Dave Winer summarized the Web nicely:

It's about publishing without middlemen.

And I guess it's true - the childhood of the web is over.

Found a cool new comic strip. Randolph Itch 2:00 am. Witty stuff.

I removed my comments feature. No one was using it and it was only slowing the site down. Maybe some day.

Gosh. I just notices the long gap between updates on my blog. 8 days. As if I didn't have anyhting to write about.

Joel is really getting up to speed with himself. He is all around our apartment checking everything out while chatting along. And he's finally comfortable with daycare too.

I'm working on Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Quite a big book (928 pages). It has some cool quotable stuff and locations and characters feel real.

Roger Ebert wrote a column about Do-it-yourself movie commentary tracks. Neat idea. With a good implementation, it could be very cool. Heck, I might even pay for some cool commentaries. But I fear the technical problems... like for europe movies are shorter due to the 24->25 fps conversion.

Joel brought a nasty virus from day care and the whole family had a weekend in bed. Some stomach disease. I don't think I've ever felt worse. Absolutely horrible.

Business 2.0 has the 101 Dumbest Moments in Business. Some picks:

2. A dozen Burger King marketing execs suffer first- and second-degree burns while walking over hot coals as part of a team-building retreat in October.

27. The Express Desk, which attaches a notebook computer to the steering wheel of a car.

44. 20th Century Fox spends a reported $15 million to produce the comedy movie Freddy Got Fingered (Tom Green)

62. Advance and Omni brands of cigarettes unveil new slogans: "All of the taste ... Less of the toxins" and "Reduced carcinogens. Premium taste," respectively.

63. Philip Morris also attempts to counter antismoking measures in the Czech Republic by commissioning an economic analysis of the "indirect positive effects" of early deaths -- savings on health care, pensions, welfare, and housing for the elderly.

Can't say the world is boring...

Paul Zebe might be a distant relative: The Weinitschke Family of Kreis Grottkau.

"A collection of clients' quotes, unadulterated." Hilarious stuff.

Kurs5in has a nice article on Greg Egan and Stephen Baxter - the New Hard Men of SF.

Life goes on... I'm now working at Canter Oy. It's amazing how nervous one gets when changing employers... you get so comfortable with your current work, that a change feels like a loss. But after the change you feel a lot better.
Oh - I also have a new phone number.

BBC News has an article on mapping the brains of meditating monks.

"During meditation, people have a loss of the sense of self and frequently experience a sense of no space and time and that was exactly what we saw."

I have the feeling we will have the human brain mapped out in a few years time. All it takes now is a huge amount of tests and test analysis.

There is ice on Mars. (And on Slashdot.)

John Robb has a great idea for making some online subscriptions actually worth their price.

I don't want to deal with the paper (it sucks -- I can't search it and it clutters up my home). I also don't want just the website. It isn't enough. It seems shallow. I want a full copy of the website on my desktop. Full searchable archives for all the issues I get while I am subscribed. A full list of all issues, by date that I can click on and explore. I want to take it on the road with me. Nothing less will do.

Getting something (semi-) real to use instead of virtual content that requires an online connection would make a huge difference for me. If the opportunity arises, I will try to sell this idea to online publishers.
(Bad stuff: copying of entire issues will certainly be a lot easier...)