Mason Lyngby

Thanks to firefox_answers for pointing out that Firefox 3 crashes with Windows on Godaddy are problems with the Silverlight plugin.  Disable or uninstall the plugin to remove the problem.

If you've ever attending a presentation on a software development technical topic, the law of Developers in the Audience always states that these 2 events will happen: 

1.  When the presenter makes a mistake (even a little one), there will be a jeer, snicker, giggle, or some sort of snarky behavior by someone in the audience.  It someone will be ready to pounce at a glitch or mistake and expose the presenter as a fraud.

2.  Someone will always ask for the font size to be bumped up, but the person requesting this is never sitting in the front. 

I was all fired up to try out Wikia after reading it on Matt Cutt's blog today.  When I visited the site, bombs away:

UPDATE:  Looks like Wikia's service is up and down.  Not surprising for a brand new product getting a LOT of attention.

 

It's hard to scratch that constant itch for quality new fiction books.  The books I prefer are mostly of the science fiction, fantasy or mystery/thriller variety.  The trouble is, the market is so flooded with lousy writing, it becomes difficult to findthe gems buried within the muck.  Here's a list of the methods that have worked for me, in order of most helpful to least.

Find what your favorite bloggers read?
Don't rely on a scifi/fantasy blog/website for book recommendations.  You'll be buried in recommendation cruft from the world's legion of campy scifi book lovers.  Seriously, I've never found a scifi/fantasy site that has helped me find something interesting to read.   They are full of teenagers rating books that have the same recycled plot giving everything a 4 or 5 star rating. 

I have found a lot of bloggers will go off topic once in a while and talk about their favorite books.  The best example is of Matt Cutts, the world famous Google blogger.  Occasionally he uses the lazy web to look for book recommendations and due to the popularity of his blog, he gets a lot of great responses.  I found one of my favorite new authors, Charlie Huston that way.

Read author's websites before you buy.
The web and by extension, Google, is the world most powerful marketing machine.  Google a favorite author to see if they blog or maintain a websites.  Often they will offer sample works online that give you a feeling for whether you will like their content.  Check out Charlie Huston's Pulp Noir site.  I particularly enjoy the Joe Pitt vampire series (FYI, I get a small commission if you buy).

Already Dead: A Novel by Charlie Huston Read more about this book...

No Dominion: A Novel by Charlie Huston Read more about this book...

Half the Blood of Brooklyn: A Novel by Charlie Huston Read more about this book...

Recommendations from a friend
Truly, this has to be the best method, when you can actually get a recommendation that is.  The trouble is that most of my friends get around to recommending a new book once in a blue moon.  There is not enough volume here to keep the river of new reads flowing.

Amazon's Listmania
Check Amazon site to see if your favorite fiction book is on anyone's listmania list.  If so, perhaps that individual shares similar interests and can recommend something else.  This seems to work out about 50/50 for me. 

Amazon Reviews
This is the least helpful method.  People are passionate about their favorite books and it is little indication whether you will share their tastes.  I think that is why I've had the best luck with bloggers.  A blogger shares their personality, wit and knowledge to a far deeper level than a review can, even it is a hefty one chock full of detail.  I believe Amazon reviews serve better to validate a point of view prior to purchase.  For example, if I get a recommendation on Book A, it never hurts to find out what the general public thinks about it on Amazon.  On the other hand, going to Science Fiction -> Best Selling -> Pick a Book -> Read Reviews almost never works for me.  It is almost as bad as stumbling into a Barnes and Noble without any idea what I want, except there you don't even have reviews to go on.

How do you find good reads?

As pointed out in this humorous article by Danny Sullivan, a Wikipedia entry for "Knol" is the sixth result in a Google search.  Gwikirank of 6. Actually at this time of writing, looks like it's more like 7.

I challenge you to do a search on Google and find a page without Wikipedia as one of the top 10 results.  OK, it's not that hard, but it is getting more difficult.  After reading about Knol, and perusing a few other blog posts about it, I decided to try some random searches on the big G and found had a first page result with Wikipedia.

Almost all pages now have what I call a GWikiRank.

A few examples. 

To quote Riley from National Treasure:
Snorkel: Rank 2 (2nd result)
Albuquerque: Rank 4 (4th result not including the maplet at the top)

Highly scientific terms seem to have high GWikiRanks:
Photosynthesis
macular degeneration

OK, pageranks for sports sites must lower the GWikirank a bit:
Tony Romo (1)
Tom Brady (1)
Kurt Shilling (3)
Barry Bonds (2)

Large companies:
Coke (3)
Microsoft (4)
Even Google (19)

It's no wonder Google is seeking to subplant Wikipedia
It's gotta be irking Google that Wikipedia sticks it's nose in almost every search result.  Some are speculating Google will eventually kick Wikipedia out of results.  That would be MOST EVIL.  

 

Remember, this is when the Ravens still had a lead.

 

Well, the cold reality is that I haven't used it once.  Yep, not one single time did I need to make my Google Reader client go offline.  Wow, I was really off base when I wrote about how cool it would be in Web Apps Gone Wild.  In that post, I got into a little discussion with Lazy Coder about how useful going offline is.  Well, I was TOTALLY wrong and he nailed it when he said it's not as useful as it seems.

The truth is, I have not found myself in many situations where I was without an Internet connection.  When I was without connectivity, I hadn't "remembered" to hit the little arrow on my Google Reader and sync down to my laptop.   

Now, I don't want to undermine the achievement that frameworks like Gears.  I have been exposed to some business applications in my career where it would have been useful for that capability.  I'm thinking Sales Reps here, where they are on the road and off grid frequently, it would be useful for them to work locally and connect with the mothership later at night in their hotel room.  I'm realizing now that it is edge cases like this that fulfill the needs of the few, but the important few.  For the average Joe like myself, I don't need it.

 

Ripped from: http://www.thecheezburgerfactory.com/ LOLCats http://icanhascheezburger.com/

I went searching for a Wii yesterday... I didn't expect to find one easily, but I thought it was worth a shot.  I checked a local Target store, gone.  Then the local Best Buy, no luck.  The nearest Best Buy that had one in stock was in Bismark, ND.  I live in the extreme west suburbs on western Minneapolis, MN.  Here's a little indicator of the distance I'd have to travel:

View Larger Map

So a buddy of mine tipped me off to checking the local Walmarts.  The first one I tried had one.  I think people sometimes forget or are too proud to check out their local Wally World.  Try it, you may have an easier time finding on there than the other big stores.