I wish it was over

While I definitely know who I will vote for, I agree more with Ole Eichorn who says of the new Bin Laden tape, "Can't we simply condemn him and everything he represents, completely and totally, without making it a partisan issue?". Read his whole post, "I wish it was over".

Amen, brother Eichorn.

Cowboy Joke

A cowboy walks up to his cowboy friends with a dachshund on a leash. "What's with the dog?" asks one cowboy. "Well," says the first cowboy, "I finally gave in to that voice in my head saying 'get a long little doggie'."
  - from this week's email newsletter from A Prairie Home Companion .

I rarely get around to actually listening to the show, but I subscribe to the newsletter for the "Pretty Good Jokes" included each week.

National Novel Writing Month

Here's an interesting idea, write a 175 page (55,000 word) novel in 30 days with motivation from National Novel Writing Month

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. ... Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes.

And if you want to write as a weblog, check out Blogging Your Novel, Part One.

I don't think I'll have the time to commit to writing a novel this November, maybe next year.

Desktop searching

Of course the other big Google news is about the Google Desktop. I'm not going to try it yet as it doesn't index enough of the applications that I use. Dave Winer tried it and says that it slowed down his computer. I may try X1, which is better, according to the author of the Unofficial Google Weblog. And, if you act quickly (as I'm attempting to do), you might get X1 for free.

Google SMS

Another way to enjoy Google: Google SMS

Free Tech Books Online

Here's a big list of links to free books on Java, Python, Linux, Windows, and more. This is "free" as in "free beer", not necessarily "free" as in "free speech" and certainly not "free" as my Eastern European friends sometimes define it. They also have an RSS feed for new additions.

Review site review

There's a nice Review of Review Sites at Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools site.

Ig Nobel Prizes

This year's Ig Nobel prizes have been announced, but before you click through to read about herring fart communication and combover patents, load the movie on this page, preferably in a new window/tab so that you can read the following instructions:

You'll see is a group of people, some in black shirts, some in white shirts. The white team is passing a ball between them, the black team is passing a second ball. Your task is to count how many times the white team passed the ball.

When you've watch the video and have a count, you can read about what you just did in this New Scientist article or go to the full list of winners.