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Notice: GeekPress is back up and running, thanks to Paul! It's still a not-so-serious tech news blog, but the format is significantly looser. Diana, having given up programming for philosophy, has her own philosophical blog NoodleFood. More of her work can be found at DianaHsieh.com.

 

Invasion of the "Blog"

2:07:23 am mst / 28 December 2000 found by paul / filed in internet / source NY Times 67 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails

Nice discussion of the explosion of weblogs following the development of the Blogger software. It includes a link to the now-classic essay, Weblogs: A History and Perspective .

I also liked the link to the "Kill Your Weblog" Test, which will help you decide if your weblog deserves to live.

The Everywhere Network

4:32:21 am mst / 28 December 2000 found by paul / filed in internet / source Forbes 37 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails

UC Berkeley computer scientist John Kubiatowicz is working on OceanStore, a system that will allow users to reliably and securely retrieve their data from anywhere in the world, from any computing device. This is accomplished by storing multiple redundant copies in a Napster-like fashion in different locations, transparent to the user.

Sounds like an excellent idea, if he and his team can get it to work. As storage space continues to drop and mobile wireless devices continue to proliferate, there will be a huge demand for precisely this service. I'd love to be able to listen to my MP3's from any location!

Free Links, Only $50 Apiece

10:35:43 am mst / 28 December 2000 found by diana / filed in internet / source Wired 53 hits / 2 comments / 2 e-mails

Some newspapers are enlisting the services iCopyright in order to to charge money (like $50) for links to their news stories. More than that, the iCopyright agreement prevents linkers from saying anything derogatory about "the author, the publication from which the content came, or any person connected with the creation of the content or depicted in the content."

I'm just flabergasted. This whole scheme is so much more insane than what I could indicate in the summary.

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Teenage student saves company from bankruptcy

12:15:43 pm mst / 28 December 2000 found by paul / filed in business / source BBC News 84 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails

A 17-year-old student performing a 2-week work placement program at the British company Martin Mulligan UK saved it from bankruptcy. The company, which specializes in barcode printing machines, was about to go under because of its archaic marketing practices when the student implemented a web-based ordering system which helped them secure $1 million of new orders. The young man was offered a permanent job with the company, but turned it down because he wanted to pursue his dream of becoming an architect.

They'd better hire someone who lives in the 21st century...

Ten zaniest VC pitches

1:28:13 pm mst / 28 December 2000 found by paul / filed in business / source Red Herring 179 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails

Red Herring compiled this list of top ten zaniest real life requests for venture capital from would-be startups. (Thanks to Techdirt for the link.)

I don't know which was more bizarre -- the online funeral company or the $3 billion top-secret-I-can't-tell-you-the-details proposal.

Drug cures hiccups

4:16:45 pm mst / 28 December 2000 found by paul / filed in medicine / source Reuters News 24 hits / 0 comments / 0 e-mails

Italian physicians have announced a drug cure for severe hiccups. In a letter to today's New England Journal of Medicine, they treated three patients suffering from "incapacitating hiccups" that had resisted all other therapies with a single intravenous dose of nefopam. In all three cases, the hiccups stopped within one minute.

If they can make it in a pill form, then the marketing people just need to come up with a clever name -- something like Hic-Arrest or BetterThanDrinkingAGlassOfWaterWhileStandingOnOnesHead.