digg api contest makes it obvious

I really like digg. I read it a lot, I like diggnation, etc etc. I was checking out the winning entries of the recent API contest, and spotted a runner up called WordWeb. It visualizes the links between "commonly occurring keywords" in digg stories. The default setting uses only words grabbed from front page stories which at that moment had a lot to do with Cheney. Here's what I saw when I viewed keywords from all stories ...

That sucks.

joost, bandwidth, and the intertoobs

What the hell joost, you were cool while I knew ye ... For the past couple weeks I've been suffering from this 'upgrade server not available' crap on the macbook. Fortunately a bell guy showed up a couple weeks ago to remove the VDSL filter that was cutting out my internet connection. While he was working I asked how far the CO is from the building and the good news was "here". Apparently this place is only a couple years old and is built on the site of a CBC broadcast station which would make it a great location to house some recently upgraded infrastructure.

At any rate the intartoobs are moving much quicker, and I'm cooking up a couple ideas to make use of the bandwidth.

anybody seen joe around?

As is often the case, a recent thread on a forum I frequent degraded into a playground of hastily created goofy images of my friends, including this "prototype" of the Clark Scan 2000. Besides reminding me that I need to book some vacation time for the release of Fallout 3, I recalled a conversation I had about my friend Joe who is damn near impossible to keep tabs on.

A bunch of us were debating whether to start a new round of hold 'em or wait to see if Joe would show up. Being a U of T student and living on campus he has no direct land line of his own to speak of, and the student budgeting means if you try his cell outside of the free evenings-and-weekends range you'll likely just get the machine. The discussion went from cowbell round the neck, to hired stalker, to high tech pretty quickly. We decided that the few hundred bucks a year that a GPS Joe tracker would run us wasn't worth it for poker purposes, but between his family, friends around the city, and some 300 facebook friends we might be able to cover the costs with a pay to play google mashup (wherethehellisjoe.org.com.net.co.uk?) that charged like a buck a month to be able to keep tabs on the wandering yarn spinner.

I pitched it to him when he eventually showed up that night (he missed the game by several hours) saying that I'd set it up and have it pay for hosting and GPS locates and he could keep any profits. Hard to say no to "free" money, but when your privacy on the line its not surprising he had some reservations. It's impossible to guess how much extra cash something like that might earn a person, but how much would be enough for you?

I might do it for say, a couple hundred a month, but I'd probably wanna keep close tabs on who was subscribing too. Not a bad idea actually, hey Joe how about you get a veto vote on anybody who signs up to use the site?

change of scenery

my corner of the city

So the move is pretty much behind me. I'm unpacked and pretty much settled in the filing cabinet just off Carlton, about a block away from my old place next to The Phoenix. It is somewhat quieter but the lack of a hotdog guy in my front yard has already forced a trip to this place my mom calls the "grocery store".

I've got a list growing all the time of miscellaneous crap I need to pick up still (toaster, picture frames, scissors, etc.) but the all important ice cube trays are in, and I somehow found time to pick up Guitar Hero 2 despite my somewhat crippling lack of a TV or a 360. The axe has found a temporary home at a buddies place for the time being and I must say, the two player co-op is an obscene amount of fun. This game has rekindled my long lost love of console gaming. I want a GH2 karaoke bar to open up in this town ASAP!

So I'm open to suggestions on a decent LCD (32"-37") for gaming and piping my mpeg4 onto. I'm considering the HP my friend has (LC3772N) but I haven't done much reading yet.

the relic passes

In a bout of sanity I've decided to retire the epic saga that is my coffee table. Thanks to all who stopped by and left their mark. You sick bastards. Recorded here for posterity ...






... Unrelated: Carmack is working the so called magic.