Over a Candle

A colleague of mine showed me this. I pass it along on the off-chance that I’m not the last one on the planet to find out about it.

(1) Go to Google.com
(2) Click on Maps
(3) Click on Get Directions
(4) Type “New York” in the first box and “London” in the second box
(5) Click on Get Directions
(6) Scroll down on the left to step #23 (Robert Anton Wilson is laughing somewhere)

Sometimes when I get up, I sit at my computer for a good half hour or so, surfing the web and trying to wake up. It’s maybe not the most productive use of time, but this morning, I am getting ready to go to the dentist for a filling, so I figure anything to distract myself…

Anyway, I was poking around in some of the more usual places, and I stumbled across something far from usual… I don’t want to spoil it for you, so here’s the link for my discovery: ODD DISCOVERY

More later…

This morning, I beat the Naughty Sorceress. (Wow, that does sound as bad as I thought it might.) And freed King Ralph. That means I just completed my sixth Oxycore ascension to complete my plexiglass collection. Sorry for all the Kingdom of Loathing stuff. Just had to note the occasion.

So today is the first day I teach. And it’s Friday already! (This is so bizarre. I’m not sure I like this new academic calendar. But I get the introduction out of the way, and next Monday get a whole week to get the content going.)

Well, I hope everyone has a good Friday!

(I thought you all needed a break from discussions of ‘terrorism’ and definitions.)

Today, I am one year old.

Okay, it’s not my real birthday. But one year ago today I created my character on Kingdom of Loathing. I have completed 22 ascensions. All but four of those have been hardcore. (Of the four regular ascensions, one was a “teetotaler”, no drinking, and one was a “boozetafarian”, no eating.) And, of the 18 hardcore ascensions, five have been oxycore (no eating or drinking, hence “oxygenarian”). I have nearly finished my sixth oxycore ascension and will soon have a complete set of plexiglass equipment. Thirteen trophies and twenty-nine tattoos.

And a bunch of readers who have no idea (nor interest in) what I’m talking about.

But that’s okay. I had to mark the occasion somehow.

Happy birthday to me… happy birthday to me…

A while back I mentioned a new social-networking site, mog.com, which is organized around music tastes. My big complaint was that uploading the information from song libraries seemed ungodly slow. Apparently, the people fixed some server issues and now the uploading is pretty speedy. Speedy, enough, to make the site serviceable. So if you are interested in finding people with similar tastes, or getting recommendations based on shared interests, I think mog.com is probably ready for the big time.

I haven’t deleted my page over there, but I’m still not convinced that it is something I need to spend a lot of time on. I just wanted to update you all that improvements seem to have been made.

So I heard about a social site based on music. Mog.com, using a small piece of software, uploads the info on your music library. You can then see what others, who have similar music interests, might have that you don’t. You can blog about your music (or, I assume, other things). Other music facts about yourself can also be tracked. (What you listened to last. What you listen to the most. Etc.)

The idea is that computer-generated recommendations are never as good as recommendations from real people that have similar tastes in music. (The site points out, correctly, that I’ve gotten a lot more music from friends than computer-generated recommendations. Of course, I’ve gotten those recommendations from friends, not random strangers on the internet.)

At least, that’s how I understand it’s supposed to work. After having the little piece of software running on my computer for over 24 hours, it’s indexed about one-fourth of my music library. Admittedly, I have well over 5000 songs. But the site suggests that with 10,000 songs, and a slow connection, it could take as much as eight hours. Since I’ve tripled that time, with half the library, and only gotten a quarter of the way done, I’m a little underwhelmed at the moment.

Mostly I just wanted to try things out and see how it felt. But the more I think about it, the more I’m pretty sure I don’t care. The idea seemed kind of neat at first. But as I’ve had plenty of time to reflect, I’m not sure that I would get anything out of this. I can see how someone might. But I’m not sure that I need to spend more time on the internet looking for music. I have a lot of music. And I’m constantly getting more. Without soliciting more recommendations. And I’d rather talk to you all about new things that I find.

So I might let this continue for a while, but I’m not sure that I’ll have anything more to say about mog. If, however, some of you try it out, I’d be happy to hear what you think.

I don’t know how many of you use Digg. I know that there are a few of you. So you might find the following story from Forever Geek of some interest:

Digg Corrupted: Editor’s Playground, not User-Driven Website

First, we find out that people were abusing Wikipedia. Now it seems that Digg isn’t as democratic as it bills itself. Next we’re going to find out that artists and writers are posting bogus positive reviews on Amazon.

Read the rest of this entry »

Are you looking for a good podcast? Want to hear something of interest to you?

Well, now’s your chance. Head on over to justcrazytalk.net and suggest some topics. My insider sources tell me that the first podcast is scheduled to be recorded tomorrow.

(Now I’m wondering… Is it surprising that I have “insider” sources?)

This time, without the political overtones…

Something a colleague of mine just sent me. This video is oddly disturbing, especially if you’ve ever seen The Shining

Odd take on The Shining

This has to be the oddest thing I’ve seen on the web in quite some time. I found a reference to it on Salon.com earlier, and I simply have to post it for you all to experience yourself.

The Oddest Thing

This is interactive, so use your mouse to move it around. You’ll see what I mean.