One of our cactus plants started reaching for the sky sometime last year like a slow motion firework. After taking six months to reach 10 feet in height, the firework finally started exploding. Cactus flower buds are visible but haven't fully bloomed yet. I've seen some trees with charismatic presence but this is the first cactus that impressed me.
Twilight Samurai on DVD recommended. It's a beautiful film to watch although I thought the storyline was a bit too simple. It has only two fighting scenes with little bloodshed. The first fighting scene, which takes place by a stream, was more enjoyable than the second which was just two samurais fumbling around inside a dark house.
Some problems with using individual user behavior analysis for fraud detection:
IMHO, it makes more sense to just give the user the means to protect themselves. Allow user to move functionalities to areas with the desired protection level and set thresholds to the level suitable for them.
For example, divide up functions into three boxes, representing three levels of required authentication, and let the user move functions between boxes. I would keep transaction history at far left and move money transfer to the far right which will result in e-mail confirmation for each transaction.
Much of the user chores can be alleviated by offering a set of standard account configuration packages. For premium accounts, additional boxes could be added for more intimate verifications like a personal call from the account manager. Hi, Don. Are you sure you want to transfer half of your account to a russian bank?
Dave is looking a good name for his new outliner. These are some names I came up with just now:
Among them, I like the sound of Opy and nTree the best. If I had to choose, I would go with nTree because it implies both in-tree and entry as well as any number of trees. I also like the way the uppercase T sticks out like a tall tree rising above the forest.
If white male dominated blogosphere is really bad, then here is a simple solution: Let us all be white males.
After all, blogosphere is a virtual world so anyone can pretend to be a white male. You don't have to say you are a white male because, if you don't put up your picture and use a masculine alias instead of your real name, your readers will assume you are a white male.
Since my picture is already out, let me just say that I am a white male as well, a descendent of a Jewish family that wandered a little too far east. As to my facial features, it was the water. 😉
This topic annoys the heck out of me. Oy.
After being woken up by call from Michael, I noticed a very large box sitting in my office. Since I wasn't expecting any shipment, I scanned with my bomb detector (Google search on the shipping address and a few intelligent shakes) before opening it up carefully with my box opener (aka toe-nail clipper).
It turned out to be a gift from MSN Search team to MSN Search Champs, a 30G Creative Nomad MP3 player. Very nice. Since I am too much of a cheapskate to buy an iPod, this will do very nice. Thanks guys! Very much appreciated.
Update:
Urgh. Nomad controls and UI sucks prime time, enough to make me want to bitchslap Creative engineers. I love the 30G of space but this is like covering chocolate with torns.
Details about Become.com's patent application for the algorithm behind product-oriented search engine turned up at John Batelle's blog. The patent looks like it's a shard off Wisenut search engine. Interesting.
I talked with Michael Yang today. The funny thing was that he didn't recognize me other than as Don Park the blogger and a fellow UC Berkeley man. I guess mySimon and NetGeo experience took it's toll because, when we met for the first time many years ago, we talked about working together. I decided not to because he already had a good partner, Yeogirl Yun, and financing was not quite there. So we went our separate ways and he and Yeogirl went on to make millions with mySimon. I'll have to get together with him sometime and refresh his memory with a bit of Soju. Hehe.
Anyway, he said the recent press tour was very promising and Become.com site is picking up significant number of new users everyday. Well, he has a tough, albeit familiar, road ahead so a rosy start can't hurt.
Re complaints about BecomeBot, Michael said they changed it in response to the complaints to be much less annoying. He is also using Technorati daily to keep track of user opinions. If you got something to say to him, just write a post mentioning Become.com. Fantastic. I wish more CEOs are as blogosphere-savvy.
This recent post by Joe Krause about the importance of catching long tails in business is the best post I've read in recent weeks.
I got invited to another MSN Search Champ get-together in Seattle. Unfortunately, I won't be there this time because I got too many things on my plate.
Looks like Michael Yang who founded mySimon a while back and sold it very timely to CNET for an impressive amount is at it again with Become.com. At first glance, it appears to be another Froogle. I'll have to ask him to show me the big picture.
Don Park's Weekly Habit 