Michael Castellon

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Merry Christmas, from way out here https://www.instagram.com/p/DO4GdyOEvAE/ My #Maine squeeze 🦞🇺🇸 Happy birthday to the most amazing woman in my life. Your love, laughter, and kindness make every day brighter. Here’s to celebrating you and all the joy you bring to everyone around you. https://www.instagram.com/p/DE0AEGvPk0b/ After hundreds of hours in the Texas sky, I can say this: the quiet charm of small-town airports never fades. ✈️ #flying #aopa #eaa #aviation https://www.instagram.com/p/DC-lpVgtZg9/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DBXe_dsvXQ6/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DAOPYsOPboq/

  • Google quietly unveils online Web site creator

    Google Page Creator. And everyone with Gmail can signup for an account. So far it looks pretty good. Here’s a quick rundown.

    pros:

    • Lets you edit your own html
    • Good for being spidered in Google search engine
    • Good for hosting your images for free without worrying about size
    • Reliability – Google also owns and maintains blogger – which is generally a very reliable blog hosting service, so you won’t have to worry about downtime

    cons:

    • By default, your Gmail username becomes your subdomain name (bad for you, good for spammers)
    • No support for Safari, although that’s likely to change soon
    • Everybody and their brother will have a crappy Web site and will again pretend to be Web developers – a la 1997 Geocities accounts. But, this can be good for people who need a free host and can provide good content or services

    Here are some notes from Google, as well as their terms of service as related to ads:

    Create your own web pages, quickly and easily.
    Google Page Creator is a free online tool that finally makes it easy for anyone
    to create and publish useful, attractive web pages in just minutes.

    Publish in seconds
    With one click, the pages you create are ready
    for your friends, family and the whole world
    to see at http://%5Busername%5D.googlepages.com/

    11. ADVERTISEMENTS
    Many Google services are supported by advertising revenue and may display advertisements and promotions on the service. The manner, mode and extent of advertising by Google on its services are subject to change. You agree that Google shall not be responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort incurred as a result of any such dealings or as the result of the presence of such advertisers on Google services.

  • Digg flaw discovered


    On Wednesday night a user using the nickname itoldyouso posted to Digg a link to a video that shows users how they can “digg” a story multiple times, as opposed to the single vote that users can typically give a story. (click image to enlarge)

    This flaw is likely going to be a relatively significant problem for Digg developers as any abuse of the voting system could significantly impact how stories are voted to the site’s main page.

    UPDATE:

    I tested user itoldyouso’s bug – and was relatively shocked to discover that it worked for me. Unfortunately, my Digg account was suspended almost immediately after testing it.

    Kevin Rose, co-founder of Digg and co-star of Diggnation, just emailed me inquiring about it. I advised him I wasn’t the user that discovered the bug but that I did indeed test it and found (to my horror) that it worked. He advised me they found the flaw and are fixing it now. Hopefully once everything is sorted out I’ll have my account reinstated.

    UPDATE 2:

    Digg Support just contacted me and reinstated my account with a very firm warning not to test any more flaws. I have no problem at all with that request. Thanks to Kevin and the Digg team for addressing this right away.

    Calling all Digg users: Do not try to test this bug for yourself. It will certainly result in a suspension of your account. Let the developers dive in and fix the problem without being further burdened by spammed counters.

  • O’Reilly calls for U.S. to “get out of Iraq”

    Bill O’Reilly three months ago:

    “People saying we should get out of Iraq as soon as possible are like Nazi sympathizers.”

    Bill O’Reilly this week:

    “We should get out of Iraq as fast as humanly possible”

    During the February 20 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Bill O’Reilly suggested that the United States “hand over everything to the Iraqis as fast as humanly possible” because “[t]here are so many nuts in the country — so many crazies — that we can’t control them.” O’Reilly then claimed that the “big mistake” was actually “the crazy-people underestimation.” (more)

    I typically don’t like to go the ways of the pundit, but it’s always interesting to see shifts in the political climate.

  • What does a Chinese Keyboard look like?

  • Computer History Museum photos

    A user by the name of LaughingSquid has posted some interesting pictures from the Computer History Museum. We’ve come a long way. Check it out. It won’t be too long until we’ll look back on the computers we’re using right now with awe.

  • Is this the new video iPod?

    Tech Today has posted this picture and article which it reports to be related to the next generation video iPod:

    this picture was taken of a pre-production version of the iPod Video (with a Motorola V710 taken around mid Jan ‘06) playing a specialy encoded version of The Office. With the release of this new device, higher resolution copies of shows already available for purchase on iTunes will also be available for download.

    To me this looks like a pretty poor photoshop, but I’m posting this just in case. The design, I’ll point out, does seem to be consistent with the rumored design of the upcoming generation of video iPod.

  • Benefit for homeless canceled…due to weather

    An event to raise funds for people who have to sleep in the cold was canceled because it was cold:

    … the second annual “Homeless in the Park” event scheduled to be held by Alpha Delta Pi and Pi Kappa Alpha Greek organizations of Southeast Missouri State University. The event which would have included 150 men and women spending the day without food and water in an effort to raise money for the Salvation Army was canceled due to the snow.

    “It was snowing last night so we didn’t know if we were going to do it, and when we woke up this morning the conditions were a little horrendous so we decided to call it off,” said Pi Kappa Alpha president Brent Jackson.

    In short, the day was too cold to be homeless.

    “I don’t want to sound like that, but it really was,” said Jackson.

    Words escape me.

  • “Lawer” threatens Boing-Boing

    Not long ago Cory Doctorow blogged of a saga involving a stolen camera and the unwillingness of the thief to send it back to it’s rightful owner:

    A woman lost her camera on holidays; the family who found it decided not to return it because their child liked it so much.

    On Monday the plot thickened, as Doctorow points out:

    Shortly after that post, I got an email from someone who claimed his name was “Don Deveny,” purportedly a Canadian Barrister of a sort called “Queen’s Counsel.” “Deveny” implied that the post was illegal and that I was liable for making it.

    However, I don’t believe that “Deveny” is a lawyer. For one thing, he can’t spell “lawyer.” For another, he doesn’t know the difference between “libel” and “slander.” He can’t even spell “counsel.”

    I have contacted all of the law societies in Canada that license barristers to practice. None of them have any record of “Deveny,” nor does the Canadian Law List. No one under that name is listed in any Canadian phone directory as a practicing attorney.

    Be sure to read all the drama on Boing-Boing.