Wow, I feel like a loser now. Google earth is pretty much my dream application. As I mentioned about a year ago [inlink]paul,952[/inlink], I used to love keyhole's earth browser software that google bought. I thought, oh google is just going to buy it and re brand it, but it seems that they majorly improved upon it by adding a connection to their search engine. It makes gogole maps seems pathetic.

You will need a pretty modern computer to get it running but once you do you will need a whole day to explore the world from Buffalo to Tokyo. You can fly from everywhere to everywhere and find tons of added user data, map data, driving directions, food search, topography, satellite images and best of terrain and build structures. Even buffalo's buildings are completely 3d modeled.

Here is where the taste of Buffalo will be tomorrow. I will definately be there but someone else is going to have to send cell phone pics because mine are still in quarantine.



You can even leave way points on the map and with the google plus version you can add polygons, use your gps, and do much more. Now I want it.

Just before vacation this came out and I couldn't play with it becausee they had stopped the download for some reason. Now it is back up and free as ever.

Here's the obligatory one the way post. I hope it works because I was tampering with the moblogging system before I left. I know this a real vacation because I don't have a computer but I do have a whole full pouch of rolling tobacco, a raft and a towel. Tomorrow I will be swimming around naked in the middle of nowhere. I know my phone doesn't work there. At least it didn't last year - maybe t-mobile expanded it's footprint.

(e:emilyjane) might be coming out to meet us. I told her to just yell in the forest till we hear her. I hope that works!!

It's always best not to make a milion changes just before you leave town for the middle of nowhere but I didn't follow my own advice so hopefully yhe site works while I'm away. If not I'm sorry.

Check out the site poetry link. See ya peeps.

NEW YORK - New York officials on Wednesday unveiled a new plan for the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero, saying the 1,776-foot-tall skyscraper had been redesigned to meet security concerns and would be even more elegant than originally envisioned.

Police had refused to sign off on the building's design two months ago, voicing concerns that its base was too close to the sidewalk and could not be adequately protected against a truck bomb attack.

Because of the changes, the 20-ton granite cornerstone that was laid with great fanfare by New York Gov. George Pataki last Fourth of July will have to be moved.

Quoted from: HoustonChronicle.com - Freedom Tower design tweaked for security

That thing is so gonna get blown up. I hate to sound callous but if anyone dies it in, I honestly won't even feel bad for them - unless it is (e:hodown) and even then it will only last about 5 minutes. After the original towers were bombed and then blown up, who would ever set foot in the new even more groteque "freedom tower." It's just screaming bring me down. I can almost here George Bush's texas twang when I say freedom in my head now. That word has become so perverted at this point.

Here is Jabe Pond. i will be there if anyone needs me, haha. However, you will need hiking boots and a canoe.



I stole this pic from somehwere on the web. I wish I could give credit but I lost the link if anyone knows where it came from IM me.

I am getting ready for camping today. We are going to the adirondacks starting tomorrow and lasting for a week. We will be really far away from people. The campsite is on an island in the middle of a lake on state land. You have to get their by canoe. It is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It's a really bad time for me to go with the thesis and evrything but it won't be summer for long and I should take advantage of it. (e:mike) will be staying at the mansion.

(e:shawnr) tried to get me to put google ads on the site. I tried it for a bit with the ads above the banner when I was logged in. The idea would be that the ads would be there unless you were logged in. I gave it about five minutes and started to feel sick. I mean it was like this sick capitalist satanic mark across the top of my otherwise happy place.

Then I found this quote someone wrote on another blog where there were google ads

Just as disheartening as when professional hockey replaced the bare white boards with banner ads.

The "in your face" money-grab commercialization has spread far and wide. Perhaps it is the new reality, but nontheless, a sad one, faced every day by us all, everywhere. And, I think it has conditioned us to develop personal filtering systems that require "shock and awe" to penetrate. All this pushes the envelope of what is acceptable in advertising...which in many cases results in nothing more then an exercise in bad taste.
lwist : oh. well, that's a good reason

That was the end of that. I removed the google ads. I would rather work to pay for the site myself than to see it look all commercial. The ads arn't very well targeted either. Each one of mine was about magic and magic shows. I never write about magic and don't have nay magic links.

For those of you that have never been there the Italian grocery store named Guercios at the corner of Grant and Lafayette is by far one of Buffalo's finest food treasures. They have the freshest produce at the best prices. Even cherries were reasonably priced. For some reason they were so freakin' expensive everywhere else. I bought lots of tasty italian treats at the most reasonable prices. Parking on grant is a little tricky, but you can easily park in the church lot across the street.





The other day I saw this pic for a party at a place called the Warehaus. It was back in May. Does anyone know anything about hits place, or did anyone go to this party?

I deleted just about everyone who signed up over a couple months ago and had zero entries. It was time that I cut back the fat from the database and they were ready to go at this point. It was hard to decide on for a lot of them because I will always wonder wonder happend. Did they have some simple technical difficulty that I could have helped them with. Was it the community itself? Did they join myspace or livejournal, as was the case with most of the ones I talked too. A lot of people said they were pressured to join by their professor at UB and that they stopped as soon as they were no longer ebing graded. That seemed really sad and never what I intended. I hate to think anyone thought they were required to keep a journal as a chore.

So now we are back down to a reasonable 181 users with 166 that have already written. This is good. We now are ready for new people and a fresh start. The caching system should help with speed, and soon enough - most likely by fall - I will have a much bigger server solution.

We hit a record high two days in a row. I actually really like being super hot. I figure that it's in my Mediterranean genes. Me and (e:mike) hiked down to wilson's farms for ice cream but we realized that we couldn't brign it home because it was so hot out. All of the freezer cases were defrosting and iced over. I decided on an iced brownie bar, which in reality was totally non-refreshing but a nice additional 380 calories that I could add to the cherries and sandwich I ate today. When it is so hot out, I am almost never hungry.

Yesterday night, I was walking home from the Artvoice Music festival when I saw that a friend of mine from France had signed on. We hadn't talked in a long time so I sent her an IM. She prompty said "Der Schiff ist in dem Wasser" and then signed off. That mean sthe ship is in the water, although it may be some idiom I cannot locate the definition of.

Anyways, so she signs off an dlike ten minutes later some other person signs on and starts IMing me in german but makes no sense. I ask them if they are "auf Drogen" and they reply I am not a dragon. they also tell me that EMilie is now a man. If figured it couldn't be write and so when they signed on again I tried in English. Still no real sucess locating her.

paulSideKick: hallo
paulSideKick: wie kennst du emilie?
FSAS725 returned at 12:53:39 PM.
FSAS725: ja
paulSideKick: do you speak better english than german
paulSideKick: ?
FSAS725: ENGLISH!!!
FSAS725: YAY!
FSAS725: im TRYING to teach myself the BASICS of german
paulSideKick: oh
FSAS725: but you're like a german-speaking type person
paulSideKick: i speak english better
paulSideKick: so how do you know emilie
FSAS725: ooooh
FSAS725: lmao
FSAS725: OKAY
FSAS725: shes my friend
paulSideKick: do you guys go to school together
paulSideKick: ?
FSAS725: yeah
paulSideKick: at first I thought you were a crazy german
paulSideKick: I aske dyou if you werew on drugs
paulSideKick: and you repsonded
FSAS725: REALLY?!!?
paulSideKick: i"i am not a dragon"
paulSideKick: lol
FSAS725: lmfao
FSAS725: yeah
FSAS725: i thought you were asking me if i was a dragon
paulSideKick: i was like, okay
paulSideKick: no
paulSideKick: Drogen are drugs
FSAS725: ooh
paulSideKick: haha
paulSideKick: so were are you at
FSAS725: well i can't find that in any german books, lol
FSAS725: im in the USA
paulSideKick: is emilie in the USA
paulSideKick: ?
paulSideKick: with you
FSAS725: yep
paulSideKick: where
paulSideKick: ?
paulSideKick: I though she was moving to canada
FSAS725: yeah she is
paulSideKick: is she at school or traveling
paulSideKick: that is so crazy
paulSideKick: emilie and I went to school togther in Germany
paulSideKick: in 2001
FSAS725: rrrrrrrly?
FSAS725: i mean really?
paulSideKick: ya
paulSideKick: how do you know her?
FSAS725: shes my friend from school
paulSideKick: whre did you guys go to school togtehr
paulSideKick: ?
paulSideKick: in france
paulSideKick: or romania
FSAS725: im not french
paulSideKick: or here in the USA
FSAS725: or italian
paulSideKick: I am american
paulSideKick: I live in buffalo now
FSAS725: aweosme
FSAS725: i am british
FSAS725: but i live in the usa
paulSideKick: so yesterday you also said emilie is a man now
paulSideKick: but I assume that was also a mistranslation
paulSideKick: ?
FSAS725: uhhh yeah
FSAS725: i was just sitting there with my 'german through pictures: book 1' and trying to find some words you were using
paulSideKick: haha
paulSideKick: that is so funny
paulSideKick: I totally though you were crazy
FSAS725: haha, niiice
FSAS725: most people do
FSAS725: lol
paulSideKick: where is emilie at in the USA
paulSideKick: I would love to see her
FSAS725: shes in texas on vacation
FSAS725: shes a professional cowboy
paulSideKick: really
paulSideKick: ?
FSAS725: yeah
paulSideKick: how did she start being a cowboy
FSAS725: well, when she used to live in texas she was kidnapped one night by red indians and they bought her to this place and held her there for like 7 months and she learned the ways of the thingy and she got into it..but when they found her she moved and goes back there once in a while because shes so good
paulSideKick: haha
paulSideKick: you are crazy after all
FSAS7
25: wee wee
FSAS725: but its TRUE
FSAS725: so where did you and emilie go to school
paulSideKick: in JEna
FSAS725: where?
paulSideKick: Jena
paulSideKick: it is a city south of dresden
FSAS725: wee wee
FSAS725: cooly

What is this going to mean for P2P technology such as (e:shawnr) 's blogtorrent. Also what about tape decks and CD burners. Are they the next to go?

Technology for trading files on the Internet unanimously condemned by U.S. Supreme Court.

Online peer-to-peer networks can be held liable for users' illegal file trading, said the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.

The Court ruled unanimously against Grokster, upholding a Hollywood coalition's allegation that software developers violate federal law when they provide the means to share copyrighted music and movies.

"We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by the clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties," Justice David H. Souter wrote for the court.Quoted from: RED HERRING | Grokster Loses =Grokster Loses &sector=Industries&subsector=EntertainmentAndMedia

This is even crazier. What context is "part of a broader display of historical symbols?" I wonder what woul dhappen if we pushed to get lots of islamic symbols display as parts of historical symbol art projects on federal land. Someone really needs to test this.

Ten Commandments Display Allowed by U.S. High Court (Update3)

June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Governments can post the Ten Commandments on public property as part of a broader display of historical symbols, as long as officials aren't aiming to promote religion, the U.S. Supreme Court said.Quoted from: Bloomberg.com: U.S.