This has got to be a bug....

Dear Amazon.com Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated White Noise Critical: Text and Criticism (Viking Critical Library) by Don DeLillo have also purchased Caught in the Machinery: Workplace Accidents and Injured Workers in Nineteenth-Century Britain by Jamie Bronstein. For this reason, you might like to know that Caught in the Machinery: Workplace Accidents and Injured Workers in Nineteenth-Century Britain will be released on October 10, 2007.  You can pre-order yours by following the link below.

Caught in the Machinery: Workplace Accidents and Injured Workers in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Jamie Bronstein
Price:    $55.00
Release Date: October 10, 2007

 

Rapsnacks2

Update:  On the back we find the fine, fine web site http://www.rapsnacks.com/ (Enter if you dare!) and a bio of Romeo, a rapper I have never heard of, but my colleage Brett tells me was once a featured artist on Hi5.

#hi5 #rap #vox

Meraki is building a free mesh network in San Francisco.  This is probably the best hope for getting this type of service in the city now that the Google/Earthlink deal fell apart.

Join up!

Go to http://sf.meraki.net and help build the network.  When the router comes in I'll have 7th and Howard covered with 1Mbps of donated bandwidth.

#meraki #wifi

I'm happy to announce that Hi5 has Widget support.  Yes, I know that this is soooo last year. However there's a twist that makes it better.

We worked closely with Rock You and Slide to integrate tightly with our site, using open standards wherever possible.  For example, for slideshows we created Atom Feeds for each photo album, and a feed-of-albums feed for the list of all albums.  And when it came time to share profile information for horoscopes (birthday) and languages spoken we used FOAF.  Thus we get partners to adopt open standards, plus the work we did for them is usable by everyone. 

The only tricky part was authentication and authorization.  Right now it's using our own AuthToken implementation, but it could probably be done in a better way.  I looked into OpenID as a mechanism, but's way too end-user centric for this type of thing.

Coming soon we should have full Atom endpoints (both in/out with WSSE auth), OpenID provider, and a few other standards based things like XMPP vCard support.  All of this is being done with an Web Services Aspect Oriented toolkit called Enunciate, which has made writing these services a very enjoyable experience.

#atom #foaf #hi5 #openid #widgets

Earthquake in Peru, logins drop immediately.  Hope everyone is safe....

Picture 4

#hi5 #peru #vox

So I've spent a good chunk of today defending Six Apart from the cheap shots being leveled at them today.  I won't link to them, they don't deserve the pagerank.

I'm particularly angered at the audacity of the bald-faced lies in some comments.

I may not be employed at Six Apart today, but I put my heart and soul into building it.  I won't let a bunch of hacks harm the people still there.  So, if you see anyone anywhere putting the hurt on Six Apart let me know.  I'll use discourse, reason and wit to set the record straight.

#angry

Just caught up 10 days worth of Neighborhood posts.  I now have Vox fatigue combined with Vox guilt.  I didn't even read comments, for shame :(  After this post I'll need to check on the 'ol LiveJournal Friends page.  Don't even ask about the umpteem BlogLines blogs stuck at 200 posts...

Hi5 has a new Skins system that actually can make profile pages look good.  I had some input early on and made sure Vox and the SixApart styles were part of the inspiration.  It's coming out really well and we've received over 200 submissions.  Check out the snazzy new profile page?  Designers can check out the specs page.

Embeds are evil.  They mess up divs and tables and are often pasted in haphazardly.  Amit  came up with an amazing solution.  Use JTidy to clean up the user submitted content.  Tags match and broken html goes bye-bye!

Now back to the super-secret Hi5 Project Funk.

One Nation Under a Groove

Funkadelic

#design #hi5 #metavox #tidy #vox

Picture 2

#365main #hi5 #outage #vox

7/12/07

#mobile #vox

Primo Patio catered food and specialties cookies...

Mmmm Lunch 2.0 @ Socializr

#mobile #vox

We're living on the edge over here at Hi5.  Our new Movable Type 4 base blog is now available at http://www.hi5networks.com/blog/

The whole company is getting involved and you'll see plenty of interesting information to come.

Also, from a technical standpoint, MT4 has proved a winner.  The memcached support in Data::ObjectDriver means that we can run via plain CGI, saving a bunch of time and effort to get this up and going.

We should have 3-4 posts per week.  Sadly I didn't get a chance to finish implementing userpics for MT4, but that should come shortly.

#hi5 #memcached #movabletype #mt4

big crowd at the metreon...

Playstation Party?

#mobile #vox

Saw demos of Loopt, mydogspace.com, datemypet.com and others. I didn't see anyone I knew though.

Sfbeta

#mobile #vox

Many Glasses

#mobile #vox

Sebastiani winery - wine and cheese pairing, yum!

Hi5 Winery Trip

#mobile #vox

I suppose it was just a matter of time... 

http://www.mizpee.com/

Found via uncov.

Bighomepic

We had a great turnout at the latest PostgreSQL users group meetup -- around 35 people showed. (Oh and not the group of stylish "Hi5 folk" you see to the right :)

Ram and I went over the PostgreSQL based DB architecture we use at Hi5 after the obligatory pizza feed.  Quite an interesting crowd, some newbies, and some old hands.

My best line of the night was in response to a question asking us when we were going to use a specific feature -- my answer was that there were more people in the room than there were employees at Hi5.  :)

The complete presentation is online for the curious.

#hi5 #postgres #postgresql

#vox

I see that Hi5 made the list of Privacy International as posing a substantial threat to users' privacy.  I find that their methodology is extremely suspect.  I can't spot any consistency in the way they treat sites.

#hi5 #phishing #privacyinternational #security

It's been a lot of work, but Hi5 has now broken into the Alexa top 10, only 6 months ago we were treading water in the mid 40s.  We're quickly gaining on Orkut with Facebook nipping at our heels.

Graph

#alexa #hi5 #vox

funny

http://www.secretgeek.net/littlefishes_.asp

So, now the military is blocking a bunch of sites.

Idiots.  They should know that people will only gravitate to other services over time, then they'll have to ban those too...

Finally a Philz in SOMA. At 4th & Berry good coffee is now convenient to 6A HQ and Mission Bay park. Perfect for morning Dog walks!

Philz Returnz

#mobile #vox

Hi5 happy hour!

Update: The bar is DäDä, at 2nd and Mission.  The sculpture you see below is comprised of a printed circuit boards.

DaDa

#mobile #vox

14 kW of new servers, cables as big as three fingers!

Photo_040607_003

That's me and Tommy in an ad for the Hook and Go smart cart in Dwell magazine.

Dog Star

#mobile

#vox

#mobile

Another year, another April Fools birthday. This year was better than most, as it included plenty of tech upgrades for the home, a relaxing weekend and filing taxes with an $11 refund. It was all capped off with a splendid meal at Dosa. Highly recommended!

37

#mobile #vox

#kitty #luxxury #redhat #vox

#bayxp

Eadweard James Muybridge

#mobile #vox

There is no try, only do....

Yoda Closeup

#mobile #vox

At Lucasfilm's campus in the presidio.

Yoda

#mobile #vox

Drinks with hi5 folks.

John Colins

#mobile #vox

At the South Beach Cafe.

The Fondue will come soon...

#mobile #vox

So about 2 months ago I took the plunge and reorganized my time management around in the form of David Allen's Getting Things Done.  I had seen the 43 Folders blog way back when, and I had toyed with the idea, but I was so mired in work not to mention the 1200 messages in my inbox find time to make a lasting change.

Well, I finally did it and oh boy does it feel good.  All inboxes down to single digits, a consolidated todo list with context and other information, and squeezing in all those little tasks that used to stress me out.

The best part of this, and probably the only reason I was successful was some insanely great software called Thinking Rock.  It's a cross-platform Java App that implements GTD to the letter.  It's so much better than shoehorning GTD concepts into Outlook or Palm, which aren't really set up for them.

The best thing is there are no priorities in this system.  You only care about Context (where you do something) and what the next action is for a given project.  It really helps me stay on top of things and keep my head clear.  Plus it exposed me to pocketmods, which are foldup sheets of paper that substitute for a PDA.  So now I've got my little scraps of paper to carry around, and all my thinking rock software on a USB key and I'm very happy.

I just wish I had taken the plunge into GTD years and years ago.  (Of course if I could time travel I'd send this software along with a pallet of Red Bull to myself in college :)

Speaking of midwest college days -- the Thinking Rock name does remind me of a certain beer flavored water:

Rr

#gtd #thinkingrock #vox

Even better than the "Hatch Eats Kittens" ad Patty Posted: Sock Puppet ads for District 6 in San Francisco!

#d6 #politics #vox

If you're lucky you might spot a peregrine falcon in South Park.  Sadly the camera-phone doesn't have a zoom so this stock photo will have to suffice.

Peregrine Falcon on Sandstone

After getting out of our car to walk Tommy someone was pointing behind us.  There he was, sitting in a nest, with a stream of feathers from his early morning breakfast littered below.  About 10 yards away a dead rat sat in the street -- desert?

#vox

Image_26.jpg

Results of our November Infrastructure Sprint planning.  Total of 75 points in our backlog for the next 18 days.  This planning process feels a little awkward at first, but then it just clicks and seems natural.

#indexcards #sprint #xp #vox

I know that many folks in my vox neighborhood are registered to vote in District 6.  If you are I'd recommend that you give your vote to Rob Black orand Matt Drake and not mark any portion of the ballot for Chris Daly.

• Chris Daly - faux blog on the taxpayer's dime, weird blog on the campaign site (only comments on the current entry?  huh?)
  
• Rob Black - Hasn't updated since August, uses ... Wordpress.
• Matt Drake - Most prolific of the bunch on his Blogspot blog.

#chrisdaly #district6 #mattdrake #politics #robblack #vote

Hyperic is quite nice.  Have a look at this built-in that can alert and graph commits per second.

MetricChart

#hyperic #vox

Felix da Housecat

#hi5 #housecat #vox

Friday 2:40 AM. 

• The Dog barks, wakes up Julie. 
• Odd noises from outside.
• Julie wakes me up.
• Look out the window, looks like someone is trying to start their car
• A few minutes pass, another look reveals the rear window is broken
• Call Police
• Continue to Watch suspect try to hot-wire the car.
• Suspect notices me, looks up and gives me the finger.
• I step away from the window.
• Commotion
• Look out to see a plainclothes policemen tackle one suspect and an unmarked car chase down another down a one way street.  They catch them. Response time was less than 5 minutes.
  
• I go down to the scene.
• On the ground, a gun and a screwdriver.
• Three police cars, one unmarked car.
• Three undercover cops, with the badge on a necklace.
• Officer arrives with a digital camera, must be about 8 years old, it stores the photos on a floppy disk.
• The owners of the car come by, they had the window replaced only last week and start exclaming about the "Pistola".
• Give my statement.
• Watch.
• "Is that heroin..."  -- "Nah it's crack and meth".
• Another car comes by with a box to take the evidence away.
  
• I thank the police and head upstairs.

#truecrime

I can't believe it myself, Paul leaving Six Apart? Yes, it's true -- I've accepted an offer to be Hi5's Architect.

You can't fathom how much I will miss Six Apart -- the smart people, the positive dynamic environment, the technology and vision. I'm proud of what we've accomplished together and hope that my contributions have a lasting legacy beyond my final day, October 20th.

It sure has been a wild ride. Hard to believe it, but when I arrived TypePad was in the terrible twos - 2 app servers, 2 web servers, 2 Postgres 7.3beta databases, and (oh my) 2 SnapServers. Linux Kernel 2.6.5 had just been released and we were pushing a little over 10Mbps of traffic. Since then we've scaled up beyond belief while overcoming all sorts of obstacles. We've seen many new Typepad Stacks, two colo moves, three new ISPs, three new versions of Postgres, and dozens of software pushes all while building up great Engineering and Ops organizations to care and tend it all.

My immediate plans are to wrap up all of the loose ends while pushing forward on one last hurrah -- finishing up a simple version of Typepad and Mogile integration. If there's unfinished business or you want a brain dump of anything please let me know so we can take care of this in the next week and a half.

Don't forget to join me for a very special FooBar on October 20th to reminisce about all the great success we've shared over the past two and a half years.

After that... well, let's try to keep in touch.

I'll do my best to blog more on my Vox Blog, my LiveJournal, and my new experimental Typepad Blog. You can email me at [email protected].

You can also find me at the following places

• Hi5 Profile
• LinkedIn Profile
• LastFM Profile
• Friendster Profile (rarely used)

Thanks again for everything!

Paul

I can't believe it myself, Paul leaving Six Apart?  Yes, it's true -- I've accepted an offer to be Hi5's Architect.

You can't fathom how much I will miss Six Apart -- the smart people, the positive dynamic environment, the technology and vision.  I'm proud of what we've accomplished together and hope that my contributions have a lasting legacy beyond my final day, October 20th.

It sure has been a wild ride.  Hard to believe it, but when I arrived TypePad was in the terrible twos - 2 app servers, 2 web servers, 2 Postgres 7.3beta databases, and (oh my) 2 SnapServers. Linux Kernel 2.6.5 had just been released and we were pushing a little over 10Mbps of traffic.  Since then we've scaled up beyond belief while overcoming
all sorts of obstacles.  We've seen many new Typepad Stacks, two colo moves, three new ISPs, three new versions of Postgres, and dozens of software pushes all while building up great Engineering and Ops organizations to care and tend it all.

My immediate plans are to wrap up all of the loose ends while pushing forward on one last hurrah -- finishing up a simple version of Typepad and Mogile integration.  If there's unfinished business or you want a brain dump of anything please let me know so we can take care of this in the next week and a half.

Don't forget to join me for a very special FooBar on October 20th to reminisce about all the great success we've shared over the past two and a half years.

After that...  well, let's try to keep in touch.

I'll do my best to blog more on my Vox Blog, my LiveJournal, and my new experimental Typepad Blog.  You can email me at [email protected].

You can also find me at the following places:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Hi5 Profile
• LastFM
• Friendster Profile
  

Thanks again for everything!

Paul

Only perl geeks will get this one.....

TT-mobile

#tmobile #templatetoolkit #vox

Slatch

#sleestacks #vox

Thanks to all the folks who looked after things while I was out.

Image(240)

#roadtrip #vacation #vox

Lutefisk

This fine item was found at the Mantorville Marigold Days flea market.

For the non-scandinavians out there lutefisk is cod soaked in lye and generally smells as bad as it sounds.

#fleamarket #lutefisk #vox

finally made it here..  tired.