I stopped by Arcot Systems today to chat and took some photos of a few Arcot folks.  Below is the view from my office minus the screendoor.

It's kind of dark, but the greens on the right are cucumbers.  My wife slaughtered one of them for dinner today.  To the left and just beyond it are Korean peppers and tomatos.

I just had another one of those seemingly silly idea that could end up being popular, well, at least among advertisers.

Empty Space Ads

Every web page has empty spaces which are normally dead areas.  Why not use mouse clicks in those areas to popup or navigate to an ad?  When I tried it out, it feels like accidentally falling between cracks and I ended up paying more attention to the ad than normal banner ads.  And since I was the one who did it, meaning self-inflicted, it didn't feel as irritating.  Weird.

Tooltip Ads

Web pages have lots of areas that just does nothing.  Why not display small WordAds like Google does in a tooltip when the mouse hovers over those dead areas for a while?

I am not into advertising but I thought above two ideas could be useful to some people.  I get too many ideas, you see.

Matt Mower, responding to my Destroy Majar Al-Kabir post, wrote:

"Enough's enough.  Normally I think Don is right on but this is so not it's almost off the scale.

• Destroying a town because it contains criminals?

Well it's justified isn't it?  And we all know that escalating violence bring peace right?  I mean you only have to look at Israel bulldozers destroying palestinians settlements to see what a good policy it is.

For the sake of argument though: what if destroying their town doesn't stop people seeing this as an unwanted force of occupation.  What if it doesn't bring the correct long term response?

Well of course you could go one better couldn't you?  Destroy a city next time.  Just to make sure they know you really mean business.

And of course, there are one or two people killed whilst "just doing their duty" in US cities.  I can't wait to see this policy employed back home!" – Matt Mower

I understand Matt's view, but I think he misunderstands where I am coming from.  Our soldiers in Iraq are there because I let it happen out of desire for security and comfort at the cost of strangers in a fog of confusion and misinformation.  Since I let it happen, I feel responsible for their safety and well being, again at the cost of same strangers.  I am being selfish yet I find comfort in that Iraqis would do the same if given the opportunity.

While Majar Al-Kabir is a town composed of individuals and families, most of whom did not take part in the violence, it is also a community that has some responsibilities as a whole.  Letting thousands of angry townfolk attacking and killing two British soldiers and then besieging four trapped British soldiers for two hours are not innocent bystanders in my view.  They also had guns and could have done something during that two hours if they believed the angry mobs were threatening their own livelyhood.

Instead, they just let it happen thinking that, since they didn't raise their own hands, they were innocent.  If the town was a person, anyone would call that person a madman who must be put away for he lacks the ability to balance his violent thoughts and emotions with his other more reasonable thoughts and emotions.  If they catch and imprison those killers, then they can recoup some of that presumed innocence.

I believe that peace is an unstable state that can only be maintained by constant effort and willingness to enforce the line that separate peace from violence.  Letting Majar Al-Kabir off the hook with only a slap on the wrist blurrs that line.  Think about what message they will get from this event and scale that thought up to what it means to the entire population of Iraqis.  Matt's peaceful approach is more likely to bring about more violence in the future than delivering a clear understanding of 'letting violence happen' now through destruction of buildings in Majar Al-Kabir.

As to Matt's reference to Israel bulldozers, same policy applied in different circumstances need not have same results.  Palestinian situation is in a loop of violence with both side reacting to each other like a boxing match between vending machines that blindly drops violence whenever a button is pressed.  Palestinians to Iraqis cannot be compared for they are in far different situations.  I would not have made the suggestion unless I thought it would work.  As things are happening now, I fear that more massacres on both sides are inevitable, thanks to misapplication of peace and reasons.

PS: I know that my views are not the norm in most societies so most of my readers will disagree with my view on this topic.  But I hope you will continue to read what I write and object when you disagree like Matt did instead of stop reading.  Otherwise, I'll be left with only readers who agree with my views which will eventually create a reality-distortion field even I can't break out of.

My family had first real taste of summer today.  Just now, I looked out the window from my house office and noticed a gorgeous sunset happening.  So I took a couple of shots from the boatdeck.

A shot toward Korea.

A shot toward New York.

Awesome colors.  After taking above pictures, I came back in and my wife had a cup of ice coffee waiting for me.  Nice.  As I am drinking it and writing this post, the sun has already set and its pitch dark outside.  Life is a stichwork of fleeting moments.

"I am feeling woozy, Wookie."

Star Wars Galaxies was released quietly today.  I predict that this multiplayer online game will be the biggest, longest running commercial multiplayer online game for at least a decade.  EverQuest and others will not come anywhere near its popularity.

As I mentioned before, I avoided photography because it felt artificial to me.  I want to do it naturally and appropriately, not like a kid who got a shotgun for his sixteenth birthday.  So I am using my little camera to add to a little story.

Several weeks ago, I saw a really fat bird that I haven't seen before.  It looked similar to a pigeon, but smaller and different in color and patterns.  It seemed too overweight to fly far, so it was hopping around my backyard.  Then I realized that it was dancing to court another bird, an even fatter bird, fat enough to drag its bottom.  I watched them dance around for a few days and thought no more about them.

Two weeks ago, my wife told me that those birds have built a nest on top of an inflated rubber boat I hung outside on the side of my house.  We began laying down birdfeeds regularly to make sure the newlywed birds didn't have to fly far to feed.  I guess we completely forgot how fat they were just a few weeks ago.  Duh.

Today, the weather was fantastic as you can see in the picture above, blue sky, no wind, and comfortably hot.  Then I realized that I wouldn't be able to use the boat for most of this summer because of the birds.  I then thought, this little story would make a good story for my blog.  Heh.  Here is a closeup of the mother bird sitting in its nest on top of the rubber boat.  I particularly love its eyes, most beautiful eyes I have seen on a bird.

Why do I keep my rubberboat inflated?  Lazyness, pure and simple.  Besides, it makes a great nest.  If you are in the Bay Area, I hope you are able to enjoy the great weather too.  It's too good to be wasted inside an office.