Around the garden at my parents’ house.
Consistent Hashing
Programmer’s Toolbox Part 3: Consistent Hashing. It would be interesting if something like this could be folded into the currently random slave server selection for HyperDB.
Accenture GCF208 Day 1
Accenture Global Convergence Forum 2008 in Miami, Florida. Conference; Devitos; Delano hotel.
As promised a few weeks ago, a new installment of the Wired Silk Road story is out and I wanted to share it, The Untold Story of Silk Road, Part 2: The Fall. This one is actually a lot more normal, with some surprisingly simple breaks leading to the downfall of Ross, but there’s an interesting twist at the end.
Mark on DRM
Monk was the master of the single note, perfectly selected, timed, and struck so that it would have a symphonic amplitude. The asymptote of his music is a punctuated silence, which is why he was especially sensitive to his drummers and dependent on them to organize the music’s forward motion.
The New Yorker reviews the 15 CD set, The Best of Thelonious Monk, which sounds like a lovely set of music to spend a weekend with.
Whuffie Interview
I was on The Whuffie Factor, an interview with Tara Hunt in anticipation of her new book. I’ve already pre-ordered Tara’s book, you can do so too on Amazon.
Speaking at Start Conference
Jeffrey Veen and Bryan Mason are putting together a very interesting conference called Start. It’s only $200 and the morning format is short-form interviews with interesting people, and somehow I slipped in there. Mark the date — August 7, 2008.
Social Networking Sanity Check
Social Networking Gets a Sanity Check, from GigaOM.
Visiting Houston
Visiting home in Houston.
On the recommendation of my friend Timothy Young I checked out the book The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir. Think of it like Shackleton’s Voyage (a great recommendation from Toni) but on Mars. I really enjoyed the book, and if you like geeky, science-filled novels you will too. One thing about the publishing I thought was really cool, as the Wikipedia puts it:
Having been rebuffed by literary agents when trying to get prior books published, Weir decided to put the book online in serial format one chapter at a time for free at his website. At the request of fans he made an Amazon Kindle version available through Amazon.com at 99 cents (the minimum he could set the price). The Kindle edition rose to the top of Amazon’s list of best-selling science-fiction titles, where it sold 35,000 copies in three months, more than had previously downloaded it for free. This garnered the attention of publishers: Podium Publishing, an audiobook publisher, signed for the audiobook rights in January 2013. Weir sold the print rights to Crown in March 2013 for six figures.
I was hoping it was on a WordPress blog, but it appears to be more of a static HTML site (his official site is WP-powered) and includes some awesome short vignettes like Meeting Sarah.
WordPress / Yahoo Brickhouse Meetup
If you’re in the San Francisco area join us at the Yahoo! Brickhouse for a WordPress meetup this Wednesday. This’ll actually be my first time at the Brickhouse, but I hear they have some mean Wii players.
Sphere Wrap Party
Sphere celebration party at Phil’s house.
From a nondescript office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, an army of well-paid “trolls” has tried to wreak havoc all around the Internet — and in real-life American communities.
This story of Adrian Chen in Russian definitely turns weird at the end.
Techcrunch has a really great essay by Natasha Lomas that I think got missed, The Online Privacy Lie Is Unraveling.
Americans believe it is futile to manage what companies can learn about them. Our study reveals that more than half do not want to lose control over their information but also believe this loss of control has already happened.
Theme Directory Interview
Pre-WordCamp Dinner
A dinner for speakers and Automatticians at Jack Falstaff preceding WordCamp SF 2008.
Temple in Bali
Playing Bali xylophone, exploring an ancient temple, crazy bat creatures, and around town.
SxSW 2009 Panel Vote
Riding the Crazyhorse: Iterative Testing and Design of WordPress. If that sounds like something you’d want to see at SxSW 2009 presented by Liz Danzico, Jane Wells, and yours truly then vote early and often. Polls close soon.
Mark Cuban, Jason Calacanis, Hackaday, and Royal Navy
Mark Cuban, Jason Calacanis, Hackaday, and the Royal Navy all now have WordPress-powered blogs. The first three switched from Blogsmith. Hat tip: Automattic Publisher Blog.