Dave Kellam

Thought Mechanics is sporting a new look, and a few new authors. One of them is me, the other is Tony Pierce. Hide your children, now.

There are four new job positions at the New York Times, including a spot for someone with WordPress chops. Too bad I’m not in NYC.

For the Neal Stephenson fans out there, a 520 page notebook belonging to Robert Hooke was discovered in a cupboard. Apparently, it contains the minutes of the Royal Society from 1661 to 1682. This is one of those finds that you hope ends up in public hands rather than those of a private collector.

You never really know who’s reading your site at any given moment, it tends to have a large affect on what you post, when you do it and where you put it. Justin does a good job covering my sentiments in his recent post on being more anecdotal and immediate, go read that and come back. Although, it’s safe to say that sometimes I just get lazy.

Now that all of that is on the table, I’m going to make a conscious effort to push it over the edge and onto the floor. I’m going to post as I write and write as I feel.

Well, maybe. Those are Justin’s words, not mine. There’s also Derek’s point about client’s reading your blog, but that’s not a huge worry for me at the moment. So, we’ll hope to see more frequent posts from yours truly. In a somewhat related note, I’ve been making more use of my del.icio.us account, so you might want to add eightface to your inbox.

In the ongoing Hans Island saga, the BBC is reporting that Mr. Harper has told the US Ambassador to piss off:

The United States defends its sovereignty, the Canadian government will defend our sovereignty.

Apparently, we’re going to build three new armed ice-breakers. You hear that Denmark? Your elite figure skating brigade will be useless now.

Update: Richard pointed out that a Canadian Sea King helicopter was forced to ditch off the coast of Denmark this evening. I don’t know what these shifty Danes are up to. Feb. 2nd

I’ve seen lots of weblogs around with Rollyo search boxes, maybe it’s better than the built-in search functionality of most blogging software. Unfortunately, the site is powered by Yahoo — they don’t index my site. So, it’s impossible for me to use the service.

Update: At long last the power to move mountains in mine, muahahahaha! Or at least my ability to toy with the unwitting fools who stumble into this steaming pile via Yahoo has increased. That’s right, Dave Pell has added eightface to the Yahoo index. Break out the fireworks, it’s been years in the making.

Google — circa January 2003

The world’s biggest, best-loved search engine owes its success to supreme technology and a simple rule: Don’t be evil.

Google — circa January 2006

Leading internet search company Google has agreed to censor some of its services in China in order to satisfy Beijing’s restrictions on free speech.

Three years? Seriously, that’s all it takes for Google to crumble? It’s been more than fifteen years since Tianamen Square, guess it’s all buttercups and roses now. I could be wrong, but I’m guessing Larry and Sergey have figured out how to harness the slow moving tanks of democracy.

Know Your Type: Starting points for typographic inspiration. A quick typography read with some dirty samples.

In the increasingly esoteric global struggle against the enemies of freedom, the insurgents have struck back, releasing a poetry tape by Bin Laden’s deputy. Rumour has it that Cheney’s holed up in an underground bunker somewhere, working on a coffeetable book called The History of Bacon and a sequel to Sisters.

A duplicate of a Chinese map from 1418 calls into question the European discovery of America. There are authenticity issues because the map is actually a reproduction from the 1700’s. Much of the recorded history surrounding Zheng He’s voyages has been destroyed over the years by other Chinese dynasties, so we’ll probably never know all the details — there was a recent National Geographic feature about his voyages. Regardless of the map’s authenticity, if the Chinese were capable of exploring Africa, and Austrailia, I don’t doubt that they were able to reach the Americas.