Towse: views from the hill

Adjusting to the new Blogger interface introduced yesterday afternoon.

Added FreeFind search capability for easy archive searches. The FreeFind ‘bot will come through once a week and make sure the archives are searchable from the main blog.htm page.

Fernanda Viégas, a graduate student in the Sociable Media Group at the MIT Media Laboratory, published Blog Survey: Summary of Findings which contained results such as

1. “the great majority of bloggers identify themselves on their sites: 55% of respondents provide their real names on their blogs; another 20% provide some variant of the real name (first name only, first name and initial of surname, a pseudonym friends would know, etc.)”

2. “36% of respondents have gotten in trouble because of things they have written on their blogs”
3. “the frequency with which a blogger writes highly personal things is positively and significantly correlated to how often they get in trouble because of their postings; (r = 0.3, p < 0.01); generally speaking, people have gotten in trouble both with friends and family as well as employers."
   

(now there’s a ‘duh’ …)

Somehow (n.b. this isn’t the slant or gist of the study) bloggers who may always be so careful not to spill online information in chatrooms and Usenet newsgroups forget when they are blogging that anyone and everyone can read what they have to say.

… including Aunt Ethel, who may not want you blogging about the affair she never told Uncle Wilbur about.

This to That is one of those handy-dandy useful Web sites. This to That gives advice on gluing. Their philosophy statement reads, “Glue Philosophy: We are here to help you choose the right glue for your bonding requirements. We are committed to keeping current with the adhesive market, but we don’t claim to know everything about every glue on the market. We recommend the glues that we have found work best for us. We do know one thing for sure: there is no such thing as the All Purpose glue. Every glue has its pros and cons.”

The site is not only useful, it’s got trivia, links, FAQ and more.

You may recognize some of the names here: Fisher, Deering.

Cautionary tale for writers: ‘literary agent from hell’

By Teresa Mendez [book review]

Although 150,000 titles were published last year, most aspiring authors still can’t find a publisher.

Unfortunately, there’s a shadow industry eager to prey on writers who hope to evade the usual hoops on their way to publication. You’ve seen the ads: “Manuscripts Wanted!” You may even have been tempted to respond with a masterpiece of your own. But before sending any money, read “Ten Percent of Nothing,” a chilling book by former FBI agent Jim Fisher about “the literary agent from hell.”

[...]

Checked out the newest theme for Theme Thursday: “twisted” It is now 7:50P PDT of the day the theme was posted and 94 photographers have already uploaded their photographic interpretations of “twisted” to the site.

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Jesus of the Week – images of Jesus in advertising and media, brought to you by the alternative newspaper chain (including EastBay Express), New Times.

If I hadn’t been cruising blogs, I would never have discovered that today is International No Diet Day. I guess whatever good intentions I have to get in shape can be put off until tomorrow.

We went to a “meet the editor and let him know what you really think of Baseline Magazine” cocktails (well, pinot noir for me) and hors d’oeuvres gig at Town Hall Restaurant down on Howard for a couple hours last night.

Walked down the Steps to the Embarcadero and caught the F-line trolley over to the Financial District, then walked a few blocks to Town Hall. Yummy hors d’oeuvres. Wine, beer and hard drinks flowed freely. Can’t imagine what it cost for Baseline to get our opinions and those of about forty other people.

When the party was over a couple hours later, we were ready for dinner but were told it was an hour’s wait to get a table at Town Hall. Instead, we walked over to One Market, Bradley Ogden’s restaurant just across from the Ferry Building, and got seated immediately, had a bit of dinner and another glass of wine. After dinner, we walked home, stopping off at the Ferry Building to pickup a menu from The Slanted Door, then back up the Stairs. Even though it was a Wednesday night sometime after nine, The Slanted Door was packed with people — bodes well for its success at its new location.

The walking wore off maybe 1/10th of the hors d’oeuvres and dinner consumption. My entree was foie gras steak — a big seared piece of foie gras, served with toast tips. Even though I love seared foie gras, and One Market’s dish was excellent, I needed his nibs to help me finish my serving. I’d eaten my fair share of hors d’oeuvres and the foie gras entree was enormous. We carried home the leftovers of his pork entree, which we figured would frig far far better than seared foie gras.

I’ll worry about my good intentions tomorrow.

The Death Clock – When Am I Going To Die?

Friday, October 24, 2031, the death clock says– longer if I ditch some pounds. The death clock tells me, “Weight gain in adulthood is associated with significant increased mortality. In the Framingham Heart Study, the risk of death within 26 years increased by 1% for each extra pound increase in weight between the ages of 30 years and 42 years and by 2% between the ages of 50 years and 62 years (Solomon et al. 1997; Kopelman 2000). One study found that fat loss was associated with a decrease in mortality rate (Allison et al. 1999). ”

The death clock, of course, is just a parlor game, far from infallible. I had three sibs who died far sooner than the death clock would’ve calculated for them.

Ten years of Friends and I’ve never seen an episode. I’ll let this one pass by too.