SOU bloghunt

• January 31, 2006 | 11:24 PM ET

Some of what I clicked in the wake of tonight's speech:  I'm not a big fan of liveblogging because I think bloggers produce more substantial commentary when they've had time to digest and do some research.  I often feel like liveblogging is a sort of note-taking that benefits the blogger more than the blog reader.  That said, I still did a quick jog around the blogosphere.  (I won't use permalinks here because everyone is still updating so in a few hours what I'm reading now could be stale.) 

Think Progress must have been seriously cramming ahead of time, they have linked rebuttals already prepared.  I went to Glenn to look for Republicans and followed his link to Captain Ed's thorough liveblogging at Captain's Quarters.  I often find LaShawn Barber interesting, so I followed Captain Ed's link to her blog.  She mentions the expression "live-commenting" in which blog readers post their reactions to the speech in the comments section as they listen while the bloggers themselves stay generally out of the way.  Josh Marshall refers to the same idea in this case as the State of the Union support group.  Daily Kos calls it "open thread."  Kevin Drum?  Check.

I was really hoping to find a pro-Bush version of the rebuttal assembled by Think Progress.  Blogs for Bush seemed like a place I'd be likely to find such a thing, but they have more of that gut-reaction type liveblogging (also more links to other live bloggers).  I think my best bet is to wait for tomorrow when the wisdom of the masses finds and links heavily to the better blog analyses and I don't have to go randomly hunting.

By the way, David Shuster on Hardblogger broke down word counts and other stats.  I'd like to see that graphically represented, just for kicks.  (Scroll to 10:30 p.m.)

• January 31, 2006 | 8:23 PM ET

I have a regular Clicked entry on the way, but I happened to catch my colleague Tom Curry on Hardball a few minutes ago saying that all the blogs are talking about drinking games and I he doesn't seem to have posted links to any on Hardblogger, so I'll pitch in.  I clicked this word-based game and this considerably more complicated one just in the course of taking notes for today's entry.  Looking harder I find Will Durst on Working for Change who even includes costume recommendations in his drinking game.

Arriana Huffington has one as well, though it's not very colorful (And I always thought the drinking in a drinking game was something like a shot of beer, or a mouthful, a swig.  "Downing a glass" seems a bit much.)  Then again, looking at the volume of drinking game rules that have suddenly cropped up, actual drinking may not be the point at all.  It seems like what's really going on is the birth of drinking-game-rules-as-editorial art form.  Let me know if come upon one that's worth sharing and I'll add it here.  In the mean time I'll pour myself a glass of water and wait for the notes to come up on FactCheck.org.

• January 31, 2006 | 4:02 PM ET

A quick couple mails that may be important to you:

The entry "Make your Windows fast..." needs to be removed.

There are certain procedures in it that will destroy an XP installation.  I know, it did mine.

I just finished a 2hr reinstallation of my base OS and security software... I now have several days worth of work ahead of me trying to restore all the software I had.

Now, don't get me wrong... I'm not writing to complain... just telling you to remove it before people far less capable than I get hit by the settings and lose the functionality of their computer.

—Ed Wilson

In today’s ‘Clicked’, you have a link referring to speeding up Windows.

That doesn’t work, but this one does; hope this helps!

—Don

Will replies:  Thanks guys.  I'll re-emphasize that the tips on that page should be researched first.  Those aren't Microsoft tips, they're hacks, pure and simple.  As Ed has generously pointed out with the use of his time and no doubt, frustration, tinkering with your OS can have some unexpected (and undesired) consequences.

• January 30, 2006 | 5:15 PM ET

Though the blogosphere has been awash in commentary and criticism of Google's compliance with Chinese government censorship, really the two links that speak the most are the .com search for Tiananmen versus the .cn search for Tiananmen.  Warning, comparing the two could throw your entire reality into question.  How do you know your search results are the truth?  Just luck?  UPDATE:  Of course, it's always a hazard to spell a non-English word with English phonetics and letters.  Turns out it actually is possible to get a tank-ridden search result.  (Or else the censors haven't caught up yet.)

Speaking of governments throwing reality into question, it shouldn't be surprising to learn that congressional staffers try to make their bosses look good on Wikipedia.

But before I stray too far from the Google topic, here's a look at what's being censored (scroll to the end for a list of words).

If you've been hearing a lot about IP addresses in connection with Google search terms or other privacy stories, this is a nice basic explanation of what an IP address is and how it might be used to spy on you.

Once you've got an understanding of IP, how to outwit the world's Internet censors will make more sense.  Hand in hand with the idea of surfing the Web privately is the idea of surfing the web anonymously, by which I mean, if no one can associate you with what you're looking at online, they also can't block you from looking at certain things online.

And in case all of this isn't sounding enough like a sci fi thriller for you, try this: "Download TorPark for your language, and put it on a USB Flash keychain. Plug it into any internet terminal whether at home, school, or public. Run Torpark.exe and it will launch a Tor circuit connection, which creates an encrypted tunnel from your computer indirectly to a Tor exit computer, giving the appearance of having the Tor exit computer's IP."

Note that this is not the same as using darknets but it does help bring into focus a way of looking at the Web as layered instead of as one big playground.

I don't know what the deal is with clever 404 error pages lately, but this is the third one we've featured one here.  It's a pong 404.

"Ned [Lamont] has stated that he will not move beyond the exploratory phase of a campaign until at least 1,000 people in Connecticut have signed up to volunteer."  The latest grassroots political activism is an effort to recruit a Democratic candidate to run against Joe Lieberman in Connecticut.

"Make your Windows fast as never before."  I don't know enough to actually recommend these tricks, but I can say that a lot of people are linking to this page and I know how utterly frustrating it can be to work on a bogged-down machine, so with a little extra research for your own peace of mind, there may be some ideas worth pursuing here.

Remember the photo of the "Marlboro Man" U.S. marine in Iraq?  He's home now but suffers from PTSD.  The article provides a vivid description of what that's like.

This is the first time I've seen a photo of the lady who had a face transplant.  I didn't realize the face came from someone who committed suicide.  I'd be interested to see a photo of the donor.  I understand that a face transplant recipient and a donor won't look the same because of the underlying bones and musculature, but still...

Chewbaca's blog

Standpoint:  Build a list of things you believe, and find people who share your point of view.

"They were loyal conservatives, and Bush appointees. They fought a quiet battle to rein in the president's power in the war on terror. And they paid a price for it."  As you can imagine, this is creating some heat among political blogs.

What is the deal with this letter from a school superintendent requesting the removal of a school bus driver?  I found an explanation from the folks at Metafilter.  Turns out it's the wife of the Satanist who's running for governor in Minnesota.  Lots of funny comments in the ensuing thread.

Video of the Day:    Fear of girls —  This parody of role playing gamers could be a spin off of Napoleon Dynamite.

"TuneCore is a music delivery and distribution service that gets music you created (even cover versions) up for sale on iTunes and Rhapsody without asking for your rights or taking any money from the sale or use of your music. "  The catch is that you pay for your music to be stored on their server, but not a huge amount if you're able to make some sales.

Steam powered toys (powered by alcohol or solid fuel tablets).

Who is Steve Kubby and why is his name the top Technorati search term today?  He's a jailed, terminally ill medical marijuana activist whose cause has been taken up by bloggers.

I feel like I've seen champagne cork chairs before, so I'm thinking the DWR Holiday Champagne Chair Contest is an annual event.

Fastr - It shows the photos, you guess the Flickr tag category.  I had trouble with how this rendered in IE, but Firefox worked. It's a little creaky, but fun.

Playboy is looking for MySpace girls.  This is surely a watershed in the mainstreaming of amateur online porn.  Granted, it's not new for Playboy to do a "Girls of..." series, but scouting Playmates from online do-it-yourselfers is, to my (admittedly shallow) knowledge, new.  Note:  This link doesn't have literal nudity, but it's Playboy.com so...  you know, use your head.

The Where's George site has been remade.  The "George" in this case is George Washington.  You enter the serial number of your dollar bills on this site and then spend the bills.  When someone else gets, they log the numbers and you can track where your money travels.  I have done a few bills to try it and only got one to actually show up.  I spent it at the cafeteria at Microsoft, so there must have been a high enough geek density that someone else got it as change and knew what to do.

I thought the New York Hack blog was getting attention because she had the musician from that new Love Monkey show as a fare.  Turns out she was also on TV the other day.

Beautiful things with yarn — Not really beautiful in the traditional sense.  More like a shock-humor lesson in why knitting isn't for grannies anymore.

• January 27, 2006 | 4:14 AM ET

Zero sum thinking is the idea that as one side wins, another side necessarily loses.  The context in which it's discussed here is mostly business-based, but it's interesting to try the exercise of adjusting perspective.

Speaking of competing over limited resources, yesterday everyone was talking about Yahoo giving up on competing with Google for search engine dominance.  Once I was able to get online, however, I found that isn't quite the case.  It's interesting to see this blogger also refer to a "win or die philosophy."  And if you're still caring about this idea, the explanation of the Ferrari solution is worth looking at.

Speaking of Google versus Yahoo, this is a cool way of comparing the two.  It shows how the same search results are returned in a different order.

One more before we leave Yahoo.  By now everyone knows that if you get a mail that says "your account is expiring, please give us all your personal information to renew," the last thing you want to do is actually fill it out.  It most likely a classic phishing tactic.  So it stands to reason that if you're a real company with real accounts that really expire, you'd want to find a different way of resolving that problem with your users.  So what was Yahoo thinking?

Do not call this.

Make an upsidedown hanging bottle planter.

Devo 2.0 — The good news for Disney is that a lot of people linked to this.  The bad news is that most of them did so in sheer disgust.  (The video section plays full length songs if you share my annoyance with 30 second clips.)

Speaking of modernizing music of a different era, a USB turntable.

You may recall George Galloway the British MP coming to the U.S. and showing more spine than Congress is accustomed to seeing.  For reasons I can't fathom, he has agreed to participate in the British broadcast of the Big Brother reality show.  Every week there's a new story in the British press about the latest reality-show-type humiliation he puts himself through (while he's not representing his constituents).  I don't link to them because, well, it's a reality show, but dressing him in a leotard is a new low that can't be missed.  See associated photo gallery as well.

Another find in the Register's Google Earth exploration series, a flying car. (?)

Speaking of maps, I don't watch the show '24' but I know enough about its popularity to know that there's a good chance you're gasping in shock at this admission and I know enough about the show itself to eventually figure out that the "Jack" in the Jacktracker is main character Jack Bauer.

230 rightie bloggers polled on their most and least preferred candidate for 2008.

A fascinating product review turns into a cautionary tale about how easily cool sounding security software can be defeated by people who know what they're doing.  And actually, this stuff seems more impressive as spyware than as security-ware if you can get it on someone else's machine.

By now you've probably heard about RSS and know at least the basic use of being updated with new headlines as sites you subscribe to update.  This is a nice summary of other things that can be done with RSS.

Earth-like planet found — and not a moment too soon.  Actually, this is mostly about "gravity lensing" in finding new planets.  This "Earth-like" one is not Earth-like enough.  Just as well since OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb doesn't exactly glide off the tongue.

I just found out we have a weekly science quiz now.  I got two wrong, but this has been an off week for me.

Beautiful China

Speaking of China, Google agrees to censor results in China .  While some blogger reaction might have been predicted, I was surprised to see the suggestion that Google be boycotted.

The lefty blog awards are called the Kofax awards.  There are two categories this year, best new blog and most deserving of wider attention.

The only problem with granting interviews to bloggers is that you have to submit to an interview with bloggers.  Or:  How Blunt blew it.  The story is that three candidates to replace Delay as House Majority Leader agreed to conference call interviews with bloggers.  For at least one blogger, Roy Blunt made a bad impression.

Democrats and Republicans Both Adept at Ignoring Facts, Study Finds — This may seem like a stupid thing to need a study for, but they actually did brain scans.  "The study points to a total lack of reason in political decision-making."

Peter Daou continues to flesh out the "Broken Triangle" theory I mentioned at the start of my previous entry.

As long as I've got a list of politics links going, I finally got around to reading the "I don't support the troops" L.A. Times Op-ed that has half the blogosphere irate.  I didn't expect it to be so snide and jokey given how seriously some people are taking it.

Another step in Saturday Night Live's return to glory through viral video.  (I know, I'm being overdramatic, but it's still remarkable that these clips are suddenly popping up more often.)

Top Gun 2: Bareback Squadron — Note:  Surfing this site beyond this page could bring up some NSFW material.

Sweden free from oil by 2020

Did Atari really bury its crappy ET game in the desert?

Speaking of Atari, I had two Atari games when I was a kid, Pac Man, which we bought, and Combat, which came free with purchase.  If you know what I'm talking about, this should trigger memories.

Laughter paves the way for romance — Field study:  Nikki Cox was engaged to Bobcat Goldthwait and then started going with Jay Mohr.  I'm just saying... might be something to the laughter thing.

Top ten reasons geeks make good fathers — Not on the list (maybe it was number 11) is the fact that a geek will never be a hockey dad.

Japanese diagonal wrapping technique

Great under-the-bed monster scarer

• January 23, 2006 | 11:57 PM ET

Clicked is not a blog about my life, so I won't bore you with its details.  At the same time, I do feel obligated to offer some explanation to you, the Clicked reader, when updates are not occurring with the frequency to which you are accustomed.  At the end of last week I was away, attending family celebrations.  For the first half of this week I'm traveling on business.  It is entirely likely that being away on business means that I have lots of lonely time in the hotel room for blogging, but on the off chance I find myself out sipping scotches in hotel bars these next couple nights, blogging may be spotty until my schedule returns to normal.

• January 23, 2006 | 11:48 PM ET

Last week the Washington Post ombudsman caused a fuss by saying on her blog that Abramoff had contributed to both parties.  The response from Democrats (or anti-Republicans) was a torrent of bitter rage so intense it prompted the closing of comments on the blog.

If I may offer my few cents to the considerable analysis and discussion that's already taken place, there are a few dots that I didn't see connected that I'd like to try to connect here.  Let me know if you think I'm being too creative.

• Not long ago we read about the broken triangle in which progressive bloggers, for all their numbers and networking, were not asserting their power with the media and politicians.
• Elsewhere, Markos Moulitsas, namesake of the Daily Kos blog spoke to students with a message that Web success is not sufficient for accomplishing one's political ends.  A report on the speech explained, "Unstoppable and ever-expanding though the Internet appears, web-based progressivism is not a substitute for the traditional political infrastructure, nor will it be anytime soon."
• A recent, widely shared Molly Ivins editorial explained her reason for not supporting Hillary Clinton was that she doesn't appreciate Clinton's acquiescence to the right and furthermore doesn't feel that polling numbers justify the need for such compromise.

So before even considering the specifics of the Washington Post case, there is a broader context of a huge community of online liberal activists who feel they are being ignored in spite of their being representative of the American public.  (Sound familiar?)  They are further frustrated in witnessing the success of their conservative counterparts in the same objective.

Josh Marshall, a leading liberal blogger, but not known for his bile, praised the efforts of liberals in the Washington Post story.  He feels that conservatives have "worked the refs" to the point that journalists work in constant fear of the wrath of the right.  He shares their sentiment that the only way to balance the scales is to fight fire with fire.

Also last week progressives attacked Chris Matthews for comparing bin Laden's recent tape with comments Michael Moore might make.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, Peter Daou was at the front of the pack.  The response, again vitriolic, spawned a vanity site, Open Letter to Chris Matthews.

The dots I'm clicking show a change in mood and tactic by online liberal activists.

The GM of MSN search responds to the uproar about the government wanting to look at online search data.

I don't know if you ever noticed, but search engine zeitgeist reports are always sanitized of porn terms.  Either that, or porn terms are not among the most search online.  Yeah, right!  I'd be interested to see an "honest top ten" list.  UPDATE:  In the course of reading through the updates at Search Engine Watch I clicked this (Note: uncensored) running list of search terms.  Not a top ten but still interesting.  A bit of what else I clicked on that story:

• It's not about child porn.
• Excuses for your searches when the Feds come knocking.
• Be a patriot and make your searches public.
• They Hate Us For Our Provisional and Highly Compromised Freedom

Speaking of blogs making an impact, Rise of the blog.  It's a pretty lengthy survey of the influence blogs have had on politics.

In case you (like me) are hearing more gossip than news about the Bush/Abramoff photos, the original Time Magazine report is here.

It will be an interesting story if viral distribution of Saturday Night Live clips distributed through YouTube ends up being the show's salvation.  The latest:  Young Chuck Norris

Speaking of Chuck Norris, the Chuck Norris fact list is the second most active feed on FeedXS.  If I understand correctly, FeedXS allows you to create a feed for (be notified about updates to) sites that don't have feeds.

"This is an interactive java applet which allows you to model galaxy collisions on your own computer."

The Simpsomaker

Web 2.0 is not Media 2.0 - Looking at the growth in popularity in some community Web sites and applications, it's easy to assume that growth will continue into global use.  But it's equally likely that not everyone has the interest or inclination to share photos or read blogs or plot their friends' Saturday night locations on a Google Maps mashup.  If that's the case, how close are we to a ceiling on Web 2.0 interest?  More important to some, how can that ceiling be elevated?

  Explosion in a fireworks factory.

Speaking of someone screwing up bigtime, this is probably fake, but it's still funny.  Note: You're better off not following the advertised site while at work.  It was safe when I noted the link, but unsafe when I double checked just now.

Oh no, not another article about the "teenage oral sex craze."  Actually, it's a book review from Atlantic Monthly, reprinted on the Powells site.  The piece addresses the theme from a number of angles and I found myself half way through it before I decided it was too long to read off a screen and made it my Commuter Click.  It's the kind of thing you debate with as you read it, but that's half the fun.

I'm waiting for someone to write a timeline of how this happened, but it appears that someone was having trouble with their iPod and mentioned it on a message board, triggering responses from people with similar experiences.  The result:  a flaw in the new iPod appears to have been discovered.

Mood altering cat parasite — This is the BoingBoing summary, but it's also worth clicking through to the full story.  The idea of an epidemic of mood altering parasites (and no one realizes it) is very intriguing.

New-to-me term: Slow design.  In fact, anything in the "slow" movement is new to me, though it makes sense that there would be a movement in reaction to the overstimulated modern lifestyle.  I'm still not sure I could spot slow design if I saw it, but I think it basically means "not obnoxious."

The 2005 Medblog awards

It hadn't occurred to me that Iraqis have a relatively recent point of reference when it comes to rebuilding following a war.  Of course, the active insurgency complicates matters.  Iraqis didn't have anyone blowing up their oil lines after the first Gulf War.

I think it's safe to say that this is not actually a MENSA test, but I'm pleased to say I got 29 out of 33.  The folks at Digg have cheats and answers and also a link to a real MENSA test.

Rubber band machine gun

New Onion podcasts

Iceland to abandon gasoline — I don't know if it's fair to compare other countries to Iceland, but they make an admirable model nonetheless.  (...and Bjork.)

Video of the Day:  What a Honda feels like.  Nice viral ad.

Silent Hill movie trailer.  Good with headphones.

Is that a black hole in your particle accelerator or are you just...

Visual complexity — What networks look like.

Why America has to be fat — I don't usually link to mainstream articles (you hardly need my help finding the Washington Post) but I've never seen American obesity framed this way (as a sign of economic expansion) before.

How to get a standing ovation - This is just good advice on public speaking.

China to build world's first "artificial sun" experimental device — "If a device is developed that can withstand temperatures as high as 100 million Celsius degrees and control a deuterium-tritium reaction, it will be as though an "artificial sun" had been created able to supply infinite, clean energy for human beings."  I'll believe it when I see it.

"Sachiko has taken this idea of liquid architecture more literally with these stunning sculpture made from Ferrofluid which changes its state by the introduction of electro-magnetic waves into the fuid turning it solid."  5 minute video took a couple minutes to save with my broadband connection at home.

How much more efficiently could the Web run?  Apparently extra spaces and lines in Web site code adds up to a lot of wasted bandwidth.

Popular BitTorrent resource, The Pirate Bay, is back.

The story you may have heard of a video gamer committing suicide on a Web cam is false.  Follow up here.

Spamming spammers — Is it less justifiable if its malice instead of marketing?

Time sucking game of the day:  Cubeoban

Machetes Becoming Weapon of Choice for Northern Virginia Gangs — Best paragraph: "Mark Richards, 43, owns Full Metal Jacket, an Alexandria military supply store that sells about 100 machetes a year to people older than 18.  He uses one to cut overhanging tree branches on his driveway and to clear jungle paths on hunting trips in Africa."  Whatever, man.

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