Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

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  • More Friendster Notes

    I’ve noticed from the referrer logs that my earlier Friendster post is the #3 result on Google for the search phrase “Friendster is slow“, so I figured it was high time I revisited Friendster and poke around a bit more, to see what I could find out.

    It was still slow, but not as fatally slow as the first time I was playing with it. I had previously created a profile for myself and uploaded a picture, but I had not invited friends to join. I was curious to find out if I could use Friendster without any friends (irony! irony!), and the answer is “yes,” albeit conditionally.

    About the only thing you can do when you don’t have any friends—apart from inviting some—is search for other users. However, I’ll save you some time on that right here: you can only search for users from your personal network—that is to say, friends of friends of friends (ad nauseum); if you don’t have any friends, and by extension no network, then you’ll always end up with 0 users found on the search results.

    This wasn’t obvious to me from the way the site was set up, but for sake of argument let’s say I’m socially stunted and overlooked the fact that a site that’s designed to network among friends wouldn’t naturally let you search for strangers… anyway, maybe it was obvious in hindsight and I missed it. Moving on.

    I invited some friends. Five that I could think of that (hopefully) wouldn’t think I was too weird in sending them emails inviting them to my Friendster network. Okay, nothing to do after that but log off and wait.

    A little while later, my brother had registered with Friendster and suddenly I had a friend! But then I ended up asking myself, “What now?” There still wasn’t any obvious benefit to this system that I could see.

    Then, later in the day, another friend registered on the site (I got an email notifying me of this). Didn’t have time to check it out at the time, I was heading home from work. Also didn’t figure there would be any more to do with Friendster with two friends instead of one, so it wasn’t a big priority.

    But by the time I logged back into it from home, my jaw dropped: I suddenly have 400 people in my personal network! It turns out my brother linked to two more friends, who in turn link out to friends, who link to more friends, etc. Very six degrees of separation.

    Now I can see the value in what’s going on here. I have access to a network of people that I can browse, search (by demographics or by interests), contact. (Noting, of course, recent stories about how a lot of Friendster accounts are fake as people assume different identities online or are just playing around.) Very interesting. I haven’t decided what I’ll actually do with Friendster yet, aside from figuring it out.

    Here’s something interesting, though: When I logged on and found my network of 400 people, Friendster seemed to run faster than when I had none. This is counter-intuitive; it should run more slowly when it’s sifting through larger data sets (ie. larger networks). The only thing I can figure is that their data queries are either highly unoptimised—perhaps brute-force searching through all the users to find out none were in my network?—or when dealing with zero-user networks (ie. no friends), the database/system/whatever is dealing with NULLs improperly. And any good database tech can tell you that NULLs can be a killer. It’s very odd.

  • Q’s New Toys

    Two real-world items that I fully expect to show up in the next James Bond movie:

    The Skyray and the Aquada Bond.

  • You might be from the Northwest…

    I found this document from February 2000 when going through some old files on the computer and thought it was funny; I think it originally came from some email humor.

    You might be from the Pacific Northwest if you…

    1. Feel guilty about throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash.
    2. Use the expression “sun break” and know what it means.
    3. Know more than 10 ways to order coffee.
    4. Know more people who own boats than air conditioners.
    5. Feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant.
    6. Stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the “WALK” signal.
    7. Are amazed by accurate weather forecasts.
    8. Consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it’s not a real mountain.
    9. Complain about Californians, as you sell your house for twice its value to one.
    10. Know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon.
    11. Know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah and Oregon.
    12. Consider swimming an indoor sport.
    13. See your golf ball bounce, you know immediately that you’ve hit the cart path and not the fairway.
    14. Can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese and Thai food.
    15. In winter, go to work in the dark and come home in the dark—while only working 8-hour days.
    16. Obey all traffic laws except “Keep right except to pass.”
    17. Never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho.
    18. Are not fazed by “Today’s forecast: showers followed by rain,” or “Tomorrow’s forecast: rain followed by showers.”
    19. Can’t wait for a day with “Showers and sun breaks.”
    20. Have no concept of humidity without precipitation.
    21. Can taste the difference between Starbucks, Seattle’s Best Coffee and Veneto’s.
    22. Know that Boring is a town in Oregon and not just a state of mind.
    23. Can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you can’t see through the cloud cover.
    24. Say “The mountain is out” when it’s a pretty day and you can actually see it.
    25. Have more rain gear in your golf bag than golf balls.
    26. Put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 50, but still wear your hiking boots and parka.
    27. Switch to your sandals when it gets above 60, but keep the socks on.
    28. Have actually used your mountain bike on a mountain.
    29. Have a heater in your golf cart.
    30. Think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or tourists.
    31. Knew immediately that the view outside of Frasier’s window was fake.

    AND…..

    32. You know you’re from the NW if you buy new sunglasses every year because you can’t find the old ones after not having used them for such a long time….

  • So Long Sobig

    I checked my email this morning and not a single Sobig-infected message came through.

    Not one.

    Just as quickly as it started, it’s over. Very odd. The only thing that makes sense is that there was only one computer infected with Sobig that had my email address on it, and when that user finally patched their computer, it stopped sending to me.

  • New Ebooks!

    On my ebooks page I’ve just linked up two new, modern Palm Reader ebooks by Rob Callahan, who is generously offering these up for free (under the Creative Commons license) on his site, and was nice enough to email me to let me know. Awesome! The more there are current books that can be freely downloaded (like what Cory Doctorow is also doing), the more everybody benefits.

  • Worm Food

    Well, it took longer than most cases I’ve heard of, but I’m finally getting deluged with the Sobig email worm. Started yesterday.

  • MySQL’s SET

    I was just thinking today that MySQL’s SET datatype has to be the most underused feature of MySQL, and how I could implement a multiple category system for my ebooks using it, when I got the MySQL AB Newsletter and lo and behold, it has an article on using SET.

    I love fun coincidences like that.

  • New Urban Legend

    We got an email this evening from a friend, one of those types of emails that has been forwarded something like 5 times or more, warning of a serial killer that lures women out of their houses by playing a recording of a crying baby. Something about the way it was written made me think “urban legend,” so I dug around a little bit on the Web.

    It is an urban legend; the Snopes page debunking it is here. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen an urban legend so new that it’s practically gestating; interestingly, the text of the email we received has some slight variations on the one posted by Snopes. Urban legend evolution?

    Here’s the full text of the one we were emailed, the only thing I edited out was the annoying >’s from all the forwarding:

    ***VERY IMPORTANT*PLEASE READ***

    This is scary!

    Someone just told me that her friend heard a crying baby on
    her porch the night before last, and she called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird.

    The police told her, “Whatever you do, DO NOT open the door.” The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over.

    The policeman said, “We already have a unit on the way,
    whatever you do, DO NOT open the door.” He told her that they think a serial killer has a baby’s cry recorded and is using it to coax women out of their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby.

    He said they have not verified it, but! t have had several calls by women saying that they hear baby’s cries outside their doors when they’re home alone at night.

    Please pass this on and DO NOT open the door for a crying
    baby. This email should probably be taken seriously because the Crying Baby theory was mentioned on America’s Most Wanted this past Saturday when they profiled the serial killer in Louisiana.

    PLEASE send this to friends and family.

    Note the variations from the Snopes version; the most interesting addition to the one we received was the bit about America’s Most Wanted. Designed to give a bit more authenticity, perhaps?

  • Towel Amnesty Day

    Am I just cynical? Holiday Inn is declaring today Towel Amnesty Day in which anyone who has ever stolen a towel (or anything else, I imagine) from a hotel can tell their story, and Holiday Inn will donate $1.00 to charity (plus 25 lucky people will “win” a souvenir towel). You know what I see when I look at this? A “Towel Information Awareness” (take that, TIA!) database that Holiday Inn can then use to red-flag future customers. “Even stolen a towel? They did? Charge them an extra $10 for this room.”

    Don’t think so? Why else would their entry form ask for your full name, address, phone number and email?

    Cynical, indeed.

  • Black Butte Porter

    I always (usually) (sometimes) take notice when someone mentions some of our fine local beers; so my attention was grabbed when I read that Tim Bray enjoyed a Black Butte Porter while waiting for a flight home today. Good choice, Tim.

    Black Butte Porter is not only the flagship beer from Deschutes Brewery, but also I think of Bend. It’s definitely one of the things we’re known for in some circles. In fact, if you ever visit Bend, you must go to the Deschutes Brewery and your first beer must be a Black Butte Porter, it’s that good (especially on tap at the source). Should you do so, let me know and I’ll join you. I might even buy the first round.