OK. I've been having a

OK. I've been having a little trouble getting the archive working. I think I've got it now. No error messages on posting anyway, but the Archives link below still doesn't work. It will. (Incidentally, I'm writing this while trapped in the Screen Savers production meeting. Aha the real purpose of blogging - to pass time in boring meetings!)

Distributed Charity

I know a lot of you run SETI@home on your machines but did you know you can use the same technique to support a wide variety of charitable causes, too? Distributed computing is currently used by groups like the SETI Institute and the National Foundation for Cancer Research to do massive number crunching that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive. Participants install a small program that runs in the background. The program downloads data from the Internet, crunches the numbers when your machine is idle, then uploads the results when it's done. For a list of worthwhile distributed computing projects visit Entropia or United Devices. I use the United Devices to support leukemia drug research. Take a look at these pages and see if there's a project you want to support. It's a great and painless way to make a big difference.

Trellix saves Blogger

Oops. Let me try that again! (missing quote in the HTML): I don't use Blogger any more to maintain this web log, but it's a great service and one of the few good ways to do a blog if you don't have your own web host. One of the reasons I looked for an alternative to Blogger.com was the fear that they might go out of business. Good news. That's a lot less likely now that they've found an angel in the form of Dan Bricklen and Trellix. Ironically, Dan's original company, Software Arts, the creators of Visicalc, was saved in a similar way by Mitch Kapor at Lotus. Read How the Blogger Deal Happened for details. Good karma comes around.

Going Postal

I took down that last post because it was just a little too dark. Sometimes I think blogging takes the place of a shrink. It's cheaper anyway. I really appreciate all the kind feedback and emails I received in response. I'm over it, thanks to you. No more drama. Meanwhile, quite the buzz around TechTV about the article on our site posted by a disgruntled former employee. Guess someone forgot to cancel his VPN account and he wrote a scathing piece on the "top ten reasons why TechTV will be out of money by next year." He was very kind to me but not so nice to others at the channel. For example: "TV people are in general more stupid, shallow and less pleasant professionally than anyone I've ever worked with. I think this is because of the medium they work in - which by its very nature is superficial, stimulating without being intellectual, and sometimes outright boring. They don't call it the boob tube for nothing. I just wish the boobs had stayed away from TechTV." A few sharp eyed viewers caught the page before it was taken down. I imagine the text will surface somewhere but I don't dare post it here. Meanwhile it's being passed around TechTV with lots of surreptitious looks. What a hoot. Jennifer and I took the night off (I've got the usual column, web questions, and a speech to write but they'll keep til tomorrow) and watched Almost Famous. Much better than I expected, but really, Kate Hudson for Best Supporting Actress? I loved Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs. Has he ever done a bad job. Just a joy to watch. Like Cameron Crowe, Jen and I graduated from high school in 1973 - when the movie takes place - so we really identified with it. It's good to be a boomer!

Best Banner Ad Ever

I know I'm just falling for BMW's viral marketing ploy, but I can't help but admire the clever ad campaign they've created just for web junkies. If you like a good mystery, visit the Apple MPEG-4 page and click on the :k: link at the bottom. Just remember, like a polar bear in a snow storm, not all is as it seems. Thanks to RyanR who pointed this out on the message boards. For bonus fun try Tron20.net. (Thanks to Tallyrus for that one.)