New template time. I got tired of looking at the other template, and found Binary Bonsai’s Kubrick via Flickr. I’ll be making more modifications moving forward, as this template set is a little more nimble than the previous one I was using, and includes the psd. Thanks to Michael Heilmann and Michael K. Pate for this handy resource.

This weekend, I am traveling a bit early to Macromedia MAX 2004. I would like to take some photographic walks while I am there, and if you have some hints for me to that effect, I would really appreciate them. Any further advice on traveling to New Orleans would also be welcome. If you are going to Max, and wanna hang out and have a drink, drop me a line. I will most probably be willing to buy you the first round.

It’s clear to me that with their announcement of a tool similar to Google’s desktop search, Microsoft continues to prove out their role as a copier of ideas. I honestly can’t remember the last time that I heard of a new product for consumers from MSFT that sounded innovative.

The WIRED Magazine Creative Commons CD arrived in my mailbox yesterday. Good stuff, with tracks from the Beasties, Thievery Corp. and Dangermouse, among others.

Well, clearly not our greatest day as Yankee fans today after the four game skip that ended with the Boston Red Sox celebrating at Yankee Stadium. First, my best to the Red Sox and Red Sox fans. The Red Sox showed an unbelievable will to win this series. Not only is the come back from three games to none unprecedented, they were close to out in both the fourth and fifth games, and came back to win both. The Yankees, despite losing the series, played well in all but the final game, in my opinion. They got beat by a better team, there is no doubt of that fact. Wait until next year:-)

I went to Amazon.com this morning. Last week, I was doing a bit of research into some search engine results display stuff, and spent some time on A9. This morning I was greeted with this message:

Robert Occhialini, since you've been using A9.com recently, virtually everything at Amazon.com is automatically an additional ?/2% (1.57%) off for you. Collecting this discount is zero effort on your part. It will be applied automatically at checkout (it will happen whether you use the shopping cart or our 1-Click Shopping). You don't need to do anything to get this discount except keep using A9.com as your regular search engine.

Bribery will get you everywhere.

I was in Indiana over the weekend, at Brian and Rachel’s Wedding. I think the photos speak for themselves, it was a beautiful service. For the second time this year, I got to see two amazing people who are perfect for each other tie the knot.

Google Desktop Search This should be interesting. Just installed. Very cool, very useful for business applications. Just did a search for one of our bigger projects and it got everything. This is going to make staying organized unnecessary to some extent. The integration with Google.com is great too. Too bad that it’s Win32 only, I would like to be able to use it on all my machines. Having said that, Tiger (the next Mac OS X) has Spotlight, which is very similar in concept, but very different in implementation.

Z-Trip’s Motown Breakdown Part1. A downloadable (mp3) Motown mix from one of my favorite DJ’s of all time. Give it a listen, don’t cost nothing.

My musical pick of the week is Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama, There Will Be A Light. In this age of overproduced studio music, this stuff rings true. If you buy the CD from his Web site, you get a limited edition with three extra songs. I did not know this when I bought my copy, so I have the regular store-bought version.

Bob Barr: “An agonizing choice”. I feel that he hit the nail right on the head with this article. In fact, this may be the first time ever that I have agreed with Bob Barr. For me, the hot button issue is the lack of fiscal conservatism. The fact that the rise in nondefense discretionary spending has been unprecedented under this president, with a Republican controlled Congress, is unacceptable. Couple this with the tax cut, and you have a recipe for fiscal disaster. I fundamentally do not understand what the thinking behind this could be. I’ve also had several people, some of them really smart folks, try to explain what they think the reasoning is. In every case the explanations have had massive holes in them. There is no excuse for this. It’s nice to see someone not afraid to express their opinion, even if it goes against their party, because the facts and situation dictates it.

Well, the Yanks beat the Twins, setting up another Red Sox versus Yankees ALCS. Going into this series, it’s quite clear that these are two very different teams from the ones that played each other last year at this time. The Yanks pitching is definitely suspect, and the Red Sox are hitting the ball better than they have all season. These two things may add up to a very dangerous combination for New York. I’ve got a lot of respect for this year’s Sox squad, and this one should be quite a battle.

I just finished reading Nick Sagan’s idlewild. A very good first novel, in my opinion, certainly heavily influenced by some of his father’s works.(He is Carl Sagan’s son.) It felt similar, in some ways, to Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles in terms of some of the storyline, and the type and structure of the characters. It however, is nothing like those books in terms of the place and time in which it occurs. The tone of the book was striking to me, and I look forward to digging into Edenborn, the sequel almost immediately, that is as soon as I finish watching the Yankees. If you are a fan of science fiction, I think this book is a must read. I think that Nick Sagan may be one of the best new voices in this genre over the last few years.

Some of my Atlanta crew and I went to see Cadillac Jones last night at the Echo Lounge. Good music that ranges from jazzy Shaft-ish tunes to downright funk. The crowd was unusual, in my opinion, for the type of music. Unfortunately, they had some issue with their turntable setup, because I suspect that the addition of the turntablist aspect to their musicianship would have been really nice.

Jacques Derrida passed away. His thoughts on death. His writings, especially the essays I read in college, changed my way of looking at the world in many ways, none of which I find easily explainable here with any sort of brevity. (via Metafilter)

Peeper allows you to peer beneath the shell of apps for images, icons, etc.

Design In-Flight looks like a lovely, well designed, PDF magazine. I wish that they had provided a sample that contained actual editorial content, as that is what I am interested in, not the table of contents, in sample material.

Nader Says He Can’t Win Single State because “the system is rigged.” Perhaps, Mr. Nader, it is because you aren’t qualified to be a dogcatcher, let alone the President. The right to cast your vote for whomever you want is one of the precious things in this country, and I don’t begrudge anyone that right, however, I, personally, would never vote for someone who could not do the job.

More Information on Jot Wiki from Web 2.0. I’m waiting for a beta account now so I can try this out, sounds like a tool I would relish using.

Despite all the security problems, and all of the issues with spyware and popups, despite the fact that Microsoft has been slow to update their browser, AOL is building themselves a new stand-alone browser and they chose IE as the core. I hate to be so hard on them, but the people making these decisions must be morons.

Damon points out that ColdFusion is ten years old today. Hard to believe, but true.

I already posted this to my linkblog, then started playing with it and realized just how neat and useful it really is. Google has launched Google SMS, from your sms enabled phone, you can do comparison shopping, look up phone numbers and addresses, and get dictionary definitions. This is incredibly useful. (via Backup Brain)

Mark, or “scoop” as I am now calling him, breaks the huge news. The next season of the Real World will be in Atlanta.

I went to the first game of the Braves/Astros series tonight. You can find some pictures here.