From the NEW YORK TIMES: “What if Google knew before anyone else that a fast-spreading flu outbreak was putting you at heightened risk of getting sick? And what if it could alert you, your doctor and your local public health officials before the muscle aches and chills kicked in? That, in essence, is the promise … Google Flu Trends – (Me and Muggy got our flu shots)

Don, Kent and I wrote a Christmas song (called Christmas Time)* last year, a collaborative effort that has languished (for the most part) forgotten until now. There were quite a few editing and mixing issues that I hadn’t had time to tackle until recently, and after all (I thought to myself), what’s the hurry? Christmas … Christmas Time

I’ve always wanted a Talkie Toaster (with a volume knob, of course), but I could settle for this: [This is the mouseover text for our RSS via email readers: “I find your lack of toast disturbing…”] I toast, therefore I am. Thank you, Captain Voorhese. One final question – would you like some toast? Bread … And I thought Talkie Toaster was cool

This XKCD comic makes you think, and then makes you angry: [This is the xkcd mouseover for our RSS via email readers: “I spent more time trying to get an audible.com audio book playing than it took to listen to the book. I have lost every other piece of DRM-locked music I have paid for.”] … XKCD DRM-free comic: piracy or lunacy?

I have been manually inserting drop caps on the first letter of my posts for some time now, just because I like the look – it reminds me of some of my favorite books, especially when they get all elaborate with calligraphy. But frankly it’s a bit of a pain, I have to insert this … WordPress Drop Caps Plugin and Search and Replace Plugin

I have driven across Old Bend Bridge at least a bajillion times (at least), and I know a lot of readers have, too. So it was kind of interesting to read this article about attempts by the city of Pacific to organize a committee to try and have it replaced. Good luck with that. It’s … Old Bend Bridge

Steven Brust is one of my all-time favorite writers. I heard of him from another of my favorite writers, Roger Zelazny. Anyway, he’s having a tough time right now (Steven, not Roger. Roger passed away in 1995. Wow it seems incredibly sad that he’s been gone that long, it seems only very recently that I … Steven Brust, Firefly and The Fickle Finger

Obviously if you’re reading this you can see the new flash header – it was tough getting something cool that wasn’t ridiculously huge (file size wise) – the first lame attempt was 1.4 megabytes! (I said NFW). Now it rolls in at a svelte 105 kb’s (sweet). I used the Kimili Flash Embed plugin (a … New flash header with wordpress plugin Kimili

I’m going to start doing some podcasting soon, so I thought it would be nice to create a graphic for the show – here it is in all it’s raging glory:

I wasn’t happy with a few things about my old contact form, so I switched to Contact Form 7. It’s pretty awesome – it allows me to use the askimet spam filter and CAPTCHA, which I’m totally digging. Check it out: Contact Me. So yeah, u kixors the ass Takayuki Miyoshi.