Older blog entries for gregorrothfuss (starting at number 31)

today i checked my deserted blog, feeling a bit guilty after a friend had told me that i have effectively vanished behind the google cone of silence. and what do i see in the logs?

5 days, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
5 days, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
5 days, 3 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
5 days ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 21 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 18 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 15 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 12 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 3 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 21 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 18 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 15 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 12 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 21 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 18 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 15 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 12 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 3 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 21 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 18 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 15 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 12 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 3 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
21 hours, 46 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
18 hours, 46 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
15 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
12 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
9 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
6 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'

someone* must be really interested in sarah's whereabouts! if you haven't heard, sarah is currently traveling in the stans for work. when internet connectivity allows, she is posting awesome pictures. here is a sampler:

* "someone" indeed. here's why.

if you ever tried to use OpenOffice or NeoOffice to create a presentation with images and timed animations (bare-bones, standard stuff, in other words), do yourself a favor and delete those useless applications from your machine. you'll thank me. how those clowns can ship software that randomly replaces your images with the dreaded 'broken image' image, or that forgets about the animations it is supposed to show, and gives you a blank slide instead, is beyond me. with desktop "productivity" applications this bad, no wonder people are defecting to online.

how sad a life you have to lead if some stupid SUV sale for an ailing car manufacturer that won't see the next decade is "the event of a lifetime"?

i recently checked in KML support for the feedvalidator. with the number of KML files out there, it was time. let me know how it works for you.

about a decade ago, i set up a yahoo email account as a spam catcher, and have used it for all sorts of registrations over the years. the time had come to finally ditch that account, between the pathetic spam filtering and the annoying user interface, but how to get all the emails i still cared about out without having to pay ransom? freepops to the rescue.

i find it remarkable that yahoo is so insecure about their product that they feel the need to lock-in users. in contrast, the superior gmail offers free pop access, so there is no lock-in. it is about time the industry holds yahoo to task over this nonsense.

in celebration of the new annotated google maps, i have created two maps that show your taxes at work:

• Top 10 USDA farm subsidy recipients in the US
• Top 20 EU CAP farm subsidy recipients in the UK

the top recipient of EU CAP farm subsidies in the UK got $700 million, the top recipient of USDA farm subsidies in the US got $541 million.

starting today, i am a software engineer at google as a result of this acquisition. obviously, this is exciting news. more later. i won't be working on google flat, although we totally need this :)

you may have noticed that this blog is far less active than it used to be. i blame del.icio.us. the opportunity to write pithy one-liners instead of rambling posts is just too attractive. if you want to enjoy those, either join my network (preferred, i like to know who enjoys my stuff) or subscribe to my del.icio.us feed, or both.

i also went ahead and added tags on here. you can now read all posts tagged with future, or even combinations like events with photos. i also blend in the appropriate del.icio.us results at the bottom.

if you are feed-challenged, you can also follow the latest del.icio.us links on the side bar on my blog. otherwise, i recommend google reader.

sarah gave me these:

• economist subscription
• beer fest tickets
• all of tufte's work
• frakkin toasters tshirt

today, my feed reader died. it only showed me an empty window where my feeds should be:

so i tried google reader again. amazingly, it felt more responsive than RSS Bandit. my archive of read posts is in the thousands. i like having access to them, and often use them in searches. this puts a heavy toll on memory usage:

what hope is there for .net if an application written by a microsoft employee is such a memory hog, and gets its clock cleaned by an online application? none.