If you have a blog, and no one reads it, is it really a blog? Or is it like the tree that falls in the forest with no one around? I’ve told exactly one person I have a blog, and even that was by mistake. I didn’t tell him the URL, though he is enterprising enough to find it himself. I’m not keeping it an Official Secret or anything. I guess I’m just trying an experiment to see how long I can be part of the blogosphere without people noticing. ...

There’s a new technology to learn about… TDMoIP. VoIP (Voice over IP) has been a big disaster. Lots of engineering effort in, little success out. I had a Vonage phone line for a while, and the call quality (mostly due to latency) was terrible. I was using my Vonage endpoint under significantly less than ideal circumstances, so it might not have even been their fault. But I’ve seen VoIP stuff take up lots of time and deliver very little value at work too. ...

Check out this snippet from the “Having trouble connecting” help screen for AOL Instant Messenger: You might not be able to sign on if: Your Internet connection is only 16-bit. AIM needs a 32-bit connection. Contact your ISP if you are not sure. snip… 16-bit Internet? What they hell are these guys smoking?

Here’s a collection of links about wooden clockworks. First, you need to search for “wooden clockworks”, not “wooden clocks”, since lots of people make wooden cases, put a quartz clockworks in them and then list them as “wooden clocks”. This site would win the awards for both “most irritating website ever”, and “most useful information”. This site looks really promising, and is what pointed me at the first one. It even has a beginner’s project, which has only a weight and an escapement which runs for 10 minutes. ...

I have broad curiousity, which I’ve made the best of, given that it tends to limit my ability to focus on something for long periods of time. I’m currently, though not permanently, at peace with the fact that I tend to progress just past “beginner” in all that I do, then lose interest in making progress. One way I keep this from being a total character flaw is that I do keep committments, like running a Game, or being in a dance performance. So while you may not be able to count on me to stick with something new more than 6 or 9 months, you can count on me to stick with those things for which I sign up. ...

I just haven’t posted in a while, that’s all. Hmm, why? I haven’t been extraordinately busy. I just haven’t had anything to say. I’m hoping to break the trend by saying something about not saying anything. One reason I haven’t had anything to say is that some of the things I have to say are not for public consumption. And though I have no readers of this blog that I know of, I know that this is a public space. One reason I decided to start this blog (apart from the simple need to understand this technology) is that I know that to be a good writer, you need to write. I value keeping a broad set of skills in good working order, so I want to be, among (many) other things, a very good writer. ...

Hong Kong has turned out to be the epicenter of a serious outbreak of SARS. There is an incredibly moving article in BBC about the silent killer in the midst of the healtch care workers in Hong Kong. I found the e-mail address of the doctor and sent him a note. It is included below. To: [email protected] Subject: God bless you I read your interview in BBC and it really touched me. Tonite I had been feeling sorry for myself and my country (I'm an American) because we've gotten ourselves into such a mess in the mideast. Your interview reminded me that the real fight is against nature itself. Good luck to you, take care of yourself. May all your colleagues recover. You have my thoughts even in this trying time, when these obscene distractions try to pull my attention from your very human story. Jeff Allen Redwood City, CA, USA If you feel like it, please send him a note too. ...

I went with Dan to St. Steven’s Green today for lunch. I ordered Chicken Strips with salad. When I got mine, the first chicken strip looked just like the island of Great Britain. I picked it up by Scotland and dipped Wales in Ranch dressing before I noticed the similarity. So I immediately started digging through this pile of chicken to find an Ireland. And I found one! It was so cool to have my own little map on my plate. ...

I only subscribe to one magazine at a time right now, because otherwise my curiousity would bury me under a pile of magazines every month. I try different ones from year to year, just to see what all is out there. I’m currently subscribed to Atlantic Monthly, as a result of William Langewiesche’s interview on Fresh Air. I also had read a few Atlantic Monthly articles on-line and that was so tedious that I gave up and bought the subscription. ...

Now, as Karl reminds me all the time, I do eat meat. But I am not a Meat EaterTM. My mother happily taught me to eat a lot of chicken and fish, and then dating a vegetarian pushed me over the edge to where I eat meat only a few meals a week, and even then it’s usually turkey sandwiches or something. The inexplicable rules I use to decide on which foods to eat would seem to make me something other than a vegetarian. One friend suggested “arbitrarian”. Suits me. ...