Brainstorming Session

It's not just the kitten below that needs a name. The holding company that I need to create to act as a parent company (mostly for tax and legal reasons) for all of my web site projects (of which WatchBlog is just the first) also needs a name. I've been thinking for weeks about this but everything I come up with has no domain available, is too hard to remember or spell, or makes no sense.

The name doesn't necessarily have to reflect the kinds of sites I'm building out, but it should be cool enough to not be ashamed to have it on a business card. Here is a list of things that I want to eventually be associated with this company name:

• Collaborative weblogs
• Possibly a literary/publishing connotation
• Online community
• News and journalism

Here are some real-world examples: Pyra Labs created Blogger, Six Apart created MovableType, Ranchero Software created NetNewsWire, and Macrobyte Resources created Conversant.

If you've got company name ideas stuck in your head and would like to contribute, you can leave them in the comments section of this post. I can't guarantee that I'll use any of them but I'm certain your ideas will lead to more naming ideas beyond what I can think of by myself.

Name the Kitten!

My roommate Josh adopted a stray kitten from across the street a few days ago. He's the cutest thing and has quickly learned that human fingers equal "awesome scratching things". If you ignore him, he'll find someplace nearby to fall asleep because he just likes being near a person. It only took a few days but he's completely adjusted to being indoors, was litterbox-trained in one day, and doesn't try to escape outdoors. I guess he knows how sweet this deal is, compared to duking it out with his brothers and sisters across the street for squirrel roadkill and tearing open garbage bags on Wednesday and Sunday nights.

The only problem is, he doesn't yet have a name. Since it is his cat, Josh has agreed to take suggestions but does reserve the right to reject any or all of them. Leave your suggestions in the comments for this post. I want to call him HREF, after the HTML attribute for the anchor tag.

Upcoming Travel

Next Friday my brother and I drive back to northern Michigan for our older brother's wedding. On Sunday we drive back to New York. A quick trip to see the fam, July 4th BBQ, give mom a hug and then high-tail it back to New York City where I'll depart on a plane the next day for Portland, Oregon.

I'll be attending the O'Reilly Open Source Conference for most of the week. Sandwiched between blogging the sessions I attend I'll be hanging out with my old college friend Aaron Draplin, fellow conference buddy Nick Finck, Rael Dornfest, and my old coworker Susan Kelley.

WatchBlog Statistics

Since launching WatchBlog a little over a week ago, I've been waching the referral logs and closely monitoring the statistics. When I built the site I knew that the idea would be well-received but I underestimated the amount of traffic certain web sites had. Using a variety of tools I watched as one site discovered it and linked to it -- which led to another site discovering it and linking to it. This cycle seemingly never stopped and truly shows the potential power of the apt-called 'blogosphere." The big jump in traffic on June 19 is because Yahoo chose it as a Yahoo Pick and then BBspot linked to it.

Date	Number of hits	Unique IPs	Transferred
June 15, 2003	4608 hits	338	46 MB
June 16, 2003	10584 hits	822	123 MB
June 17, 2003	9388 hits	836	134 MB
June 18, 2003	9574 hits	729	140 MB
June 19, 2003	21602 hits	4305	257 MB
June 20, 2003	25318 hits	2294	289 MB
June 21, 2003	14252 hits	1187	183 MB
June 22, 2003	15619 hits	1095	167 MB
June 23, 2003	33318 hits	2768	232 MB

Technorati shows over 100 blogs linking to WatchBlog. Sitemeter reports over 12,000 visits and over 16,000 page views in less than eight days.

Hosting Costs: I'm approaching the traffic quota at my hosting account and realize that I'll need to move WatchBlog to a dedicated server in a few weeks and eat the excess bandwidth fees (which shouldn't be too expensive); though, if you want to donate to WatchBlog you can. I'll probably run a donation campaign sometime in the next month or two to cover my hosting overhead for WatchBlog.

I've been doing the research and am close to getting a $99/month leased server at RackShack, but am waiting to hear more about sharing half a rack at Globix with some former co-workers that has a 1MB/sec bandwidth/output cap, otherwise unlimited.

Google Adsense: Google launched their Adsense program last week and I sent in an application for WatchBlog, but for some reason it was rejected - despite the fact that WatchBlog does not meet the description of any of the sites that are prohibited. Does Google hate blogs? Even ones that are not personal but rather collaborative efforts like WatchBlog? It makes me scratch my head.

Free Advertising: On that note, I am currently offering free advertising on WatchBlog to any politically-oriented blog or Web site. Simply fill out this application to be added to the ad campaign. It's mostly so I can test out the performance of PHPadsNew but also to get more exposure in the world of political blogs.

Call For Editors: I still need several more editors for the Republicans blog and the Third Party blog. The Democrats editors are currently out-posting the other two blogs by a three-to-one margin. To apply to become a posting editor, fill out this application.

Patriot Act at the Bank

I was at my bank today opening a second checking account so I can keep my personal finances separate from my business finances and I ran right into the Patriot Act. Over the years I've opened any number of accounts with different banks and I've never run into a process quite so blatant.

When the account representative started asking me questions like "How much do you expect to deposit each month?" and "How many wire transfers do you expect to make each month?" the red flags started to go off in my head. I said, "I don't recall being asked these questions two years ago when i opened my current account." She replied, "We are required by law now to ask these questions and get answers for every new account. If we don't get the answers the account does not get opened." And then she added, "This is part of the Patriot Act." Aha!

I had no problem at all giving her my estimates for the checking account I was opening but I was pretty surprised that the U.S. government is now requiring banks to share such information with them and prohibiting them from opening new accounts without it. I understand why they are making it a requirement in the fight against terrorism but I am quite worried that the information they are collecting may be used for other purposes.

In the meantime, there's no limit to how much cash I can store under my mattress. The only question now is, Dollars or Euros?

Announcing WatchBlog

I am pleased to announce the launch of a site I've been working on for a few weeks now. The site came about because I was tired of posting about politics on my own personal blog so I realized that I needed a place unrelated to CamWorld to serve as an outlet. This led to the idea of building a multiple-editor blog that allowed others to do the same thing.

That is how WatchBlog was born. Using the wonderful MovableType weblog software I built out a site with three weblogs rolled into one, each with multiple editors of a particular political affiliation. Currently, there are 13 editors for the Democrats blog, 9 for the Third Party blog and 5 for the Republicans blog. I'm still seeking more editors who are willing to contribute. Email me if you're interested.

I'm also seeking a couple of power-users of MovableType who want to help maintain the site and act as power-editors for the rest of the site editors, but may also include template-editing and plug-in installation and configuration. Super-user permissions will be granted after a level of long-term commitment has been proven.

Lastly, a few people have commented that my political views may get in the way of providing an equal platform for every party represented on WatchBlog. At this point in time I have no plans to be a writer for the site but am focused on keeping the back-end running, the HTML/CSS templates coded and resolving any hosting and performance problems that crop up. For the most part I refrain from editing the authors' posts except in a minor way (like correcting spelling and HTML styling mistakes).

Opinionated Weblog Editors Needed

I'm working on a new web site that will not be a part of CamWorld, but will be a multiple-editor weblog that covers the political environment around the 2004 election.

If you are interested in being a part-time editor for this blog and have strong political preferences for either the Republican or Democratic party, then get in touch with me. I'm looking for two editors for each party (four editors in total) to cover the election news, write opinion pieces, and counter-argue the claims of your opposing political party.

This opportunity is perfect for those who want to express their political opinions online but want to keep it separate from their own personal weblog. You may write under a pseudonym but I encourage you not to.

The life of this weblog will run from July 2003 to November 2004. All revenue (if there is any, and after overhead expenses) from advertising on this weblog will be shared among the site's editors.

Update: I've decided to expand this blog to also cover third-party candidates. Editors who want to contribute in that vein can also apply. Once the initial editors have been chosen, an additional 10 editors for each party will be added.

The only requirements are that you be passionate about your political party (and/or candidate) and be able to write and debate well. Anyone without proven writing experience will not be considered.

Update Number 2: Alright, looks like I've got a number of editors signed up, accounts are created, but I'm still looking for more.

• Democrats Blog: 12 editors
• Republicans Blog: 5 editors
• Third Party Blog: 8 editors

With another half dozen still to add accounts for. I want about 10 editors for each blog. Some editors, because of their political affiliation, have chosen to edit two of the three blogs. This is perfectly fine.

I'll be announcing the web site in a few days. I'm still working on the templates and design, building support pages, fine-tuning stuff, etc.

Much credit goes to Six Apart for developing such a flexible tool, MovableType, which will be running this site.

Happy Blog Day: CamWorld Turns Six

It's hard to believe I started writing CamWorld six years ago. Some days it feels like just yesterday and other days it feels like an aeon ago.

Over the years I've taken time off from writing CamWorld but inevitably I always come back. This site is so much a part of my life and of who I am that I can't imagine the day when I'll stop writing it altogether.

I want to thank all of my readers for coming back, day after day, to read what I have to say. Without you CamWorld would be nothing. I also want to thank those who have encouraged me when I was down, supported me when I was sick, laughed with me when I was happy, argued with me when I was wrong, and sent me little notes of appreciation over the years. You know who you are. Thank you.

Here's to six more years.

Note: The wonderful image on the right above is courtesy of Kurt Halsey, an amazing illustrator in Michigan who also has a weblog. I'm a big fan of his incredibly touching drawings and paintings. I borrowed (and slightly modified) one at the last minute to use as my Blog Day image because I feel his work deserves more attention. Kurt sells prints and original works of art on his Web site. I'm sure you will enjoy his work as much as I do.

World System Theory

Sparked from a backyard BBQ discussion the other night I became interested in a concept called "World System Theory". Looking at the world's problems and history from a 30,000-foot point of view, patterns start to emerge showing that global empires are not sustainable.

The basic economic organization of the world system consists of a single worldwide division of labor that unifies multiple cultural systems into a single economic system. Wallerstein suggests that the political framework in which this division of labor exists is not a formal world system but rather an interstate system manifest as a series of sovereign states that is a product of the world economic system. And, because of political fragmentation, no single state can dominate the world system. Therefore, the world market with its own internal logic can operate practically free of political control.

Be sure to scroll and read about Wallerstein's three alternative models of political development:

1. The Khomeni Option
2. The Saddam Hussein Option
3. The "Boat People" Option

Case-Sensitive Search in Google

Doing an ego-search today, I was struck by how many ways people refer to this site:

• Camworld
• CamWorld
• camworld

I realize that I'm somewhat at fault for this inconsistency because over the years I've referred to it myself using all of the above at different times of this weblog's lifespan.

This realization led me to Google's advanced search where I was surprised to discover that they did not offer a case-sensitive search option. Is it simply an oversight?

What search engines do offer this feature and should they? Can you think of scenarios where searching for a word that is capitalized (or not) would provide better results than by treating all text as case-insensitive?

The Death of American Radio

Good article in the NY Times about the increasing blandness of American radio and how it has become uniform, boring and too overloaded with advertising. This article made me think about the 1990 movie Pump Up the Volume about a teenager who creates an illegal pirate radio station.

If radio in America has become so bad, we might start seeing more instances of this happening. The FCC's relaxed rules in media ownership has allowed just a few conglomerates to take control of the airwaves, resulting in cloned radio formats throughout the entire country. The individualism and uniqueness of the DJ's, many of whom can be credited for increasing the listenership of radio, is gone.

Wouldn't it be interesting to see an underground group of activists start operating pirate radio stations? As a response to the corporatization of radio, it would be the people saying "enough" and taking back the airwaves.

Porn Banner Showcase

This is great! Some guy is reviewing porn web site banners. He's collected some of the weirdest, wackiest, and most disturbing porn banners and has written about each one. Great stuff! (18+ only).

Impeaching Bush

I knew it would only be a matter of time before people starting talking about impeaching Bush over allegedly lying to the world about the reasons for the war in Iraq. The comparison to the Watergate scandal is very real, only if it does turn out that Bush was lying there's more at stake that than just a Presidency. The very fabric of our governmental system may be torn forever.

My stance on Bush is pretty clear. I'm not going to go into it, but will instead let the talking heads play the blame game. If this incident blows up in Bush's face, it will be very interesting to watch. I mean, we're not just talking about a blowjob and a cigar here which, in retrospect, was a personal matter that should have remained private. In comparison to this, the whole Lewinsky/Clinton scandal seems quite ridiculous.

If the WMD scandal doesn't remove Bush from office then the irresponsible tax cut will. It's not just the average American who is getting frustrated with the Bush administration; the politicians are as well. The bait and switch tactics and unfulfilled promises will catch up to Bush eventually.

Random Image + Metadata Redux

A few weeks ago I asked about an easy way to display a random photo including associated metadata. I concluded that existing photo gallery software was too complex for such a simple feature. Instead, Morbus Iff came through with another simple Perl script that does this for me.

The script queries a stored comma-separated file called metadata.txt, grabs a random string of data and then writes out a chunk of HTML/CSS using those applied values. To make things easy, the script writes to an include file I have stuck in my global site template.

I've written up simple instructions on how to use this script on your site.

Here is the Perl script. Note that you will need to change line 6 to point to your own CSV file. You will also need to change line 20 to point to the include file you want to write to. Also change the path to your thumbnails directory in line 23.

Next, upload the script to your cgi-bin directory (or any directory you can run Perl scripts from).

Make sure you have a thumbnails directory ready to go and have built a file called image_metadata.txt for the script to read from. All of your thumbanils should be the same height and width.

Inside image_metadata.txt you should have a comma-separated file that looks something like this ($image, $year, $location, $title):

abandoned_house.jpg, 2002, Siberia, Abandoned House
arches_building2.jpg, 2002, Malta, Arches on the Water
baikal_sunset.jpg, 2002, Siberia, Lake Baikal Sunset

Once you have your thumbnails and metadata file ready, you should try running the Perl script from the command line:

    perl rand_image_metadata.pl

Then, using a web browser, check to see if the include file was rendered properly. If it has, then run the Perl script once again and reload the page. You should have a different picture and metadata. If you get a file not found error, then the script did not run properly and write the file.

Now that you have the Perl script running properly, you will want to set up a cron job so that the include file is processed once an hour. To do this, go to your shell account and create a file called crontab.txt. Inside this file you will want to place the following command:

    39 * * * * /usr/bin/perl /full/path/to/rand_image_metadata.pl

This tells the cron command to run that command at the 39th minute of every hour. To read more about configuring cron, read Pair's tutorial.

That's it. Pretty simple stuff, but highly effective.

Note: My next task is to build a little web form to update the image_metadata.txt file whenever I have new photos to add to the random pile.

Martha Stewart Fiasco

I don't really understand why people are being so hard on Martha Stewart. While I agree she should be reprimanded and punished if it turns out she is guilty of insider trading, I think that the punishment should fit the crime. I mean, we're talking about only $45,000 worth of stock here. It's not like she was the CEO of Enron or Global Crossing, bilking legitimate investors out of millions of dollars worth of funds. In fact, if the insider trading in question was stock in MSLO then I'd care more.

Martha is the unfortunate individual who is going to take the fall for all the illegal backroom deals and insider deals that have been happening for decades. The reason for this is because she is a name brand public figure who got caught; not because she did the most harm, but because she's being maneuvered into the most unwanted position on Wall Street: the patsy.

I say, give the woman a break. Take her to court, fine her, punish her, and then let her get on with her life (and likely her retirement). All the talk of million-dollar fines and 30 years in jail is ridiculous. The punishment should fit the crime. I'm sure there are bigger fish to fry on Wall Street who have done (and are doing) more harm than Martha ever did.

Everybody Knows

I've long been a fan of the well-known Leonard Cohen song, Everybody Knows. Listening to this song today I couldn't help but think about the current political mess this country is in. So I came up with alternate meanings for the lyrics when applied in a political context.

Original Lyrics (First 3 stanzas)		Today's Meaning (in a Political Sense)
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded		...Bush is betting the farm (America)
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed		...hoping that WMD's are found in Iraq
Everybody knows that the war is over		...too bad we left a huge mess behind
Everybody knows the good guys lost		...the 2004 election should right some things
Everybody knows the fight was fixed		...the Florida nonsense in 2000
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich		...the irresponsible 2003 tax cuts
That's how it goes		...when you own the mass media
Everybody knows		...thanks to the international and free press
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking		...and those in power will drown
Everybody knows that the captain lied		...the Bush administration continues to lie
Everybody got this broken feeling		...unemployment is rising, the market is falling
Like their father or their dog just died		...it's hard to be upbeat with Bush in office
Everybody talking to their pockets		...because dissenters are being silenced
Everybody wants a box of chocolates		...the only sweet spot in this whole mess
And a long stem rose		...or a lift on the stem-cell ban
Everybody knows		...thanks to blogs and freedom of speech

Statistics on Spam

I know everyone always loves to see spam statistics, so here are mine. I've notived a huge increase in spam in the past few months.

Instance of:	03/17 - 05/05 (50 Days)	05/05 - 06/04 (30 Days)
X-Envelope-To:	11142	9505
X-Spam-Status:	9564	7943
Subject:	9729	8107
Avg. no. of spam/day:	210	267
Size of 'caughtspam' file:	58923673 bytes (58 MB)	49982182 bytes (49 MB)

Number of pieces of spam received per day:

• 01 May 03: 388
• 02 May 03: 497
• 03 May 03: 470
• 04 May 03 :395

• 01 Jun 03: 502
• 02 Jun 03: 437
• 03 Jun 03: 414
• 04 Jun 03 :147 (partial day)

The numbers above are retrieved by using the grep command against my 'caughtspam' file that SpamAssassin writes to.

What's in a Name?

Here's an interesting article that tells escorts and hookers how and why they should use a pseudonym instead of their real name. This is the kind of information on the Internet that makes the Internet so great.

Larry Elmore Car Wars Art

How cool is this? Larry Elmore, one of my favorite fantasy artists is auctioning off one of the original paintings he did in the 1980s for the Steve Jackson role-playing game called Car Wars.

The winning bid was only $315. I am jealous.

» View the Ebay auction
» Bid on an original Dr. Doom painting

 

Taxes in Russia

Vladimir Putin introduced a flat tax in Russia two years ago, and ever since the government's tax income has risen dramatically. Perhaps the U.S. could learn something from this.

Only a minority of Russians question the fairness of taxing lower-, middle-, and upper-income workers at the same low rate.

A Theory of Everything

Thomas L. Friedman outlines some of the reasons much of the world has come to dislike the United States. Unfortunately the current Bush administration's policies and behavior are doing little to reverse the trend.

Why didn't nations organize militarily against the U.S.? Michael Mandelbaum, author of "The Ideas That Conquered the World," answers: "One prominent international relations school -- the realists -- argues that when a hegemonic power, such as America, emerges in the global system other countries will naturally gang up against it. But because the world basically understands that America is a benign hegemon, the ganging up does not take the shape of warfare. Instead, it is an effort to Gulliverize America, an attempt to tie it down, using the rules of the World Trade Organization or U.N. -- and in so doing demanding a vote on how American power is used."

Six Degrees of Weblogs

One of my former coworkers Leonard built a script that finds the shortest path between two weblog URLs. No word on whether Kevin Bacon reads blogs or not.

Start at this URL:	Random
End at this URL:	Random