I'm not kidding.

All I can say is... I would have enjoyed calculus a whole lot more if I had had teachers like this (and believe it or not, one of the featured "teachers" in this video is seriously smart!) Not saying I would have actually learned or remembered more... okay, yeah, this video is embarrasingly bad, but it still gave me a chuckle. I've heard of naked news anchorwomen, but bikini'd calculus lessons? If this doesn't herald the fall of Western Civilization as we know it... :D

Ahem. Okay, well, the substantive take-away from this entry? You can already find most anything on Google Video... now Flash-based (no more Google Player!) and enriched with handy-dandy in-page 15-second previews, automatic resizing, and more. [hat tip: Google BlogNewsChannel]

Just a little bit of lightness for this morning

I've taken dance lessons from this one very talented instructor, and I was a bit taken aback upon noting that her nickname in dance forums is "Hottie." Though she's certainly quite blessed in the looks department, I found this to be a rather odd choice of nicknames... possibly even bordering on conceited.

Then one day she explained it all to me.

My prediction:
Wikis have not yet hit critical mass, but they will by 2006 Q3 when I predict Yahoo! will unveil a well-integrated wiki feature called "Y! Whiteboards."

So what's a wiki?!
First, those in the un-know may be wondering what the heck a wiki is. Yeah, yeah, it sounds just as goofy as "blog," but it's worth getting to know.

A wiki is basically an application on the Web that lets practically anyone edit or even create pages and easily link them together. Think of it as an extendable set of whiteboards, with all interested folks having handy virtual dry-erase markers and erasers. It's a fabulous albeit admittedly not flawless solution enabling groups of people to collaborate on a particular topic or defined scope of topics.

Okay, gimme an example!
One of the grandest wikis of them all is Wikipedia, a massive free encyclopedia. Although not without controversies and challenges of its own, Wikipedia has inarguably grown up to be a valuable and impressive resource. And of course, it does have an entry on Wikis

Or take my new humble wiki, "Lindy Hop Whiteboard Supreme." A distinguishing factor of the (hosted) software I'm using is that folks using Firefox and IE can use rich-text controls to edit pages. Even so, though, I've found contributions to be few and far between so far. :| [Want to try it out? Play in the playpen ]

Perhaps I'm just used to having my name splattered all over the net. But it seems equally freaky when I come across someone that isn't anywhere on the Web.

Something I've been mulling over lately: What's the protocol on asking a friend of yours to, ahem, introduce you to one of her friends... if you once dated the former?

I can just imagine the conversation now...

I have run a single Google AdSense ad in each entry in my full-text RSS feed since May of this year. I'm apparently not allowed to discuss clickthru rates, so let me just say this:

Despite getting a rather decent amount of traffic for a personal blog, I cannot buy a pack of bubblegum with the revenues I've earned from ads in my RSS feed. In fact, I'd be surprised if I could buy a single gumball.

This comes as rather a surprise me, not to mention a disappointment.

I tried out the Slide photo sharing service this afternoon. I understand it's a beta, but as we've seen from many other services... beta doesn't have to be unusable.

Here's why I didn't like Slide:

UPDATE 9/23/05 2:34pm PST:
Looks like I was a bit too quick on the CrankyTrigger this morning. Apparently, Streamload had shifted over to Blogspot, but hadn't updated one of their primary links (1 step off of their home page). Certainly a frustrating but nonetheless innocent oversight. See Streamload's acknowledgment of the issue here in their P.S.

My apologies for jumping to conclusions. I'm keeping the rest of my blog entry intact so I'm not a hypocrite

* * *

I'm a paying member of Streamload -- a multimedia remote storage service -- and I regularly follow their blog in my aggregator.

Recently, they've been heralding their upcoming major service overhaul in their blog... a huge new feature set, new pricing, and so on. Everything was supposed to go live, well, a few days ago.

Well, a day or two ago, they blogged an apology for the delay, citing power outage issues stemming from a storm (no, not one of the hurricanes). I totally understood... these sort of things happen. But then imagine my amazement and annoyance today when, upon checking their blog, I notice that they've wiped out the last month's worth of entries. Poof, gone. Here's the Google cache of what they had written.

A firm message to Streamload and any other companies that may be thinking about, ahem, rewriting history: Don't do it.
1) People like me will catch it and call you on it.
2) This'll create ill-will and suspicions regarding your firm's integrity.

And for goodness sake, if you're nonetheless determined to cover your tracks, at least don't do it half-assedly; roll-back your press releases, too. Sheesh.

GoogleTV is coming.

In this role, you will provide leadership on product vision and execution of projects that enable using Google's search and advertising technologies to enhance users� Television viewing experience. [...] You will identify key market trends that are shaping user behavior when watching Television. These include but not limited to the intersection of Internet and Television technologies, Video-On-Demand, Personal Video Recorders and emergence of next generation set-top-boxes with IP connectivity. You will then identify areas where use of Google's search and advertising technology can enhance this user experience and define appropriate products to deliver these user benefits. [...]

- Job posting placed online by Google this morning

UPDATE 9/23/05:
Google has removed the job listing from their site.

* * *

Is Tivo quaking in their boots? And will Hollywood embrace or fear the upcoming empowerment of consumers?

Historically, even when it's been in the entertainment industry's long-term best interests, they've staunchly protested many technological advancements. VCRs, Tivo... despite the reality of occasional ad-skipping, these tools have undoubtedly increased viewership (and with videocassettes / DVDs, sales) by an order of magnitude.

* * *

What will the Google tools offer consumers, advertisers and the entertainment folks? And what will be the response of privacy advocates to the advertisement targeting?

After hearing good things about StatCounter from friends who've used it, I decided to give it a try. I liked it so much after one day, that I decided to shell out $9/month to see stats on many of my sites.