onfocus

Krzysztof Kieslowski's series Trois Couleurs (Blue, White, and Red) are three of the best films of all time (especially Red—skp's favorite movie). For some inexplicable reason, the company that has distribution rights in the US has not released them on DVD. They're available in Europe, but they're PAL encoded so they won't play on US DVD players.

Two weeks ago, I spotted a brazilian version (Azul, Branca, e Vermelha) through a Google search and ordered them on the spot. They arrived today. The packaging and on-screen DVD controls are in Portuguese, but there are English subtitles for the film. The video quality and extras aren't spectacular, but it's still way better than VHS. If you haven't seem them, they're worth renting. If you've seen them, you've probably already clicked to order the Brazilian release. Pel

Spent a spectacular day yesterday at Pt. Reyes walking from the Estero trailhead to Limantour Beach. I've been on the Estero trail a few times before, and part of the trail is on ranch land. So you often end up walking through a heard of cows. And they just stare at you with this evil look in their eyes. Like this:


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More inside. (And they're not all pictures of cows.)

I've been cracking up at some of the Google Smackdown results people are sending in. Here are a few that I can share on this family-accessable site. (The first is particularly heartening.)

1. good (81,000,000)
2. evil (7,410,000)

1. U2 (1,940,000)
2. Oasis (1,840,000)

1. the egg came first (817)
2. the chicken came first (588)

1. linux (50,400,000)
2. windows (46,800,000)

1. Cat (15,800,000)
2. Dog (12,400,000)

Thanks Flearun, John, Rik, Josiah, and Robert!

Google Smackdown

I stayed up past my bedtime playing with the new Google API. The result? Google Smackdown!

Two words or phrases go head-to-head to see which reigns supreme on the Web. Perhaps you're wondering who is more popular: Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin? Which German Philosopher has web cred: Nietzsche or Hegel? Do people really say touch wood instead of knock on wood? There's only one way to find the answers: a G-Smack.

I made a change to the Weblog Bookwatch. If there are two editions of a book being mentioned (usually hardcover and paperback), it combines the totals and counts them as one. The edition information for these combined totals will say "Hardcover and Paperback". And the mentions are broken out by editions when listing the weblogs that mentioned that book. I think this will be a bit more accurate.

I picked up this World Lounge sampler from my local record store this weekend. Imagine Esquivel meets Ravi Shankar to produce an electronica soundtrack for an Indian spy film set in France. I like it.

Hiked to the top of Sonoma Mountain today. Here are a couple of pictures from the top:





I'm going to be hurting tomorrow, but it was the perfect time to go.

I know the Spanish word for weblogs is bitácoras, but do any other lanuguages have their own word for weblog? And if so, what's the etymology?

I heard that bitácora roughly means captain's log. (¿diario de navegación?) I'm not much of a Spanish speaker, but looking at my Spanish-English dictionary, I'm wondering why they don't use the word corredera instead...which also seems to have a nautical connotation. I bet that's a silly question to a native Spanish speaker, but I can't find bitácora (in it's earlier sense) anywhere in my dictionary.

Update: I wish my Spanish was better. It sounds like this post on Tremendo discusses why they use that term over others, but I can't quite make it all out. The babelfish translation isn't so hot, but it helps. The origin of the word is from the latin habitaculum: a case that protects a compass. (The English equivalent is binnacle. When was the last time you heard that used in coversation?) I guess they also translated Star Trek's captain's log into bitácora...so maybe it became associated more with futuristic technology than seafaring technology. But it's interesting to think about weblogs as a tool for navigating the web—pointing the way; and the format itself as a container for those directions.

Dori is tracking down other Sonoma County webloggers. If you live in Sonoma County, keep a weblog, and are reading this post, drop her a line. I'm surprised there aren't more of us up here.

Marketer Discovers Blogs—Thinks Contact May Be Useful: "Many readers will appreciate a representative of the company listening to their comments." [via Meg] Before attempting such contact, a clue may be required.