bruceb news

From Max Barry’s marvelous book Company, about corporate life in the weeks after the computer network goes dead:

“Two weeks ago the network went down; soon after Senior Management assured the company it would have the problem fixed within a few days; now everyone is realizing it is never going to happen. Work-arounds are springing up everywhere you look, like new grass after rain. In the absence of e-mail, employees are discovering the art of speaking into phones. They are realizing that discussions that previously required three days and six e-mails can, with phones, be settled in minutes. Spam and computer viruses, both of which IT claimed were unsolvable problems, have vanished.

[…] continued

The IT Crowd is my new favorite TV show. The first season’s six episodes can be downloaded pretty freely – here’s one collection of links to downloadable files, for example. Much of it is available on YouTube if you don’t mind low resolution video – here’s the first part of episode 1.

It’s a British series about two IT geeks in the basement of a large, abusive corporation who get a new boss, a woman who lied about her IT experience on her resume. It’s hysterical, as funny as anything I’ve seen on television for years. Here’s Cory Doctorow’s description of it on Boing Boing. […] continued

Happy Valentine’s Day! Stuck for a gift? I’m sure a lot of you depend on Thinkgeek.com for your last minute holiday shopping, so you’ll be relieved to know that Thinkgeek is all prepared for Valentine’s Day. For example, you might not have known where to go for a t-shirt that says:

Roses are #FF0000
Violets are #0000FF
All my base
Are belong to you

Kind of makes you all misty, doesn’t it?

The folks responsible for promoting Windows Vista are trying hard to be hip – check out http://clearification.com. Microsoft is footing the bill for Demetri Martin, a Daily Show regular, to film short episodes of a random and mildly amusing story that features Vista computers in various scenes. The idea is to create a viral buzz that drives people to check out the site out of curiosity because they hear about it from friends. Doesn’t do much for me – I’d rather watch Lonelygirl15 clips, I think.

A particularly thorough disclaimer for a rock climbing site inspired attorney David Canton to adapt it into a disclaimer for the Internet.

WARNING

Business is unpredictable and unsafe. The Internet is dangerous. Many blogs have been written about these dangers, and there’s no way we can list them all here. Read the blogs.

The Internet is covered in slippery slopes with loose, slippery and unpredictable footing. The RIAA can make matters worse. Patent trolls are everywhere. You may fall, be spammed or suffer a DOS attack. There are hidden viruses and worms. You could break your computer. There is wild code, which may be vicious, poisonous or carriers of dread malware.

[…] continued

If you have Google Earth installed, then clicking on this link will allow you to track Santa Claus as he delivers presents around the world. at 3:00pm PST, he’s travelling from city to city in India. Click here: http://dev.keyhole.com/santa/SantaRadar.kml

Here’s the Google blog entry explaining that the company did not license the Naughty and Nice data layers this year – even though Santa explained that it had been checked twice.

Happy holidays to all!

In the news today:

“LOS ANGELES-The Recording Industry Association of America announced Tuesday that it will be taking legal action against anyone discovered telling friends, acquaintances, or associates about new songs, artists, or albums. “We are merely exercising our right to defend our intellectual properties from unauthorized peer-to-peer notification of the existence of copyrighted material,” a press release signed by RIAA anti-piracy director Brad Buckles read. “We will aggressively prosecute those individuals who attempt to pirate our property by generating ‘buzz’ about any proprietary music, movies, or software, or enjoy same in the company of anyone other than themselves.” RIAA attorneys said they were also looking into the legality of word-of- mouth “favorites-sharing” sites, such as coffee shops, universities, and living rooms.”

Okay, granted, it comes from The Onion, which occasionally prints a few things that are not entirely true in some hyper-technical sense. […] continued

The web can be a valuable resource for researching heavily advertised pharmaceuticals. Case in point: the ads for Panexa may look tempting, but it’s a clear example of how important it is to read the safety information and possible side effects before deciding to take a new drug.

The hard-working reporters at The Onion bring us news of the latest step in Google’s expansion effort.

Google has announced Google Purge, a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it can’t index.

“As a part of Purge’s first phase, executives will destroy all copyrighted materials that cannot be searched by Google.

“‘A year ago, Google offered to scan every book on the planet for its Google Print project. Now, they are promising to burn the rest,’ John Battelle wrote in his widely read ‘Searchblog.’ ‘Thanks to Google Purge, you’ll never have to worry that your search has missed some obscure book, because that book will no longer exist.

[…] continued

In case your travels take you really far, Google has just opened Google Moon, with the same interface as Google Maps. Hidden joke alert: when you first check it out, make sure you zoom all the way in for a close look, then go take a look at new Google job listings.