Year: 2003
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RSS tracking… same as web…
Brian Peddie wants to track RSS usage the same way many websites track site usage or email opens: clear GIFs/web bugs. It works, but it’s dependent on the newsreader… much as tracking email opens is dependent on using an email client which respects HTML (and having subscribers willing to take the HTML version). What I…
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BOOK: The Thirteen Gun Salute
Last weekend, while down in Los Angeles for the Women’s World Cup, I finished the last few pages of The Thirteen Gun Salute, book number 13 (coincidence?) in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series. Most of the book is spent in Malaysia, ferrying a diplomatic mission to Pulo Prabang. All through the book, I was wondering exactly…
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Curbing the instincts
The boy is hitting and pushing other kids, at school and elsewhere. We’re as firm as can be about it not being acceptable behavior, and he knows it’s not OK, but it repeats. Considered spanking, but a few voices have said it won’t help (they are not against the practice, necessarily). I was spanked twice,…
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Last CD?
The music industry will not crumble to its knees if its loses my infrequent custom, but it’s just possible that I’ve bought my last CD. The final straw? The forgotten frustration of removing the security strips. After months on my Amazon wish list, The Pretenders Loose Screw made it into my last order. The CD…
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Women’s World Cup report
The United States beat Canada 3-1 on Saturday, before 25,253 (near capacity, but it felt a lot emptier at the start). Game was engaging, but not sustained play throughout. You could tell both teams wanted to win, but (speculation) the United States wanted to win just to avoid embarrassment, while Canada was enjoying the role…
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Four years later
Four years ago, we went to the 3rd place game and final of the Women’s World Cup (soccer). Today, due to the move of the 2003 WWC from China to the United States, we’re able to attend the 3rd place game and final once again. Below, a comparison. Facet 1999 2003 Date July 10 October…
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BOOK: The Letter of Marque
Several days ago, I finished Patrick O’Brian’s The Letter of Marque. Aubrey is temporarily a licensed privateer (the ‘letter of marque’ is written permission from the government to maraud the enemies of the state), commanding the Surprise, now owned by Maturin. While Aubrey’s situation — especially his longing to be re-instated in the Navy —…
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Software requests
So many ideas in the email space… here’s one more: Steven Johnson has an idea: “It would be a huge help to me if my email software would automatically organize incoming messages based on 1) whether I’ve responded to the sender before, and 2) on average how quickly I’ve responded to the sender in the…
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Is ‘simple’ a good enough…
We’re considering new services to develop at work, and there are lots of choices. So far, it feels like nothing is new under the sun, but novelty doesn’t seem necessary, as long as we provide content and services that people want. To date, content has taken care of itself (meaning: the editors and reporters know…
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Nothing to see here
Almost literally. One problem is that I watched several minutes of the terrible Monday Night Football game this evening. The Bears really don’t belong on national TV. But the larger concern I have is over the bundling of information, cable-TV style. Comcast owns the cable franchise here in San Francisco, having bought it from AT&T,…