Month: May 2003

Test drive a new search engine

“Wondir, a unique and powerful new search service, needs your help during a concentrated beta test of its system.

What’s so different about Wondir? For starters, it’s a search service built and run by a (truly) non-profit organization. The mission of the foundation is to provide free, high quality information to anyone who asks. Unlike virtually all other major search engines, Wondir is also ad-free.”

I think this could be very cool: Free search data that you can use on your site (ala the Open Directory Project). There are already a ton of sites using ODP data, so I wonder if sites will start using this data instead?

Full Story from Search Engine Watch.

May 19, 2003

The real History of the Internet

Symphony buddy Nate sent me this site. The entries are great: “1972: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniack get stoned out of their minds and build a computer that costs a fortune and runs no software. “Everyone will want one of these!”, says Jobs.” “1981: Bill Gates embarks on heroic and lifelong quest to piss off every person in America.” “1997: Scam e-mails replace oil as the chief export of Nigeria.” Great Read!

May 19, 2003

Portland is making national news for its treasure hunt

While it’s been posted in the Oregonian, Portland is now receiving national attention for its dillema. In 10 days, this city plans to revisit the moment 100 years ago that President Theodore Roosevelt rode into town in a horse-drawn carriage, gave a rousing speech about the great pioneers of the Pacific Northwest and put a copper box into the cornerstone of a towering monument to Lewis and Clark. The president’s great-grandson, Theodore Roosevelt IV, plans to read the same speech, stand on the same hill in what is now Washington Park and open the old box, a time capsule filled with relics of American life in 1903.

The problem? Nobody can find the box. Anywhere. Researchers are looking all over, reading historical documents, and coming up with nothing. And obviously Portland is freaking out about it.

May 18, 2003

The Cruciflex

This is religion-bashing humor, so have a sense of humor folks, but this is a little bit of commercial parody that, to quote the site, “we’re probably all going to hell for.”

May 18, 2003

Man makes computer out of Legos

“Daniele Procida could not bear to see a dead Mac thrown away – so he reconstructed it using Lego bricks pinched from his sons. Rather than bin the Powerbook laptop, he refurbished it using hundreds of colourful pieces, set on mottled artificial green grass.” Full Story

And it’s even for sale on eBay.

May 18, 2003

How many toilet-paper paper tubes does it take to make an U.S. flag?

4,524 according to the guys who did it. Link from Fark.

May 18, 2003

‘Doonesbury’ auction strikes out

A Portland parent planed to auction three original Doonesbury comic strips Friday to benefit budget-strapped schools in Portland (Garry Trudeau, Doonsebury’s creator, is from Portland). The toons for sale were original drawings from the strips that lampooned the Oregon budget crisis.

The thing was, nobody showed up to the auction (at least, no bidders). And to quote Rob’s Site where I got this link, “What kind of signal does this send about public support of the tax for schools?” A very poor one, in my opinion.

May 17, 2003

How are they finding UtterlyBoring.com on Google – Part III

Let’s see what the last two weeks of logs show:

info on the Klu Klux Klan

best quote ever

Married by America: Updates

slut of the animal kingdom

“office pranks”

KFC + banned+commercials

drinking urine

best quote ever

“is that a man or a woman?”

slut animal kingdom

help pay for boob

easiest job

Man decapitated while fleeing police

and you thought that your job sucked

interesting info. on ostriches

history of the vibrator

chris pirillo nude calendar

And I’m only about 1/8th of the way through my logs for the last two weeks. Somehow my blog got some serious GoogleJuice.

May 16, 2003

Eight years old, and he’s a Microsoft professional

Full Story. I don’t know what’s more freaky: That this 8-year-old passed the MCP exam or that Bill Gates is his idol. Link from Neowin. Granted, the MCP test isn’t insanely difficult, but I know many 8-year-olds who can’t even figure out how to use a mouse (for that matter, I know many grown adults that can’t, either, but that’s another story entirely).

May 16, 2003

ThingsMyGirlfriendAndIHaveArguedAbout.com

No, I’m not making the domain up. It’s a very funny site, and anybody who’s been in a long-term relationship can relate to many of the stupid fights that are there.

May 16, 2003