cool!

Are There Other Earths?

There are other Earths out there: study suggests: "'We now think that at least 10 per cent of stars in the Earth's backyard have planetary systems,' he said and added,'If only half of these are able to sustain a rocky planet in the habitable zone, it means that one in 20 could harbour life. It is possible that the universe is teeming with life.'" That would be cool stuff.