the pod bay door

�� Spam seems to be getting worse by the day. This morning my work e-mail Inbox had at least two XXX-rated messages waiting for me, along with the daily e-mail from Nigeria asking for money, offers of mortgage and loan assistance, and a note to help me get my Bachelor’s degree from home. In the 9 feb 2003 edition of the New York Times Magazine, James Gleick, author of Chaos, Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, and most recently, What Just Happened, examines the worsening spam epidemic, and what’s being done to (attempt to) deal with it. Mentioned in his article are SpamAssassin, and SpamSieve, two programs that attack spam on your computer.

�� Sometimes you discover a site on the ‘net, and you start singing the line, “I’ve got…too much…time on my hands“. (Not that I admit to having ever been a fan of Styx.) Anyway, here is such a website that put the song in my head: ticketstubs.com. The deal here is that you upload an image of a ticket stub from an event you attended – could be a movie, live theatre, music, standup, what-evah. Together with the pic of the stub, you tell a story surrounding the event. The site is new, so there is but one story from Canada to date. Now that I think of it, this may be a cool idea. Still, the creator must’ve had, well, too much time on his hands…

�� Mike sent a link to this article on blogs as social networks. The author examines blogs as a social network, using power law distributions. Some of his conclusions are interesting, including how the A-List bloggers may eventually morph into mainstream media-types as their audiences grow. He also suggests that the term “blog” itself may drift into the background as blog technology becomes a platform for other types of online publising.

�� It seems like a lot of “serious” bloggers are now analyzing blogging in their blogs – does this sound a bit redundant? I thought this was supposed to be all kinds of fun!

:: Yes, it’s been snowing here quite a bit lately. The last 48 hours have seen between 5-10 cm of snow fall to the ground. This afternoon I visited friends who are moving to Toronto, and just had a baby. I drove back and forth in front of the house where the reception was happening, finally parking and immediately getting stuck. When I went to leave, it took four men to help me push the car out of the ruts in the street. Very frustrating. I grew up in Winnipeg in the 50s-70s, and was spoiled by the snow removal there – in weather like this, graders and front-end loaders would be on all the streets within hours. In Edmonton, side streets and minor throughways are ignored by the City, which tends to clear the main drags only. What a drag.

:: I’ve returned to a three-column template, and I’ve been experimenting with light background colours. As you can see, I’m having some difficulty lining up the right-side column with the body of the page. Any suggestions from you CSS/HTML/MT wizards out there?

::Geoff and I are near completion of the first draft of an article we are submitting for publication in the journal Feliciter, on the topic of blogging in libraries. Meanwhile, more and more articles are appearing in mainstream newspapers and magazines on this burgeoning phenomena. Web of blogs, a typical article designed to make readers aware of this new web activity, appeared recently in the The Journal News, the newspaper for New York�s Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties. In Pittsburgh’s Post-Gazette is an interesting piece on how blogging (almost) changed journalism (thanks, Mike). For some, blogging is an unrelenting assault on journalism.

An interesting article in the USC Online Journalism Review compares media versus meta-journal coverage of the Columbia disaster. The author asserts that the meta-journal coverage is more complete, and notes that “It’s no accident that these columns are in weblog format, and that they have loyal industry followings.” The Review also examined mainstream media coverage of the Columbia, noting the power of the Internet and blogging.

Far and away the most detailed coverage I’ve seen on this event was posted by Steve McLaughlin in his blog, Saltire. His first entry includes details about the shuttle itself, possible scenarios, and debris reports. To appreciate his coverage, check each entry since February 1st. I am overwhelmed by the amount of detail he has offered since Feb 1, and frankly, I wonder how he does it.

Next up is wireless blogging. Meanwhile, academia is begging to recognize blogs and their impact, now and beyond. Check out the education weblog called Weblogg-ed.

A few interesting sites to occupy your mind, in one way or another:

::Check out the Anagrammy Awards, for best anagrams.
::Giant squid attacks French boat.
::NASA offers the Astronomy Picture of the Day. There are some spectacular shots to see.
::Does your phone number spell a word? Mine doesn’t. 🙁
::A short, concise history of the Internet, from 1945-1995.
::Chickens Traumatized by Mass Egg Abductions.
::The Beloit College’s Class of 2003 Mindset List. Although the list is based on the American experience, we can relate to most of it in Canada too.
::This is an online American Sign Language Browser. It is very cool. You need Quick Time to view it on your screen. Pick a word, and a short film clip is shown of a woman creating the sign for you, repeating so you can practice. Brilliant.
::One of the most controversial and powerful post-September 11th essays on that tragedy is The Rage and The Pride, by the writer and interviewer, Oriana Fallaci.

This was a good weekend, a sad weekend. Sad because of the space shuttle tragedy. Good because I spent time on Saturday night having fun with friends, ate a damn fine dim sum today, saw The Pianist, the amazing new movie from Roman Polanksi (note: site is in French), and enjoyed a 90 minute full-body massage on Saturday afternoon. The weather warmed up as well, making life easier to take for a change.

The Pianist is based on the true story of Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, who lived in Warsaw at the time of the German occupation in WWII. He escapes deportation to the death camps, lives for a time in the Warsaw ghetto, and then escapes, living in the ruins of the city until the war’s end. The movie features a career performance by New York actor Adrien Brody, in the title role. Attention to detail is meticulous, especially scenes of deserted neighbourhoods in Warsaw, devestated by bombs and artillery. It was in such a neighbourhood that Szpilman hid to survive.
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