Quoted: Innovation is everywhere: In sleek industrial design (Apple's iPod Nano), in unique technologies that enable new capabilities (Kodak's dual-lens EasyShare V570), and in products that bring the cost of high-end technologies down from the stratosphere (Sony's Handycam HDR-HC1 high-definition camcorder). Innovative products and services do it first, do it well, or re-imagine what's been done before. They're the kind of products that make you wonder: Why didn't I think of that?

Quoted: CES is the biggest consumer electronics show in the world, and CNET's editors will be hitting Las Vegas in force to cover all the most promising tech for 2006 and to produce the Best of CES Awards.

I love NOAA (and by the way, we apparently have flood warnings in effect).

Showard, good to see you back Dotting. It's changed a lot since you were last here!

As promised, this is the Mark Bowden article from "The Atlantic Monthly." Articles like this one are what encourage me to keep my subscription active. Just looking over it again, it's amazing how predictive it actually is of the scenario today (see the quote below).

Quoted: The most effective way to gather intelligence and thwart terrorism can also be a direct route into morally repugnant terrain. A survey of the landscape of persuasion

I finished reading this last night and I am very happy to recommend it to anyone working in the technology space. Even though "Search" does feel like a thinly-disguised attempt to kiss Google's boots at moments, and Google does receive a large degree of the overall use case documentation, it ends up being a fairly balanced treatment of all the players in the search space, capturing the snapshot of the present perfectly. Of particular interest to any young entrepreneur wanting to cut their teeth in the search space is the last chapter, entitled "Perfect Search." Read this if you want to understand where the technology of search has hit and missed, creating and rescinding fortunes in a very short timeframe. Read this if you want an idea of where search is going and how you might want to contribute.