I just peeked at my logs, and I’ve had more than 36,000 raw http hits today. I usually average about 12,000 raw hits per day across all of my domains/sites. Not sure what’s causing the spike (my host’s reporting tool won’t show me individual page stats until the day’s over), but I can’t wait to find out what caused it. Hopefully it’s something positive, like a bunch of people reading/subscribing, and not something crappy like a DDoS attack or something.
In other news, I’m at home, and I think my sinuses have figured out how to produce *ahem* snot out of absolutely nothing, because they’ve been producing inhumanly copious amounts of the stuff since Saturday morning. Yay me…
EDIT: Found out what file is getting hit - the XML feed for PortlandPodcasting.org, a site I host for the Portland Podcasting community. Someone’s probably got a misconfigured RSS aggregator, checking 20+ times per minute. I’ve posted a request for whoever it is to fix it, or unsubscribe.
My nose has been running like a faucet all day, and my sinuses still feel like they might just burst. I’ve been taking Sudafed like it’s candy, and I took to NyQuil gelcaps a while ago, so I can try to get some sleep tonight. Ugh.
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
And it’s 100% legit. Cory Doctorow writes some great science fiction. I really enjoyed his previous books (Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and Eastern Standard Tribe), which are also available for free download on his site.
Why does he give electronic versions of his books away for free?
The whole point of giving away electronic books is to experiment with electronic text and spot where the new opportunities for earning a writer’s living lie — working with my audience, not against them. So with every release, I’ve tried some experimentation. This book is no exception.
Yet he still makes money selling the books. Lots, according to him. See? You don’t need Draconian DRM to be successful in the internetworked world. I hope other media companies take notice of Cory’s success and methods.
Anyway, I’ve downloaded the book in eReader PDB format, and I’ll put it on my Pocket PC to read. Can’t wait!
We call him Couchcrack, because that’s usually where he’s at (we use him a lot in the evenings, when we’re sitting on the couch watching TV.
When I’m not using my work-issue laptop (a Thinkpad T42p), the Dell 700m is my main machine. Small, light, and powerful. The built-in SD slot is a great feature, and makes it easy for me to grab pictures off of my camera and post them.
Of all the things I’ve written about on TinyScreenfuls.com, my Dell Inspiron 700m review had generated by far the most email inquiries and comments. It’s a great little machine.
Ponzi, I didn’t know you had your own vineyard! 
(Taken on Scholls Ferry Road and Roy Rogers in Beaverton, OR).
We were at the stop light, and my wife Rachel said “Hey look - Ponzi has a vineyard!”. She’s never actually met Chris or Ponzi, but she hears me talk about them enough that I guess she feels like she knows them. Every geek should have a wife as understanding as mine.
GadgetFamily.org: Emma’s 2nd Birthday Party
Flickr is awesome, but you all know that if you’ve read or listened to me for any length of time recently.
I’ve posted up some photos of my daughter’s birthday party last night. I can’t believe it’s so quick and easy to share photos of stuff like this with friends and family that are scattered all over the place.
Stuff like this is the reason I consider myself a Technology Evangelist - I love to find cool new useful stuff, and share it with other people. Eat like a bird, poop like an elephant!
A stopped clock is right at least twice a day. This atomic clock that I bought for cheap on Amazon changes randomly from day to day. Sometimes it’s right on. Sometimes it’s 20-30 minutes behind for a day. Sometimes it’s exactly an hour behind for a day. It drives my wife crazy, and I’ve been told that if I want to preserve domestic harmony, I must replace this clock. Should I try to get a better atomic clock, or just get a regular one?
Snapped this photo showing my MSN Direct SPOT watch, which is also set to the atomic clock, to show the time discrepancy.
Emma turns 2 today - Happy Birthday, Chicken!
As you can see, we’re going to have some festivities, with some friends and cousins. You can bet I’ll take lots of photo and video, and post it. Maybe even a GadgetFamily.org Podcast.
For now, you can check out all of my photos of Emma on Flickr. That link will also show you any new photos that I post after the birthday bash.
Can’t wait until she gets old enough to start blogging/podcasting!
I often watch TV episodes that I’ve snagged via BitTorrent on my Dell Axim X50V Pocket PC. The TV shows come down as high resolution DivX files, which look absolutely awesome on the VGA screen of the Dell. I’ve always got a couple of episodes on my 1GB SD card, to watch on the train, or whenever. It’s one of the coolest things I can do with the X50V.
Flickr Album
Now this is REALLY cool. Head over to the link above, enter in your Flickr username, a tag (optional), and the max number of pages you want, then click go.
After the Flash app loads, click and drag the little dogear corner of the page, and turn the page. Viola! Instant virtual reality photo album of your Flickr photos.
If you want to check out some of my photos, use the username JoshB, tag TinyScreenfuls.
I love finding cool stuff like this that interacts with Flickr! Thanks to Thomas Hawk for the heads up.
Delta Park Project: A Pop Culture Blog
If you listen to the Delta Park Project podcast, you know that Jason and Anna are hilarious. If you don’t listen, go check them out. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
I’m listening to Episode 33 right now, and they mentioned the launch of Delta Park Blog. Imagine a text version of the funny and interesting pop culture observations that we’ve come to expect and love from Jason and Anna.
Good stuff, guys. I’m subscribed!
TinyScreenfuls Feed (this blog)
