Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Second Life Simulation

Posted on July 2, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Clever YouTubers have simulated the experience of being in Second Life in real life.

Posted in Virtual Worlds | 1 Comment

Had Enough?

Posted on July 2, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Four years ago, GW Bush told US attackers in Iraq to bring them on. And they did.

Since then, 3,372 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, and tens of thousands more injured or wounded. (Details.) Not to mention the civilian death and destruction.

And for what, exactly?

Posted in Iraq | 4 Comments

Hurricane Season

Posted on July 2, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

from Frank Kaiser's “Suddenly Senior” mailing list, the “Top Ten Reasons Hurricane Season Is Like Christmas”

10. Decorating the house (boarding up windows).
9. Dragging out boxes that haven't been used since last season (camping gear,
flashlights).
8. Last minute shopping in crowded stores.
7. Regular TV shows preempted for “specials”.
6. Family coming to stay with you.
5. Family and friends from out-of-state calling.
4. Buying food you don't normally buy … and in large quantities.
3. Days off from work.
2. Candles.

1. And the number-one reason Hurricane Season is like Christmas…At some point you know you're going to have a tree in your house!

On a more serious note, we're having an African dust storm this weekend, straight from the Sahara Desert, which seems to have some dampening effect on hurricanes, or be correlated with one.

In general, Saharan dust storms, which generally arrive between June and August and can shroud sunsets in a pale yellow haze, can be our friend:

For reasons not completely understood, the dust storms or the meteorological conditions that accompany them tend to suppress the development of hurricanes.

''They somehow work on cloud mechanisms,'' Prospero said.

Moreover, they help build Florida — literally.

Top soil in much of the state includes copious amounts of reddish African dust, deposited over countless eons.

''Africa is contributing to our soils here in Florida,'' Prospero said. “What you are seeing is geology at work, very slowly.''

Posted in Miami | Comments Off on Hurricane Season

Phone Frenzies

Posted on June 30, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

We were driving in downtown Coral Gables last night a bit before seven pm, when we saw something very unusual: a long line of people queuing on the sidewalk. Understand that people just don't stand around much outdoors in South Florida in late June. It's too hot. And yet, here was a line halfway down the block, curving around to something we could not see. A book signing? Supermodels? Miami Dolphins? No. After we turned the corner, all was revealed: The AT&T/Cingular store. I'm guessing a horde of folks came by after work to buy an iPhone and were still there an hour or two later. (The looked too fresh to have been there all day.) When I came back around 8:30 pm there were still over a dozen people in the queue. Amazing.

More to my taste is this feature from AnandTech, Apple's iPhone Dissected: We did it, so you don't have to. Not that there's anything terribly surprising in there…

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 3 Comments

Highly Recommended: “The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters”

Posted on June 30, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Suppose Jane Austen were alive today, did speed, and wrote a Steampunk James Bondish story set in the Victorian era but with an amateur tea-drinking female as the lead character. The result might be something like a tame version of Gordon Dahlquist's “The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters”.

I'd call it the thinking man's beach novel, only it's much too good. Apparently it took ten years to write — but secured a $2 million advance, which is astronomical for a first novel.

Dahlquist sounds like an interesting guy in this interview at Powells Books. And he reads blogs!

Do you read blogs? What are some of your favorites?
Two favorites would be Firedoglake, a superb political blog run by Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith, and then GoFugYourself, run by the “tar-hearted” Jessica and Heather, which is superbly vicious.

Do not start this book late at night.

Posted in Kultcha | 3 Comments

Automobile IPv6 Considered Harmful

Posted on June 29, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

I read far too many mailing lists. But once in a while you see something that makes you sit up. Like this exchange on Nanog in a thread entitled “An IPv6 address for new cars in 3 years”:

>> … Looks like someone, somewhere intends to be live with Pv6
>> in 3-5 years. Off Topic: The privacy and security ramifications boggle
>> the mind….
>>
>
>Fully mobile, high speed botnets?

*bing*

Posted in Internet | Comments Off on Automobile IPv6 Considered Harmful