Congrats to Nicci for winning SURVIVORblog after 7 arduous weeks! Couldn't have happened to a nicer blogger!

From the "Cookies might be good for you" camp...

Face it, you probably use cookies on your browser every day, and enjoy the benefits. If you're like me, browsing from another computer means entering a lot of info just to get temporary privs (logging in to slashdot, amazon, nyt, blogger, jennicam, yahoo, etc) that you'd automatically have at home. Then of course you have to worry aobut accidentally clicking 'remember me' or having Amazon do it for you automatically, letting someone else pretend to be you, by accident or otherwise.

Now a bunch of people have climbed on to the 'global bookmarks' bandwagon, with varying degrees of success (I'd include links to some, but I'm lazy right now. Maybe I'll put some in later), but the global cookie market is, to my knowledge, untapped.

Basically the way it would work is something like this: A browser plug in (or possibly a deeper addition to the browser itself) would run on your home machine. When cookies are changed, added, or deleted, that info is sent to a central server. When you get to a public machine (or any machine that's new to you), you log in once to the central server and it gives you a page confirming the login and sending you a copy of every cookie your home machine has set, only with an expiration of "0", so they'll all be deleted as soon as the browser quits. Now Slashdot knows who you are, and Amazon gives you your wish list and you can view your stock portfolio on Yahoo, all without any login hassles. Note that this wouldn't require anything special on the remote machine, other than a browser that has cookies turned on.

In the interests of a quicker-to-market solution, you wouldn't even need to have a special browser on the 'home' computer, just a way to upload your cookie file to the server.

Anyone up for a little hacking? If you're thinking about pursuing this, please let me know!

It seems that last season Joss Whedon, creator, writer and director for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, made a speculation or two in passing on the net, which were immediately repeated as gosphel fact by the entertainment press.

That, apparently, was the imputus for his recent announcements regarding this season of Buffy, TVS:

"The truth is, I was a little wigged by allthe commotion my posting caused. I thinkthe worst thing that could happen wouldbe for the Willow/Tara storyline tobecome some kind of publicity stunt. Iguess if I type something here, the papersare gonna pick up on it, and there'snothing I can do about it. So I'd like tomake the following announcements:
1. FROM NOW ON, EVERYONE ON BUFFYWILL BE GAY. You heard it here first. Andnot just a little gay, either. Whole newshow.
2. MATT DAMON: MONSTER FIGHTER. Yes,a multi-episode arc feature the talentedMr Damon - and look for some of his moviestar friends to make "montrous" cameos!
3. FREE PRESENTS AND MONEY foreveryone who tunes in. Swear to God.
4. NUDITY, NUDITY, NUDITY.
5. NAKEDNESS.
6. ZEPPLIN FIGHT OVER NEPTUNE! Just intime for sweeps, the gang is going to havean "out of this world" adventure - withwacky Xander at the controlls! Thisepisode is budgetted at 18 million dollars,and will change history.

Okay! Well, I'll just settle back and let thepublicity come rolling in. Yep, ratings arebound to soar once everyone gets wind ofthe exciting and controversial directionI'm taking the show in. In the meanwhile, Ihope you, the fans, enjoy the all-nude,all-gay Buffy. It's gonna be a hoot!"

The lesson here is always believe what you read. the rumors are always true. (thanks Crystal!)

Thanks to a last minute invite by Emily G, I got to go to last night's ill-fated A's vs. yankees playoff game. The seats were in the first row along the third base line, next to the Yankee's bullpen. It was a blast and I got some good pictures, the last three of which I snagged off my TiVo after coming home ...

Step 1: Read this book. Twice.

Step 2: Take this test.

Repeat as needed.

I just saw a commercial telling me to check out the latest models at my nearest "Ford store" instead of "dealer". Is this the first step in a shift away from the franchised dealer model and towards a "Gateway-esque" model of brick-and-mortar showrooms and direct sales?

I'm working on putting in a bunch of new features and altered navigation this weekend. I'll be working on a dev copy, but since I'll also be making changes to the database schema, there might be some unexpected weirdness while I'm building. You have been warned!

Most of the work will be on implementing search and viewing posts by subject, as well as making individual items bookmarkable, and some other, cooler stuff...

Berkeley's MRI scanner got upgraded yesterday from a 1.5 Tesla to a 4 Tesla coil, which will result much higher resolution images.

They're looking for students to assist in the calibration of the new coil by volunteering to have their brains scanned. Unlike PET scans, it's completely non-invasive (no radioactive goo to be ingested, inhaled, or injected into your bloodstream) and they'll give you images of the scans when it's done. I'm so looking forward to it. Don't worry, I'll post the images here, of course!

I wonder how booked time on the machine is, and if this will open the door to truly vital imaging research.

Last night I started rebuilding my powerbook from scratch (wiping the drive with 1s and 0s and repartitioning) just because there was so much bloat.

So, reinstalling all the important bits of software (BBEdit 6.0, Transmit, IE 5, Photoshop 5.5) I ran into a problem trying to register PS 5.5. It wanted a serial number, of course, so I opened up my old copy and copied it out of the About box, only it didn't work. After 5 tries I sought help online and found that it's only a partial number. The 'full' serial number has three additional digits after the number.

Now, I've reorganized my apartment entirely in the last few months, and I don't remember seeing a manual or registration card for Photoshop 3.01 (the version from whence the serial number originally came, several upgrades ago), and Adobe support was closed, even if they would help me so, being in a bored, brute-force state of mind, I sat down to try all 1000 combinations.

Luckily I hit it after only 200 or so... In the words of Nicci and Jonni, BLAR.

Okay, the big news of the day is that Nicci and I are the two finalists on SURVIVORblog. After 6 weeks it's gone from 10 webloggers down to two, with final voting happening this weekend.

It's been so much fun, and so much time. I've probably been making four posts a day there to one or two posts here, so expect more from me once Sblog is over. (I didn't say better, I said more!) Anyhow, I just wanted to share my exhuberence, and incredible luck that seems to keep me in against unlikely odds and more worthy competitors. Well, It'll all be over soon. The cool bit is that, should I happen to win (against a cute 24 year old British-born Canadian? Right) I'll be able to use the prize to get everything on my wish list.