Amazon messed up. They meant to have a promotion where you get a free camera bag when you buy a Minolta Maxxum camera, but they switched it. Now you can get both for $40 instead of $390!

1. Go to the camera bag page, scroll halfway down to the "Buy Both and Save" promotion.
2. Add both to your cart
3. Proceed to checkout. The promotion won't show up until you're on the final checkout page (before you confirm) The discount won't appear in the shopping cart.
4. Get your camrea. It even has free shipping!

This could easily be fixed by the time you read this, but maybe not so hurry! I ordered mine and the pricing is on the level. $40 and that's it.

---

Update (12:16pm): They fixed it. No more (almost) free cameras. It remains to be seen what happens to those people who already ordered.

To quote Jerry Yang, "Limbo sucks."

So I've done a little work on qwer.org to make it more useful.

You can still use qwer as a place to swap text and html easily between computers, but now it's also an ideal tool for making shorter links.

As an example, if you want to share a url with someone over the phone, in an instant messenger away message, an email, or anyplace where a URL with a hundred seemingly random characters would be messy, you can make your own shortcut at qwer.

Say you want to show someone this Calvin and Hobbes book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740721356/ref= ase_kevinfox02/107-0203713-9114939 but you're talking to them on the phone, or the url breaks when it wraps in an email. You can go to http://qwer.org/calvin, paste in the long url, hit return, and now http://qwer.org/calvin will redirect you (and your friend) to the Amazon page.

Don't give me too much credit. Though I always planned on qwer acting this way, I took some cues from the folks at makeashorterlink.com. I think the qwre solution works better though, for two reasons: First, 'qwer.org' is shorter (and faster to type) than 'makeashorterlink.com', which is in itself an example of irony. Second, while you can make your own shortcut at 'qwer.org/matrix', the same link at the other site would be 'makeashorterlink.com/?C38242C2'. Which would you rather use? Which URL gives you have a hint of where it leads?

In the coming weeks I'll be putting in more code to deal with recycling links after 7 days or so. I also plan to provide an option for permalinks for registered users ('qwer.org/username/matrix' for example) and to let users decide whether a given qwer link or page should be editable by the public at large, the way 'qwer text pages' work now.

In honor of the new functionality, I've officially dropped the [beta] from qwer's name. Please feel free to use it the next time you need to toss someone a mapquest link over the phone or in email.

Visit qwer now!
(if you want to...)

Good morning! Hope everyone had a good weekend. This morning I've got a story written by Sean, Karen's brother. I really liked the story and asked to put it on the site. I hope you enjoy it as much I did!

My firm has a charitable giving campaign every yearwhere we raise money by participating in sillyactivities, like trivia contests, guess how manyjellybeans are in the jar, and mini golf playedthrough the cubicles in the office. The whole thingis brought to a close with a costume party onHalloween. You know the drill, stupid costumes, beer,wine, food, beer, and, of course, beer. At the strokeof 5:00pm, the party becomes a ghost town. With noobligation to stay, everyone disappears faster thangood manners on public transportation. I was waitingto meet up with my friend, Jones, so I stuck around. There was no sense letting all that free beer go towaste, so I sacrificed my sobriety for the greatergood of proper resource management.

Jones showed up right on time, a half hour late, at6:00pm. I was already pretty buzzed and Jones hadbeen drinking since 1:00pm. As it turns out, he wason day 2 of what would be a 5 day bender. Way to goJones! We headed out to a shitty Irish bar/Indianrestaurant called "Kennedy's." Yeah, it's an oddcombination, but they have $2.00 Guinness on tap andfree pool on Wednesdays, so that's where we wereheaded. Did I mention it was Wednesday? Just as weturned down Columbus St., I let Jones in on the secretthat I had liberated several beers from my firm'sparty and smuggled them out in my bag. I barelyfinished my sentence when Jones said, "Well, let'sdrink' em now."

I hesitated for a moment... "Okay." Ignoring mybetter judgment, I pulled a couple cans of Guinnessout of my bag and handed one to Jones. He popped thetop and it started to foam over. I said, "You gottadrink right away or it gets everywhere."

"Now you tell me," he said with beer dripping off hishands.

"Well, I thought you knew what you were doing," Ireplied as I demonstrated how to do it without makinga mess.

Jones wiped his hands on the back of his pant legsand we started walking again. At about this time, Ilaunched into my usual schpeal about how I don't likemy apartment and that he and his roommate Dan need tomove out of my old apartment, which they've beenliving in under my name for over a year, and we shouldall go in on a three bedroom place. Jones's answer isalways the same and this time is no different. Heagrees and tells me that he's ready. But when I askwhen he will be able to afford it, he says it will bea couple of months. Doh!!!

We were about two-thirds through the conversationwhen I heard something that didn't register rightaway. Then I heard it again and by this time Irealized what I had heard the first time. The guyplaying saxophone on the corner was saying, "You'regonna get a ticket."

I remembered our beer and looked up to see two copsabout a block away walking in our direction. Immediately, I turned up the cross street and said,"Let's go this way," hoping Jones was following andthat the cops didn't see our beer.

Trying not to give myself away, I didn't look backright away. When I finally did, I saw Jones about 25feet behind me. The dumb ass was pretending to pickup one of San Francisco's free publications andinstead was putting his beer inside the newspapermachine. Now, if I wasn't trying to avoid the cops, Iwould've been rolling. That has got to be one of thefunniest things I've ever seen.

I turned back to my own get away when I heard, "Heyyou. STOP!" Fuck!!! I quickly put my beer down onone of the outside tables of the restaurant I was infront of and then turned around looking completelysurprised. "Come over here," one of the cops said toboth of us.

I started walking towards them when the other coppointed to the newspaper machine and snapped at Jones,"Get that out of there! What the hell are youthinking?" I almost died. Both of these cops weretotally disgusted and I was only able to keep astraight face because of the impending ticket. Jonestook the beer out and put it on top of the machine. "Where's yours?," the pig asked me.

"Over there," I answered pointing at the table.

"Go get it," he said. So, I retrieved my beer. WhenI got back, cop number one was looking at Jones'smilitary ID. I also noticed some girl a few feet awaywatching us get hassled by the Man. We realized laterthat our public consumption had interrupted somescamming between this chick and one of the pigs. Anyway, the cop asked me for my ID and then askedJones if he was still in the reserves.

Jones said, "No."

Then the cop asked, "You have any other ID?"

"I have my New Jersey ID," Jones said as he looked inhis wallet.

The cop took my ID and asked, "You in the reserves,too?"

With ramrod straight posture and my high and tighthaircut, I said, "No sir!" I wonder if he realizedthat I was mocking him. If he did, he didn't show anysign because he went right back to Jones.

"You don't have a California ID?," he asked, as ifJones was saving it for a special occasion.

"I haven't been here that long," Jones told him.

The cop countered with, "You're required by law toget one within 30 days of moving here." Then helooked at me, "And you; You should know better. Youlive here."

"Yeah...," I nodded.

"This is a $97.00 ticket" he exclaimed, as if he wasthe one who was going to have to pay for it. "I'mgonna cut you guys a break. I want you to pour outyour beers and throw away the cans."

I turned and stepped toward the gutter with my beer,but Jones was a little more eager to comply andstarted dumping his beer directly onto the sidewalkright in front of the cops. What a champ! ...Or isthat chump?

"I'd prefer it if you poured it in the gutter,nimrod," the cop growled while rolling his eyes.

"Oh...," Jones muttered and then joined me at thecurb where I was giving the eulogy for an old friend. Damn... It was more than half full.

"Alright, get out of here," swino numero dos said aswe finished dumping our treats.

"Thank you, officer," we both expressed as sincerelyas possible while already walking away.

It was a good thing Kennedy's was only a few blocksaway, but that's another story.

You know what miffs me? We work so hard writing papers for school, the papers are only read by one or perhaps two teachers, and we're dissuaded from posting them to the net, because of plagiarism issues. It seems like such a waste to write so much just to prove we can write and so we can learn. What about sharing?

Iron Chef USA is to Iron Chef
as
The XFL is to The NFL

That is just so sad...

There's a new Attack of the Clones trailer, 'Forbidden Love,' up tonight at Apple.com. Presumably this is the trailer that's spliced in front of Harry Potter.

I don't want to spoil it for anyone who wants to see it in the theater, but I can say that it has more meat than the teaser trailer, 'Breathing.'

I can't speak to the members-only trailer, 'Mystery,' because I don't have a password, or a copy of the Ep I DVD needed in order to get a password.

For those of you who missed it, heard from raving fans after the fact, or who just want to see it again, don't forget that Buffy: The Musical is airing again tonight (Friday) at 8 on UPN.

I'm setting up my VCR to make a nice, clean tape of it, and I'm setting it to record Iron Chef USA immediately following, just for the heck of it (and to study).

After watching, don't forget to swing back online to pick up the MP3s and lyrics of all the songs, so you can get them stuck in your head, possibly helping you to deal with relatives next week.

(For those curious, four days of no-Buffy-listening has finally succeeded in getting the songs out of my head, but it did take four days. I'm driving to Lake Tahoe this morning, and I'm pretty sure I'll eventually resort to listening to it on the drive up, as I'm going alone.)

So as I mentioned yesterday, 75% of the layoffs are coming in Broadcast, international operations, and middle management.

It turns out that my group might not be so immune from the remaining 25%. the worst part is we don't have any answers yet, and we don't know when we'll know.

Like I said, I've never been around during a layoff before, and I'm quickly finding out that I don't really want to be around for one again (duh).

No news is no news, and I'll write more when I learn more.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Reminder: Don't forget about the Leonid Meteor Shower this Saturday night/Sunday morning. If you're in the San Francisco area, watch the Eastern skies from 1am to 2:30am for a spectacular show with hundreds or thousands of meteors per hour. Other areas in the US, adjust your timezones accordingly. It'll be pretty simultaneous for North America.

This photo, taken during the 1999 Leonids Shower, is just amazing. This year's is forecast to be the biggest shower 'till 2099.

Incidentally, Lorenzo Comolli, the photographer who took this picture, has quite a collection of astronomical photographs, including a fascinating movie recorded earlier this month of Saturn being occluded by the Moon and reappearing on the other side (warning, it's in Div-X format, so it requires a special codec (linked to on the site)).

If you can't make it out of your city, then just stay up late and look skyward anyhow and you're sure to see some streaks, as long as it's not cloudy.