You made it! Thanks for visiting.
Many of you have surely noticed lengthy URLs at different times while surfing the Internet. Here's an example of a large URL: http://lw8fd.law8.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg?curmbox=F000000001 &a=23f60270a632fa3543041ec27819571d&msg=MSG991341874.3 &start=1993662&len=1265&msgread=1&mfs=2011. What does all this craziness mean?
There's an intriguing question raised almost daily by most U.S. media sources when it comes to the Internet: Is now the right time to get into the adult Web-site industry?
Oh, my bad, that's my question. Media outlets are asking themselves a slightly different question: Should we or should we not charge for content?
After tallying the results of my informal questionnaire two weeks ago, I stumbled onto some startling results.
People actually read my column!
While I'm still tallying responses from my last column (of which I plan to have in-depth coverage next week), I did want to address a concern from one reader.
Actually, she's not a reader, I don't even think she will ever read that column. But she wasn't pleased with a comment/answer in the questionnaire. Although she knows it was purely a joke, she wasn't too thrilled.
So I decided my reconciliation would be to write the rest of this column about her.
The distinction between reality and not reality has intrigued society for thousands of years. When I say society, though, I suppose I'm discussing only those individuals who actually want to discern the difference between the two, since it is readily apparent that a great deal of people rather enjoy the blur between the two worlds. In the past, "unreality" could be considered anything from a dream sequence to joining a secret cult to playing/cheering for your favorite sports team. However, with technology at the helm, we have another life available: one that is virtual.
Wondering where all that spam is coming from? There's a good chance it's coming from the south Florida.
Spamhaus, an international non-profit organization whose mission is to track spam, noted that about a quarter of the 180 spammers the company tracks are from Florida, as reported by Florida's Sun-Sentinel. The city with the most spammers in the world is Boco Raton.
I have two more book appearances this month, both during the last full weekend in September. I'll be at both the Baltimore Book Festival and Baltimore Comic-Con.
I thought the Summer Olympics started Aug. 11, but I visited the official Athens 2004 Olympics site, and it says there are two days until it begins. On the home page, it proceeds to tell me the first soccer (or football outside the U.S.) matches are Aug. 11. How can the Games start before the Olympics start?
Nevertheless, the official site has a lot of options, including a schedule, news, results, biographies and about a billion other things that I left out. I was disappointed, though, at the coverage of synchronized diving.
Many of you know that I used to work at Kentucky Kingdom, an amusement park in Louisville, Ky. The park closed three years ago after Six Flags filed for bankrupcy. A group of Kingdom alumni are trying to generate interest in the park at SaveMyPark.com. Join us in saving the park!