A caravan of all-white vehicles has been making its way through central Japan in recent days, causing alarm and concern among communities and government authorities. The vehicles carry members of a religious sect who believe the world will end this Thursday.
Pana Wave Laboratory members wear white clothing, which they believe protects them from electromagnetic waves. With the all-white clothing and vehicles, I’m imagining them quite at home in the current Apple universe — spokesmodels for iPods and iBooks, perhaps?
Category: Computers, Tech & the Net
If The Internet Were A Giant Sewer
My web hosting company, DreamHost, has a way with words (though not with spell-checking). The following is an excerpt from their answer to the question, “What is bandwidth?”
If the Internet were a giant sewer, it would be composed of giant pipes and smaller pipes, forming a giant grid underneath the city. Those whose computers are connected with modems would be water faucets and kitchen sinks. Those with cable modems or ADSL would be about the same as a swimming pool. DreamHost (that’d be us!) is pretty much the equivelent [sic] of a nice large resevoir [sic] holding thousands of gallons of water, ready to be shipped to the sinks and pools of the city.
From the resevoir [sic] flows great amounts of water to the citizens of this great city of web pages and streaming audio. How does it get around? Pipes. Big pipes, small pipes. Lots of pipes.
They never do get around to explaining when and where a bunch of shit is added to the water.
Huh? Al Gore Becomes Apple Director
Apple Computer has announced that former Vice President Al Gore has joined the company’s board of directors.
Look Elsewhere For Good Snowboarding Pics
I recently wrote about how Google gives blogs high ranking in search results.
Currently, about 40-50 visitors a day are reaching my site via search results for “snowboarding pics.” They’re landing on this page, which is ranked second on Google for the above search phrase.
As much as I appreciate new readers, I feel a bit like they’re getting a raw deal when they come to my site looking for snowboarding photos. Anyone who is doing a Google search is probably looking for more of these kinds of photo, rather than the tame offerings I currently have posted.
I’d say this points to a problem with the way Google is currently providing results. My snowboarding pics entry doesn’t deserve to be ranked so high.
Mobile Pics
One of my regrets from this past year is that I didn’t buy a better mobile phone when I arrived in Japan. Instead of going for the latest and greatest, I decided to be frugal (somewhat unusual for me when it comes to gadgets). So I’ve been stuck with a phone that takes kind of crappy pictures. As such, I rarely use the phone’s camera and almost never post pictures from the phone on this site. Wish I’d gotten that fancy, expensive one I was ogling last summer.
The images of Sam on the left and right above were taken on the Nagano Dentetsu line, a small private train line that runs locally in Nagano and the nearby suburb cities. It’s a train line that’s seen better days, and everyone complains about it because it’s so expensive. When riding on it in the late evening, it reminds me of Haruhiko Shono’s beautiful, lonely, haunting game/experience, Gadget.
Apple Music Service?
Apple is apparently working on an online music service, to be tightly integrated into iTunes and iPod.
Apple online music service wins kudos
Los Angeles Time (via Mercury News)
The new service would only be available to users of Apple’s Macintosh line computers and iPod portable music players, who have been largely overlooked by the legitimate online music services. Although no licensing deals have been announced, sources close to the situation say at least four of the five major record companies have committed their music. The service could be launched as early as next month.
Dinner And A Movie + Cute + Disneyland
Mena Trott — co-creator of the Movable Type software that runs this site — recently enjoyed Thai food and American Psycho.
Mena and her husband, Ben, are the world’s cutest technology couple. One quite another note, they visited Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea this past January. Brrrr.
Google Loves Blogs
Seven months ago I was a nobody. Now, thanks to some trivial ramblings powered by cool technology and Google’s attitude towards blogs, I’m apparently somebody. And I didn’t even have to send in 99 cents and a coupon from the back of a comic book.
Surprising though it may sound, I’m not the only Mike Gerhardt in the world. In the past, doing an online search on my name found me buried in the back pages, behind the classifieds — if at all. Virginia Law Professor Mike ruled the roost, what with all his comments in mainstream media on political, historical and social issues. But the professor has dropped off the radar these days, perhaps because he continues to talk to the Washington Post rather than starting a blog of his own. Big Wave Surfer Mike is a big name when it comes to Mike Gerhardt search results. And there’s a real estate agent who’s recently clawed his way to the number two spot. But sitting at the top of the pack these days is little ol’ me.
Huh? How did that happen?
It seems Google likes blogs. So now I’m a leading authority on the new Burton iPod jackets, second only to the actual Apple product page. And a search on “chopstick” reveals that only nine other sites have something more enlightening to say on the subject than my chopstick fiasco story. And as icing on the cake, mikemedia is the number one site listed for a search on “Google Live Query” (I had almost nothing original to say about the subject).
Is this good? I can’t help thinking that many of those who arrive at my site via those search results are a little disappointed. “Huh?! Where’s the real Real Sex?” they ask.
Joi Ito recently asked Google co-founder Larry Page about the high ranking of blog contents in Google search results:
Larry said he thought that blogs were getting higher rankings because they were becoming a more important part of the Internet and implied that he felt the high rankings were fair.
Good enough for me. And things always change. Some young punk is bound to try to knock me off my lofty perch at the top of the Mike Gs any day now. In the meantime, I’ll be working to make those search result visitors feel like they’re getting their click’s worth.
Spam Fighting Tip
Apple has posted an AppleCare Knowledge Base document discussing how rendering an HTML email message might lead to more spam. It explains why you should have your email program configured to deny network access when displaying HTML messages.
To change these preferences in Microsoft’s Entourage or Outlook Express for the Mac, choose Edit >> Preferences >> Mail & News, then select the Read tab so you see the screen below. (Sorry, no examples for other programs/platforms at this time, but the procedure should be reasonably similar).
The most important option to leave turned off is the “Allow network access when displaying complex HTML.” Keeping this option unchecked prevents the techniques used to gather valid email addresses (yours!).
I always keep HTML rendering turned off, as well. Relevant information is still easily found when the HTML email is from a trusted source (Amazon or Ofoto, for example). And you can always turn rendering (and only rendering, not network access) back on temporarily to read a message that’s unintelligible.
Continue reading to see examples of messages with the “Display complex HTML in messages” option turned on and off.
Brain Interference
I’ve always tried to avoid talking on a mobile phone for more than 15 minutes or so, because any longer than that and my head starts to ache. This is not a good thing (understatement alert!). My head, on the same side that the phone is attached to my ear, begins to throb like a low-level headache and actually warms up from the heat of the phone. If I move the phone to the other ear, the sensation moves to the other side of my head. For extended conversations, I find myself juggling the phone back and forth, filled with an anxiety about getting off the phone as soon as possible.
Is my brain overly sensitive? What’s going on here? What kind of waves are bombarding my brain? Does this happen to anyone else?
Since I first went wireless about four years ago, I’ve owned three mobile phones — two from Nokia and now, in Japan, a Sanyo. All three phones have affected me in this manner. Any sane man would immediately toss such a device in a deep, deep well.