Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Linkpile

Operation Gadget points to Ka-thunk, the corporate salesblog for Maytag's Skybox. So does Gizmodo.

In IT Garage: On the Other Head, Orange County Choppers, New Dialog Wanted.

Stuart Hughes is blogging the olympics in Greece.

Ethan Zuckerman: Sudan — Marching Towards Anarchy. On an unrelated matter, Ethan says Unfortunately, "Outfoxed" kinda sucked.

Tim Wu on Larry Lessig's blog: Digital Audio and the Copyright Gap. About how the RIAA continues to prevent an industry from happening.

With Warner's Tryst With Bloggers Hits Sour Note, Lockergnome points to a David Gallagher piece by that title in the NYTimes.

Paul Graham: Great Hackers. The essay version of his outstanding keynote at OSCon. His new book is Hackers & Painters. Bonus link: Doug Kaye's interview with Paul.

Flemming Funch on Microcontent.

Wired News no longer capitalizes Internet and Web because in the case of internet, web and net, a change in our house style was necessary to put into perspective what the internet is: another medium for delivering and receiving information. Creeping Jeebus, what a fucking sellout. Media can be regulated and controlled in ways that places and spaces cannot (as the editors of Wired Magazine know well, and who surely find this dumb decision irritating). What we have with the Net is a place where we inform — and therefore change — each other. Not where we just ship "content," like so much container cargo, from producers to consumers. [Later...] After hearing from Wired Magazine, I made some edits to the above to clarify the difference between Wired News and the magazine. Again, the decision was made by the Wired News, which is owned by Lycos, not by Wired Magazine, which, no doubt, persists in the correct capitalization of Internet and Web.

Credits where due

Heading out to Montauk this morning, our last of vacation on the East Coast. It'll be interesting to see Hither Hills State Park, where my family went camping for two weeks each Summer in the early Sixties.

The last time I was there was the Summer I turned 17, in 1964. Every other song on the radio was "Where Did Our Love Go," by the Supremes, Motown's first monster hit. I was about to be a senior in high school, but still shy with girls.

That changed at Hither Hills when I met Janice Planamenta, a gorgeous 15 year old girl from the Bronx. She walked past our tent one morning and said "Hey, birthday boy!" I'd never seen her before, and if life had been a cartoon, my eyes would have popped out of my head with a loud Booiiinnngg! I don't know how she got word it was my birthday, but it hardly mattered. That she had any interest in me at all was a life-altering experience. Up to that point I had belonged to the bottom social caste, girl-wise: a skinny dweeb more comfortable with A/V equipment than with members of the opposite sex. Even though Janice flirted expertly with lots of boys, her interest transformed me into an Eligible Bachelor.

I didn't get much past friendship with her, and left with a huge crush that lasted until I fell for another girl that Fall in high school. But thanks to Janice, I had the courage to ask the new girl out for a date, and my shyness was gone forever.

So I just looked up "Janice Planamenta" on Google, and found a single reference, from 2000:

Janice Planamenta also has joined the association. She and partner Michael DeFelice opened Taste of Italy restaurant in Largo in late May.

Can't tell if the restaurant's still around. Doesn't matter. It's been fun running just one among the many credits for my life.

[Later...] Just searched again in December (Yes, the future can post in the past), and also found this post in a forum. I'm quite sure it's her. If it is, and a Google search has brought her here, then Hi, Janice!