If you really want to get in touch with people, sign up for a facebook account

[From a crank’s progress » Blog Archive » classmates.com spam scam]

So I did. Hmmm, not a lot of names I recognize. I realize I was in a big high school class (950 or so, I think) but still . . .

I had planned to be the last person on Facebook, but curiosity got the better of me.

Better Than Store-Bought Hot Chocolate Mix

Mix in a cup or jug:

• 1/3 cup dry milk powder
• 1 heaping tsp cocoa powder
• 2 heaping tsp sugar

Add 8 oz hot water.

Stir.

Enjoy.

This is better and cheaper than the packaged varieties, and you know what’s in it, unlike the other stuff:

sugar, modified whey, cocoa (processed with alkali), hydrogenated coconut oil, nonfat milk, calcium carbonate, less than 2% of: salt, dipotassium phosphate, mono- and diglyderides, artificial flavor, carrageenan.

I have been making hot cocoa from scratch (oooh, tricky: heating milk and adding the other two ingredients) for a while, and after talking to someone about an upcoming girl scout camping trip, I decided to try a dry mix that they could take along without needing to heat up milk.

Wear Good Shoes: Advice to young photographers

[From Magnum Blog / Wear Good Shoes: Advice to young photographers - the photo blog of Magnum Photos]

You don’t get to heaven above by trampling someone else’s heaven on earth.

[From TBogg » Blowback is a bitch ]

with more gems in the comments:

Your freedom of speech does *not* include freedom from the consequences.

Some people are so heavenly bound, they’re no earthly good.

Someone in my neck of the woods really h8s teh gay:

Lin Whatcott/ Accountant, Davita Inc. / Maple Valley, WA / $10,005

I wonder if some of these realize there are such things as public records?

Is it really going to be more convenient than just typing out “how tall is mount everest” in the Safari search field? I’m highly skeptical.

[From Daring Fireball Linked List: Google's Upcoming Voice-Driven iPhone Search App]

Well, let me help.

• Gestural interface (multi-touch on a touch screen, akin to how we learn to interact with the physical world): check
• Keyboard input for human/machine interaction when apps require it: check
• Spoken word interface, the one we use to communicate person to person at any distance, and the method that many consider to be what differentiates us from other primates: check

I don’t recall asking for things as a child with a keyboard, and I suspect saying “how tall is mount everest” is faster than typing, especially on a device when the keyboard interface has to be activated first.

Hmm. Better minds than mine seem to agree.

When Classmates.com told user Anthony Michaels last Christmas Eve that his former school chums were trying to contact him, he pulled out his wallet and upgraded to the premium membership that would let him contact long-lost fifth-grade dodge-ball buddies and see if his secret crush from high school had looked him up online.

A Classmates.com user alleges in a lawsuit that he’d been scammed by the online service.
But once he’d parted with the $15, Michaels learned the shocking truth: No one he knew was trying to contact him at all. Classmates.com’s come-on was a lie, and he’d been scammed.

[From ABC News: Classmates.com User Sues; Schoolmates Weren't Really Looking for Him]

context here.

Tip of the beat-up and weather-stained photographer’s chapeau

The 44th President of these United States.

My 11 year old is going to buy one of these. With his own money.

Remember your first music player? Was it as cool as this?

I think this makes good sense for a lot of people (like me). I think it could replace a laptop for my purposes. But not anytime soon.

The old AdSense revenue trickle isn’t all that helpful (4¢ today! Woo hoo!). And my other paying work is pretty limited.