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Ava Princess

By Ava

Once upon a time there was a princess named Ava, and she had sisters named Lily and Clara. Her mom and dad were thinking about a party for her. And then she went outside so her parents couldn't see her.

And then she decided to make a birthday cake for herself. And then there was a monster. That monster almost got her, but it was only a person.

It was one of her sisters. It was Clara. And Lily was a princess, so she went back into the castle, and she started writing. And then there was another thing that she wanted to add to it. Her sister was in the picture.

Princesses

Ava and Lily at a fall festival

By Ava

Once upon a time, there was a princess whose name was Ava. And then there was a horse. And then the horse had a prince on it. And then the prince told the princess how to do art. And then she already made art. And then she showed the prince her art project.

THE END

Updated Performance Against Seed Expectations

Some of you are probably familiar with the Performance Against Seed Expectations (PASE) metric used with the men's tournament brackets. In short, the metric takes into account how many games a seed is expected to win based on past performances since 1985 (the first year of the 64-team tournament). I use this metric to determine expected offensive statistical totals for the college basketball fantasy league that I run each March.

Gonna give you up? NEVER!

With the 10th anniversary of "The Developers" happening this year (right now, in fact!), I wanted to address a sensitive issue regarding Rick Astley.

I didn't invent the rickroll, at least, not directly.

Ten years

Ten years ago this month, I originally published "The Developers." It's weird to think it was that long ago, and even weirder to think that I started on the book 13 years ago, in 2002. While so much has changed with the Internet, the key tenets of the book seemingly still hold true:

1. The Internet is a social place.
2. Governments and corporations are always watching.

Then again, I guess these items are relevant in real-life situations as well. It's just much easier to track people (definitely as a group but also as individuals) online.

From the Archive

Spam tops televangelists as most annoying thing ever

You receive a lot of spam, right? Apparently, so does everyone else.

In a recent report compiled by SoftScan, close to 90 percent of emails sent in July were spam. It should be noted that SoftScan is a company that offers anti-spam software, and that it also acknowledges that fewer actual emails were sent in July because of the holiday, according to vnunet.com.

GAC: Adding music to a website

QUESTION

Do you think it's a good idea to have music playing in the background on a website?

AMANDA: YES

Buying, selling cars online made simple

To prove once again you can buy and sell anything on the Internet, I have decided to put a bunch of my old business cards up for sale. You can buy them directly from me for $.01 per card or $.25 for a whole box.

It's official: not everything is on the web

Yes, you heard that right. Everything is not on the web. On top of that, I have actual proof that everything is not on the web. Check out notontheweb.com. The page is on the web, but it just goes to show that not everything is on the web. I realize this is a bit of logic problem, but just deal with it!

Award-winning Mac apps at a low price

If you're looking for the perfect Christmas gift for Mac lovers, you may want to check out MacHeist. The site is currently offering up to eight award-winning Mac applications for $49. On top of that, 25 percent of each purchase goes to the charity of your choice. So not only do you receive something, your favorite charity does too. The eight applications you will receive are Delicious Library, FotoMagico, ShapeShifter, DEVONthink Personal, Disco, RapidWeaver, iClip 4, one Pangea Game, NewsFire and TextMate.

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