clock … watching time, the only true currency

A journal from John B. Roberts

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Entries from June 2006

Book: In Cold Blood

June 29th, 2006 · No Comments

I was prompted to pick up Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood by the movie Capote. I haven’t seen it yet, and didn’t want to until I’d read the book.
In a world where CSI strives to get just a bit gorier with each episode, and Hannibal Lecter’s “fava beans” quote is a joke, this narrative tale [...]

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Tags: Books · Everything · Non-fiction

What a busy week

June 29th, 2006 · No Comments

When the kids are away, I’m supposed to be less busy. Hah.
At least the World Cup has given me a two-day breather, while we wait for the quarter-finals. I might even find time to watch those games in full (hope so).
Lots of blog backlog to clear… it will be brief, but I’ll close some loops.

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Tags: Everything

Online to print, in rolling fashion

June 21st, 2006 · 1 Comment

While at CNET News.com, I led some experiments in PDF production of online special reports. Multi-day reports are made available in PDF format, and placed behind registration regularly. We also tried selling some of these reports, with mixed success…but it wasn’t worth the effort.
So today’s news that the Guardian (UK) is going to offer a [...]

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Tags: Formats · Media

Birthday for the girl

June 20th, 2006 · No Comments

The party was ten days ago, but she ratcheted up the excitement again today for the actual day. Advice for parents of small children: go with the small cupcakes!

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Tags: Family

Catching Joe Jackson, thanks to Craigslist

June 20th, 2006 · No Comments

My original search of Craigslist for Joe Jackson tickets was clearly done too early. Thanks to a colleague, I was reminded to set up a search RSS feed, and as the date (this coming Thursday) approached, more tickets became available. A big thanks to Steele for the ticket.

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Tags: Everything

Too many red cards

June 17th, 2006 · No Comments

The BBC applauds the US earning a draw today against Italy, although they didn’t agree that the Mastroeni red card was too much. Thank you, Ghana, for keeping this group very interesting all the way through Thursday’s matches.

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Tags: Everything

Data and formats: how much control?

June 17th, 2006 · No Comments

I’ve had too nice a day overall to spend too much time teasing out something truly new on the topics of where data lives, which data is your data, what formats are most future-proof, and which companies may or may not have found a path for data and formats which both serves people best and [...]

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Tags: Data · Formats · Mac · Tech · Time

Upgraded to WordPress 2.03

June 17th, 2006 · No Comments

I’ve just upgraded to WordPress 2.03 from 1.5, less than six months after finally switching. So far, so good. This post will help test. Let me know if anything appears awry.
I also added a way to subscribe to full-text posts via e-mail, courtesy of FeedBurner. For those that are interested, enter your address at the [...]

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Tags: Blog management · Everything

Looking for one ticket to see Joe Jackson on June 22, 2006

June 16th, 2006 · 1 Comment

I’ve search StubHub and eBay and Craigslist, without success so far. Joe Jackson will be playing in Saratoga, CA next week, on Thursday June 22, 2006. The performance is sold out, so I just posted my first “Want it Now” on eBay (eBay – Want It Now Post – Joe Jackson ticket one for Saratoga, [...]

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Tags: Everything

Niche search engine with large type: Big.com

June 15th, 2006 · No Comments

I find Big.com clever. It’s just another search engine, but the fonts are bigger. Fun twist, and with a short URL, sure to get some traffic. Of course, the Terms of Service are not in the bigger font. Hmmm…
This is all part of Idealab, as is the current Snap.com. Although the results for Big.com come [...]

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Tags: Domains · Tech