We made (and the seller accepted) an offer on a house today. 4 Bedrooms, a basement for the kiddies — promoting sanity for the parents, and a 15 person hot tub are the highlights. Of course, now the real work of actually getting the details, legal, financing, and other bits worked out starts but it’s an exciting (and scary) time in the Shao household!

Now on Google Earth: Map where Congress spends your tax dollars | Tech news blog – CNET News.com

“The Sunlight Foundation on Tuesday released a downloadable Google Earth layer that plots what it says are some 1,500 earmarks attached to a proposed U.S. House of Representatives defense spending bill. The Washington-based group describes its mission as promoting political transparency through use of Internet technologies.”

(Via News.com.)

I have to think that one of the real take-aways from the mash-up phenomenon is this kind of data visualization. In the initial wave of web applications, we provided windows into data — but generally geared around specific tasks or workflow. Lots of basic CRUD “enter an order”, “lookup my profile” type stuff.

Now we’re starting to see APIs and services that let us plunge into all that interesting data we’re collecting, and the low-hanging fruit seems to be aggregation and visualization. Taking things like public databases and mapping them, or integrating sales data with a product image catalog. The plus side in government certainly seems to be that we’re seeing an increasing number of mash-ups that provide increased transparency into government operations and spending by displaying simple visualization extracted out of the reams of official data. Maybe we’re moving towards Governmental-Accountability 2.0?

http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.9662

If the gap between public knowledge and academic curriculum isn’t large enough, the gap between academia and industry practice is a gaping hole. While academic departments concentrate on developing new computer systems in an ideal organisational environment, a lot of industry has moved away from in-house development to a focus on delivering a service.

I also wonder if the building blocks that Academic CS is focused on teaching at the entry-level are going to be relevant going forward. We seem to spend a lot of time going over fundamentals that then sit on a shelf…

I’ve posted an older video of Chris that we took at Lisa’s parents house. I just discovered Flickr a few weeks ago (well, re-discovered, guess that puts me on the trail of the Web 2.0 crowd) so of course YouTube seems like the logical next step. So… here it is:

Lisa and I just found out that apparently the new baby is… 2 babies. While getting an initial sonogram done to confirm the expected due date, the technician just starts off by blurting out “you know it’s twins, right?” Actually, NO, we didn’t know… After sorting out that it’s not just something that she says to everyone, we were, suffice to say, absolutely in shock.

Needless to say this is a (quite unexpected) blessing, though most definitely one that is causing all kinds of shock at our house.

It wasn’t pennies from heaven but an estimated $2 million in cash and coins that spilled across the New Jersey Turnpike in Carteret last night after an armored car crashed into a guardrail and flipped, spewing its cargo.

“It’s a madhouse. There’s money everywhere,” said Turnpike spokesman Joe Orlando, who was on the scene. “We’re in the toll collection business and I’ve never seen so much money.”

link

Lisa and I passed by this on Monday night, but sadly were not rewarded with part of the cash. According to the followup article 95% of the money was recovered, but that still means $100,000 are floating around the turnpike somewhere. Sadly, none of that money ended up on our windshield, though we did see all kinds of recovery vehicles and whatnot at the site.

Some jokes showed up in my email box today. While I don’t normally reward Spam, some of these were pretty good.

The American Dairy Association was so successful with its “Got Milk?” campaign, that it was decided to extend the ads to Mexico. Unfortunately, the Spanish translation was “Are you lactating?”

Electrolux, a Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer, used this ad in the U.S.: “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux.” Continue Reading »

Unsurprisingly, the book received massive press attention in the States when it was launched in April 2000. It has since been through several reprints, been printed across the world, and Katie has managed to make a career out of retelling her tale. Most recently an entire TV show called ‘Katie.com’ aired in the US. She now plans to launch a school curriculum to teach kids about online safety, called, inevitably, Katie.com.

There is only one snag however – the actual Internet domain ‘Katie.com’ is owned by a completely different Katie – Katie Jones, and she lives in the UK. Katie is furious over what she sees as the hijacking of her domain name – bought for her in 1996 by her husband. Ever since the book was published – four years after she had first been bought it – Katie Jones has received masses of email and heavy traffic to her site but wants none of it. She has had to pull her own content off visible pages on the site, and has posted instead a protest blog about how the book’s publishers – Penguin – have effectively made it impossible for her to use her own property.

The most interesting thing in this situation seems to be the lawyers argument that they’ve invested resources and money into building a brand around the name, so the original owner cannot resell the name to make a profit. It seems to me more a case of squatting than anything else. If you build a house on somebody else’s land, do you really have a recourse if they sell the land to someone else?

Jason Smathers, a West Virginia man who worked in AOL’s Dulles, Virginia, data warehouse, is accused of stealing a list containing 92 million subscriber screen names. Interim U.S. Attorney David Kelley said Smathers, 24, sold the list to another man, Sean Dunaway, who then sold it to two spammers for $52,000. Dunaway was also charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

Considering the number of people who much have access to these kinds of lists, I wonder (long term) how you can stop people from taking a gamble and trying to make a quick 50k. That’s a lot of money for just about anyone.

via email

h4. FINE

This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

h4. FIVE MINUTES

If she is getting dressed, this is half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given 5 more minutes to watch the game before helping around the house.

h4. NOTHING

This is the calm before the storm. This means “something,” and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with ‘Nothing’ usually end in “Fine”

h4. GO AHEAD

This is a dare, not permission.. Don’t do it.

h4. LOUD SIGH

This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A “Loud Sigh” means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you over “Nothing”

h4. THAT’S OKAY

This is one of the most dangerous statements that a woman can make to a man. “That’s Okay” means that she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

h4. THANKS

A woman is thanking you. Do not question it or faint. Just say you’re welcome.