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Welcome to BenWoods.com
I'm becoming rather disappointed in the Internet's search engines. The other day, I couldn't find my keys, and neither could any of them.
I was talking to your computer the other day, and he said you were a little perturbed. He said you didn't appreciate me or anyone else, especially NATO officials, being able to find all kinds of information on you. Wasn't the Computer Age founded on simple things, like privacy and freedom to practice whatever mathematical calculations you wish?
If you're like me, you could use a big bowl of ice cream about now, and you are tired of hearing dot-com this and dot-com that. Soon, you won'tn be hearing this crap anymore. Instead, it might be dot-crap.
The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has decided to expand the current list of top-level domains -- http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,16268,00.html?nl=int
Maybe I'm in a small minority, but I'm still confused how so many people are duped every so often by an e-mail virus. Let's take this step by step:
A guy walks into his workspace at 7:30 a.m., preparing for another exciting day of whatever. He opens his inbox to find 50 e-mails -- 45 promising him to lose weight, financial freedom or cheap Viagra four from actual friends, probably chain letters and one other with a subject header of "Open repeatedly, this is not a virus," which of course is from virusdemon@viruscentral.com.
From the Archive
The Good Advice Committee's first task was to determine whether or not it was appropriate to download songs for free from the Internet. Good arguments were made on both sides, but in the end, the committee voted no, 4-1.
NATE: NO
I find nothing wrong with downloading music off the internet. Most of the songs that are being downloaded are from artists who already have more money than they know what to do with. The last time I watched "Cribs" on MTV, it doesn't look like Jay-Z was losing out from everybody downloading his songs for free.
If you're close to my age (under 80, but older than 5), you may remember one of the earlier educational games, Oregon Trail. This game possibly accurately depicted random people following Lewis and Clark in their quest for new land, gold and Texas tea. Or, wait, Texas wasn't around yet. Was there tea?
Anyway, the game taught multiple skills, none of which helped you make tea. But they did help kids make critical decisions on how best to outfit a caravan across an unknown wilderness, with food, clothing, weapons, etc.
Things seem to be getting more hectic as each year passes. I suspect some day, we'll have 26 hours in a day, but until that happens, we'll have to settle with getting everything imaginable taken care of in a normal day. As for me, I have a few new projects going, which is why I haven't had as much time lately to write articles and respond to comments. Have no fear! In 2009, you'll see plenty on this site, including the following:
Since the comments page is getting pretty full, I decided that I should pull out some of the newer items on occasion. Here are the two most recent reader reviews for "The Developers."
Anyway, great book. I love any fiction books that can keep me interested in the plot and characters. Awesome pop culture references.
I'm really getting into the characters. I think you do a great job in setting up the characters, their pasts, etc. You are good at writing women, by the way. How did you learn how to do that?
Google has set up a simple page to allow Internet users the ability to get involved with the cleanup and rebuilding of the areas affected by the recent tsunami. There are also links to information resources, including the Tsunami help blog.