Chocolate Sushi

Suedy's Koo-Ki Sushi is made with the finest chocolate, delectable flavorings and rice cookies, intead of raw fish, vinegar and rice. via BoingBoing.

Soundseeing Tour of Albert Cuyp Market

Very creative photo tour. Click on the audio link and once it starts, you can click on photo#1.

Mr. Shepard's Shears

These shears were given to me by head cutter, Mr. Hallberry on his retirement, after forty years with Anderson & Sheppard. ...And doubtless I'll pass them on to some young turk when my turn to step down arrives.

The Death of Yesterday

Twenty years ago, an everyday virus destroyed Clive Wearing's brain. Now, all he can remember is music - and his wife.

NASCAR sponsorship up on eBay

My brother Andrew found this interesting auction for a 16 square inch sponsorship on Kirk Shelmerdine's #27.

Halfway through the snowstorm

Just a few quick shots around the house.

Chinese 'to overtake US net use'

The Chinese net-using population looks set to exceed that of the US in less than three years, says a report. via GapingVoid.

Google Mail Tips

A comprehensive set of Gmail helps.

Best Offer on Fixed Price listings

A new twist on eBay Fixed Price listings. Sounds messy.

Little People

Great Flickr photo set on kids.

Ride the wild eBay!

This situation with eBay is a fascinating example of how the market works and how there are potentially enormous amounts of money to be made if you have a lot of money to spend and take advantage of a sudden opportunity like this.

Overstock vs. eBay

The Motley Fool's take on Overstock's potential.

A journey through a jet engine

Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. Flash animation.

New ToDo List site

Great single purpose web service. Make and share simple ToDo lists.

eBay Q4 announcement

For the year a net of $3.27B on $34.2B in successful listings, but missed EPS projection by one cent. PayPal payments of $18.9B. 56.1 million "active" users (bought or sold at least once). Stock split approved. And my category, Home & Garden, reached $2.0B.

PC Magazine reviews Picasa 2.0

Once again, Google's done it right.

Google to announce "no follow" tag

Google will introduce new technology controls to thwart people using blogs to manipulate rankings in its search results.

Keychain Plants

Latest fad from Japan. via Gizmodo.

Million Dollar Baby

Everyone is talking about Clint Eastwood's new movie, Million Dollar Baby (trailer). What you may not know however is that the movie was based on a short story in a book by the name of Rope Burns: Stories From The Corner by the late F.X. Toole (aka Jerry Boyd). The book by the way was called, "...the best boxing short fiction ever written," by James Ellroy of L.A. Confidential fame. via MeFi.

Picasa 2 Released

Picasa -- the free photo-sharing service recently bought by Google -- just went live with version 2.0 about an hour ago. Included in the new edition, a collage-generating tool, photographic editing features, CD burning, sending pictures with Gmail, and a Blogger button for automated publishing to your blog. via BoingBoing.

Electronics with Borders

Hewlett-Packard is region coding their ink-jet cartridges. Try putting a printer cartridge bought in the U.S. into a new H-P printer configured to use cartridges purchased in Europe and it won't work. WSJ.

The Information and Communications Technology literacy assessment

Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit group behind the SAT, Graduate Record Examination and other college tests, has developed a new test that it says can assess students' ability to make good critical evaluations of the vast amount of material available to them.

EBay Sellers Protest Planned Fee Increases

"We believe that these changes are the right thing to do to ensure the continued success of eBay and the vibrancy of the eBay marketplace." WashPost.

Nailing the source of a toothache

A dentist found the source of the toothache Patrick Lawler was complaining about on the roof of his mouth.

Crazy looking fish

Looks like a Russian diver's been fishing deep...

Flickr down for a server move

Their blog stays up, with status on the move, complete with pictures.

No More Internet for Them

Fed up over problems stemming from viruses and spyware, some computer users are giving up or curbing their use of the Web. LA Times.

Sign on the X

Testing the limits of credit card receipt signatures. via MeFi.

Darth Tater coming Spring 2005

This dark side incarnation of Mr. Potato -- Darth Tater -- comes with lightsaber, cape, helmet, shoes, eyes, nose, teeth, and more!

Blockbuster's "No Late Fees"

"It just says 'No late fees!' and makes it sound like it's cool, but it's not," she said. "People don't want their credit cards messed with."

So, you got a new PC for Xmas

If you are just now experiencing the internet for the first time, I have some bad news for you. This is a very bad neighborhood. Many of the houses are boarded up. There is trash in the street. People will jump in your face and try to sell you things you don't want. And there are people waiting for you to walk down the wrong alleyway so they can mug you. Welcome to the World Wide Web.

No more Baby Einstein

Nirvana, AC/DC, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, The Sex Pistols... soothing sounds for the nursery. Classic tracks, recreated in a lullaby style... whatever rocks your baby's cradle.

Air Florida Flight 90

Twenty-two years ago today. "Larry, we're going down Larry." "I know it."

Burns PBS special on Jack Johnson

From "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson". The day after the fight, the Los Angeles Times ran an editorial titled "A word to the black man," which said, "You are no better than you were yesterday."

eBay fee increases

The big ones for me:

• Gallery $0.25 to $0.35
• 10 Day $0.20 to $0.40
• FVF on Store inventory 5.25% to 8%

McDonald's McShwarma

Yeah, but they don't say "Please" in Israel, right?

Frank must die

Today I am selling a bumper sticker FRANK MUST DIE.

AuctionDrop Closes Stores, Lays Off Staff

The numbers just don't add up...

Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time

Last month, though, Mr. Albert's habit caught up with him. Only $80 of his $400 cellphone charges were his father's, and most of his own, he said, were for text-messaging.

eBay employee fired over online post

"This person was an eBay employee, but is no longer an eBay employee."

Airline Food

Interesting Flickr photoset of airline food served on KLM, Malaysian Airlines, TAM, LAN Chile, Continental and Emirates.

Flickr uploading is SLOW

So it's a combination of Holiday & Tsunami.

My Favorite Smallware

Yet another list of useful utilities.

Bryan Berg - CardStacker

Bryan Berg broke the Guinness World Record for card structures in 1992 at the age of seventeen with a tower fourteen feet, six inches tall. His latest record-holding structure is more than twenty-five feet tall.

The year according to eBay

For the second year in a row, USA TODAY asked eBay to slice and dice its database of transactions, looking for trends and oddities that helped define 2004.

Hot to fix Mom's computer

For future reference, here's a laundry list of steps I took to get Mom's computer working and secured from evil software.

Apple.com Home Page Change

Apple replaced its home page with a message to Tsunami victims.

http://www.Apple.com/

Ikea builds on furnishings success

In the next 10 years, Ikea will open five stores annually in the USA, the company's second-biggest market behind Germany.

Digital Camera Tips for New Owners

This is a collection of digital camera tips that should get new digital camera owners off to a good start with their new toys. via BlogCritics.

Top Global Consumer Trends

"Men are becoming more like women, children want to be teenagers, and we are all spending more time in our homes - these are three of the ten 'mega-trends' that are shaping the future of our consumer society."

New Battery Lasts Nearly Twice As Long

AA and AAA Oxyride batteries will cost about 10 percent more than regular, alkaline batteries, Matsushita officials said.

Rhapsody cache of 1Gb size

Was looking to free up some drive space and found a radfile.rcf of over 1Gb in size. Link reveals HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Listen\Rhapsody\General\CacheSize as a means to reduce it.

The Best-ever 46 Freeware Utilities

From Tech Support Alert. Some of these are new to me, but I'll be trying them soon.

Will Google buy Flickr?

Musings on Google's imaging future. Picking up Flickr, with fun attitude, small and smart team, open API, "not-evil" history, and considerably large user base (150,000 users and 1.8 million images, according to Fast Company) would be a great asset to Google, and repair the fact that none of its community products (Blogger, Groups, Orkut) work very well.

Back to "The Apprentice" Drawing Board

In the upcoming season, Trump said, viewers will find "we chose candidates who are more relatable--along the lines of Sam, Troy and Amy."

Watch the sky!

NORAD's 50th season tracking Santa.

Positive eBay ratings prove useful

I may be bankrupt, divorced and outcast... but I'm somebody!

Cash for Kiddies

Somewhere in China, frantic factory workers cannot make enough toy automatic teller machines for clamoring American children.

Remembering Martha

When one is incarcerated with 1,200 other inmates, it is hard to be selfish at Christmas.

E-Mail Doesn't Take a Holiday

However tough it is to return from vacation, it's tougher still to return to an e-mail in-box filled with hundreds, or even thousands, of messages that have piled up in your absence.

Broadband Use Surpasses Dial-Up in U.S.

When Mark Suhre built his five-bedroom, three-story home in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay, Suhre made sure each room had its own high-speed network jack. Wireless access points extended the Internet's reach to the swimming pool.

King William's College General Knowledge Paper

King William's College Quiz 2004-2005 (PDF) has the reputation for being the hardest quiz in the world. It's also the hundredth edition, and they've made it extra hard this year! For what it's worth, here's last years Questions and Answers. via Mefi.

Imitation States Chicken

Like Kentucky Fried Chicken, but not. via kottke.org

Lego Thriller

Michael Jackson's Thriller...in Lego form!

Stille Nacht

Apparently, Alfred Anderson is the last man still living who spent 25 December 1914 serving in a conflict that left 31 million people dead, wounded or missing. via MeFi.

Customized M&M

Now you can print your very own messages on M&M's® Milk Chocolate Candies and package them in creative ways! via BlogCritics.

Kids just love St. Nick

The nightmare of the kid's photo with Santa.

ASIMO runs

The Honda Research Model ASIMO has numerous improvements, one of them being the ability to run.

Camels & Rubber Duckies

Excellent read on pricing theory. From the perspective of the software industry, but much of it applies universally.

Some days it seems like it would be easier to be a taxi driver, with prices set by law. Or to be selling sugar. Plain ol' sugar. Yep. That would be sweet.

Cuban on party hosting

Or how to make a quick $20K.

Great beer, and geology

The refreshing bitterness of an English pale ale, the clean light taste of a Pilsener, the dark, almost burnt graininess of Irish stout. To Dr. Alex Maltman, these are prime illustrations of the power of geology.

Changes to the eBay Header

eBay is personalizing the header, showing your sign-in information.
To see a preview of the new header, please click here.

MSN Toolbar Suite

Includes the new MSN Desktop Search.

Enhancements to Competed Items search

Different font colors for items dependent on whether they sold.
A “Reserve Not Met” indicator.
A new Action column.

eBay is on fire!

Notice how the rest of the market has languished in that time, but eBay just keeps going higher.

The Alpha Bloggers

The lesson is that there's a new force —spearheaded by people who work for no bosses and whose prose never sees an editor's pencil— that provides the water-cooler fodder for the larger high-tech community. Its power extends not only to high-tech cool-hunting but also to what's politically correct, geek style.

His Master's Voice

Dog listening to podcasts...

LV vs. D&B - The It Bag

Suburban ''purse parties'' -- Tupperware-like gatherings but with knockoff handbags instead of cookware -- have caught the attention of law enforcement.

Worlds Smallest Web Site

Only 18 x 18 pixels, yet includes news, blog, Flash games, art, Haiku, web cam, links, Google search and guest book. Now I've got a headache...

Google Suggest

As you type your search, Google offers keyword suggestions in real time.

The 100 Oldest Registered Dot Com Domains

Create Date Domain Name
----------- -----------
03/15/1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
04/24/1985 BBN.COM
05/24/1985 THINK.COM
07/11/1985 MCC.COM
...

SFO "Near Live" Flight Tracks

This is a slick Java application. It tracks flights in the San Francisco area. The purpose is monitoring noise abatement, so no detail on the aircraft, but they are colored for arrival/departing, helicopters and transiting. If you hover your cursor on them, you get altitude. Don't miss the menu option for altering the map background to Streets, Satellite, Terminal, etc.

Odin & Eric Snowdeal update

Remember Odin the micropreemie? Here's an update with plenty of Flickr photographs.

Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s

The writers of the Online Film Critics Society recalls the half- and completely-forgotten treasures of the past decade cinematic canon with its list of the Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s. Join us for a trip back into the not-so-distant past and see if you recall the titles celebrated here by the OFCS writers.

Satin vs. Twill Weaves

In a warp face satin the filling yarns cross over one and under 4 (minimum) warp yarns, thus mainly the warp yarns are visible on the face. Now you know.

Elite Designers Against Ikea

Remember, design takes time...

VeRO: eBay's version of the DMCA

In other words, eBay just gave a select group of business owners carte blanche control over who can sell on eBay and what they can sell. This special class of eBayers can shoot first and ask questions later.

The Hit we almost missed

The sales and marketing people had made Columbia a winner by selling mainstream American music - pop, jazz, country, gospel, the best of Broadway and Hollywood. But rock? No way. It was this thinking that had led the label to turn down Elvis Presley in 1955 and the first American album by the Beatles in 1963.

eBay's WantItNow format

WantItNow: Free to list, free to browse. Once a connection is made, the seller must pay to list. Here's what's in Bedding.

Laundry Rug

It's a rug, bag and laundry basket in one!

Flickr review at FastCompany

Flickr has grown from 0 to 150,000 users while still in beta and with zero dollars ($0.00) in marketing investment. This growth has been entirely organic, based on word of mouth, blog postings and positive press.

Citroen C4 - Brilliant commercial

It may not haul much, but it can get down.

Cereality - Now open in Philly

Wow, this is my kind of fast food. At Cereality, customers choose from their favorite brands and toppings. Pajama-clad Cereologists™ fill the orders. And customers choose and add their own milk, just the way they like it. And they even support my brother's favorite pastime.

GuitarBot

"In designing GuitarBot, our goal was to create an electrified slide guitar that was versatile, responsive, capable of fast and slow playing, easy to control, with high-quality sound, modular and portable. We also wanted to extend, not simply duplicate, the capabilities of a human guitarist." With support from The Rockefeller Foundation. Don't miss the video [16 meg Quicktime]. via MetaFilter.

Microsoft's new blogging tool

I got SubEWL registered. Haven't played with it yet. Video demonstration here.

PayPal returns

No reason given. I've had at least one declined charge after this message. Doesn't instill much confidence.

PayPal down again

Website down and PayPal credit cards being denied.

eBay - My Messages

Although the announcement made no mention of phishing emails, it appears to be a spoof-free way to communicate with members. via AuctionBytes.

New York Changing

New York Changing is a fascinating then-and-now series of photographs showing how Manhattan has changed over the last century. via Anil Dash.

How "Iris Chang" became a verb

A eulogy to the author of "The Rape Of Nanking". You'll need to take the "Day Pass" to read.